Outlook for Severe Summer Season a Reminder to be Prepared - Data Recovery Solutions for Wild Weather
Outlook for Severe Summer Season a Reminder to be Prepared - Data Recovery Solutions for Wild Weather

13 August 2019

The NOAA recently updated its outlook for annual bouts of bad weather to “above-normal” and that is a reminder to be prepared in a season that is far from over. Here’s some scenarios and data safety tips for wild weather.

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Data Loss is a Bitter Pill to Swallow – Give CBL a Shot
Data Loss is a Bitter Pill to Swallow – Give CBL a Shot

20 June 2018

…Large coffee in one hand, laptop teetering precariously on the other, you turn the corner and – WHAM! Threats to your data are around many corners. Here are the most common causes of data loss to watch out for.

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3 Data Recovery Solutions for Severe Weather Conditions
3 Data Recovery Solutions for Severe Weather Conditions

15 August 2016

Summer means basking in the sunshine, swimming in the nearest body of water, and reveling in the great outdoors. What’s not to love about vacation season and ideal warm weather? Unfortunately, summer is closely followed by hurricane season.

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Ten Years on From Katrina: Reducing Impact Key so Business Can Weather the Storm
Ten Years on From Katrina: Reducing Impact Key so Business Can Weather the Storm

31 August 2015

10 years ago this past week Hurricane Katrina slammed into New Orleans. Many businesses were submerged in water and either partially or totally destroyed. Recovery planning is key but taking steps to reduce impact on business goes a long way to maintaining operations.

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Tips: Reduce and Respond to Data Loss from Severe Weather
Tips: Reduce and Respond to Data Loss from Severe Weather

30 July 2015

Summertime brings with it a pretty consistent rise in data recovery requests at CBL related to the start of severe weather and storm season. Taking some simple precautions can go a long way to preventing data loss. Read our tips on preventing data loss and in case you’re affected, steps to take in response to weather damage.

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Tis the Season: Planning Key to Avoiding Hurricane and Natural Disaster Data Threats
Tis the Season: Planning Key to Avoiding Hurricane and Natural Disaster Data Threats

20 July 2015

The annual arrival of hurricane season in the Atlantic reminds of the threat that severe weather and natural disasters can be to data and a business’s very survival.

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Preventing Data Loss from a RAID or Server Crash
Preventing Data Loss from a RAID or Server Crash

14 April 2015

CBL Data Recovery finds preventable mistakes at the core of data loss from RAID and Server crashes.

Each day CBL Data Recovery deals with multi-drive servers and RAID arrays which have crashed causing panic, crippling data loss and potential financial loss to the companies who are dependant on those files. According to a recent IDC report, while worldwide server shipments were up 2.9% in 2014 the number of midrange servers jumped 21.2% driven on companies’ goals of consolidating IT infrastructure and taking advantage of the new virtualization environments available. Translation: more and more small and mid-sized businesses are putting most of their day-to-day business needs [eggs] into a single server [basket]. Virtualized environments give business the look and feel of having several different servers, functions and operating systems separated while actually running off of the same hardware. You can have the company file share on one server, accounting and CRM on another, and online order tracking on another – yet all these services are running from one physical machine.

The small and mid-sized business segment is also the group that, unfortunately, ignores their IT investment the most. For the most part small and mid-sized business will not have a dedicated IT department. At best, it might be a couple of tech-savvy employees who also have other day-to-day responsibilities to take care of. Perhaps it’s the lean market times we live in, perhaps it’s an over-confidence in their own abilities, or perhaps it’s the apparent simplicity of running a server which contributes to the decision of not investing in maintenance or bringing in a managed service provider or IT specialist on a regular basis.

A story we hear frequently at CBL by both IT groups and managed service providers is that a new small or mid-sized client called them after a server crash and the client has no idea how or why a failure happened. The situation has often gone so awry after multiple attempts by the client to rebuild a failed RAID array or restore incomplete or old backups that full recovery is impossible. Let’s take look at some of the hard truths behind these situations.

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The 5 Most Common Causes of Data Loss
The 5 Most Common Causes of Data Loss

4 December 2014

Five Most Common Causes of Data Loss

According to the research, approximately 15% of small to mid-sized businesses still aren’t backing up their data in case of disaster or one of the other major causes of damage or data loss. Even those that do perform regular backups should be vigilant of any threats to their system. Here are the five most commonly experienced culprits of data loss to watch out for.

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Five Numbers about Data Loss Business Owners Should Know


20 October 2014

We see a lot of numbers around the lab and business world about data loss and recovery. Here’s data loss stat numbers that have been kicking about.

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Data is Resilient: Severe Weather Storm Tips for Your Hard Drive
Data is Resilient: Severe Weather Storm Tips for Your Hard Drive

28 April 2011

Tornado clouds; photo by furnishu In severe weather and storms, when it comes to data on digital devices – all may not be lost. Here are some of our best tips and recommendations for when the clean-up begins to save storm-damaged computers and get data recovered.

