Everyone’s PC crashes now and again. So what can you do after that dreaded crash? Hire a Data Recovery Consultant.
You wouldn’t let somebody throw away important documents or files of yours, would you? Well, don’t let your computer get away with that either. Even if your business has backup files, your data is still at risk of deletion. That is why it’s nice to have a Data Recovery Consultant on your side.
When your hard drive crashes, it can be a scary thing. What if you lose data you never had time to backup? What if you need that data to be recovered immediately? What if typical restoration procedures aren’t working? Accidents happen, but something like this is not as easy to shrug off as spilled milk. So before that dreaded PC crash, why not make a game plan? Personally restoring your hard drive data is not an ideal option but a Data Recovery firm or consultant can pull a “Hail Mary” for you.
Still not convinced you should put matters into other people’s hands? Well, simply put, there are compelling advantages to leaving repair up to a consultant. First, skilled experts are going to do a much better job; they have experience under their belts and will know about several different kinds of data loss and restoration. Not to mention, they have the proper tools, equipment and software devices required for repair – things you would have to invest in yourself otherwise. And if your data recovery needs are for a business, then there is the old adage “time is money” you may want to keep in mind. A consultant can save you time.
Avoid the risk of losing sensitive and important data and also avoid the headache of trying to restore that data by a deadline!
Hire a consultant.
But how do you go about finding a data recovery firm? A firm’s services can be expensive and the risk of data loss can still be high if you do not research a firm beforehand. Contact a service provider and find a convenient, but reputable company to turn to. A consultant may cost a lot more than sending your drive out to a firm, but at least repair can be on your own turf. Weigh the costs and benefits and decide what is best – either way, your data is probably safer in an expert’s hands and not your own.
The Internet is also a great way to find out about a firm’s personnel and services. Often you can even read recommendations by other clients. But don’t just research a firm from afar; go ahead and make time to have a chat with employees so you can be assured of their qualifications.
Showing posts with label failure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label failure. Show all posts
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Data Recovery Procedures For Hard Drives
Your computer’s data is at risk. Whether you use a Mac or a PC, viruses, power surges, hackers, human error, natural disasters, hardware failures, and more are real everyday threats. To keep your data safe and sound, you will first need to back up your files on a regular basis. Secondly, when hard drive failure does occur, data recovery is the only solution.
Of course it is ideal to back up data and avoid the complicated process that is data recovery altogether, but even when you take the necessary steps to prepare for hard drive damage, you might run into problems.
Here are some procedures to follow if you experience trouble.
If a program is not functioning well on your computer, turn the computer off! This may seem a simple task, but shutting down a computer at the moment you notice your hard drive to be working overtime – perhaps you hear unusual sounds (like “cleaning”) – can prevent damage to the disk and data loss. If you let a failed hard drive run, it will eventually self-destruct. Damage to your disk is inevitable in this scenario.
If this is the case, unless you know exactly what you’re doing, don’t fix your computer yourself. Professional expertise is not a luxury in this situation – it is a must. Data recovery is a difficult and sensitive process requiring special tools and a clean environment. Not only will it be tremendously challenging to repair a hard drive on your own, but you might actually make matters worse and ensure irreversible data loss.
There is “do-it-yourself” data recovery software, but be cautious of things like this. With most computer problems of this nature, at-home instructions can be more dangerous than useful. Even if a company boasts that its products and instructions will handle your vulnerable data properly, it is important to be a skeptical consumer.
A local service provider is the average solution. Repair can happen on your own premises and you can be assured that your computer is in good hands. However, there is always the possibility that your hard drive is beyond repair – even for expert technicians – so be prepared to buy a new hard drive altogether; data recovery may not be an option any more.
Of course it is ideal to back up data and avoid the complicated process that is data recovery altogether, but even when you take the necessary steps to prepare for hard drive damage, you might run into problems.
Here are some procedures to follow if you experience trouble.
If a program is not functioning well on your computer, turn the computer off! This may seem a simple task, but shutting down a computer at the moment you notice your hard drive to be working overtime – perhaps you hear unusual sounds (like “cleaning”) – can prevent damage to the disk and data loss. If you let a failed hard drive run, it will eventually self-destruct. Damage to your disk is inevitable in this scenario.
If this is the case, unless you know exactly what you’re doing, don’t fix your computer yourself. Professional expertise is not a luxury in this situation – it is a must. Data recovery is a difficult and sensitive process requiring special tools and a clean environment. Not only will it be tremendously challenging to repair a hard drive on your own, but you might actually make matters worse and ensure irreversible data loss.
There is “do-it-yourself” data recovery software, but be cautious of things like this. With most computer problems of this nature, at-home instructions can be more dangerous than useful. Even if a company boasts that its products and instructions will handle your vulnerable data properly, it is important to be a skeptical consumer.
