HARD DRIVE RECOVERY

HARD DRIVE RECOVERY

If you are using computer for your business and do not want to never face data loss problem you need to take care of your hard drive and server You should backup your important data regularly because data can be lost due to some problem in hard drive Some symptoms to data losses are hard drive may not spin booting is not possible data is not accessible etc cheap data recovery,computer data recovery,data backup and recovery,data center disaster recovery,data disaster recovery,data recovery,data recovery company,data recovery services,data recovery software,data recovery tools,data retrieval,disaster recovery,disk data recovery,file recovery,hard disk data recovery,hard disk recovery,hard drive data recovery,laptop data recovery,lost data recovery,natural disaster relief,pc data recovery,recover lost data Mostly data loss is due to hard drive format hard disk failure file deletion partition deletion etc Rotation frequency of the hard disk is very high and that is the reason of physically crash Corrupted master boot record is also the cause of hard disk failure Every operating system has a file system that is the method of keeping track of stored files But in case of data loss its not possible to access data from files Data recovery is only the solution of getting file system together back and data files accessible again Data recovery companies have solutions to restore lost data If hard drive is not physically damaged data recovery can be possible with the help of software Data recovery companies are providing the facility of online data recovery software You can download data recovery software online and restore lost data with some simple steps In case of physically damage you need to send hard drive to lab where engineers take care of data and restore them They remove all dust part of hard disk and restore data safely You need to determine that the cost of data recovered need to be equalized with the cost of data involved Today so many hard drive companies offer needlepoint details to their customers who want to download data recovery software to restore lost data Its important to search the right company that could able you with best result to your hard disk challenge You just keep in mind that finds out ISO standard group if possible ISO90012000 Means Company has very good impression in hard drive recovery Today so many hard drive recovery companies can help you to recover data that are lost due to physical or logical hard drive failure So there is no need to worry about lost data Search a best hard drive recovery company and solve your problem easily Today computers are used much more thoroughly then a decade back We are almost trying to expel paper from our lives Majority of work is being done by computers and these are more prone to failure These failures invariably lead to data loss

· When powering on your computer you might abruptly hear clicking buzzing scrapping and ratting sounds These are the noises that come when the motor electronic boards or magnetic platters get damaged due to any electric failure or a head crash Alternately the drive might also refuse to spin and results in inaccessible data

· Another reason of data loss may be Firmware Corruption Firmware is the software program that controls the operations and activities of hard drive like configuration space management and safe power on off If firmware corruption occurs then system doesnt detect the hard drive

· In occurrence of such event you system will be prevented from accessing data from hard drive

· You might power on your system and find that files folders and drive partitions are missing This is the logical error These may evident as erroneous incomplete or nil data in files

· Such problems are the effect of malicious work of people who develop viruses that damage data This makes the program operate in a wrong way The computer compiles and interprets but makes an incorrect execution

· Accidental deletion and overwriting is also a common reason of data loss that more often happens This event occurs when you overwrite some existing data or emptied the recycle bin This is the data loss event of human error category
· Data loss may also occur due to Operating System failure Operating system is system software that manages the hardware and enables its communication with software

The operating system corruption may results in cross linked files lost clusters file system corruption or invalid file directories In this situation strange error messages get generated or many files may get corrupted You should be aware of these things to avoid your valuable data from loss If you have experienced data loss due to any of the reason you need for data recovery to recover your valuable data There are two options of data recovery you have one is software method and second is hardware
If your data is lost due to the software problem like logical error operating system corruption or accidental deletion then you should use data recovery software to recover and restore your data
In case when your data is lost due to the hardware problem such as firmware corruption or hardware failure then you should take help of data recovery services for recovering your data Many companies provide this facility with its experienced professional data recovery engineers and data recovery labs

