ALL ABOUT 4 RECOVERY

How to recover data from crashed hard drives?

2009-04-03T13:35:00.001-07:00

Hard disk crashes usually occurs for the following reasons:

Power surges
Software Corruption or Malfunction
Hardware or system failure
Natural calamities
User errors.

Data recovery software helps to retrieve or recover the data from the crashed hard drive. Data recovery software gives an easy and Graphical User Interface with less difficulty so that the data can be recovered easily without any assistance. The recovery software helps to recover the data and restore them on a second hard disk, the hard disk being connected to the computer and recognized by the BIOS, the recovered data can be stored on a safe location on the second disk.

How to recover the photos from a damaged digital camera?

2009-04-03T13:34:00.000-07:00

Photos from a damaged digital camera can be recovered by using proper software’s which help us to recover photos from the damaged camera. The software also helps us to recover the images that have been deleted accidentally.

The software gives an easy and Graphical User Interface with less difficulty so that the photos or images can be recovered easily without any assistance. The software helps to recover images from Smart Media, Compact Flash, Sony Memory Sticks, IBM Micro Drives, Flash cards, floppy disks, and many other types of digital film.

How to identify a hard disk failure?

2009-04-03T13:33:00.000-07:00

When a hard disk fails it can be identified from the following ways:

BIOS will not recognize or access hard disk
Hard disk makes clicking noise.
Hard disk restarts on its own.
Hard disk shows a boot failure, and asks for the boot records to be updated.
Hard disks become dead silent.

Is it safe to recover data at home using data recovery tools

2009-04-03T13:32:00.003-07:00

The use of data recovery tools at home is safe, but the damage caused to the drive must not be a physical damage. Recovery tools are installed to the computer and are used to recover data from the drive.

The recovery tool helps to recover the data and restore them on a second hard disk, the hard disk being connected to the computer and recognized by the BIOS, the recovered data can be stored on a safe location on the second disk.

How to recover data from Applications that are unable to run or load data?

2009-04-03T13:32:00.001-07:00

An application may be unable to run or load data in case of a data loss situation. Application may loose their loading information incase of virus attack, data corruption, accidental reformatting of partition, accidental deletion of data or any fire or water damage.

Data recovery services from inaccessible application are provided by many data recovery firms. The engineers and technicians use state-of-the-art tools and techniques to recover the critical data. However it could be dangerous to repair the application individually.

How to recover the accidentally deleted files?

2009-04-03T13:31:00.001-07:00

When a file is deleted it is not completely deleted, the windows just mark the deleted space as available space so that the space can be utilized for storing other files or programs.

When the user realizes that the file accidentally deleted was very important he has stop using the computer till the file is retrieved back completely, as windows overwrites the available space with new files. Deleted files can be recovered easily but there must be a good recovery utility tool to recover the deleted files. The recovery of deleted files usually depends on three factors they are:

File system
Fragmentation
Whether the data is still available or overwritten.

Can I recover files from Floppy Disk?

2009-04-03T13:30:00.001-07:00

Floppy Disk is a soft magnetic disk which is portable. These are slower to access and have very less storage capacity. When a floppy disk is not been able to access and the Data present in the floppy may be very valuable so at first the write protect lock must be “on” so that the floppy is no further damaged.

Floppy disk not been able to access in a computer must be accessed in a number of computers as newer versions may not be flexible as the floppy drives may be associated differently. The files or data reside on the floppy disk can be recovered by using a program called ResQflpy to make a duplicate copy of the floppy disk and rescue the files or data present on the floppy disk.

What is the cost of data recovery?

2009-04-03T13:29:00.001-07:00

Data recovery companies have categorized the recovery process in two phase, and two separate charges. Firstly the client has to give a non - refundable evaluation fees, for which he will receive a list in which all the files that cam be recovered are mentioned and the price of the recovery.

After the client authorizes the recovery he has to the recovery charges of the damaged media there is also charge for the storage media in which the data is recovered and stored.
The evaluation fee and cost of recovery depends on the following factors:

Media Type
Media Specification
Media Damage
Time.

Windows Data Recovery Software

2009-04-03T13:28:00.000-07:00

Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery is much more then an simple undelete software or a file recovery program. Its versatility begins when other software fails to recover or even is not able to display data.

Using our proprietary deep scan technology Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery Software can recover data from any logical crash or cause for data loss on Windows. This data recovery software combines our TurboScan™ and File Tracer™ technology to recover data from even the most severely corrupted hard drives.

Windows recovery is simple and quick using this powerful program.

Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery can recover accidentally deleted files, including files emptied from Recycle Bin, from Windows Explorer with the SHIFT + Delete key. The recovery attempt does depend upon files not being permanently overwritten by new data.

With Disk Doctors Windows Recovery software, it is possible to recover data from a reformatted partition (to any file system), corrupted, deleted or missing partition. Our Windows data recovery software has a proven efficient partition recovery module to locate deleted / lost partitions with the help two scanning methods i.e. Quick Scan and Thorough Scan. These scanning methods locate and validate lost partitions from entire physical hard drive.

How effective is Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery

You can recover all of your data and restore it to it original condition just as it was before the files were damaged..

The programs sophisticated scan engines will align all directories and sub directories together exactly as they were before they were corrupted, including support for long files names.

Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery lets you preview files before recovery. This feature actually allows you to see the prospects for data recovery before you purchase by using the demo version of the software.

Of course as with all Disk Doctors Programs it operates as a third party function and thus is harmless to use on a crashed drive.

Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery is a read-only application, which means that it will only read the contents of a faulty drive and would never attempt to write to the drive you are about to recover. However, you would need to provide a safe destination / healthy drive to write recovered data, or to install the software.

How easy is the Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery Software to use?

Accompanied by an on-screen "wizard", you are guided step-by-step through the data recovery, disk imaging processes systematically. When all is accomplished, you will be able to use the once-lost data just as before.

Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery is Windows Data recovery software for the FAT 16, FAT 32, VFAT, NTFS, and NTFS 5 file systems used in Windows Operating System and supported by various other operating systems.

Is the program fast?

Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery Software uses TurboScan™ technology and some adjustable tweaks that provide fastest Windows data recovery ever known. This recovery software recovers files from faulty logical drives even when file records (FAT / MFT) are lost.

What kinds of files are supported for Windows recovery?

For the worst problems we have developed File Tracer™. When damage to the drive is extremely severe then this technology is the best to use for recovering files from hard drive. Up to 300 file types can be traced and recovered, including Office Documents (Word - DOC, Excel - XLS, PowerPoint - PPT etc.), and any sort of commonly used graphics file, image, movie, and music formats (JPEG, AVI, MPEG, MP3, WAV, BMP, TIFF, Corel Draw - CDR, Photoshop - PSD, and many more).

Based on your requirements you may wish to select individual components of Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery or use Windows Data Recovery Software to recover data from both FAT & NTFS partitions.

Check the comparison to see capability of each Windows Data Recovery

Disk Doctors Instant File Recovery

2009-04-03T13:27:00.000-07:00

Disk Doctors Instant File Recovery Software will easily recover deleted files emptied from your Windows Recycle Bin. it will also allow you to quickly recover files lost due to errors such as accidental formatting or re-partitioning of a hard drive. The file recovery software will even restore files damaged by viruses, and unexpected system failures.

When files on your computer are damaged or lost they must be searched for in order to be restored. Our Disk Doctors Instant File Recovery Software uses a uniquely crafted data recovery engine. This powerful program will deep scan your entire computer hard drive searching for any lost, deleted or damaged files. Then, once your files are found the program will give you the option of restoring the found finds to their original status or writing them to disk, flash drive or DVD. Perhaps the best feature of the Disk Doctors Instant File recovery Software is that anyone can easily master its use. The step-by-step user-friendly interface guides you through the entire file recovery process. No technical skills are required for the user to operate and recover files.

Once it is deleted a file never gets deleted permanently, unless it has been deleted using special erasing tools or has been overwritten. If a file has been deleted under normal circumstances and the file system attributes are intact then Disk Doctors software is capable of creating the references to locate and recover the missing files.

Lost data? Your next steps are critical!

2009-04-03T13:26:00.001-07:00

To avoid permanent data loss, follow these important guidelines:

If your drive is making clicking, grinding or whirring sounds, shut down your computer immediately. These sounds could be the read/write heads hitting or scraping the platters. Severe or complete data loss could result.
Unplug the power to the computer before removing the hard drive and handle the drive carefully. Hard drives are extremely sensitive to static electricity and physical jarring or jolts.
If your data is critical, make sure you choose a reputable recovery firm that can properly recover data from physically damaged drives. Even the simplest recovery attempts on a physically damaged drive could render your data unrecoverable.

The first recovery attempt is always the best recovery attempt. At DriveSavers, our engineers use the safest methods available to insure your data is not lost from repeated recovery attempts.

When disaster strikes:

If possible, back up the data immediately
Do not use utility software if the drive makes scraping, tapping, clicking or humming sounds
Do not power up a device that has obvious physical damage or is making unusual sounds
Shut down the computer to avoid further damage to the drive and its data
Do not attempt recovery yourself on severely traumatized drives (i.e., turning the computer off and on, using over-the-counter diagnostic tools). This may cause further damage or permanent data loss
If you’ve lost critical data, DriveSavers recovery service is your best and safest option
Never assume data is unrecoverable
DriveSavers has successfully recovered data from hundreds of thousands of drives with extreme physical and logical damage

Preventing data loss

Everyone should adopt strategies to ensure critical information is protected from corruption and loss.

Best practices:

Never upgrade any system without a verified backup
Use up-to-date hardware and software utilities for data security, such as firewalls and virus protection
Scan all incoming data for viruses, including packaged software
Use ventilation, fans and/or air conditioning to keep servers at the proper operating temperature
Connect systems to an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) to protect against power surges
Power down and take extreme caution when moving computers
Avoid static discharge when touching or handling the media, especially in excessively dry environments

Backup strategies:

Invest in redundant backup systems
Establish a structured backup procedure to make copies of all critical data files, using software compatible with the operating system and applications
Periodically test the backups to verify that data, especially databases and other critical files, are being backed up properly
Keep at least one verified copy of critical data offsite

Hard Drive and Clean Room Technology

2009-04-01T13:25:00.000-07:00

Hard disk technology has been around since the Fifties. The large multi-platter based systems, IBM 305 RAMAC, were only used in large mainframe systems. It wasn’t until the Seventies and Eighties that hard disk storage became more available. This was due to cost reductions, innovation from magnetic media formulations, storage capacity, performance, and manufacturing techniques.

Hard disk storage manufacturers have been always working to improve the technology. Storage space, data transfer rates, and internal error checking have been the guiding principles of hard drive technology. Ontrack Data Recovery works hard to maintain our capabilities to be compatible with these emerging technologies so that we can provide the best hard drive recovery for your client’s data. What are some of the advancements in hard disk storage devices? What are some common data loss scenarios with hard disk storage? What are some of Ontrack Data Recovery’s capabilities that set it apart from other data recovery companies? This document will help answer these questions and more. Let’s begin with looking at the inner workings of the hard disk itself.

Hard Drives — Technology in Action

As you know, hard drives are a combination of sophisticated electronic and mechanical systems that incorporate a number of specialized motors and electro-mechanical components to read and write data.

Hard drive technology has substantially advanced in the past 10 years. In fact, hard drives are designed to manage themselves in addition to reading and writing data. Hard drives today use a number of algorithms to verify data on the drive and also maintains a ‘Defect Management’ list internally that constantly monitors their own health and performance . If a sector is beginning to fail, the hard drive’s electronics will remove that sector from use. In addition to this, S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) circuitry has been incorporated on many hard drives and is used to monitor all of the internal systems.

Despite these safeguards, hard drives can fail. There can be a number of reasons for hard drive failure, for instance physical damage can result when the hard drive or case is jarred while operating or even when powered off. Power spikes or fluctuations can damage the electronics or corrupt the data on the drive. Internal mechanical parts can seize up due to high temperatures if the drive does not have enough airflow to keep the unit cool.

Types of common failures include:

Problem	Description
Internal Mechanical Failure	This is the failure of any moving mechanical component found within a storage device.
Intermittent Failure	This is the failure of a storage device to operate reliably. In some cases it may not be possible to isolate the exact fault.
Physical Media Damage	This can occur when a head has physical contact with the surface of platter. When the head(s) come into contact with the platter it digs into the platter removing a chunk of the media. As the platter spins, debris is scattered causing read errors.
Media Corruption	This type of damage can effect the magnetic information stored on the media. It can affect both the user data stored on the drive and the critical drive servo information that controls the positioning of the heads.
Electronics Failure	This is the failure of a storage device’s circuitry (the brain of the storage device).

Hard Disk Recovery — Exposing the Myths

A common misconception about hard drive data recovery is that repairing hard drives means replacing parts. If only it were that easy! Hard drive technology is always changing— manufacturers are constantly using different mechanical designs.

Today’s hard drives have no room for errors when it comes to platter and head alignment. The tolerances are so exacting that hard drive manufacturers even design ways to keep the Base-Casting Assembly, where all the components are attached to, from shifting due to high temperature situations. For instance, one hard drive manufacturer of high performance SCSI based drives actually designs their Base-Casting Assembly with pre-stress points. The assembly does not line up from corner to diagonal corner—it’s pre-torqued. When the casting assembly heats up, the unit actually twists back (thermal expansion) into a true line-up from corner to corner. With the byte-density of most large hard drives today being 4gb to 6gb per square inch, absolute precision is required for these high capacity and high speed drives to operate reliably. Hard disk manufacturers are working to increase how many bytes can be squeezed into a square inch.

The mechanical precision of today’s hard drives makes head assembly replacement nearly impossible without specialized tools. Platter removal is dangerous and will affect how the drive reads the sectors. As previously mentioned if just one component is out of alignment, the drive will not find the required sectors. If the hard disk electronics cannot find the sectors requested by the controller, it may endlessly try to find those sectors or it will shut down the unit.

Mechanical precision is just one side of hard drive technology - the electronics are just as finite. Exchanging circuit boards between drives used to be a quick way to work around a failed circuit board in the past. The electronics are much more complicated, and as a result the different revisions of a circuit board are rarely compatible. The innovations of the past 15 years have made a circuit board swap as a solution a thing of the past.

Today’s hard drives are designed from basic primary components as the foundation first and then other components are built around that. For instance, research and development improvements in platter and magnetic media require research and development improvements in head design. These designs require that the electronics be ‘custom-made’ for that drive. Hard drives are ‘fine-tuned’ to the properties of the storage media and read/write heads. Similar to how a radio is tuned to a specific radio frequency; hard drives are finely tuned to complement data signals that are read from the storage media.

Hard drive manufacturers make large batches of drives so there will be similarities between drive models. However, the Revision Code (proprietary hard drive read-only software that is used by the electronics to manage and operate the hard drive) changes frequently within the same model and batch. Hard drive innovation requires drives to be constantly improved upon. All of this requires extensive training in electronics and computer science to be able to work with these storage devices.

Qualifications of Hard Disk Recovery

To be able to work on hard drives, Ontrack Data Recovery clean room engineers have engineering or electronic degrees. Ontrack Data Recovery has a dedicated research and development department that is made up of clean room engineers from our domestic and international offices. They work together with the hard drive manufacturers to find the best scientific approaches to hard drive failures.

The technological innovations in the hard disk storage industry have inspired Ontrack Data Recovery clean room engineers. They closely follow advancements made within the industry. Ontrack Data Recovery designs it's own software, hardware, and electronic tools to work with hard disk storage devices. Storage hardware should not be considered unrecoverable until determined so by Ontrack Data Recovery’s engineering staff. Ontrack Data Recovery has performed successful recoveries on drives that have been in fires, floods or that have had damage to the Base-Casting Assembly. In some cases where there is physical media damage, Ontrack Data Recovery engineers can force the drive to read around those bad areas using specially designed electronic modules and software that work directly on the hard drive.

What does this mean for you?

You are well positioned to be a recovery solutions provider for your clients by working with Ontrack Data Recovery. Advancements from Ontrack Data Recovery clean room engineers worldwide result in quality recoveries. This attention to advancing technology has saved severe losses in time, money and digital resources for thousands of companies. While most companies have a backup program in place, data recovery produces the latest original files - not an older copy of the file.

Ontrack Data Recovery works with hard drive manufacturers in producing software for hard disk installation. Ontrack Data Recovery also writes hard drive analysis software for manufacturers. Many manufacturers and OEMs recognize Ontrack Data Recovery’s leadership in this field. Ontrack Data Recovery’s experience with hard drives goes back to our roots - the founders of Ontrack Data Recovery came from the storage division of Control Data Institute.

By partnering with Ontrack Data Recovery you have extended your capabilities in disaster recovery. While a disaster is a traumatic and frustrating experience, having a hero during rough times is reassuring. By utilizing Ontrack Data Recovery recovery capabilities you can be that hero. We will work with you to get your client’s data back as soon as possible. Our clean room staff will not stop until they get every last bit of recoverable data. Our data recovery lab engineers will do all they can to put the file system back in order so that the original data is found. If there should be corruption in some of the files, we will work on the files with Ontrack Data Recovery’ EasyRecovery FileRepair software to get all of the usable data back.

All of this provides you with the edge when a disaster happens. Being an Ontrack Data Recovery Partner means you have Ontrack Data Recovery’s worldwide resources working for you.

Recover Lost Passwords For MS Office Programs

2009-03-31T13:57:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-31T13:56:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-31T13:55:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-31T13:53:00.001-07:00

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

2009-03-31T13:51:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-31T13:49:00.000-07:00

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?

2009-03-31T13:46:00.001-07:00

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?

2009-03-31T13:46:00.000-07:00

Symptoms of Hard Drive Failure Leading to Data Loss

2009-03-31T13:45:00.002-07:00

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

2009-03-31T13:45:00.001-07:00

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

2009-03-31T13:44:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-31T13:43:00.002-07:00

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?

2009-03-31T13:43:00.001-07:00

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

2009-03-31T13:42:00.000-07:00

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?

2009-03-31T13:41:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-31T13:40:00.000-07:00

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.

A recently designed website by Bill contains other similar content and much useful information such as Household Hints, Sex and Relationship Tips, Health, Weightloss and Online Business Ideas with Freestuff throughout the site. There are also links for Online Shopping, Gambling with recipes and some humour thrown in.

