Recover Lost Passwords For MS Office Programs

If you have lost or forgotten a password for opening a Microsoft Office document (Access, Excel, Word) or a password for saving changes to a Microsoft Word document, you can use Office Password Recovery Pro , it is one of the best products on the market and it has been around for a while. With the program you can easily remove password protection and retrieve passwords within minutes, you will never have to worry about forgetting or losing a password ever again.

So for those of you who thought all hope was lost and that you could never access that particular file again, think again as this software is the answer to all your problems. Microsoft Word Document Password Recovery has never been easier!

The best part about the Software is that it Free To Download, so give it a try today and see if your passwords are recoverable at no cost!

Office Password Recovery is an "all-in-one" password recovery solution for Microsoft Office applications. It can find all types of lost or forgotten passwords used to open and modify files. It also supports earlier versions of Microsoft Office, including 2003, and instantly retrieves all formatting and editing restrictions, locked cells protection, and shared protection passwords.

Here are some of the Products Main Features:

* Effectively recovers passwords of any length and complexity

* Offers multilingual support and can recover passwords in Latin, Cyrillic characters and hieroglyphs

* Uses powerful attacks fine-tuned (BruteSearch, SmartSearch, and dictionary-based), applying them one by one and in combination with each other to make sure all passwords are recoverable.

Instant File Recovery

Instant File Recovery is a very easy to use data recovery program made by Joern Lillehagen and the Lillehagen Consulting Group. It is a solid file recovery tool with a lot of cool features. For overall data recovery it performed adequate in our test runs.

• Was able to restore 85% of deleted files
• Can recover files from on IDE / ATA / SATA / SCSI hard disk drives
• Can recover data from external hard drives and ZIP drives.
• Restores lost files from removable devices like SmartMedia, Secure Digital, and MemoryStick.
• Cannot recover lost or deleted emails.

Another program that should only be used for specific needs. The software cannot retain lost emails and performed about average in it's overall ability to find deleted files. The program performed excellent when it came to recovering files from external and removable drives however.

Free Download - Click Here

Restore My Files

Restore My Files is a data recovery program developed by the company Primasoft. This is a very solid piece of software. The company provides frequent online updates to keep your software up to par with the latest data recovery requirements.

• Recovered 92% of deleted files.
• Can recover files from external drives, floppy drives, and flash memory cards.
• Has the fastest scanning engine of all products.
• Comptible with hard drives formatted with Windows FAT16, FAT32 and NTFS file systems.
• Cannot recover lost or deleted emails.

We found Restore My Files to be a very good data recovery program for those with specific needs. Overall there are better options if you would like a more well rounded program.

Free Download - Click Here

Data Recovery Pro

Developed by award winning software developers Paretologic, Data Recovery Pro is their latest product which has set the standard for file recovery software. With it's easy to use interface, the program was able to find 97 % of deleted files, highest percentage of deleted files from all of our test programs. Data Recovery Pro is able to find almost any kind of lost files including:

• Music files and mp3's stored on an iPod.
• Multimedia files (mov, wma, flv, quicktime, mpeg, ect).
• Photos that need to be recovered from your digital camera.
• Recovering deleted emails and attachments from various email programs.
• Formatted or partitioned hard drives.

Perhaps the best part about Data Recovery Pro is it's incredibly simple user interface. It will scan your computer for deleted files and you can highlight the ones you want saved. Data Recovery Pro is the easiest file recovery program to use on the internet. They also offer total customer support for any questions or queries you may have.

Free Download - Click here

Importance of a Data Disaster Recovery Plan

Many small businesses that are coming up are neglecting the fact that they need to come up with a data disaster recovery plan. These plans are important as they prevent massive and even permanent data loss to an organization. Some of the reasons why the recovery plan is important are because:

Provision of security measures: Nowadays, the risk of corruption of files and other information has increased. This is mainly due to introduction of viruses that cause major destruction of information within an organization. Having a recovery plan will lay out all the necessary procedures for backing up the information even if the system is infected. The recovery plan will also spell out with anti-virus software will be used to safeguard against viral intrusion. It will also put into place ways of protecting the internal network from outsiders with evil motives.

There is an assurance: After one is able to set up a data recovery plan, this will act as an assurance to the customers. Customers usually worry about the information they give to an organization and would like to be affirmed that their information is safe. Thus, if an organization has a recovery plan in place, the customer's minds will be at peace knowing that their information is well kept. A data disaster recovery plan can also act as a major selling point to new clients and thus, ones business expands.

It saves time and money: Imagine you have lost all the information of your organization and you did not have a backup. This means you either closed down or you input all the information again. This will waste both time and money as time is lost in inputting the data again and people will demand for overtime pay. Thus, having a data disaster recovery plan will help give guidance in trying to retrieve as much information as possible and in this way time and money is saved.

Are Deleted Files Still on My Computer? - Find Out How to Recover Deleted Files Here

This is a common question received by many computer technicians. Quite often, people are told "No", but in most cases this is not true. When a file is deleted, even when it is erased from the recycle bin, it is far from gone. This is due to the inherent poor housekeeping of the Windows operating system. Traces of file can still be found, often times in the RAM, by specialized data recovery programs designed for this purpose.

These programs can restore lost data from areas where the lost files may be hiding out. The data recovery software involved is the result of years of experimentation and practice by skilled programmers to come up with an effective and reliable application to recover deleted files. This can prevent a variety of unpleasant occurrences, such as losing financial information, passwords, emails, and photos.

File recovery software can potentially save businesses, and individuals, infinite amounts of time and money. You can recover data from not only your hard drive, but also a flash drive, iPod, and other storage devices.

You can also save considerable amounts of money by not having to ship your system to a data recovery service. Often times these services will charge you hundreds of dollars when they are using the same software you can get at a fraction of the cost.

Are deleted files still on my computer?

The answer is YES! But not for long. Deleted files can be overwritten and lost forever if you do not act quickly. This is why I do not recommend downloading excessive data or installing large programs while you are attempting to recover deleted files. Scan your computer with the program below and get your files back today!

Did you accidentally delete or lose data that you actually needed? Want an easy way to get it back? Learn how to go about recovering deleted files the easy way. Simply scan your computer and choose which files you want to restore. It costs absolutely nothing to try!

Jim Marshall is a computer technician expert with over 15 years in the industry. He has worked on restoring hundreds of hard drives, storage devices, iPods, partitioned drives,and much more. He has compiled reviews of some of the top data recovery programs based on his experiences. After extensive testing see what he considers the best.

How is Word Document Password Recovery Possible?

Did you receive a word document from your boss that is protected? Or do you want to re-gain access to an old assignment that you wrote a long time ago which is protected? These are only a couple of situations that many people face who don't have or remember the password to a Microsoft word document. Now if you would like to gain access to these protected files and want to understand how "Word Doc Password Recovery" is possible then continue reading...

It wasn't possible a few years ago to gain acces to protected files but these days there have been significant advances in technology and there have been specific methods created to crack MS Office Passwords:

First of all Microsoft word has three different types of passwords:

1. "Password to open"

2. "Password to modify"

3. "Protect document password"

Now it is possible to view and edit the "password to modify" with a hex editor so you may be able to recover that using the hex editor. Also when a user sets a "Protect document password", the 32-bit password hash is stored in the Microsoft Word document. Therefore that hash can be viewed or changed with a hex editor as well. To learn more about how to use the hex editor conduct a search on Google about word document password recovery using hex editor and you should know exactly what to do.

If you are looking to recover the "password to open" password then you will need some help as Microsoft doesn't provide any regular utilizes to do so. It can be recovered using a couple of unique recovery methods, these methods are commonly known as dictionary attack and brute force attack. There are several programs available that acquire the capabilities of recovering Microsoft word and office passwords using these methods and they should be able to easily help you recover them.

Personally, when I couldn't access a very important document that I forgot the password to, I used a program called Office Password Recovery Pro to re-gain access to my word document. It is a great program that offers a Free Download, is very easy to use, and will be able to recover any Microsoft office password within a few minutes, no matter how long or complex it is.

Therefore if you were wondering How Word Doc Password Recovery is possible then you could either use the hex editor, or if you wish to recover a "password to open" password then you could use dictionary attack or brute force attack. Both methods are guaranteed to work and recover your documents, so get cracking and re-gain access to those precious files today!

Looking to recover a forgotten Ms Word Password? Don't worry with the right Password Recovery tools you will have access to your files again in no time. I have personally used a program called Office Password Recovery Pro to recover some lost passwords, it has worked wonders for me and I'm sure it can do the same for you.

How is Word Document Password Recovery Possible?

