What NOT to do When Your Hard Drive Crashes

With the amount of use most of us put on our computers these days, a hard drive crash can mean quite a panic. Not only are more people using their computers for their small businesses (both home based and otherwise) than ever before, but many people now have almost all personal information stored on their hard drives as well. This information can include obvious personal documentation such as digital pictures, videos, important documents, and calendars with date reminders, as well as information that is not so obvious, such as passwords to various banking services and other online businesses. Your hard drive may also maintain a record of web sites and services that you have used, which for many people is a deeply private matter.

When your hard drive containing all of this information does crash, many people will make hasty decisions on how to rectify the problem as their immediate concern is restoring the information and getting their lives back on track. Hasty action is often the wrong thing to do, however, especially where your personal information is concerned; one of the things to avoid when it comes to a hard drive crash is jumping on the first opportunity that comes along to get your information restored.

Most people will immediately look through the Yellow Pages to get the problem fixed, but this may lead you to a computer store or the computer department of a big box store. Retail stores are generally not the way to go when it comes to data recovery. The process can take a long time and in the end your information is not as important to them as fixing the problem with your computer; many times they will simply install new components or operating systems with no regard to the lost information. Not to mention, there is always the issue of privacy guarantees when it comes to these options or even using a close friend.

What, then, are the options when it comes to recovering your hard drive information? Well, just as you would go to a service store that specialized in tires when getting winters, you should go to a data recovery center for restoring your hard drive. These companies make their businesses solely from restoring your information, not from selling you a new hard drive. This specialized service is in itself a guarantee of the work involved. Their skill and their reputation for keeping private information private are necessary in order to stay in business.

Never use the services of a friend or generic computer shop when it comes to hard drive recovery. It simply is not worth the risk either to your hard drive, your information, or your peace of mind. These options are acceptable when it comes to computer repairs, but information is a specialty that should only be handled by experts.

Are You Still Not Backing up Your Data?

With the amount of use most of us put on our computers these days, a hard drive crash can mean quite a panic. Not only are more people using their computers for their small businesses (both home based and otherwise) than ever before, but many people now have almost all personal information stored on their hard drives as well. This information can include obvious personal documentation such as digital pictures, videos, important documents, and calendars with date reminders, as well as information that is not so obvious, such as passwords to various banking services and other online businesses. Your hard drive may also maintain a record of web sites and services that you have used, which for many people is a deeply private matter.

When your hard drive containing all of this information does crash, many people will make hasty decisions on how to rectify the problem as their immediate concern is restoring the information and getting their lives back on track. Hasty action is often the wrong thing to do, however, especially where your personal information is concerned; one of the things to avoid when it comes to a hard drive crash is jumping on the first opportunity that comes along to get your information restored.

Most people will immediately look through the Yellow Pages to get the problem fixed, but this may lead you to a computer store or the computer department of a big box store. Retail stores are generally not the way to go when it comes to data recovery. The process can take a long time and in the end your information is not as important to them as fixing the problem with your computer; many times they will simply install new components or operating systems with no regard to the lost information. Not to mention, there is always the issue of privacy guarantees when it comes to these options or even using a close friend.

What, then, are the options when it comes to recovering your hard drive information? Well, just as you would go to a service store that specialized in tires when getting winters, you should go to a data recovery center for restoring your hard drive. These companies make their businesses solely from restoring your information, not from selling you a new hard drive. This specialized service is in itself a guarantee of the work involved. Their skill and their reputation for keeping private information private are necessary in order to stay in business.

Never use the services of a friend or generic computer shop when it comes to hard drive recovery. It simply is not worth the risk either to your hard drive, your information, or your peace of mind. These options are acceptable when it comes to computer repairs, but information is a specialty that should only be handled by experts.

THE BENEFITS OF BACKUP SYSTEMS

Remote backup is fast becoming an alternative to traditional backup procedures. Most businesses do not rely on online remote backup as a single source for storage of critical data, but instead use it in addition to traditional backup solutions. It affords them a third storage area and data recovery source in the event of a catastrophic disaster. A remote, online, or managed backup service is a service that provides users with an online system for backing up and storing computer files.
Online backup systems are typically built around a client software program that runs on a schedule, usually once a day. This program collects, compresses, encrypts, and transfers the data to the remote backup service provider's servers.

