Background:

The main advantages of HDMI, high definition multimedia interface, over standard analog video transmission is that it is 100 % digital from source to display. However, transmitting HDMI over long distances is not so easy. In this article we will describe some of the issues encountered during HDMI transmission and present a solution that can significantly improve HDMI transmission: the HDMI Extender.

Basic HDMI transmission characteristics:

HDMI is based on TMDS, transmission minimized differential signaling, developed by Silicon Image. In order to support non-compressed HD video quality, HDMI needs to support data rates up to ~1.65 Gbps for each of 3 transmission pairs. In addition, TMDS is based on a characteristic impedance of 50 Ohms ( 100 ohms differential).

The math of HDMI signaling:

Although TMDS is a base-band “digital” signal, mathematically it can be thought of as a summation of harmonically related sine waves. The great French mathematician, Jean Baptiste Fourier (1768-1830), showed that any signal waveform including a square wave (think digital here) could be resolved into a summation of harmonically related sine waves. As the data rate of a digital signal increase, so does the frequency of the individual sine waves that make up the “composite” digital signal. For example, for a 50% duty cycle perfect square wave, the fundamental frequency (lowest frequency component) is ½ of the data rate. In summary, a digital signal is simply composed of the fundamental frequency sine wave and harmonics of this fundamental sine wave. The amplitude of the individual sine waves is determined by Fourier transforms.

The challenges of HDMI signaling over long cables: Transmitting high-speed HDMI signals is not easy because the frequency of the individual sine waves is such high frequency. As frequencies of the signal increase, the design of a good HDMI transmission product falls in the realm of good RF/microwave engineering. The challenges of high-speed digital transmission can be broken down to :

Attenuation: as frequencies increase, signal attenuation of the cables increases due to the “skin effect.” Essentially, the “skin effect” describes the phenomena that as the frequency of a sine wave increase, the wave tends to travel on the outer portions of the cable conductor. Whereas ordinary 60Hz AC signal might travel through the entire cross sectional area of the conductor, a high frequency may only travel along the outer edges of the conduct therefore the “impedance” to signal travel is greater. Think of this as a water pipe where the center of the pipe is blocked and fluid can only travel on the outer edges of the pipe. In addition, the attenuation of a cable increases with the cable length.

Intra-signal pair skew: recall that higher frequency sine wave also have shorter wavelengths. HDMI is based on differential signaling, therefore the “skew” ( any delay between a transmission pair ) of each the signal must be minimized. Any differences in trace/cable lengths will tend to skew the arrival time of the signal to the receiver. As frequencies and cable lengths increase, the errors will be more pronounced.

Impedance matching: : HDMI is based on 50-Ohm ( 100 ohm differential) impedance. All cables, traces must be matched to this characteristic impedance. Any “mis-match” causes reflections, which degrades transmission performance.

Using a HDMI extender to mitigate transmission problems over long cables:

In many front projection installation where cable lengths are significant, the problems described above will surface in the form of “pixelization” or even a complete picture drop out. An external HDMI Extender can be used in order to correct and compensate for the long cables that causes the impairments. The HDMI Extender automatically adjust and compensate for cable attenuation up to 40 dB. In addition, an adaptive equalizer compensates for the time-based skews. A limiting amp “squares “ up and re-shapes the input signal before sending to the output through output buffers.

The HDMI Extender is low power and can be attached to the display end ( after the long cable) to completely rectify any errors caused by transmission over long HDMI cables. The extender is housed in a small ease to use package. Power can be supplied directly from the HDMI source, however an external AC adapter is provided and recommended. The HDMI Extender can be used with DVI-D products simply by using a HDMI to DVI-D cable or adapter.

Conclusion:

HDTV technology is changing rapidly. HD connections such as HDMI will become the de facto standard in HDTV connections. Transmitting HDMI signals over long cables is a challenge and often causes pixelization and signal drop out. An external HDMI Extender can be placed at the display end of the cable to completely compensate for signal degradation caused by a long HDMI cable.

