Data Recovery

Computer Diagnostics and Data Recovery

noreply@blogger.com (Disk) — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 03:32:00 +0000

The goal of Computer diagnostics utilities and data recovery software is to help you avoid wasting time and money transporting your computer to get repaired, most of the time with no guarantee that all your data will be restored

One of the big advantages of Computer diagnostics utilities is that many of them are useful to determine the availability of destroyed or deleted data that can be recovered. PC diagnostics software may include a data recovery facility or simply diagnose and return a list of clusters available from where data can be retrieved again.

PC diagnostics applications are fastest, and one of the most convenient cost-effective solutions when it comes to rescuing your lost information, that otherwise a technician may charge a price that sometimes may be out of your budget. Some Computer diagnostics programs can recover up to 99% of hard drive data recovery problems.

Although, data loss may occur due to human mistakes, more often it happens due to a hard drive failure. That is the reason why it is recommended to use PC diagnostics software on a regular basis, since this type of software is very useful to prevent those errors from occurring, thus no data can be lost if the hard drive is kept in good condition.

Certainly, computer diagnostics may determine if the hard disk has a potential problem or not, but when the data is lost due to involuntary deletion, virus attack or any other form of file corruption, there is no PC diagnostics program that can anticipate an event of such nature.

Data recovery software is usually provided as floppy disk aid, this peculiarity allows that any crashed PC can work again after the software performs a series of PC diagnostics before running to determine what failed in your hard disk, and the conditions of your remaining information, if any.

Computer diagnostics will run until they gather enough information to provide you with several screens prompting you about particular issues and offering you the solutions to fix it yourself. When the Data recovery utility is part of PC diagnostics software, it probably will not require the floppy disk to run, except when the system is totally halted.

The goal of Computer diagnostics utilities and data recovery software is to help you avoid wasting time and money transporting your computer to get repaired, most of the time with no guarantee that all your data will be restored. Your hard disk is the most valuable piece of you computer because of all your valuable data files, so do not expose it to being lost, using PC diagnostics software and getting a data recovery utility, just in case can save you time and money.

Natalie Aranda writes on computer and technology. One of the big advantages of Computer diagnostics utilities is that many of them are useful to determine the availability of destroyed or deleted data that can be recovered. PC diagnostics software may include a data recovery facility or simply diagnose and return a list of clusters available from where data can be retrieved again.

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The Options of Computer Data Recovery

noreply@blogger.com (Disk) — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 03:23:00 +0000

By Natalie Aranda

There is computer data recovery software to suit different kinds of data file recovery.

There can be numerous reasons why data file needs to be recovered. Similarly, data once lost can be retrieved by various methods. The options of computer data recovery are many that depend on the nature of data lost.

There is computer data recovery software to suit different kinds of data file recovery. There are computer data recovery software to restore deleted files; recover formatted hard drives even if Windows is reinstalled; recover files after the hard disk has crashed; get back files after partitioning errors; and recover documents, photos, music, video and email. To start with, let’s take a scenario where a file has been deleted from the recycle bin and needs to be recovered. For this undelete software is used that can restore the file immediately. Undelete software need to be used promptly to ensure efficient deleted file recovery. ‘File Recover’ and ‘O&O Unerase’ are such undelete software that does the work for deleted file recovery.

System Restore program is a file recovery software in Windows latest version like Millennium and XP that is helpful in restoring system files. If updating, installing or deleting a system file goes wrong and there is a need to go back to the original state then system restore program helps. System Restore is not a very effective file recovery program. It’s more like ctrl+z operation when you are typing/editing something.

File recovery programs can be run to retrieve zip, PDF, AutoCAD, PhotoShop and Tax files. Data recovery drives may be run to recover data from zip disks, CD-ROMs and Flashcards. Data recovery drives may trace lost files to FAT (File Allocation Table) and MFT (Master File Table) where information about all the files in the PC is contained. File recovery program searches old FAT and MFT partition records to rebuild the file structure.

