Case Studies

Case Studies

We have helped a wide range of clients over the last 15 years and reasons as to the whys and wherefores of the loss of their data. To that end we have a broad knowledge of problems relating to data recovery as our case studies show.
Case Studies

Case Study 1:

iMac Mechanical Damage

Issue

Client had an iMac that was connected to a power supply that was hit by lightning. The lightning strike damaged a number of electronic devices including 2 x TV’s, 1x radio, 1 x sky digital box etc. Unfortunately the lightning strike also caused damage to the the iMac and now it won’t boot up. The hard drive was removed from the iMac (Western Digital WD5000) and put into an external hard drive enclosure to try and read the data but no joy with this.

Our Solution

We received iMac hard drive in and diagnosed that it had several problems, electronic damage, firmware problems and also motor problems. When a hard drive has several problems we always recommend a platter exchange service to our clients as it gives the best chance of recovery. We completed a platter exchange service for client and imaged 99% of the data. We then processed the hard drive image and extracted the data. 99% recovery rate from a severely damaged hard drive was a good result for client.

* If your hard drive has several damaged internal components we are experts in recovering data from this type of problem.

Case Study 2:

Corrupted Raid Dataset on a Synology DiskStation

Issue

Client is using a Synology DiskStation for storing all work related data for his office staff. One day the client upgraded the DSM of the Synology DiskStation and ever since the Synology DiskStation will not boot up. During the update the client thought that the update had not completed and the Synology DiskStation decided to reboot. Since the reboot the system will not allow the client to run the update or allow the client to connect to the Synology DiskStation. The computer does not recognise that there is a Synology DiskStation connected so client thinks the Synology DiskStation Raid has been wiped!

Our Solution

We received Synology DiskStation in for recovery and diagnosed that it was a Raid 5 system x 4 250gb hard drives. All hard drives were working fine but the raid data on the 1st disk had become heavily corrupted and was unusable for the recovery process. As it was a raid 5 system we only needed 3 out of the 4 disks to process the data so we imaged the 3 remaining disks and processed 100% of data from the Synology DiskStation system.

* If your Synology DiskStation has had a failed firmare upgrade please contact us for a data recovery quote.

Case Study 3:

IBM 225x Server – Failed Smart Test

Issue

The IBM 225x Server is reporting that 2 out of the 6 hard drives have failed. The exact message was that the hard drives had been reported as degraded but a few reboots later and it was reporting that the hard drives were now defunt. Client checked the drives in a disk management utility and even though the disk management reports all disks are healthy two of the disks failed its smart tests. No rebuild options are given as client does not think they have a hot spare on server.

Our Solution

We received in the 6 disks and imaged all working disks. Two of the disks had millions of bad sectors so these two drives was put on a hardware imaging system to image all sectors on the hard drive. We then extracted the data from the raid array for a full recovery.

* If you are unsure whether to risk your data and do a rebuild, call us for some free advice.

Why Choose Oxford 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.