Hard Disk Recovery - Techniques and Software

Shdiag-SAMSUNG Hard Disk Drive utilities

2012-02-02T13:14:00.000-08:00

This program is used to diagnose the disk when the SAMSUNG hard disk is suspected to have failures. It is strongly recommended to back up your data before using this program!

Shdiag.exe (Size : 166 KB )

Precaution

This program runs in DOS mode only.
Please back up your data before proceeding

Target models

This program is just available below SAMSUNG HDDs.

series	model number
SpinPoint V20400	SV4084D, SV3063D, SV2042D, SV1021D, SV0761D
SpinPoint V15300	V3064D, SV2043D, SV1532D, SV0761D
SpinPoint V10200	SV2044D, SV1533D, SV1022D, SV0511D
SpinPoint V9100	SV1824D, SV1363D, SV0842D, SV0431D
Others	SV2046D, SV1705D, SV1364D, SV1023D, SV0682D, SP1828D, SP1366D, SP0914D, SV1296D, SV0844D, SV0643D, SV0432D, And other older models

How to use

At the A:\>prompt, enter "SHDIAG".
Decide on your agreement to the license agreement term of SAMSUNG Diagnostic program.
(Enter 'y' if you agree. If you enter 'N', the program will be cancelled.)
It is detecting drives on the system.
Select the hard disk to test, and the system area will be tested.
There are six items of testing and they will start automatically.
Maintenance Cylinder contains physical information of HDD.
OD : Outer Dimension,
ID : Inner Dimension
The system area test results are displayed. If no error is detected, permission to continue to test all
areas is asked, and is aborted when there is an error.
If you choose 'Y', it will start to scan entire surface as below screen.
Under screen is the final display of the test result if HDD has no error.
After executing without any errors, if your system still has a problem, please check the virus, OS, programs or cable connections on your system.

Tip

in case of an error occur

Following screen will be displayed.
Press any key, then below screen will be displayed.
If you choose 'Y', all data will be removed.
If you want to do Low-level format, please back your data up before press 'Y'.
It is the final screen of with an error. - Please contact the dealer you purchased the product from first.
If you can not reach your dealer, please refer to the contact information and contact the nearest country from you.

Shdiag.exe (Size : 166 KB )

Tip

For PASS: Examine on parts other than SAMSUNG HDD, such as system connections, software, anzd virus.
For FAIL: Low level format using CLEARHDD program, and retry the test. If errors are still reported, please contact the vendor or nearest service center for repair or click here to RMA (move to RMA)

Basic jumper settings for Maxtor ATA Hard Drives

2012-02-02T13:11:00.000-08:00

Please review these jumper settings before installing your new hard drive into your computer. You may need more detailed information about the installation process, or the location and configuration of your existing internal ATA drive. Your manual that came with your computer can be of assistance in both of these determinations.
A single hard drive is normally configured one of two ways

Master (single drive), or
Cable Select.

Most hard drives have a schematic diagram either printed onto the case of the drive, or on a label near the jumper pins on hard drive. If you have difficulty locating this information, visit the hard drive manufacturer’s website. If the present hard drive is configured as “Master”, then set your new hard drive to “Slave”. If the existing drive is set for “Cable Select”, then set your new drive to “Cable Select” also. You can change the existing jumper settings on the original drive to suit your needs, but we recommend following these instructions first to verify proper operation of the new hard drive. Installing jumpers on the new drive is a simple process, follow the schematic to configure your drive.

Fixing a chrashed hard disk

2012-02-02T13:10:00.000-08:00

There is nothing as shocking as having all your important data disappear right in front of your eyes. All those music collections, the movies you had saved, the documents your whole life. As for now your computer is as good as dead with out the data you relied on a lot. your heart is pulsating fast, you know its all over and there is nothing you can do to bring it back. You take it to the computer fix shop and they to give you the sad news.

Actually there is something you can still do to get the stuff you value most. If you have tried using data recovery software's and you still don't get anything out of it try to place it in the freezer.

A hard disk contains platters inside it and heads that read and write information on them. They are very sensitive and the heads are so close to the platters surface even a small dust particle can make it crush. That's why hard disk drives are air proof. if the heads became lose and lost its position it is probably touching the surface of the platters making it impossible to read the information on the disk, but placing it in freezer will contract and regain its original shape allowing you to save as much information from it as possible. This method is not permanent, as soon as the hard disk becomes warm it will lose its position. but you will have collected some data from it. you can try it again until your feeling satisfied.

Download Hard Driver Recovery Tools NTFS, FAT, LINUS, MAC, LINUX

2009-09-02T21:25:00.000-07:00

Data Recovery Software

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Is to be written

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Data Safety Software

Data safety software data required....

Product Details

Platform Supported

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File type is to be written .

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File type is to be written .

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Safe Data Eraser content required....

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Platform Supported

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Stellar Wipe

File type is to be written

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Freeze It Heat It Hard Disk Recovery Myths

2009-09-02T19:54:00.001-07:00

In old days, before IDE, the older drives from the mid-80s that used stepper motors, functioning of hard disks were sensitive to heat and cold. But over the period, hard disk manufactures developed materials that are less or marginally affected by heat and cold. Remember the Monday morning blues error that resulted bad sectors showing up on hard disks. This happened in cold weathers, especially after the computer being off overnight or over the weekend (thus the name). These stepper motor hard disks could not compensate for thermal expansion of the disk platters and might not be able to read the tracks on the drive until the disk has warmed up. Waiting a half-hour might see the problem go away, but in the long run the disk will need to be low-level formatted again. None of this applies to modern IDE or SCSI hard disks.

In view of the above, the freeze-it myth is exciting and makes some sense, but the consequences might be a disaster. The modern hard disks have read/write calibration mechanism so that the heads are properly positioned over the disk surface at a determined heat or cold tolerance. This enables the heads to read and write the correct tracks without any kind of error.

These parameters are recorded in ROM memory located on the logic board in some models and series AND/OR one part in ROM and the other in EPROM. In some models, the parameters are recorded in some types of flash memory located inside the drive. This is the reason why sometimes the replacement of a burned logic board does not recover hard drive even both drives are identical using same firmware version. This indicates that something is wrong on the inside.

In addition, there's also a type of surface recording called "servo", installed during the manufacturing process of the hard drive. The "servo" helps the heads to correctly positioned while running.

This resulted someone to put a hard drive in freezer and connect back it to PC. The system recognized the drive and worked again for several minutes. Then again freeze the hard drive it worked for a few minutes more, providing some more minutes to save some information from the hard disk.

Critical steps in Data Recovery

2009-07-30T21:38:00.000-07:00

Always use an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) to protect your hard disk against power surges. Electricity surges are the most dangerous thing among all that can cause damage to hard disk.