Twelve Tips to Keep Your Computers Running Smoothly

2009-03-31T13:39:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-31T13:38:00.002-07:00

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

2009-03-31T13:38:00.001-07:00

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

2009-03-31T13:22:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-31T13:20:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-31T13:17:00.001-07:00

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

2009-03-31T13:16:00.001-07:00

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

2009-03-31T13:15:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-31T13:11:00.002-07:00

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

2009-03-31T13:11:00.001-07:00

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?

2009-03-31T13:10:00.001-07:00

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?

2009-03-31T13:08:00.002-07:00

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

2009-03-31T13:08:00.001-07:00

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)

2009-03-31T13:07:00.001-07:00

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

2009-03-31T13:06:00.002-07:00

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

2009-03-31T13:06:00.001-07:00

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.

Hard Disk Recovery Technology

2009-03-31T13:05:00.003-07:00

The mechanical precision of today’s hard drives makes head assembly replacement nearly impossible without specialized tools. Platter removal is dangerous and will affect how the drive reads the sectors. As previously mentioned if just one component is out of alignment, the drive will not find the required sectors. If the hard disk electronics cannot find the sectors requested by the controller, it may endlessly try to find those sectors or it will shut down the unit.

Mechanical precision is just one side of hard drive technology - the electronics are just as finite. Exchanging circuit boards between drives used to be a quick way to work around a failed circuit board in the past. The electronics are much more complicated, and as a result the different revisions of a circuit board are rarely compatible. The innovations of the past 15 years have made a circuit board swap as a solution a thing of the past.

Today’s hard drives have no room for errors when it comes to platter and head alignment. The tolerances are so exacting that hard drive manufacturers even design ways to keep the Base-Casting Assembly, where all the components are attached to, from shifting due to high temperature situations. For instance, one hard drive manufacturer of high performance SCSI based drives actually designs their Base-Casting Assembly with pre-stress points. The assembly does not line up from corner to diagonal corner—it’s pre-torqued. When the casting assembly heats up, the unit actually twists back (thermal expansion) into a true line-up from corner to corner. With the byte-density of most large hard drives today being 4gb to 6gb per square inch, absolute precision is required for these high capacity and high speed drives to operate reliably. Hard disk manufacturers are working to increase how many bytes can be squeezed into a square inch.

Today’s hard drives are designed from basic primary components as the foundation first and then other components are built around that. For instance, research and development improvements in platter and magnetic media require research and development improvements in head design. These designs require that the electronics be ‘custom-made’ for that drive. Hard drives are ‘fine-tuned’ to the properties of the storage media and read/write heads. Similar to how a radio is tuned to a specific radio frequency; hard drives are finely tuned to complement data signals that are read from the storage media.

Hard drive manufacturers make large batches of drives so there will be similarities between drive models. However, the Revision Code (proprietary hard drive read-only software that is used by the electronics to manage and operate the hard drive) changes frequently within the same model and batch. Hard drive innovation requires drives to be constantly improved upon. All of this requires extensive training in electronics and computer science to be able to work with these storage devices.

How to Recover a Dead Hard Disk?

2009-03-31T13:05:00.001-07:00

Your hard drive just stopped working. It never made any odd sounds like screeching, popping, or clicking, and it didn’t crash. It just quit and it has some priceless data that isn’t backed up to another device. This guide may help you troubleshoot and correct any problems related to your drive. Note: this is much more likely to work on a newer drive than an older one, especially when searching for a sacrificial clone. Be sure to read all warnings before proceeding.

Steps:
1. Remove the hard drive from the computer or device.

2. Examine it carefully for ‘hot spots’ or other damage on the external controller board.

3. Move it gently from side to side and then front to back. Listen for metallic rattling noises. Don’t be too rough when you shake the drive. The drive’s heads are probably loose if there is a rattling sound. If so, stop here and contact your computer or drive’s manufacturer for a replacement. Data recovery is extremely expensive. If you need your data regardless of the cost, contact a data-recovery specialist.

4. Place the drive back into the computer or device.

5. Switch drive pin settings. This only applied to PATA (IDE/EIDE) drives. In a computer, if it was slave or ‘cable select’, try making it ‘master’ and plugging it in alone, or plugging it into an external drive adapter or external drive case (i.e. USB).

6. Try it on another IDE, SATA, or SCSI connection, depending upon the drive’s type.

7. Try other IDs and another controller if it is a SCSI drive.

8. Connect the drive with another data cable.

9. Attempt to access the drive on another device. If possible, connect the drive to another computer with a working drive and attempt to access it through that computer’s operating system.

10. Another option to try is to freeze the drive for several hours, let it warm to room temperature, and try the drive again. If successful, backup all data immediately and consider replacing the drive because it will probably fail again soon.

Replace Controller Board
1. Inspect the drive’s controller board carefully to see if it can be removed without exposing the drive’s platters. Most drives will have an externally-mounted controller board. If not, stop here.

2. Find a sacrificial drive. It is important to match the exact same model number and stepping.

3. Remove the controller board of the failing drive. Learn everything about how it is connected to the drive. Most drives are connected via ribbon cables and pin rows. Be gentle. Do not crimp or damage the connectors.

4. Remove the controller board from the working drive. Again, be extremely careful.

5. Attach the working board to the failing drive.

6. Connect the drive to your computer or device and test. If it works, immediately copy your data onto another form of media or a different hard disk drive. If that didn’t work, try to re-assemble the sacrificial drive with the working controller board. It should still work. Re-assemble the failing drive. If that works, it wasn’t the externally accessible board.

Tips
1. Back up your data!

2. If data comes in faster than backups, and is precious like this, consider RAID 1, RAID 5 or RAID 10 disk configurations. A RAID array will keep running when one physical drive dies. A good one will even re-write a replacement drive that’s “hot swapped” into it without stopping.

3. NEVER use RAID 0 for anything but scratch data. It’s fast, but has no redundancy, so it’s much more likely to crash than a single drive, and take your data with it in a really irrecoverable manner. Especially ‘built in’ PC motherboard RAID configurations. Virtually all motherboard RAID controllers are bad.

4. Programs like GRC’s Spin rite does an excellent job at getting down to every last bit and ensuring that everything is working on the most basic of levels, however, if it finds that a sector of a hard drive is corrupted, it will attempt a recovery of it. It has saved many hard drives from failing, and has helped recover gigabytes of data. Spin rite is in its 6th version and has proven very successful. Please note, while Spin rite and other software hard disk recovery programs work well, they will not permanently fix a problem every time. Therefore, it is recommended that software recovery only be used to backup the data.

5. Some programs, such as Spin rite mentioned above, perform maintenance on hard drives to prevent flaws from forming.

6. Putting the hard drive in the freezer has been known to revive a failing hard drive for a short time, possibly long enough to recover files.

Warnings
1. Configuring drives in a RAID 1, 5, or 10 is not a substitute for a regular backup routine. RAID controllers will fail eventually, writing bad data to the drives. RAID controller failure is difficult to detect until it’s to late.

2. If you are not good with delicate hardware tinkering, don’t follow these instructions. Find a professional or someone who is experienced with hardware tinkering to try it for you. Don’t hold it against the person if they fail to recover your data. Most retail outlet technicians are not trained for component-level repair of this type.

3. Static electricity grounding precautions should be observed.

4. You will void both hard drive warranties. These instructions are for recovering data that is far more valuable than the drives themselves.

5. If the failing drive was sold with a computer or device, you may void the manufacturer’s warranty if you follow these instructions. Make sure the data, or your attempt to recover data, is worth voiding that warranty.

6. Do not disassemble a hard drive in a manner that will expose its disks/heads unless you plan to just throw it away afterwards. That operation must be done in a ‘very clean’ clean room. If you don’t have a completely dust-free environment and gear, opening the hard drive and exposing the platters and heads poses a great risk in ruining the drive.

7. Don’t believe you’ve “never had a problem” with RAID 0 array, or even “never had a problem” from not backing up your data. Just because the drive in question was working for a certain period of time before it failed does not mean it was configured properly.

8. After the a controller board swap, you will certainly have two failing hard drives, whether you recovered the data or not. Do not re-use these drives. Consider other identical drives you purchased from the same batch ’suspect’.

9. This procedure is not for logically erased data (i.e. ‘un-formatting’). This procedure is for physically inoperable drives with intact data.

USB Flash Drives - Instant Storage

2009-03-31T13:04:00.003-07:00

What is the hottest back-to-school item this year? So red-hot that Mom and Dad will see it and want it too? It’s a tiny portable data storage device that plugs into the computer’s USB (Universal Serial Bus) port. Just a few of the brand names explain what it is. Here are some examples: TravelDrive™ from Memorex, Mini Cruzer™ from Sandisk, JumpDrive™ from Lexar. These small, pocket-sized storage devices are easy to work with, can plug in to any type of computer that is less than 8 years old or that has a USB port.

The great thing is that USB flash drives are really affordable now and for less than $100 you can get a 1GB USB storage device. Although flash drives have many uses, a common one is for transferring files from your work computer to your home computer, eliminating the need for lugging a laptop back and forth. (Although these devices go by many names, for purposes of this article, we will use the term flash drive.)

This article will take a look at this micro-technology, its history and future; you’ll be surprised to find out how prevalent this technology is and how long it has been around. As always, we will take a look at recovery options for these devices.

Flash Drives
In order to better understand the flash devices we have now, let’s take a moment and look at their history. Rudimentary flash memory began as integrated circuit chips that would come to be a standard in all electronic devices. These were known as CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor, pronounced ‘see-moss’) circuits. These small, low power, high-density circuits could be designed to perform a variety of functions and operations. Initially designed in 1963 and first produced in 1968, these little chips were the beginning of the digital integrated circuit. Perhaps you had a computer 17 years ago and remember the importance of the CMOS chip; the CMOS chip controlled the basic system settings and is similar to the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) on today’s computers.

CMOS integrated chips were a fantastic innovation; however, they were vulnerable to electro-static discharge, had to be handled carefully, and these chips always needed a constant power source to maintain the data. Did you ever have to replace the CMOS battery on your 8088 or 8086 computer? Then you remember that once the power was gone, you had to re-enter all of your computer’s settings.
A new style of chip called EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable ROM or Read Only Memory) was the successor to the CMOS chip and had significant improvements. The major innovation was that the chips were designed to be written to and then to hold data without power. The on-board memory usually held 64k (65,536 bytes). However, the materials inside the chip would wear out over time due to the number of write operations, so the lifetime of these chips were 10,000 to 100,000 write cycles.
Flash memory was an improvement over the EEPROM circuits in that they provided faster access to the data. Originally designed by Intel in 1988 and followed up by Samsung and Toshiba in 1989, these chips started popping up everywhere as embedded memory on electronic devices. Most of the applications for this non-volatile memory storage were for devices where the chip was part of the internal electronics, for example mobile phones, VCRs, automotive electronics, and handheld devices. In fact, flash memory storage (NAND-type flash memory as it is known) could be used for any electronic application that required the storage of data without electrical current; even hard drives use flash memory chips!

After flash technology had proven its reliability, retail products were the next step. M-Systems (NasdaqNM:FLSH) lead the industry with the flash disk concept in 1989 and in 1995 started to offer retail products that were designed for cameras, PDAs, and removable memory sticks or cards. Quite a long history, wouldn’t you agree? As you read this, flash storage is replacing the floppy diskette for portable, temporary data storage. The beauty of the USB flash drive is that it is universal. Remember the Great Floppy Diskette Debate? Do we install 5¼” drives? 3½” drives? Both? The manufacturers have wisely stuck to a standard this time.

What Are the Risks of Using Portable Storage?

2009-03-31T13:04:00.001-07:00

As far as reliability goes, USB flash drives are very durable. They are “hot-swappable” (that is, removable without shutting down the computer) and “solid-state” (that is, no moving parts). They’re great for transferring data between computers. A British television program (“The Gadget Show”) decided to put flash drives to the test. They ran over them with a car, blasted them out of cannon, and baked them in a soufflé at 400° F! What was the result? The flash drives shot out the cannon suffered because they were broken into little pieces; the rest worked just fine and retained their data.

For the majority of USB flash drive users, their drives will never go through that type of punishment. It seems that the biggest risk in using these devices is simply losing them! They are so small and compact that it would be easy to misplace a USB flash drive. Most of them come with neck strap or keychain clip that allow them to be with you constantly.

Most industry sites define flash drives as a compact storage and transporting device whereas most dictionaries define flash memory as a computer chip with a read-only memory that can be electronically erased and reprogrammed without being removed from the circuit board. By definition, using a flash drive as an active storage area could pose a risk. For instance, one user used a flash drive like a second document folder. The user was creating and editing documents on the device with their word processor re-saving active documents every five minutes. This constant writing wore out the flash memory. Just like EEPROM chips, flash devices have a lifespan (this depends on the number of write cycles, check with the manufacturer find out the expectancy rates of your particular model), however, there is no limit to the number of times data can be read.

Security is the final risk. A common use for a flash drive is to transfer files from work to home. If the flash drive was lost or stolen during the transport, proprietary company information would be compromised. In fact, most small to large companies have strict policies of what types of information can leave the premises. This highlights the importance of data encryption.

There are a number of software encryption products that will maintain data security even if the flash device falls into the wrong hands. In fact, most USB flash drives come with some sort of free encryption software; however the free software may not meet your data protection requirements. If you use your flash drive for your company’s information or for your own personal information, be sure to purchase quality encryption software. The manufacturer of the flash device should have a recommendation of software on their Web site.

What if the Flash Device Is Damaged?

2009-03-31T13:03:00.002-07:00

Data Recovery is always an option for these types of devices. The quality of the recovery depends on how much usable data there is. In the British television program mentioned earlier, after the flash drive was shot out of the cannon and damaged, the producers sent the damaged flash device it to professional data recovery company After working with the device and its pieces, the engineers were able to recover the data on the device and found the data the producers were expecting.

Never assume that the data is gone when physical damage has occurred. The experienced data recovery engineers are capable of repairing complex electronics on USB flash drives.

What about deleted or reformatted USB flash drives? Similar to hard disks, when a USB flash drive is reformatted or data is deleted, the file system addresses to the data are erased—not the data itself. Even if some files are re-saved back to the device, there may be a chance that the information is recoverable. In simple deleted recovery situations, do-it-yourself solutions by using the professional software would be able to find the data and bring it back. In more complex situations where data has been restored back to the device, a trained data recovery engineer would be able to tell the difference between the newly written data and the original data. After an evaluation, the user would know exactly which files sustained damaged and which ones did not.

As long as the flash media is not physically damaged, a quick recovery choice for USB flash drives is that chooses the Remote Data Recovery service from professional data recovery company. The remote engineers can work on your flash drive while it’s still plugged into your computer and has access to the internet or to a modem.

The Ever Growing Challenges of Data Storage

2009-03-31T13:03:00.001-07:00

Electronic data storage needs continue to grow. As your client’s organization produces more information in electronic format, storage space is becoming increasingly important.

Managing data storage for performance, integrity, and scalability is the next summit in Information Technology management and planning.

It wasn’t long ago that having a single volume in the terabyte size range was rare for extremely large organizations. With the advent of IDE RAID and SATA RAID capabilities, large storage systems are within reach of medium to small businesses.

Let’s put things into perspective – how much space is 1TB?

Number of Bytes	What that relates to
1 Byte	One character (letter or number)
1KB (Kilobyte) 1000 bytes	3 or 4 typed manuscript style pages
1MB (Megabyte) 1,000,000 bytes	Average size of a novel (300-400pgs); 1 diskette
1GB (Gigabyte) 1,000,000,000 bytes	Approximately 20 sets of encyclopedias
1TB (Terabyte) 1,000,000,000,000 bytes	A small library (approx. 5,000 books)

Number of Bytes What that relates to

To get the best performance and reliability from any storage space, strategic storage planning is essential. This month’s technical article will review the importance of the file system and planning considerations.
The File System’s Role

The file system’s role is a layer above the storage device(s) itself. The file system manages the individual allocation units of the volume and provides hierarchical organization for the files. Managing the allocation units of the files requires algorithms that will know where to write file data and have a method of verifying that the data was written correctly.

Hierarchical organization is the logical formation of directories and underlying structures. For instance, a storage volume that has millions of files on it will have specific data that describes the directory or folder structure of where these files belong. This directory or folder structure has integrity checks and balances to ensure that the indices reliably point to the user data.

Today’s file systems track more than just the name of the file or directory structure. Additional information called Metadata is also stored. Metadata is data about data. Essentially, the file system is saving more details about your files and is storing this along with attributes of the file. Some file systems record only the minimum of metadata (file name, size, time and date, start address), while other file systems record more information (file name, size, multiple time and dates, security details such as Read/Write/Execute/Delete privileges).

Some file systems are designed for specific hardware and storage media. For instance, the file systems used for CD-ROMs are quite different than those for floppy diskettes. Forcing these file systems on other media may be possible, but not practical. So while specific storage media, such as CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, magnetic-optical disks, and tape, have unique file systems, hard disk and hard disk storage systems can work with many different file systems.

Understanding these extra features of file systems will help in choosing the best one for the needs of the volume.

File System Considerations

During server planning, more time and research is spent on hardware, data space requirements, and application specifications than on how the data will be stored. The file system can become a low priority during the planning stages of a file or data server because the file system is inherent to the operating system. Sometimes it is assumed that this is best fit. However, your storage requirements may call for a more robust method of data organization on the hard disk(s). Investigate whether the operating system you are planning to use allows the other file systems to be used.

If you have a choice of file systems, here are some requirements to consider:

• Volume Size
• Estimated number of files on the volume
• Estimated size of files on the volume
• Shared volume requirements
• Backup Requirements

Volume Size

Volume size is an important place to start for planning. However, this is only the start since strategic planning involves scalability—can it grow as the need arises without interruption of service to the users? The axiom of filling free space is all too true for data volumes. It is not uncommon to add a terabyte of storage and in six months it’s already half full.

Two terabytes (2TB) has become the initial hurdle for many file systems. This limit starts with the SCSI command set being limited to 32-bit logical block addressing. Therefore, a single SCSI LUN using 512 byte block size cannot access over 2TB. File systems that have been used on these systems have been ‘adjusted’ to handle extremely large volumes. However, volumes that are nearing the 2TB limit may be stressing the limits of the file system.

