Legacy Data Access

Tape & Legacy
Data Restoration

Restore any media. From any format. Anywhere in the world.

Bring old data back to usability with S2|DATA’s decades-long experience.

Faster time-to-data. Eliminate cost and risk.

When identifying and accessing data is vital, S2|DATA delivers the fastest, most comprehensive, and advanced data restoration and backup tape restoration services, paired with proven and reliable expertise.

Looking for voice logger tapes?

See Voice Logging Tape Conversion.

Where it all started

Where it all started for S2|DATA. There have been over 100 physical tape formats used to back up enterprise data, and over 35 enterprise backup formats, many with multiple versions, and S2|DATA has created software that enables the interrogation and restoration of data from all of them. We call this “Non-Native Restoration”, a term that covers the interrogation and restoration of data away from the original “native” environment. We do this with the creation of software that essentially mimics the functionality of the original software, without actually needing to use it.

S2|DATA created its own software platform named TRACS (Tape Restoration And Cataloging System). TRACS allows us to travel to a customer location and quickly build an interrogation system to restore any one of a thousand combinations of tape and backup formats, in any location, and at a fraction of the cost of building a native environment. S2|DATA is also adding handlers and features to remediate data or post-restoration processing data, like NDMP filers or MS Exchange databases, SourceOne email archives, Lotus Notes DAOS attachment repopulation, and many other complex data setups backed up by the originating environment.

Data restoration and tape restoration are our domain

We offer data restoration services from disk and tape, which requires knowledge of backup software, disk and tape formats, and even application data itself. Our engineers have mastered these skills over the past 30+ years. We created routines for varying levels of interrogation into backup data and backup sessions. We are also continually developing solutions for all data variances. As a result, we have amassed an extensive database of emulated backup environments.

S2|DATA technology is fast and flexible and delivers unmatched reporting for audit trails and defensibility. If you have data that cannot go off-site, our data restoration services can be deployed at any client location, usually within 24 hours. Our experts will arrive on-premises with all the necessary tools required to extract the data without disrupting your operation.

We can also retire your entire backup environment by storing all backups in our secure High Availability Vault, while giving you online access to your volume, session and file level detail through Invenire, our web-based portal.

Why restoration matters

Security

Losing data has real-life consequences. You could be exposing yourself to not just a loss of reputation among your clients, but also financial and even legal repercussions. S2|DATA has decades of experience in helping a wide array of companies and institutions in their data restoration needs.

Assurance

Data restoration can be vital, especially when it comes to your litigation needs. If restored, relevant data can change the direction of any case that is stuck in the litigation chain. S2|DATA routinely works with legal teams in determining which data needs to be restored and how best to restore it.

Hassle-free

When restoring data that may have been lost it is vital to work with a service provider who can explain to you how the process works and then move quickly to restore the data without any hassles. This is where S2|DATA comes in. Our team of friendly and qualified data restoration experts will work with you to restore the data you need.

How we do it: the TRACS platform

The core features of our backup restoration services powered by TRACS include:

Scan Reports

Header Scan: takes seconds and provides tape header information
Session Scan: takes minutes and provides server names, policies, and backup session ID with dates
Forensic Scan: provides complete file lists with extensive file-level detail

Restores

Complete Restores: lands all the data from the tape
Filtered Restores: include or exclude by filename, folder, file extension, MD5#, file dates and more

Restore as a container image

.TMF, Tape Media File: contains all tape contents in one file. Ideal for archiving to cloud
.TDF, Tape Data File: as TMF, but accompanied by a Forensic Scan added internally to the file
.TSF, Tape Session File: an image containing targeted backup sessions only, allowing for the remediation of non-needed backup sessions

Post processing of restored data

MS Exchange databases
Lotus Notes (DAOS): file re-attachment to email
.NDMP NAS filer dump file restores
SourceOne, Enterprise Vault and other email archives
EMC DataDomain
DB2 to .CSV conversions

Every process automatically creates and archives a detailed log of the specific function.
This is maintained until the client instructs purging or the project has completed.

Specialist scenarios

SPECIALIST SCENARIO A specific use case within legacy restoration

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Email archive replacement

Legacy archives were built for ingestion, not export.

Still using Dell EMC SourceOne or Veritas Enterprise Vault? Legacy email archives were designed for ingestion, not export. They co-mingle email that must be preserved with email long past retention, they cannot easily be migrated to O365, and data that is past retention cannot be remediated. Meanwhile the aging hardware, software support, IT administration and facilities costs keep running, and information requests are neither quick nor precise.

S2|DATA takes the storage archives non-natively, without the original system's drip-feed process, and migrates the email to a single cloud-based platform. From there you get fast, accurate discovery using traditional eDiscovery search and filtering as well as AI querying, on-demand remediation by date and time or by user account, and on-demand export to a litigation PST or Relativity load file. All for a predictable, low-cost monthly fee that covers project initiation, set-up, migration and hosting.

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AS/400 report recovery

Access your AS/400 data, even without your AS/400. Legacy data should not mean dead data.

Organizations should not lose access to critical business reports just because their AS/400 systems are retired, or they no longer have AS/400 expertise on staff. S2|DATA's AS/400 Report Recovery service transforms inaccessible legacy reports into modern, usable formats without requiring original hardware or expertise.

Capabilities, benefits and use cases

Key Capabilities

Restore data from AS/400 backup tapes
Convert to ASCII format to enable use in Windows
Extract complete library and object lists
Identify and recover database reports
Export reports to Excel or Access
Create Windows-compatible archives
Preserve original report format and structure
Use tape or disk backups to enable recreation

Benefits

Access reports without AS/400 hardware
Eliminate legacy system dependencies
Enable modern analysis tools
Reduce data storage and access costs
Preserve historical reporting
Enable rapid information retrieval

Perfect For

Retiring AS/400 systems
Missing AS/400 expertise
Needing historical report access
Managing compliance requirements
Consolidating legacy systems

Transform inaccessible AS/400 reports into valuable business intelligence. Contact S2|DATA to learn how our AS/400 Report Recovery service can help you modernize your legacy reports while maintaining complete data access.

Read the full AS/400 Report Recovery detail.

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Why S2|DATA

Competency

Data restoration is at its core an art. An art that the data restoration artisans of S2|DATA have perfected. Our team takes pride in our data restoration work and loves to see the joy on the faces of our clients when their data is restored. You might have thought that your data is long gone, but we can change that.

Proven track record and guaranteed results

We go all out for our clients to restore the data they want. With many specialized tools at our disposal, we have handled many successful data restoration projects and we guarantee results for our clients. We want our clients to have full command and control of their data and that is exactly what we have achieved for our clients around the world.