If you listen any sounds of clicking, grinding or whirring from your hard drive then shut down your computer immediately. Read/write heads make such sounds by hitting or scraping the platters and may cause severe or complete data loss. No data recovery software can repair a physically damaged hard disk.

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 and must be handled by a some competent engineers. Data recovery professionals 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
In case your hard drive drive is making scraping, tapping, clicking or humming sounds, utility software for data recovery should not be used. The only best solution is to stop using the hard disk immediately.
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

Best practices

Backup frequently and 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 data for viruses, including packaged software
Use air ventilation, fans and/or air conditioning to keep server conditions at the proper operating temperature
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

Use extra backup systems
Adopt a structured backup procedure and always make copies of all critical data files, using software compatible with the operating system and applications
Periodically verify the data backups, especially databases and other critical files
Keep at least one verified copy of critical data offsite that is not connected to the running system

Hard Drive Sounds Interpretation

2009-07-27T22:14:00.000-07:00

Some hard drives make typical sounds. In case hard drive is making sound, the files are even then accessible, and you need to backup such hard disk immediately.
Here is a list of common hard disk sound and the possible reason of hard disk sounds.
Western Digital

200GB desktop drive with bad preamplifier chip, located on the headstack, clicks a few times, spins down.
250GB desktop drive with head crash clicks a few times, then spins down.
250GB desktop drive with stuck spindle can't spin up, chatters.
500GB desktop drive with bad heads slowly clicks a few times and spins down.
500GB desktop hard drive with bad bearings can't gain full rotational speed.
Desktop drive with bad heads clunking.
Desktop drive with unstable heads clicks a few times and stops spinning.
Drive with bad heads making clicking sound.
Western Digital laptop hard drive with stuck spindle trying to spin up with siren.

Seagate

Seagate desktop drive with bad heads slowly clicks and beeps on spin up.
Seagate desktop drive with degrading heads making thrashing, then clicking sound.
Seagate desktop drive with seized spindle trying to spin up.
Seagate laptop drive with bad heads making clicking/knocking sound.
Seagate Momentus laptop drive with bad heads making nasty drilling noise.

Maxtor

Maxtor desktop drive with bad heads making clicking/knocking/beeping noise.
Maxtor desktop drive with stuck spindle playing futuristic cell phone melody.
Maxtor drive with bad heads making steady clicking/knocking sound.
Maxtor drive with stuck spindle and musical siren again.

Samsung

Samsung 40GB desktop hard drive with bad head knocks a few times.
Samsung 80GB desktop hard drive with bad heads making fast clicking sound.
Samsung desktop drive with degrading media making scratching sound when hitting bad sectors.
Samsung desktop hard drive with bad heads clicks, then spins down.

Hitachi/IBM

Hitachi 60GB laptop drive with stuck spindle can't spin up, makes humming/buzzing noise.
Hitachi laptop drive with bad heads clicks once on spin up, then beeps.
Hitachi/IBM laptop drive with bad heads making clicking sound.
IBM 40GB desktop hard drive with degrading media/heads rattles and squeals on spin up.
IBM desktop drive with degrading media making scratching sound when hitting area with bad sectors.

Toshiba

Toshiba laptop drive with bad bearings making loud grinding sound.
Toshiba laptop drive with bad bearings making nasty drilling/screaming sound.
Toshiba laptop drive with bad heads making clicking/sweeping sound on boot up.
Toshiba laptop drive with degrading bearings making grinding sound.
Toshiba laptop hard drive with stuck spindle trying to spin up(heard if taken close to your ear).

Fujitsu

Fujitsu 40gb desktop drive with bad media making scratching noise.
Fujitsu laptop drive with bad heads making clicking/knocking noise.
Fujitsu laptop hard drive with bad heads making sweeping sound.

Quantum

Quantum desktop drive with bad heads making clunking sound.

Recovering Hard Disks with Bad Blocks

2009-06-14T21:50:00.001-07:00

Bad block or faulty sector is the name given to a damaged area on a hard disk. It is a physical problem, i. e., the hard disk's magnetic media is defective. When we run a disk utility such as Scandisk and Norton Disk Doctor, such faulty sectors are marked with a "B".

Several users have written us asking how to proceed to recover hard disks with bad blocks. Many note that bad blocks disappear after low level formatting the hard disks.

What really happens, however, is that current physical formatting programs do not actually physically format the disk. If this should be feasible, the hard disk would be damaged, since hard disk tracks have a signal called servo that operates as a guide for the hard disk head. If we really formatted a hard disk at low level, these servos would be erased and the hard disk head would be unable to move any longer.

Low level formatting programs are utilities for detecting bad sectors and wiping the disk (for security reasons, for instance, after concluding a confidential project), not carrying out – despite their name – low level formatting.

These programs have an interesting function, which consists of updating the disk's bad sector map. When you use this option, the program scans the disk, seeking defective sectors and updating the disk's map.

When you run a high level formatting (through the Format command), this command skips the sectors contained in this bad sector table. According, there will not be any sector marked B ("Bad Block") in the FAT, although the defective sectors remain on the disk.

Defective sectors are not removed, but merely noted in this table of bad sectors, resulting in the system ignoring them (in other words, the sectors are hidden).

If new bad sectors keep occurring after running this procedure, you should get rid of the disk, as its magnetic surface is deteriorating, for some reason.

The best program to be applied in the procedure is the manufacturer's one, given on the respective utility page.

Bad Block Recovery Softwares

Fujitsu (Erase, 33 KB)
Maxtor
Quantum
Samsung (Clearhdd.exe, 11 KB)
Seagate (Sgatfmt4)
Western Digital (dlgdiag.exe, 192 KB)

Secret Zone-SAMSUNG Hard Disk Drive-utilities

2009-06-14T21:18:00.001-07:00

SZSetup.zip (Size : 6.90 MB)

Preliminary

The SecretZone is software program that protects personal information.
If you want to keep private information or
if you want to move your data to a different location, you can use SecretZone, the
secure, perfect solution to do these tasks easily and conveniently.

How to install SecretZone

A. Connecting the Samsung external hard disc to the PC prompts the following display.

B. Select Install Samsung SecretZone and begin to install Samsung SecretZone.

C. The initial Screen of the InstallShield Wizard appears after the initial stages have been processed.

D. In the next screen, select Install Samsung ScretZone.

E. A screen will appear displaying the installation's progress.

F. Choose later "Next" button appointing the user ID / PW than installation of a program.

G. Installation of a program is over, an installation completion wizard appears and click "completion" button and finishes installation.