Did you receive a word document from your boss that is protected? Or do you want to re-gain access to an old assignment that you wrote a long time ago which is protected? These are only a couple of situations that many people face who don't have or remember the password to a Microsoft word document. Now if you would like to gain access to these protected files and want to understand how "Word Doc Password Recovery" is possible then continue reading...

It wasn't possible a few years ago to gain acces to protected files but these days there have been significant advances in technology and there have been specific methods created to crack MS Office Passwords:

First of all Microsoft word has three different types of passwords:

1. "Password to open"

2. "Password to modify"

3. "Protect document password"

Now it is possible to view and edit the "password to modify" with a hex editor so you may be able to recover that using the hex editor. Also when a user sets a "Protect document password", the 32-bit password hash is stored in the Microsoft Word document. Therefore that hash can be viewed or changed with a hex editor as well. To learn more about how to use the hex editor conduct a search on Google about word document password recovery using hex editor and you should know exactly what to do.

If you are looking to recover the "password to open" password then you will need some help as Microsoft doesn't provide any regular utilizes to do so. It can be recovered using a couple of unique recovery methods, these methods are commonly known as dictionary attack and brute force attack. There are several programs available that acquire the capabilities of recovering Microsoft word and office passwords using these methods and they should be able to easily help you recover them.

Personally, when I couldn't access a very important document that I forgot the password to, I used a program called Office Password Recovery Pro to re-gain access to my word document. It is a great program that offers a Free Download, is very easy to use, and will be able to recover any Microsoft office password within a few minutes, no matter how long or complex it is.

Therefore if you were wondering How Word Doc Password Recovery is possible then you could either use the hex editor, or if you wish to recover a "password to open" password then you could use dictionary attack or brute force attack. Both methods are guaranteed to work and recover your documents, so get cracking and re-gain access to those precious files today!

Looking to recover a forgotten Ms Word Password? Don't worry with the right Password Recovery tools you will have access to your files again in no time. I have personally used a program called Office Password Recovery Pro to recover some lost passwords, it has worked wonders for me and I'm sure it can do the same for you.

Symptoms of Hard Drive Failure Leading to Data Loss

There are some tell-tale signs that your hard drive may be failing and you could therefore end up losing your data.

Boot Failure: Sometimes, it is possible for one to switch on the computer and it refuses to boot. This may occur as a result of the hard disk containing bad sectors in some disks and/or even corrupted boot record data. Most of the time, booting is done from the hard disk and if there is a problem with the hard disk, then it would be difficult to have a proper boot.

Unusual Sounds: In some cases, when the computer is running, one can be able to note some unusual click sounds (whirring or buzzing), that can either be at regular or irregular intervals. It is advised that once this has happened to contact a computer specialist. This sound may come as a result of a broken actuator arm or failure of a servo motor. The best thing to do is to backup your data immediately and contact a data recovery specialist in case some data may go missing.

Appearance of "Blue Screen of Death": When a computer is running, and a blue screen with a lot of information written on it appears and usually reboots automatically. This is what we refer to as the "blue screen of death". It is usually a crash recovery program that tries to recover data that has been lost. One of the principle causes of its appearance is hard drive failure. Therefore, the next time it appears, check on your hard disk.

No sound of read/writing: Whenever data is read/stored from a storage device, there is usually some sound from the hard drive that signals reading or writing. If there is no sound then that may be a signal that there is a problem with the hard disk drive. Such a phenomenon may be caused by excessive heat emitted by the CPU that causes some components within the hard drive to expand and touch other components within the hard drive.

Retrieving Lost Data - File Recovery Tools

Yep, at some point someone most likely has told you to back your files up. Did you listen? The answer is pretty obvious from where I'm sitting. I'm going to assume that you didn't back those files up, and that's why you're sitting there reading this article looking for information on the internet-yes, I do have to rub it in a bit! Let's see if I can help you get back those lost files!

That's enough of that, we need to start talking solutions!

Before we get into solutions, there is something else we need to cover-preventative measures! Yep, that's right! We're covering all those things you should have done before this problem ever arose. Print and store any printable document before you start backing up anything. A hard copy can be very important during certain situations when electronic copies can't be accessed, like during a power outage or several other scenarios.

As for backing up on the electronic side of things, it's going to be the usual suspects: CD, DVD, USB Flash Drive, and Kevin Spacey...wait a second, that last one wasn't right was it? Oh yeah, you can never rule out an email account-great for backing up electronic files and being able to access them on-the-fly from nearly anywhere!

Power outages, hardware failures, software glitches, and wild nephews can all lead to substantial data loss and insane nightmares which are detailed by trying to recover lost data. Another possible alternative is going through a paid online data storage company, great way to have an off-location "electronic safe."

Okay, let's hit the bricks now, no matter the dreadful situation that has befallen you, we need to get those darn files back! Make sure there not still in the Recycle Bin still waiting to be completely sent to word processor document heaven-believe it or not, this has been the answer to this problem far too many times.

If you'd rather not deal with the situation yourself you could always pay a computer technician a hefty amount of cash to get out his digital shovel and start slinging digital dirt over his shoulders. It'll most likely hurt your bank account, but it'll make his day. One computer repair session and his World of Warcraft account gets an upgrade, more than likely.

If you're going to hand the situation yourself, then you're going to need your own set of data recovery tools! There are many different data recovery software programs online which are being offered for free, but they also come with a lack of support for future upgrades, telephone customer support service, and they're more than likely going to be package with advertisements-developers have to pay for their development costs somehow!

I highly recommend picking up your own set of data recovery tools, something a little popular with a name brand.

Restore Data From Damaged Hard Drive - A Quick Way to Recover Files From Crashed Hard Drive

Yikes, your hard drive crashed! Now I know the first thing running through your head. Is there anyway to restore data from damaged hard drive? I remember this happened to me once before. I ended losing about 20 GB's worth of information. Music files, multimedia, word documents, priceless photos of my family and I - all erased forever. What I didn't understand at the time was you can restore lost data from a damaged or corrupted hard drive quite easily. What you need is the proper file recovery software to do it!

There are numerous ways a hard drive can be damaged. You could have suffered a serious system error. A terrible virus can take over your computer and corrupt your hard drive. Problems in the Windows registry can cause severe hard drive failure. Or perhaps it was due to human error or some kind of physical damage. Whatever the reason, you will need to recover lost files quickly before it is too late.

In order to recover data from crashed hard drive, the first thing you need to do is protect the integrity of the drive. The files are there but can be lost forever if you do not take the proper steps. Do not mess around with it or make any alterations whatsoever. A crashed hard drive is hypertensive to any kind of changes and it can be very hard to troubleshoot.

To restore lost data you need to use file recovery software. After my own incident I smartened up and selected the best data recovery software I could find. I found an excellent program that makes the process so easy all you need to do is click the mouse a few times and you can rescue your data. Download the software for free and see what files it can recover.

Did you accidentally delete or lose data that you actually needed? Want an easy way to get it back? Learn how to go about recovering deleted files the easy way. Simply scan your computer and choose which files you want to restore. It costs absolutely nothing to try!

Jim Marshall is a computer technician expert with over 15 years in the industry. He has worked on restoring hundreds of hard drives, storage devices, iPods, partitioned drives,and much more. He has compiled reviews of some of the top data recovery programs based on his experiences. After extensive testing see what he considers the best.

Seagate 7200.11 Hard Drive Problems - Right Solution For Stays "Busy" - Being Detected With 0 in LBA

Seagate has recently discovered that Barracuda 7200.11 family hard drive has a random, unexplained freezing problem that was usually most apparent with hard drive stays BUSY, being detected with 0 in LBA.

There is so much talk about this major problem, some say that if the hard drive powers up, it will be recognized in the system for a few seconds, and soon it shows as "BUSY" "Drive Not Ready", or LBA is detected as 0.

Technically speaking, Seagate 7200.11 family has a big capacity up to 1.5 TB of storage. Bearing GMR recording heads technology can provide drives with increased recording density; in this case, an error-correction algorithm was made to maintain the read correction and data storage. SalvationDATA experts verify that hard drive will sequently read the data in P-list and G-list, when perform on a detective list. Otherwise, as soon as the read command failed; the hard drive will promptly get into a state of self-protection, so the data stored on the disk will not be destroyed by other operation errors of any time. The reason that can cause read failures is the mess of data in G-list and P-list, and that's the problem where hard drive are going "BUSY" soon after powered up.