Estimated Number of Files on the Volume

The next item to plan for is the number of files that could potentially be stored on the volume. Earlier we discussed Metadata and how the file system uses this to describe the files that are stored. This means there is going to be a certain amount of volume space used by the file system just to manage the files that are there.

File systems that are not built for excessively large directories will slow down applications that access them. This can adversely affect users that have thousands of files on a volume that has millions of files.
Estimated Size of Files on the Volume

The next consideration is the sizes of the files that will be on the volume. Organizations that are running large database servers usually have the need to be able to pre-allocate very large files in the gigabyte range of sizes. The file system and operating system need to be able to handle this level of input and output. For these types of enterprises’ systems, expectations are high for performance and integrity. Will the file system be able to handle those extremely large files?

Shared Volume Requirements

There are mixed environments in many organizations today. Some organizations may have three or four different platforms of computer systems; from mainframe systems to 64-bit Sun machines, from Apple desktops to Intel based machines. Some of these systems may share storage space. Will the volume support mixed data types? Additionally, will the operating system that manages the file system allow for different types of data streams to be accessed simultaneously?
Backup Requirements

Large volumes present a challenge for backup procedures. Due to the amount of data, restorations can take days. There are some file systems that have ‘Snap-shot’ technology incorporated into the backup software. This technology saves critical file system metadata. This, along with incremental file backups, is part of entire system scheme of data archiving.

These considerations should be matched with hardware specifications to get the best performance, integrity, and growth capability.

Regulatory Compliance & Data Recovery

2009-03-31T13:02:00.001-07:00

The IT industry has become even more complex in the past few years with the advent of regulatory compliance requirements that all publicly traded companies in the US and other regions must adopt.

Perhaps your organization is already working through these requirements. If you are a consultant or non-publicly traded company, you may not be bound by these regulations - however your clients may be, so this information is critical for anyone in the IT industry.

Regulatory standards affect the broad areas of data privacy, security, retention, protection and accountability. Within these areas, checks and balances act to preserve the information and data. Investigative processes verify the integrity of privacy; security and data protection and audits are required for accountability.

The legal and business requirements protect a company from investigations or consequences but they also help safeguard consumer and patient information. Here’s a list of some of the common regulatory compliance laws.

This is by no means a comprehensive or industry specific list but serves as an example of the amount of data regulations that are already in place:

Data Regulations
Sarbanes-Oxley Act
Known as SOX, this Act requires company financial executives to be culpable for financial reporting. Independent auditors review financial controls and processes to ensure accurate financial reporting. Controls of records and processes are preserved to prevent fraudulent activities.

Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
The Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act requires, among other things, the securing of patient information.

European Union Data Protection Directive
The European Union Data Protection Directive (EUDPD) standardizes the protection of data privacy for citizens throughout the European Union (EU) by providing baseline requirements that all member states must achieve through national implementing legislation

Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard
The four major credit card associations in the United States (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover Network) adopted a consolidated data security standard (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard; PCIDSS). Compliance is required of merchants accepting these cards.

Japan’s Personal Information Protection Act
The Personal Information Protection Act. The Personal Information Protection Act applies to government or private entities that collect, handle, or use personal information of 5,000 or more individuals

Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act
The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act addresses the protection of nonpublic personal information, requiring that financial records are properly secured, safeguarded, and eventually disposed of in a manner that completely destroys the information.

Breach Notification Legislation
California’s Senate Bill 1386 (SB1386) requires notification to California residents regarding any breach to the security of a computing system containing personal information.

Regulatory compliance issues can be really summed up by these simple items: “Keep it, Secure it, and Preserve it.” This can mean extra equipment and IT policies to maintain control over informationthat users may have previously horded on their machines.

One of the most important aspects to regulatory compliance is the 100% accessibility to the stored data. During data storage disasters, companies that require speed and quality turn to Professional Data Recovery Company for getting access back to regulatory data. In other situations, software that facilitates retrieving data is part of some IT department’s compliance process.

One of the least reported risks to electronic information is storage system failures. What happens when the server you have for compliance fails? How do you cope with a quarter-end financial audit when the business system database becomes corrupt? Who do you turn to when your company is in the middle of an SEC investigation and the electronic message server goes offline? These types of situations happen to corporations everyday. To help minimize this risk, several risk mitigation policies that storage administrators can adopt are outlined below:

Offline Storage System — Avoid forcing an array or drive back on-line. There is usually a valid reason for a controller card to disable a drive or array, forcing an array back online may expose the volume to file system corruption.
Rebuilding a Failed Drive — when rebuilding a single failed drive, it is import to allow the controller card to finish the process. If a second drive should fail or go off-line during this process, stop and get professional data recovery services involved. During a rebuild, replacing a second failed drive may change the data on the other drives.
During an Outage - If the problem escalates up to the OEM technical support, always ask “Is the data integrity at risk?” or, “Will this damage my data in any way?” If the technician says that there may be a risk to the data, then stop and get professional data recovery services involved.
Doing the Recovery Yourself - Some IT departments may have staff that has worked with automated data recovery or hard disk storage utilities. Depending on the cause of the data loss these tools could actually limit recovery efforts because the drive is experiencing intermediate failures. Some utilities on the internet are ‘free’ and promise to fix dead hard drives. Verify the source of the software and make sure that it comes from a reputable company that has a standardized development and quality assurance (Q/A) process. Untested software can yield unpredictable results.
When user desktop or laptop computer storage systems fail, do not assume that that their files are backed up, or synchronized, on the file server. At the same time, never assume that the data is completely gone.

Recover Deleted Files From Recycle Bin

2009-03-31T13:01:00.002-07:00

If you deleted an important file from recycle bin that you really needed, do you have any way to get it back? Some people hit the fan and begin to drastically panic if the file they deleted was very important. In fact, you can recover deleted files from the Recycle Bin. The file you deleted from the recycle bin hasn’t actually been permanently erased yet, it is still hidden deep within your computer’s hard drive. All you need to do is know how to find it, and with the aid of new advanced software’s, finding and recovering that deleted file can be as simple as a few clicks of your mouse.

A common misconception is that once you delete a file from the Recycling Bin it has been erased forever, and it is no longer present on the Hard Drive. Luckily for you this is not true, you see when you click empty recycle bin, windows does not actually delete the files, Those commands just generally delete a file’s name from the directory so it won’t show up when the files are listed. But the information itself can live on until it is overwritten by new files. Therefore the file has not actually been deleted; instead the space that it occupied has been freed up and listed as re-use space. Now until that file is overwritten by new data your file is still there and can be retrieved.

The first thing you should do if you want to get your files back is to stop downloading or installing any new data on the hard drive. The reason being, that once you install new programs or download new data onto the Drive it could use up the space created by your deleted file and it will be a lot harder to recover. Having more available space on your hard drive will increase your chances of recovery, as Windows avoids using up space that has recently been freed; therefore if you have plenty of room on your hard drive it will use that before it touches the space from the deleted file. Although I still strongly recommend you act as soon as possible and do not download any new material to your hard drive, that way you will most certainly have your deleted files back.

Therefore in order to recover deleted files from the recycle bin you must obtain a good Undelete Software, these software’s can recover data from almost any data drive like hard disks, USB drives, Zip drives, SD Cards etc.. The software’s can also recover data from data cards in digital cameras and cell phones. The good news is that most Undelete Programs offer a Free Download, so you can try out their software at no cost to see if you are able to recover your deleted files from recycle bin.

SQL & SQL Database File Recovery

2009-03-31T13:01:00.001-07:00

Microsoft® SQL server is a business enterprise software package that manages data through a client/server relational database. There are four fundamental aspects to a SQL (Structured Query Language) server.

1. Database File
2. Relational Database Concept
3. Client/Server System
4. Database Management System (DBMS)

The Database File refers to the physical file that contains the data the SQL server manages. This file is more than just a container for data. SQL files, or .MDF files, are highly organized and complex. The file is designed like this so that SQL server can handle multiple data transactions at once.

The Relational Database Concept is the method employed to organize the data; this is separate from the internal organization of the file itself. Relational Database Concept systems use mathematical set theory to organize the data in the most effective way. Data organization is critical to maintaining the speed of the database server.

The Client/Server System refers to the part of SQL server that communicates with the operating system. This part of the system needs to manage the server’s resources, connections and managing multiple databases at the same time.

The Database Management System interacts and works will all the above items. Not only does this manage the internal structure of the .MDF file, DBMS also controls the Relational Database side of things and organizes the data. The DBMS of SQL server is the heart of the system.

Data loss situations-What can happen?
Data loss situations can occur at a number of different levels. The first level of data loss starts with the storage device. This can be a single hard disk or a SAN or RAID storage array. The second level of data loss can start at a file system level. The file system is a unique method of storing and organizing system and user files. The operating system controls the file system. If the information about where data files are on the volume are damaged or lost, then adjustments or repairs need to be completed at a file system level. Once the file system is repaired then the file’s data stream can be accessed correctly. Most operating systems have a utility that will automatically fix the file system. These utilities work to make the volume accessible. However, this can permanently damage the data stream of the file. The third level of data loss can occur within the file itself. As previously mentioned, .MDF files are quite complex. The internal structure can be corrupted to the point where the DBMS will not make the database available.

The solution to data disasters
The process of a SQL recovery begins with finding the database file requested. If the database file is inaccessible due to problems with the storage device, then should work to get that data extracted. If the file is missing, deleted or truncated due to problems with the file system, then should work to adjust or repair the file system to correctly point to the data stream of the file. And finally if the file system has no pointers at all to the file, then should search the entire drive looking for SQL data.

The next stage is to work on the database file itself. This is where the SQL toolset comes. These tools analyze the complex internal structures of the .MDF file and provide reports as to what tables are recoverable. The reports also list the number of data rows that will come back.

Once the evaluation is complete and authorization is given to recover the data, the SQL toolset will copy the data into another SQL server database. After this phase is complete, we can backup or archive the recovered data.

Remote Data Recovery is the fastest solution for SQL recoveries. The Remote Data Recovery process will copy the recovered data into a SQL server that is setup on you or your client’s site. They only need SQL server running. For best results I recommend that the storage device we are working on be connected to a SQL server, because all of the data transactions will be occurring on a single machine.

Students how to protect against laptop data disasters?

2009-03-31T13:00:00.001-07:00

Many students will be packing laptop computers in addition to the usual school supplies. It’s clear that laptop computers are quickly becoming a vital part of the scholastic experience, however with more laptops in use comes more danger for data loss.

Laptop computers are an excellent way for today’s students to manage their workload, but protecting the data on those computers isn’t as simple as securing a notebook in a locker. Students need to be careful with their laptops to avoid both physical damage and other problems that could affect the integrity of their data. If problems do occur, it’s also important they know that data recovery is always an option.

To help students protect against laptop data disasters, there are some tips:

Laptops are not as rugged as many like to think. When laptops are being docked, moved or transported, the greatest of care should be taken to prevent unnecessary shock or impact. Set up your computer in a dry, cool, controlled environment that is clean and dust-free. Placing your computer in a low-traffic area will protect your system and storage media from harmful jarring or bumping.

Use a sturdy, well padded laptop bag - Using just a back-pack or brief-case may not provide the protection a laptop needs during transportation. Make sure your laptop has plenty of built-in padding for protection.

Backup your data regularly - Creating regular backups is one of the most effective ways to protect you from losing data. Back up data at least once a week on a reliable medium (CD, DVD, USB flash drives or Internet backup), always verifying that the correct data is backed up.

Run a virus scan and update it regularly - Computer viruses are one of the worst enemies to your computer. Good anti-virus software tests your system for sequences of code unique to each known computer virus and eliminates the infecting invader. Also beware of spyware, a common problem brought about by Web surfing and downloads that can cause complications with your computer’s efficiency. There are several programs available on the internet that can assist with the removal of most spyware programs.

Be aware of strange noises - If you hear a strange noise or grinding sound, turn off your computer immediately and call an expert. Further operation may damage your hard drive beyond repair.

Do not use file recovery software if you suspect an electrical or mechanical failure - Using file recovery software on a faulty hard drive may destroy what was otherwise recoverable data or worsen the physical failure.

Use Auto-Save features – Most software applications have Auto-Save features that will save the project or document you have open at a preset intervals. For laptop users, a good time interval to use is every 5 minutes.

Be battery-level aware – If you are going to be using the laptop for long hours, be sure to try and find an electrical outlet to plug into. Some laptops will shut down quickly when a specific low battery level is reached and important documents may be lost.

Data Loss–From PCs to Suit Pockets

2009-03-31T12:59:00.000-07:00

Data is everywhere. No longer confined to desktop computers, data is always with us – at the gym in the form of an iPod®, in the car via your cell phone, and of course surrounding you at work – notebooks, desktops, servers, etc. With the increased portability of data comes the increased risk for data to be lost, misplaced, damaged or destroyed.

How to protect mobile devices from data loss, here are some simple preventative steps that will help create good habits for the use of USB sticks and hopefully prevent any data disasters.

Minimize misplacement – Try to prevent ‘wandering’ USB sticks. The device is easily lost when you don’t exactly know where it is kept. A dedicated USB spot prevents loss of data from a portable storage device.

Carry with care – Make sure your USB is stored safely when traveling to minimize the risk of losing data.

No backups, please – A USB stick is too vulnerable to store precious information. These sticks should therefore never be used as a backup device.

Put a lid on it – if not in use ensure that the connector of your USB is protected. By using the protective cap, provided with any USB stick, a possible data disaster can be averted.

Unplug before you leave – Before you embark on a journey that requires a laptop and a USB stick, make sure the devices are separated. This way, both the laptop and the USB stick will run less risk of damage.

Data Recovery and Encryption

2009-03-31T12:57:00.002-07:00

Business continuity and disaster planning are critical for businesses regardless of their size. Most archive and backup software have key features to restore user files, database stores and point in time snap-shots of users’ files. Software is becoming more automated so users don’t have to manually backup their files. Some computer manufacturers have built-in backup systems that include dedicated hard disk drives for archive storage. Most external USB hard disk drives have some sort of third party software that provides data archiving during a trial time period. Such solutions, while solving the data backup need, create questions regarding how effective the systems are with respect to user data. What are your options when a user’s computer has a data disaster and the hard disk drive is fully encrypted?

Most IT security policies require a multi-pronged approach to data security. For example, when setting up a new computer for a user, the IT department will require a BIOS (Basic Input/output System) password for the system before the computer will start. BIOS password security varies in functionality. Some are computer system specific, meaning that the computer will not start without the proper password. Other BIOS passwords are hard disk drive specific, meaning that the hard drive will not be accessible without the proper password. Some computer BIOS employ one password for access control to the system and the hard disk drive. To add a second level of protection, new IT security policies require full hard disk drive encryption. The most common of full hard disk encryption software operates as a memory resident program. When the computer starts up, the encryption software is loaded before the operating system starts and a pass-phrase or password prompt is required. After a successful login from the user, the software decrypts the hard disk drive sectors in memory, as they are needed. The process is reversed when writing to the hard disk drive. This leaves the hard disk drive in a constant state of encryption. The operating system and program applications function normally, without having to be aware of any encryption software.

Recovery Process for Encrypt HDD

2009-03-31T12:57:00.001-07:00

Recovering from hard disk drives that are encrypted follows the same handling procedures as all other magnetic media. A strict process of handling and documentation starts right at the shipping door upon drive receipt and ends when the drive is shipped back to the customer. In most cases, when working with a top data recovery provider, all recovery processes are logged. This results in an audit trail of the recovery history and serves as verification that the recovery was conducted in a secure, compliant manner. Specifically, you want to ensure the process consists of the following high-level steps:

1. Triage drive; determine faults without opening drive
2. Clean room escalation for physical or electronic damage
3. Secure original media
4. Sector-by-sector copy of drive data
5. User Key used to decrypt data
6. Produce file listing of user file names
7. Repair file system
8. Prepare data for delivery
9. Encryption options for data delivery

After the first four stages listed above, the recovery engineer will begin to map all key file system structures that point to the user files. However, if the hard disk drive is encrypted, then the drive needs to be decrypted in order to proceed.

Decryption
If this is the case, a user key or decryption password is required. Fortunately, encryption software has come a long way over the years. Instead of using a master password for decryption, most professional encryption software provides a technician level pass-phrase that changes on a daily basis. This protects the user’s password and the organization’s master password.

Many organizations are comfortable providing these one-time use pass-phrases so that the recovery work can continue. However, this is not always the case. For some organizations, providing this information to an outside vendor, such as a data recovery provider, is against their security policy. In these situations, a successful recovery is still possible. There are data recovery vendors that can perform recoveries while leaving the data in its encrypted form throughout the entire process. In this case, the data will be recovered and sent back to the client in its encrypted form; however, the specific results will be unknown until the files are opened by someone with access to the encryption key. Ultimately, this limits the ability for a data recovery provider to communicate the success of the recovery until the recovered data is delivered and opened, thereby placing some burden back on the customer.

As a result, it is clear that significant time and cost savings are associated with allowing your data recovery vendor to access your one-time use pass-phrase codes while attempting to recover your encrypted data. At the same time, it’s critical to ensure that your selected vendor also understands security protocols, is knowledgeable about encryption products and has privacy policies in place.

Resuming Recovery
Following the recovery, preparation for delivering the data begins. Since the original hard disk drive was encrypted, safely securing the recovered data is highly important. The recovered data is backed up to the media choice of the user and is re-encrypted. The new decryption key is communicated verbally to the user; email should not be used, as this could be a security risk. Some leading edge data recovery companies are able to deliver recovered data back to the customer in an encrypted format on external USB/Firewire hard disk drives. From the start of the recovery to the final delivery, data should be secure throughout the entire process.

Data Recovery Vendor Considerations

2009-03-31T12:56:00.002-07:00

When looking for a data recovery provider, it’s important to ensure that the one selected can handle not only the various types of media, but also understands the data security regulations of today’s organizations. For example, encrypted data requires special data handling processes — from the clean room to the technically-advanced recovery lab. This isolation ensures no one person has complete access to the media throughout the recovery process, thereby providing security while maintaining recovery continuity and quality.