A feature of some services is the capability to back up the primary site data plus remote offices and branch offices in a relatively seamless manner.
The ability to back up files that are extensively opened, such as Outlook files or SQL database files can be useful. Such ability allows IT administrators to run back up jobs any time of the day, not requiring setting aside server maintenance time. Most online backup products need an add-on for this.
A Multi-platform backup service can back up multiple platforms such as the various flavors of Windows, Macintosh, and Linux/UNIX.
A continuous backup feature allows the tool to back up continuously or on a predefined schedule. Both methods have advantages and disadvantages. Most backup tools are schedule-based and perform backups at a predetermined time. Some services provide continuous data backups which are used by large financial institutions and large online retailers. However, there is typically a tradeoff with performance and system resources.

Some services allow you to access your backed up files via a normal web browser. Many tools do not provide this type of functionality.
A way to minimize network traffic is to transfer only the binary data that has changed from one day to the next. The more serious tools use this method rather than transfer entire files. Tools originally designed for network backup use this method.

Remote backup has advantages over traditional backup methods. Remote backup does not require user intervention. The user does not have to change tapes, label CDs or perform other manual steps. It maintains data offsite. Perhaps the most important aspect of backing up is that backups are stored in a different location from the original data. Traditional backup requires manually taking the backup media offsite. Some remote backup services will work continuously, backing up files as they are changed, but most remote backup services will maintain a list of versions of your files.

These computer backup systems might have, though, some disadvantages. Depending on the available network bandwidth, the restoration of data can be slow. Because data is stored offsite, the data must be recovered either via the Internet or via tape.
Often business might look at data storage in another state as additional protection against data loss, especially if the original area is prone to natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes or earthquakes. Online and remote backup is gaining in popularity for the safety and security of the data. The idea is you download your data through an online process to a remote location that stores the data in a secure environment. Your company has access to the data 24/7 for recovery needs or further backup.

Could you recreate the emails, documents and photos on your home computer in the event of a virus or hard drive failure? If your computer was stolen would you be able to recreate or restore all the memories taken? With Empyreal Systems Online Backup you could rest easy that no matter what your data is safe and accessible only by you 24x7x365Online Backup by Empyreal Systems http://empyrealsystems.com/

Using Online Data Storage

Most people don't realize how convenient online data storage really is in these days using email storage services. The benefits for storing excess data online and freeing up space on your own hard drive is becoming a popular trend. Backing up information that could be lost if something is to go wrong on the current storage media is another very common use of online data storage.

Instead of going through a process of sending data from one computer to the next, online data storage makes files easier to access from all around the world. You can backup those pictures and important documents online for free by opening an account with a free online storage provider and access them from any internet connection.

Online data storage is an excellent way to back up files in a place that can always be counted on to find your what you backed up. Internal and external hard drives can't always be counted on for your back up needs. An internal hard drive can simply crash and you will lose all your information you thought was safe forever. An external hard drive can be stolen, or misplaced. This is why online storage sites are becoming more common for the home user and businesses.

Accessibility is everything nowadays. You don't have to go out and buy a huge pack of cds to back up all your material. Online data storage is quick and simple way for the home user or business person to quickly store information and access it at another time with out having to go through the loops of searching for everything on a computer or back up disks. Most websites will allow you to login with a secure password and access your data from anywhere in the world. Have you ever been at work and needed to access a document that would normally be stored on your home computer? This is no longer a problem when taking advantage of the advice provided by this article.

There are many different websites that promise many things when it comes to online data storage. A good way to makes sure the site that you pick is safe and reliable is to read up on the website's history and check reviews by other users that happen to frequent the site for their back up needs. Make sure the usual online subjects are present on the storage website. Also, review the terms and privacy policies to ensure you know where you understand how your data is held.

Protecting your data by backing it up online has never been so easy and free. Be a smart user and keep your important files online for the sake of the data and ease of access.


This article was written for our friends at 30Gigs.com to inform people about online data storage solutions. Article written and distributed by Steve Cancel, IT Manager of Secure Link.

Save your Outlook Express email and address book to an archived file every once in a while

If you have hundred of emails stored inside Outlook Express or Ms Outlook on your hard drive, which is not present on any other computer ( such as a server ) this article is a must read, it contains free, useful information about how to locate and save your email files to a CD or secondary hard drive.

Outlook Express and Ms Outlook stores your email and address book in some files on the local hard drive(s) of your computer. In many cases this email is NOT stored on any webserver, as is deleted from the mail server as soon as is downloaded.