Recover Data From Hard Drive

Nowadays companies and businesses regularly use the computer to transact You will also notice that automation is now widespread and many establishments and companies are now relying on computer technology to run their businesses as well as to store important and critical data Because of automation and the growing popularity of computers in businesses and companies data disaster recovery is now becoming an important part in todays world Think about it what if you have a computer full of data that is important or is crucial in running your business One day that same computer crashed and important data was lost and seemingly impossible to recover You wouldnt want to start from scratch and all the data inside that computer were very important So what are you going to do about it How will you be able to save your business from getting torn apart just because your computer crashed With an effective data disaster recovery system you will be able to get your business back on track
This is just one of the many reasons why data disaster recovery systems are very important especially if your business relies a lot on computers in order to survive and also to store dataSo here are some of the things you have to do in order for you to have an effective data recovery system that will be able to protect critical data in your computerThe first way to do it is by setting up an effective and reliable data disaster recovery system It is important to understand that setting up this kind of system isnt a simple thing to do You may need to hire a professional to set the system up for your business Just make sure that you hire a reputable data disaster recovery expert or company in order for you to be sure that your data is well protected You may want to check their experience in the field of data recovery before you hire them If it is possible get a data recovery expert that has at least a minimum experience of five years in the field You may also want to obtain records of his or her performance and accomplishmentsGetting a data disaster recovery systems integrated in your company is not cheap Remember this fact and you will be better prepared on how much you will pay for the experts services Never hesitate asking how much their services will cost and try asking other qualified data recovery experts on how much they also charge This way you will be able to have an idea on which on you should chooseData disaster recovery systems shouldnt be a short term thing Try signing a contract with the expert at a fixed rate in order for you to be sure that the system will work smoothly and if in case something happens the expert will be able to fix any problems at little or no costThese are some of the things that you should remember when you own a business or a company that relies heavily on computers and automation
With data disaster recovery systems you will be able to ensure that your computer data is safe

So if you own a business or a company where everything revolves around computer data and software you may want to get a reliable data disaster recovery systems integrated before its too late Virtual Machine ware Converter can be run on a wide variety of hardware and supports most commonly used versions of the Microsoft Windows operating systems With this robust enterprise class migration tool you can

· Quickly and reliably convert local and remote physical machines into virtual machines without any disruption or downtime
· Complete multiple conversions simultaneously with a centralized management console and an intuitive conversion wizard
· Convert other virtual machine formats such as Microsoft Virtual PC and Microsoft Virtual Server or backup images of physical machines such as Symantec Backup Exec LiveState Recovery or Ghost 9 to VMware virtual machines
· Restore VMware Consolidated Backup VCB images of virtual machines to running virtual machines
· Clone and backup physical machines to virtual machines as part of your disaster recovery plan
· Use the intuitive wizarddriven interface of VMware Converter to convert your physical machines to virtual machines
· VMware Converter quickly converts Microsoft Windows based physical machines and third party image formats to VMware virtual machines
· It also converts virtual machines between VMware platforms Automate and simplify physical to virtual machine conversions as well as conversions between virtual machine formats with VMware Converter

LAPTOP DATA RECOVERY

LAPTOP DATA RECOVERY

Today more important than ever data recovery including laptop data recovery pc data recovery and notebook data recovery has become top priority for everyone since we have more information storing than ever before So how can we protect our important data Read full article and discover how to protect your data no matter what kind of recovery type it is laptop data recovery pc data recovery or notebook data recovery with my data recovery information
So what can happen to your data You may delete accidentally hard disk might get crashed or it could be due to virus attack

Select your data recovery option first depending on data recovery type You have two choices use of a data recovery software or hire a data recovery professional from a reputed data recovery company The difference is software data recovery is much easy and economical but on the other hand data recovery companies will charge you more but provide a good personalized service and also software data recovery often recovers damaged deleted or similar type of files while data recovery company professionals can recover all kinds of files including damaged due to rain fire or all types of physical damaged files

