Guides Data Recovery

5 RAID Data Recovery Prevention Tips

If you have spent the time to increase your computer’s
performance by setting up a hardware RAID array, you owe it to
yourself to invest a little extra time and effort in maintaining
the hard disks in your setup. Following these tips will help
limit the need for data disaster recovery in the future.

1. If you are copying information from an old harddrive onto
those being used in your array, be sure to keep the old disk
around for a while. That way, if you discover any faults or
errors in your raid array, you will still have your original
data to work with.

2. Make sure you choose the raid level that works best for your
needs. If you are just in need of faster reads and basic
redundancy, RAID Level 1 may be your ticket. This basic level
Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks ensures against data loss
by incorporating 2 drives - one mirroring the other. Although
the cost per megabyte is higher, the increase in speed and
protection against data loss are well worth it.

3. If you are setting up a multi-user enviroment, creating a 3
or 5 drive RAID-5 array may be your best choice for speed and
data protection. Keep in mind though, if your requirements are
write performance sensitive, there are better alternatives.

4. If you are trying to decide between a software based or
hardware based RAID array, remember, hardware based arrays do
not require software to boot, have the logic within them and as
such are much more fault tolerant. Stick with a hardware array
if you are concerned about disaster recovery planning!

5. Despite the increase in speed and performance using RAID
arrays, files can still become disorganized and corrupted. Be
sure to run your preferred software for scanning and checking
your disks on a regular basis.

If you think taking the extra time to follow these tips and
care for your RAID array sounds tedious, take a few moments to
check out the cost of raid data disaster recovery. That alone
should make you realize that your efforts are not in vain!

James B. Allen blogs regularly about disaster recovery
planning. To learn more about data recovery and
other aspects of disaster recovery, visit James at:
DisasterRecoveryData.com

Tags: data loss, raid data recovery, data recovery, disaster recovery

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Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery - Reducing Your Risk Profile

Like all plans, there is an ultimate goal to achieve. The goal in a business continuity plan is simply that: to continue your business in the face of a disaster or a disruption. A business continuity plan is not just for a disaster. It’s also for the smaller things in life, like your friendly neighborhood burglar who decides to borrow all of your computers or the small power interruption, which causes loss of data and downtime or the fire five floors below you, which causes a 5 hour building shutdown. These are a few of the many things, which do occur every day and do happen to companies like yours.

Disaster recovery has traditionally been associated with computing systems and data storage and recovery of data. Different than business continuity, disaster recovery is focused more on after the fact, quickly and effectively recovering from a disaster or disruption.

There are many good sources of information on both business continuity and disaster recovery. Some of the more authoritative sources are: Disaster Recovery International (www.drii.org), Disaster Recovery Journal (www.drj.com), and Global Continuity (www.globalcontinuity.com).

It’s, of course, not realistic to think that you can guard against every risk. However, through risk analysis, business impact analysis, selecting effective strategies, documenting detailed recovery plans and testing your plans, you can significantly reduce many of your risks, often in a very cost effective way. You have an important management responsibility to safeguard company assets. Reducing your risk profile through a well thought out business continuity and disaster recovery plan is an effective way to do so.

About The Author

Robert Mahood has significant technology and management experience in data communications, internet, storage, disaster recovery and data recovery. He is currently the president of Midwest Data Recovery. www.midwestdatarecovery.com

bmahood@midwestdatarecovery.com, 866 786 2595, 312 907 2100

Tags: data backup, online backup, business, IT, data recovery, disaster recovery, disaster planning

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How To Limit Hard Drive Data Recovery Costs

With the value on information rising day by day, one of the
greatest threats to businesses of any size is data loss. If the
data centers in your business have ever experienced a hard drive
disaster, you quicky realized just how valuable the information
lost is.

And then, the situation becomes even worse, when you realize
how much it is going to cost for a disaster recovery specialist
to try and retrieve or restore your data for you.

Here are some basic tips for avoiding such a situation.

1. If you company is using older computers, be sure your tech
support is regulary checking for any problems on your hard
drives. By discovering problems before they have a chance to
wreak havock on your data, they will have an opportuntiy to back
the data up before it is no longer retrievable.

2. Make sure your techies are giving you the old hard disks
when they do hard drive upgrades on your systems. Even when the
information has been copied onto new disks, the old drives still
contain all your valuable data. You don’t want this getting into
the wrong hands. Plus, it is always good to have a backup while
the new hardware is settling in.

3. Especially in a fast paced office environment, the thousands
of computer files can become disorganized over time. Make sure
your computer support is running defragmentation programs on a
regular basis.

4. Keep the operating systems the same across all machines in
your office. This will help prevent hard drive corruption from
various users incorrectly installing programs on a system they
are not familiar with. Better yet, leave program installation,
removal and system partitioning to your tech support.

5. Make sure employess report any problems that crop up on
their machines. If even one computer starts acting strangely,
running slower, or giving error messages, have support run a
scan disk or CHKDSK immediately. Remember, it will be much
cheaper to repair one computer’s hard drive than to pick up the
tab after a total system disaster!

Keeping the following tips in mind when creating your data loss
disaster prevention plan will help limit not only headaches, but
losses to your bottom line.

James B. Allen blogs regularly about disaster recovery
planning. To learn more about data recovery and
other aspects of disaster recovery, visit James at:
DisasterRecoveryData.com.

Tags: data recovery, , disaster recovery, hard drive data recovery

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