One-Stop Data Destruction and Recovery Service

Historical report archive — source identified on this page: PC3 Corporate, 2008; site date: 2 January 2015. Percentages, manufacturer relationships, equipment, charges and processing times describe the historical report, not current service guarantees. Its degaussing and destruction statements must not be read as guarantees for every type of storage medium. Old contact details are retained as archival text.

Current information: data recovery services · data erasure services · data recovery charges · Hong Kong contact · +852 2117 9706.

★ One-Stop Data Destruction and Recovery Service

When your system crashes and the data on your computer is lost for one reason or another, do you panic? In most cases, data that cannot be found has not really been lost or destroyed; experiments and experience show that in 80% of cases the data can be restored. Handled by professionals, such data can be recovered, sometimes even in full. What matters most at this point is to protect the disk from any further non-professional handling, so as to give the data the best possible chance of recovery. Vector Data Recovery (HK) Company Limited (hereafter “Vector Data”) was founded in Korea in 1992 by Korea’s Vector Group. It has eight branch companies and the largest dust-free environment for data recovery services, and its branches extend across Asia, including Japan, Malaysia, India, Thailand, Russia and China. Its branches in the China region are located in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. It is also the data recovery centre designated in China by the hard disk manufacturer Western Digital. Benjamin Wong, General Manager of Vector Data, says that thanks to its data recovery technology and experience, its data recovery success rate is over 70%.

In March 2003, a computer hard disk from Wan Chai Police Station in Hong Kong containing confidential police information such as search warrants and statements found its way onto the second-hand market, and Wan Chai Police Station publicly apologised to the people of Hong Kong. The Police Public Relations Branch of the Hong Kong Police said the leak of the hard disk data might have happened because someone restored deleted files, or because police officers discarded the hard disk without processing it at all – a serious lapse that led to the leak of confidential information.

Official website: www.vector.hk
Enquiry hotline: 2177 9706
Company name: Vector Data Recovery (HK) Company Limited
Benjamin Wong, General Manager of Vector Data Recovery (HK) Company Limited, says that thanks to its data recovery technology and experience, its data recovery success rate is over 70%.

Solution

1. To strengthen the fault tolerance of hard disk data, technology companies have tried every possible way to improve hardware and software technology so that enterprise data can be preserved continuously. The best known of these solutions is RAID fault-tolerance technology, commonly in RAID 0, 1, 5 and 6 modes. The great irony, however, is that the enterprise servers that most often run into problems are mainly RAID-based, and when a failure occurs it usually involves two or more hard disks, so even with RAID 5/6 protection you may find it of no use. With hard disk data stored in RAID 5/6 mode, the data is spread across different areas – a complete video clip, for example, may span several hard disks – so reassembling the data cannot be done by considering one disk alone: several hard disks have to be considered together, and it cannot be done with conventional recovery software designed for single hard disks.
2. Today’s methods of destroying data fall mainly into two categories, software and hardware. Software destruction methods usually allow the hard disk to be reused, but is it 100% certain that no one can ever find out what data was on it? We believe that many data recovery companies could not guarantee that. Large enterprises, government departments and financial institutions are certainly stricter than SMEs in how they handle data; the best way to destroy data completely is surely to destroy the hard disk itself – but is there an industry standard for the method of destruction?

Scope of data recovery services
When stored data cannot be read, or data is lost through an accident or other causes, a data recovery service can restore some or all of it. Vector Data’s services cover hard disk drives, floppy disks, magnetic tapes, ZIP, MO and all kinds of memory cards. Benjamin Wong says the recovery process mainly involves piecing together and reorganising the data that remains on the storage medium; even if the data has been erased or the hard disk drive has failed, as long as the storage medium is not severely damaged, the data can still be recovered intact. Where data has been lost through formatting, accidental deletion or a virus, most of it can still be recovered, because only the links between the data have been lost; once the links of the data areas are restored, the data can be recovered again. Where data cannot be read because of a hard disk hardware problem, repairing the disk and replacing the failed parts in a dust-free environment gives a chance of recovering the data. However, because there are so many models of storage media, and each brand or model uses different parts, Vector Data maintains a parts library for hard disks, stocking parts for most media to support its data recovery service.

Fact file: What is the data recovery procedure?https://www.vector.hk/recovery_procedure.html (historical URL) · Current data recovery service process

1. On receiving a medium that needs rescuing from a customer, Vector Data immediately makes a preliminary assessment, and later provides a preliminary damage report, a quotation and an estimated repair time.
2. Once the company has completed its analysis and obtained the customer’s authorisation, it immediately begins the rescue and repair work. It first makes a copy of the medium; work is always done on the copy, ensuring that the original is never modified and that all media remain safe.
3. Once the data has been recovered, the ideal approach is to put the data back on the medium and return them together. However, some media can no longer be used – for example, those with many bad sectors – so at the customer’s request the company will burn the data onto disc (if the amount of data is small), or the customer can bring their own hard disk to take the data away.