So far the best method is to back up data regularly and use of good well known anti virus software while it s highly recommended to cool down your hard disk as much as possible when it s working Do not remove your hard disk from casing very often and in case of a data loss or boot failure do not panic because data is still there in the disk it will remain as it is as long as that particular particle get replaced by new data So when you know that data is being loss do not work on the pc that might cause data loss permanent Yes of cause you can use data recovery software

Hard drive failure as become order of the day as number of technical user is growing So with the rapid increase in hard drive failure data recovery industry is also growing Right now data recovery is a booming industry Data recovery is an invaluable service which is performed by trained experienced technicians And also data recovery service is tedious process
You use computer with any length of time and because of this a situation arise where the screen goes blank When we reboot a message is flashed No hard drive can be found resulting in blue screen death And mostly likely it happens in the middle of the project which requires urgent attention You hold your breath with fear gone for ever
There are many people who have gone through this situation of hard drive failure They are not aware that data recovery be recovered from such dead hard drive They simply throw their hard drive purchased a new without considering any data recovery experts Yes there are some technical people or data recovery experts who can make our data reappear from such dead hard drive
If you have suffered a hard drive failure then dont hesitate to call the data recovery experts The data recovery experts not only recover the data from dead hard drive but some times they are also able to repair your hard drive So computer users should be thankful to these people who recover their data Choosing right data recovery experts is not a problem as hundred of computer users are going for the data recovery services So there are more companies offering data recovery services All these services are performed by trained technicians under the controlled environment Data recovery experts can be found online by looking for data recovery Service Company They help to retrieve whatever important files have been lost due to hard drive failure
Before performing any operation on the hard drive data recovery experts perform evaluation of the drive According to the data recovery experts analysis of the hard drive is very important as it helps in determining the real problem Because of the stiff competition some data recovery experts perform free analysis of the hard drive Once the analysis of the drive is over and before proceeding for the recovery you will be asked Only after your consent data recovery service will be performed on the drive
It is nice to know that no matter what the cause of the failure these data recovery experts are able to recover your data from such dead hard drive In some cases 100% recovery is also done by these data recovery experts

FOREX DISASTERS

FOREX DISASTERS

Despite the plethora of brokers attempting to persuade you that forex trading is easy it is estimated that 95% of all day traders are losing money The large institutional traders lose money on occasion Usually in much the same way day traders do attempting to recover an initial loss quickly by using a high leverage and speculating heavily Most banks claim the traders concerned were acting on their own without authorization from the bank themselves Unsurprising really if the bank makes money it was authorized if they lose it was the result of rogue traders heads roll metaphorically and everyone moves on except the unlucky trader who may or may not get to spend a few years in prison and become a successful author based on the publicity
Here are few foreign exchange trading disasters that have been in the news over the last few years Far be it for me to suggest that most banks forex losses are quietly covered up and forgotten ☺ These are the ones that were too big to sweep under the rug

National Bank Australia 2004

National Australia Banks investigation in 2004 into unauthorized currency options trading disclosed losses of $360 million Two of the four foreign exchange dealers allegedly responsible pleaded guilty in court after Gianni Gray confessed to three counts of dishonesty Mr Gray who worked for NAB in London had previously been awarded a bonus of $85 000 in 2003 for his part in earning bank profits that were later discovered to be false Luke Duffy the head of the currency options team pleaded guilty to three counts of dishonesty and was sentenced to 29 months jail with a minimum of 16 months after he agreed to cooperate with the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions Mr Duffy handed back his $129 000 performance bonus to the bank prior to sentencing The two traders most heavily involved in the disaster David Bullen and Vincent Ficarra were sentenced to 44 and 28 months jail respectively

Allied Irish Bank 2002

AllFirst Financial a subsidiary of Allied Irish Bank Irelands second largest bank lost US$750 million on foreign currency options trading when its trader John Rusnak systematically falsified bank records and documents to hide losses from speculative trades

Rijecka Bank 2002

Croatias third largest bank lost US$100 million nearly 75% of the banks capital in March 2002 when its currency dealer Eduard Nodilo indulged in unauthorized foreign exchange trading to hide past losses German bank Bayerische Landesbank sold its 59 per cent share in Rijecka Banka to the government for a symbolic price of US$1 shortly afterwards

