Platter Chatter

A Blog from CBL Data Recovery

October Data Recovery Fire Drill


7 October 2011

Get Your Disaster Plan together for Data Recovery; photo by cancsajn October is small business month and is a perfect time for organizations to consider a data recovery fire drill to ensure business continuity.

“Hard drives in your computer system are not fail-safe and can and will fail for numerous reasons,” says CBL’s president Bill Margeson. “Often those responsible for an organization’s IT may not be aware that one or more of the drives are acting up or about to go down causing major headaches for the business.”

To properly plan against a data loss crisis, running simulations now could prevent major headaches later. Check out our preparation tips after the jump.

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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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Protecting Backups: How Safe Is Your Data? (Part 4)


1 February 2011

Data Safety Series Configuration of RAID arrays have been greatly simplified over the years. However, as we like to say, It’s Not A Matter of If, but When…. There are important details to remember when storing your data this way: even a RAID can fail.

(Part 4 of our series on Data Safety)

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Broken Server + CBL = Disaster Relief


12 May 2010

If you are an CIO you understand the importance of protecting corporate data. There is no magic formula for safeguarding vital information but certain steps can be taken. Many businesses have systems in place, backup redundancy, or hard drives upon hard drives — but how many are 100% confident those measures will hold up when the time comes?

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Data Recovery by the Sector


16 March 2010

Little known fact: “data recovery” occurs on a regular basis on every hard drive. It’s true. Whether you like to believe it or not, hard drives are not reliable on their own.

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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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Data Storage and Protection


22 July 2009

Millions of hard drives are purchased each year. Storage capabilities are growing at a phenomenal pace and so are user needs. While the cost per gigabyte falls, many companies fail to consider the rising cost of data protection. A 1 terabyte drive may cost a few hundred dollars, however the cost of maintaining the data stored on that drive may go well into the thousands.

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Recovery in the Recession


8 June 2009

It was noted on itbusiness.ca that “Recent Gartner survey data of 475 IT decision makers in global enterprises with 1,000 or more employees found that more companies are actually postponing or scaling back computing projects rather than canceling them outright.”

“That might be so,” states Kalle Almer, Director of Business...

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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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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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His Day Without Data Was A Dark, Dark Day


20 November 2008

Data loss occurs more often than you would think. In fact, even individuals who pride themselves in their backup regimen can incur data loss. That external hard drive that they use for backups can be susceptible to data loss.

Such was the case for one CBL customer…

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Holiday Gift Idea for the Tech Savvy Person on Your List


13 November 2008

Looking for a unique gift for the geek or nerd in your family?

At a loss as to what to buy a tech savvy friend this holiday season? You know the guy or gal who owns a couple of computers and is always being called upon to take...

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The Day His Infallible RAID Array Failed


7 November 2008

Have you ever asked yourself, “What would I do if I lost everything that I’ve stored on my computer for the last 15 years?” Well, one CBL Data Recovery customer did.

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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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Avoid Hazards Both On and Off the Course


8 August 2008

Without a good drive, your business could be handicapped, too. Your data could be held captive.

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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


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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The Need For Data Recovery


24 January 2008

Data recovery is one of those services you will always need. It is one of those services that, despite any preventative measures you take, you will require at some point. You can make countless backups, you can have several UPS power supplies, even have every security software available...

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Dangers of DIY Data Recovery


11 January 2008

Sometimes a little bit of knowledge can lead to bad things. Often we get calls from IT professionals who require data recovery services. As they explain the symptoms of the failure they proceed to explain what they have already attempted. This is when a $500 recovery can turn into...

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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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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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Video: The evolution of drives and data recovery


27 June 2007


CBL Data Recovery CEO, Bill Margeson, talks about the evolution of the hard drive, common hard drive failure symptoms and data recovery techniques.

From the set of CH-Morning Live, Hamilton, ON, Canada

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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Backup for Beginners


2 May 2007

External hard drives provide an affordable option for computer users and SOHOs to use to backup data from leading manufacturers like Western Digital and LaCie.

CBL Data Recovery offers six easy backup steps to safeguard your data:


  1. Identify what information is mission-critical data to you.
  2. Plug your external...

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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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