However, there are many solutions out there claim to resolve these problems like hard disk drive stays "BUSY" and "Drive Not Ready", or being detected with 0 in LBA, for example. In fact, they are simply dealing with the "BUSY" issue. Here are the options:

1. First you need to remove PCB from HDA case and connect it to the console box.

2. Turn to CMD mode, command "Ctrl+Z"; "F3 T>" will be output.

3. Command "/2", turn to Level 2.

4. Input command "Z" and press Enter to stop spindle motor.

5. Then mount PCB to HDA case; do not power off during mounting.

6. In CMD mode, input command "U" and press "Enter" to start spindle motor.

7. Input command "/1" and press "Enter" to Level 1.

8. Input command N1and press "Enter".

9. Switch power off and on, then the drive should reach readiness.

10. Then use Barracuda 7200.11 hard drive utility of automatic reallocation to restore LBA 0 GB issue.

The other problem that LBA is detected as 0 is a typical failure for Barracuda 7200.11 hard drive. Such drives can be detected normally but the data area is inaccessible with LBA 0 GB.

G-list is related with SMART-list. SalvationDATA technicians have recently discovered that when Barracuda 7200.11 hard drives deal with bad sectors, SMART list will read/write on every sector, to check if there are real bad sectors existing, soon will add those bad sectors to G-list. These operations will be noted on SMART Log then. In most cases, If drives are being powered on/off too often when drives are engaged on reading data, as a result, hard drive will get hung a lot and then SMART list will be destroyed, and also impact on G-list, so the hard drive will be detected with LBA 0 GB.

Thus, a new release version of HD Doctor Utility for Seagate 7200.11 hard drive also claims to fix the problem without damaging the data, actually works for data recovery. It will be the unique feature which is only available in HD Doctor Utility; no other similar tool is capable for solution before this time; otherwise, you can send back to Seagate technology support in case they could work it out, but be noted that only the drive, not the data.

All rights reserved. Free to copy the article, without re-editing.

To learn much more about hard drive data recovery solutions, please visit salvationdata.com where you can get more free information on specialized data recovery equipment and firmware repair tools.

Zoe Chou is a freelancer for SalvationDATA doing research in data recovery solutions, and specializing in data recovery equipment and firmware repair tools.

Is Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 Hard Drive Malfunction Bugging You?

Previously, in the IT world, most people were focusing on Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 family hard drive and were worry about some drive-level issues, such as hard disk drive status stays BUSY; hard disk drive being detected with 0 in LBA; hard disk drive reports SMART error on startup, etc.

However, all these problems now can be fixed without damaging the data, instead works for data recovery. That will be unique features which are only available in HD Doctor Utility; no other similar HDD repair and data recovery equipment is capable for solution before this time. It's being a big step.

The problem that HDD being detected with 0 GB is a typical malfunction for Barracuda 7200.11. Such drives can be detected normally but the data area is inaccessible with LBA detected as 0.

Here is an option: the upgrade version of HD Doctor for Seagate 3.0 adds the feature to recover such malfunction without damaging the data on the drive. Also, this can work out for Barracuda 7200.11 malfunction that drive stays BUSY.

How to get rid of CE LOG error from products like HD Doctor?

It was said that when being connected to HD Doctor Console, the malfunction drive can be ready and detected normally, but it will be very slow in reading data from the drive. Some experts clarify that the CMD utility will repeatedly output CE Log error message, which is the reason that causes the drive being very slow in reading data from. The version 3.0 adds the feature of CE Log Repair to remove such malfunction. The feature is intended for Barracuda 7200.8, Barracuda 7200.9 and Barracuda 7200.10 drives.

As experts and professionals worldwide predict that HD Doctor for Seagate is a software-hardware complex designed for data recovery from damaged Seagate hard drives. Its first release was on 2004, since then it was developed from a DOS program that supported the major models of Seagate drives to a software-hardware complex runs on Windows with easy and instantly renewable USB installation. Now it has been the tool supports the most comprehensive drive families; with the problems of Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 being exposed, on this July, solutions have been worked out for three typical headaches mentioned above.

In fact, hard drive storage is not relatively secure. Even the best products can eventually malfunction and any minor repair from a data recovery company can be expensive.

Anytime, most people take their data for granted. Let's face it! Given your data drive malfunction, you can easily lose all the data on it, even find it helpless till after send to a third party data recovery company. One way of dealing with this impending danger is to do backups, so that you will be able to retrieve your data in a case of a drive malfunction. Don't get your data risking.

All rights reserved. Free to copy the article, without re-editing.

To learn much more about hard drive data recovery solutions, please visit salvationdata.com where you can get more free information on specialized data recovery equipment and firmware repair tools.

Zoe Chou is a freelancer for SalvationDATA doing research in data recovery solutions, and specializing in data recovery equipment and firmware repair tools.

How to Recover iPod Music Files Accidentally Deleted Or Lost From Corrupt Or Formatted iPod

iPods have become an integral part of many people's lives , they are an extremely valued and cherished possession for most people. We store most of our media on our iPod device including all of our songs, videos or photos that we consider as meaningful, and it is a collection that we amass over an extended period of time. So what the hell are we supposed to do when all that data disappears before your very eyes because it gets accidentally deleted or lost? Is there any way to recover iPod music files if they have been lost due to a corrupt or formatted iPod or have been accidentally deleted/lost?

Well if you somehow managed to delete or lose all of your favorite songs, videos or photos of your iPod I think you will be pretty happy to know that they haven't been permanently deleted or lost and can still be recovered. Even if your iPod is frozen, corrupted, been formatted or you accidentally hit the iTunes restore button, you can still recover all of your music and other files. With the aid of good iPod recovery software it is possible to restore all of your music files very easily these days, however success depends more or less on how quickly you act!

You must act quickly due to the fact that when you delete or lose a file from your iPod it isn't actually permanently erased from the hard drive. What actually happens is that the space that was occupied by that particular file is now available as free and re-useable space. So until that space is re-used and overwritten by a new file (songs, videos, photos etc.) your music and videos are still there and can be easily retrieved. Therefore you must act fast and try not to upload any new songs or videos onto the iPod, because any new data you put on the iPod could possibly overwrite your previous collection.

Here are some common situations that many iPod users face who wish to recover Songs from their iPod:

- You plugged your iPod into a computer, iTunes started up and you watched all the music and files on your iPod suddenly disappear.

- Or you re-installed windows plugged your iPod in, let iTunes start up and all the songs were gone.

- Or another classic case is you connected your iPod to a friend's computer, iTunes started up and all your songs were gone and you were updated with your friend's tunes.

All these problems occur due to the iTunes auto sync feature, which is an option in the iTunes software. What happens when auto sync is enabled is that when you plug in your iPod to the computer it automatically updates the files on your iPod with whatever is in the iTunes library on the connected computer. It is a stupid feature if you ask me, and it has caused much grief for many iPod users around the world.

- Other common situations are if you accidentally hit the restore button in tunes and formatted the iPod. Or if the iPod is frozen and displays an Exclamation Mark and Folder Icon or it simply doesn't start at all.

So if you are stuck in some of the above predicaments then don't worry, you can still recover your lost songs, videos, and pictures from your iPod if you act quick enough. The files are recoverable due to the fact that your iPod doesn't overwrite the songs and videos straight away, so until you upload the iPod with any new files all of your old music, video and photo collection can still be recovered.

Therefore if you wish to recover iPod music files that have been lost because your iPod is corrupt or formatted then you must obtain a good iPod recovery software, and you should have all your favorite songs back in no time. The good news is that most of these software's offer a free download so you can test them out and see if your files are recoverable at absolutely no cost.

If you have lost or accidentally deleted music of your iPod, then don't Panic! With the right iPod Recovery Tool You should have all your favorite songs back within minutes. Personally I have used this particular Program to recover some of my lost music and video files, it has worked wonders for me and I'm sure it can do the same for you. Not only can you retrieve files that have been accidentally lost or deleted but also recover music from formatted or corrupt iPods. Check It Out!

Deleted File Recovery Software - Can Software Recover Deleted Files?

When computer users whether personal or business think of losing data, they fear hard disk crashes, power failures, physical damage, and other unavoidable occurrences. These problems can cause valuable data to be lost, running up expenses of hundreds to thousands of dollars. Not so many users consider that accidentally deleted files or intentionally erasing information you later realize that you need can be just as bad. This can range from the prized sentimental value of the picture of a loved one or a database of customer accounts which could cost a business thousands of dollars.

Whatever the issue, the accidental deletion of files can be devastating, and for most of the computer age, has been an irreversible mistake. Nowadays, however, deleted file recovery software exists and is easily available to all types of users. This software works below the operating system level to retrieve files that would normally have been considered gone. When a file is deleted, traces of it remain temporarily in the RAM and can be retrieved. The process is nearly impossible to perform manually but this is where file recovery software comes in.

Deleted file recovery software can recover files in circumstances including but not limited to:

(i) Accidentally deleting files from the recycling bin.
(ii) Your hard drive suffered damage and was forced to reformat losing critical data.
(iii) You erased information from a flash drive, ipod, or other device and want to recover it.

