Data Recovery Digest

As an industry frontrunner in the area of data recovery and restoration, it should come as no surprise that Kroll Ontrack is constantly pushing the limits of technology today. That said, their recent announcement revolves around the latest breakthrough in the recovery of overwritten data from LTO-6 tape cartridges. While many see tape-based storage as a thing of the past, it is still in use by many organizations and enterprises.

Todd Johnson, vice president of data recovery operations with Kroll Ontrack, spoke about the unique challenges faced when trying to recover data from LTO-6 tape cartridges that have been overwritten. He was quoted as saying: “The adoption of LTO-6 tapes is accelerating and we are seeing an increasing stream of tapes that have been overwritten, either through administrative or software errors. The challenge with all tape media is that once a new block of data is written at the beginning of a tape that is full, all of the data stored on that tape after the new block becomes inaccessible. So if a tape is accidentally initialized or is even partially overwritten, historically it was not possible to recover the old data.”

Jeff Pederson, senior engineering manager with Kroll Ontrack, explained his company’s response as well as their position in the industry. He was quoted as saying: “In an effort to maximize storage and manufacture faster and more efficient tape design, the specifications of LTO-6 changed fairly significantly from previous versions. In response, our engineers made the necessary changes to make our recovery solution compatible with LTO-6, allowing us to restore data even when it has been accidentally deleted. This recovery capability is available to service providers and organizations from our recovery labs across the world. As far as we are aware, we are the only data recovery company to provide this service for LTO-6 tapes.”

While the company previously pioneered data restoration from LTO-1, LTO-2, LTO-3, LTO-4 and LTO-5 tapes cartridges, the newly introduced format of LTO-6 was incompatible with their previous methods. As such, the team had to come up with a brand new strategy for analyzing, identifying and recovering overwritten data from the new format. Although the LTO-6 format was originally introduced in 2012, the advanced technology used in the new hardware proved difficult to overcome.

The latest data recovery service is available in tandem with their traditional data recovery offerings, meaning customers who use the new service will also be able to benefit from their proven customer support , access to their comprehensive online resource library, regularly scheduled industry events and more.

Originally established in 1972, Kroll Ontrack primarily assists governmental, corporate and legal organizations with their data management needs, including data recovery. However, some consumer-level services are also available. To find out more information about Kroll Ontrack, including any of their products or solutions, latest news, partnership information and more, please visit their official website at www.krollontrack.com. Those who are interested in using Kroll Ontrack’s data recovery services can also obtain a price quote from the site.