O&O Disk Recovery is a file recovery software that is used for difficult data file recovery. Of the number of tricks the data recovery drives employ to recover data from formatted commands, searching for deleted directory entries is one. Files are actually never wiped off the computer unless they are over written by another file. By searching the clusters in the hard disk, file recovery software can recover any type of lost file. A good data recovery drive will not always search via the MFT route and look for unallocated clusters for data file recovery. From recovering files from a logical level to hard disks, computer data recovery software allows no reason to panic.

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Computer Data Recovery Principles

noreply@blogger.com (Disk) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 15:52:00 +0000

is possible to perform data recovery with Recover My Files.

On the end of this metallic arm is a small copper wire. The computer sends a pulse through this wire which changes the state of the magnetic surface of a platter as it passes underneath. In this way the files that you store on your computer are encoded into the magnetic substance.

A hard drive contains a number of disks, called platters, which are coated with a magnetic substance. These platters spin at high speeds under a mechanical arm (the actuator arm) that moves backwards and forwards over the surface of each platter.

Hard disks are very complex. They have a circuit board and a number of moving parts. In terms of data recovery, the first thing that you must evaluate is whether it is a hardware problem that is stopping you from accessing your data. Common hardware problems include a faulty circuit board or problems with the actuator arm.

Hardware Problems

A faulty circuit board is characterize by a drive that does not "spin up", meaning that the platters are not turning underneath the copper wire. A faulty actuator arm or more serious mechanical error is characterized by an abnormal clicking noise or a grinding noise. The best advice in determining whether you have a hardware problem is to listen to the sound of your hard drive. If you cannot hear the platters spinning (i.e. the drive is quiet when it is turned on) or if you hear more serious noises, then you should stop using the drive immediately. To recover data from a damaged drive, you will need to send your drive to a hardware data recovery service.

Hardware data recovery can be expensive because technicians may need to disassemble your hard drive to fix the problem. This usually needs to be done in a clean room as hard drives are sealed to avoid errors caused by dust or other particles. Because hard drives are both complex and finely tuned, it takes specialized equipment to read the platters from a physically damaged drive. When sending your hard drive to a data recovery specialist, you should attempt to obtain an upfront estimate of fees (although you will rarely get one). Ask that if you send in your hard drive for quotation purposes, you will receive it back in the same condition if you choose not to use the service. Make sure you send it to a reputable company as you may only get one chance at data recovery.

Software Data Recovery

Data loss typically does not occur because of physical problems with your drive. Usually data loss occurs because the hard drive has problems accessing the data it contains at a "software" or "logical" level. Let's take a look at how a hard drive stores data and why it is possible to perform data recovery with Recover My Files.

Sectors, Clusters & File Storage

When you purchase a new hard drive it is has usually already undergone a "low level format". The purpose of a low level format is to divide all the magnetic space on the hard drive into small storage areas. These storage areas are known as sectors, however for efficiency purposes the Operating System (e.g. Windows XP) groups sectors together into clusters. A cluster is the smallest unit of storage space with which the Operating System will deal. If you save a very small file to your computer it will all fit within 1 storage cluster on the hard drive. If you save a very large file it may fill up many clusters, that is, as many clusters as it takes to hold all the content of the file.

Things get a bit more complicated by the fact that a single file does not have to reside within contiguous clusters. In fact, the Operating System may store a single file in clusters on different parts of the hard disk. This is called a fragmented file.

File Fragmentation

The problem with fragmented files is that they can slow your computer down as your hard drive needs to spend time and resources sending the actuator arm to different parts of the hard disk to read the complete file. This is why many people regularly use a defragmentation program. The amount of fragmentation in a file can also reduce your ability to recover deleted data as we will explain later in this article.