New

A. Click "New" in the Volume menu or click to display the Create Volume Image wizard.

Note
If you use FAT/FAT32 file system, the maximum volume image size is 2GB.
The NTSF file system supports 2TB.

B. Enter the drive to connect to, file system, label, access type, and idle timeout.

You need to specify a drive not used by the system. If you want to reconnect the
volume image automatically when the system is started, select "Automatic Connection".

Supported file systems include NTFS, FAT16, and FAT32, RAW means there is no file
system. Idle Timeout is the time after which, if the virtual drive is not accessed, the
system disconnects the virtual drive automatically.

C. Specify the password and algorithm for the volume.

D. After entering all the necessary information, click "Finish" to create the volume image.

When the volume image was created successfully :

SZSetup.zip (Size : 6.90 KB)

ESwin-SAMSUNG Hard Disk Drive-utilities

2009-06-14T21:17:00.001-07:00

ESWIN_USB_v0.6a_Install.zip (Size : 283 KB)

ESwin SAMSUNG S.M.A.R.T UTILITY

ESwin SAMSUNG S.M.A.R.T UTILITY is a diagnostic program for Samsung external HDD series.

Caution

This program only support 1.3", 1.8" and 2.5" of Samsung external HDD series.

SMART self test does not support 1.3" and 1.8" USB, so Diagnostic menu cannot be executed in these drives.
This program is 2 times slower than test by PC because it is operated by USB transfer speed.
(about 30MB)
The function of Write is included in this program, therefore please back up your Data for your data protection.

Program installation of ESwin SAMSUNG S.M.A.R.T UTILITY

The file name of "ESwin_USB_v0.5_Install.zip" is downloaded when you execute Download.
"ESwin_USB_v0.5_Install.exe"is created as soon as the file is extracted.
* Please follow below instruction of installation after executing "ESwin_USB_v0.5_Install.exe."

Detail order and instruction

If you connect USB port with the HDD Drive and execute ESwin, you can see below display.
And the information of HDD is displayed by your selection.

1. HDD Scan

If you click SCAN button, you can see below picture.
If you select any menu which includes Write function, a caution message is displayed like below picture.

Read or Write are operated with orders like below.

Selecting Scan type

Inputting LBA

Clicking START

If you select the option of Read Random LBA or Write Random LBA, the Count is activated. And ESwin accesses LBA between StartLBA and EndLBA randomly as same as the numerical value of Count.

HDD Scan is started with clicking START button.

A message is displayed as soon as the Scan is completed.

2. HDD DIAGNOSTIC

ESWIN_USB_v0.6a_Install.zip (Size : 273 KB)

Internal Drive-ES-Tool-SAMSUNG Hard Drive utilities

2009-06-14T21:14:00.001-07:00

estool_FDD.zip (Size : 716 KB)
estool_CDROM.zip (Size : 1.82 MB)

Preliminary

ES Tool (The Drive Diagnostic Utility) is made with the aim of testing a Samsung hard disk drive while it is installed inside a PC, regardless of the status of user's operating system. In fact of the drives returned to Samsung, a large percentage are NTF("No Trouble Found") after testing. So it is strongly recommended to test the drive if it is truly defective by a few fundamental troubleshooting of ES Tool first, to avoid user's unnecessary effort and inconvenience of replacing a good drive.
ES Tool can test a drive solely manufactured by Samsung. It is strongly recommended to back up the user's significant data in advance because ES Tool has a Write operation that can erase it. Samsung has no responsibility of lost data.
The version on pictures may be different from that you download.

Execution

ES Tool is a DOS based utility so it is needed to prepare a bootable 1.44-MB diskette in advance.
Download ES Tool.exe on the diskette prepared from the internet.
Reboot the system by above diskette.
Execute the program by typing A:＼> ES Tool.exe in DOS prompt.
Please Back-up your data before executing this program.

Functions

DRIVE DIAGNOSTIC
LOW LEVEL FORMAT
SET MAX ADDRESS
SET MAX UDMA MODE
AAM MODE (Automatic Acoustic Management)
LBA MODE
ENABLE SMART
DISABLE SMART
INFORMATION
AUTO DETECT
ABOUT ESTOOL
EXIT TO DOS

Top screen

If you agree above DISCLAIMER, press Y.

Auto detection

Select the HDD which you want to test
Use the UP/DOWN ARROW keys

Drive Diagnostic-1

Use the UP/DOWN ARROW keys
Select the DRIVE DIAGNOSTIC and press ENTER

Drive Diagnostic-2

You can see above screen during function test and simple surface scan.

Drive Diagnostic-3

Because of big capacity, above message will appear.
If you want to scan entire surface, press 'y'.

Drive Diagnostic-4

If there is no error on it, you will get above message.

Low Level Format-1

You can erase your drive partially or entirely.

Low Level Format-2

Because of data protection, above message will appear.

Set Max Address

Default value of TARGET LBA or TARGET SIZE represents the current drive size.
If you want to resize drive capacity, select TARGET LBA or TARGET SIZE and type the proper LBA or MB number that you want to change. After adjusting drive capacity, perform PROCESS by pressing Enter Key.
Regarding MODE, you are presented to select either NON-VOLATILE, changed capacity is effective regardless of power off/on, or VOLATILE, changed capacity is effective as long as power on (i.e. after power off/on, drive capacity will be retrieved to original one).
If you want to recover to the original size of drive, perform RECOVER NATIVE SIZE by pressing Enter Key.
DISPLAY CURRENT STATUS represents the current size of drive.
If you set 32GB Clip due to capacity limitation of system, remove the 32GB clip to adjust the LBA or SIZE.
After performing SET MAX ADDRESS user's previous data will be corrupted. Therefore it takes into great consideration to back-up the data in advance. Samsung has no responsibility of lost data.

Set Max UDMA mode

If Motherboard supports UDMA33 and drive has been set as UDMA 100, then recommended to adjust drive's mode to UDMA 33 by this function.
This will not perform write operation but recommended to back up the data in preparation for the worst case.
Select the proper UDMA mode by selecting UDMA MODE (33/66/100/133 is changed by pressing Enter Key) and perform PROCESS by pressing Enter Key.
DISPLAY CURRENT MODE represents the current UDMA status.

