“Yes, but I heard the cloud is the future of computing.” This will turn out to be false for one primary reason: Privacy. It turns out that hacking into one user’s computer or hard drive is extraordinarily simple, but simultaneously hacking into hundreds of thousands of users’ hard drives all at once is very difficult… unless you can hack into a cloud database. The fact remains, that data warehouses are prime targets for hackers, and just recently one very large database was compromised (Sony as one prime example). In another attack on Epsilon marketing, hackers hacked into the database of a company that handles external marketing for over 200o companies, including many Fortune 500 companies, which exposed user data that many of our largest corporations maintained as private. If these attacks can occur on presumably data secure companies, surely no database is entirely safe, including data stored in a cloud environment.

So long as these attacks occur, and the prices of hard drive storage keeps plunging – there is simply very little reason a sane and normal person would consider switching to a cloud storage or cloud computing method of operation. One hard drive should be kept off-site or in a safe deposit box and update periodically. As long as users fail to adopt to cloud computing, there remains a need for companies that specialize in data recovery from damaged hard drives like Pronto Data Recovery.

Pronto Data Recovery can be reached at 612-460-8648 or online at www.prontodatarecovery.com.

This purchase gives WD access to Hitachi’s partnership with Intel and NAND flash technology. Solid state drives (SSD’s) are increasingly being used as many view them to be the future of the storage industry.

As mentioned in our previous blogs – data recovery from SSD devices remains very difficult due to how the devices store and delete data, and it remains 5 to 10x more expensive than traditional disk drive technology.

We expect SSD to remain on the fringes for at least the next 2 years until the reliability and pricing improve.

Our recommendation is still the standard hard drive – failure rates are about the same and if a traditional hard drive fails – the odds of recovery are much higher.

With 1-2TB hovering around $100 at local retailers – with even better deals coming into Christmas – from a data recovery standpoint we recommend standard hard drives at this point in time.

Several manufacturers are making attempts at “hybrid” drives, which in most cases are mix of traditional exteral hard drives along with a SSD component. Basically, this combines the robust and proven storage of a traditional HDD along with the quicker loading SSD flash capabilities.

In other cases, manufacturers are pre-loading the devices with movies, or making the hard drives much more “Netflix Friendly.” For most consumers we don’t see this move toward bundling to be as logical and compelling to any consumers we have surveyed.

Today, most consumers want a few basics: 1) Simple, plug-n-play technology. Plug the device in, back-ups happen to the device almost immediately. 2) Size – given a choice between two 1TB devices, consumers seam to opt for smaller devices that are presumably easier to place in our already crowded offices, 3) Price – as prices slide, most consumers will need to see significant differentiation to justify purchasing a higher priced device.

One thing remains certain, consumers remain hesitant to sign-up for online subsciption backup services. As easy as they are to utilize, the comparative price of being able to purchase a $99 1TB drive makes better sense for most than the equivalent cloud storage of 25GB annually for $99 through Norton.

The cost for cloud computing just hasn’t quite got there yet, and until it does we don’t see a rapid shift to off-site storage. In addition to the price problems cloud computing is facing, we are seeing most consumers have a hard time identifying which sites online are “safe.” In comparison, something purchased at Target or Best Buy must be “safe,” right?

Long story short, the biggest threat consumers will face is human nature. They will forget to back up their main computers frequently, will experience technical issues they cannot resolve, or worse, their home will burn down right along with all their data.

These new Seagate hard drives mean if you decide to go from a PC to a Mac, or USB 2.0 to USB 3.0 – the hard drive will make the switch with you.

Previously, once you formatted a hard drive – it usually had to stay that way. This is a great development and one that we fully support!

However, the new solid state storage devices (called SSD, or more commonly seen as USB storage devices) are making headway in the storage market.  Samsung has brought to market the new USB 3.0 technology solid state device called the Story Station 3.0 that offers blazingly fast transfer speeds of 5 Gbps, backward compatibility with USB 2.0 and earlier technology, and storage space of 1TB and beyond.

This presents an interesting dilemma for us Data Recovery companies. Solid state storage data recoveries have been a notoriously difficult for even the most sophisticated data recovery firms. Most of the hardware and software we utilize has been built to recover data from the now fairly standardized traditional spinning hard disc drive (HDD’s). The controller technology and proprietary algorithm technology on SSD’s is neither standardized nor public.

We expect a wave of transformation in the computer forensics and hard drive recovery business in the next 3-4  years. As prices come down on SSD’s, consumer uptake will increase. As consumer uptake increases, demand for recovery from such devices will increase.

The advantages of SSD’s over traditional HDD’s are numerous – including quieter operation, faster startup, lower power consumption. HDD’s still win in price, longevity and market acceptance.

We are keeping a close eye on SSD technology.

A similar investigation was then launched by the CBS Phoenix affiliate KPHO, during which the confidential records of Tommy Bahama’s restaurant were recovered from used copiers.  In nearly every case, simple data recovery software available online (including on our website www.prontodatarecovery.com) was capable of recovering the data – usually in under 20 minutes.  Further forensic analysis may be capable of even revealing documents thought to have been deleted from the hard drives’ memory.

The fact of the matter is that in today’s digital world, unless extreme care is taken during disposal of an asset, data is at risk. We recommend companies such as RenovoData Services here in the Twin Cities that use multiple pass data scrubbing techniques to ensure that data is totally wiped. 

Be sure you are protecting yourself when it comes to your data!  As firms become more aware, they will become more likely to build disposal terminology into rental agreements for photocopiers, and will take greater care in disposing or reselling used devices.

If you would like to connect with us and keep on top of industry news, please give us a follow on Twitter @ProntoData or by visiting http://twitter.com/prontodata.

Several of us got together to figure out if there really is a way to get some of this light to go away so that we can finally get a good night’s rest!  Well, it certainly is possible, but the trouble it is worth to crack open your electronic devices or pour through Internet forums just may not be worth the work.  We found that black electrical tape solved the problem for our external hard drives, PC’s, and other devices that remain stationary.  As for the Blackberry – we found disabling the message alerts fairly simple to do – however each program (Twitter, News sites, each email message account, etc) needed to be disabled individually.  As for the alarm clock – other than going down to dimmer – the only easy solution we found was to utilize a piece of window tint over the alarm LED – that seemed to bring the glow way down to a manageable level.

With PC’s – it is possible to remove the case and physically disconnect the LED, but for most people the simpler and more practical answer is black electrical tape. Opening up a machine requires some caution to avoid things like static electricity shocks and getting a lot of dust inside the machine.  That being said – it can also be a good time if you know what you are doing to clean the interior of your machine.

Light and sound is everywhere – and getting a good night’s sleep is just not as easy as it probably used to be.  Try a few easy fixes and see what a difference “lack” of light makes!