So we can now think of a hard drive as being broken down into many clusters which hold the contents of all files. A cluster that is being used to store a file is called an allocated cluster, while a cluster that is not being used to store a file is called an unallocated cluster. But how does the computer know where to look when it wants to find a specific file? Well, if you wanted to find a specific chapter in a book the best thing to do would be to go to the Table of Contents. A computer does much the same thing.

File Allocation Tables (FAT) and Master File Tables (MFT)

On older Operating Systems such as Windows 98 there is a storage area known as the Root Directory. This is the place that stores the name of a file, the location of its' starting cluster, and its' size. In order to find a file, the Operating System uses this information to get to the first cluster. It then uses a special table at the start of the disk know as the File Allocation Table or FAT to identify the remaining clusters that are used to store the file. It is important to realize that this information is stored completely separate from your file data and is part of the reason why data recovery is possible.

In newer Operating Systems the FAT and Directory Entry method have been merged and replaced by a single table known as the Master File Table or MFT. While the MFT is more complex, the principle of locating the start of a file and it's subsequent storage clusters is essentially the same.

What Happens When I Delete a File?

Let's look at what happens when you intentionally delete a file and why it may be possible to bring that file back. When you select a file and press the delete key on a Windows computer, the file is sent to the Recycle Bin. You may think of the Windows Recycle Bin as just another fancy storage folder on your hard drive. The real deletion is what happens when the Recycle Bin is emptied or the deletion bypasses the Windows Recycle Bin altogether.

When a file is deleted, the Operating System marks the file name in the MFT with a special character that signifies to the computer that the file has been deleted. The computer now looks at the clusters occupied by that file as being empty and therefore as available space to store a new file. What the Windows Operating System does NOT do is go out to the clusters on the hard disk where the files data is actually stored and wipe the contents of these clusters. The deleted file data is still there, but the Computer Operating System no longer knows that it exists. Permanently removing this data requires the use of a special disk wiping tool like SecureClean or WipeDrive to completely overwrite the file clusters.

The underlying principle of data recovery is simply finding data that still exists on the hard drive but which currently can't be located by the Operating System.

The only way that your deleted MFT record or your file data itself will permanently be destroyed is if it is overwritten by other data. This means that any computer activity after the deletion has the potential to permanently erase otherwise recoverable files.

Using Data Recovery Software

We recommend that you do not install Recover My Files data recovery software on the same drive containing your lost files

If you are attempting to recover data from your hard drive, if possible connect this drive to another computer as a slave drive to reduce the risk of overwriting your deleted files when you attempt to recover them.

If you do send your hard drive to a professional data recovery service, they should not actually be working on the original hard drive. Instead, a sector copy (an exact copy including all deleted information) should be used. You may consider doing this yourself. There are a number of programs that will do this, the most common being Norton Ghost. But remember, you must make a complete sector copy of your hard drive to make sure the image includes all the deleted areas of the drive.

Note: If the clusters containing the data are corrupted or physically damaged, then recovering the data they once contained is impossible.

Data Recovery by Searching for Deleted MFT Records

Data recovery programs, like Recover My Files, also search for deleted MFT entries to undelete files. These programs usually give a give a probability of recovery rating of good, medium or poor. What they are actually doing is locating the MFT record for a deleted file and then checking the rest of the MFT records to determine if the clusters that the deleted file occupied are being used by any other file stored on the drive.

As only one file can occupy any one cluster on a hard drive, if other files are using your deleted files' storage space then it is likely that the original data has been overwritten and permanently destroyed. This recovery technique is usually relatively fast, as the recovery program simply needs to find the deleted file entries in the MFT and then go directly to that location of the hard disk to recover a file. You will see an MFT search when you execute a "Fast Search" using Recover My Files data recovery software.

However, if your MFT is corrupt, defective, or has been overwritten, this method isn't going to help you even though there are still recoverable files on your disk. Instead, a complete search of unallocated clusters must be performed.