A local service provider is the average solution. Repair can happen on your own premises and you can be assured that your computer is in good hands. However, there is always the possibility that your hard drive is beyond repair – even for expert technicians – so be prepared to buy a new hard drive altogether; data recovery may not be an option any more.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Cisco CCNP Certification / BCMSN Exam Tutorial: Uplinkfast
You remember from your CCNA studies that when a port goes through the transition from blocking to forwarding, you're looking at a 50-second delay before that port can actually begin forwarding frames. Configuring a port with PortFast is one way to get around that, but again, you can only use it when a single host device is found off the port. What if the device connected to a port is another switch?
A switch can be connected to two other switches, giving that local switch a redundant path to the root bridge, and that's great - we always want a backup plan! However, STP will only allow one path to be available, but if the available path to the root switch goes down, there will be a 50-second delay due to the STP timers MaxAge and ForwardDelay before the currently blocked path will be available.
The delay is there to prevent switching loops, and we can't use PortFast to shorten the delay since these are switches, not host devices. What we can use is Uplinkfast.
The ports that SW3 could potentially use to reach the root switch are collectively referred to as an uplink group. The uplink group includes the ports in forwarding and blocking mode. If the forwarding port in the uplink group sees that the link has gone down, another port in the uplink group will be transitioned from blocking to forwarding immediately. Uplinkfast is pretty much PortFast for wiring closets. (Cisco recommends that Uplinkfast not be used on switches in the distribution and core layers.)
Some additional details regarding Uplinkfast:
The actual transition from blocking to forwarding mode takes about three seconds.
Uplinkfast cannot be configured on a root switch.
Uplinkfast is configured globally. You can't run Uplinkfast on some ports or on a per-VLAN basis - it's all or nothing.
The original root port will become the root port again when it detects that its link to the root switch has come back up. This does not take place immediately. The switch uses the following formula to determine how long to wait before transitioning back to the forwarding state:
( 2 x FwdDelay) + 5 seconds
Uplinkfast will take immediate action to ensure that the switch upon which it is configured cannot become the root switch. First, the switch priority will be set to 49,152, which means that if all other switches are still at their default priority, they'd all have to go down before this switch can possibly become the root switch. Additionally, the STP Port Cost will be increased by 3000, making it highly unlikely that this switch will be used to reach the root switch by any downstream switches.
And you just know there's got to be at least one option with this command, right? Let's run IOS Help and see.
SW2(config)#spanning-tree uplinkfast ?
max-update-rate Rate at which station address updates are sent
When there is a direct link failure, dummy multicast frames are sent to the MAC destination 0100.0ccd.cdcd. The max-update-rate value determines how many of these frames will be sent in a 100-millisecond time period.
Mastering the details of UplinkFast, BackboneFast, BPDU Guard, and Loop Guard are vital to your success on the CCNP exams, and one or more of these features are in use on almost every network in the world. Learn these features for success in both the exam room and the real world!
A switch can be connected to two other switches, giving that local switch a redundant path to the root bridge, and that's great - we always want a backup plan! However, STP will only allow one path to be available, but if the available path to the root switch goes down, there will be a 50-second delay due to the STP timers MaxAge and ForwardDelay before the currently blocked path will be available.
The delay is there to prevent switching loops, and we can't use PortFast to shorten the delay since these are switches, not host devices. What we can use is Uplinkfast.
The ports that SW3 could potentially use to reach the root switch are collectively referred to as an uplink group. The uplink group includes the ports in forwarding and blocking mode. If the forwarding port in the uplink group sees that the link has gone down, another port in the uplink group will be transitioned from blocking to forwarding immediately. Uplinkfast is pretty much PortFast for wiring closets. (Cisco recommends that Uplinkfast not be used on switches in the distribution and core layers.)
Some additional details regarding Uplinkfast:
The actual transition from blocking to forwarding mode takes about three seconds.
Uplinkfast cannot be configured on a root switch.
Uplinkfast is configured globally. You can't run Uplinkfast on some ports or on a per-VLAN basis - it's all or nothing.
The original root port will become the root port again when it detects that its link to the root switch has come back up. This does not take place immediately. The switch uses the following formula to determine how long to wait before transitioning back to the forwarding state:
( 2 x FwdDelay) + 5 seconds
Uplinkfast will take immediate action to ensure that the switch upon which it is configured cannot become the root switch. First, the switch priority will be set to 49,152, which means that if all other switches are still at their default priority, they'd all have to go down before this switch can possibly become the root switch. Additionally, the STP Port Cost will be increased by 3000, making it highly unlikely that this switch will be used to reach the root switch by any downstream switches.
And you just know there's got to be at least one option with this command, right? Let's run IOS Help and see.
SW2(config)#spanning-tree uplinkfast ?
max-update-rate Rate at which station address updates are sent
When there is a direct link failure, dummy multicast frames are sent to the MAC destination 0100.0ccd.cdcd. The max-update-rate value determines how many of these frames will be sent in a 100-millisecond time period.
Mastering the details of UplinkFast, BackboneFast, BPDU Guard, and Loop Guard are vital to your success on the CCNP exams, and one or more of these features are in use on almost every network in the world. Learn these features for success in both the exam room and the real world!
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