All these examples, and many other possible scenarios, would be easily rectified with deleted file recovery software.

In conclusion, file restore software can be a huge help when unfortunate circumstances strike. To restore lost files on your own system, simply scan your computer below and see what it finds.

Did you accidentally delete or lose data that you actually needed? Want an easy way to get it back? Learn how to go about recovering deleted files the easy way. Simply scan your computer and choose which files you want to restore. It costs absolutely nothing to try!

Jim Marshall is a computer technician expert with over 15 years in the industry. He has worked on restoring hundreds of hard drives, storage devices, iPods, partitioned drives, and much more. He has compiled reviews of some of the top data recovery programs based on his experiences. After extensive testing see what he considers the best.

How to Protect Against Data Loss From System Crashes

Very often, when a person's system crashes, there is a great amount of data loss as a result of having to format your hard drive and re-install Windows. Few people have the resources to "slave" the drive on another computer and extract their valuable information before redoing the system.

Microsoft has done a wonderful job in designing operating systems, but therein lies the trap! The default is to save your documents, files, photos, music etc in a folder called "My Documents" which is situated in "Documents and SettingsUsers" in the same drive as your Operating System. If your Operating System fails and you have not been methodical about doing back-ups (who of us is that religious about backing up data anyway), you are faced with a major problem - How do you retrieve your data before re-installing Windows?

There are ways of doing this but you need to have access to a spare P/C and not everyone has technical know-how to "slave" the drive with the damaged operating system in order to extract the data, nor does everyone have a "spare" P/C lying around waiting for just such an event. It can also be costly to take your computer in to have your data backed up when all you really should need to do is format your drive and re-load the O/S.

Most of us have, at one time or another, been faced with this problem. Here's how to avoid the aggravation of losing your data:

Firstly, make sure that your computer has more than one drive. This can be done in two ways:

1. When purchasing a new P/C, ask your supplier to install two separate hard drives. These will normally be labeled "C" and "D".

C: would be used mainly for the operating system and can be a smaller, entry level drive.

D: will be your storage drive and, because of the amount of data one accumulates over time, you would want this to be quite a hefty drive.

2. You can "split" your single drive into separate two drives - C: and D:

Now that you have 2 drives you need to transfer your data that you already have saved on C: to the new drive:

Firstly, create a set of folders on your new (D:) drive in which you wish to store your data. Make these logical directories that you will easily associate with - i.e."Business; Family; photos; music; movies" etc.

Now transfer your files from C: to these folders - this would be a good time to re-organise your data into logical groups - create sub-folders to categorise your information for easier future access. Most of your data will be found in "Documents and SettingsUsers"

Next you will need to modify where Windows saves your work. Most programs will work the same way - here is where you will find the file locations for MsWord, Excell, etc: Click Tools, Options, File Locations, Modify and then Browse to the folder you wish to be the default location (Possibly make this a "Transition" folder as you can then move the files later to the individual folders - Just so long as you save the file in D:)

Lastly, see if there are any other documents filed elsewhere in C: - you can do a search for *.doc and *.xls in Drive C once you have transferred all the above (* being used as a 'wild' search for all documents within the file extension)

Once you have transferred all your documents it would be advisable to Defrag your C: to ensure smooth running of your computer.

Now your computer is safe from Windows crashes and failures but be sure to understand that your data is not protected from a Physical Hard Drive Crash. So be sure to back up your data regularly on C/D or DVD. This will be much easier now that all your data is in one source.

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Twelve Tips to Keep Your Computers Running Smoothly

1. Don't install software you don't need. You run a business, only install the software you need for your business. Keep your PCs clean of P2P file sharing programs, web-browser add-ons, instant messaging (unless you use it for a business tool - for most people instant messaging is just a good way to waste time),

2. When installing software don't use the "recommended" settings. Often these settings install trialware, toolbars, etc. that you don't need. Choose "advanced" settings and uncheck the installation of any "crapware" programs and components you don't want or need.

3. Turn on Microsoft Windows Update and keep your computer up-to-date. Many of these updates are security updates that are necessary to keep the bad guys out.

4. Leave your computer turned on 24x7. It will update itself in the middle of the night. In addition, electronic components last longer when left on rather than power cycling and warming up/cooling down. Make sure your monitor is set to turn off after 30 minutes or so and the PC won't use a lot of power (as much as a small light bulb).

5. Get a good anti-virus/anti-spyware program and, very important, keep it up-to-date. Kaspersky is a great choice. AVG also does a good job and doesn't slow down your PC, it's also available as a free version for home use. Stay away from the big names in Anti-Virus (the ones that spend more on advertising than fixing and standing behind their products), they are resource hogs and their technical support is horrible.

6. Run a registry cleaner on a regular basis. Here are some great ones that are available at no cost:

Ccleaner -ccleaner.com

TweakNow RegCleaner -tweaknow.com/RegCleaner.html

Both can also be downloaded from download.com and the authors accept and deserve donations for putting out such great software.

7. Uninstall unused and unwanted programs. Many of the programs that come pre-installed on PCs (a.k.a. crapware) need to be taken off. Here's a great piece of freeware to help make the process painless:

PC Decrapifier - http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/

8. Tip number 7 goes double for programs that auto start when you start your PC. See all those icons in the lower right corner near the time? Make sure you know what each one is and why you need it. If you don't then get rid of it.

9. Defragment your disk drive (Start-All Programs-Accessories-System Tools-Defragment). Set it up to run on a regular basis - at least once a month.

10. Make sure you have enough memory. Memory is cheap and can really add new life to an older PC. If you can hear your hard drive chattering away all the time then it could be a sign that you don't have enough memory. Right-click on My Computer and select Properties. The first page will show you how much memory you have. For XP you should have at least 1 GB (1024 MB). For Vista at least 2 GB (2048 MB).

11. Add a UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply). A decent one for a PC will only cost about $40-60 and can really save you from some bad crashes and unnecessary wear-and-tear due to poor power.

12. Make sure you have a hardware firewall between you and the internet. Routers, both wired and wireless, are basic firewalls. Make sure yours also has Packet Inspection (usually SPI or Stateful Packet Inspection). You may pay a few more dollars for this feature, but not much, and it's well worth it.

For more information about computers and business please visit Computers Scare Me - a Resource for Small Business at http://www.computersscareme.com

Here you will find tips on what to buy for your business, what to do when things go wrong, and how to use computers to make more money for your business.

Recover Forgotten Windows Password

Windows has a built in feature that creates a floppy diskette that helps you reset your password in case you don't remember it. This feature is accessible from Control Panel in the User Accounts applet. To create a password reset disk,click on the user account and click "prevent a forgotten password". You will need one blank formatted floppy disk to complete the task. Keep the floppy disk in a safe place for use in case of a forgotten password.

Most computers running Windows XP do not have a password set for the hidden administrator account that is accessible only in safe mode. You can access safe mode by pressing the F8 key just after the first screen(sometimes know as the BIOS screen). Windows gives a list of options after the F8 key is pressed. Choose the "Safe Mode" option and press Enter. Log on the account called "administrator" and open control panel. Navigate to the user account applet and click on the user account with the forgotten password. Click "remove password" and the account will be password free. This only works when there is no password set on the hidden administrator account. This method works only in Windows XP. The hidden administrator account is not accessible via safe mode in Windows Vista.

Third party tools have been developed that help you reset your Windows password. My personal favorite is "Active @ Password Changer". The software finds the registry key that contains your passwords and gives you the option to remove the password from any user account. Moreover, the software works for almost every version of Windows out there both 32-bit and 64-bit. It has both DOS and Windows versions. I prefer the Windows version since it uses a simple graphical interface and it is a lot easier to use than the DOS version.

Other third party tools such as EBCD (Emergency Boot CD) and Spotmau Password Finder can also help recover or reset Windows Passwords. Active @ Password Changer is by far the simplest way to remove a forgotten password and there is no fear of losing data.

Do you want to know more about computers and they way they work? Go to http://pcblogger.net to access thousands of articles and tutorials to enhance your knowledge about computers.

How to Recover Deleted Pictures Erased From Any Digital Cameras Memory Card

Did you accidentally delete some valuable pictures you had saved on your Digital cameras Memory Card? Or maybe you formatted your SD card and are looking for a way to get some of your old Photos Back? Well recovering pictures deleted from your SD Card or any other type of memory card has never been easier and can be done; with the right tools you can have your deleted photos back in no time, provided you have met a few essential conditions. So for anyone out there who is looking for an answer to the question, "How to Recover Deleted Pictures from Memory Cards", here is how you would go about retrieval of your photos...