Jeff Su is product marketing manager at Octava Inc. http://www.octavainc.com. Jeff is a graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology (BSEE, MSEE) and has over 10 years of experience in CATV systems, RF, and microwave designs. He may be reached at info@octavainc.com

I’m writing this article for those people sitting on the fence. Those asking themselves, "Should I try building a computer?"

Look at it this way. Computers are made of only eleven major parts, all of which either snap together, or plug-in. If you think you can connect just eleven items, then you can build a computer. I’m willing to argue that it’s tougher to put together a bicycle at Christmas than it is to build a computer.

You’ll need a couple of screwdrivers, one flat, the other a Phillips. That is the entire toolkit. So, there will be no special equipment to purchase. Most households already have plenty of screwdrivers.

And what will you be able to build? Exactly the machine you want. You won’t have to settle for a PC with less of a graphics card than you desired, or a smaller hard drive. You’ll be freed from the standards imposed by manufacturers. The machine will have every item you want, just as you want it.

Another benefit is the knowledge you gain. I can guarantee than after you build a computer, you’ll never worry about the little tricks they play again. You will be the master of the machine, not the other way around.

You may be asking yourself, "Where will I find the parts I need to build it with?"

My answer is: the same place you found this article. Right here on the internet. Do a web search for "computer parts" and just see how many suppliers there are out there. If you prefer going to a store, many of the places you’ll find in your web search have walk-in locations, as well as in cyberspace.

If you’re worried about exactly how those eleven major parts fit together, there are a great many books on the subject. I’ve written one, and so have other people, and most all provide good basic instructions. Get one of fairly recent vintage, with lots of photos. Free excerpts from my book "Building a PC for Beginners" can be read at www.monkeyseemonkeydobooks.com

Mr. Quarles is the publisher of Monkey See Monkey Do Books

OK, so Microsoft are releasing their Great White Hope of the gaming world, the Xbox 360 , onto the UK population on 2.12.05. This is only a couple of weeks after our cousins from across the pond get their gaming mitts on the US Xbox 360 . In fact, Microsoft are planning a near simultaneous global release of the Xbox 360. Around the world in under 3 weeks is the kind of form that makes our own Phileas Fogg look positively bone idle.

No one has tried this before, and with good reason. The logistics of trying to launch an eagerly anticipated product as the Xbox 360 to a global market in pretty much the same time frame is daunting to say the least. What it should guarantee at the very least, is that anyone out there with a spare Boeing 747 freight plane can expect to be fully booked up for those 3 weeks. What it means to us, the consumer, is less appealing. Demand is almost certainly to outstrip supply, which means festive season discounts are going to be rarer then hens teeth, and that the best way not to be disappointed is to pre-order the Xbox 360. Most of the large retailers are taking orders already and there are scores of websites, like www.microsoftxbox360.co.uk , that are promoting Xbox 360 sales as affiliates of the larger retailers. Microsoft themselves are admitting there is going to be tears for some,"We are going to have some disappointment with retailers and consumers" J Allard, Xbox .

Whilst I’m not trying to ‘sex up’ the probability of shortages of the Xbox 360, if you want to be one of the first to own this new generation gaming system, and you haven’t already pre-ordered, then you’d better hurry.

Robin Walsh is the webmaster of http://www.microsoftxbox360.co.uk

When you think trash, you surely don’t think about your old, trusty personal computer. But that’s exactly what will become of it when you make the inevitable move toward your next laptop or desktop. And, yes, buying a new computer is inevitable, considering the pace at which computer technology zips along. Just think—about a handful of years ago, a fast microprocessor for a laptop was at 233 MHz. Now you’re looking at about at least 2 GHz! That’s Giga, with a G.

So eventually, you will want a computer that can handle the latest software, the latest games, and the latest interactive Web sites, and then you’ll have to throw away your old computer, right? Wrong. Try selling your used computer instead. Throwing out your computer is one of the worst things you can do. For one, your computer may be useful for someone out there, even if just for scraps.