AgriBank and Incombank Vietnam 2007

Vietnamese government inspectors blamed the central bank for losses incurred by two staterun banks that carried out foreign currency deals with Dutch bank ABN Amro
The inspectorate found that State Bank Governor Le Duc Thuy would take responsibility for major losses suffered by Agribank and Incombank in the course of foreign currency trading
Police last year blamed losses incurred by Incombank on ABN Amro and detained or jailed four of the Dutch banks staff who were only freed after the foreign bank paid $4 5 million
ABN Amro has consistently denied claims that it was to blame for losses incurred by Incombank the Industrial and Commercial Bank Police had also blamed ABN Amro for losses at the Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development Agribank The government inspector said that the SBV had failed to tighten supervision of the interbank foreign currency market and mistakes were not corrected immediately once discovered nor were the staff involved strictly punished

Small Businesses Disaster recovery

Small Businesses Disaster recovery

In this era of automation disaster recovery is gaining increasing significance Since all the business have adopted computer technology and rely on the computers memory to run their businesses any attack on the machine can adversely affect a company s business Disaster recovery is equally important for small businesses that run on laptops and personal computers
Imagine you are on your way to win over a client by showing him an exclusive presentation that you have made for him and the laptop looses the valuable data The consequences can be terrible and entail significant losses for the company Therefore big or small all the businesses must have adequate disaster recovery mechanism in place To ensure the security of all your valuable data seek for professional help You can avail the services of a reputed data recovery expert immediately after automating your systems and procedures Do not wait until a disaster actually occurs because there are chances that you may never be able to recover that data Data recovery services are extremely popular in all the cities and across all business categories hence you will easily find a data recovery expert for your company You can also locate such providers on the Internet and in the yellow pages
Choose the Right Data Recovery Expert Data recovery experts are easily found in all the business spheres The challenge is however to trace the right one from the kitty You can begin the work of finding the best data recovery expert by asking people around Check with your colleagues to find who their data recovery services provider is If you have already short listed some experts the next step is to check their experience in the field Prefer to choose a service provider who has a minimum five years experience in the line Also find out his record of accomplishment for performance

After checking all the necessary details about the service provider personally meet him You have to feel comfortable talking to the service provider otherwise you may have problems sharing highly sensitive information with him Feeling the positive vibes during the meeting is important Find Out the Charges of the Service Provider Do not hesitate in asking the service provider about how much he would charge you for providing various services related to financial management Generally such professionals have a fixed fee if the service provider you are interviewing beats around the bushes while discussing his compensation there are chances that he is a fake or a new entrant in the financial services industry Go for long term contracts with these service providers as the discounts are based on the duration on the contract Check the terms and conditions of the agreement before signing For many businesses and their managers disaster recovery planning never cross their minds businesses carry out their usual day to day activity unaware of what could happen if disaster struck but there are some fundamentals that you should consider The first of which is a disaster recover plan
The disaster recovery plan should describe how your business will cope in the case of an emergency what actions will be undertaken and who will co ordinate them But what things should go into a plan In our checklist below we describe some of the things to consider In today s world businesses are beginning to demand more from their information systems At the same time the outer limit of technology is being stretched to its limit to meet this demand This in turn puts a greater responsibility on the service Organisation with the kind of daunting challenge that it faces A standard reactive service does not solve the situation with solutions that it can present To handle the situation a more pro active approach should be adopted to run mission critical operation in today s heterogeneous client server networks

If enterprise applications are not planned taking into consideration all aspects of data loss this can cripple the enterprise all together A system downtime can cost the enterprise tens of thousands of dollars per minute and considering the days it takes for recovery the loss could be well imagined Selecting implementing and maintaining a data disaster recovery infrastructure is a challenging job If you find that it is making you taking chances there are such services available who are professionally experienced equipped with high availability technology and proven best practices in such disaster management

