ANY DEVICE

Here at 24 Hour Data, we often consider ourselves doctors for our customers’ data storage devices; we take “sick” (that is, crashed, damaged or virus-infected) hard drives, solid state drives, and RAID arrays, recover lost data, and make them “well.” As a side effect, we reduce our customers’ stress, help lower their blood pressure, and we like to think we’ve prevented more than a few anxiety attacks caused by potential lost data. But that’s where the analogy ended… until recently.  Researchers at the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI) says they’ve developed a way to store data in man-made, DNA-like strands. This DNA storage doesn’t require any power and, unlike a hard disk drive which can wear out, causing a data recovery…

LaCie has introduced a new, five-bay RAID array that it’s calling the 5big Thunderbolt, with up to 20TB capacity. Allowing for custom RAID configurations but pre-configured at RAID 0, both the 20TB an 10TB versions have speeds up to 785MB per second via five 7200 RPM/64 MB cache hard disks.  Designed for Video Pros The 5big Thunderbolt is tailor-made to edit multiple 2K uncompressed 10-bit streams, says the manufacturer, making it ideal for video post-production work. Users can use fast volume in conjunction with popular software like Final Cut Pro X, Adobe Premiere and Aperture. The RAID array includes two Thunderbolt ports. Up to six Thunderbolt peripherals can be daisy-chained together to further increase storage capacity and back-up capabilities.  Back-ups,…

Overheating PCs, which can lead to a burnt out hard drive and potential data loss, are always a danger. In the summer, PCs and servers may overheat from outside or indoor temperatures. But in the winter, hard disk drives may also overheat if a home or business is kept too warm, with the heat turned up too high. PCs give off their own heat when they run, so they need to be kept cool in order to perform optimally.  In most cases, the included fans or heat sinks should be enough to keep an “off-the-shelf” PC, server or hard disk drive cool. But if you overclock your electronics equipment, you may need to add additional cooling mechanisms. Processors work overtime…

Are you facing a data recovery emergency in your home or business? Data recovery emergencies happen when you least expect them and, like any other type of disaster, it helps to be prepared.  The best way to be prepared for a hard drive crash or RAID server failure is by always backing up your data in three separate places, and keeping the number of a trustworthy, professional data recovery service on hand in case you need it.  How do you find the best data recovery service in your area? Here are a few questions to ask when you’re considering a professional data recovery firm.  1. What’s your success rate for RAID recovery, hard disk recovery, solid state recovery, mobile recovery?…

When your hard disk drive crashes, or you can’t access the data on the solid state drive in your mobile device, your first instinct might be to panic. We all know that terrible feeling. Our PC or laptop and, more than ever today, our smartphone or tablet, is our lifeline. In most cases, it’s our career. It’s also the way we communicate with friends and family, pay bills, find entertainment options, share (and take!) photos, listen to music, stream movies… There’s a lot of important data on your PC or mobile device.  In the event of a hard drive crash, there are do-it-yourself data recovery techniques you can use and even software you can purchase. But, often, using these DIY…

IHS iSuppli, technology industry market research firm, predicts double-digit drops in the sales of conventional hard disk drives (HDDs) in 2013. The culprit? the increase in mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, for computing. These slim, lightweight devices rely on solid state drives (SSDs) over larger, conventional hard disk drives.  Hard Disk Drive Sales by the Numbers The IHS iSuppli report says that hard drive market revenue will drop 11.8 percent in 2013. The market is by nowhere means “small,” though, and we shouldn’t expect the death of the HDD quite yet. The 2012 fiscal year had HDD revenues of $37.1 billion; that could drop to $32.7 billion this year, and, even further, down to $32 billion in 2014. …

Solid State storage continues to drop in cost and grow in popularity, while hard disk drives are still making a strong showing at CES 2013. Let’s take a look at some of the offerings in these categories from this year’s show floor:  Western Digital Helium-filled hard disk drive – By filling the gaps between drive platters with helium rather than air, the new drive from Western Digital’s HGST fits seven platters in a typical drive instead of the standard five. The drives also fit more data on each platter, and offer reduced drag for faster operation speeds and cooler running temperatures. Toshiba SDHC Memory Card with TransferJet technology – As devices become smaller, more capabilities are combined in to fewer…

Are you an IT director considering introducing thin provising to increase data storage space on your virtual machines? Whether you’re using VMWare, Citrix, Microsoft Hyper-V or another virtual server solution, thin provisioning in virtualized environments has several advantages when it comes to increasing data storage availability.  Here are just a few of the advantages of thin provisioning in a virtual environment:  – Thin provisioned VMDKs (Virtual Machine Disks) can be created more quickly, saving IT staff time – Permits users to dedicate more storage capacity than what is actually available – Unused space is not allocated; space is only allocated as needed, providing more intelligent provisioning of storage capacity One danger of thin provisioning is that storage space may not…

Small businesses often need centralized data storage for apps and data, beyond what desktop PC units can provide. But if you’re running a small business, you may not need a large server, and all the costs associated with running that server.  The WD Sentinel DX4000 from Western Digital can meet the storage needs of a small business of fewer than 25 employees, with a RAID-enabled storage system and storage capacity up to 16 TB. The Sentinel connects to your office PCs or Macs wirelessly, via Ethernet or via USB 3.0 and uses an Intel Atom™ D525 1.8 GHz Dual Core processor with 2 GB RAM. It supports RAID 1 storage with two hard disk drives and RAID 5 with three…

Surge protectors are one way to protect your sensitive electronic devices, including laptops, PCs, Macs, home media servers, mobile devices and more from damage caused by power surges. Power surges often occur during lightning storms, when power comes on following an outage, upon turning off or turning on electronic devices, or sometimes for no reason at all, when excess electricity “surges” through the power lines.  Surge protectors also protect against everyday “interference” that can also affect your electronics’ operaton.  For a very low cost, you can protect devices from this type of damage, which can corrupt data and cause a need for emergency data recovery service. But before you select a surge protector for your home or your business, there…