Trashed computers and other digital equipment also make up one of the fastest growing, and most dangerous, new trash “categories” out there in your neighborhood landfall. On one hand, computers are generally bulky and made of plastic and other materials that won’t be breaking down in a landfill for the next few million years. What’s more, other materials in your old computer are highly toxic to the environment, like mercury, lead and cadmium. They’re so toxic that their actually name in the waste-management field is “toxics.”

You don’t have to be a techie or a scientist to understand the danger in that—nor the benefits of selling your computer. On the Internet, there are a vast number of auction and classifieds sites, some better than others, where you can “download” you computer to a worthy buyer.

Before you boot up your replacement laptop or high-performance PC, however, be sure you read and compute the following tips. These tips will help you avoid the crashes and shutdowns that befall the computer seller who doesn’t do his homework first.

Hold onto all of the operating system and software manuals that came with your old computer. This will add value to your sale, not to mention it will make you a trusted seller for offering up these helpful books to the buyer.

Erase all personal information from the hard drive. And we’re not just talking about simply putting stuff in the “trash bin.” It’s extremely important to purge all data from your computer’s memory repository, even from invisible backup files on the hard drive. If you’re not sure how to do this, ask your IT expert at work or a techie friend for advice. You don’t want the next user to have access to your bank accounts, old e-mails, and other private info, do you?

Uninstall any application from the hard drive that you’d like to use on your next computer, keeping the installation disk and the software serial number for yourself. When it comes to software, the manufacturers made sure that you never really own software, you license it. So you don’t get free reign to keep software on multiple computers. You only get one license, so you need to bring your licensed version with you to your new computer.

Do your homework on your computer’s worth. Just like you would for a car, check around at other classifieds and auction sites to see what other people are selling your make and model for.

Be sure you want to truly get rid of old faithful. You may be able to repair your old laptop rather than buy a new $2,000 Centrino model. Or you may be able to add RAM memory and a new hard drive to your four-year-old desktop rather than invest in a new $3,000 multimedia masterpiece. In other words, do a thorough cost-analysis of what it would take to rebuild your old computer, versus what it would cost to sell it and buy a new one. And check your heart too. You might be surprised just how attached you are to your old faithful.

Once you go through these steps, you are prepared to make your move and sell, sell, sell. And then, of course, you’ll be ready to start on a whole new list of steps—for buying a new computer. But that’s a topic for another article!

Donald Lee is the public relations manager for Buysellcommunity.com. Buysellcommunity provides free classified listing services. Buy, Sell and trade: auto, computers, household items, real estate, pets and much more. For global and localized classifieds, please visit http://www.buysellcommunity.com, Free Buy & Sell Classifieds.

The technology world is no stranger to format wars
Since the showdown between Betamax and VHS to the current struggle between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, companies intent on owning technology standards are willing to spend big bucks persuading other companies to join their respective camps. Some companies do this for the royalties while others do it to increase the availability and distribution of their intellectual property.

A much quieter format war has been waged on the PC over the past ten years
The Universal Serial Bus standard, more popularly known as USB, was distributed with the Windows operating system in late 1996. The standard was jointly created by Compaq, IBM, DEC, Intel, Microsoft, NEC, and Northern Telecom and is now available on 90% of all computers manufactured today.

FireWire owned the high-speed market from the beginning
In 1995, the same year that the USB standard was being formalized, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) approved the IEEE-1394 standard, also known as FireWire or i.link, which had been developed by Apple. The fast speeds promised by FireWire (100 Mbps, 200 Mbps, 400 Mbps) was overkill for most peripherals not requiring a massive amount of bandwidth, such as mice and keyboards. Sony quickly embraced the technology (referring to it as i.link) and, along with a host of other manufacturers, integrated it into bandwidth-hungry peripherals such as digital cameras, digital camcorders, optical drives, scanners, web cams, etc.

USB and FireWire lived together happily in the beginning
In the early days these formats were not mutually-exclusive - there was very little overlap between the technologies and hence little competition. FireWire owned the high-bandwidth market while USB owned the low-bandwidth. At a max speed of 12 Mbps USB could not begin to compete with the 400 Mbps standard that evolved from FireWire for data transfer.

