Damaged tapes? Missing data? Tape media unsupported by your current storage infrastructure? We can help!
Let our experts save you time so you can focus on what’s important.
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We can recover from any tape media
LTO | DLT | IBM |
STK | QIC | 8mm |
4mm | 9 Track |
Common causes of tape failure and data loss.
We can deal with almost any situation, including:
Corruption: operational error, expired tapes, mishandling of the tape or accidental overwrites caused by inserting or partially formatting the wrong tape
Physical damage: broken tapes, dirty drives and damage caused by fire, flood or other natural disasters
Software upgrades: inability for data on tape to be read by new application or servers
Our expert tape recovery team can also recover data from the following scenarios:
- Overwritten tapes (including DLT)
- Quick erased or partially overwritten data from LTO (Ultrium) tape media
- Snapped or burnt tapes
- Tapes damaged by chemicals and smoke
- Software problems or backup failures
- Tapes immersed in flood water and mud
- Intentional or accidental physical damage
The tape data recovery process.
Our research and development team has been building up tape recovery knowledge and resources for over 30 years, making our process and expertise second to none.
- Tape recoveries are performed in dust free cleanroom environments
- Tapes and tape drives are carefully dismounted, examined and processed
- Proprietary tools are used to read and recover around any physically damaged areas
- We are able to quickly image failing tapes to ensure the most complete data recovery possible
Warning: Attempting to recover tape data on your own, or through an inexperienced data recovery provider, may lead to further damage. Select a data recovery provider with the resources, expertise and experience you can trust.
Extensive solutions for all of your archive tape requirements
Our tape services consist of four main project areas to help manage your tape data:
Auditing
Find out if your data is physically accessible with our tape audit service. We can also provide visibility on what data has been stored past its retention period.
Migration
Migrating from your IT service provider, or found that your tape formats are no longer supported? Ontrack can help you migrate to a new system or storage type.
Cataloguing
Organising archive tape data can seem like a daunting task. Let us catalogue your legacy data efficiently and make it easier for you to manage.
Restoration
Ontrack can help you quickly retrieve granular information from your tape archives ensuring you are able to comply with legal and government requests.
Forensic tape recovery
Need to urgently restore data for a litigation request? We can help you recover data from tape media using forensically-sound methods.
Tape data can include information which is no longer available in 'active' storage, especially if, in the anticipation of an investigation, efforts have been made by a suspect to manipulate or remove potentially incriminating evidence from the live system. However, this evidence can still be found via a forensic investigation of the tapes. We can help you respond to urgent restore requests and recover the data you need for litigation purposes.
Your trusted provider.
Managing archived data is critical to reducing risk and cost in your business.
By working with Ontrack, you’ll have peace of mind that you can access what you want, when you want it while keeping your archive costs as low as possible.
By trusting us to help manage your legacy data, you will not only be able to quickly react to requests, better manage what data you keep and where you store it, but also reduce storage and maintenance costs.
Frequently Asked Tape Recovery Questions
Tape Case Studies
Ransomware VBK Recoveries on Tape - Server & NAS Systems
The situation
The attacked volume was originally also used to back up data to LTO8 tapes at regular intervals. Most of these backup tapes were also in the tape library at the time of the incident and were quickly formatted by the attackers. However, the customer was able to save an original unformatted tape with a fairly old backup date, which was then completely restored to the now empty Windows volume with a total of 6 TB. Only then was Ontrack commissioned to examine data recovery options. The HP server DL380 with the 55 3TB hard disks were transported to Ontrack in Böblingen Germany.
The solution
During the diagnosis, a large number of the searched VEEAM vbk files were successfully found on the Windows volume with Ontrack Tools and 27 records were extracted according to a priority list. The restore of the LTO8 tape partially overwrote some of the data sets and damaged the backup files.
The resolution
A large part of the data could still be repaired and extracted in several steps.
Later on, 19 significantly older LTO8 quick formatted tape backups were successfully recovered too.The attack also affected numerous European sub offices of the customer. Here were predominantly QNAP NAS systems in use which had stored virtual VMs under VMware, including backup VMs that were partially deleted or internally reformatted with another file system. Ontrack was also able to successfully restore complete backup data in 90% of the seven cases ordered.
Join over a half million people and businesses who have trusted Ontrack to recover their data.
Start your data recovery now with a free consultation.
We'll collect your device and perform an evaluation, free of charge.
Data recovery for single drives and smartphones starts from £600.00 (inclusive of VAT). The final price will be determined at the end of the evaluation, according to the complexity of the work involved and the urgency required.
To begin, start by clicking on the type of media from which you need data recovered. The evaluation time for single hard drives (HDD and SSD) is four hours*, and within 24 hours for RAID systems*. Other media, such as mobile phones do not require an evaluation to provide an accurate quotation.
*These are typical time frames and apply within normal business hours (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm). For an out of hours, emergency service, or for further assistance, please contact us on +44 (0)1372 741999.
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