Platter Chatter

A Blog from CBL Data Recovery

Even Above the Clouds Computer Disaster Happens


18 July 2011

Astronauts aboard the much talked about and followed final Space Shuttle mission experienced a computer glitch and were found scrambling early Friday morning. 'SpaceCube' example of a specialized computer for space missions with extra shielding to alleviate errors caused by radiation in space; Credit: NASA

As the unexpected computer failure alert was signaled, the crew got down to finding out what was wrong and taking action to get business back to normal in the middle of the night.

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'Twas the Night Before Deadline: a Christmas Recovery Poem


21 December 2010

Dr CBL to the rescue in a Santa suit A SOHO-Ho Computer Crash On Christmas Eve

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CBL Pictures: Scraped Away


6 October 2010

Scraped Away

How do you know you have left that software scan run for too long? Fullsize after the jump…

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CBL Pictures: Pieces of You


16 April 2010

When we got this drive by regular mail with little padding we were a little worried. Being able to hear pieces moving around freely within the hard drive is never a good sign.

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Just How Reliable Is Your Laptop?


18 November 2009

About 30% of laptop owners are asking themselves the same question. According to SquareTrade research, 1 in 3 users should expect to encounter problems with their laptop within 3 years.

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Financial Markets, Cars and Computers


30 June 2009

Q) What do financial markets, cars and computers have in common?

A) They crash.

When the markets crash, people suffer real financial losses.

When automobiles crash, people suffer serious injuries.

When computers crash, people lose their data.

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Bits, Bytes and Blush


15 May 2009

Can data live to see another day after a laptop crashes to the ground?

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Signs of a Hard Drive Failure


13 April 2009

Spotting the initial symptoms of a hard drive failure can often mean the difference between saving your data or losing it. Here are a few things to look out for.

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CBL Pictures: Shattered


23 March 2009

A hard drive with a platter completed shattered is generally not recoverable. Unfortunately this project did not have a chance from the very start.

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Keep a Lid on IT


5 February 2009

...resist the temptation to tamper with or hand over the drive to anyone but a professional data recovery specialist…

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Humpty Couldn't, But Your Data Can Survive A Crash


20 November 2008

If Humpty Dumpty had been working on his laptop while he was sitting on the wall when he had his great fall, we know that all the King’s horses and all the King’s men couldn’t put Humpty together again. But what about data on his laptop? Could...

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Back to School Advice for Parents (and Students with Laptops, too)


20 August 2008

In today’s world of e-gadgets, a new or used laptop or personal computer may also be on the Back-to-School shopping list.

Here’s some advice for parents.

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Cars vs Computers


8 August 2008

Have you ever pondered how cars and computers are similar?

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Heads and Tales: CBL Rescues and Preserves Data for Environmentalists Committed to the Rescue and Preservation of the Costa Rican Rainforest.


31 January 2008

CBL Rescues and Preserves Data for Environmentalists Committed to the Rescue and Preservation of the Costa Rican Rainforest.

For individuals who have had the good fortune of traveling to one of the most bio-diverse and less explored regions which still remains on the planet, the Durika Biological Reserve of Costa...

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Heads and Tales: For 24 hours, CBL is THE Hub


6 December 2007

For 24 hours, CBL is THE Hub.

Canada’s data recovery specialist comes to hubcanada.com’s rescue.

For small business owners, the end of the business day rarely finishes at five o’clock. In fact, taking work home to complete or review at the end of the day or on the weekend has...

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When a backup drive is not a "backup"


28 November 2007

Many times we get customers who bring in their external drives just after a crash. Often the external drive is referred to as their “backup”.

“I copied all of my data to my backup and it failed …”

Well, what about your original data? You mean this was your only copy?...

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Don't Ignore The Warning Signs


10 October 2007

Does your PC crash on a regular basis? Do you get an error message before your desktop loads up? Have some of your programs become corrupted? These are some of the early warning signs that your hard drive is in bad health. Your PC might still be functioning but a...

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Common Problems: The first steps to data recovery


18 September 2007

Missing a “system32” file? Accidentally damage a drive partition? Did you download a screensaver that turned out to be a virus? Plus you haven’t backed up data in 4 months. Now your boss’ computer won’t boot and you have a data disaster on your hands. Don’t panic, a data recovery solution is just steps away.

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Attention Students: Don't put your data at risk


9 August 2007


Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company stated in a July 23, 2007 press release that “according to recent surveys of college students 97% own a computer, 94% a cell phone and 56% an MP3 player. Moreover, a recent Alloy College Explorer Study found...

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Heads and Tales: PR Firm Turns to CBL to Retrieve Data


19 July 2007

“The day it happened couldn’t have been worse from a timing perspective,” said David Bosworth, a senior public relations consultant with C2E Consulting describing the experience of losing access to all the files on his desktop PC when his four-year-old, 120GB hard drive crashed.

“It was one of the busiest times...

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Will the Summer of 2007 Damage Your Data?


29 June 2007

Residents of some cities are already hearing and reading pleas from municipal officials restrict water consumption and to reduce their power consumption and the summer of 2007 is only one week old. Blackouts and brownouts have already occurred as air conditioners and fans are working overtime to keep workers...

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Heads and Tales: CBL Found the File No Other Company Could


10 May 2007

Marianne Richmond, owner of Marianne Richmond Studios in Minneapolis, had almost given up on data recovery specialists when her personal computer’s hard drive failed last year. Nobody could find the only file she desperately wanted — her personal journal for the past 10 years.

Her 500-page journal was crammed...

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Heads and Tales: The Digital Journal and the Data Recovery Journey


5 May 2007

Whether your journal is a personal diary, like the one CBL Data Recovery rescued for Marianne Richmond, mother and business owner, when all other companies’ attempts failed, or a popular social-networking site like DigitalJournal.com, data loss can cripple an organization.

Digital Journal shared with its members the ups and...

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How Stable is Your RAID?


1 May 2007

Storage is infallible. Or so you may think.

RAID Arrays do fail and through the doors of CBL Data Recovery disks from arrays do pass with increasing frequency.

Manufacturers frequently claim five 9’s availability, but when one of the disks of your RAID Array fails and then...

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