USB 2.0 is introduced
The end of the year 2001 marked a drastic change in the competitive landscape for these two standards: USB 2.0 was released. USB 2.0 offered the ease of use of (renamed) USB 1.1 and, at 480 Mbps, comparable speeds to FireWire. Note that while the theoretical limit of USB 2.0 is 80 Mbps faster than FireWire, empirically FireWire seems to be more efficient and thus has a higher effective transfer rate.

FireWire lost its competitive advantage
To simplify the process of purchasing peripherals and devices, manufacturers have identified no clear advantage of including FireWire ports on many new laptops and desktops and it is becoming increasingly more common to find new computers with only USB 2.0 ports. Even the digital video industry, which has long favored FireWire as the interface of choice, has begun to accept USB 2.0 as an alternative to FireWire because of the universal availability of USB ports.

Who will win the next battle?
So while there may be slight performance gains by using FireWire, many people are abandoning the technology in favor of the more popular USB standard. To compete for high-end, data intensive applications, FireWire 800, with a maximum speed of 800 Mbps, is helping FireWire maintain its position as the interface of choice for bandwidth-hungry devices - it will be interesting to see how the release of a faster USB technology will be received by the consumer market.

Preston Wily is the Director of Marketing for Sewell Direct, a retailer of USB adapters and accessories. Sewell is currently securing relationships with manufacturers of Wireless USB hubs and devices to prepare for the inevitable wireless revolution.

In today’s multitasking computing world, it’s not unusual to see people constantly switching from window to window trying to transfer data form one program to the other. I myself have gotten fairly adept at the Alt-Tab window-switching hotkey sequence. It is as a result of this that the popularity of multi-monitor computer setups has increased dramatically. Studies have shown a significant increase in employee productivity when a multiple monitor setup is used. There is less mental stress, less time spent on switching programs, and less eye strain. So how can you get multiple monitors? You have several different options.

Your first and probably most common option for a desktop system is to buy a multi-port video card. These cards generally have a DVI and a VGA port, both of which can be hooked to any monitor with the use of adapters. These cards can either be PCI, PCI-Express, or AGP-compatible. Generally speaking, the drivers for multi-monitor support come with the card.

Another desktop option is to buy multiple video cards and put them in your system. As far as we can tell, this only works so long as the chipsets are the same and each card uses a different type of slot (i.e., an ATi PCI card and an ATi AGP card.) Conceivably you could use two two-port cards, giving you a total of four monitors. This is a good way to go if you want to go to the trouble of matching everything up.

These solutions are all well and good for the desktop user, you say, but what about my laptop? Well, don’t worry, there are options for notebooks as well. Probably your best option is to spring for the VTBook DVI/VGA Dual Display Video PCMCIA Card. It’s a bit pricey, but it’s the only card like it on the market. The VTBook gives you an additional DVI-out port on your computer, which can be plugged into a high-def display. If you crave even more monitor madness, you can buy a VTBook Dualhead Cable, which splits the out port, giving you yet another monitor. With this setup, you could have up to four monitors (your laptop screen, the laptop out port, and the two VTBook ports).

The last, and probably most expensive method to add multiple monitors to your laptop is to buy a PCMCIA to PCI card. Realistically, this $1000-plus item is for more specialty PCI cards that aren’t available in PCMCIA version, but if you have an amazing and absolutely necessary PCI or PCI Express video card that you want to use with your laptop, this is the solution for you. As far as I can tell, I have only found one such adapter, made by Magma.

I’m sure that somewhere there is some engineer dreaming up other ways to add multiple monitors to computers, but for now, these are the most common and most feasible options I know of. Now go to, and enjoy the greater productivity of multiple monitors.

Nathan Kartchner works in Product Development for Sewell Direct, an online retailer of hard-to-find computer connectivity products like the VTBook DVI/VGA Dual Display Video PCMCIA Card, the Magma PCMCIA to PCI cardbus, and the USB to Serial Adapter.