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March Madness - Rebounding Fouled or Blocked Drives
March Madness - Rebounding Fouled or Blocked Drives

20 March 2009

The best defense against data loss is to regularly back up your PC or laptop. However, you can’t bury your head in the silicon. The unexpected can and will happen. It’s not a matter of if data loss disaster will strike; it’s simply a matter of when. One day you will lose data.

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Holiday Travelers Beware:  Tips for travelers who put critical information at risk during the holidays
Holiday Travelers Beware: Tips for travelers who put critical information at risk during the holidays

9 December 2008

Will you be heading home with your notebook for the holidays later this month? Will you be staying home and continue to commute and compute with your laptop daily? Regardless, be vigilant and protect your data.

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Save Data.  Dispel Data Recovery Myths.
Save Data. Dispel Data Recovery Myths.

29 October 2008

Data recovery is not simple or straightforward. Data loss can occur for numerous reasons. Just as numerous are misconceptions about the data recovery process.

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Data Loss Disasters Strike at Any Time.  Do You Have an Emergency Data Recovery Plan?
Data Loss Disasters Strike at Any Time. Do You Have an Emergency Data Recovery Plan?

21 August 2008

In the early hours of August 10, 2008, a horrific propane explosion occurred at a Sunrise Propane facility in the Toronto neighborhood of Downsview. Thousands of people evacuated the area. The majority of residents have since returned to their homes and the clean up and rebuilding of lives continues.

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

8 August 2008

Have you ever pondered how cars and computers are similar?

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Goodbye Dolly; Hello CBL
Goodbye Dolly; Hello CBL

25 July 2008

As business owners and individuals in Southern Texas bid Hurricane Dolly farewell and good riddance, many will discover flood-damaged computers and cameras.

If you find yourself in such a predicament,

  • do not assume that the files on your computer or memory card are lost;
  • do not attempt to use...

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5 Steps to Rapid Recovery When Your 5x9 RAID Fails
5 Steps to Rapid Recovery When Your 5x9 RAID Fails

6 March 2008

RAIDs. Whether you call it a Redundant Array of Independent or Inexpensive Disks, one thing is for certain. Your organization is very dependent on your RAID and the data that is stored on its hard drives.

While hardware vendors or VARs sell customers on a RAID’s fault tolerance...

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Compute While You Commute
Compute While You Commute

7 February 2008

Laptops continue to populate our IT-landscape in growing numbers. The convenience that laptops afford us, the choice of applications available, and declining price are compelling reasons individuals and organizations are embracing laptops rather than their more sedimentary PC cousins. And, we cannot dismiss the growing trend of the...

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Rare Music Files Rescued from Severely Damaged Hard Drive
Rare Music Files Rescued from Severely Damaged Hard Drive

5 November 2007

Heads and Tales: Out of the Ashes

When vintage music store, M.C. Productions Vintage Recordings, Penticton, British Columbia, Canada was destroyed in a fire, owner Mickey Clark lost all of the CDs he had compiled from his massive record collection, all of the backup disks from the music files he had digitized, and half of his inventory of 20,000 original recordings dating back to 1902. In addition, both of his hard drives were drowning in two feet of water. To the distraught performer, that meant the possible loss of thousands of music files many of which were Clark’s only copies which he started collecting at the age of eight.

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Attention California Residents and CBL Customers
Attention California Residents and CBL Customers

24 October 2007

As wildfires continue to ravage Southern California, CBL Data Recovery’s San Diego County laboratory remains open. CBL reminds computer users throughout the country that data can often be recovered successfully from fire-damaged storage media.

Doug Owens, Managing Director of CBL’s laboratory in El Cajon...

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The Ten Commandments of Data Loss Prevention
The Ten Commandments of Data Loss Prevention

17 August 2007

In the August 16, 2007 edition of The Globe and Mail, columnist Jack Kapica brings to his readers’ attention some interesting research results from California-based Strategic Research Corp. in his article, What if your backup needs backup?

Three main causes of data loss...

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Attention Students:  Don't put your data at risk
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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Be Prepared.
Be Prepared.

2 August 2007

Organizations of any size can and do experience data loss on a daily basis which can severely impact business continuity. Hence, all organizations should include data recovery as part of their disaster recovery plans.

Security Matters, a magazine for small to medium-sized businesses, features a number of articles which address...

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Giving Back to the Community and Giving Back Data
Giving Back to the Community and Giving Back Data

10 July 2007

Faith-based organizations often rely on volunteers for their IT needs, so when a system crashes and access to important files such as membership lists, financial records or e-mail newsletters on a hard drive is denied, the good intentions of staff and volunteers can have serious results.

While we recommend to organizations...

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Will the Summer of 2007 Damage Your Data?
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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