Additionally, it is important to note that some data recovery companies have been cleared for security projects and services for U.S. government agencies. As a result, these companies implement data privacy controls that are based on the U.S. government’s Electronic Defense Security Services requirements for civilian companies that are under contract for security clearance projects or services.

Unfortunately, most data loss victims only consider data recovery right after they have experienced a data loss and are scrambling for a solution. Emotions run high at this point. The fallout from a data disaster and corresponding data loss is sometimes crippling, with the IT staff working around the clock to get the computer systems back to normal. These distressed circumstances are not the time to think about what makes a good data recovery vendor. Incorporating this important decision into your business continuity planning is best done in advance. Some key questions to ask as part of this proactive exercise include:

Do you have a relationship with a preferred data recovery vendor?

What should you look for when reviewing data recovery companies?

Do you include data recovery in your disaster and business continuity planning?

Do you have a plan for how to handle data loss of encrypted data?

Do appropriate people have access to the encryption keys to speed up the recovery process?

Sometimes planning for these procedures can become involved and tedious, especially if you are planning for something you have never experienced. Do some investigating by calling data recovery service companies and presenting data loss situations such as email server recoveries, or RAID storage recoveries or physically damaged hard disk drives from mobile users. Ask about data protection and the policies in place to protect your company’s files.

Additionally, find out the techniques and recovery tools the providers use. Ask the companies how large their software development staff is. Inquire about how they handle custom development for unique data files. For example, will they be able to repair or rebuild your user’s unique files? Does the data recovery service company have any patents or special OEM certifications?

While these details may not seem important at first, they can be the decisive factors that determine whether your data recovery experience is a positive and successful endeavor.

Following is a checklist of factors to consider when searching for a data recovery vendor for encrypted data or ensuring your data recovery partner is able to comply with your data security policies:

Solid Reputation – Experienced data Recovery Company with a strong background.

Customer Service – Dedicated and knowledgeable staff.

Secure Protocols – Expert knowledge of encryption products with privacy protocols in place.

Technical Expertise – Capable of recovering from virtually all operating systems and types of storage devices.

Scalable Volume Operations – Equipped with full-service labs and personnel that can handle all size jobs on any media type.

Research & Development – Invested in technology for superior recoveries; not just purchasing solutions.

It is important to understand that data loss can occur at any time on any scale. It’s especially crucial to be prepared with a plan that adheres to your company’s security policy. The more prepared one is, the better the chance for a quick and successful recovery when a problem arises.

Avoiding Storage System Failure?

2009-03-31T12:56:00.001-07:00

Reduce or Eliminate the Impact of Storage System Failures
Storage systems have become their own unique and complex computer field and can mean different things to different people. So what is the definition of these systems? Storage systems are the hardware that store data.

For example, this may be a small business server supporting an office of ten users or less—the storage system would be the hard drives that are inside of that server where user information is located. In large business environments, the storage systems can be the large SAN cabinet that is full of hard drives and the space has been sliced-and-diced in different ways to provide redundancy and performance.

The Ever-Changing Storage System Technology
Today’s storage technology encompasses all sorts of storage media. These could include WORM systems, tape library systems and virtual tape library systems. Over the past few years, SAN and NAS systems have provided excellent reliability. What is the difference between the two?

SAN (Storage Area Network) units can be massive cabinets—some with 240 hard drives in them! These large 50+ Terabyte storage systems are doing more than just powering up hundreds of drives. These systems are incredibly powerful data warehouses that have versatile software utilities behind them to manage multiple arrays, various storage architecture configurations, and provide constant system monitoring.

NAS (Network Attached Storage) units are self-contained units that have their own operating system, file system, and manage their attached hard drives. These units come in all sorts of different sizes to fit most needs and operate as file servers.

For some time, large-scale storage has been out reach of the small business. Serial ATA (SATA) hard disk drive-based SAN systems are becoming a cost-effective way of providing large amounts of storage space. These array units are also becoming mainstream for virtual tape backup systems—literally RAID arrays that are presented as tape machines; thereby removing the tape media element completely.

Other storage technologies such as SCSI, DAS (Direct Attached Storage), Near-Line Storage (data that is attached to removable media), and CAS (Content Attached Storage) are all methods for providing data availability. Storage Architects know that just having a ‘backup’ is not enough. In today’s high information environments, a normal nightly incremental or weekly full backup is obsolete in hours or even minutes after creation. In large data warehouse environments, backing up data that constantly changes is not even an option. The only method for those massive systems is to have storage system mirrors—literally identical servers with the exact same storage space.

How does one decide which system is best? Careful analysis of the operation environment is required. Most would say that having no failures at all is the best environment—that is true for users and administrators alike! The harsh truth is that data disasters happen every day despite the implementation of risk mitigation policies and plans.

When reviewing your own or your client’s storage needs, consider these questions:

What is the recovery turn-time? What is your client’s maximum time period allowed to be back to the data? In other words, how long can you or your client survive without the data? This will help to establish performance requirements for equipment.

Quality of data restoredIs original restored data required or will older, backed up data suffice? This relates to the backup scheme that is used. If the data on your, or your client’s storage system changes rapidly, then the original data is what is most valuable.

How much data are you or your client archiving?Restoring large amounts of data will take time to move through a network. On DAS (Direct Attached Storage) configurations, time of restoration will depend on equipment and I/O performance of the hardware.

Data Protection Schemes to Storage System

2009-03-31T12:40:00.001-07:00

Storage System manufacturers are pursuing unique ways of processing large amounts of data while still being able to provide redundancy in case of disaster. Some large SAN units incorporate intricate device block-level organization, essentially creating a low-level file system from the RAID perspective. Other SAN units have an internal block-level transaction log in place so that the Control Processor of the SAN is tracking all of the block-level writes to the individual disks. Using this transaction log, the SAN unit can recover from unexpected power failures or shutdowns.

Some computer scientists specializing in the storage system field are proposing adding more intelligence to the RAID array controller card so that it is ‘file system aware.’ This technology would provide more recoverability in case disaster struck, the goal being the storage array would become more self-healing.

Other ideas along these lines are to have a heterogeneous storage pool where multiple computers can access information without being dependant on a specific system’s file system. In organizations where there are multiple hardware and system platforms, a transparent file system will provide access to data regardless of what system wrote the data.

Other computer scientists are approaching the redundancy of the storage array quite differently. The RAID concept is in use on a vast number of systems, yet computer scientists and engineers are looking for new ways to provide better data protection in case of failure. The goals that drive this type of RAID development are data protection and redundancy without sacrificing performance.

Reviewing the University of California, Berkeley report about the amount of digital information that was produced 2003 is staggering. You or your client’s site may not have terabytes or pet bytes of information, yet during a data disaster, every file is critically important.

Avoiding Storage System Failures
There are many ways to reduce or eliminate the impact of storage system failures. You may not be able to prevent a disaster from happening, but you may be able to minimize the disruption of service to your clients.

There are many ways to add redundancy to primary storage systems. Some of the options can be quite costly and only large business organizations can afford the investment. These options include duplicate storage systems or identical servers, known as ‘mirror sites’. Additionally, elaborate backup processes or file-system ‘snapshots’ that always have a checkpoint to restore to, provide another level of data protection.

Experience has shown there are usually multiple or rolling failures that happen when an organization has a data disaster. Therefore, to rely on just one restoration protocol is shortsighted. A successful storage organization will have multiple layers of restoration pathways.

Here are several risk mitigation policies that storage administrators can adopt that will help minimize data loss when a disaster happens:

Offline storage system — Avoid forcing an array or drive back on-line. There is usually a valid reason for a controller card to disable a drive or array, forcing an array back on-line may expose the volume to file system corruption.

Rebuilding a failed drive — When rebuilding a single failed drive, it is import to allow the controller card to finish the process. If a second drive fails or go off-line during this process, stop and get professional data recovery services involved. During a rebuild, replacing a second failed drive will change the data on the other drives.

Storage system architecture — Plan the storage system’s configuration carefully. We have seen many cases with multiple configurations used on a single storage array. For example, three RAID 5 arrays (each holding six drives) are striped in a RAID 0 configuration and then spanned. Keep a simple storage configuration and document each aspect of it.

During an outage — If the problem escalates up to the OEM technical support, always ask “Is the data integrity at risk?” or, “Will this damage my data in any way?” If the technician says that there may be a risk to the data, stop and get professional data recovery services involved.

Why you Should Have a Disaster Recovery Plan in Place

2009-03-31T12:39:00.000-07:00

There is something that is inevitable. You never know when an entire system is going to crash or another disaster may come about. You have to be prepared for these things. If you’re not, then everything will be chaotic. No one will know what to do. In other words, everyone will be running around asking each other, “What do we do now?” And no one is going to have an answer.

What is a disaster recovery plan?
A disaster recovery plan is that protocol in which your employees follow when a certain disaster comes about. You have to evaluate everything that could go wrong within your business and have a recovery plan for each one of those situations. Since not one situation is the same, there has to be a protocol for each. From there, your employees have to study it and know what to do immediately. This means they need to memorize. There are many disasters that do not allow time for someone to pull out a manual and read what needs to happen. They have to act immediately.

But why have a disaster recovery plan in place?
You should have one in place because you need to conduct business in the best manner possible for your customers. Your customers expect seamless service no matter what, so you have to try to make things as convenient for them as possible. If you don’t, then you risk losing their business.

Your disaster recovery plan will include dealing with data loss during a natural disaster, dealing with a system meltdown, power surges, and so much more. It depends on what sort of business you are in as to what kind of plans you use. Just make sure that you cover all of your bases and that you also have a master plan so that you can take care of something that may not have a plan. You just never know what could happen.

Statistics
Statistics have shown that businesses with a disaster recovery plan are amongst those that recover better. Those who have experienced some sort of disaster that lasts for more than 10 days will never recover financially. 50% of those companies without a disaster recovery plan will spend so much time making up for lost cash that they will most likely be out of business in 5 years. That is not something you want to have to deal with. The cost of an outage that lasts only a few days is already bad enough. Contracts can be broken, credibility can be lost, and even future customers will never be acquired. These are extreme losses.

So take these statistics to heart so that you know why it is you need a disaster recovery plan. Not one more business needs to go out of business due to an outage, so you need to be on top of things. You need to realize that anything that prohibits you from carrying out your business practices can do irreparable damages. Your customers expect for you to be there for them whenever they need you. There is nothing more frustrating to them than trying to resolve an issue that you can’t resolve because of an outage. If their request is not fulfilled, then they may suddenly become your competitor’s newest customer.

Dealing with the Complexity of Storage Systems

2009-03-31T12:38:00.001-07:00

In fact, even with all the advancements in storage technology, only about 20%* of back-up jobs are successful (*according to Enterprise Strategy Group).

Each year hundreds of new data storage products and technologies meant to make the job faster and easier are introduced, but with so many categories and options to consider, the complexity of storage instead causes confusion - which ultimately leads to lost time and the loss of the very data such new enhancements are meant to avoid.

Hence the question for most IT professionals who have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in state-of-the-art storage technology remains, “How can data loss still happen and what am I supposed to do about it?”

Why Backups Still Fail
In a perfect world, a company would build their storage infrastructure from scratch using any of the new storage solutions and standardize on certain vendors or options. If everything remained unchanged, some incredibly powerful, rock-solid results could be achieved.

However, in the real world storage is messy. Nothing remains constant - newly created data is added at an unyielding pace while new regulations, such as Sarbanes-Oxley, mandate changes in data retention procedure. Since companies can rarely justify starting over from scratch, most tend to add storage in incremental stages - introducing new elements from different vendors at different times - hence the complexity of storage.

All this complexity can lead to a variety of backup failures that can catch companies unprepared to deal with the ramifications of data loss. One reason why backups fail is due to bad media. If a company has their backup tapes sitting on a shelf for years, the tapes could become damaged and unreadable. This is a common occurrence if backup tapes are not stored properly. Another reason why backups fail has to do with companies losing track of the software with which those backups were created. For a restore to be successful, most software packages require that the exact environment still be available. Finally, backups fail due to corruption in the backup process. Many times companies will change their data footprint but not change their backup procedure to keep up - so they are not backing up what they think they are. Without regular testing, all of these reasons are likely sources of failure.

What to Do When Your Backup Fails
No matter how much a company tries to speed operations and guard against problems with new products and technology, the threat of data loss remains and backup and storage techniques do not always provide the necessary recovery. When an hour of down time can result in millions of dollars lost, including data recovery in your overall disaster plan is critical, and may be the only way to restore business continuity quickly and efficiently. When a data loss situation occurs, time is the most critical component. Decisions about the most prudent course of action must be made quickly, which is why administrators must understand when to repair, when to restore and when to recover data.

When to Repair
This is as simple as running file repair tools (such as fsck or CHKDSK - file repair tools attempt to repair broken links in the file system through very specific knowledge of how that file system is supposed to look) in read-only mode first, since running the actual repair on a system with many errors could overwrite data and make the problem worse. Depending on the results of the read-only diagnosis, the administrator can make an informed decision to repair or recover. If they find a limited amount of errors, it is probably fine to go ahead and fix them as the repair tool will yield good results.

Note: if your hard drive makes strange noises at any point, immediately skip to the recovery option.

When to Restore
The first question an admin should ask is how fresh their last backup is and will a restore get them to the point where they can effectively continue with normal operations. There is a significant difference between data from the last backup and data from the point of failure, so it is important to make that distinction right away. Only a recovery can help if critical data has never been backed up. Another important question is how long it will take to complete the restore - if the necessary time is too long they might need to look at other options. A final consideration is how much data are they trying to restore. Restoring several terabytes of data, for example, will take a long time from tape backups.

When to Recover
The decision to recover comes down to whether or not a company’s data loss situation is critical and how much downtime they can afford. If they don’t have enough time to schedule the restore process, it is probably best to move forward with recovery. Recovery is also the best method if backups turn out to be too old or there is some type of corruption. The bottom line is, if other options are attempted and those options fail, it is best to contact a recovery company immediately. Some administrators will try multiple restores or repairs before trying recovery and will actually cause more damage to the data.

Dealing with the Complexity of Storage Systems

2009-03-31T12:38:00.000-07:00

In fact, even with all the advancements in storage technology, only about 20%* of back-up jobs are successful (*according to Enterprise Strategy Group).

Note: if your hard drive makes strange noises at any point, immediately skip to the recovery option.

Remove Password Protection from a Microsoft Word Document

2009-03-31T12:37:00.002-07:00

Nearly all Microsoft programs have an option for setting up different levels of passwords. These passwords can be used for specific actions, such as, preventing reading, accessing or modifying any particular file. We have all used the feature at some point and it can be easily said that it is a great tool to have at your disposal to protect the privacy of your work. The only problem is what do you do if you forget the password yourself? Is the file forever inaccessible? Can You recover the Lost Password? Well there was a time when, if you forgot your password it was gone for good, but these days there have been huge advances in technology and there are software’s available to help you remove password protection from Microsoft Word and other MS Office Programs. So if you wish to recover your lost password and access your important file again, and then continue reading this article to find out how…

Microsoft Office 2007 and onwards came out with significantly improved security features. Passwords to open Word documents are extremely hard to break but nevertheless they can be cracked. Only two basic methods of password breaking can be used: dictionary search and brute force attack. The quicker option is dictionary search; however this option won’t be off much help if the password was created artificially. The other option is Brute Force attack, this method tries to track the password down by searching all possible combinations of specified symbols, starting from very short sequences, so you can recover a password no matter how long or complex it might be. If the forgotten password contained less than six symbols, it can be recovered quickly. Long Passwords will take a while to recover, but with the aid of good software they can be retrieved fairly easily.

So if you have accidentally lost or forgotten an important password to a Microsoft Office (Word) Document, then don’t eat your brains out over it, you can still recover the lost password and remove password protection from Microsoft Office. All you need to do is get your hands on a good Password Recovery Software and you should be able to access your restricted files in a matter of minutes. Most Remove Password Protection Software’s offer a Free Download these days, so you can try out the program risk free to see if your passwords are recoverable.

The Hidden Costs of Increasing Data Storage

2009-03-31T12:37:00.001-07:00

Large-scale IT environments have the resources to manage all aspects of a network expansion, including the initial analysis, equipment installation and wiring, and proper access management to users. In smaller environments the planning may not go beyond the immediate reaction to the user’s needs—that is, “we’re out of space!” While the size of the environment may determine how storage needs are addressed and managed, such things as proper equipment cooling, storage management software that allows for scalable growth (SRM), disaster recovery (including backup contingencies), and data recovery concerns apply to IT environments of every size.

In one scenario, picture a small business with five desktop machines. Despite following careful data compression procedures and rigorous archiving of old files, their system is running out of space. They have a small file server sitting near the users’ desks. Can the business owner upgrade the file server with a bigger hard drive or should he add a separate rack of inexpensive drives? How much space will they need? Will a terabyte be enough? What if they need to upgrade in the future? How hard will it be? What other hidden costs are they going to run into?

In another scenario, a business that uses 30-40 desktop machines has a file server located in a separate room with adequate cooling, user access management, and a solid network infrastructure. But they too are running out of space. When they plan for an expansion, what hidden costs will they need to consider?

In addition to equipment investment, there are many hidden costs to consider when determining storage needs and subsequent management. Following are some hidden costs identified when it comes to storage.

How can you get the most out of existing storage space, not allowing it to fill up so quickly? In conjunction, how do you prevent your storage space from running out before the full life expectancy is realized? This is where storage management software, such as SRM and ILM, enters the picture. Storage Resource Management (SRM) software provides storage administrators the right tools to manage space effectively. Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) software helps the management of data through its lifecycle.

While a viable solution, SRM and ILM software may not cover all the needs of a business environment. SRM and ILM software are designed to manage files and storage effectively, and with a level of automation. Beyond this is where good old-fashioned space management is required. Remember the days when space was at a premium and there were all sorts of methods to make sure that inactive files were stored somewhere else—like on floppies? Remember when file compression utilities came out and we were squeezing every duplicate byte out of files? Those techniques are not outdated just because the cost per MB has dropped, or tools exist to help us manage data storage. Prudent storage practices never go out of style.

Power consumption
Manufacturers are working hard to optimize the performance of their machines, yet server power consumption remains on the increase. What will be the power requirement of your company’s new storage solution? Luiz André Barroso at Google reports that if performance per watt is to remain constant over the next few years, power costs could easily overtake hardware costs, possibly by a large margin.