Firstly the reason you are able to recover your deleted pictures from your Digital cameras memory card ( SD Disk, XD Card, MMC Card etc.) is due to the fact that digital memory cards are very much like a computer's hard disk. Just like a computer's hard drive, memory cards do not permanently erase a file once it has been deleted from the drive, instead they simply list the space that was occupied by the file as new re-usable space, and until that space is overwritten by a new file your old file is still there and can be recovered. So in this case if you accidentally deleted pictures off your memory card then they can still be retrieved provided you act quickly.

Essentially you only have a small window of opportunity in which you will be able to fully recover all of your lost photos, so you must act fast. The more pictures you take after you have realized you accidentally deleted a photo the lesser your chances you will be of a full recovery. This is because the new pictures will overwrite the free space created by the deleted pictures and eventually they will be overwritten and lost forever. So once you have realized you accidentally deleted a picture or you formatted your Memory Card, and wish to retrieve your Pictures, DO NOT take any more photos.

Retrieval of pictures deleted off memory cards is a fairly easy task once you have the right tools, I personally had great success with a program called Stellar Photo Recovery. I was in a much worse situation as I accidentally formatted my memory card by hitting the delete-all option, and to my amazement, Stellar Photo was still able to fully recover all of my pictures.

So if you are looking to recover deleted pictures from Memory cards then you need to grab a good photo recovery tool, and you should have all your cherished pictures back in no time at all. You can recover pictures from any type of memory card including flash cards, SD Cards, MMC Cards, XD Cards and more. Plus the best part is that most tools offer a free download so you are able to see if your Pictures are recoverable at no cost.

If you have Lost or deleted important Photos, Don't Panic, all hope is not lost, With the right Photo Recovery Tool you should have your files back in no time. Not only can you retrieve photos from SD Cards but also flash cards, Sony memory sticks, MMC Cards, XD Cards, Secure Digital Cards and many others. I have personally used Stellar Photo Recovery to recover some of my deleted photos, it has worked wonders for me and I'm sure it can do the same for you!

Tools, Software and Methods to Ensure 100% Recovery From Computer Data Loss

If you have had a major computer data loss or hard disk failure that resulted in the loss of major data stored in your computer, the measurement of the effectiveness of the data recovery process lies in the time period it takes for you to recover the data or to restore the data in its entirety.

While there are many ways to recover your data loss, methods and tools used in the recovery process can range from the very complicated to simple tools available.

Data recovery is never simple, but while the process is complicated, the data recovery can take the minimal amount of time, with very few difficulties or non at all.

In order to recover your data, you may need to purchase a data recovery tool kit designed to work as a simple stand alone solution that you can use on or offline.

There are available software tools that can be used to recover data that has been lost by simple inadvertent erasure. With some software tools, it is possible to recover data still resident in the trash bin or in other less accessible areas of your computer, including some recent deleted data files.

Many of these tools are now common applications for forensic accountants and scientists who work on erasable data to recover them as evidence in a court of law or for police work.

The most important point is that data recovery tools are effective to allow you to recover most of the data loss, but to recover 100% of the data loss is not often possible.

The ultimate way to guarantee your data is to use a remote data backup system that resides on another server, so that upon replacement of any physical component of part of the computer which has broken down, such as a hard disk failure, it will only take a few minutes to completely restore the entire contents of a computer system via the remote data backup. Only a remote data backup will allow you to restore everything back to its last original state.

So the question to ask is this: "Are you protected 100% against data loss in your computer system?". If you are not, then it is indeed time to consider utilising a remote data backup system which is readily available for as low as $10 a month and will enable you to recover your full data immediately remotely in the event of a devastating data loss.

Still personally unprotected against sudden data loss and data information? Grab the no-cost no obligation 30 day trial of a remote data backup system for your personal computer by visiting Data Recovery and Backup. If you are interested to learn more about the $10 method to remotely backup your computer data and stay 100% protected against devastating data loss, visit the website http://1st-in-raid-data-recovery.info today

Best Data Recovery Software - Restoring Deleted Files

The best data recovery software you can find today is called Restore Deleted Files. With this software, you can recover data no matter how you lost it - from freeze ups which force you to reboot and lose all unsaved information, from computer crashes, and also accidental deletion. Even from viruses which make us have to erase everything and start all over again, including reinstalling Windows - Restore Deleted Files can even do its job in such a drastic case, and that is why it is the best data recovery software on the market.

But there are other reasons why Restore Deleted Files is the best data recovery software, and one of those reasons is that it doesn't matter what OS you're using. If you're using VISTA, or if you've got a dinosaur of a machine running Windows 98, it's all good with Restore Deleted Files. Another reason why it is the best data recovery software is its reach - usually, if the recycle bin has been emptied (files deleted from the recycle bin), the operating system cannot recover any files.

The files still remain on the hard drive, relatively intact, until that part of the hard drive is overwritten by another file. Restore Deleted Files finds and recovers even these files, and if these files have been partially overwritten, the retrieval software begins reconstruction of the file so that it may continue to be used. This alone is enough for me to call this work of wonder the best data recovery software available on the internet today.

Data Security & Data Loss

Encryption continues to be the topic on every CIO and IT person’s lips nowadays. No one wants to end up in the news as the next victim of a privacy breach or the next company that didn’t protect its customers’ information. If you conduct a news search using the words “personal data breach,” you’ll be alarmed at the number of instances where personal information such as social security and credit-card numbers have been exposed to possible theft. In a recent breach, a state government site allowed access to hundreds of thousands of records, including names, addresses, social security numbers and documents with signatures.

Whether it’s government agencies, research facilities, banking institutions, credit card processing companies, hospitals–or your company’s computers - the risk of compromising private information is very high. At the recent “CEO-CIO Symposium,” speaker Erik Phelps from the law firm Michael Best & Friedrich described the relationship business has with technology. In his presentation, he stated that since “business relies so heavily on technology today, business risk becomes technology dependent.” The possibility of litigation is part of business. It has always been a risk of doing business, but because technology and today’s business are so intertwined, business risk has a higher threat level. This has prompted many to encrypt workstations and mobile computers in order to protect critical business data.

If you have rolled out encryption, how do you maintain your IT service quality when the hard disk drive fails? How do you plan and prepare for a data loss when the user’s computer is encrypted? These are all issues that should be considered when putting together a data disaster plan. In addition, data recovery, one of the more common missing elements of a disaster recovery plan, should also be factored in because it can serve as the “Hail Mary” attempt when all other options have been exhausted

Protecting Data from Severe Weather

You can protect your data by following some simple precautions. With that said, even the most well-protected hard drives can crash, fail, quit, click, die… you get the picture. So here are a few tips for how to respond when extreme weather does damage your computer equipment.

1. Summer heat can be a significant problem as overheating can lead to drive failures can result. Keep your computer in a cool, dry area to prevent overheating.

2. Make sure your servers have adequate air conditioning. Increases in computer processor speed have resulted in more power requirements, which in turn require better cooling - especially important during the summer months.

3. To prevent damage caused by lightning strikes, install a surge protector between the power source and the computer’s power cable to handle any power spikes or surges.

4. Invest in some form of Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS), which uses batteries to keep computers running during power outages. UPS systems also help manage an orderly shutdown of the computer - unexpected shutdowns from power surge problems can cause data loss.

5. Check protection devices regularly: At least once a year you should inspect your power protection devices to make sure that they are functioning properly.

Responding to Data Loss Caused by Severe Weather

1. Do not attempt to operate visibly damaged computers or hard drives.

2. Do not shake, disassemble or attempt to clean any hard drive or server that has been damaged - improper handling can make recovery operations more difficult which can lead to valuable information being lost.

3. Never attempt to dry water-damaged media by opening it or exposing it to heat - such as that from a hairdryer. In fact, keeping a water-damaged drive damp can improve your chances for recovery.

4. Do not use data recovery software to attempt recovery on a physically damaged hard drive. Data recovery software is only designed for use on a drive that is fully functioning mechanically.

5. Choose a professional data recovery company to help you

Lost Data: to recovery or not recovery

A data loss has occurred - now what? Determining the need to recover lost data can be a difficult one. There are several things to take into consideration when determining if data recovery is required.

Backup, Backup, Backup
Everyone knows the importance of a good backup system, so your first step should be to determine if the data is actually backed up. Many times lost data is stored on a backup tape, backup hard drive, on the network or other various locations throughout an organization.

Unfortunately, locating and reloading the lost information can be time consuming and deplete resources. If a backup is located, it is important to check that the most recent copy of the data is available. Many times backups occur on a set schedule and if modifications to the data were saved after the backup occurred that information will not be accessible.