One statement I’ve made over and over in my writings, and every time I speak on the topic of computers, is that there are only 11 major parts in a PC. If you think you can connect just eleven items, then you can build your own.

Recently a gentleman who was interested in building a computer wrote to me. In his letter he said, "I opened up the side of my old machine just to see what it looked like in there. I wanted to get an idea of how complicated it was before I tried building one myself. There were cables going every which way. Are you sure there are only eleven items to connect?"

After a bit of questioning back and forth by email, we determined that my new friend had a very early Pentium that had served him well through the years. In the era of his computer, virtually every port on the back of the case had to connect to the motherboard by means of a ribbon cable. I was building computers back then, and it was a bit like wrestling a squid.

Now, all of those ports are hard-wired to the motherboard, as can be seen in my book "Building a PC for Beginners". There’s no more trying to plug in everything in a three square inch area. The inside of a computer is much less congested, making the assembly process way simpler than it was.

Another great step to simplify things took place when case and motherboard manufacturers agreed on standardizing screw hole locations. Now you can be sure that the holes for the standoffs that support the motherboard will match with the holes in the case. At one time this wasn’t so.

Michael Quarles is the publisher of Monkey See Monkey Do Books.

SPI stands for “Serial to Peripheral Interface”, and it is a hardware and firmware communications protocol developed by Motorola and later adopted by everybody. The SPI Bus is used only on the PCB. I am certain some of you will ask: “Why is the SPI Bus used only on the PCB? What prevents us from using it outside the PCB area?” The SPI Bus was specially designed to exchange data between various IC chips, at very high speeds; say, at 180 MHz or even more. Due to this high-speed aspect, the Bus lines cannot be too long, because their reactance increases too much, and the Bus becomes unusable. However, if you want, you could use the SPI Bus outside the PCB at low speeds, but this is not quite practical–the SPI Bus requires 3 or 4 communications lines, which are a bit too many, when compared to 1 or 2 lines usually needed to communicate, efficiently, with field devices located outside the PCB.

Anyway, on the PCB the SPI Bus is very good, because we can practically attach to the Bus as many ICs (or devices) as we want. Please excuse me for not providing a picture of the SPI Bus, but rest assured you do not need one: the SPI Bus is so simple that you will understand everything in words.

The next question is: “Why is this SPI Bus particularly useful?” Besides from exchanging data between various IC chips, the SPI Bus is a method of multiplying microcontroller’s pins. In other words, if you have a tiny 8 pins microcontroller, you could control with that little monster few hundreds of digital Inputs and Outputs. This is impressive, and I am certain many doubt my words. Let’s explain this.

The SPI Bus contains three lines, and they can be on any general I/O controller pins. These Bus lines are: Clock, Data-In, and Data-Out. In addition, each IC connected to the SPI Bus needs an individual Enable line. Things work like this: suppose we have four devices, A, B, C, and D; all of them are wired to the SPI Bus lines, and the Bus itself is wired to seven controller pins–this is 3 Bus lines plus the 4 Enable ones. When we want to send a message to device C, we enable its Enable line first, then we send the message serially, one bit at a time. In the same time devices A, B, and D do exactly nothing, because they are not enabled.

The beauty with the SPI Bus is, it is Synchronous, meaning, when the controller sends the message to one IC, it is also able to receive data from that IC, in the same time. This particular aspect of the SPI protocol is particularly well suited for microcontroller-to-microcontroller communications.

Now, we have seen a small 8 pins microcontroller can control 4 devices (ICs) using 7 pins. Taking into account one device of type A, B, C, or D could have eight or even sixteen I/O ports, this is still far from the hundreds Inputs and Outputs I promised to you. The next beautiful thing about the SPI Bus is: one device IC can be serialized with many more of the same type! For example, we could have B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, and so on. All ICs of type B# are serialized together, and they require only 4 microcontroller pins to make them work; the Enable line is common to all of them. Next, we can use each device of type A, B, C, and D as a group of tens similar ICs.