Power consumption can be a hidden fixed cost that may not have been expected with the expansion of storage space. Especially when consider the fluctuating costs of energy, unanticipated power usage increases can be an expensive budget buster affecting the entire enterprise.

Cooling requirements
Closely related to power consumption is the need to keep cool the more powerful processors found in the latest machines. Both the performance and life expectancy of the equipment are related to the component temperature of the equipment. Ever since the Pentium II processor in 1997, proper heat dissipation using heat sinks and cooling fans has become a standard for computer equipment. Today’s high performance processors, main boards, video cards, and hard drives require reliable temperature management in order to effectively and efficiently work day in, day out.

If you or your client’s storage requirements grow, proper ambient server room temperature settings are going to be required. Adding such a room or creating the necessary environment may add build-out costs, not to mention increase those power consumption and energy costs mentioned about earlier.

Noise
With proper heat dissipation and cooling comes noise. All those extra fans and cooling compressors can create a noticeable amount of decibels. A large-scale IT environment has the luxury of potentially keeping its noisy machines away from the users. However, in a smaller-scale business or home business, some have found the sound levels generated by their storage equipment to be intolerable or at minimum concentration breaking. Such noise makes surrounding areas non-conducive to work and productivity, hindering employee’s ability to simply think. When increasing your data storage, make sure the resulting noise generated is tolerable. Be sure, too, that noise suppression efforts don’t interfere or defeat heat dissipation or cooling solutions.

Administrative cost
The equipment investment for the expansion may be significant, but how does this increased storage relate to administrative needs? Should management hire a network consultant to assess user needs, then install, setup, and test the new equipment? Or can the company’s in-house network administrator do the work? A small company has a risk because although they might not be able to afford to have a professional assessment and installation, they may learn the hard way with an inexpensive solution the old adage of “you get what you pay for.”

A non-professional might misdiagnose storage usage needs, set up the equipment incorrectly, or buy equipment that isn’t a good fit for the environment. Such unintentional blunders are why there are certifications for network professionals. Storage management is not as simple as adding more space when needed, it is a complicated, multi-layered endeavor affecting every aspect and employee of a business.

Although using the skills of a professional greatly increases the success of the storage expansion, it will raise the final cost. When considering the monetary expense, businesses must also remember to consider how much other ‘costs’ - overall risk, loss of data availability, system downtime if the implemented solution fails - they can afford.

Backup management
How does your business currently manage backup cycles and corresponding storage needs? Do you store your backups on-site, or do you have a safe alternate location at which to store this precious data? Natural disasters such as fires and floods, and extreme disasters like Hurricane Katrina are wakeup calls to many resistant to the idea of offsite data storage. Offsite data storage may be as simple as storing backup tapes off site or archiving data with data farms for a monthly space rental fee, or as complex as having a mirrored site housing a direct copy of all your data (effective but costly).

Whatever backup management and storage process utilized, backups created should be tested, as well as the backup system with the expanded storage to make sure it’s actually backing everything up. There is nothing worse than relying on a backup that doesn’t work, was improperly created, or doesn’t contain the vital data your business needs.

Database storage
Databases created as a result of daily business activities can be staggering (as referenced in the earlier example of one large retail corporation’s generation of a billion rows of sales data daily). This activity can result in large amounts of data being stored. One way to optimize database performance is by separating the database files and storing them in three separate locations. In this process, data files are stored in one location, transaction files or logs in a second location, and backups in a completely different location. This not only makes data processing more efficient but prevents having an “all the eggs in one basket” scenario, beneficial when experiencing a process disruption such as equipment failure.

Undertaking this type of database optimization involves the aforementioned planning and equipment costs. But keep in mind how database information has reached into all areas of the business - customer information, billing information, and inventory management information - and how vital it is that this information be protected. Hidden costs associated with protecting database information can escalate quickly.

Installation and cabling
The old trend was a standalone unit where the processor and storage were one system. Now the trend is to build a separate networked storage system that can be accessed by many users and servers. In general, there are two types of separate storage systems, the storage area network (SAN), and the network attached storage (NAS).

The separate storage system offers a number of advantages, including easier expansion. The consideration however, is that you will need the network infrastructure to support a separate storage system. In other words, if your storage system is in a separate building, you will need faster network connectivity to avoid a “bottleneck” in communication between the server and the storage device.

Disaster recovery
A disaster recovery plan encompasses everything that could happen if there is a system failure due to destruction, natural disaster, fire, theft or equipment failure. Part of a good disaster recovery plan includes a business continuation plan, that is, how to keep the business going and doing business despite the disaster. When planning for a data storage expansion, the disaster recovery plan should be reviewed to make sure the company’s data is accessible in the event of a contingency, and be closely aligned to business continuity planning and efforts.

Data recovery
Data recovery can become a hidden cost if not planned for. Every business continuity plan and disaster plan should include professional data recovery services as part of their overall solution.

As you can see, there is much more to scalable growth than just adding more storage space. Although prudent planning and every precaution in instigating and undertaking an effective storage management solution has been enacted, failures and unforeseen circumstances can and do occur. Simply put, despite the best preparation disasters do.

How to select a data recovery provider

2009-03-31T12:36:00.001-07:00

Scan the web for data recovery providers, and you’ll find hundreds of companies promoting data recovery capabilities. Choosing the right provider can be a deciding factor in whether you will get your lost data back - and if so - how long you will have to wait. The information below will help you identify misleading sales tactics and select the provider that offers the highest level of professional service and overall best value.

Step 1: Identify companies that have the technology and resources to solve a wide array of data loss challenges.

How long has the provider been in the data recovery service business?

Does the provider have a clean-room laboratory to safely open, repair and recover data from media storage devices?

How many recovery labs with clean-rooms, does the provider operate? Does the provider have global coverage?

Does the provider have a sufficient number of engineers to handle large and complex recovery jobs and handle peak-demand seasons (e.g. hurricane season)?

Can the provider recover data from systems that are proprietary to their clients? Does the provider have the technology and resources to develop customized data recovery tools if required?

Does the provider have the expertise to recover data from virtually any type of platform, storage device, database or operating system?

Does the provider have the resources to perform emergency and/or on-site data recoveries?

Step 2: Identify companies that provide a range of data recovery solutions to fit your specific needs.

Does the provider have service and/or do-it-yourself software options to fit your budget?

Does the provider offer a fast enough level of recovery service to address the most urgent data loss situations?

Can the provider offer a secure remote data recovery service for data loss situations where no mechanical damage has occurred to the storage device?

What is the standard turn-time required for desktop recovery and laptop data recoveries? For more complex systems?

Does the provider retain your recovered data for a period of time after the client’s recovery is complete?

Step 3: Identify providers that will provide you with the information required to make an educated purchase decision.

Will the provider give you a file listing report showing the recoverability of your files before you commit to recovery fees? Is this included in their evaluation service?

If the provider offers a file listing report, how long will it take them to deliver the report?

Will the provider commit to quoted price ranges in writing to ensure the services fit your budget?

Step 4: Identify companies that offer professional customer service whenever and wherever you need it.

Does the provider offer 24/7/365 customer service?

In which languages does the provider offer customer support?

Will the provider offer you free, no-obligation consultation and present you with a range of recovery options?

Will the provider allow you to speak one-to-one with a data recovery engineer to discuss your options?

Does the provider have a technical support team on staff to offer pre- and post-recovery support?

Does the provider have online customer portals to allow you to track the progress of your data recovery from start to finish?

Step 5: Identify companies that have well documented and established procedures for maintaining the security and confidentiality of your data.

Is the provider authorized by private and government entities to handle highly sensitive data?

Does the provider have the expertise to properly document chain of custody if the storage media is likely to be involved in an investigation or court case?

Does the provider have the ability to recover encrypted data?

Does the provider have the ability to return your data in an encrypted form?

Does the provider perform employee background checks for anyone that may come into contact with your data?

Does the provider participate in the U.S. GSA (General Services Administration) Program?

Do the provider’s facilities meet all U.S. Department of Defense specifications?

Step 6: Avoid the gimmicks! Select a data recovery provider you can trust by eliminating those who use questionable sales tactics

If the provider offers “free evaluations”, what is included in the free service? Will you receive a file listing report showing which files can be recovered before you are required to approve additional charges?

If the provider offers “no data, no charge”, what will they charge you if they recover data but not the data that you need.

If the provider quotes a price range for their recovery service, will they put it in writing?

Does the provider charge you for parts or are there other hidden fees?

Does the provider use outside or third parties to perform the data recovery service?

3D Data Recovery process

2009-03-31T12:35:00.001-07:00

Data recovery firms are missing out on data they could retrieve with the complete 3D Data Recovery process. Proper data recovery involves three phases: drive restoration, disk imaging, and data retrieval. But data recovery professionals can face frustrating problems when imaging a damaged disk. The drive may repeatedly stop responding in the middle of copying data. The drive may fail completely because of the stress caused by intensive read processes. Significant portions of data may be left behind in bad sectors.

These issues plague firms that use traditional disk imaging methods. Read instability makes it difficult to obtain consistent data quickly, and system software is not equipped to read bad sectors. However, these problems can be solved with imaging tools that address disk-level issues.

Imaging software bypasses system software and ignores error correction code (ECC), processing each byte of data in bad sectors. Inconsistent data is evaluated statistically to determine the most likely correct value. Faster transfer methods speed up the process, and customizable algorithms allow the data recovery professional to fine-tune each pass. Imaging software provides feedback on the data recovered while imaging is still underway.

Imaging hardware can reset the drive when it stops responding, which minimizes damage from head-clicks and allows the process to run safely without supervision.

1.Drive Restoration: Damage to the hard disk drive (also referred to as HDD) is diagnosed and repaired as necessary. There are three main types of damage:

Physical/mechanical damage: Failed heads and other physical problems are often repaired by replacing the damaged hardware with a donor part.

Electronic problems: Failed printed circuit boards (PCBs) are replaced with donor PCBs, and the contents of the failed PCB read-only memory (ROM) are copied to the donor.

Firmware failure: Firmware failures are diagnosed and fixed at the drive level.2.Disk Imaging: The contents of the repaired drive are read and copied to another disk, Disk imaging prevents further data loss caused by working with an unstable drive during the subsequent data retrieval phase.Drives presented for recovery often have relatively minor physical degradation due to wear from normal use. The wear is severe enough for the drive to stop working in its native system. However, imaging software can work with slightly degraded drives, so part replacement is often not required. In these cases, the data recovery process can skip drive restoration and start with disk imaging.

3. Data Retrieval: The original files that were copied onto the image drive are retrieved. Data retrieval can involve these tasks:

File system recovery: The recreation of a corrupted file system structure such as a corrupted directory structure or boot sector, due to data loss.

File verification: Recovered files are tested for potential corruption.

File repair: If necessary, corrupted files are repaired. Files might be corrupt because data could not be fully restored in previous phases, in which case disk imaging is repeated to retrieve more sectors. File repair is completed, where possible, using vendor-specific tools.Drive restoration and data retrieval, the first and last phases, are well-serviced by the data recovery industry. Many data recovery companies have the necessary software, hardware, knowledge, and skilled labor to complete these phases. However, the technology for effective disk imaging has been relatively neglected because of its challenges, making it a weak link in the data recovery process. Data recovery firms that skim the surface with traditional imaging methods often miss out on potential revenue.

Top 10 Data Recovery Companies

2009-03-31T12:33:00.000-07:00

1. Kroll Ontrack®
Kroll Ontrack provides technology-driven services and software to help recover, search, analyze and produce data efficiently and cost-effectively. Commonly bridging the gap between technical and business professionals, Kroll Ontrack services a variety of customers in the legal, government, corporate and financial markets around the world.
http://www.ontrackdatarecovery.com/

2. R-Tools Technology Inc.
The leading provider of powerful data recovery, undelete, drive image, data security and PC privacy utilities for the Windows OS family.
http://www.r-tt.com/

3. DTIData
DTI DATA is the industry’s premier data recovery service and recovery software company for both physical and logical hard drive recovery.
http://www.dtidata.com/

4. SalvageData
SalvageData is the first and only US based ISO 9001:2000 certified data salvaging & recovery service lab in North America specializing in advanced data salvaging and recovery from all digital media storage types and formats.
http://salvagedata.com/

5. DriveSavers
DriveSavers is the worldwide leader in data recovery services and provides the fastest, most secure and reliable data recovery service available.
http://www.drivesavers.com/

6. Stellar Information Systems Limited
Stellar Information Systems Limited is an ISO 9001-2000 certified company specializing in data recovery and data protection services and solutions.
http://www.stellarinfo.com/

7. Data Clinic Ltd
Data Clinic Ltd provide you with a professional, cost effective and prompt data recovery service from crashed hard disks and other computer based media.
http://www.dataclinic.co.uk/

8. First Advantage Data Recovery Services (DRS)
With more than 25 years involvement in hard drive data recovery, Data Recovery Services has and will continue to lead the industry in those areas.
http://www.datarecovery.net/

9. CBL
CBL provide data recovery for failed hard drives in laptops, desktop computers, data servers, RAID arrays, tapes and all other data storage media.
http://www.cbltech.com/

10. Data Recovery Centre (ADRC) Pte Ltd
Adroit Data Recovery Centre (ADRC) Pte Ltd is the data recovery expert established since 1998.
http://www.adrc.net

Top 10 Data Recovery Company

Digital Linear Tape: The New Media for Small & Medium Sized Storage Solutions

2009-03-31T12:32:00.003-07:00

When small to medium-sized users need more storage capacity and faster backups than they can achieve with 8mm or DDS backups, there are two new formats to choose from.

Digital Linear Tape (DLT) systems have been available since 1985, but recent increases in both speed and capacity have given the technology a new lease on life. In fact, for small to medium-sized systems they have been the leading technology for the last several years. DDS or DAT tapes were the only competitors for DLT in that market, but the tape heads had a tendency to ‘drift’ which meant technicians had to monitor them to ensure storage. DLT reliability is based on a ’straight up and down’ recording mode.

Earlier this year, the introduction of Super DLT brought a tremendous boost in performance. Super DLT can store as much as 110 gigabytes on one cartridge, at a speed of 10 megabytes per second. With the speed of backup doubled, and capacity more than doubled, the technology can now reach ‘up’ to systems and networks that DLT previously couldn’t handle.

Competing technologies can offer very fast backups, but the tapes themselves contain very little data - hundreds of megabytes as opposed to hundreds of gigabytes that DLT offers.

Another technology has recently emerged that is comparable to DLT. That is LTO or Linear Tape Open, a consortium product from Seagate, IBM and Hewlett-Packard. LTO can put 100 gigabytes on a cartridge at up to 15 megabytes per second.

For cautious system administrators who don’t wish to try LTO, one technician said DLT is a more than acceptable choice: “Thirty million cartridges and a million tape drives can’t be wrong.”

Of course, Super DLT incorporates a good deal of new technology as well, so even though LTO is completely new technology, it “has a nice road map in front of it.” Super DLT uses a new recording format, but it does maintain a limited form of backwards compatibility with previous iterations of DLT. It incorporates the ability to read older tapes, although it cannot write to them, which means it would probably be most useful in allowing organizations to maintain their present archives in a useable form. Where users have thousands of tapes in their libraries, there can be a considerable saving in time and money if older tapes don’t have to be re-recorded on to newer ones. For those users who are moving from 8mm or DDS format systems, and committed to re-recording all their data, then there may be little to choose between LTO and Super DLT systems.

Today’s demands for storage capacity are increasing, and if anything there is going to be more pressure on our ability to back up, store, protect and retrieve data. Low to medium size users now have a choice: Super DLT, based on generations of iterative development and refinement, or LTO, new technology from a high-powered and stable group of technology companies.

Present archives in a useable form. Where users have thousands of tapes in their libraries, there can be a considerable saving in time and money if older tapes don’t have to be re-recorded on to newer ones. For those users who are moving from 8mm or DDS format systems, and committed to re-recording all their data, then there may be little to choose between LTO and Super DLT systems.

Memories of the Computer Anatomy

2009-03-31T12:32:00.001-07:00

Hard drives are the memories of our computers. They store documents, data, voice recordings and even entire movies. Because hard drives are so spacious and efficient these days, we can start to believe that they offer permanent and secure storage for our data. Unfortunately, that is not the case.

For such hard-working devices, hard drives can be remarkably fragile. They store data on stacks of rotating metallic platters. Magnetic heads ‘float’ between the platters, moving information back and forth without making physical contact. The information that looks so real on a monitor is, in fact, delicate electrical impulses on a metal plate.

Once people in an organization know how hard drives work, they understand how easy it is for data to be lost. As hard drives become smaller, so does their ‘tolerance’, the distance between the platter and the heads that read and write data. Bumping into a computer while the hard drive is running can make the head actually touch the platter and literally ‘rub out’ the data there. Contamination, like dust or moisture, or a slight change in power can also cause damaging head contact.

That’s why it is absolutely vital to switch off the hard drive at the first sign of any unusual noise, like grinding, scraping or chattering. If nothing’s wrong, nothing has been lost. But if there is physical damage taking place inside the drive, prompt action can keep it to an absolute minimum and more data will be available for recovery

Hard Drives And Flash Data Recovery

2009-03-31T12:29:00.000-07:00

Today’s high capacity hard disk drives store its drive parameter and service information in flash memory on the circuit board that is specific to that disk drive. This makes disk data recovery all the more complicated since you cannot just swap the board out.

Flash Data Recovery has taken on a whole new meaning with the higher capacity hard disk drives on the market. If you have a hard disk drive that has a blown circuit board doesn’t try to swap it out in hopes of doing your own data recovery because it won’t work.

The only option in these cases is to find a donor circuit board, harvest the required parts and install them in the bad circuit board. This is just another reason you have to be careful when choosing a data recovery professional. It is difficult to perform this task without destroying the circuit board.

The latest hard disk drive circuit boards are highly complicated and employ “Surface Mount Technology” to install the components. When one of these components needs to be replaced it requires a highly skilled re-work technician otherwise the circuit board can be destroyed making data file recovery impossible.

Buyer Beware!

