Server Recovery

File Servers, Web Servers, Application Servers, Mail Servers, NAS devices and just plain Servers form the backbone of many corporations’ business records storage. There may be one hard drive or many, configured together in volumes spanning drives or striped across drives, on permanent hard drives or removable media.We perform full data recovery services on NetWare, Apple, Solaris, HPUX, AIX, and Linux servers . Sherlock Data Recovery Services experts are intimately familiar with server hardware from IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Sun hardware as well as numerous others.

Examples of Data Loss Situations – UNIX / Linux

The increased complexity of many server operating systems results in additional data loss
scenarios such as:

• Server registry configuration lost
• Intermittent drive failure resulting in configuration corruption
• Multiple drive failureIntermittent drive failure resulting in configuration corruption
• File system corruption
• Accidental replacement of media components
• Flaky Disk Controller card responsible for corrupt data on Mirrored drives

Our Recovery Process

At the Sherlock Data Recovery Services facility, our lab technicians treat Server and RAID loss situations as high priority cases. An initial diagnosis determines whether each media device is accessible to our lab equipment. If so, the first priority is to create a raw image of all data from accessible media onto the Sherlock Data Recovery Services media, so that logical analysis can determine the nature of the data loss situation.

If some of the media is inaccessible, our lab will test the components and closely examine its internal health to determine the extent of physical damage.

Recovery of crashed hard disks often involves replacing failed or damaged components in a clean environment, and using specialized hardware and software tools to create the raw image. Failed components typically include electronics, read/write heads, head assemblies, magnets & drive motors.

Technicians must determine both the exact layout of volumes, which span or are striped across multiple drives, and what fixes of the filesystem structures are needed to get access to the important data.

Multiple-drive servers are typically ‘destriped’ onto Sherlock Data Recovery Services media so that filesystem repairs can be performed and the data files can be extracted. Sometimes the existing filesystem structures are missing or damaged, so much that data has to be extracted directly from one or more fragments of the destriped image.

Sherlock Data Recovery Services facility programmers have created a full set of software tools used by our technicians to analyze, destripe, fix, and recover data from raw image drives on all operating systems. Once a recovery has been successfully performed, file lists are created and data validity is checked.

Recovery Turn-Around Time

Sherlock Data Recovery Services has geared its entire service to recover your data as fast as possible. When dealing with such a wide variety of problems, estimating time before the problem is diagnosed can be difficult. That is why each recovery case starts with an evaluation.

The evaluation begins immediately on receipt of the media. Generally, it takes us 2 to 24 hours to complete it. The process involves several hours of work and testing. (Mirroring alone may take up to 24 hours of computer time with extensive re-tries for badly damaged devices).

Complete turn-around time, including analysis and recovery, is usually between 1 to 5 days. Some severe cases can take considerably more time.

Our hours of operation are 9am to 7pm EST Monday to Saturday (All facilities). If you have an emergency situation, we have technical staff on call for weekends and after hours in all locations.

Time estimates are based on procedures and expertise required to recover the data you need. You are not charged by the hour. A firm quote is provided for your approval following the evaluation.

Operating Systems and File Systems Treated

Intel PlatformsUnix Operating systems that run on Intel Platforms including:
Linux with ext2fs, xfs, reiserfs & jfs filesystems on standalone & RAID volumes,
SCO OpenServer and Xenix,
UnixWare
Solaris,
BSD-based systems such as FreeBSD, OpenBSD and NetBSD, BSDI,
LynxOS,
QNX.

Unix and Systems that run on Non-Intel Platforms(Proprietary Hardware) including:
Solaris on Sun/SPARC equipment, with ufs and Veritas VxFS filesystems
HPUX on Hewlett-Packard workstations with hfs and Veritas VxFS filesytems and Logical Volume Manager(LVM) based volumes,
IRIX on SGI workstations with efs and xfs filesystems,
AIX on IBM RS/6000 with jfs filesystems on LVM volumes

Preserving your Warranty

Sherlock Data Recovery Services has established agreements with most manufacturers regarding preserving warranty during data recovery service. Please inquire whether or not your manufacturer is included in this agreement.

If the seals on a media must be broken in order to extract data, Sherlock Data Recovery Services will re-seal the media upon completion of service with a tamper resistant sticker, which the manufacturer will accept for warranty purposes. You will also receive an invoice receipt to indicate you have pursued data recovery services with Sherlock Data Recovery Services.

When in doubt, inquire with the manufacturer about keeping your warranty before pursuing data recovery.