Repair precautions and charging principles
Benjamin Wong also says that if customers find a problem with their hard disk, they should shut it down immediately and send it for inspection, because strange noises can have many causes and may damage the disk; customers are therefore advised not to switch the power on again, so that the platters are not scratched, which would make the data unrecoverable. Once the disk arrives at the repair centre, they will give a further quotation according to the particular damage to the hard disk. For example, ordinary software problems cost relatively little, but if the device has to be opened in the clean room and parts replaced, the fee will rise – though it will not exceed a preset ceiling.

If a media device has previously been repaired by another data recovery company, a special surcharge applies. Mr Wong explains that this is because they have no way of knowing what methods the other company used for data recovery, so they need more time for analysis; and if some of the device’s parts have already been replaced by another company, their work becomes more difficult and takes longer, so they generally need to charge a surcharge.

Can data be recovered 100%?
No technique or technology, however sophisticated, can offer a 100% “cast-iron guarantee”. Benjamin Wong points out that whether data can be recovered depends mainly on the circumstances: if a customer’s hard disk has too many Bad Sectors, and half or more of a file is stored in Bad Sector locations, that file may become unreadable. In general, if there are not very many Bad Sectors, most of the data can be recovered. The technicians carrying out the data recovery first make a one-to-one copy of the hard disk (Cloning), to avoid further damaging the disk by working on the original. If the data is confirmed to be recoverable and the amount is relatively small, they will burn it onto CD/DVD; if there is more data, the customer needs to provide a hard disk for the data to be copied onto.

Hard disk data destruction service
Since the celebrity indecent-photo scandal, people have paid more attention to how data is kept secure, and companies and government departments are concerned about whether sensitive and confidential data might fall into the hands of criminals when computer hard disks are disposed of. How to make sure that, even if a computer falls into someone else’s hands, they cannot obtain the data on it is also an issue that companies have started to take seriously. If a company needs to dispose of hard disks containing sensitive data, the data must be destroyed first; yet after ordinary formatting, or even after the hard disk has been physically damaged, a professional data recovery company may still be able to read the data on it. The safest way to destroy data is to use a degausser. The principle is that the degausser generates a powerful magnetic field that completely destroys the magnetic signals on the hard disk platters, permanently erasing all data on the disk.

Vector Data provides a hard disk degaussing service using degaussers from Garner of the United States, whose products are widely used by US government departments; it takes only a few minutes to destroy the data completely. When the process is complete, they issue a document certifying that the hard disk has been through the degaussing procedure, guaranteeing that the data cannot be recovered or restored by any method. Vector Data is also an agent for Garner degaussers, and can alternatively provide an on-site degaussing service.

The HD-1 is a professional degausser that can degauss many kinds of storage media, including all types of hard disks, DLT I-IV tapes, AIT, Beta SP, Beta SX, Digital BetaCam, D1-D5, 3590 and 3490.

Fact file: What is data destruction?
A data destruction service essentially helps you completely remove data that has been stored, so that you can dispose of devices with peace of mind. Ordinary formatting or delete commands cannot remove data completely, and a professional data recovery company may be able to restore it, so you need a data destruction service.

Industries suited to destruction services
Devices whose data can be destroyed include hard disks, tapes and all kinds of memory. Degaussing services are generally suitable for companies that need data destroyed, especially where hard disks have stored sensitive data, where a computer upgrade means large numbers of old hard disks must be disposed of, or where a faulty hard disk will not start but the data on it needs to be deleted. They are usually particularly suitable for old hard disks from sensitive sectors such as banking, hospitals, accounting, law and the disciplined services.

The time required can be long or short
Can a storage device still be used after its data has been destroyed? Benjamin Wong explains that this depends mainly on the type of device and the destruction procedure. Data destruction procedures are either software- or hardware-based. The software procedure mainly overwrites the device with data so that the original data cannot be restored; with this approach the device can continue to be used, but the drawback is that processing takes relatively long. The hardware method uses a degausser to completely destroy the magnetic signals on the device; a degaussed hard disk can no longer be used, although some tapes can still be used after degaussing. Degaussing is relatively quick, generally taking 1-2 minutes, and is better suited to customers who need to dispose of large numbers of devices.

https://www.vector.hk/products_garner.html

Comment: A one-stop service
In a traditional office, shredders are a common sight; in senior executives’ offices especially, a shredder is almost an essential item. But in a digital, paperless office, how should sensitive and confidential data be destroyed? Many people think that thoroughly deleting files, or formatting the hard disk, is enough, but this is not the case: to prevent the loss of confidential company data, a data destruction service is the only way. Vector Data’s services range from repairing damaged Outlook mail files to complex jobs such as recovering data on hard disk RAID arrays, providing companies with a comprehensive one-stop service.

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