Re-Creation
Another important option to consider is if the data can or should be re-created. Two items to take into account when considering this option include the type of data lost and the amount lost:

Type of Data - Different data may have different perceived value. Recovering a customer database is (probably) more important than recovering a file containing possible names for a pet goldfish. Is the missing data a high-volume transaction database such as a banking record? This would be nearly impossible to recreate the thousands of transactions that were happening in real time. Other types of data may not be able to be re-created such as digital photos. Understanding the type of data that was lost is imperative to determining your next steps.

Amount of Data - Understanding how much data was lost can help you understand how much time and resources would be required to re-create the data. The more data lost, the more time and resources required to re-create it – if re-creation is even possible.

An additional point to consider is that with strict regulatory and legal requirements, many companies need access to their lost data in order to comply with these requirements. Accessibility to data and the legal requirements surrounding that data are essential to understand when considering if data recovery is necessary or not.

Data recovery costs can be difficult to plan for because they are unexpected. No one wants to lose data just like no one wants their car to break down or to have to call a plumber for a broken pipe. However, to help put it into perspective with other business related costs – vending services and that morning cup of coffee can run between $500 and $1000 every month for a small business office. An average recovery fee for a typical desktop, Windows-based system is around $1,000. Comparing those figures – the true value of data recovery becomes clear

The Best Data Recovery Choice For You

The best defense against a loss of data is a really solid and faithful backup routine of important files to reliable media. It's also a good idea for the media to be removable and portable if possible so that even if something happens to your whole computer for any reason, the data is protected by being in a totally different physical area.

OK, so that is the best solution to data loss. But what if you have not been backing up your drive like you should and now you find yourself confronted with the daunting task of getting all the important files back that were on your computer before the emergency happened? (By the way, you can take some comfort in knowing that quite a few people find themselves in this situation. You are not alone.) What are your choices at this point?

Well, basically there are two ways of recovering data from a damaged disk, either by using a data recovery service or a data recovery software package. Either can do the job, but there are some factors that should go into your decision about which one to use. First, are you pretty computer savvy? If you are then maybe data recovery software will work for you. If not, do not try this method at all. The other is how much time do you have to spend on retrieving this data? If you have lots of time to put into it, then consider doing the job yourself with a reputable software package. If you don't have much time to devote to this endeavor, don't waste both time and money with the software option.

If you have decided upon using a data recovery service, you should know that the odds are that you will get a good portion, if not all of your data back. The generally accepted success rate in the industry is around 80%. Much of the success will depend on the skill and determination of the data recovery specialist who will be working on your drive. They all have sophisticated software tools to work with, but data recovery is not as simple as just plugging in a piece of software, walking away and coming back when it has found all the files. It often requires a specialist who is a bit of a detective, andnot easily discouraged, to get back a good portion of data, especially on drives with physical damage.

Don't be surprised to get two quotes for data recovery from some companies either. One for logical data retrieval that is much easier to handle and will be a much lower figure, and one for physical damage which is far more challenging and therefore rightly costs more. You will also find that cost quotes will often vary considerably. It is usually best to choose somewhere in the middle of the pack toward the higher end. The reason for this is that some companies engage in a bait and switch tactic that indicates that they will cost less initially, but when they actually receive the drive they wil claim that upon review the cost will be much higher. It's best to avoid messing with these companies at all.

So if you have lost data and have no backups to fall back on, data recovery can still be done. Just use the guidelines presented in this article for choosing the data recovery method that will work best for you.

Reasons and Costs of Data Loss

Computer data may be one of your company’s most valuable and vulnerable assets. According to our experience, the primary threats to your data include:

• Hardware or System Problems
• Human Error
• Software Corruption or Program Problems
• Computer Viruses
• Natural Disasters

These five major threats to your computer data share two things in common: they are unpredictable and, in many cases, uncontrollable. Therefore, the precautions taken by IT professionals to safeguard company data cannot always prevent a data loss.

Computer users and many experts often consider lost data permanently destroyed, with no hope of recovery. Information about lost data can be complex, inconsistent or inaccurate, so it’s not surprising that data loss and data recovery are some of the most confusing and misunderstood concepts.

In addition to being a vulnerable asset, computer data is also a valuable asset.

Based on the information below it is easy to see how significant the costs of lost or inaccessible data can be. The following is a summary of the average hourly impact of lost data on a selection of different businesses.

Type of Business & Average Hourly Impact

When time is crucial and data is mission-critical, data recovery may be the most practical option available. Data recovery professionals recover data from the damaged media itself, providing several advantages over alternative methods of data retrieval.

1) Complete - Data recovery professionals can safely enter the system or media to achieve a comprehensive data recovery.

2) Current - Although many people revert to backups following a data loss, those backups typically contain outdated information or could be corrupt themselves. Data recovery can help you access the most recent version of the lost data.

3) Fast - Every second that passes following a data disaster means time and money lost to your company. Data recovery reduces this downtime by quickly recovering and returning your data.

4) Cost-effective - The expense in time, money, and effort of rebuilding or re-keying lost data can be overwhelming to your company. Data recovery can provide the quickest and most complete data recovery possible.

Test: How Secure Is Your Data?

With the increasing reliance on today’s computer systems and networks for the day to day running of businesses, there is an imminent threat to business continuity. Computer systems can be affected by a variety of sources: power outages, water leaks, systems failures, etc. Most companies have some sort of backup system in place, example UPS for power failure, but fail to take into account other hidden factors. It is no longer a question of if you will experience system or environment failures, but when. The 10-question quiz that follows can assist in assessing your company’s risk of experiencing downtime due to system or environment failures.

1. How many hours of continual data processing does your business do over a 24 hour period?
Threat: The average company’s hourly downtime accounts for $78,000 in lost revenue?
8 hours or less (10 points)
8 to 16 hours (75 points)
16 to 24 hours (100 points)

2. How much downtime can your business afford?
Threat: Computer downtime cost US businesses $4 billion a year, primarily through lost revenue.
1 week to 1 month (10 points)
2 days to 1 week (75 points)
1 day or less (100 points)

3. What is your business system or data worth?
Threat: 43% of U. S. Business never re-open after a disaster experience and 29% close with in 2 years.
$10,000 or less (10 points)
$10,000 to 100,000 (75 points)
$100,000 or more (100 points)

4. How many users does your computer system support?
Threat: The manufacturing industry lost an average of $421,000 per incident of on-line computer systems downtime.
1 to 10 users (10 points)
10 to 100 users (75 points)
100 or more users (100 points)

5. How much down time have you experienced over the last year?
Threat: The average company’s computer system was down 9 times per year for an average of 4 hours each time.
20 hours or less (10 points)
20 to 150 hours (75 points)
150 or more hours (100 points)

6. How many hours is your data center unattended?
Threat: The average company’s hourly downtime costs an average of $330,000 per outage.
1 hour or less (10 points)
1 hour to 8 hours (75 points)
8 hours or more (100 points)

7. What percentage of your systems and environmental conditions (temperature, water, and smoke) are you monitoring with an early detection system?
Threat: Environmental incident’s accounted for 10. 3% of business interruptions in the past 5 years.
90% or more (10 points)
70 to 90% (75 points)
70% or less (100 points)

8. How many hours has your UPS had to back up your system this year?
Threat: Power problems accounted for 29. 48% of U.S. computer outages.
3 or less hours (10 points)
3 to 8 hours (75 points)
8 or more hours (100 points)

9. If your system went down on Friday at midnight, how long would it be before you are notified?
Threat: A 1993 Gallup/GRN survey reported that Fortune 1000 companies average 1.6 hours of LAN downtime per week [that is over 2 weeks per year].
3 or less hours (10 points)
3 to 8 hours (75 points)
8 or more hours (100 points)

10. How many people have access to your main computer room ?
Threat: Human error accounted for 34. 4% of business interruptions in the past 5 years
3 or less (10 points)
3 to 10 (75 points)
10 or more (100 points)

Scoring :

165 and under: Your computer room is either very well protected or computer room down time will not affect your business.
165-799: You have trouble spots in your computer room; proactive steps taken now will help you avoid trouble in the future.
800 and over: Your computer room and quite possibly your job are in serious jeopardy. Look into ways of securing your computer room before disaster strike’s time is ticking.

What are the common Reasons of Hard Disk Drive failure?

What are the common Reasons of Hard Disk Drive failure?

1. Electronic Component Failure
2. Motor Failure
3. Read / Write Head Failure
4. Media Damage
5. Firmware Corruption
6. Logical Failure

One or all of the above primary causes may be evident when diagnosing a failed hard disk drive.