To understand a recovery process you should first understand your current state find out ways mitigating the risks and last of all make a thorough plan of recovery You should use available tools to audit your infrastructure risks and identify the danger in the process prioritising the system restorations You shall need to make sure that you have with you the experience in the team looking after the aspect of data loss and disaster recovery and building up test procedures for various disaster scenarios The strategy of data or disaster recovery should be where all such disasters are withstood with a well chalked out plan Such recovery operations are generally transferred to a remote service centre or a facility to have the enterprise back on the rail within the recovery time objective and the objective targets

For quite some years professionals in Information and Technology took disaster recovery to be the simple data recovery process of data files in case of a computer or disk failure Things are different today with increasing complexity in data handling and management data losses are termed as disasters to any enterprise functioning Today s concept demands the constant availability of the complex data and the notion of the data being made available within a short period of time if there should be that unfortunate data loss or disaster

Disaster is not just a serious loss of data a dead hard drive or a power loss through human error or through malicious software Instead a disaster could mean complete loss of communication through out the network including serious data losses through out the enterprise To handle such situations disaster recovery mandates are necessary that insist on instant recovery

The impact on user is an important factor when the implementation of high reliability disaster recovery system is being considered and implemented In the event of the initiation of a recovery process the user should continue to be connected to data as the disaster recovery process takes over The process of disaster recovery should be totally transparent to the user This is mostly with the instance when the source and the location of the data changes take place when the data disaster recovery process is in process Therefore user functions should go on uninterrupted and such should be for both the internal and external users for example the users who are accessing the web servers or your VPN servers The user function should be a continued process without having to shut down and restart the system

There are some basic requirements needed to be considered while you are planning and designing data recovery procedures for your site The general guidelines of these requirements include the following You need to make sure that the sites have top level of support from the hardware and software vendors For any mission critical applications it is mandatory to use uninterrupted power supply

You need to set up a system more appropriately a monitoring tool to proactively detect problems Your monitoring tool should be capable of event monitoring and problem reporting may be by sending a message to the email inbox of your DBA Additionally the tool needs to monitor space usage and other crucial aspects of data storage in a proactive manner Internet connectivity to your site is a necessity for in case of problems your hardware software vendors or any disaster recovery service agency can remotely access your site and take necessary actions to monitor diagnose and repair the fault Each of your production sites should have the right hardware protection system This may include a hard disk mirroring device implementation of a back up and recovery plan and stocking of enough spare parts to service your hardware when necessary RAID Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks may be one way to make continuous availability of your data building up the capability of fault tolerance implementation However the reliability of this fault tolerance and improvement of data reliability will depend upon the RAID level used Your production site must be kept in such an environment which is hazard free and an environmental audit is done from time to time If you have very large database VLDB you should preferably maintain a test bed and part of the data should be held in the test bed system This would be required when you are performing on site testing and migration planning for future database expansions
Operation logs are ideal for such sites where any kind of physical design operational environmental or scheduled task is logged each time they are performed

1 Analyze your business
What systems can be down for what period of time before serious consequences occur For example if your ERP system goes down and you can t process sales what s the impact With a subjective view you ll probably find that you can manage without some systems for a while perhaps upto a week with other s you ll need them back up again as soon as possible Develop some computer failure procedures to manage your key business activity when IT is unavailable make sure that copies of these processes are included in the plan
2 Identify possible risks
Examples of risks to your business include the loss of IT systems loss of buildings or plant machinery etc Detail some mitigation in your recovery plan For example if you don t have access to your office in the event of a disaster is there other business premises temporary accommodation that you can use If so list appropriate telephone numbers as part of the plan
3 Recovery team
Put together a recovery team with clear lines of authorization who are responsible for co ordinating activity in case of disaster They should be responsible for maintaining your disaster recovery plan and meet on a regular basis to ensure that the plan is still relevant and accurate
4 Backup your IT systems
Ensure that you backup your IT systems at suitably regular intervals and test the recovery process Make sure that any backup tapes CD s are stored off site or in a fire proof safe Make sure the recovery process is documented in your Disaster recovery plan
5 Inventory your key equipment
Keep an inventory of crucial capital equipment and machinery so that it s easily identified and replaceable if needs arise Keep a record of suitable suppliers and contact numbers so that you can use them in an emergency

