Dataquest

Data Recovery You Can Trust

Tag: Windows

  • File List Support

    We’ve started to use an open source file listing tool, to make it easier to check though the recovered data before we send it to you.

    We’ll send you a zipped html file, with your job number as the filename. Something like “211111-File-List.zip“. Inside is a similarly named file ending “.html” which is a web page and can be opened by a web browser on a computer.

    You should see your folders listed on the left, and can click to navigate though the subfolders. A picture paints a thousand words, so see the example below.

    Image of a visual file list

    FAQ

    Why can’t I open the files?

    This is just a visual list of the files, it doesn’t actually contain any files.

    The file is stuck at “Loading…”

    iPhones don’t easily allow you to open the html file so you should open it on a PC or Mac if possible. We’re working on a solution for this at the moment.

    There are missing files

    If you can’t find specific files, there is a search tool at the top. If that still fails to show your files, let us know. Maybe the listing process has missed some files, or maybe we have other recovery options available.

    There are extra files I don’t recognise

    The recovery process can sometimes unearth hidden, deleted, or duplicated files. You can usually ignore them, and we usually filter out as much junk as we can.

    Any other questions?

    Get in touch, and we’ll help.

    Credit to RL Vision for their handy tool Snap2HTML, which is the basis for this feature.

  • Where Is My Bitlocker Key?

    If you’ve been having computer problems, you may have been asked for your Bitlocker key. In most cases you won’t be able to access your files without this key. Even if you know your login password!

    Bitlocker should never be enabled without a backup of the key, but there are cases when that can happen by mistake. Fortunately the keys are usually saved into your Microsoft account, or other corporate network account.

    Where to look?

    For a list of ways to find your Bitlocker keys, see the official guidance by Microsoft. In particular, you should login to:

    • Your own, or any other Microsoft accounts that were ever used on your computer here.
    • Any work or school accounts that were ever used. Try to login with your credentials here.
    • If you had a friend or relative setup your computer for you, ask them if they made a copy of the key, or ask them to check the links above to see if your key was saved automatically into their own account.

    You’ve found the key, now what?

    Finding the key is only part of the solution. In normal operation you shouldn’t need to type your Bitlocker Recovery Key very often (or ever really). If you’ve got back in, it’s a really good idea to make a backup of your files ASAP. You may be in the middle of a bigger problem.

    If the key is not accepted

    If you’ve found the key in your Microsoft account, but the key is not accepted when you type it, you may already have an underlying disk problem. Keep the key somewhere safe, and then contact us about data recovery. We’ll need to recover the drive first, and then decrypt it using the key.

    Contact Us Now…

    For a fast reply from a real person.

  • Free & Cheap Backup for iPhone, iPad, Android, PC & Macs

    If you’ve survived without backups and not lost data, you’ve been lucky so far. But why push your luck? There are a bunch of free & cheap ways to backup that could save you from the pain of losing data. Even better, you could help out your family, and give a gift that almost nobody will thank you for. At least until they drop their phone down the toilet. Then you’ll be hailed a total hero!

    What is a Backup?

    First, I have to get this out of the way. A backup is an extra copy of the files. If you don’t have two or more copies of something in different places, it’s not a backup. A common mistake is buying an external “backup” drive, and then filling it up with data that you don’t have anywhere else. All that does is move the problem from one disk to another. If the “backup” drive fails you’ll still need to get it recovered professionally (👋). If you had another disk with the same files on, you’d be fine. It might sound wasteful to keep multiple copies of your files, but it is the only safe way. Even the most reliable disks have a 1% failure rate. If you made a backup copy of a paper document, you wouldn’t shred the original, so just think like that.

    What is a Cloud? ☁️

    A cloud is just a server somewhere. Modern cloud services are just huge networks of servers that can store your data.

    iPhones & iPads

    iCloud

    If you’re an iPhone or iPad user, you can’t beat iCloud for convenience. With an iCloud backup, you can load a replacement iPhone or iPad with your data, and carry on where you left off. It might seem unfair that Apple will sell you a phone for £1,099 and then want an extra £0.79 per month for iCloud, but once you get past that, it really is worth every penny. For under £10 per year, you’ll be mad to not sign up.

