You’ve decided to use RAID, but you’re not sure why RAID 5 is the most popular choice for home users and small businesses. Isn’t RAID 6 better? RAID 6 offers a higher level of fault tolerance than RAID 5 because...

While RAID 6 offers higher fault tolerance than RAID 5, its error correction system creates unique challenges when multiple drives fail or a controller malfunction occurs. Successful data recovery requires correct identification of the parity rotation and the exact point...

You need to recover files from a hard drive, solid-state drive (SSD), USB stick, RAID array, or some other type of storage device — but you’re not sure what to do next. Logically, you know that you’ll need to work...

A drive showing its full capacity as Unallocated Space despite containing files moments before indicates a failure of the partition table or file system metadata.  Your data remains physically present on the media, but the operating system has lost the...

In the process of a data recovery evaluation, you might hear that your device has stiction.  Stiction occurs when the read/write heads of a storage device become physically stuck to the data storage media. That prevents it from reading or...

Recovering files from a failed LTO-9 tape involves identifying the specific failure mode and using forensic imaging techniques to extract the raw data bitstreams. In this guide, we will cover common LTO-9 failure scenarios, the technical challenges of the format,...

Ransomware enters a network through specific entry points known as attack vectors. Phishing, Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) exploits, and software vulnerabilities are the most frequent culprits.  In this guide, we’ll explore five attack vectors, along with defense tactics to limit...

A failing pre-amplifier (pre-amp) can cause one of the most famous hard drive failure symptoms: the dreaded click of death. However, a clicking sound can indicate a number of different failures, and pre-amp issues — like many hard disk drive...

Network latency spikes in Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) sessions often serve as a precursor to ransomware deployment.  When bad actors gain access to a network, they typically perform internal reconnaissance, move laterally between systems, and exfiltrate sensitive data before the...

According to the 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report from Verizon, ransomware was present in 44% of all analyzed breaches over the past year — a sharp increase from 32% in 2024.  When an infection occurs, the first step is to...