Month: November 2016

mobile-phone-drops-in-water

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOUR MOBILE PHONE DROPS IN WATER

November 15, 2016 No Comments Data Recovery
  1. Do not switch on the phone or try to charge it as this will cause the phone to short circuit damaging the phone more than it was when you got it out of the water.
  2. Remove all detachable parts from the phone i.e. the battery, sim card, SD card and more so the phone cover to ensure that you get rid of the moisture that might have accumulated in their compartments.
  3. Dry the phone thoroughly preferably using a vacuum cleaner which sucks out the moisture as compared to a hair dryer which may force the moisture further into the smaller components of the phone.
  4. Assemble back the phone once you’re certain there is no moisture in it.
  5. Place the phone in a bag of dry rice and ensure it is completely covered by the rice to help draw out the rest of the moisture for roughly two to three days. Data recovery requires a lot of patience, so these three days are very important, relax and hope for the best.
NB: This may not work at all times but it can increase the chances of retrieving your phone and salvaging the data in it. You can also have peace of mind knowing that at least you tried.
Just in case the above steps don’t work contact the data recovery experts in Kenya and East Africa at large for a professional analysis. Contact East Africa Recovery Experts on 0716079961.
ransomware attack recovery

HOW TO PREVENT RANSOMWARE ATTACKS SUCH AS CRYPTOWALL

November 4, 2016 1 Comment Data Recovery

Ransomware: Type of malware (malicious software) that locks your computer screen and prevents you from accessing your files and asks you to pay a certain fee (ransom) for you to get back and control over your computer.

These malware sometimes come in the form of a fake antivirus installer which when clicked into the computer then accesses your files and sends details to another server used by the criminals. It is also possible to download ransomware unknowingly by opening infected attachments in emails or unsecure websites.

HOW TO PREVENT ATTACKS FROM RANSOMWARE

  1. Back up your data regularly : First and foremost the best on can do to avoid any data loss not only from ransomware attacks but any other form of attack is to back up your data regularly preferably using a backup plan such as the 3-2-1 plan which entails that you make 3 copies of the data, store it in 2 separate storage from where it is initially stored and 1 in a separate location.
  2. Scrutinise emails and embedded links/attachments found in emails or unsecure websites before clicking on them to avoid any unnecessary installations into your computer that may be the ransomware itself.
  3. Regularly update software, programs and applications as these updates tend to add an added layer of protection and also patching up backdoors that could be used by criminals and other online threats to gain access to your computer.
  4. Disconnect computer from Wi-Fi or unplug from internet immediately you open an attachment and it starts installing unnecessarily being that it’s not an executable file or the website isn’t secure or the email comes from a source you don’t trust. If you act fast before the characteristic ransomware screen pops up, you can stop communication between the ransomware and the server used to send the encryption key to your computer. This might reduce the number of files that will be encrypted by the ransomware and also buy you some time to back up your data just in case you hadn’t done so.
  5. Use system restore: which might help you restore your computer to a former known clean state. This however may not really work since the ransomware have newer versions which are able to delete ‘shadow files’ which are vital for the system restore but it’s worth a try.

NB: The most common ransomware today is one called CryptoLocker

The chances of data recovery in cases of ransomware attacks are very minimal thus we advise prevention of these attacks as there is no known solution for these attacks at the moment. The only known way is to pay the ransom which is the advisable also as the decryption key might not be sent to your computer to decrypt the files or it might not even work and the criminals might even try extort more money from you and it becomes a repeating cycle. Secondly it also encourages such criminal acts.

keep-calm-and-get-data-back

DATA RECOVERY PRICING

November 4, 2016 No Comments Data Recovery

DATA RECOVERY PRICING
Most clients ask this question; how much does it cost to recovery data from a hard drive? Since data recovery involves a complex process and it involves alot of factors, i will try to answer in the best way i can. It’s common for users in need of data recovery services to contact us with enquiries on how much it costs to perform data recovery. We do our best to indicate a price guideline based on the symptoms described but this may only be an estimate and not the actual price. It is not possible to quote for recovery until an assessment is done on the media; hence we request the user to bring the media to our offices for evaluation.

Just the same way your car might break down and you call a garage and request for a quote to repair it. Most times you may not know what may have caused it to break down hence you will give the mechanic very minimal information on the case. It would not be reasonable for them to give you a quote without knowing what the problem is and what may have caused it. Data recovery also works in the same manner.

When any user contacts us in regards to data recovery, we advise them to bring the media to our offices for an evaluation (Diagnosis as we call it). If the user cannot make it to bring the media to our offices personally, we advise them to use a reliable courier service to deliver the media instead. On arrival at our offices a diagnosis is done to evaluate the extent of damage to the media and from that we can actually derive an actual quote for that specific case.

The cases that come to our offices are never the same, therefore the quotes will always differ, some are more on the higher side than others. For PHYSICAL cases ie head damage we request for a percentage of the full amount as a commitment fee/service fee in order for us to cover the costs of the data recovery.

The rest of the amount is normally paid on completion and verification of the data recovered. For LOGICAL cases, the user approves the quotation and the recovery starts immediately and once it’s done the user comes to view the data and pays only if they’re satisfied by the data recovered. If the user does not approve the quotation, we return the media.
This does not necessarily mean that we are always 100% guaranteed of full recovery so before we even start the diagnosis; we offer the users the option of continuing on a non-guaranteed basis. It’s not always a Bright day when a quote is rejected so we try and be very realistic when setting the price guideline and also deriving the actual quote for a specific case.

Here are some factors that may determine the cost of data recovery;

  1. Level of damage: ie whether it’s a logical(firmware issues etc) or physical issue(Head damage).
  2. Size of hard drive: On physical cases, we would require to purchase an similar hard drive as the original one(donor) which we will use as spare part to repair the faulty disk. The cost of donor may vary based on the size.
  3. Previous recovery attempt: any hard drive that’s opened physically will attract a higher fees.
  4. How long the process will take: Emergency cases are charged higher than normal cases.

Contact us today for FAST DIAGNOSIS

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