    Family Sharing

    If you have multiple iPhones & iPads in your household, you can also share iCloud storage using Family Sharing. That way, you can buy one of the larger storage plans and backup all the iDevices in your house. All the data is still kept privately for each person in iCloud, but the total storage is shared. This will also give you some other useful features like shared family calendars, notes & reminders.

    Google Photos

    Google photos works across pretty much any device. It doesn’t matter if you run it from your iPhone, Android Tablet, a PC, whatever. The free version only has a fairly small allowance (currently 15GB), but you can then pay extra for more storage as you need it. (£24.99 per year for 200GB in 2023)

    Android Phones & Tablets

    Google One. That’s the Google equivalent of iCloud and has tools to backup devices, and photos. (See above.)

    Mac & PC

    Regardless of what PC or Mac you have, you can’t beat an external hard drive for value. As long as your internal disk is big enough to fit all your files, you can then use an external drive to keep an extra copy of everything. If your internal disk is too small, the best option is to upgrade it, and then also keep an external backup drive. If you don’t (or can’t) upgrade the internal disk, you’ll need to juggle data and backups around external disks. This increases your risk of missing something.

    Computers can also use cloud storage, so if you already use one on your phone, it’s worth seeing what you can share with your PC or Mac.

    iCloud on your Mac will let you sync photos and documents but doesn’t allow you to backup and restore to the cloud the way it does with iPhones. If you use iCloud on a Mac, I’d still recommend an external drive.

    Attach an external drive to a Mac, and it will offer to use it as a backup with Time Machine. ⚠️ Be aware that it will erase the disk first! Time Machine will take a copy of your whole Mac, and keep it up to date. Even if you only plug the disk in once a month, Time Machine will catch up with any new files and copy them over automatically. If your Mac dies, you can use the backup drive to load the data to a repaired or replaced Mac.

    Windows 10/11 has a backup feature named “File History.” Much like Time Machine, you can select an external disk for backups, and then file history will keep track of file changes automatically. Unlike the Mac, File History doesn’t backup software and settings, so you’d need to get things setup another way first before you load the files back.

    Conclusion

    Do yourself a favour and get your files backed up. Remember, you don’t need to backup everything, just the things you don’t want to lose 😜!

  • Old Industrial Equipment Data Recovery

    Old Industrial Equipment Data Recovery

    It’s always interesting to see how a complex manufacturing line can be run from such old hardware. In this case we were sent a custom PC from a  machine that is used to fill and cap bottles.

    The first problem was trying to get the case open to remove the hard drive. There is no ifixit guide for this thing!

    Old Industrial Equipment Data Recovery
    Old Industrial Equipment Data Recovery

    Inside I found a 20GB Seagate laptop drive (dated 2007) running Windows 2000 along with the programs that control the machinery. The hard drive was connected to a proprietary motherboard that in turn connected to the machinery via serial ports.

    In this case, data recovery was not enough. What the client needed was a full working copy of the failed disk to reinstall into the system. The aim was to get the kit up and running and return it to the customer so they could carry on with work as soon as possible.

    We’re set up to handle exactly this sort of problem, so I got this recovered and returned within two days.

  • Windows 10 Upgrade Problems

    Windows 10 Upgrade Problems

    If you’ve had a disaster during the Windows 10 Upgrade, don’t panic. Chances are your data is fine, but whatever you do next could change that!

    If You Have a Backup

    If you made a backup of the data before the upgrade then check the backup files on another computer. If the backup is good, the safest way forward is to restore the backup onto a fresh drive. Then if you find a problem with the data later, or if the restore fails, you still have the original “broken” drive to send to us for recovery. A common mistake is to restore the backup onto the failed disk, but if that goes wrong you’re left with nothing!

