Throwing Out an Old Hard Drive? Here’s How to Protect Your Data

This week, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) discovered records indicating that Morgan Stanley Wealth Management failed to secure the data of 42 servers, potentially risking the private data of 15 million customers. Morgan Stanley allegedly stored data without ...
September 21, 2022

Please Don’t Pry Open Your Hard Drive (Unless You Don’t Need the Data)

At Datarecovery.com, we support consumers’ right to repair their own devices. If you pay $1,000 for a smartphone, you should have the option of repairing a broken screen or a busted USB-C port on your own. Generally speaking, manufacturers shouldn’t...
July 28, 2022

Do “File Shredder” Programs Really Work?

You’ve got sensitive data that you want to destroy, and you want to be extremely thorough. You want to make sure that no one — not even Datarecovery.com’s engineering team — can restore the target files. What do you do?...
July 19, 2022

Can Hot Summer Temperatures Damage Your Hard Drive?

Hard drives are designed to work in a wide range of environments, and a sudden heat wave probably won’t cause your drive to crash. However, there’s certainly a difference between a potential and an optimal operating environment. Over time, extreme...
July 1, 2022

What Is a BIOHD-8 Hard Drive Error?

A BIOHD-8 error code indicates a failing storage device — most commonly, a hard drive, though solid-state drives (SSDs) may also present this issue under certain circumstances. The error occurs on HP laptops and desktops during the boot process. Below,...
June 29, 2022

What Is HP’s SMART Hard Disk Error 301?

SMART hard disk error 301 indicates a failing hard drive or an overheated laptop. Here’s what you need to know to address this common issue.
June 13, 2022

Microwave-Assisted Magnetic Recording: A Brief Guide

Microwave-assisted magnetic recording (MAMR) is a new technique for increasing the areal density of hard drives, which allows for substantial improvements in data storage capacity. In this article, we’ll provide a basic overview of the technology — and the potential...
June 9, 2022

Hard Drive Storage Capacities May Increase to 30TB in 2023

Japanese manufacturer Showa Denko has announced the shipment of 3.5-inch hard disk media with a storage capacity of 2.6 terabytes (TB) per platter — potentially allowing for hard drive capacities of 30TB or more by late 2023.  The Showa Denko...
June 2, 2022

What Is Shingled Magnetic Recording for Hard Drives?

Shingled magnetic recording (often abbreviated as SMR) is a technique used to increase the areal density of a hard drive, allowing manufacturers to store more data on each square inch of the discs (or platters).  The word “shingled” provides a...
May 26, 2022

Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording: The Future of Hard Drive Technology?

Heat-assisted magnetic recording (HMAR) has been touted as the next great technology for increasing hard drive capacities without reducing other key performance metrics. How does HAMR work — and does it offer clear advantages over current tech? First, a quick...
May 19, 2022