Data Recovary companies

[Sparda]

Not that any of my hard disks have failed, but I was just wondering what data recovary companies (not software) you lot recommend. As I have said, non of my hard drives have died, but I would like to know where to look for reliable and prefrably cheap data recovary if it does happen.

One other thing that has been bugging me recently, I have never set up a RAID array of any type (money != avalale), but thats say I setup a RAID 1 array with two hard disks, and one of them failed. How would I go about making sure the data on the second one is safe, and then implimenting a replacment for the broken one while keeping all data and then setting up the RAID 1 array again?

[VaKo]

The only times i've looked into it, the cost has been far to high. There doesn't apear to be any companys that offer fixed rates, just those that will give you a quote based on the size, type and problem of the disk. If its just a case of your torrents, probally not worth it. If its something along the lines of your personal data, it might be.

It is a problem at the moment, people say "just back it up on DVD's", but when your dealing with 1TB of space, with about 700GB of actual content, DVD's aren't cost effective. Kinda hope that holographic disc thats been on /. for the last 5 years eventually makes it the the UK.

As for RAID setup, not a clue. But its something I need to start looking at. My current method is basically fill up an old HD, and storing that disc at my dads house.

[jollyrancher82]

I hear the company called "Backup" is good :-)

[Sparda]

I hear the company called "Backup" is good :-)

So what backup medium/hardware do you surgest for the finantily impared? ^^

[metatron]

Tape

[Sparda]

Did I say finatialy ipared, i ment penny less.

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/in...&show=stock

[VaKo]

Tape

Is a tape drive something you want to get off ebay? Or is it actually worth getting one new/refurbished? And how long would 500GB take to back up?

[metatron]

My only experience with tape drives is with a Commodore 64, a 5 year old Compaq server (it was slow) and very large and expensive systems.

I have a Sony SDZ-S130 at work which has 1.3 TB of compressed data or 500 GB uncompressed which can get 78 MB per second but it tends to get 45 MB per second.

I would say its best to get a refurbished one but buy new tapes for it and the average is 60 MB per second for a lot of units.

[VaKo]

Hmm... bit pricey... think I'll just go back to zipping up my files, renaming it to barely_legal_teenage_sluts.mpg and sharing it via P2P. That way your a few clicks away from your data at any computer with net access.

Or, just back everything up onto offline HD's, how long does data last on a HD sitting on the shelf? Anyone know?

[Sparda]

It will last as long as the magnatism lasts, which is a couple of hundrad years.

[VaKo]

One other thing that has been bugging me recently, I have never set up a RAID array of any type (money != avalale), but thats say I setup a RAID 1 array with two hard disks, and one of them failed. How would I go about making sure the data on the second one is safe, and then implimenting a replacment for the broken one while keeping all data and then setting up the RAID 1 array again?

This any use?

RAID 1

One Write or two Reads possible per mirrored pair

Twice the Read transaction rate of single disks, same Write transaction rate as single disks

100% redundancy of data means no rebuild is necessary in case of a disk failure, just a copy to the replacement disk

Transfer rate per block is equal to that of a single disk

Under certain circumstances, RAID 1 can sustain multiple simultaneous drive failures

Simplest RAID storage subsystem design

Taken from : http://www.acnc.com/04_01_00.html

[Sparda]

Yes, I know the diffrance between RAID 1 and RAID 0 (Wikipedia helped me out on that one), but I want to know how to retrive the data on a non-failed disk where it's counter part has failed.

[VaKo]

From TFA:

RAID 1 has many administrative advantages. For instance, in some 365*24 environments, it is possible to "Split the Mirror": declare one disk as inactive, do a backup of that disk, and then "rebuild" the mirror. This requires that the application support recovery from the image of data on the disk at the point of the mirror split. This procedure is less critical in the presence of the "snapshot" feature of some filesystems, in which some space is reserved for changes, presenting a static point-in-time view of the filesystem. Alternatively, a set of disks can be kept in much the same way as traditional backup tapes are.

Which lead me to this, which in turn led to this

and this

Which would suggest that to recover data from a 2 disc RAID1 where disc 1 has failed, you would replace the disc (think it has to be the exact same type of disc, anyone want to correct me?), then load your RAID management and mirror the contents of the 2nd drive back to the fresh drive. Then your good to go.

Or, as i forgot to mention, just plug the good disk in to another box and treat it like a normal disk.