    Windows 10 Upgrade Problems
    Windows 10 Upgrade Problems

    If You Don’t Have a Backup

    If you don’t have a backup you need to be really careful what you do next. If you send / bring the computer or disk to us, we can safely recover the data using the techniques we’ve developed over the last 15 years.

    Whatever you decide, give us a call first, and we can warn you against doing anything that could harm the data.

  • Bitlocker Data Recovery

    For the last few years, newer editions of Windows have the ability to encrypt the whole disk with bitlocker. This means far more users are experimenting with encryption. We have seen an increase in recoveries from drives secured with bitlocker.

    When Backups Go Bad

    Is Data Recoverable From Bitlocker Drives?

    In many cases the data is recoverable. It is important that we get the recovery key or password, as bitlocker security has not been compromised.

    Common Issues

    The most common problems we see with bitlocker encrypted drives are when the disk starts to fail, or when Windows becomes corrupt. This can prevent the built-in decryption process from working correctly and leave users locked out of their data. These drives can fail like any other, but the encryption adds an extra layer of complexity to the recovery process.

    Solutions

    If using bitlocker on your drive, it is important to keep a copy of the decryption keys in a safe secure place away from the computer. It is also extra important to keep a constant and regular backup process. Although recovery is usually possible from a failed bitlocker drive, it could take a number of days. You probably wouldn’t want to live without your files for that time.

    If you have a failed bitlocker drive that needs recovery, (and if you have the recovery key) get in touch.

    Contact Us Now…

    For a fast reply from a real person.

  • OWC Mercury Elite Pro Qx2: Data Recovery

    OWC Mercury Elite Pro Qx2
    OWC Mercury Elite Pro Qx2

    This OWC external enclosure is a common sight on the desks of Mac users with big storage needs. It’s a pretty standard 4-bay box, styled somewhat like a cousin of a PowerMac G5 or 1st generation Mac Pro. Inside are the usual options of RAID 0 to RAID 5 with a few additions like JBOD & RAID 10 thrown in for good measure. There are a few variations of this device but the back panels commonly have USB, Firewire, and eSATA ports for direct connection to a PC or Mac. There is no ethernet port on these drives which makes the Qx2 a DAS (Direct Attached Storage) rather than NAS (Network Attached Storage).

    Aside from massive name, the OWC Mercury Elite Pro Qx2 also comes with a potentially huge amount of storage. Currently up to 32TB on the OWC store, but also available diskless or BYOD (Bring your own disks). With so much storage space, these drives often become the one and only repository for vast lumps of important data. The benefits of RAID give a false sense of security that the data is safe from drive failures. Unfortunately, there are a number of reasons why the RAID array alone will not protect from certain failures. Most of  these failures can be overcome by us in our workshop, but they are not one-button fixes. It is helpful to understand why a seemingly rock-solid platform can be even more risky than a simple external USB drive.

    Redundancy

    Under common settings, the Qx2 will use RAID 5 for the array. With four 2TB drives this gives you a 6TB volume on a Mac or ~5.5TB on a PC[1], and can cope with a single disk failure. There is a lot of debate about how good RAID 5 really is for such large drives[2]. In our example this means that if a single disk fails, it will need to be replaced, and then the new disk rebuilt with 2TB of data calculated from the other disks. This will take many hours, even under optimal conditions, but if anything goes wrong before it completes the array could stop showing up all together. At this stage, the data is probably recoverable but don’t panic. One wrong move and the data could be gone for good.

    If the data is crucial then get assistance from a RAID recovery service now and you should get back all or most of the data.

    If any disks are removed or replaced at this point the array could get reinitialised and either make the recovery more complicated or wipe the data completely.

    Other Failures

    Aside from all the problems with a RAID setup, the volume could also fail in the same ways that a standard hard drive can. There could be deleted files, a reformatted or corrupt partition, or even the RAID controller failure. RAID cannot protect against those types of failure at all.