Backup strategy

Backup strategy

Before you slap a tape into a drive to backup an Exchange server you need to understand the physical file structure of an Exchange storage group and how Exchange manages data in these files Each storage group consists of two files EDB and STM
The STM file is a temporary storage point for SMTP mail that stores Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions MIME content Once an email has been accessed by a MAPI client such as Outlook the content is stored in the EDB file In addition to these two file types Exchange uses log files as an intermediate step in the writetodatabase process These logs files help ensure data consistency integrity and performance The log files are a critical component in the restoration process In fact it is only after a normal backup using an Exchangeaware backup client that these log files are deleted One important item to note is that while Exchange supports circular logging do not use this feature in a production environment because of the possibility of data being overwritten Also remember that the System State needs to be backed up to facilitate the recovery process in the event of complete system failure You will also have to backup the IIS metabase if your organization uses Outlook Web Access While there are many Exchangeaware backup clients including NTBackup which is a solid tool for smaller shops the task of developing a backup strategy is the same regardless of the tool
The three backup choices are full incremental and differential A full backup is the best option to choose if you have the storage space and a sufficiently large enough backup window to complete the task A restoration from a full backup is straightforward It is also the fastest method of restoring your Exchange environment in the event of problems An incremental backup archives the data that changed since the last incremental backup This is the fastest backup method You should use this method if you have a short backup window and are comfortable handling the additional complexity of a restoration In the event of a system failure you will need to have the last full backup and every incremental backup since A differential backup represents a tradeoff between a full and an incremental backup As it will archive all data that has changed since the last full backup it does not provide the fastest backup method A restore will only require the last full backup and the last differential backup While the process of backing up Exchange is straightforward data recovery is not The biggest challenge in recovery is recovering individual items or mailboxes This is called bricklevel backup and restoration Unfortunately this is one of Exchanges biggest drawbacks The API approach developed by Microsoft provides only for backup up at the database level While many products allow bricklevel backups be aware that performance will be dramatically slower when performing such a backup Perhaps more importantly bricklevel backups should not be considered foolproof as they often have difficulty with open items as well as thirdparty Exchange addins Fortunately Exchange 2003 makes the bricklevel restoration easier than in earlier versions

SERVER DISASTER

SERVER DISASTER

After long hard experience in losing valuable data has I have identified the 7 most important features you need from a data back up server These are

· Backup Servers are usually for business that have 5 or more computers
· Can run on every day computer equipment
· Must backup Mac Windows Linux and Unix server and workstations
· Easy to use interface to administer and to restore files and data
· Robust stable and reliable
· Must be able to backup every computer every day
· Must grow with your business
· Must use removable and inexpensive disk drive to store offsite
· There are many backup solutions out there but if they dont do all the above you are running the risk of losing data or spending more time than you want to managing you backups
· The worst feeling of all is restoring from a backup only to realise that you have not flagged that particular file to be backed up The only solution is to backup every file every day and keep this archive for as long as you need

When you are running business its vital that you have a copy of all your computers basic installations If a computer fails it can take up to a week to re install the operating system and all the software Its just easier The other reason is you never really know which file you are going to need If you use selective backup schemes it you always run the risk of leaving out something vital Plus you cant control where you staff will put vital files no matter how often you tell them