The Status of Data Recovery - A Growing Need For Today’s Businesses

2009-03-31T12:28:00.000-07:00

For almost as long as people have been putting digital data on magnetic media, their precious information has been getting lost. In the good old days, perhaps 20 years ago, any company or institution that lost its data was on its own. Anyone with the expertise to help was probably already either on staff or employed by the equipment vendor.

Things started to change with the growth and development of the Information Technology industry, on both the hardware and software sides. As systems multiplied and became more complex, so did the various misfortunes that could be set an organization’s data.

Enter the data recovery specialist. About 15 years ago, the first outside consultants began to get frantic calls from clients to come in and rescue their information. At that time, much of the expertise was based on proprietary software tools, written to perform on hardware from specific vendors. It took some years before companies began to specialize in data recovery. Because many data loss situations call for a ‘physical’, hardware solution, the larger companies made the major investments necessary to offer ‘clean rooms’ - laboratories where malfunctioning or damaged disk drives can be disassembled or reconfigured to yield whatever data remains.

Today, the industry is crisis-driven. Depending on how well sprinkler systems or disk drive designers have done their jobs, we work or rest idle.

All the tools and techniques that any data recovery company has amassed over time have developed or acquired on an ‘as-needed’ basis. The range of possible challenges is so broad, and the IT industry releases new products so frequently, that it would be impossible to anticipate problems before they actually occur.

Perhaps a testament to the efficiency and reliability of the latest hardware and software today, the data recovery industry is not a large one. Worldwide, there are probably 20 companies with the staff and the facilities to tackle those data-loss situations that simply cannot be resolved in-house with commercially available software or with assistance from vendors.

We have seen some companies in the data recovery field to move away from the ‘physical’ side of the business, specializing in software-only solutions rather than grappling hands-on with the disk drives and magnetic media to recover data. On the other hand, companies cannot specialize completely in the hardware side, because there will always be a need to adapt or write software to help harvest the data.

What about the future of the industry? Ironically, in a world that is becoming increasingly globalized, we think the successful data recovery business will have an important local dimension. Even though we can, and do reach around the world electronically to recover data, we believe customers will still place a premium on dealing with someone in their own region. With almost 200 million disk drives shipping this year, and the risks they face out in the real world, we can confidently predict that the future holds unlimited challenge for the data recovery industry.

The Factors of Hard Drive Failure

2009-03-31T10:34:00.001-07:00

Magnetic storage media or hard drive and disks that are more commonly known today by nearly exponentionialy more storage for users of the computer needs today, as is required for video, l 'audio and image files. Keep the same space and the physical size of hard drives were first designed, they have grown massively over 1TB (1 terabyte) for a single hard disk, n relatively short time.

Spinning magnetic storage media are subject to several areas of weakness, some of which are inherent to the internal structure and design, other failure points from the outside. Hard drive technology is based on an electro mechanical spinning often flat glass or ceramic coating and then through a process called splutter, this layer is then encoded and decoded through a head stack assembly that works to very precise and repeatable precision typical modern hard drive running at less than 1 micron.

The main internal issues that can be played in failure and data loss are Head Crash, heat and electricity Cycling.

Head crash

Then the head is in direct contact with a surface area of the media, it is not designed for (some hard drive technology allows the head to land on the inner portion of the press), damage May be aggravated if the head and suffered damage or May there be oxides or other contaminants in the CD, head crash symptoms by unusual noises such as clicking, checking, itching clunking or the media must be switched off immediately in order to preserve the possibility of data recovery. Areal density and number of bits per inch, have urged the technologies such as media inevitably tolerances are very precise.

Heat

The temperature of the computer system and the hard drive itself is also a concern for data integrity and longevity of a simple cooling fan drive could save you from the loss of data, such as hard disk media both internally and externally are prone to failure in the heat.

Power cycling

Power cycling disk media can cause hard disk failure and can be completely eliminated through a reputation system UPS.

There is nothing more frustrating than losing important documents or data that you 've spent so much time to create. If you have suffered such a loss, you know how it feels. The best way to prevent data loss from occurring is to be prepared. So, back up your important data on a DVD or external hard drive, using uninterruptible power supply (UPS) and having hard drives in place of the cooling fans are crucial actions that can save a lot of ills headache.

In an emergency

In case you are in the unfortunate situation, but that hard drive failure, and fail to recover your data and then another professional services for recovering data exist that can help you get valuable data on your back. These services are relatively cheap for the data that you probably want to retrieve. On top of that they usually charge you if they manage to recover your data.

Cool Hard Drive to Prevent Hard Drive Damage

2009-03-31T10:31:00.000-07:00

Cooling your hard drive will help prevent need RAID data recovery. For several reasons, storage is a very important part of a computer. These days, computers are more than ever, they have in the past. Companies from family photos, storage is the ideal way to keep documents on your computer. The most popular method of storage is the hard disk, which we all rely on to keep our data safe.

Even if the hard drive stores data, it’s not perfect by any means. Hard drive failure is very common with all computers, with no real way to prevent it. Although there are several reasons why a hard drive can fail, the most common is overheating. Viruses and accidents are frequent, and with theft and accidental deletion.

With the old style and mechanics of hard drives, the RPM speed is low, which means that readers can’t overheat. The hard drives we use today have speeds between 7200 and 10000 rpm, which mean they can get quite hot when they start work. The computers of that era come with fans to cool it off, with most hard drives including temperature sensors as well, so you can monitor how hot your hard drive becomes.

With hard drives today, overheating is a very common problem. The fastest hard drives come with a speed of 10,000 rpm. This can raise the temperature above 70 degrees F. This is really heating things inside the car. Mechanics on the inside are built to withstand the heat, although if things become too hot, you’ll have problems. If a player gets too hot and lose the data, it is next to impossible to May retrieve information - regardless of your good data recovery specialists in May

One area that suffers from the overheating of the disc tray, which are magnetic media. The dishes are what carry the data throughout the hard drive. The dishes are constructed of optical glass, aluminum or ceramic and normally coated with a layer of magnetic material. Once the hard disk begins to heat up, the dishes started to expand, changing their size. When this occurs, the magnetic surface on the plates will be destroyed, resulting in data loss. If the fields of physics trays are damaged, it will result in unreadable sectors.

Other areas of the disk drive that can be damaged due to overheating are the read heads and write, the head of the cylinder, and the controller chip. Hard drives are very sophisticated pieces of equipment, and can’t handle overheating. Heads for reading and writing are an example, because they can easily make the disk unusable if damaged. If they become too hot, they have no contact with the media, which stops at almost the speed of information transfer to the computer.

To prevent your hard drive from overheating, you should always make sure it is properly cooled and ventilated. You can still get fans and coolers, which will improve both ventilation and air circulation in your computer. You can buy fans and coolers at very affordable prices, making it an ideal investment for keeping your hard disk or hard drives cool.

You can also get software that monitors the temperature of your hard drive too. Whether its software, or other fans, you should always make sure your hard drives are kept cool. Keeping cool, you’ll reduce the amount of the plant. You'll also increase the stability of your hard drive as well, which will make your computer run much better and help the need for data recovery.

Mail recovery software to recover lost or deleted emails

2009-03-31T10:29:00.000-07:00

Repairing .pst files with “scanpst” has never been so successful. Most of the Outlook Mail Recovery software available in the market are quite efficient and can handle all sorts of corruptions with Outlook.

Disk Doctors Outlook Mail Recovery software is one of the helpful tool, which helps in recovering damaged .pst files. The demo version of the software is available for free download from the link mentioned below

Download free mail recovery Demo

The demo version of the software scans for damaged .pst file and allows user to view all his emails in somewhat similar style as Outlook. For real recovery, you have to pay for the software, the demo version would create a .pst file without body contents for your emails, notes etc.

The software has an elegant option of finding .pst files either by displaying the default outlook profile or a user can do a search on his drive if he is not aware of the path where generally outlook keeps its data file.

There were two notable scanning methods offering two level of scanning, one for minor corruptions and other one called “Smart Scan” for severe corruptions of the .pst file. The results when compared to scanpst.exe were far better, and were superior when compared with many other pst repair software which are popular.

The full version of the software creates a new pst file from the damaged pst file, the output pst file can be imported without any hassled in Outlook. The most common problems this software would be handy are

Repairing 2GB oversized pst file from MS Outlook 2000
Recovering lost mails, contacts and other attributes of organizing abilities of Outlook

A user who is looking to salvage data from corrupt pst should consider repairing pst file using this email recovery as the results were better when compared even with many of the popular email recovery software. The software always recovered more number of emails from most of the pst I was able to corrupt.

Competitively priced application is not heavy on the pocket considering the value of pst files having loads of precious emails, contacts etc., if lost can create chaos for a long time to remember.

Free data recovery software - effectiveness

2009-03-31T10:27:00.002-07:00

Most of the people have been writing about freeware “data recovery software” on their blogs and forums. By reading those articles and posts, it is imperative to know what exactly this hullabaloo about free data recovery software is.

Well, the most popular data recovery software have made life difficult for individuals who either are great believers of open source and have a concept that “software development is charity”, also people who are looking for cracked or free recovery software.

People have very different opinions about a data recovery software, they feel free tool even if is mere undelete is the best resource when we have a data loss. When they face complex data loss situation as compared to minor loss of data that includes deleted file recovery or recovering lost partitions from Windows, they turn back to those effective recovery software, which works only when it is purchased.

We at “bestrecoverysoftware” have already reviewed PC Inspector a free tool to recover files from Windows, like PC inspector there are some more free tools, that might help in recovering data and there is no denying in this.

Some of the free recovery tools might or might not be effective in recovering.

Panda Recovery
Undelete Plus
ADRC data recovery software
Avira Unerase Personal

Even though I am not a great believer of free recovery tools as they have always failed to recover when it is mostly required. But it does not means they would not work for anyone else, what I am trying to convey is that they are the entry level tools in terms of data recovery and should be considered only when your recovery requirements are related to recovering files after emptying your recycle bin, accidental deletion or simple partition recovery.

What should we do, we cannot afford recovery software?

The answer is simple, if the cost of the lost data is less then 4 times the cost of the software, never consider seriously about purchasing paid recovery software.

U3 compatible data recovery software

2009-03-31T10:27:00.001-07:00

If you are wondering about this new term U3 technology, you might ask what U3 technology is?

Visualize that you are having all your important applications, software in the same flash drive that has your important files stored. Storing and carrying away your software on the same flash drive that carries your files. That is what you can do with a U3 smart drive. You can plug this flash drive into any PC launch the applications to work, play a game, message friends, send email, and edit photos plus more. Most importantly, when you unplug it, you are not leaving any personal data behind.

U3 technology has been launched by SanDisk and is a revolutionary technology for the users who are looking for portability of having both data and applications.

Implication of U3 in data recovery

Imagine a laptop with a single partition, where important data is accidentally deleted or missing. Installing download or working on the drive would cause overwriting and your important data could be overwritten and permanently lost.

U3 flash drive having data recovery software would be extremely beneficial in those similar circumstances, running the application from the U3 device and recovering data to the same flash drive would be extremely handy. The U3 flash drive would become a handy recovery tool, which could be taken to any PC for recovering lost data and would become extremely powerful device for the administrators.

Most Popular RAID recovery tools

2009-03-31T10:26:00.000-07:00

RAID systems are considered the safest storage where data is stored in strips to improve performance and parity to regenerate lost data. HP (Compaq), DELL, IBM, delivers some of the most popular RAID servers etc. In recent years network storage has gained popularity such as NetApps, Snap Server, buffalo tech and many more. These NAS servers have inbuilt RAID storage and is accessible from a high-speed network to all its users assigned by the administrator of the storage.

Despite having the hardware protection, these servers comprising RAID devices do fail and data loss does happen. RAID recovery is not an easy job to perform, even if you know about some of the recovery tools available in the market. Taking the drives out from the failed RAID array and attaching them to another machine maintaining the same order would be difficult for novices.

Then approach the most difficult portion of RAID recovery, which is reconstructing the RAID. There could be various causes to a RAID failure.

RAID reinitialized accidentally by the administrator causing a new array to be formed and losing old data and configuration.
One of the drive has failed and RAID is not coming up
Drives going offline suddenly and not being mounted due to power surge or mishandling.
RAID card causing RAID to fail

The most important portion in RAID recovery (specifically RAID 5) is to identify correct parity order and stripe size, and also the block size (the size of a cluster formed when we format a drive, sectors combine to form a logical unit which is know as block or cluster).

Below mentioned are some of the useful names, which might be able to help you, reconstruct RAID and thereafter you may use a cloning application to create a single volume, which can be mounted as actual RAID volume. Once the volume is mounted, recovery becomes easier.

File Scavenger (Quetek Consulting Corporation)
R-Studio – RAID Tools
RAID Reconstructor – GetDataback (Runtime Software)

Secrets of hard drive data recovery

2009-03-31T10:24:00.000-07:00

Most of us wonder what do the people in data recovery labs do to recover data from your drive. If you see data recovery as a process, it does not involve any planned actions, as it is always a reaction based on the cause for data loss.

Let us categorize it in two major categories

a) Physical Crash – where drive is not getting detected by the BIOS of your PC and the drive has either electronic, mechanical failure or some kind of damage such as accidentally dropping the drive, fire, flood or any other external cause.

Recovery from such cases involves an attempt from an experienced recovery professional to make drive working by any means. If drive has electronic failure, the engineer would try to look for similar electronic board in the inventory to make drive working. If the cause is mechanical which is mainly head making clicking sound, is broken or is jammed are repaired by opening it in a class 100 environment and it is not necessary that it has to be a clean room and it is impractical to have a clean room for such small device.

I have heard of many tricks people try to make drive working in such cases, for e.g. dropping drive from a small height on a soft surface to ease any jam. Freezing the drive if drive has quick heating problems, let me tell you these attempts are extremely dangerous and can make the drive permanently damaged.

[More:]

Professional physical crash recovery requires an experienced electronics and mechanical engineer to work on your drive. They will do various component transplant operations from a similar make and model drive and would do every attempt to make drive working.

Once they are successful they would use specialized or in-house developed software to create an exact replica of the drive as they get the access to the drive for a very short duration and these specialized software will create the replicas very fast. Replica is the working source and if required any tool required would be used to extract data. Recovering from damaged drives due to water or fire is an extremely sophisticated technique, which is with only few data recovery companies.

b) Logical crash – I think my whole blog until now has been dedicated to such recovery and it is the most commonly occurring problem. The healthy drive faces logical issues, which could be due to human error, like formatting the drive, deleting important data or any sort of crash caused due to any application or external source creating in accessibility of data.

Simply use data recovery software with respect to the file system of your drive or partitions and recover your data, chances of recovery in Windows are affected by the level of fragmentation and health of the file.

How raw recovery works?

2009-03-31T10:23:00.002-07:00

You must have heard for this term with many data recovery applications, “RAW” recovery. What exactly it means? Instead of a direct explanation of this term, it is mandatory for us to understand how it is related to data recovery.

FAT or NTFS are the two file systems that are supported by Microsoft Windows, FAT file system is dependent on file allocation tables, whereas NTFS depends on Master file tables called MFT. MFT and FAT holds the allocation information for a file or a folder. There are various sorts of situations, which may damage these file and folder allocation information. If this information is lost, there is no information for any data recovery software to locate the file.

The loss of this critical information is dangerous and as most of the data recovery companies are scratching there head for various ways to get lost data recovered, this method of performing raw scan came into existence. This is method which is the backbone of all file recovery applications, photo or music recovery software.

Therefore, it is extremely clear that when file system is completely damaged so that it is not possible to get the allocation for files, which are stored on the drive and there is no way to identify them. RAW recovery is extremely beneficial and pulling such files out of hard drives. RAW recovery for me should not be dependent on any file system as it works on unique file signatures (every file has a unique ID or signature).

Well the other most important part of file recovery of raw scan is in depth knowledge of the file type, by putting the signatures of all file types and giving a tentative size to look for will not be always successful. This in depth knowledge of file helps in identifying correct file size. Thus, the best file recovery software is the one that is able to identify a file using a signature and knows various other ways to get the file size.

In the end, the only limitation with file recovery would be recovery of files without the actual file names before they were lost. However, getting the main content and some more rework in terms of renaming should not be a complain as much worth information has been restored.

Some of the funniest data recovery techniques - part1

2009-03-31T10:23:00.001-07:00

I have been reading across various articles on data recovery over the internet and suddenly I came across one document, which had some funniest suggestions for recovering data from hard drive, which is experiencing physical crash. For people who do not know what physical crash means, check previous entries of my posts.

I will try to highlight some of the suggestions given in that document. The most interesting part of the document was that one of the data recovery companies has released it.

Table of contents had these topics

Freeze it, Drop it, Hit it

Hold the drive upside down, making gravity change the head geometry ever so slightly. Vertical is also another option.
Slightly rap the drive with your knuckle, (but nowhere near hard enough to damage the drive).
Try the drive in another machine, (slight drive voltage change assumed the miracle worker here).
Rap the drive just SLIGHTLY harder than you did above in 2.
Freeze the hard drive in the freezer for two hours, and place in a plastic zip lock bag to prevent condensation from forming on the drive when you plug it back into the system, (head geometry, electrical resistance lowered, electrical contact points adjusted, etc., assumed the miracle here).
After the drive warms up to room temperature or better, rap it even harder with your knuckle this time.
Repeat all of above steps on next day, as sometimes I have gotten data off drive simply by trying again.

Well after the miraculous attempts suggested above I am sure the drive must have been died, most probably drive would not be having any mechanical or component failures. Freezing the drive might be a good idea, but the refrigerator in home is complete no no.

Warning: Please do not try and the steps explained above, if you have a drive that is experiencing physical problems, it is advisable that you should consult a professional data recovery companies such as Disk Doctor Labs Inc, Ontrack and drivesavers.

Best recovery software offering free data recovery consultation

2009-03-31T10:17:00.000-07:00

Yes correct, bestrecoverysoftware.com is offering free data recovery consultation.

Benefits

We will suggest the correct data recovery software or services company to handle your data recovery requirements.

You can send us an email and we will suggest the correct approach for recovering your lost data, let it be an accidental format of hard drive, simple deletion or complete physical crash of your hard drive.

