This question comes about quite frequently in our field.  Data recovery or data recovery services are primarly used by the the general computer industry but with technology expanding into every area of our lives we find hard disk drives are being used to maximize storage in many other components.

The DVR or TIVO’s do have hard disk drives and Disaster Recovery Group does receive these units in to have data recovery performed.  The manner that the data recovery is performed is very similair as to a computer hard disk data recovery with one exception.  There are no DVD’s burned since the files within that system is proprietary to the device.  When our data recovery experts receive TIVO or DVR hard drives we will extract the data and replicate that recovered data onto a replacement hard disk drive.  The hard disk engineers know that many users have special memories or programming on their digital recorders and they are relieved to know that the data recovery process is identical as to when we perform a computer hard disk recovery with any other business or personal data.  You data is ALL that Matters!

Hard disk drives or personal computer storage devices are within a very competitive market.  Technological jumps in hard drive manufacturing processes along with constant price drops allowed some hard drive companies to prosper while other hard disk companies started to falter and became targets for overtaking, merges or left to bankruptcy.  Below is a list of the current and some now defunct manufacturers and shows the volitility of the hard disk drive industry.

Atasi Corp.: Bankrupt

Areal Technology: Acquired by Tomen Corp http://www.tomen-ele.co.jp/

Cogito Systems: Bankrupt

CMI Computer Memories Inc.: Stopped production of hard disk drives

Conner Peripherals: In 1996 merged with Seagate Technologies http://www.seagate.com/

Conner Technologies: In 2001 merged with ExcelStor http://www.excelstor.com

CDC Control Data/Imprimis: In 1989 Seagate purchased their hard disk drive division

DEC Digital Equipment Corporation: In 1994 Quantum purchased their hard disk drive division

Epson: Stopped Production of Hard Disk Drives

ExcelStor: Still Manufacturing personal storage Hard Disk Drives http://www.excelstor.com

Fujitsu: Still Manufacturing personal storage Hard Disk Drives http://www.fujitsu.com/us/

Hitachi: Still Manufacturing personal storage Hard Disk Drives http://www.hitachi.us/

IBM: In 2002 Hitachi purchased their Hard Disk drive division

IMI International Memories: Stopped Production of Hard Disk Drives

Integral Peripherals: Bankrupt

Iomega: Now a media manufacturer http://www.iomega.com

JT Storage: Bankrupt

JVC: Stopped production of Hard Disk Drives

Kalok: Bankrupt

Kyocera: Stopped production of Hard Disk Drives

LaPine Technologies: In 1984 started venture with Kyocera, Kyocera backed out

Maxtor Corp.: In 2006 was acquired by Seagate Technologies http://www.seagate.com/

Micropolis Corp.: Bankrupt

Microscience Intl.: Bankrupt

MiniScribe: Acquired in 1990 by Maxtor Corp

Ministor: Bankrupt

Mitsubishi: Stopped Production of Hard Disk Drives

NEC: Stopped Production of Hard Disk Drives

PrairieTek: Bankrupt

Priam Systems: In 1991 Prima Intl. Purchased the Hard Disk Line

Quantum Corporation: In 2000 Maxtor Corp, purchased their Hard Disk Drive division

Rahm Rotationals: Merged in 1994 with Tamir Technology and in 1995 Purchased by Quantum

Rodime: Renamed Sportech PLC

Samsung: Still Manufacturing personal storage Hard Disk Drives http://www.samsung.com/us/

Seagate Technologies: Still Manufacturing personal storage Hard Disk Drives http://www.seagate.com

Syquest: Bankrupt

Tandon: Acquired in 1988 by Western Digital Corp. http://www.wdc.com/

Texas Instruments: Stopped Hard Disk Drive Prodution

Toshiba: Still Manufacturing personal storage Hard Disk Drives http://www.toshibastorage.com

Tulin Corp.: Bankrupt

WDC Western Digital Corp.: Still manufacturing Personal storage Hard Disk Drives http://www.wdc.com

A hard disk drive is bound to fail irregardless to any preventative measures taken by the user.  The hard disk drive generates heat while in use and the volatility within the hard disk drive cavity ensures that failures will certainly occur within a few components.  Hard disk drive manufacturers have reduced the amount of failures dramatically by the technological leaps and bounds of current manufacturing processes.  They place a MTBF (Mean Time Before Failure) on each drive based on the testing of their product.  The MTBF will represent the average failure rate for the computers hard disk drive usually in hours.  Most MTBF rates from hard disk drive manufacturers are listed or ranged from a few hundred thousand (100,000+) hours to over one million (1,000,000+) hours of usage before a failure occurs.

Disaster Recovery Group engineers do not take the manufacturers MTBF too seriously as the numbers calculated with 100,000 hours MTBF would be approximately 11 years and at 1,000,000 hours of usage is over 114 years of constant use!  The average failure times vary for these electro-mechanical devices and under normal usage most drives will last between 3 ~ 8 years.  The average designed lifespan for a hard drive is typically 5 years. That time table may be extended slightly with common IT remedies and a full helping of luck.

Keep drives cool:  Computer cases have been designed to maximize airflow over a hard drive and other key system components.  The hard disk’s spindle motor generates a substantial amount of heat during operation and that heat is absorbed by the hard disks chassis which may also have cooling fins to increase the surface heat distribution.  Many IT professionals and end-users will add fans to their computers to increase the amount of cooler air introduced.  A recommendation for doing this is to have the fans set up to evacuate the air from the computer rather than push air inside.  If the amount of air being introduced/forced into the computer is greater than the amount evacuated an ambient or limited airflow suddenly occurs.  Pulling hot air from the computer case is paramount to keeping a hard disk drive running cooler.  Having fans pull air out from the computer case will allow the venting designs of that case to operate more efficiently and typically will pull cooler outside air over the hard disk drive.

Bumping or Banging on the Computer:  A hard disk mounted in a computer case will receive any and all external inputs.  Ever since Arthur  “The Fonz” Fonzarelli established the “Technical Tap” on anything mechanical or electrical we have adopted the same mentality at times.  This is not conducive to having an operating hard disk for a long time.  The amount of shock a hard disk can sustain while off is much more then during its operation.  Our data recovery engineers have seen users initiate head taps on the media or even produce a physical head crash during peak operating temperatures by banging, bumping or lifting and dropping their computer cases.  As the heat increases in the hard disk cavity the air bearing  on which the head flies over the media is reduced since the air is thinner.  The physical agitation can have the head chatter on the media surface scouring the surface.  In certain cases this perpetuates further damages to the surface resulting in permanent data loss in the way of file corruption or even catastrophic damages that prevents any possibility for even data recovery specialists.

UPS Uninterrupted Power Supplies:  Do not confuse these with the power strips or surge protectors that are commonly available at every convenience store.  These are battery backup devices that will either maintain a continuous and constant supply of (on-line) power to the system or turn on (off-line) when power is interrupted.  The on-line UPS systems are usually more expensive than the off-line UPS systems as they are always buffering your computer from any and all voltage irregularities such as drops or spikes.  If you have frequent black or brown outs in your area this option may be very viable.  Computer electronics are designed to handle normally +/- 10% of power fluctuations and any more then that could be devastating to electrical devices.