Local data recovery

[Matt_Sim]

No matter how often you tell users to take the appropriate measures to back up their data, there's always going to be a few that lose data.
It's not entirely uncommon to have staff come to me saying files they were working on have "disappeared". To which I reply files do not just disappear, but some users are quite insistent on the matter.

Now I'm curious what other JAMFnation users do in such situations, I tend to have a quick look over their drive for them to see if I am able to find the files, and when fruitless use it as a lesson to users for saving their files on the network storage available.

[calumhunter]

backup backup backup

I don't even bother trying to recover anything, unless its the ceo or something in which case it would be sent to a forensic data recovery company.

Think of it like this, 15-20 years ago if you lost an important document that you didn't have a photocopy of, whose fault or responsibility is it?

A student that lost their school work book on the bus, would they expect you to be able to rewrite their workbook?

Technology is great and allows us to do great things, but personal responsibility for data still rests on the individual. Sometimes the only way people learn this, is the hard way.

[davidacland]

I really believe in the users taking accountability for their data. They know that files get corrupted, drives fail, laptops get stolen etc. They should make sure they are able to continue working if and when it happens. IMHO though!

[GabeShack]

We will usually show faculty how to backup to their network share.

If really a dire situation, I will scan with our licensed copy of Data Rescue 4. If that proves fruitless, I will usually let them know that (they should have backed up) but I also had done work with a Data Recovery company and was happy to refer to them, however prices usually start around $1000 for full recovery.

The company I recommend deals mainly with Macintosh data recovery hence their name macintoshdatarecovery.com.

They will only charge a customer if they can actually recover data. No charge if they can't.

Gabe Shackney
Princeton Public Schools

[AVmcclint]

"files do not just disappear" I used to feel the same way until I started seeing it for myself on our Windows servers. For some unknown reason, the Windows servers may mark folders or files as the Windows attribute "Hidden". It happens a LOT but we still don't know why. You can still the files if you are on a Windows machine and have your Explorer view set to display hidden files, or you can also use Terminal on your Mac to navigate to the location on the server and when you ls -la, you'll see them there. So far the only way I've been able to make them visible again is to change the attribute on the server via a Windows PC.