Electronic Component Failure
Electronic components may fail due to voltage transients, heat or poor handling. Substitution, repair and re-programming is generally required in order to recover data stored on the hard disk. PCB assemblies are however hyper tuned at the manufacture stage and specialist re-programming and calibration is subsequently required to restore the hard disk to a working condition.

Motor Failure
Hard disk motor spindles have fluid bearings; sometimes this fluid leaks or becomes overheated and in-effective. The motor will then seize and the hard disk platters fail to rotate. Platter and component re-location to another hard disk assembly is required to effect a repair and restore data.

Read / Write Head Failure
Read / write heads are aerodynamically designed to “fly” at nanometer distances above the surface of the platters. Ceramic thin film sensors at their tip detect magnetic information (data) stored on the surface of the platter. Occasionally the atmosphere in the hard disk enclosure will become contaminated or vibration will cause the dynamic of the head to be disturbed. This disturbance will cause the read /write process to malfunction resulting in bad data read write cycles and eventual failure.
This type of failure usually manifests itself as a distinct clicking noise as the head actuator makes failed repeat attempts to locate data at the same platter track location.

Media Damage
Amazingly all computer hard disk magnetic storage media is manufactured imperfect but to acceptable and controllable levels. During normal operations imperfections will sometimes increase above the predefined acceptable level. This can be due to heat, vibration, head crash, shock or other factors. The operating system will flag errors or fail to boot and data files will then become in-accessible. Read/.Write head replacement and file repair will allow data file structures to be examined and assessed as to their validity.

Firmware Corruption
Hard disk firmware holds precise parameters relevant to the configuration of the assembly at the time of manufacture. Occasionally the firmware becomes corrupt or will “roll back” to an incorrect set of parameters. Under these conditions the location of the stored data as reported to the operating system will be lost. Simple restoration of the correct parameters will allow the hard disk to function correctly. What causes this corruption? Operating system to drive software bugs, control bus protocol failure, it is difficult to determine but failures do occur.

Logical Failure
Data files are stored at logical locations that relate to a number of physical locations on the surface of the hard disk platters. These logical locations are held in tables by the operating system and indexed when running specific software applications. Operating system errors, reloads or incorrect upgrade applications will sometimes corrupt these tables and data will become in-accessible. This is generally referred to as a logical failure. Logical errors can be repaired with software tools available from the internet. Be cautious however - if you are intending to run a fix utility on your disk you can inadvertently damage these tables irreparably and your data will be unrecoverable. This is especially true when running ScanDisk and Chkdsk on a damaged hard drive.

How to Start a Data Recovey Business

What Procedure is Data Recovery assignment involved?

The following three issues are critical for your data recovery business. They includes the first (Technical Know-How) and the last two (Marketing Plan and Financial Resources) followed only if you can handle the first.

Technical Know-How: As this industry is professional, specialized know-how is required to handle the varied types of data recovery assignments. Generally speaking, there is 3+1 work flow applicable to all data recovery case:

Of all the stages, Stage 3–data retrieval, is the most widely spread and long-running; all data recovery companies, even end users, by downloading software, can handle mission of this stage easily. But according to SalvationDATA experts only 30 to 40 percent of all data recovery cases are simply stage 3 cases. The left percentage requires an ability to handle with the stage 2 and stage plus 1 issue.

Stage 2, disk data extraction, is also widely known and adopted as “disk imaging” by data recovery services nowadays. But to SalvationDATA, according our experience with lots of potential clients, they perform this important stage using ghosting tools designed for and work on good HDDs only, not the patient HDDs that are unstable or inaccessible because of media defects and instable head, which are common challenges of Stage 2 in practice. Even more, with those traditional imaging tools, the time involved and the ordinary user-level repeated-read access to the media bring a risk of damaging the disk and head, making data lost irretrievable.

Stage 1, drive diagnosis & restoration, is the primary stage in a broad sense data recovery flow but in fact deals with the deepest level in 3+1 broad sense data recovery flow. Unfortunately this Stage 1 is missing from most of the data recovery services or even noticed but was being done in a zigzag procedure or simply incorrectly due to lack of proper tools, meaning that they are putting away customers and profits. Our data has shown that up to 40% of data recovery cases have Stage 1 issues; and that IS NOT what going to happen that we can skip Stage 1 and perform Stage 2 and 3 and still to get certain percentage of data. You CAN NOT get anything in case you are not capable for the primary stage
Plus 1, it refers to Head or Platter Exchanger when encountered with motor seizure or head crash. This kind of problem often happens where the Drive is clicking or dropping from height. Concerning this issue, you need to replace the components and fix the mechanical malfunction first.

From above 3+1 work flow, you may get know the basic guidance of data recovery.
Then let’s move the following 2 factors which are relevant to your data recovery service.

Marketing Plan: It is the same as other service you are engaged in. It needs marketing plans and strategy. You should think more about customers’ convenience, satisfaction, price setting, and target market. If possible, you need advertising on different mediums too.

Financial Resources: Of course you need budget to get the business started before you benefit from your investment. You need facilities like a Clean Room and equipments to carry out the assignments. You also need to pay expensive technicians.

Supposing the Marketing and Financial investment are not the barriers to stop you, then you need think more about the facilities and data recovery equipments.

I have to admit that Data Recovery is a game for professionals and engineers to play, it is impossible to get started without any HDD Data Recovery Equipments provider., not unacquainted name in Data Recovery Industry, is the biggest and cost-effective solution provider all over the world. Their free technical support & Remote assistance and free updates, enhance the industry beginners’ confidence greatly and assist them to enter the industry as soon as possible.

Seagate Malfunctions (Barracuda IV, V and 7200.7)

A very common flaw is disruption of protective diode along the +12V circuit and resulting outage of the computer power supply unit. In that case the external look of that component does not allow identification of the damage, because its case remains unaffected. An attempt to connect a drive so damaged to an operable power supply for diagnostics will most likely result in breakdown of the latter. Therefore if such a drive is brought for repair then first of all you should probe the 0 and +12 V circuit with a regular tester to check for a short circuit.

The protective diode originally designed using the “transil” technology at SGS Thomson is intended for protection of electronic circuitry from short power supply peaks not greater than 10 - 20 microseconds. But in that case their common failures demonstrate that HDD designers did not expect to encounter so poor quality of power supply units. Thus drive operation can be resumed after simple removal of that damaged element from its circuits but we cannot guarantee flawless HDD operation without that component.

Information on data recovery

The three most common problems seen today are: 1. The drive makes a repetitive clicking sound when power is applied (this may not always be audible to you). 2. The drive is completely dead, not spinning at all. 3. The computer bios sees the drive, but there is no boot and a boot from a floppy will not gain access or you get an error message that says ‘Invalid media type reading drive X’. Of course there are other issues such as flooding (never turn a wet drive on!), fire and other natural and unnatural disasters all of which require a top-notch data recovery company to work with.

If your drive is making a clicking sound, 9 times out of ten this means that the heads are bad and cannot read the information needed to get the drive to a ‘ready’ state. This can be due to two factors: physical head crash whereas the heads scrape some of the media off the surface of the platters thus destroying the heads in the process or the heads just go bad. The result is the same, the drive clicks. In this type of situation, you can expect an expensive data recovery because of what is needed to extract the data. The drive will have to be opened in a clean room environment, the heads will need to be replaced which requires an identical drive be purchased just for parts, and a skilled engineer will have to perform the difficult and meticulous task of aligning these new heads so they read the data properly. If indeed the media has been scored, there are many cases where there is nothing that can be done about it because so much of the recording material has been scraped off. Keep in mind that drives now sold are spinning at an incredible 7200 to 10,000 rpm, and that with this kind of speed disaster can be swift when it happens.

There seems to be a large number of electrical issues with drives these days, weather it be natural as in lightning strikes or man-made as in power outages and poorly manufactured power supplies. There are also known issues in many models of Maxtor, Western Digital and Quantum drives where a certain chip will simply burn up and cause the drive to stop spinning. About two years ago or more, Western Digital had a 500,000 drive recall as the result of a defective chip used in making many different models of drives. Over the last year or more, Quantum drives of many models had a similar issue, except this time, the numbers of affected drives was much higher. This was the driving force behind the acquisition of Quantum’s hard drive lines by Maxtor! Maxtor is still reeling from the huge numbers of returned drives on a daily basis. One of the big problems is that manufacturers do not put a fuse on the drives’ electronics anymore. You might say, “This would be an easy fix, I’ll just get another drive of the same model and swap the boards myself”. In an ideal world this would be the case but another factor most people do not know is that for each model drive made by a manufacturer, there can be over a dozen different revisions of the electronics even though the model is identical! This fact can make a simple problem very complex. Don’t look to the manufacturers for help with this either, they will not.