Searching Unallocated Clusters for Deleted Files

Advanced data recovery software like Recover My Files recovery has the option to ignore the MFT (or lack thereof) and to search all unallocated clusters for recoverable files. This means that the data recovery software needs to know what different types of deleted files look like.

Luckily, most file types have a unique file header and footer. This means that if you look inside a Microsoft Word document for example, the first characters and the last characters of the file are always the same. Therefore, a data recover program can search an entire hard drive and identify files by their unique headers and footers. You will see this technique used by Recover My Files when you execute a Complete Search. Recover My Files recognizes more than 100 different file types using this technique.

Why when I Recover Files do the turn out Partially Corrupt?

Remember that a computer may use multiple clusters to store a complete file. This means that your original data may have been partially overwritten. You may still be able to retrieve some of the clusters containing the file, however this won't be helpful in most cases as programs typically need a file to be complete before it can be run. Rebuilding partially damaged files is another area of data recovery which requires specialized knowledge about the particular file types one is dealing with.

Data Recovery from a Formatted Hard Drive

When you run the format command you are simply erasing the Root Directory Entries, FAT, and MFT. There are a number of tricks that data recovery programs use to recover data after a drive format. This includes searching for deleted Directory Entries, which stored as files on the computer. If a directory entry is located, we now know the name, starting cluster location, and size of the files in that directory. You can also search the data area of a formatted drive for file headers and footers to locate individual file types.

What is the problem with File Fragmentation?

The problem with file fragmentation is that most of the data recovery techniques available must work on the assumption that all files are contiguous, that is, that they are stored in consecutive sectors (one after the other) from the beginning to the end of the file. The information to track fragmentation of a file is overwritten when the FAT or the MFT records are destroyed.

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5 RAID Data Recovery Prevention Tips

noreply@blogger.com (Disk) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 15:40:00 +0000

RAID data recovery requires a high level of technical skill and ... If you are just in need of faster reads and basic redundancy, RAID Level 1 may be your

If you have spent the time to increase your computer's performance by setting up a hardware RAID array, you owe it to yourself to invest a little extra time and effort in maintaining the hard disks in your setup. Following these tips will help limit the need for data disaster recovery in the future.

1. If you are copying information from an old harddrive onto those being used in your array, be sure to keep the old disk around for a while. That way, if you discover any faults or errors in your raid array, you will still have your original data to work with.

2. Make sure you choose the raid level that works best for your needs. If you are just in need of faster reads and basic redundancy, RAID Level 1 may be your ticket. This basic level Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks ensures against data loss by incorporating 2 drives - one mirroring the other. Although the cost per megabyte is higher, the increase in speed and protection against data loss are well worth it.

3. If you are setting up a multi-user enviroment, creating a 3 or 5 drive RAID-5 array may be your best choice for speed and data protection. Keep in mind though, if your requirements are write performance sensitive, there are better alternatives.

4. If you are trying to decide between a software based or hardware based RAID array, remember, hardware based arrays do not require software to boot, have the logic within them and as such are much more fault tolerant. Stick with a hardware array if you are concerned about disaster recovery planning!

5. Despite the increase in speed and performance using RAID arrays, files can still become disorganized and corrupted. Be sure to run your preferred software for scanning and checking your disks on a regular basis.

If you think taking the extra time to follow these tips and care for your RAID array sounds tedious, take a few moments to check out the cost of raid data disaster recovery. That alone should make you realize that your efforts are not in vain!

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What is RAID?

noreply@blogger.com (Disk) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 15:38:00 +0000

Learn the basics of RAID, and the importance of RAID data recovery.

Depending on who you ask, RAID either stands for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks, or Redundant Array of Independent Disks.
Adherents to the former school of thought, point out (and quite rightly too) that the word "Inexpensive" was used by the scientists at the University of California at Berkeley who first conceived of RAID. Detractors however, note that hard drives are anything but "Inexpensive," and that "Independent," would have been a more apt term.