    Recovery

    Our first step would be making read-only copies of each disk in the array. This protects against further disks failing, and also allows us to work from copies without risking the original disks. In fact, once the disks are copied, we put the originals to one side and don’t touch them again until all the data is recovered and supplied back to the user.

    Once we have our copies, they are loaded into our own hardware where we recreate the RAID in a virtual environment. Again, we don’t use the original hardware, as that may have been the root cause of the problem.

    When the virtual RAID has been loaded and all the data extracted, the files are supplied back on whatever alternative storage is suitable, (not the original device!) Once the data has been delivered to the user, and backups made, the old unit can then be destroyed, or returned and reused.

    Avoidance

    Anyone using RAID on a regular basis should know that RAID is not a replacement for backups. If anything, the increased number of disks makes failure more likely. This needs to be addressed by either making backups to another device, or an online service (preferably both). You ideally want backups that keep historic versions of the files, so that inadvertently deleting a file or changing a file by mistake will not also replace the backup version.

    If you are having problems with an OWC Mercury Elite Pro Qx2, give us a call or send a message via the form on this page. We give free advice and could help you avoid permanent data loss.

    1. Macs now use 1000 bytes for 1KB but PCs use 1024 bytes.

    2. Even RAID 6 does not solve the long time required to rebuild a disk, even though it allows for two disk failures.

  • Spilt Coffee Liquid Damaged Laptop Hard Drive

    Spilt Coffee Liquid Damaged Laptop Hard Drive

    Once again we had an enquiry from a customer who was at her wits end and wanted a second opinion. She had spilt coffee on her laptop that had all her family photographs. She had taken it to PC World where she had originally bought it. They advised her to use their internal recovery process, and sent it off for analysis. She was eventually told that there was no chance of recovering her data from the liquid damaged hard drive. But fortunately for her, against the advice she received, she decided to search online for another data recovery company. This is where we came in. Although the hard drive was covered in sticky coffee and damaged by the liquid, we were able to overcome the problem and recover all of the data for the customer. Once again another happy customer as a result of a second opinion. This is becoming a habit.

  • PGP Whole Disk Encryption

    PGP Whole Disk Encryption

    PGP WDE is an encryption tool that uses a boot loader installed on an internal hard drive. This utility launches before Windows and prompts the user to input their password. Without the password you cannot gain access to the data.

    This utility is widely used by IBM personnel and is now part of IBM’s  process that has to be adhered to by end users. Prior to this utility IBM hard drives were restricted access by a low level ATA hard drive password setup  by the internal IBM IT department.  As computer systems advanced and maybe as a result of a reduced IBM IT department,  IBM adopted the user friendly PGP encryption process.

    We regulary receive these hard drives from IBM, and we find that the major problem is related to the PGP boot sequence. PGP does not like a hard drive that is suffering from bad sectors, especially within the partition table. It results in the user being unable to load their access code on startup, or in some cases the code is accepted but does not boot correctly due to bad sectors further along.

    We have a lot of experience recovering data from PGP whole disk encrypted hard drives and as a result our data recovery process has a very high success rate.

  • HTS5450 Second Generation

    Now in a new 7mm slimline form factor, and Advanced Format specification, the HTS5450 hard drive is proving a popular choice for vendors with limited space. The drives are especially popular in Ultra thin laptops and slim portable external cases. Now being manufactured by Western Digital under the brand name of HGST, the 500GB boasts just a single media platter to store all that data. Part of the redesign also brings Advanced Format to these drives. Certain older operating systems such as Windows XP require the use of the HGST Align Tool provided by Western Digital. Users of the latest OS X systems and Windows 7+ do not require the use of this Tool.

    Advanced Format has been introduced to cram more data on a single platter. To do this the manufacturer has increased the standard 512 byte sector size to a 4096 byte sector. This format design also incorporates better data integrity, hopefully giving the customer all round better performance and reliability.

    If you’ve lost data from a HTS5450 drive, try our Hitachi Data Recovery Services to get your data back.

    Remember, electronic devices can malfunction at any time, so make sure you always backup your precious data.