Computer Maintenance London Data Disaster Recovery Plan Computer Network Services UK IT Support London

2009-03-30T06:24:00.002-07:00

Like with most machines and gadgets, your computer requires regular maintenance. Maintenance ensures that your computer gives you years of trouble-free service. Basic computer maintenance usually involves periodic cleaning, checking and updating of the system and its components. Apart from those, periodic backup of your critical data, defragmenting of hard disks to maintain disk efficiency and speed, deleting temporary and old files and installation of latest software's form the core of computer maintenance. At Netstaruk, we undertake contractual maintenance of your computer hardware, software and networking systems. With all our latest, sophisticated tools, software's and technical know-how, we ensure that your computers function to their optimum. Our regular computer maintenance contract also includes troubleshooting which can be remote, telephone or on-site. With the telephone support, just phone or email any time your system faces a problem; and the expert team at Netstaruk solves it for you. Netstaruk also offers you remote services by fitting a small piece of software into your system. This software enables staff at Netstaruk to share your screen with you remotely, thereby having better control of your system. Remote monitoring was until recently a luxury only large companies could afford. Now, Netstaruk brings remote services even to small and medium sized businesses. As a part of our maintenance contract, our team of qualified engineers will visit your premises periodically for on site services. Installation, configuration, major troubleshooting and minor projects are all undertaken on site. We update your systems to protect your computers from viruses, Trojans, worms and malicious spy ware by using firewalls, virus protection software's and high-level encryption. With highly qualified and extremely experienced engineers, you can rest assured that your computer maintenance work will be done to your complete satisfaction. We also offer you professional data backup solutions that can ensure you peace of mind. Our fully automated Internet backup solution holds your data securely offsite. Online data storage of encrypted information provides a safe, reliable and cost effective alternative to traditional backup. And technologically advanced data disaster recovery planning services offered by Netstaruk, ensures that even in case of a data loss, you can rely on Netstaruk to recover your systems quickly, causing minimal disruption to your work. With timely and dependable services provided, network and computer maintenance by Netstaruk ensures that you have a smooth running office. A trusted name in UK, Netstaruk network support London has an enviable clientele. Also as a Microsoft Certified Partner, Netstaruk has the expertise with Microsoft technologies and the ability to deliver. So, look no further for your computer maintenance contracts - ensure an efficient office with services from Netstaruk.

I write Articles on IT support services.

Where to Turn to When You Need Data Recovery Services

2009-03-30T06:24:00.001-07:00

There is perhaps no worse feeling in the world of technology than having your hard drive crash and realizing you have not made a backup of the valuable data it contains. These days most of us end up storing vast amounts of personal data on their computers, and data recovery services can be a godsend when the worst happens.

The idea behind data recovery is that the data on a failed hard drive is not truly gone. Depending on the physical damage to the hard drive, the actual data may still be intact, and a qualified data recovery service may be able to recover most or even all of the data contained on the failed hard drive.

When shopping for data recovery services, it is important to choose carefully, and it is important to move as quickly as possible. If a physical problem exists with the failed hard drive, that problem is likely to get worse quickly, and the faster you can get that drive to a data recovery service the faster you will get your valuable data back.

It is also important to choose a data recovery service with a good track record of recovering data from failed hardware and failed hard drives. It is a good idea to look for references for those data recovery services. In addition, you may want to check with the manufacturer of your hard drive for recommendations on data recovery services. Some data recovery services will work better with certain brands of hard drives, and the maker of your hard drive may be a good source of information on the type of data recovery services that are most likely to be effective.

When contracting with a data recovery service, it is important to read the fine print carefully and to understand what your financial obligations are in the event of a successful data recovery. In most cases the charges for data recovery will be determined by a combination of the size of the drive and the extent of the damage. It is important to get a good estimate before allowing the data recovery to go forward. Data recovery services can sometimes be expensive, but recovering your personal data can be priceless.

No matter what type of data recovery service you ultimately choose, one thing is fairly certain, and that is that you will suddenly discover the power of a good backup. Nothing causes people to get the backup religion quite like a loss of data.

Recovering your data with Data Recovery

2009-03-30T06:23:00.001-07:00

Looking for the best data recovery software can be a real nightmare when you have just lost, seemingly irretrievably, much of your work. But if you don't panic and look carefully for the best solution, than very often it is possible to retrieve much if not all of your lost data. There are many software packages out there that can help with this process as long as you take the correct steps initially The right software can enable you to not only retrieve files that you have unintentionally deleted, but also, in some cases, data that has been lost due to a virus attack. The key for most of these programs to work is to not allow any more writing to the disk in question. A good program for data that has been accidentally deleted is undelete. It has been used hundreds of times to recover data that has been deleted by the act of a person.

One of the key things in choosing the right software, is to know how the data was lost. Whether it was due to a virus, a mistake on your part, or even a hardware failure, so that you can decide which is the best data recovery method to use.

If you are quick enough, it is possible that you will not even need the data recovery software. When data is deleted it is not always trashed straight away. The operating system will change the file so that it won't be displayed when you're looking for it.

If you can find this gap in the system before the computer uses it for something else, then it is possible to simply undelete it and the file will reappear with all your data. This way you can avoid the need for data recovery software and you should be back in business.

The trick is to be very quick and find the gap in the system before doing too much other work, as this, especially if your hard drive has got very little unused space, may cause the computer to use the gap for something else. If you have not noticed the loss, and the computer has used it, then probably your best chance is in using some good quality data recovery software or service.

Another problem can arise if you decide to repair the drive by defragging the computer, before you have a chance to try any data recovery. You probably will not lose all of it, but it is possible to lose some of it, as when you defrag it can cause some of the files to be overwritten.

Of course even if you only use one or two small files by doing this, chances are they will be the most important ones! So it is best to try to get to grips with your data recovery before doing any defragging. Even if you are not actively running this application, you should think whether you have preprogrammed to defrag the disc at specific intervals.

So if you think you have lost any data, it is always best to try and recover it before doing anything else. That way you have a much better chance of success with your data recovery.

Data Recovery - You Can Get It Back!

2009-03-30T06:22:00.001-07:00

Data recovery is a process whereby you can save data and files you accidentally deleted, had eaten by malicious software or viruses, hardware failures, corporate espionage and many more scenarios. Most people believe that when the hard drive crashes their world ends also, but that's not usually the case. In fact 85% of the time the data is recoverable, and at far less trouble and expense than you might fear at first.

It's a wonder something that spins at thousands of times a minute doesn't crash more often than they do, what with all the abuse we heap upon them. When's the last time you did a dust patrol near your drive ports? Hard drives aren't the only data that can be saved too. Zip drives, floppies, DVD's, CD-ROM's and more can be rescued. And sometimes the worst of disasters will yield up results. Technicians regularly extract data from computers that are burned to a crisp. Admittedly this is trickier and more expensive, but it can be done. On woman had her Apple Powerbook sink to the bottom of the Amazon, whereupon tiring of waiting for the salvage operation, she promptly donned her scuba gear, swam down to the sunken boat and retrieved her precious files. She then mailed the whole mess to DriveSavers and they managed to save most of her data, despite being submerged for three days!

Most recoveries aren't nearly as sexy, and can usually be resolved with a software solution, usually by the client his or herself. Off the rack data recovery software is quite good and relatively inexpensive, especially when you compared to the cost of dealing with replacing the lost files. Most data recovery issues stem from human error, roughly 25%. A software solution can run you anywhere from $75-$400, whereas if the problem is too difficult and you have to box it up and send it out, expect to pay between $500-$2000, with the average price of $1000.

The key to remember is that deleted data is usually not gone forever, just maddeningly misplaced. The good news is that recovery can be a mouse click away!

www.y-capture.com is the publisher of this article on data recovery. At www.y-capture.com you will find all the information you need on data recovery to protect yourself from loosing all your favorite data and memories that is stored on your computer. So to protect yourself or your business, go to www.y-capture.com bookmark this website because all you need to know about data recovery and how to protect yourself is there. constantly updated and reniewed by pro's.

Tips for Failed Hard Drive Data Recovery

2009-03-30T06:20:00.000-07:00

One thing that manufacturers of hard drives do not tell us when we buy our brand new computers, is that hard drives are subject to fail, regardless of the amount of time they are used. With some systems it may take more than 10 years before the hard drive failure occurs, while others can fail within just a year of normal use. Because of this, failed hard drive data recovery is an important issue that needs some thought.

Basically, there are two main types of hard drive failure. The first is those hard drives that fail due to a software problem, and the second failed hard drive category applies in the case of a physical malfunction with the hard drive.

Referring to the first category, the failed hard drive data recovery is usually considered when the data on the drive gets corrupted due to something like a corrupted partition table, damaged boot record, or missing root directory information. A lot of experts feel that the hard drive failure due to software is generally easier to recover with the use of easily available failed hard drive data recovery software.

It involves a much more complicated process when you need to recover data from a failed hard drive that has physically malfunctioned. This is because when the failed hard drive has been physically damaged in some way, then any additional access to the hard drive may cause further corruption to the data stored on the drive. It is harder for the failed hard drive data recovery process to obtain the key files and stored information back from the hard drive. Most of the failed hard drive data recovery services that you will see advertised are offered for this category of failed hard drive data recovery.

If you are unlucky enough to need a failed hard drive data recovery, bear in mind that a greater level of caution is needed so that your data recovery is successful. When you are considering using any of the failed hard drive data recovery software you need to be aware that there will be a risk of further data loss as the software gets to work on the hard drive. One of the best ways to avoid an additional damage is to create an image of the drive using an imaging tool.

If as an example, your failed hard drive happens to be the drive which contains the operating system, the best failed hard drive data recovery step you can take is not to boot the drive at all if this is possible. According to the experts this is reasonably simple for a desktop system - all you need to do is to disconnect the boot drive and replace it with a new drive. For this to be totally successful you need to ensure that you have a drive with a large enough capacity to hold the image of the current drive.

You will then be able to install an operating system on the new drive. This basic failed hard drive data recovery step is accomplished by just reconnecting the old drive as a slave unit or by placing it in an external case and then connecting to it through USB or FireWire. However, for your failed hard drive data recovery to work best, it is important to disconnect the current boot partition, because trying to install the Operating System on the new drive will just result in temporary files being written to the old drive.

For more articles by Charles Cass on Hard drive failer.

Data Recovery Tips

2009-03-30T06:17:00.001-07:00

Here's Some Tips From Our Data Recovery Engineers.

*

Choose a "DATA RECOVERY" Company very carefully. Sending your drive to an inexperienced company can only cause more damage. In fact this is the most common cause of "data loss".
*

Never power up a drive that may have been exposed to water, fire, lightning or smoke. The drive must be serviced or data recovered in an air-and static-controlled Class 100 clean room by data recovery professionals.
*

If you hear a clunk, clunk sound when you power up the drive then the servo pattern has been lost and the drive can't find track zero. Shut the drive down and do not power up again. You may break the TRK 00 Stop inside the drive.
*

Use the same type of precautions for any type of media including floppies, tapes, or CD's when the data is valuable to you or your company.
*

Do not continue powering up a drive you believe has been damaged. It can and will only get worse.
*

If a drive has been through a great deal of force or is visibly damaged do not try to power it up to see if you can see any data..
*

Don't t drop or hit the drive to get it "unstuck" or spinning again.
*

Do not remove the cover from the hard drive. This will only cause further damage.
*

Never shake the hard disk drive.
*

Don't expose the drive to extreme temperatures.
*

Do not attempt to recover data with commonly available software utility programs.
*

Backup your data frequently.
*

Package the drive properly when you send it in for data recovery. This is a major cause of permanent loss of data.
*

Don't assume that data is unrecoverable, no matter what it has been through

Emergency Data Recovery Tips

2009-03-30T06:13:00.000-07:00

As a data recovery service provider, we're quite aware that every data loss problem is an emergency. Each year, hundreds of businesses find themselves at this data crossroads, whether because of physical damage, hard drive crash or a simple file system corruption.

Many of these businesses lose their data, but a good majority recover it, either with the help of a professional, or with data recovery software. The following tips will help ensure your "hard disk emergency" concludes with a happy ending.

First: In the event that you have lost data, determine what type of data loss has occurred.
Is your data loss the result of physical hard disk damage?

Typical symptoms of this type of data loss include clicking or buzzing sounds emanating from your hard drive (or computer box). Also, you may encounter what is commonly known to PC users as the "blue screen of death". This blue screen may occur at odd times, and without warning, even when your hard drive is making no peculiar noises.
Physical Hard Disk Damage

With physical drive damage, you may also find that your drive is "not found" when you attempt to reboot your computer. This may also be accompanied by inactivity (no flickering) by your computer's drive light.

While this may also be a faulty boot or partition record, in most cases it is physical damage. Best thing to do in this situation is to contact us here, or get in touch with another hard drive recovery professional.

Other physical damage is more obvious. In cases of flood, or natural disaster, where your drive has been exposed to the elements, recovering your data will almost always require emergency professional data recovery. If you are in this category, please contact us for a data recovery consultation right away. We can often have your data for you on a new drive within 2-6 days.
Is your data loss the result of file system corruption or damage, accidental deletion or non-physical drive problems?

When you "lose" files, whether through accidental deletion or boot or partition sector corruption, your files can often be returned quite quickly, with specialized software provided by us.

Typical symptoms of this can be simply a "disappearing file" or an accidentally emptied "recycle bin". It is likely that your computer still boots (except in cases where your boot record had been compromised), and there are no noises coming from your drive.

In cases like this, your file or data is likely still recoverable. The best thing to do is call a professional quickly. We offer data recovery software which does not save anything to your drive, which is critical in this situation.

Remember: Avoid any data recovery software that requires you to save it to the drive from which you have lost data. Saving anything on to your drive could eliminate the possibility of recovering your lost data!!
A Final Emergency Note

It is important that when you have lost data, you do not do anything rash. Your actions (including rebooting several times, using unapproved "utility software" or saving new files to your drive) greatly affect your data's recover-ability. Be assured that there are data recovery professionals out there who are qualified to recover your data. Always ensure your are dealing with a professional emergency data recovery technician.

Hard Drive Recovery

2009-03-30T06:08:00.000-07:00

Ontrack® Data Recovery services offer world-leading solutions and multiple data recovery service options for all types of hard drive recovery:

* Any interface: (IDE, EIDE), Serial ATA (SATA), SCSI, SAS, and Fibre Channel
* Any combination of drives: single hard drive or multiple RAID drives
* Any brand

Thousands of IT professionals and technology users trust Ontrack Data Recovery services with seemingly unrecoverable data.

Lost data can be recovered in no time whether the hard drive has crashed, has been damaged or has been the victim of a natural disaster. Why Do Hard Drives Lose Data?

Ontrack Data Recovery engineers classify hard drive data loss in two categories:

* Logical failure - the hard drive is in working order but some files or data cannot be accessed for logical reasons such as a lost partition or accidental reformatting.
* Mechanical failure - the hard drive is not functioning. The most common causes are head crashes and motor failures.

What Causes Hard Drive Failure?
The list of incidents causing hard drives to fail and lose data is not limited, but some of the main causes that Ontrack Data Recovery services recover from everyday include power surges, overwriting, physical damages, natural disasters, and viruses.

How Ontrack Data Recovery Services Helps to Recover From Hard Drive Data Loss

Data recovery involves more than just replacing parts. Ontrack Data Recovery services use cutting-edge hard drive recovery tools and processes that come from heavy investment in R&D and 20 years experience. A sample of the expert techniques used include:

* In case of mechanical failure, hard disk recoveries are performed in dust-free cleanroom environments where they are carefully dismounted, examined and processed.
* Hard drives are imaged. A copy of the disk is made and transferred to a new system.
* Ontrack Data Recovery tools can “force” the drive to read around the bad area.

NOTICE: Trying this on your own or through an inexperienced provider may lead to further damage to the drive.

Data Recovery Tips for Hurricane Victims

2009-03-30T06:07:00.001-07:00

When computer equipment and other data storage devices are damaged by the winds and rains of a tropical storm, recovering lost files may seem like a lost cause. Don’t make this assumption! No matter how extreme the damage may seem it is often possible to recover data from water-damaged hard drives, servers, digital cameras and other electronic devices.

Through its Ontrack Data Recovery services, Kroll Ontrack has responded to many of the most extreme disasters; successfully recovering data following Hurricane Katrina, the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster and the earthquakes in China. A team of more than 150 data recovery engineers makes Kroll Ontrack uniquely equipped to handle the high volume of data recovery requests that follow a major storm.

Handling Storm-Damaged Computer Equipment

* Proper handling of storm-damaged computer equipment will greatly increase the odds of successful data recovery.
* For mission critical situations, contact a data recovery provider before any attempts are made to reconfigure, reinstall or reformat
* Do not attempt to power up or operate visibly damaged computers or hard drives.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.

Hundreds of hard-drive repair tips!

2009-03-30T06:00:00.000-07:00

By Fred Langa

Having hard-drive trouble? Don't panic! Odds are, there's a fix.

If the CPU is your PC's brain, then the hard drive is its heart, pumping necessary data throughout your system. Hard drive troubles are the PC equivalent of a heart attack, but the tips below will ensure that your data has a long life!

When to put your drive in the freezer

Unbelievable! It's been a month, and the reader e-mails are still coming in about heat and cold, and their effects on various storage media. We first discussed "How to predict CDR and DVD-R longevity" in the Feb. 8 issue. We continued with "CD-Rs don't survive freezing temperatures" in the Feb. 22 issue, and "Cold weather can damage hard drives" in the Mar. 1 issue. We then ran "Worldwide responses to CD longevity" in the Mar. 15 issue, which covered data tapes and flash drives.

But, there's more — as this reader note from Ken Stewart suggests — beginning with a way that extreme cold can actually benefit an ailing hard drive:

* "Your article on hard drives having issues with cold temps brought to mind an old wives' tale about freezing a bad hard drive, then trying to get it to work for one last time. This was a last-ditch effort to get a bad drive to come back to life one last time. I guess that was not a good idea after all. Do you know of any last-ditch method for getting a drive to come back from the dead?"

It's not a wives' tale, Ken. The "hard-drive-in-the-freezer" trick is a real and proven, albeit last-resort, recovery technique for some kinds of otherwise-fatal hard-drive problems. In fact, it's part of a trio of unusual fixes that — believe it or not — can be summed up as "freeze it," "hit it," and "drop it"!

Clearly, these fixes run the risk of further damaging a drive. They truly are last-ditch efforts to be called upon only when you've already tried the normal drive fixes without success and have nothing left to lose. (We'll come back to this in a moment.)