Must Backup Different Types of Computers

Most businesses have a number of different computers to meet their requirements Macs are often used by your creative team you may have Unix Linux and Windows servers for you operations or specialist applications and PCs for general clerical and finance You have to be able to back up every computer you own
Use standard PC Hardware
Your backup server must run using standard PC hardware Only large corporates can afford specialist hardware to manage backups If you backup server is made from a PC you can get a your local computer shop then the cost is lower and it is easy to fix
Must be Robust And Reliable
You backup system must operate 24 7 and be very reliable The last thing you need to have to restart you backup server every other day or have it fail

Easy To use Interface
You need an easy to use interace to administer the system Users should be able to go to the bakup server and download the files they need Automatic backups and email notifications are also essential
Backup your Backup
Backup server must have a removable hard disk system to store your backup off site The backup server with smart backup software can keep 6 months backups for you whole company on a single 320 gb hard disk
Alternatively you can backup the back to an online storage area This depends on the cost of storage
Must Grow with your Business
As your business grows So does your information Its more like data explosion If your backup system can grow with your business then you elimate the cost of pruchasing another system to handle the load You just expand you existing one
Backup Systems That Meet this Criteria
A backup system that can backup every computer you own Macs PCs Windows Linux and Unix servers Everything is automatically backed up every day so you dont have to worry about trying to figure out which files to save This is the ultimate small business backup solution and will grow with your company from 5 to 250 PCs By using a clever technique only files that changed get backed up All the other files are kept as a virtual copy for that day The software runs on a deadicated server PC that you can buy from your local Computer shop The server shown is for small businesses The software will also run on rack mounted servers for larger organizations

DriveImage XML Backup your whole PC for Disaster Recovery

DriveImage XML is an easy to use and reliable program for imaging and backing up partitions and logical drives
The program allows you to
· Backup logical drives and partitions to image files
· Browse these images view and extract files
· Restore these images to the same or a different drive
· Copy directly from drive to drive
· Schedule automatic backups with your Task Scheduler

Image creation uses Microsofts Volume Shadow Services VSS allowing you to create safe hot images even from drives currently in use
Images are stored in XML files allowing you to process them with 3rd party tools Never again be stuck with a useless backup
Restore images to drives without having to reboot
DriveImage XML runs under Windows XP Home XP Professional and Windows Server 2003 only The program will backup image and restore drives formatted with FAT 12 16 32 and NTFS