Whatever the acrimony over acronyms, the original meaning of RAID seems much more appropriate today than it did in 1987 when Patterson, Gibson, and Katz published a paper entitled, "A Case for Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks." Hard drives after all, are cheaper than ever before, offering gargantuan storage capacities at relatively low prices.

Research on RAID

Researchers came up with the idea of RAID while looking for ways to improve hard drive storage reliability and performance. The concept initially consisted of clustering small, "inexpensive" disk drives together into an array so that the array would appear to the system as a single logical drive.

During initial testing, it was discovered that an array of drives could actually deliver performance exceeding that of single, more expensive hard drives.

There was just one problem however -- a problem which underscores the importance of RAID data recovery. The Mean Time Before Failure (the average time before a failure will occur) in a RAID, was reduced due to the probability of any one drive in the array failing. Consequently, researchers proposed five levels of RAID to provide a balance between performance and data protection.

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Data recovery service

noreply@blogger.com (Disk) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 15:37:00 +0000

Data Recovery offers data recovery service that specializes in recovering data from hard disk, RAID drives, tapes, laptops or notebooks and personal computers. With offices located in Houston, New York City, Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago and London, Optimum Data Recovery has offered data recovery for years, we are uniquely qualified to offer recovery services for data losses caused by power surges/outages, static electricity, lightning strikes, fires, floods, other natural disasters, viruses, hardware malfunctions, accidents, and files deleted or formatted or f-disked due to user error.

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A Practical Hard Drive Data Recovery Solution

noreply@blogger.com (Disk) — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 06:42:00 +0000

Hard drive data recovery is the recovery of data files from a hard drive where ... and if you can afford to, to an external hard disk drive.
hard disk drive data recovery services: keep a copy of your data.

Hard drive data recovery is the recovery of data files from a hard drive where the files lost as a result of accidental deletion, corruption, failure or physical damage to your computer hard drive.

It has always been good practice to backup your data in case your computer hard drive fails or breaks down. Otherwise, you could lose all your data in an instant if ever your computer crashes or your hard drive malfunctions.

You should already have some backup strategy in place and if you don't I recommend that you do so starting from today. You should backup your essential data to different storage media such as CDs, and if you can afford to, to an external hard disk drive.

Having a backup of your important files would be allow your to easily recover your data should your hard drive fail unexpectedly without having to utilize any data recovery specialist tools or services.

The greatest advantage of having your file backed up to an external hard drive is that you will be able to copy your files back to any computer. The storage capacity of external hard-drives is just the same as it is for built-in hard disks. You can store any types of data files, may it be videos, music or pictures, plus programs and other types of files.

You'll find that external hard drive storage capacity can go up to 500 Gigabytes. This would technically allow you to back up your entire hard disk on an external hard drive. The connectors of these external hard drives are usually USB or FireWire, standard connections found on most computers these days.

The process of backing up your files to one of these external hard drives would involve connecting the external drive to your computer via USB or FireWire, and then using backup software to transfer the your files to your computer. The backup and restore software usually ships with the external hard drive in most cases.

If you have to restore your backed up files, you merely have to connect the external hard drive to your computer and restore the files using the same software.

External hard drives are expected to last for a very long time since they are not usually in constant use, unlike your computers internal hard drive, and are normally only used when they are actually needed. You can store past documents as well as files and data on the external hard drive, always ready to be retrieved when you need them. This works very well with large companies, or people who have a lot of files that are updated regularly.

If you make a copy of your computers entire hard drive, it will take some time, but it could be a life saver in the long run. If your area is prone to power surges and electrical storms, it is a good idea to invest in an external hard drive and backup your important files immediately.

Backing up on external hard drives is the best way to keep your data safe. So if your computer ever crashes or your computers hard drive fails, you can use your backup data and copy it back to your computer. This will save one a lot of time, effort and money as you would not require a computer or data recovery specialist to perform a hard drive data recovery operation.