AAM Mode : Automatic Acoustic Management Mode

You can select a proper seek mode among FAST/MIDDLE/QUIET in accordance with user's circumstance.
Select the proper AAM by selecting AAM MODE (Quiet/Middle/Fast is changed by pressing Enter Key) and perform PROCESS by pressing Enter Key.
DISPLAY CURRENT MODE represents current AAM status.
Performance : Fast>Middle>Quiet (Fast is the best)
Acoustic Noise : Fast>Middle>Quiet (Quiet is the best)

Drive Information

You can see your drive's information.

estool_FDD.zip (Size : 716 KB)
estool_CDROM.zip (Size : 1.82 MB)

Download hard drive data recovery software tools for FAT NTFS Novell Linux Mac Unix Drive Recovery

2009-06-13T23:00:00.001-07:00

Download the most influential and best ever made hard drive recovery software, mail recovery software and file repair software from a broad range of products provided by Stellar. Download Windows data recovery software to salvage all of your lost data from Windows hard drive. All these software works best in the situations of data loss, email loss, mail corruption, file corruption, and password loss.

Data Recovery Software

Download remarkable data recovery software from a bunch of software provided by Stellar Information Systems Ltd. These data recovery software are available for all computer operating systems. You can download hard drive recovery software for Windows, Macintosh, UNIX, Linux and Novell operating systems.

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery FAT16, FAT32, VFAT, NTFS and NTFS5 file system.

Windows Vista, XP, 2003, 2000, 9x File size: 6.25 MB

Stellar Phoenix NTFS Data Recovery NTFS and NTFS5 file system.

Windows Vista, XP, 2003, 2000, 9xFile size: 5.46 MB

Stellar Phoenix FAT Data RecoveryFAT16, FAT32, VFAT, file system.

Windows Vista, XP, 2003, 2000, 9xFile size: 5.34 MB

Stellar Phoenix Novell ( NWFS)Netware File System

Netware version 3.1 and above File size: 2.8 MB
Stellar Phoenix Novell (NSS)Novell Storage System, Netware version 6 and 6.5

File size: 2.42 MB

Stellar Phoenix Linux RecoveryEXT2, EXT3 and Reiser FS file system.

Recovers data from EXT2, EXT3 and Reiser FS file system drives on all flavours of Linux including Red Hat, Suse, Caldera, SCO, Debian, Mandrake, Sorcerer, TurboLinux, Slackware, Gentoo and others

File size: 3.30 MB

Stellar Phoenix CDROMISO9660 & Joliet File System.

Recovers data from CD's with ISO9660 and Joliet file system created on all major operating systems including Windows, Linux, Unix distributions

File size: 2.38 MB

Stellar Phoenix iPod Recovery For Windows MIDI, AIFF, M4A, OGG, RPS, M4P, AU, AVI, MOV, ASF, WMV, MP4, WMA, MP3, MPG, MPEG, GIF, WAV etc.

Windows 2K, XP and Vista. File size: 4.36 MB

Stellar Phoenix iPod Recovery For MacintoshMIDI, AIFF, M4A, OGG, RPS, M4P, AU, AVI, MOV, ASF, WMV, MP4, WMA, MP3, MPG, MPEG, GIF, WAV etc.

Mac OS X 10.4 and aboveFile size: 8.38 MB

Stellar Phoenix Macintosh HFS, HFS+, HFSX and HFS Wrapper File systems, Recovers from Apple Mac O.S. 3.9 and above

File size: 10.5 MB
Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery For Macintosh, Nikon (NEF), Canon (CRW, CR2), Olympus (ORF), Sony (SR2), Kodak (K25, KDC, DCR), Fuji (RAF), Minolta (MRW), Pentax (PEF), Sigma (X3F), and also supports JPEG, TIFF, BMP, GIF,PNG, WAV,MP3, AIFF, RPS, MIDI, M4A, M4P, AU, OGG, WMA, MOV, AVI, ASF, WMV, MP4
Memory Sticks, Flash Cards, Sony Memory Stick,IBM Micro Drive, SD Cards, MMC Cards. XD Cards, Secure Digital Card, Zip Disks, Mini Disks

File size: 12.04 MB

Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery, For Windows, File Type supported Nikon (NEF), Canon (CRW, CR2), Olympus (ORF), Sony (SR2), Kodak (K25, KDC, DCR), Fuji (RAF), Minolta (MRW), Pentax (PEF), Sigma (X3F), BMP, JPG, JPEG, TIFF, PNG, GIFF, MP3, WAV, MPEG, MPG, AVI

Recovers lost or deleted digital pictures from Memory Sticks, Flash Cards,Sony Memory Stick,IBM Micro Drive,SD Cards,MMC Cards,XD Cards,Secure Digital Card,Hard Disks,Zip Disks,Mini Disks, hard drives and logical drives.

File size: 5.70 MB
Stellar Phoenix Windows File Recovery, More than 300 file types, Supports all version of Windows including - Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows 2003 Server and Windows XP.

File size: 2.7 MB

Stellar Phoenix Deleted File Recovery, Supports hard drives formatted on FAT 16, FAT 32, and NTFS & NTFS 5 file systems.

Supports all version of Windows including - Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows 2003 Server and Windows XP.

File size: 2.3 MB
Stellar Phoenix (SCO OpenServer), HTFS & EAFS File Systems, SCO OpenServer 3 & 5

File size: 1.01 MB

Stellar Phoenix (SCO UnixWare), VxFS & UFS File Systems, SCO UnixWare 7 & Above

File size: 1.80 MB
Stellar Phoenix (Solaris - Intel)
UFS File System, Sun Solaris 8 & Above

File size: 1.07 MB
Stellar Phoenix (Solaris - Sparc), UFS File System, Sun Solaris 8 & Above

File size: 1.07 MB

Stellar Phoenix BSD

UFS1 and UFS2 File System, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD Unix distributions

File size: 1.06 MB

Stellar Phoenix HP Unix, JFS 3.0, 3.1, 3.3, HP-UX 10.x, 11, 11i

File size: 1.07 MB

File Repair Software

Download file repair software to repair and restore corrupted files for various applications. Stellar's file repair software are obtainable for all applications of MS Office suite of products and several others. You can download file repair software for MS Word, MS Excel, MS Access, Zip and MS SQL Server.

Product Details

Platform Supported

Download

Stellar Phoenix Word Recovery

Supports Word 97, 2000, 2002, XP, 2003, and RTF Format

Word 97, 2000, 2002, XP, 2003, and RTF Format

File size: 3.46 MB

Stellar Phoenix Excel Recovery

Supports all modern file versions, including Excel 2000, 2002, XP, 2003 and 2007

Excel 2000, 2002, XP, 2003 and 2007

File size: 3.46 MB

Stellar Phoenix Access Recovery

Access 97, 2000, 2002, XP and 2003

Windows 9x / Me / NT / 2000 / XP / 2003 / Vista

File size: 2.58 MB

Stellar Phoenix Zip Recovery

Till WinZip 8.0 All Other Subtypes: Till WinZip 11.1

Windows Me / NT / 2000 / XP / 2003 / Vista

File size: 2.19 MB

Stellar Phoenix SQL Database Recovery

Data Base

Windows 2000 / 2003 / XP / Vista

File size: 4.8 MB

Stellar Phoenix Database Recovery for MySQL

Data Base

Windows Vista / XP / 2003 / 2000

File size: 10.6 MB

Email Recovery Software

Download mail recovery software offered by Stellar to fix the crucial issues of email corruption. Stellar's email recovery software are available for all email clients and server applications usable on Windows systems. You can download email recovery software to repair and restore corrupted emails of Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Outlook Express, and Microsoft Exchange Server.