The freezing trick sometimes works because the mechanical contraction/expansion may help free up binding parts. Other times, the cold can help an aging, failingelectrical component to remain within specs for at least a few minutes — perhaps enough time for you to recover your essential data from the drive.

Here's how the freezing trick works:

Take the dying, otherwise-irreparable hard drive out of your computer, and place it a Ziploc bag (to help minimize condensation on the drives). Put the bagged drive in a freezer for several hours. Then, working fast, take the drive out, remove the bag, and reconnect the chilled drive to the PC. If the drive spins up and seems to be working, get your essential data off the drive as fast as you possibly can.

The best option for this is to selectively copy portions of the dying drive to a new drive. Start with the most essential folder trees (My Documents, for example), and then copy increasingly less important folders as the drive warms up. Odds are, the drive will again become erratic or fail. But, if you're lucky, you'll be able to squeeze one last brief use from it.

The above method can work, but it's classification as a "last-ditch effort" begs the question: What are the front-line techniques? Glad you asked! Here's a series of articles I wrote that will walk you through a whole range of proven techniques for resurrecting a dead hard drive (including the in-the-freezer trick mentioned above):

NTFS Partitions

2009-03-30T05:58:00.000-07:00

The first sector of NTFS partitions is reserved for the partition boot sector. This contains the information that allows the OS to read the partition. Without it, the partition cannot be accessed.

By its nature, NTFS keeps a backup copy of the boot sector on the last sector of the partition which can allow recovery programs to restore it. The FAT equivalent of this is also called the boot sector, and resides on the first sector of the partition. The difference is that FAT does not keep a backup copy of this information, making recovery much more difficult...

The first file stored on an NTFS partition is the Master File Table(MFT) which is essentially a listing of the names, properties and locations of all the other files in the partition. This is referenced by the operating system to access individual files.

NTFS stores a backup copy of this file. Data restoration software will attempt to access or restore a copy of the MFT in order to access files on the partition.

FAT partitions use something similar, called predictably enough the File Allocation Table (FAT). The FAT is also backed up on the disk, and can be restored by software. The major disadvantage of the FAT as compared to the MFT is that it needs to be located on a specific area of the partition to function, so if that area of the disk is damaged, recovery can be difficult.

When a file is deleted (removed from the recycle bin within Windows), both file systems simply mark the file as deleted. The data is not actually removed from the drive, but rather the space it takes up on the disk is now considered to be free. Consequently, if you delete a file accidentally, you have an excellent chance of being able to restore it provided you do not write more information to the disk.

In my situation, I had two NTFS partitions on the effected disk. When I ran FDISK, it wrote garbage information over certain areas of this disk, including areas of both partitions. As a result, the first partition (the one with my article on it) had lost its partition boot sector, meaning it could not be accessed normally by an operating system. The second partition had merely had crucial system files overwritten, and was unbootable, but still fully accessible once I transferred the disk to another computer.

Thankfully there is a way to fix all of this, and get the data back!

First, a small disclaimer: All the processes described from here on are strictly for resolving software issues with your data, like accidentally deleting partitions or files. If your hard drive has a physical problem, if it is making strange noises, shaking, rattling or smoking, nothing here will apply. Turn your computer off, unplug the drive and call a data recovery service if your files are vital.

Attempting to self-service your hard drive it may only make things worse.

Primary Partition Gone?

2009-03-30T05:57:00.000-07:00

The hard drive that suffered the data loss was a 17Gb Fujitsu drive with two 5Gb XP NTFS partitions (Home and Professional) and 6Gb of unused space. Both XP partition were unbootable after the incident.

After transferring the drive to a Windows 2000 computer so I could use disk manager, (to load disk manager on XP or 2000, right click 'my computer' select 'manage' then 'disk manager') this is what I saw.

The Primary partition where my 5000+ word article was saved, is seen as unformatted and cannot be read by the OS. The second XP partition could not be booted, but was seen as formatted and I could transfer files easily from it using explorer. Unfortunately, all the data I needed was on the first partition.

What to do? Well there are a few tricks you can use to get data back from the brink of an abyss like the one I've created for myself here. First though, we should understand exactly what a file system is, and how it controls access to your data on a computer.

An overview of file systems

A file system is a method an operating system uses to arrange data and free space on a hard drive or other storage device so it can be written to and read from. File systems create partitions which are areas of free space than can be addressed by the file system and seen as a logical drives (C: D: etc.) to be written to and read from.

The two file systems used by the various Windows operating systems are NTFS (NT File System) and FAT (File Allocation Table). FAT is an earlier file system, used first in DOS as FAT-16, then later in Windows 9x/ME as FAT-32.

The only major difference between FAT-16 and -32 is in the amount of data they can address. FAT-16 can only use up to 2GB of space on each logical drive, and FAT-32 has no such limitation. Later Microsoft operating systems like Windows 2000 and XP are fully compatible with FAT, even if it is not the default method they use to store files.

NTFS is used in Windows NT, 2000 and XP and provides a more secure and efficient method of file storage. In addition to allowing security to be implemented on individual files, NTFS also stores backup copies of essential disk information to aid in recovering from disaster.

Both file systems use the Master Boot Record (MBR) and partition table, found in the first sector of each hard drive or storage device. The MBR and partition table determine which partition(s) on the disk are bootable, and locate and pass control to that partition to boot the operating system.

If the MBR or partition table are damaged, the drive will become unbootable, and may appear to be blank if the partition information has been erased.

Hard Drive Data Recovery

2009-03-30T05:53:00.000-07:00

Killed a hard drive without backing up? Deleted your babies first photo and already emptied the recycling bin? Not to worry, you can probably recover your data with the help of this guide from PCSTATS. - Version 1.3.0

If you've been using computers for a decent amount of time there is a good chance someone has told you that data stored on a hard drive is not exactly safe. I'm here to assure you that this is indeed true.

Never mind the fact that unlike tapes or CDs or other methods of storage, hard drives are mechanical, active devices and are thus subject to comparatively rapid breakdown.

No, the real threat to hard drives are the people that use them, by which I mean you and me. Hard drives, being the dynamic storage devices that they are, are extremely easy to erase in any number of amusing and simple to achieve ways... as are USB hard drives and flash memory cards (recovery tips for that media is detailed here).

Working as a computer tech during the glory days of Windows 98, you get rather used to using FDISK and other hard drive utilities to prepare and repair customer's drives, which leads to a certain over confidence. That attitude can lead straight to disaster, sort of like giving a 12 year old boy the keys to an ATV.

Picture this if you will; there I was, two or three sentences and a screen shot away from finishing a 5000+ word article on computer upgrades. All I had to do was fire up FDISK on a dual boot Windows98/XP Pro system and grab a few screen shots. I figured I'd write a little blurb on how to partition a drive, making sure to tell the readers not to mess with FDISK if they were not sure what they were doing…

Yes, there's going to be some irony here.

So anyway, I wanted to get some more screen shots of the actual partitioning screen, but I did not have a blank hard drive handy. I figured I could use my NTFS formatted XP drive (which FDISK perceived as a blank drive) to start the "process," grab the screen shots and then cancel the partitioning.

No problem. Except for one little thing…

I had forgotten that FDISK, in the process of checking the disk before it prompts you for the size of the partition, writes information to certain areas of the hard drive. This data writes over whatever might have been there before. Meanwhile, there I was, watching the '%complete' counter and wondering why a little red warning flag kept going off in my brain? I restarted WinXP and waited for it to boot, and waited... and waited... Oops.

Stellar launches V3.0 of Phoenix Outlook PST Repair

2009-03-30T05:39:00.000-07:00

The Version 3.0 of Stellar Phoenix Outlook PST Repair recover lost PST Password, split large PST file and Repair corrupt Microsoft Outlook PST & recover email, calendar, notes, tasks & contacts.

Stellar Information Systems Limited, the masters of data recovery, announces major updates for its PST repair software. Due to the great intellect of Stellar, you can now have the PST password recovery feature along with. Stellar Phoenix Outlook PST Repair 3.0 has also been made capable of splitting the large sized PST into smaller PST files. With the unique feature of identifying the e-mails with attachments, the software has now come up with a new look and lots of added qualities.

The software is identified for its great achievements in PST recovery for all the e-mails, contacts, calendar, journal, and rest other objects. This recent version of the software will provide you certain other benefits like password recovery and splitting the PST, together with the complete PST repair options. With its interactive user interface, you will discover the experience of ease and PST recovery as the job of clicks. You may have a look over the key features of the newer version, blended with the earlier one:

PST repair for MS Outlook 98, 2000, 2002, 2003 and 2007
Recovery for the lost or forgotten passwords
Splits the large Microsoft Outlook PST file into several small sized PST files.
Easy identification to the e-mails having attachments
PST repair for e-mails, calendar entries, contacts, notes and journals
Needs negligible technical skills to use with the intuitive user interface
The demo version provides preview of five e-mails, 20% contacts and calendar entries from which the user can evaluated the software
Also repairs password protected and encrypted files
Repairs PST files even larger than 2GB.
Live Update Feature to catch the recent updates

For better knowing the software, Stellar has benefited the users with its demo version, available from its website. You can experience the interface, its repair and recovery qualities, and preview repairable files, except the saving abilities which are applicable after having the serial key.

For more information on Stellar Phoenix Outlook PST Repair please visit us at:

Importance of Files and Recovery Techniques

2009-03-24T03:06:00.002-07:00

Tips for Choosing Data Recovery Tools

Data recovery refers to the retrieval of data on a computer that has lost any due reason. Most operating systems in use today have some kind of repair tool built into them, even if these tools are very basic in nature. For example, Microsoft Windows comes with an installation of chkdsk, Apple Mac OS X is a disk utility, and Linux has a utility fsck.

Restoration is a hard disk data recovery tool that works primarily to rescue accidentally deleted files and permanently deletes you want a good and gone. It is also noteworthy that the restoration is a hard disk data recovery tool that can live on a floppy, so it leaves no trace of her in activities.visit http://online-typingwork.blogspot.com

Depending on how the files were lost, it can be difficult to retrieve. But you no longer need to worry because PC Inspector File Recovery comes to the rescue. PC Inspector File Recovery is basically a hard drive data recovery tool that works to recover lost files and locate the partitions automatically, even when the boot sector of your machine has become damaged or deleted. Another great feature of this tool is the hard drive data recovery PC Inspector File Recovery can recover lost data, even when the input header file is no longer available. And, this hard drive data recovery tool can even allow you to save recovered files on the network drives.http: / / online-typingwork.blogspot.com

Restorer2000 is just another hard drive data recovery tool that is so powerful in restoring accidentally deleted files from your hard drive. This hard drive data recovery tool can restore lost files even though the data loss resulted from corruption or reformatting the hard drive. This is why we Restorer2000 is often in a series of hard disk data recovery tool for evaluation as one of the most powerful undelete and data recovery software solutions available.

Stellar Phoenix is a family of effective hard disk data recovery tools that are supported by different types of filesystems, like FAT, NTFS, and others. What? S good to know that this family of hard drive data recovery tool is now online with a free demo download, allowing you to understand the strengths and weaknesses of this hard drive data recovery tool

Advantages of Data Recovery With Ntfs Recovery Wizard

2009-03-24T03:06:00.001-07:00

To recover deleted files from the Windows Recycle Bin or those that were lost because they became a damaged hard disk, an archive data recovery search solution is necessary.

Apart from the two conditions mentioned above, the files could be lost due to a virus or Trojan infection, software failure or shutdown. When either of these cases occurs, computer users are faced with the dilemma of retrieving files that may be important to them. Some computer users create their data, but this process can be slow, difficult and sometimes useless. Others choose to use the data recovery service. Besides being costly, this option can also be unfavorable for the users as some of these companies do not use non-destructive methods.

Fortunately, various applications of data recovery software are widely available online. Data recovery is defined as the extraction process or otherwise of data, damage, damaged or inaccessible primary storage media that can not be accessed normally. Data recovery is a process used to recover deleted information and secure for forensic purposes or spying. In general, data from storage media formats such as storytelling storage tapes, CDs, DVDs, hard disks and other electronic formats, in most cases are rescued during the data recovery process.

Data may be lost due to physical or logical. Physical damage to a data storage may be the result of mechanical failure as the head is locked and no engine or a dye layer scratched or metallic substrate. Usually, physical damage can not be repaired by end users computer, simply because they lack the expertise to do so. In tales cases, data recovery services for the enterprises. Unfortunately, these consultations are not cheap.

Moreover, logical damage is mainly due to power outages that prevent or stop the file system structures from being completely written in whole or in between. Hardware and driver can also cause problems with it. Effects of damage may include logic system failures, loss of actual data, negative amounts of free space on hard drives, directories and inconsistent. To reduce the incidence of logical damage, routine maintenance of the system must be made with a consistency checker to protect the file system software errors and end latent incompatibilities in the design of storage hardware.

Several techniques can be used for data recovery due to physical hardware. Specialized disk images can be done to recover all the bits read from a storage medium surface. Once the image is acquired, you still have to check the logic damage. Logical data recovery, meanwhile, involves the reconstruction of damaged files. In general, repair of physical damage are then subjected to logical reconstruction if some data were lost forever. Various data recovery tools are available online. They share a common characteristic, which is its ability to recover data that may be lost, either through physical or logical. These data recovery utilities may also have distinctive features, but it is for users to evaluate and choose which data recovery file search is the most ideal solution for your data loss problem.

How Data Recovery Software Work to Retrieve Your Data

2009-03-24T03:05:00.000-07:00

Most computer users do not see loss of data is produced each time with them. But what really happens. Data loss is an unexpected, even that can strike any of the data storage media at any point of time and could put users in trouble.

If you have lost data due to accidental deletion or malicious file from a virus has attacked your computer and erasing all data on it, should not panic. Some powerful data recovery software are available here for your rescue. Recovery software data vary in their ability to recover valuable data.

When you realize you’ve deleted a file or data you know you are a victim of malicious virus attack, deleted files that critical business, the first thing you have to do is turn off the computer quickly. In addition to increasing the chances of successful data recovery.

After the loss of data, you should never run any disk or disk tool for monitoring the fragmentation of value. Could destroy important data and may make it impossible to retrieve. Data loss can not be accepted at any cost and need to be fixed as soon as possible.

Data Recovery software tools are extremely powerful and can retrieve data from your precious variety of data storage media such as hard drives, USB drives, CDs, DVDs, flash drives and so on. Data Recovery Software is helpful in most situations of logical data loss.

How the work of data recovery software

For more great software for data recovery, you need to know how the computer stores data. The computer file management system will consist of two distinct parts:

* Data area

* System Zone

The data area was originally used to store data while the system is used for storing information that maps the original data is stored on disk in the index of the table. When the user deletes a file, the operating system only marks the relevant part of the index table free for reuse.

The actual files are never deleted from the hard drive and can be recovered until it is overwritten. Hard Drive Recovery software uses algorithms to scan your media storage and retrieval of lost or missing files.

Best recovery software of data efficiently and can easily recover your lost data offer demo versions. The demo version lets you see the amount of recoverable data and view the operation of the software.

Data Recovery- Data Loss Scenarios Due to Hardware and Software Issues

2009-03-24T03:04:00.000-07:00

Apart from being a PC or a Mac system behavior and consistency depends on certain factors. These factors are divided into software, hardware and environmental factors.

The software of the factors that lead to a logical failure are:

i) file system responsible for handling control to the operating system is missing or damaged

ii.) drivers or unsigned drivers trying to access the system read-only

iii.) operating system files due to corruption incomplete automatic update, malware

The common factors that lead to hardware failure physics are:

i) Problems related to the board in terms of chip set or the power connector issue incompetent as the power source to run the hardware configuration

ii.) Problems related to the hard disk or the data or power cables

iii.) improper configuration of hard drive cooler fan (if any)

Common around the factors that lead to data loss are:

i) heat dissipation issues related to closed or poorly ventilated surroundings in a basement or warehouse

ii.) moist environment conducive to the formation of thick layers of dust and, therefore, increased heat

iii.) The more direct sunlight to heat and therefore a hardware failure

We must deny these scenarios, of course, so that we can reduce the root cause of the problem and take corrective action.

In case we find that the data loss is due to the failure of any logic, we can use the software for data recovery, as they are scheduled to meet the challenges due to the logic of all types of accidents. Search in the file system, locate all files that are marked as deleted and are distributed through portions of the partition, of course, for reorganizing the file system information and then retrieve them. The software of data recovery is essential in cases such as corruption of the file system, formatting the hard drive performance

system corruption, accidental deletion of files or malicious software such as viruses, spyware and so we can make a do-it-yourself “data recovery using these utilities, which are self descriptive and easy to use.

We need to install the software for data recovery on a different hard drive that is bootable. We may also use another system working preferably using the same operating system platform for MS Windows. Then we can fix our hard drive to it for exploration. To connect the hard disk that currently use high-speed USB 2.0 or IEEE 1394/Firewire Cables, attachments or enclosures. The same can be done by a master and slave hard drive configuration for bridge operations, and thus is a bit complex. We must prevent any other operations of the bridge plate, which may lead to unstable behavior of the system BIOS settings.

We must always save the recovered data to a hard drive healthy.

In case of loss of data due to hardware failure, where the hard drive is not receiving power or can not be recognized by the BIOS, we need to go to recovery services hard drive. The data recovery service is personalized support, delivered by experts in data recovery. Those experts can extract data in all possible scenarios for the physical loss of data.

These data recovery solutions are completely different from each other and have unique approaches to data recovery. There are several data recovery companies, data recovery software and services offering, a user must choose the best among them by comparing their characteristics, the quality assessment and pricing.

Stellar Information Systems Limited is the best bet to solve all our problems of data loss. Stellar offers a high-quality data recovery softwarefor almost all operating systems and file systems.

The Data Recovery Services is the stellar number one worldwide. The reason is simple stellar commitment to the highest standards of quality in terms of Research and Development and Testing of Software as a dedication to never stop.

It is held in the secure environment of the state of the art Class 100 Clean Room data recovery experts. It is available for all types of hard drives including SATA, SCSI, IDE / EIDE (PATA) and the ATA interface hard drives.

To learn more about these products, you must download and use free demo versions available on the website of the star.