Local company Computer Storage Services (CSS) has developed a non-invasive method of recovering data from failed Seagate hard drives, particularly the wonky Barracuda 7200.11 range that has a high failure rate.
International media reports since January have cited numerous examples of the Seagate products locking down without any ability to recover data.
Seagate has issued a firmware update, but if the drives have failed already, then it is impossible to install it. The international hard drive manufacturer has said it will not issue a general recall of the product because the failure rate is below its threshold to do so.
A major problem with the hard drive failures is that once the disk is inoperative, it is all but impossible to either load the firmware and continue normal operations, or recover data that organisations need. This means Seagate`s firmware upgrade has to be installed before the hard drive fails, which for many is too little and far too late.
The solution
CSS MD James Grcic says his company has developed a method that is non-invasive, meaning the drive does not have to be physically opened, allows it to start up again, gets the firmware loaded and then recovers the data.
The solution, which was developed with the help of a former Fujitsu engineer from the Philippines, requires an electrical pulse to be sent to the hard drives chipset, at a specific frequency, at a specific time during the start up phase. This unlocks the drive to allow the firmware update to be loaded and then the data is recovered.
"The solution was worked out this Monday and so far we have had a near 100% success rate," Grcic says.
CSS customers include call centres, stock brokerages and other organisations that have to record telephone conversations and other media for regulatory purposes, to recover data.
"In some cases, there were three out of five drives in an array failing and we have had reports of up to 40% of drives in an installation going down," he says.
Grcic notes his Johannesburg office has almost 1 000 locked down drives from customers awaiting data recovery. He believes this is the worst case of such failure for at least seven years.
"The last time I saw such a shambles was when there was mass failure with the Fujitsu 3.5-inch drives in 2002," he says.
Market heavyweight
Seagate has about 60% of the South African hard drive market, with about 160 000 units being sold into the local market every quarter.
Its two biggest distributors are Rectron and Ingram Micro. Both companies say they have not seen any significant uptick in hard drive failures either being reported or returned for warranty replacements.
The last time I saw such a shambles was when there was mass failure with the Fujitsu 3.5-inch drives in 2002.
James Grcic, MD, Computer Storage Services
Rectron marketing director Sebastian Isaac says the return rate has been minimal. The affected drives appear to come from batches manufactured in the October/November period and very few of these were imported into the country, he explains.
Ingram Micro product manager Tyrone Gruner says about 1% of Seagate drives have some kind of problem and the recent failure rate with the 7200.11 range was not significant enough to issue a general recall.
"If the failure rate had reached 2%, then there would be a real problem," he adds.
Grcic says CSS has made this technology available to its data recovery services partners in the African region.
Consumers and IT consultants who have faulty Seagate hard drives and require data recovery support can contact the company directly, or the support line on 0860-314-029, or an engineer on +27 82 413-3525.
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