Recovery Process:

The Recovery process begins with a no charge evaluation, where every drive in the raid array is very carefully tested and the ones which are in working condition will be cloned to our network. The drives which are damaged will more thoroughly diagnosed, we will than determine whether the defected drive has a physical or logical problem, if diagnosed as a physical problem it goes into our clean room.

The Initial FREE Evaluation takes approximately between 6 - 24 hrs for our engineers to properly analyze.

0800 DATALAB (3282522)

What a RAID (Redundant Array of Independant Disks) is:

RAID 0:

All the disk devices are organized alternatively so that blocks are taken equally from all disks alternatively, in order to reach higher efficiency. Since the probability of finding a block of a file is identical for all disks, there are force to work simultaneously thus making the performance of the meta disk almost 10 times that of a single disk.

RAID 1:

In this mode, the goal is to reach the highest security of the data. Blocks of data are duplicated in all physical disks (each block of the virtual disk has a duplicate in each of the physical disks). This configuration provides 10 times the reading performance of a single device, but it degrades writing operations. Read operations can be organized to read 10 blocks simultaneously, one from each device at a time. Similarly when writing 1 block it has to be duplicated 10 times, one for each physical device. There is no advantage in this configuration regarding storage capacity.

RAID 4:

In this mode the ultimate goal is to balance the advantages of the type RAID0 and RAID1. Data is organized mixing both methods. The physical 1 to N-1 are organized in striping mode (RAID0) and the Nth stores the parity of the individual bits corresponding to blocks 1 to N-1. If any of the disks fails, it is possible to recover by using the parity information on the Nth hard disk. Efficiency during read operations is N-1 and during write operations is 1/2 (because writing a data block now involves writing also to the parity disk). In order to restore a broken hard disk, one only has to re-read the information and re-write it (it reads from the parity disk but it writes to the newly install hard disk).

RAID 5:

This type is similar to RAID 4, except that now the information of the parity disk is spread over all the hard disks (no parity disk exists). It allows to reduce the work load of the parity disk, that in RAID 4 it had to be accessed for every write operation (now the disk where parity information for a track is stored differs for every track)
Fill out a request form and include it in your package.

If at all possible, remove the media from the computer. Get expert help if necessary. Send us just the hard drive(s), tape(s), floppy, jaz, zip, optical, flashcard, microdrive etc..

Handle a hard disk drive as you would handle an egg. Handle failed hard disk drives with the same care as new drives.
Use the original shipping materials, if you still have them. If not, they are relatively easy to replicate:

1.) Wrap media in an anti-static bag or tinfoil to prevent Static Electricity.

2.) Use a box that is at least twice the size of the media so that the media can be suspended in the middle of the box. We recommend a minimum of two inches of insulation all around for a 1 Kilo drive.

3.) Pack securely with foam, bubble wrap, or newspaper so the media will not move from the middle of the box. Avoid using peanuts as contents will settle to the bottom of the box.

4.) If sending a computer, laptop or notebook, use great care to ensure proper cushioning and protection. We recommend at least 6 inches for insulation. The heavier the unit, the more insulation required.