If the drive is seen by the BIOS of the computer, and you cannot access it by booting from a floppy in the case of a WIn9X or ME drive this means that for some reason the areas that define the partitions of the drive or the boot parameters have been corrupted. This can be caused by a virus, a computer or software bug, using a third party partitioning software, running Fdisk or a number of other reasons. This type of situation can be an easy fix for a professional or it can be a more difficult one depending on the extent of any additional damage to the file system or data structures. Usually, this type of problem is an easier one to deal with, because the drive at least still works. In the case of an operating system other than Win9X like NT, corruption the NT data structure can be a very complex mathematical problem and can be an expensive recovery as well due to the time it takes to solve. Operating systems like Unix and Novell as well as Spanned sets or Raid drives can definitely be an expensive recovery due to the complexity of these configurations.

It is important that you never run utilities such as scandisk, Norton disk doctor or any other such utility on a drive you suspect has a hardware failure. This can make recovery of your data difficult or even not impossible in some cases. These software tools work best on simpler types of problems and have no way of dealing with hardware issues. If your data is important, and you have doubts on what to do, call a professional. Also beware of technicians running these tools without your knowledge, as the results can be just as deadly.

When a data recovery company receives your drive, if it is possible and the drive is operational, a copy of your data is made sector by sector onto another drive (make image of your DATA) so that your data is not harmed in any way. This prevents mistakes, and allows the engineer to run utilities and make changes to a copy of your drive only and not the original.

Hard drives these days are worse than ever. You may find this a surprising statement, but it is true. Due to slimmer margins, and high competition, manufacturers are making drives as inexpensively as possible and more failures are the result. As of this moment, Fujitsu has top marks for reliability in desktop hard drives followed by IBM. In notebook drives, IBM and Toshiba have top billing. An important point to note is that Hitachi makes the absolute worst notebook drives in the industry with the highest catastrophic failure rate followed by Fujitsu. Dell has just decided to go exclusively with Hitachi now in their new notebooks, so beware!

Here is my old standby: Make believe that tomorrow when you turn your computer on that it is not going to work, and what is it that you want today that you will have to do without tomorrow! Back it up!

The basic knowledge about Hard Disk Drive

Firmware files that you can find on a site like this, contain a lot of files. First, there is the ‘loader’ file (*.LDR). This file is the ‘temporary’ firmware code, that’s being uploaded to the RAM (so, it’s not being written to disk). Then, there are a lot of ‘*.RPM’ files. These files represent the different modules, which can be written to the SA. The filenames consist of 8 numbers. The first 4 numbers specify the (hex) UBA and the second 4 numbers represent the hexadecimal module size in sectors (each sector normally contains 512 bytes, so for example, if a filename ends in 0002, then that module is 1024 bytes long). So, in short, after uploading the loader to RAM, the user can start replacing damaged modules by overwriting them with correct ones.BTW, please note that the term ‘firmware’ for the packages on this site is symantically not very well chosen, since these packages contain all needed modules to repair a HDD and not just the firmware (=code) module.

Anyway, if you’re looking for a specific firmware module, you can do 3 things:

1) rip the firmware modules from the SA of an identical HDD
2) get these modules from a friend (or for example, from the files section on this site)
3) use a firmware updater program from the vendor.

About this last option: firmware updates from vendors are pretty rare, since firmware code almost never needs to be replaced. However, Maxtor for example, had some problems with the firmware code on some Diamondmax HDD models. So, they issued a firmware update. This update consists of 2 files:

1) the executable file that issues the ATA ‘download microcode’ command to upload the firmware files to the HDD
2) The firmware code, consisting of the ‘main’ firmware code and ‘overlay’ code modules.

Firmware ‘overlay’ code are specific code functions. Why not just put all firmware code into one section ? Well, since the RAM in the drive is a limited resource, they’ve put some code into ‘overlay files’, so that this specific code can be swapped into RAM when that specific function is needed. When the fuction is not needed, it can be swapped out of ram and some other function can be swapped into it again.

The firmware update files from maxtor (I think the same goes for the other vendors) are not scrambled/encrypted/packed in anyway. In fact, you can find the exact same code in these files also in the ‘*.RPM’ files that PC3K produces for example.

Maxtor distributes their firmware file in a so called “.DMC” file. This DMC file is a package of 4 files, a ‘.Bxx’ file, a ‘.cxx’ file, a ‘.bbr’ file and a ‘.cbr’ file. Like I mentioned, this DMC container is not packed or scrambled in anyway. You can just cut the files out of it. The first 0×150 bytes of this file is the header. This header contains the four filenames, the offsets at which bytes in the package these files can be found, the length of the files and a checksum (not 100% sure about the checksum though). The ‘.bxx’ file is the biggest file and contains the overlay modules. You can find all code overlay modules by looking for ‘MO’ in the file. Right after this 2 byte string, you’ll find the hexadecimal overlay module ID. The ‘.bbr’ file contains the main firmware code. The last 2 files are very small, not sure what they contain, probably some checksums for the firmware and overlay modules.

Like said, the firmware code and overlay modules can also be found in the ‘*.RPM’ files of course, since this represents the firmware code on disk. So, you can look through these RPM files and scan for the ‘MO’ string to find any specific overlay module.

So, in short, if a vendor has released a firmware uploader tool (most vendors have), BUT haven’t released a firmware file for your specific drive type, you could create your firmware, if you have the dumped modules (for example, obtained from this site). You could rip the main code and overlay modules and paste them into an existing DMC package. However, since I don’t know the checksum calculation and the meaning of these .cxx and .cbr files (probably checksums), you’d have to do more research, but in theory, it would be possible to create your own firmware files and flash them with such standard Vendor program to disk, so you wouldn’t need to buy an expensive tool like PC3000 (at least not if your sole goal was to upload a new firmware).

Modern hard disks feature an area that contains information that the CPU on the HDD logic board uses to operate the drive. That area is called the “system area” SA. This area contains for example the drive ‘microcode’ (a.k.a. firmware), HDD Configuration Tables, Defect sector tables, SMART information, Security info (drive passwords etc), Disk ID info (serial nr etc) and more. These categories of information are called ‘modules’. So the SA contains a module for the firmware code, a module for the SMART info etc.The SA is stored on ‘negative cylinders’ of the HDD and therefore is not accessible by normal read commands. However, the area can be accessed with other ATA commands. An example of a (more or less) ’standard’ ATA command that can access info on the SA is the ‘download microcode’ ATA command, which can be used to update information in the firmware code module. However, most of the commands that can be used to access the SA are vendor specific. Since vendors (obviously) don’t want users to mess around with the SA, these commands are generally not made public. However, these commands can be deduced by, for example, reverse engineering the firmware code itself.

This reverse engineering has been done and led to development of tools that can issue these (vendor specific) ATA commands and can read/write almost all sectors in the SA. One example of such tool is PC3000. A tool like this contains tables per HDD model, containing these vendor specific ATA commands and also tables with sector numbers on which the different modules are stored, also per HDD model. SA Sector numbers are counted in “UBA’s”. For example, one specific HDD might use UBA 4 to store the ‘DISK ID’ module, where another HDD model might use another sector for this module.

So in short, to create a tool that can read/write data in the SA, you need to:

A) know (and understand) the (vendor-) specific ATA commands that can be used to access this area and
B) know on which UBA sector the specific modules are stored.

If a drive has damaged data in the SA, for example in the firmware code module, it might become unusable. To repair these disks, the HDD can be switched to a so called ’safe mode’, by setting specific jumpers on the drive. If the drive is operating in safe mode, it bypasses its own firmware. Instead, it wants the user to upload firmware to its ram. If the user uploads a correct ‘temporary’ firmware to RAM, it starts executing that firmware. If this uploaded RAM code (the ‘loader’) starts operating, the user can then start to issue ATA commands to the drive to modify the damaged modules.

Of course, you could also create your own flasher program, instead of using the one supplied by the vendor. However, since vendors use specific versions of the ‘download microcode’ ATA command, you’d have to do research into this.

Furthermore, you could create a program that does EVERYTHING that a tool like PC3000 does. However, like pointed out, you’ll need very detailed information on the vendor specific ATA commands and the structure of the SA for that specific drive type and since this info is not made public by anyone, this means a LOT of work. “But hey, the PC3000 tool features a special hardware PCI card!” Yes, but as you’ll understand by now, you can think of that card as nothing more than a copy protection. They could have perfectly created the tool without it, but I guess they would have sold quite some copies less. So you really can’t blame them for it, in fact, I think it’s quite a smart move to stop piracy.

So, in short, if you want to mess around with the SA, you have 2 options: invest a lot of time and energy into learning or simply empty your pockets and buy a tool like PC3000.