The Computer Mechanics visit CBL
(18 June 2008)
Strange Recoveries: Ant Attraction
(15 May 2008)
Occasionally CBL gets interesting projects. If you live in the Houston, TX area you may have heard the news of the unique ant problem some residents have been experiencing. It is believed that a species of ants usually found in the Caribbean and South America arrived...
Don't be fooled. Deleting files doesn't remove them.
( 1 April 2008)
The revelation in 2007 that a laptop computer which contained personal information regarding members of the Canadian Alliance party, the predecessor to the Conservative Party, was purchased on eBay is yet another important reminder that sometimes data needs to be destroyed, not simply deleted, especially when computers change hands.
As...
Data Loss is No Joke
(25 March 2008)
Data loss is no joke. While best practices can prevent the loss of data, many individuals fail to backup their data.
Consider these individuals. If computers had been around in their day, could you imagine the predicaments that they would have been in?
- George Washington to Martha: I cannot...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Yes, Virginia, Your Holiday Photos can be Rescued
(13 December 2007)
Don’t let data loss ruin your holidays.
Forty years ago, beaming mothers queued up at local drug or department stores to have their children, dressed in their finest clothing, photographed on Santa Claus’ knee, a memory forever captured on glossy paper and displayed once a year on the coffee table or...
How to make a hard drive image with Pro-V
(11 December 2007)
For projects with logical problems one of the first steps we take is to make an image of the media. Working with the image as opposed to the original drive ensures the data source remains intact. One of the useful tools included with CBL’s Pro-V data recovery software is the...
Heads and Tales: When he lost data, Kardinal Offishall did the right thing.
( 6 December 2007)
When Kardinal Offishall, the Juno Award winner and Canada’s “hip-hop ambassador”, discovered that he could no longer access files required for an imminent recording session at an US studio later the same week, he did the right thing. He called CBL Data Recovery.
CBL technicians...
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...
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?...
Heads and Tales: Out of the Ashes
( 5 November 2007)
Rare Music Files Rescued from Severely Damaged Hard Drive
In June 2007, vintage music store, M.C. Productions Vintage Recordings, in the City of Penticton in British Columbia’s beautiful Okanagan Valley was destroyed in a fire. Owner Mickey Clark lost all of the CDs he had compiled from his massive...
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...
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...
Protecting Your Data From Identity Theft
( 4 October 2007)
Identity theft doesn’t just happen when somebody sorts through your garbage or steals your wallet. Thieves can steal your digital identity as well.
Like many of us in the technology field (or even the home user) we’ve accumulated several PC’s which are no longer used. Wait! Before you decide to trash...
You can weather the storm, but can you weather data loss?
(17 August 2007)
You may know them as Andrea, Barry, Chantal, Dean, Erin or Flossie. No, they’re not the finalists on the popular television programs “So You Think You Can Dance” or “American Idol”. They are the tropical storms that have or are threatening to make land fall during the
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...
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...
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...
Heads and Tales: Data Loss Demystified for JargonMaster - Part 1
(23 July 2007)
One Friday afternoon, Simon Sharwood got a lesson in karma.
“I nipped away from my computer to check the cricket score on television,” says the freelance journalist and copywriter and owner of JargonMaster Corporate, a Sydney, Australia-based writing business.
“When I came back, my PC had reverted to DOS mode...
Heads and Tales: When Data Loss Disaster Strikes, Don't Shutter.
(20 July 2007)
When Malcolm Rose’s digital camera stopped detecting the SD Card containing the photographs he had taken, he was worried the memories of the family vacation to Paris were lost forever. Upon his return home to Ottawa, one of Mr. Rose’s first priorities was to investigate whether someone could salvage...
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...
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...
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...
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
Data: Resilient and Recoverable
(26 June 2007)
In a press release issued in February 2007, the British Insurance Brokers’ Association reported that “Government figures suggest nearly one in five businesses suffers a major disruption every year. Further research suggests 80% of businesses affected by a major incident close down within 18 months, and 90% of those who...
Filing Returns Can Be Taxing - Part 2
(16 June 2007)
(Part 1 can be found at Filing Returns Can Be Taxing)
Even the taxman recommends backing up financial documents.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) states in a press release:
“Many people now receive bank statements and documents by e-mail or over the Web. Paper records such as W-2s, tax returns...
Filing Returns Can Be Taxing
(15 June 2007)
So, you like to file your taxes online. You’re not alone.
North Americans have embraced electronic filing in record numbers.
The Internal Revenue Service reported the 2007 tax filing season witnessed more than 76 million electronically-filed individual tax returns setting a new electronic record.
According to Revenue Canada, Electronic filing continues...
Business Continuity = Data
( 6 June 2007)
Many businesses and government agencies have implemented business continuity plans that include data backup to minimize downtime during a disaster or other unforeseen disruptions, but many organizations don’t realize data loss can occur despite having backup technology.
In May 2007, A&T came out with some key finding in its
Give computers a second life, not the data still on the drives
(26 May 2007)
Ever wondered what to do to keep your sensitive data from in front of the eyes and out of the hands of others?
CBL Data Recovery’s General Manager, Tim Margeson offers readers of The Globe and Mail advice on what to do with data that still resides on the...
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...
Data Recovery Firms Come and Go
( 8 May 2007)
If you’re shopping for a data recovery firm, you have discovered it is a highly competitive market. A search for “ data recovery services “ on google.com returned approximately 77,900,000 results.
So how do you make sense of it all??
To start, ask yourself some simple questions:
1)...
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...
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:
- Identify what information is mission-critical data to you.
- Plug your external...
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...
When the Lease Expires, Does the Data?
(30 April 2007)
So the lease on your laptop has expired? The guy in IT has advised you that they’ll be collecting the old ones and issuing new ones. So you backup your files and data on CDs, DVDs, or USB thumbdrives as every computer user should on a regular,...