Stellar Phoenix Outlook Express Recovery

File Type Supported .dbx and .mbx

Recover data from Outlook Express Versions 4,5.0,5.01,5.5 and 6.0

File size: 7.00 MB

Stellar Phoenix Outlook Pst Repair

File Type Supported .pst

Microsoft Outlook 97, Outlook 98, Outlook 2000, Outlook 2002, Outlook XP, Outlook 2003 & Outlook 2007

File size: 3.6 MB

Stellar Phoenix MailBox Exchange Desktop

File Type Supported .ost and .ost-.pst

Exchange OST File Recovery software supports OST files created by Microsoft Exchange Server 5, 5.5, 2000 and 2003.

File size: 945 KB

Stellar Phoenix Mailbox - Exchange Server

Is to be written

Windows 2000 / XP / 2003

File size: 6.49 MB

Data Safety Software

Data safety software data required....

Product Details

Platform Supported

Download

Instabackup Gold

File type is to be written .

Win 95/98/ME/NT/ 2000/XP/2003

File size: 0.83 MB

Stellar InstaBackup

File type is to be written .

Win 95/98/ME/NT/ 2000/XP/2003

File size: 0.83 MB

Stellar Smart

File type is to be written.

Win 95/98/ME/NT/ 2000/XP/2003

File size: 6.6 MB

Safe Data Eraser

Safe Data Eraser content required....

Product Details

Platform Supported

Download

Stellar Wipe

File type is to be written

Windows 9x / NT / ME / 2000 / XP

File size: 0.83 MB

Download MaxBlast 5 | Seagate

2009-06-11T22:32:00.000-07:00

Installation assistance

We have updated MaxBlast to better fit the needs of today's technology (improved USB support, improved support for diagnostic partitions, and Windows Vista support). The newer tools are below.

What to do now:

If you are setting up your new drive, you can use the install instruction links below to assist in mounting the drive, then use the tools built into your operating system to prepare the drive.

Hardware setup instructions:
ATA Hard Drives
SATA Hard Drives

Operating system preparation instructions:
Windows Vista
Windows XP / 2000
Windows 98/ME
MacOS 10.x

Data Migration:

If you are upgrading and want to migrate your data from the old drive to the new drive we provide MaxBlast as an option.

Download MaxBlast Now!

Learn more about MaxBlast.

If you are experiencing a capacity limitation where you may have used a Dynamic Drive Overlay (DDO) in the past, we now offer the following resolutions:

Check for BIOS updates. If you are running into a hardware limit of an older ATA or SATA controller, there may be a downloadable update for that controller.
If the controller does not offer a BIOS update then there are several vendors that offer PCI cards that will allow you to see the full capacity of the drive.

Hard Drive Utilities - MAXTOR & QUANTUM

2009-06-11T22:21:00.000-07:00

These utilities are good to identify problems at hard drive. There are other utilities to format and partition your hard drive for any Windows operating system.Download these utilities to diagnose problems on hard drive’s surface scan. Download it, insert a formatted floppy disk in the floppy drive, and double click on the Powermax program. The POWERMAX.EXE utility is designed to perform diagnostic read/write verifications on Maxtor/Quantum hard drives. These tests will determine hard drive integrity. The POWERMAX.EXE utility is effective on all ATA (IDE) hard drives with a capacity greater than or equal to 500 MB. Maxtor recommends the use of this utility for troubleshooting potential hard drive problems. Once a bootable floppy disk is created, you can reboot computer with floppy disk in floppy drive, and the program will start automatically.You can download POWERMAX HARD DRIVE DIAGNOSTIC TOOL from http://www.computerpi.com/powermax.exe

This diagnostic tool will run in DOS only. Do not attempt to run this program in Windows.

You can download MAXBLAST HARD DRIVE INSTALLATION UTILITY from http://members.shaw.ca/infocontroller/MAXBLAST.EXE or http://www.computerpi.com/maxblast3.exe

This installation tool will also run in DOS only. Do not attempt to run this program in Windows.

You can also download these and other utilities from the manufacturer's website given below:-

General Software

Product-Specific Software

How-To Fix Bad Sectors on Hard Disk

2009-05-20T09:15:00.001-07:00

While running your computer, you may receive error messages suggesting your hard disk might contain bad sectors. The errors are typically flagged as "CRC" or "Cyclic Redundancy Error". Some of your data files are missing, unreadable or corrupted and it takes forever or impossible to access certain files and folders. This may be a cause of bad sector problems. Sectors are pie-sliced divisions of a hard disk. And a bad sector is a sector on the disk which data cannot be written or read due to a physical damage or inconsistencies of parity checking bits on disk. Any data that is written or stored on that area is likely to be lost or corrupted. Data residing on the rest of the disk may be unaffected and the disk is considerably usable if the bad sectors are few.

Bad sectors are mainly due to the magnetic weakening of the domain and mechanical faults. Over time, the magnetic areas of a disk lose its magnetism and hence its inability to retain data. Such bad sectors have the tendency to spread and are usually non-repairable. Mechanical faults include physical shocks to the disk, abrupt power shutdowns and disruptions during read-write operations. Head crash can also cause bad sectors and lead to permanent data loss on the disk. When bad sectors spread, it can result in system instability when important system files are destroyed. Mild corrupted data however can be corrected by most file system utilities.

Unknown to most, the bad sectors could some times be due to bad parity checking bits written on disk. Most modern disk while storing data will transparently store parity bits together with the data. When the data is read, the parity bits are also retrieved and compared to ensure the data integrity. This goes on without the knowledge of normal user. When the parity bits are corrupted for some reasons, it will result in bad sector errors. In this case, through some proprietary recovery software, ADRC could actually repair the bad sectors without loss of data by correcting or rewriting the corrupted parity bits on disk.

Very often, bad sectors are manifested as a result of failing Read Write head. When the Read Write heads fail to read and interpret the magnetic signals normally, the same kind of bad sectors errors could occur. Frequently, bad sectors are also early signs of disk crash as it deteriorates over time.