Exchange Server 2003 Backup and Recovery

Email storage is more than a convenience issue for users as organizations need to comply with myriad legal and security considerations Fortunately for organizations that have moved to Exchange 2003 Microsoft has stepped up to the plate and added features and enhancements that help with the daytoday problems IT managers face
However even with the latest technology it is important to remember to document document and document all procedures processes and daily activities Exchange administration can be difficult Daily routines are often filled with problems that need fixing and users who need help Urgent tasks overwhelm important tasks Lowurgency chores such as documenting procedures making sure users know what is expected of them and planning for problems never make it to the front burner
However the increasing complexity of Exchange environments means we can no longer afford to put off important tasks Our lives end up being a whole lot simpler if everyone knows what to do and what is expected of them
This article covers the areas you need to document to help make your life simpler as well as meet legal and security requirements Youll also learn about the tools that will keep data safe and if something goes wrong you are in a position to recover the data
Best Practices Policies and Procedures
Successful Exchange management is more than getting through the day without annoying users The best approach to email administration is to look at the big picture and start managing email systems actively As mentioned previously the bigpicture approach requires documentation of policies and procedures which many Exchange Administrators overlook
The process of documentation formalizes and standardizes how IT departments are supposed to do their jobs This in turn helps reduce downtime and errors It also helps when problems occur as formalization and standardization reduce the unknowns when troubleshooting The process of developing and implementing policies that affect an Exchange environments operation as well as how people use the system will involve many people beyond the messaging group For example defer security and legal requirements to the legal department and senior executives
Your role in these matters is to advise on the technology required to meet legal and security requirements and monitor enforcement For mundane matters such as email storage limits attachment sizes and public folder creation it is your responsibility to define limits based on your infrastructure As always prepare to deal with exceptions Exceptions should always be well documented and understood as they often prove to be the source of problems
Creating procedures is a very different process and is one for which the Exchange team is solely responsible Procedures define the tasks we do and how we carry them out Typically Exchange related procedures can be grouped into four categories Backup and restoration Monitoring and analysis System administration and Change and configuration management We cover backup and restore in a later section because of its importance If all else fails and you have a welldocumented and tested backup and restoration procedure users will spare their wrath
The purpose of monitoring and analysis is to measure and understand your hardware and software systems Monitoring and analysis are central to maintaining a healthy system and preparing you for future changes For example without the hard numbers provided by monitoring and analysis it becomes difficult to justify spending money on new hardware or hiring another administrator A historical record helps you understand your hardware and software and what is normal behavior This of course allows you to spot signs of trouble as they occur rather than waiting until users complain or systems crash
Monitoring and analysis can be divided further into performance monitoring and availability management Performance monitoring covers all of the fundamental measurements required to know how your system is performing and identify when there might be a problem Examples of counters to measure in Performance monitor include CPU utilization memory usage pages per second average disk queue length and message queue length This information allows you to identify bottlenecks and pinpoint trends Availability management is about maximizing system up time and is tied closely to performance monitoring Availability reliability and timetorepair are the key measurements to track
System Administration procedures are tasks completed regularly Regardless of the tasks frequency the goal is to document the procedure so every administrator understands what needs to be done and how it should be done Daily tasks include reviewing event logs checking that backups completed adding or deleting users and reviewing alerts generated by performance monitor Less frequent tasks include security reviews testing backups monitoring tape rotation and database maintenance Because many system administration tasks are repetitive one of your goals should be to automate as many of them as possible This will help reduce errors and increase your availability to handle unexpected problems A key part of good system administration involves understanding the tools that you have at your disposal and how and when they should be used Change management involves documenting and monitoring how and when changes are made to your Exchange environment This includes research review and rollback plans The goal of successful change management is to modify your Exchange environment without impacting users during or after the change Changes are usually measured by their scope and potential impact High Impact is defined typically as a companywide impact and may require input from colleagues outside the messaging team An example is a migration from Exchange 5 5 to Exchange 2003
Medium impact changes affect one or more of the critical systems within the messaging environment A great example of this is the patching and update process
Lowimpact changes are modifications in policies and settings that do not have any significant impact on your environment Configuration management is tied to change management and is the process of maintaining records on software and hardware systems Much of the information gathered as part of this process is critical if you are subject to an audit such as financial legal or security
Data Backup and Recovery
Fortunately many vendors want to tackle the problems we face Recent thirdparty software enhancements include software that allows for improved pattern recognition for searching email and improved auditing capabilities to show that data has been accessed by authorized personnel only Several Exchange backup vendors tackle the issue of granular recovery in a most effective method These tools will allow you to mount backups and restore to live Exchange environments without interruption to service
On the hardware side some vendors advocate diskbased backup solutions Tape has many disadvantages The biggest of course is restoration speed With the price of Networked Attached Storage NAS and Storage Attached Networks SAN coming down these solutions become very attractive as a mediumterm storage solution When incorporated into your environment correctly disk storage is cost effective and provides multiple layers of redundancy
Some vendors provide blocklevel backup tied to policy implementations that prevent data from being deleted in contravention of company policies When tied with the ability to create secure audit trails these solutions provide a comprehensive solution to regulatory compliance However it is unlikely that tape will disappear because it still plays an important role for longterm storage Moreover unless you are backing up over a WAN tape offers a good method of getting oodles of data off site This of course is necessary for any adequate disaster recovery plan
The downside to many spinning spindles is cost Some organizations dont have the budget to replace hardware that seems to work properly by outward appearance Unfortunately most of us wont have the funding we want for the latest technology so it is important not to overlook the fundamentals Regardless of the tools you use the procedures you follow and the standards you set that are more important than technology In fact the fundamentals of any wellrun Exchange environment are universal