What is Data Loss?
A data loss situation is usually characterized by one (or more)
of the following:
- The sudden inability to access any data from a previously
functioning computer system or backup
- The accidental erasing of data or overwriting of data
control structures.
- Data corruption or inaccessibility due to physical media
damage or operating system problems.
Data loss can be caused by physical damage or "soft"
(logical) problems. For example:
- A personal user can no longer access the "C:" drive on
their PC or no longer read a floppy disk.
- A corporate data server has crashed and no longer serves
data to the corporate network.
- A set of medical images backed up on a digital tape
cartridge can no longer be restored.
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Physical Causes of Data Loss
Approximately 70% of data loss cases processed by Iomega
Data Recovery Services are caused by physical problems.
Occasionally, manufacturing defects or design flaws can cause
mechanical or electronic failures. Most physical problems
can be traced to other root causes.
Physical problems include mechanical failures due to:
- Shock from device being bumped, dropped or moved while
operating, causing a head crash or platter misalignment.
- Device exposed to extreme cold temperatures and/or rapid
temperature change prior to use; for example, powering
up a notebook after being in a freezing car overnight.
- Disasters such as flood, fire (including sprinkler-water
secondary damage) and explosion.
- Stiction: The read-write head assembly gets "stuck" on
the disk media due to deterioration of the lubricant or
because it has failed to retract to its rest (parked)position.
Physical problems also include failure of electronic
components on the drive's controller board due to:
- Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) or heat.
- Power loss or power surge.
Physical problems affecting the computer equipment may
also render data inaccessible,even though the media (that
it is stored on) still functions perfectly:
- Sudden power loss may corrupt open database files.
- Computer memory glitches may result in bad data being
written to sensitive filesystem control areas.
"Soft" Causes of Data Loss
"Soft" causes in this context means non-physical causes.
These are also referred to as "logical" causes. Soft problems
can usually be related back to something that someone did
or did not do - in other words, "human error."
- Accidentally deleting files or reformatting the system.
- A tape containing a good backup was partially overwritten
because it was inserted out of sequence during a tape rotation.
- "Failed restore." Restoring from a backup can be a lengthy
and error-prone process. This can include tape format or
compression errors.
- Emailed and disk-based computer viruses.
- Configuration errors due to the complexity of the system.
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