The enabling speed of each I/O port on the SPI Bus it is slower, when multiplying microcontroller’s pins, but always take into account I/O field devices don’t necessarily need speeds of, say 1000 ON/OFF activations per second each, simply because most of them cannot handle that speed. However, there are few, very smart firmware techniques like the “barrel-shift” type of functions, which allows us to maintain high-speed messaging on the SPI Bus, even if we have hundreds of I/Os. In the same time, the “barrel-shift” functions allow for better time management inside microcontroller, so that it has more time to execute other tasks–makes sense to me! To conclude, I believe it is clear now we can, indeed, build hundreds of efficient I/O lines on a small 8 pins controller.

Further from this general presentation of the SPI Bus, you should be aware almost all ICs implement the SPI protocol in a particular way. For detailed and practical applications I suggest you visit my home site at Corollary Theorems. There you are going to discover a good tutorial book about working with hardware, firmware–including the “barrel-shift” type of functions–and software design, in general, and about few nice and practical implementations of the SPI Bus in particular.

Many microcontrollers have built-in SPI Bus hardware modules, but I was never interested too much about using them. What I do, I always design–on the PCB and for one microcontroller–one, two or more custom SPI Busses, because my custom implementations are far more flexible. Besides, practical implementation of a custom SPI Bus, both in hardware and in firmware, is really simple–trust me with this one!

O G POPA is Professional Engineer in BC, Canada. His home site is Corollary Theorems at http://www.corollarytheorems.com

Computer microphones are a valuable addition to any PC and they greatly increase interactivity and communication levels. You can use a microphone for performing various tasks, both business and fun related. For example, you can hold a conference with your business partners, over the Internet, or you can chat with your friends online, instead of doing that on the phone. Of course, in order to enjoy accurate and high quality communication, you have to choose a good PC microphone. There is a huge variety of models on the market, ranging from microphones that you can buy for a few dollars and going all the way to expensive, high tech desktop microphones. So which PC microphone is right for you?

Price Vs Quality

You can pay $5 for a microphone, or you can pay $50. So where’s the difference, apart from the price? Well, cheap microphones have low prices for some good reasons: they offer average to low quality sound, they break down more easily and you can’t use them successfully in all applications that support a microphone. The materials they are manufactured from have to be cheap, which eliminates the idea of high quality, so the end product is of lower reliability. And at this price, you can be sure bulk manufacturing is present and quality tests are quick and far from rigorous. Microphones that come for a higher price have, in most cases, better sound quality and more features. Such microphones will have noise canceling filters, which help diminish background noise. Distortion filters and integrated circuits also help keep voice sounds clear and accurate. The materials used for more expensive microphones also last longer – plastic doesn’t crack so easily and if you drop it on the floor you know that the internal components are well protected.

Choosing the right computer microphone

Determining what price range you are in and what model to purchase depends heavily on the purpose you have in mind for the microphone. Are you going to use it just to chat with friends online? In that case, spending a lot of money on a professional computer microphone is not justified. Do you plan to hold business conferences over the Internet? Then maybe you should get a better microphone that will allow the discussion to be continuous and clear, without noise distortion. Giving vocal commands to your computer or dictating to word processing software with speech recognition capabilities is another use for desktop microphones. Quality should be first here – speech recognition software is very sensitive and demands a high quality microphone and sound card. Recording your voice and inserting it into music tracks is possible, but a high quality microphone is absolutely essential in this case.

Mantius Cazaubon is a successful author and publisher of http://the-microphone-guide.com, a resource for information and tips on buying computer microphones online.

Data loss is an expensive reality. It’s a hard fact that it happens more often then users like to admit. A recent study by the accounting firm McGladrey and Pullen estimates that one out of every 500 data centers will experience a severe computer disaster this year. As a result, almost half of those companies will go out of business. At the very least, a data loss disaster can mean lost income and missed business opportunities.

The other side of data loss is the psychological and emotional turmoil it can cause to IT managers and business owners. Despair, panic, and the knowledge that the whole organization might be at risk are involved. In a sense, that’s only fair, since human error is one of the two largest contributing factors in data loss. Together with mechanical failure, it accounts for almost 75 per cent of all incidents. (Software corruption, computer viruses and physical disasters such as fire and water damage make up the rest.)