Solution to Bad Sector Problem

If the disk is still working well, important data should be backed up immediately to avoid further data loss. If the system respond is virtually "hanging" to a standstill and you have valuable data, the best option is to consult a data recovery specialist without doing this yourself.

Commonly, a full format process should be able to "mask" the bad sectors or earmark the bad sectors in file allocation table. One could continue to use the disk while the operating system will take notice of the location of bad sectors and avoid them altogether.

Another common CHKDSK utility provided by Windows Operating System may help to detect and mark for bad sectors. During a surface scan, it attempts to write data to that sector and then read back what it wrote. If the two do not match, the sector is marked as bad as it does not maintain data integrity. The operating system will note the particular sector and avoid writing new data onto that area of disk. After which, the bad sector will be remapped to a special sector on the drive which is reserved for this purpose.

For Windows 98, ME users, follow these steps:

To do this, click Start, point to Programs
Point to Accessories, point to System Tools and select ScanDisk
Select the Thorough option and click Automatically Fix Errors
Click Start

For Windows XP/2000 users, follow these steps:

On the desktop, double click on My Computer
<>Right click and select Properties on the erroneous drive
Open the Tool Tab
Select Check Now under Error Checking
Select the option to Automatic Fix File System Errors and Scan For And Attempt Recovery For Bad Sectors

CHKDSK offers 2 modes of scanning:

Error Checking

This mode scans your computer's files and folders. It searches and repairs any minor corrupted files and inconsistencies it detects.

Surface Scan

This mode scans every sector of the disk and identifies bad sectors. When a bad sector is detected, CHKDSK will automatically mark it as bad and the system will refrain from writing further data into that sector. The bad sectors will then be remapped with working ones on the disk. Due to the intensive nature of the scan, surface scan mode typically takes very long time to perform. Time range can stretch from a few hours to a few days.

Click Start

It must be pointed out here that one must use CHKDSK with extreme care because if the disk is failing imminently, such operation may stress the disk to a point of complete failure. Put it ironically, if you have a good working disk, try it. If you think your disk is failing imminently, , refrain from using CHKDSK.

Recovering Hard Disks with Bad Blocks

2009-05-20T08:19:00.001-07:00

Fujitsu (Erase, 33 KB)
Maxtor
Quantum
Samsung (Clearhdd.exe, 11 KB)
Seagate (Sgatfmt4)
Western Digital (dlgdiag.exe, 192 KB)

Repair Myth And Platter Swapping Myth

2009-05-20T08:11:00.001-07:00

The Repair Myth

Some professionals or even companies announce that they "repair" hard drives. We know that it's impossible, because such professionals and companies don't even have a proper place for doing so.

What they do, in fact, is change the logic board and/or run a program that hides the bad sectors, the famous "bad blocks" (read our tutorial on this subject). Then they give you the formatted hard disk and tell you it's been "fixed".

There's the refurbishing industry – or even better, recycling – in countries such as India, China and Russia, but in this case the hard drives come without brand or with some mark or tag that says "refurbished" or remanufactured. We've seen hard drives of that kind work for some years and others for some months. Those disks, however, were really rebuilt by using parts from more than one disk, some new and some used, and they are good for use in low-income countries, because they're much cheaper.

What we want to say is that both refurbished and "fixed" hard disk aren't reliable. If they're used, they would never store important data, but just be used to surf the Internet or as station disk without any important data.

The Platter Swapping Myth

Some people have already told us that they've read in some place or have heard someone say that it's possible to recover data from a defective disk simply by finding another one that's exactly the same and transferring the "platters" (media, without the heads) from one HDA (Hard Drive Assembly) to the other.

This can even work if we take into consideration certain factors such as firmware, hard disk drive series, and others. However, the most likely is that data is lost forever due to many other reasons such as inappropriate environment, inadequate technique and tools, anyway, everything you shouldn't do for absolute lack of condition and knowledge. But, as we always say, luck is a reality.

Logic Board Replacement and Software Myth

2009-05-20T08:10:00.001-07:00

There are people who replace the disk's logic board with an equal one from a hard drive that's working in order to try to revive a dead one.

This is the most sensible myth. The replacement of the logic board works in some cases where the damage is external and the firmware is all concentrated in the controller. So it's worth trying, and if you do that carefully there's chance of saving the data.

However, if the drive is recognized but the read is not successful, avoid the other myths described here and send your hard disk drive to a specialized service, in case your data is really important.

The Software Myth

Some data recovery software certainly work when we have a pure logical problem. The problem is to use them when the disk shows some kind of physical problem. In this case, the software automatically sweeps the drive and once more the worse can happen: the last chances of recovery without having to open the disk go down the drain, since some circuits stop working during an automatic recovery of this kind. Therefore you need to know when to use this feature.

Data Recovery Myths - Clean Bathroom Myth

2009-05-20T08:07:00.001-07:00

Some people say you can make a clean room at home, in the bathroom, by opening the hot water faucet and filling the bathroom with steam, and at that condition the air would be totally clean and you would be able to open the drive without damaging it.

This myth was very well elaborated, but it can also have unpredictable consequences for the data. Have you noticed that when the sun comes out right after thin rain the air seem to be cleaner? And it is indeed, because raindrops have made the dust in suspension go down to the ground. Hard disk greater enemies are dust and humidity. That's why they can only be opened in a class 100 clean room (where there can't be more than one hundred dust particles larger than 0.5 microns in any given cubic foot of air).

And someone thought: I turn on the bathroom heater in maximum for some minutes, then turn it off and wait for the small drops to come down until the air gets "clean". Then I open the hard disk and touch some parts, poke it, nudge it, or even replace the platters.

Well, although it's a good Idea, the result is a disaster. Very sophisticated equipments are used in a clean room in order to manipulate hard disk's parts, under controlled temperature, pressure and humidity. All this because we can't risk making things worse, we have to save important data. If you don't know what to do with an open hard drive and don't have the proper tools to deal with it, be sure something very wrong will happen! But we always give luck a chance - it also works!

Drop It Myths - Hard Disk Recovery

2009-05-20T08:06:00.001-07:00

Crazy as it may seem, there are some people in forums on the Internet that swear they have "solved" the problem with their hard drives by dropping it on the floor (with carpet) from a table (2.8 feet), and use the drive until today without any problem.

We can't doubt it, because lucky breaks can happen. Therefore we can't recommend or support in any way someone who says something so silly. Any hard impact, mainly on a drive that's already not okay and which problem we don't know, is playing with fate. Trying to guess what the problem might be, without knowing what the real problem is, seriously jeopardizes any chance of data recovery.

If data stored has no value, then playing and trying non-professional techniques is worth it. But the worse is that some people give this piece of advice in hardware discussion forums. Some hard drives stop working due to the fall.

