Case Studies

Case Studies

Throughout our 15 years of services, we have assisted a lot of clients. We teach our clients about the reason behind of the loss of their data. We have a wide knowledge of problems that related to data recovery, and you can get those from our case studies.
Case Studies

Case Study 1:

iMac G4 Not Booting Up

Issue

Client had an iMac G4 that would not boot up. Instead of booting up to login screen the iMac would boot up and show a sad face, and then there was a big question mark with a grey folder beside it. The client tried to restart the iMac several times but still got the same sad face followed by the question mark. The client is an accountant and had 52 clients accounts on the system in excel and sage accounts format and thus needed the data recovered ASAP.

Our Solution

We received in hard drive and diagnosed that the hard drive had a electronic failure to the PCB (this is the electronic board on the back of the hard drive). We replaced this PCB with one that we had in stock (we have 20,000 parts in stock) and then updated the firmware code and imaged the hard drive. We then extracted the data from the hard drive and uploaded it to our download service as client needed the data ASAP. 100% of data recovered and all accounts related data was verified as recovered.

* If you have accounts on a Mac and need it recovered quickly please contact us for details of our critical data recovery service.

Case Study 2:

Failed Rebuild on a Buffalo Linkstation

Issue

Client had been using Buffalo Linkstation for several years as the office file server. On one ocassion two years ago a disk needed replaced on the system but this was replaced and system rebuilt the data without any problems and has been working well ever since until today. Today the system was working fine in the morning but this afternoon the Buffalo Linkstation was not seen on our computer in reception. Normally we can view all the files and folders directly from this computer. The only thing we can see is the users tab and then a local users tab but nothing else in the user interface. Client tried everything to get the Buffalo Linkstation to get recognised but nothing worked.

Our Solution

We received in the Buffalo Linkstation NAS system and diagnosed that is was a Raid 5 four disk system with 4 x 750GB hard drives. Two of the hard drives had failed our smart tests. On further diagnostics the drives had a corrupted raid data set. It seemed there was a rebuild run on system before we received the Buffalo Linkstation in for recovery. We checked with owner and they admitted that they had run a rebuild but it failed after 2%. We imaged all disks and recoded and rebuilt the corrupted/rebuilt data parity. We then backed up the data onto a 4TB external hard drive for a full recovery.

* If you have had a failed Raid 5 Rebuild, contact us today as we have 15 years experience in recovering from failed rebuilds.

Case Study 3:

HP Server Failed Rebuild

Issue

8 Disk raid 5 HP server with 2 hot spares. Data is used as a file server to store 2tb of business data for 100 staff in a factory. One day the server suddenly froze and needed to be rebooted manually. After the reboot the HP server will not boot up. Client went into the raid setup and found that one disk had failed. The hot spare should have kicked in but did not so client selected one of the hot spares and rebuilt the server. Once the rebuild completed 100% the server rebooted but would not start up. Client took the server to their IT Maintenance company who service their server and desktop computers but they could not recover the data and recommended ourselves.

Our Solution

We got the 10 raid 5 disks in and diagnosed them. Since then another 2 disks have degraded for a total of 3 disks that had failed in the raid array. We completed a platter swap on the 3 damaged disks and processed the raid system within 48 hours.

* We are HP Raid Recovery Experts, call us today for expert advice.

Why Choose Hull Data Recovery?

  • Fixed pricing on recovery (You know what you are paying - no nasty surprises).
  • Quick recovery turnaround at no extra cost. (Our average recovery time is 2 days).
  • Memory card chip reading services (1st in the UK to offer this service).
  • Raid recoding service (Specialist service for our business customers who have suffered a failed server rebuild).
  • Our offices are 100% UK based and we never outsource any recovery work.
  • Strict Non-disclosure privacy and security is 100% guaranteed.