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Thursday, November 29, 2007

The Lifeline Provided by Logical Data Recovery

Be it a mogul or business magnate with multi-million domains earning several dollars of money or a university student, if the important data is lost, then it would for sure be a nightmare to them. No matter, whoever may be the person, whatever may be the level of damage and the significance of the data, and whatever cost is involved, the victims could attempt positively to recover the data.

Logical data recovery is nothing but rebuilding the corrupted files into their original form. In these cases, the BIOS would recognise the drive, but it would exemplify error if the data is accessed. The person, who is recovering the data, would make an image of the drive. One can do it with the help of commercial disk utilities; otherwise a data recovery company can also be approached. Although making an image is highly important, it should not be done if the drive makes unusual noises, otherwise it would end up in physical damage.

If a disk reports no boot partition, even after being recognised by the BIOS, it would be a logical data error. Under logical error, the files and folders would be missing and there would be no data or impartial data in the file. Incorrect data that is available is also an error of that type. In the case of logical failure, the drive has to be scanned completely to correct the corruption in the file system.

If files are deleted and formatted accidentally, then, there will be a need for logical data recovery. If the partition and file system are corrupted severely, it can be termed as logical failures. Partition can be repaired and the drive can also be restored to the original status. If these steps do not work out, then a low level of scanning would be performed in order to search the entire sector of the hard drive. If the files are located, then it would be copied to the storage devices such as CD ROM, DVD-ROM or other hard drives.

Logical recovery is a time-consuming process. Generally, it will take one day for scanning and another day for recovering the files. To make images of a drive, we need to have commercial imaging software that has to be installed on a separate computer. The entire image of the corrupted drive would be stored in the computer. If the drive has many bad sectors, then it will take more time to copy the images. It might take 30 minutes or several days depending upon the volume of the bad sectors. Once the system with imaging software is used for imaging, it cannot be used for any other purpose till the imaging process gets over.

As an alternative, one can also attach an external USB to the faulty computer. To do this, one should use the IDE ports on the motherboard as they have better error-handling capacity. After making the image, we have to run the logical data recovery software that is also a part of the imaging software.

One should also bear in mind that a file, which was overwritten by another file, cannot be attempted for data recovery. One might suggest of using high level technology such as Magnetic Force Microscope to read the magnetization. However, utilising this technology is not advisable as it is highly unreliable and also expensive. One cannot fight for a losing battle, but some users are attempting to do it. Even the high level technology has nothing to do with the file that has been overwritten more than once.

The major cause for the logical damage is power failures and fluctuations. It would prevent the file system from being written completely to the storage medium. The hardware and drives with defects and also system crashes would have the same effect. The file system would be inconsistent and could lead to problems such as system crashes and loss of data. The drive would also report negative amounts of free space. The logical damages can also be attributed to accidental physical damages.

Viruses could create serious logical errors. They would damage or manipulate the data against the interest of the owners. Viruses would duplicate it automatically and would delete and corrupt the programming files during the process. The malicious software is designed one step ahead of the latest antivirus and so it has the capacity to cause severe logical damage.

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