Data Recovery Myths

2009-05-20T08:03:00.001-07:00

Some are users who are desperate because they've lost their data, and others are maintenance technicians who aren't specialized in data recovery, but all face situations when every attempt to recover their data or their clients' data failed. Some don't put up with the fact that they were absent-minded enough to invert the polarity when connecting the HD power cable, others keep looking at the dark screen, thinking at how could that happened: the night before the PC was turned off as usual after having worked all day long without a single crash and, when turned on in the morning, the HD is solemnly ignored during setup, the computer doesn't boot, and the worst: no backup has been done!

Some nevertheless stick obstinately to the data the client can't lose in any way and promise to come up with a solution.

These are dramatic situations for sure, and they end up leading the victim first try solutions suggested by friends, others researched on the Internet, and so many others "made up" from thoughts sometimes logical and sometimes for pure "belief".

And those beliefs spread fast – and a lot. Because some were successful in recovering their data by using one of those beliefs, they became really strong for all situations and in fact are more myths than reality, because in many cases they can eliminate the few chances a good professional could have of successfully recovering data at reasonable price, without having to open the hard drive in clean room, what makes the recovery process very expensive.

So let's take a look at some of those myths, many of them found on the Internet, and separate what makes some sense from what makes the situation worse, eliminating the "beliefs".

Hard Drive Recovery Myths Debunked

2009-05-20T08:02:00.001-07:00

If you have had a hard drive problem then sure enough you have done some searching on the Internet and seen some startling revelations about hard drive recovery. My personal favorite is :it is safe to put your hard drive in the freezer over night"! Better yet, there are sites that actually recommend putting your hard drive in the freezer. As anyone with a 5th grade education knows, changing temperatures dramatically will cause materials to either contract or expand depending upon whether heat or cold is applied.

Expanding or compressing platters is not a good idea since the heads are programmed to search for the first sector of a hard drive in a particular place. The larger the capacity of the hard drive, the smaller that sector is physically. While it is true that older drives that were prone to get locked up due to heat, could benefit by being cooled down, that is just not the case with hard drives that have been manufactured in the last 5 to 6 years.

Speaking of older hard drives, that brings us to the second most popular myth about hard drive recovery which states that you can easily swap a damaged circuit board from 1 hard drive of the same model to another of the same model. Again that might have been true of Quantum hard drives 10 years ago, but don't try it now! A good example of why that doesn't work is just about any popular Western Digital hard drive. You can take any mass produced model number and search for revisions. You will find that the average WD hard drive model has at least 6 or 7 revisions. Each revision speaks a different language! OK maybe language is too strong a word, but dialect isn't. They just don't understand each other when you put a board that has one version of firmware on it and have that try to communicate with a head assembly that has another firmware imprinted on its chip sets. Companies that perform hard drive recovery these days must be able to heat boards and work on chips if they are going to have any hope of repairing electronic problems.

The final myth we are going to look at today I like to call hammer logic. One time long ago I was an electrical contractor and my answer to a lot of problems involved a hammer or using my Kliens as a hammer. Older hard drives used to get locked up and have issues with their bearings. A light tap with a baltine hammer could in some cases unlock the bearings and possible get the motor to spin properly and at the right speed. A hard drive's motor is intrinsic to the system that makes a magnetic media device like a hard drive work at all.

Hard drives spin at a specific RPM which insures that the heads float just barely above the platters so that they can read the sectors according to the predefined sector map and either read or write your data. Either way, the motor must spin at the right RPM or very bad things will happen. We have been able to resolve quite a few issues when it comes to hard drive recovery involving bad bearings, and one of them involve a hammer. In modern hard drives, any deviation of a micro-millimeter can cause the sectors to move and then be unreadable by the heads. This is even more true in large capacity hard drives that employ perpendicular recording, a sector mapping system that upends the sector at a 90 degree angle making the readable surface of a sector microscopic in size. Hitting these sensitive devices with a hammer is a bad idea.

If your hard drive is making clicking noises, whining or has just plain died, the best thing to do is contact a real hard drive recovery company!

How to Avoid Rapidshare and Megaupload Download Limits and Wait Times

2009-04-23T00:57:00.001-07:00

Rapidshare is one of the most frustrating websites to download large files off of, especially if they are broken into many pieces while Megaupload positively shines in comparison. So why do people keep using these two services when more generous file hosts like Mediafire exist?

I can only guess that it's simply because so many other people are using them. In order to get free premium Rapidshare accounts, which let you download unlimited amounts of files, users upload their own files onto Rapidshare, hoping enough people download them in turn so that the uploaders can earn enough premium points to qualify for a free account.

But it doesn't have to be that complicated. You can get unlimited Rapidshare downloads more simply.

What you are going to do is request a new IP address from your ISP. This is assuming that you do not subscribe to an Internet service with fixed IP addresses.

First, figure out what your current IP address is by going to IP Chicken. Write down the series of numbers that are displayed. This is your current IP address.

Then, follow the steps below to get a new IP:

1. Go to Start->Run and type in "cmd" without quotes to bring up the command prompt. Hit Enter.

2. Type in "ipconfig /flushdns" without quotes and hit Enter.

3. Type in "ipconfig /release" without quotes and hit Enter.

4. Type in "ipconfig /renew" without quotes and hit Enter. You should now have a new IP address. Check your IP address at IP Chicken again and compare it to the one you got earlier.

5. Now, erase your browser's cache and cookies.

6. Try downloading the Rapidshare or Megaupload file again.

New Computer Viruses List

2009-04-21T01:00:00.001-07:00

OPRAH WINFREY VIRUS: Your 200MB hard drive suddenly shrinks to 80MB, and then slowly expands back to 200MB.

AT&T VIRUS: Every three minutes it tells you what great service you are getting.

MCI VIRUS: Every three minutes it reminds you that you're paying too much for the AT&T virus.

PAUL REVERE VIRUS: This revolutionary virus does not horse around. It warns you of impending hard disk attack---once if by LAN, twice if by C:>.

POLITICALLY CORRECT VIRUS: Never calls itself a "virus", but instead refers to itself as an "electronic microorganism."

RIGHT TO LIFE VIRUS: Won't allow you to delete a file, regardless of how old it is. If you attempt to erase a file, it requires you to first see a counselor about possible alternatives.

ROSS PEROT VIRUS: Activates every component in your system, just before the whole darn thing quits.

MARIO CUOMO VIRUS: It would be a great virus, but it refuses to run.

TED TURNER VIRUS: Colorizes your monochrome monitor.

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER VIRUS: Terminates and stays resident. It'll be back.