Disk drives today are typically reliable. Human beings, it turns out, are not. A Strategic Research Corp. study done in 2000 found that approximately 15 per cent of all unplanned downtime occurred due to human error. A significant proportion of that happened because users failed to implement adequate backup procedures, either having trouble with their backups, or having no backup at all.

How does it happen that skilled, high-level users put their systems - and their businesses - at such risk?

In many cases, the problem starts long before the precipitating system error is made, that is, when users place their faith in out-of-box solutions that may not, in fact, fit their organization’s needs. Instead of assessing their business and technology requirements, then going to an appropriate engineered solution, even experienced IT professionals at large corporations will often simply buy what they’re sold. In this case, faith in technology can be an vice instead of a virtue.

But human intervention itself can sometimes be the straw that breaks the technology’s back. When the office of a Venezuelan civil engineering firm was devastated by floods, its owners sent 17 soaked, mud-coated disks from three RAID arrays to us in plastic bags. A tough enough salvage job was made even more complex by the fact that someone had frozen the drives before shipping them. As the disks thawed, yet more damage was done. (After eight weeks of painstaking directory-by-directory recovery, all the data from the remaining fifteen disks was retrieved.)

Sometimes, the underlying cause of a data loss event is simply shoddy housekeeping. The more arduous the required backup routine, the less likely it will be done on a regular basis. A state ambulance monitoring system suffered a serious disk failure, only to discover that its automated backup hadn’t run for fourteen months. A tape had jammed in the drive, but no-one had noticed.

When disaster strikes, the normal human reaction is panic. Because the loss of data signifies critical consequences, even the most competent IT staff can jump to conclusions, and take inappropriate action. A blank screen at a critical time can lead to a series of naive decisions, each one compounding the preceding error. Wrong buttons get pushed, and the disaster only gets worse. Sometimes the pressure to correct the system failure speedily can result in an attempt to reconfigure an entire RAID array. IT specialists are typically not equipped to deal with crisis modes or data recovery techniques. Just as a good physician is trained to prolong life, the skilled IT specialist is trained to keep the system running. When a patient dies, the physician turns to others, such as nurses or counselors to manage the situation. When significant data loss occurs, the IT specialist turns to the data recovery professional.

Data recovery specialists are innovative problem solvers. Often, the application of basic common sense, when no-one else is in any condition to apply it, is the beginning of the journey towards data recovery. The data recovery specialist draws on a wealth of experience, married to a "never say die" attitude, and a comprehensive tool kit of problem-solving procedures. Successful recovery outcomes hinge on a combination of innovative logistics, applied problem-solving, and "technology triage," the process of stabilizing an affected system quickly, analyzing and treating its wounds, and preparing it for surgery. The triage process sets priorities, such as targeting which files are needed first or which are absolutely vital to the functioning of the business, and establishes whether files might be recovered in less structured formats (such as text-only), which may be desirable when time is crucial.

The art and science of professional data recovery can spell the difference between a business’ success or its failure. Before that level of intervention is required, though, users can take steps to ensure that the probability of a data loss disaster is minimized.

Basic to any business technology plan is a regular fire-drill procedure. Back-up routines may be in place, staff may assigned to specific roles, hardware and software may be configured - but, if the user isn’t completely sure that everything works the way it should, a data loss event is inevitable. Having adequate, tested, and current backups in place is critical. A hardware breakdown should not be compounded by human error - if the malfunctioning drive is critical, the task of dealing with it should go to a data recovery professional.

Just as data loss disasters are rooted in a combination of mechanical failure and human error, so, too, the data recovery solution lies in a creative marriage of the technological and the human. The underlying philosophy of successful data recovery is that technology is something to be used by human beings, not something that uses us.

Name: Darryl Peddle
Company: CBL Technologies, Canada
Author description: Darryl Peddle is an Internet Marketing Specialist with CBL Technologies, one of the largest data recovery specialists in the world.
Website: http://www.cbltech.com