DAN QUAYLE VIRUS #2: Their is sumthing rong wit your komputer, ewe jsut cant figyour out watt!

GOVERNMENT ECONOMIST VIRUS: Nothing works, but all your diagnostic software says everything is fine.

NEW WORLD ORDER VIRUS: Probably harmless, but it makes a lot of people really mad just thinking about it.

FEDERAL BUREAUCRAT VIRUS: Divides your hard disk into hundreds of little units, each of which does practically nothing, but all of which claim to be the most important part of your computer.

GALLUP VIRUS: Sixty percent of the PCs infected will lose 38 percent of their data 14 percent of the time. (plus or minus a 3.5 percent margin of error.)

TERRY RANDALL VIRUS: Prints "Oh no you don't" whenever you choose "Abort" from the "Abort" "Retry" "Fail" message.

TEXAS VIRUS: Makes sure that it's bigger than any other file.

ADAM AND EVE VIRUS: Takes a couple of bytes out of your Apple.

CONGRESSIONAL VIRUS: The computer locks up, screen splits erratically with a message appearing on each half blaming the other side for the problem.

AIRLINE VIRUS: You're in Dallas, but your data is in Singapore.

FREUDIAN VIRUS: Your computer becomes obsessed with marrying its own motherboard.

PBS VIRUS: Your programs stop every few minutes to ask for money.

ELVIS VIRUS: Your computer gets fat, slow and lazy, then self destructs; only to resurface at shopping malls and service stations across rural America.

OLLIE NORTH VIRUS: Causes your printer to become a paper shredder.

NIKE VIRUS: Just does it.

SEARS VIRUS: Your data won't appear unless you buy new cables, power supply and a set of shocks.

JIMMY HOFFA VIRUS: Your programs can never be found again.

CONGRESSIONAL VIRUS #2: Runs every program on the hard drive simultaneously, but doesn't allow the user to accomplish anything.

KEVORKIAN VIRUS: Helps your computer shut down as an act of mercy.

IMELDA MARCOS VIRUS: Sings you a song (slightly off key) on boot up, then subtracts money from your Quicken account and spends it all on expensive shoes it purchases through Prodigy.

STAR TREK VIRUS: Invades your system in places where no virus has gone before.

HEALTH CARE VIRUS: Tests your system for a day, finds nothing wrong, and sends you a bill for $4,500.

GEORGE BUSH VIRUS: It starts by boldly stating, "Read my docs....No new files!" on the screen. It proceeds to fill up all the free space on your hard drive with new files, then blames it on the Congressional Virus.

CLEVELAND INDIANS VIRUS: Makes your 486/50 machine perform like a 286/AT.

LAPD VIRUS: It claims it feels threatened by the other files on your PC and erases them in "self defense".

CHICAGO CUBS VIRUS: Your PC makes frequent mistakes and comes in last in the reviews, but you still love it.

ORAL ROBERTS VIRUS: Claims that if you don't send it a million dollars, it's programmer will take it back. >>

RAID6 Advantages Over RAID0 and RAID5

2009-04-19T22:20:00.001-07:00

On RAID1 the data stored at one hard driveis automatically copied to another. In a two-disk system, data found on the second disk will be an exact copy of the data stored on the first disk. If the first hard drive goes defective, you will still have your data, since the second disk will have an updated copy of all data stored on disk 1. This process is also known as mirroring.

RAID0, on the other hand, is targeted to increase the disk performance, by dividing the files between all available disks. For example, on a RAID0 system with two disks, a 100 KB file to be stored on the hard disk is split into two 50 KB data chunks, each one stored in one different disk, increasing the disk performance, since it is faster to store half the file than to store the full file. In other words, it is faster for a hard drive to store a 50 KB file than to store a 100 KB file.

The problem with RAID0 is to increase its reliability, since if one of the disks go defective, all data is lost.

Several RAID systems were created to increase the reliability of data stripping, like RAID3, which uses an extra hard disk drive to store parity and data correction information, and RAID5, which is similar to RAID3 but stores parity and data correction information inside the disks found on the system, thus not requiring an extra hard disk drive. Keep in mind that since RAID5 will store parity and data correction information inside each "data" hard disk drive of the system, less space is left on those drives for data storage.

If there is any read error, the RAID system automatically starts a data recover operation, using the parity and error correction information to restore the data being read.

Inside RAID5

The problem with RAID5 is that if one of the hard disk drives fails in the exact moment that a data recovery operation is being conducted, the system fails and there is data loss, i.e. the system isn't capable of recovering the data that started the data recovery operation and also data is lost because one of the hard disk drives is defective.

While for small RAID systems the probability of such scenario to happen is very little, for big RAID systems such situation isn't so remote. During IDF Spring 2005 Intel provided a study pictured on Figure 1. It shows the probability of failure on a RAID5 system for three different configurations:

Scenario 1: RAID5 system with five enterprise-class 30 GB hard disk drives (120 GB total). Frequency on which data recovery operations is necessary: one every 23 years (orange on the chart). Probability of a system failure during the data recovery operation: 0.12% (i.e. one error every 834 data recovery operations, in green on the chart).
Scenario 2: RAID5 system with five desktop-class 300 GB hard disk drives (1.2 TB total). Frequency on which data recovery operations is necessary: one every 2.3 years (orange on the chart). Probability of a system failure during the data recovery operation: 11% (i.e. one error every nine data recovery operations, in green on the chart).
Scenario 3: RAID5 system with 50 desktop-class 300 GB hard disk drives (15 TB total). Frequency on which data recovery operations is necessary: one every 3 months (orange on the chart). Probability of a system failure during the data recovery operation: 70% (i.e. one error every two data recovery operations, in green on the chart).

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Figure 1: Data loss probability on RAID5 systems.

As you can see, the probability of data loss during a data recovery operation increases with both the number of hard disk drives in the system and the capacity of each hard disk drive.

RAID6 Advantages

RAID6 systems instead of storing only one parity and error correction information store two, which are arranged in such a way that even if one of the hard disk drives fails during the data recovery process, the systems continues operational, with no data loss.

On Figure 2 you can see the probability of data loss during a data recovery procedure on RAID0 (in blue), RAID5 (in yellow the probability of hard disk drive failure and in pink the probability of a system failure) and RAID6 (in light blue).

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Figure 2: RAID0, RAID5 and RAID6 comparison.

The "y" axis shows the number of months until a unrecoverable failure while the "x" axis shows the system capacity, in GB.

As you can see on the graph, RAID6 only has the same failure probability of RAID5 on systems starting at 23 TB, below this point RAID6 presents a failure probability far lower than RAID5, being the recommended system for storage systems where reliability is the key word.