The average computer user has several thousands of the emails, contacts, several rules and a few signatures, all stored on the local computer and vulnerable to viruses or other disasters that can make a PC unfunctional.

Our advice: you should consider saving these email files from time to time to a safe archived copy ( usually on a CD, or a separate hard drive ) and if ever you have problems with your PC you will be easily able to restore the email.

It is incredible how many people do NOT save copies of their Outlook Express email files; and when a disaster strikes, they will reinstall all software, copy back pictures and some documents from CDs, but all their email is gone. Forever.

Viruses, power failures, software failures, human errors, hard drive failures are only a few examples of what could destroy the data on a hard drive, including all documents, pictures, emails and other files!

Many users do not need an complex ( and expensive ) backup software, as they can easily copy all the important home made videos, pictures, documents, and important files to CDs or DVDs, from where they can be easily copied back when needed. However, the email is most of the time harder to copy because not all home users know where to find it, and which files should be copied.

This article contains a detailed tutorial of where these files are located and how to copy them to a safe place. Also, you can use a software that does it fast and most important, automated at regular period of time. It is very important to do the process right, or you will end up with an unusable, incomplete backup copy.

While using Outlook Express is fairly easy, finding and backing up the emails can be a little more complicated. Since there are a large number of files and folders on a computer running Windows, the first problem is to find the files containing the emails. Outlook Express stores emails in .dbx files and there might be several different dbx files depending on how many email folders you have created in Outlook Express. If you are using Windows 98, you can probably locate your emails somewhere in the Windows directory. In Windows 2000 and XP, emails are usually stored somewhere in the user data or application data folder.

The easiest way to find out exactly where your emails are stored is to start Outlook Express, go to the Tools menu, and open the Options dialog box. In the Options dialog box, select the Maintenance page and click the Store Folder button. . Here you can find the path to the folder containing your emails. To open the folder, copy the path and paste in the address field of the Windows File Manager. You should see a number of .dbx files and possibly some other files, too.

After locating the email folder, you can simply select all the files and press Ctrl-C. Then open the folder where you want to keep the backup copies (on another hard disk, a DVD or a network drive, for example) in Windows Explorer, and press Ctrl-V. To backup the Address Book, you can follow these steps:

a.. Select Tools | Address Book... from the menu in Outlook Express.
b.. Choose File | Export | Other Address Book...from the address book's menu.
c.. Select Text File (Comma Separated Values) as the export format.
d.. Click Export.
e.. Select the location you want to export your address book to using the Browse... button.
f.. Give your backup copy a meaningful name.
g.. Click Next.
h.. Select the fields you want to include in your backup.
i.. Finally, select Finish.
j.. Click OK.
k.. Click Close to end the process (successfully, I hope).

Additionally, there are several email backup utilities which can make the backup operation much easier. Outlook Express Backup Genie is one piece of software that can offer peace of mind by creating compact backup copies of emails, attachments, address book, signatures, blocked list, mail rules and settings periodically. The difference between using a automatic email backup utility and manual backups, is that the first can be scheduled to create backups quiet in the background at specified time intervals, and that it will include all email information ( signatures, blocked list, etc ) which otherwise would be more difficult to save. Also if ever the backup is needed, the application will ensure that the restore process is made smoothly. And, it works with top 9 popular email clients.

The downside of using a automatic email backup utility is that it costs money, usually about 20-30 USD as one time payment, while the manual backups are of course, free. The conclusion is that either manual or automatic, backing up emails is a critical operation for every computer user that would regret losing them.

A trial copy of Outlook Express Backup Genie can be found at:
http://www.amicutilities.com/outlook-express-backup/


http://www.amicutilities.com/outlook-express-backup/

Fast and Reliable Recovery of Microsoft Office Documents

What would you value most in a data recovery solution should you lose an important document? Would it be speed, convenience, or ease of use? These things surely matter for all kinds of computer software, but data recovery has one specific demand that outweighs everything else by a huge margin. This factor is reliability of the recovery.

Microsoft Office documents store results of many hours, days or even years of work of practically all office employees and most people who use their computers at home. Microsoft Word dominates the market of word processors, and most if not all documents are stored in RTF and its proprietary DOC formats. Microsoft Excel and its XLS file format dominate spreadsheet market. Most presentations are created in Microsoft PowerPoint and stored in PPT files, and most charts and drawings are drawn in Microsoft Visio and saved as VSD files. Combined, files in these formats occupy significant space on the users' hard drives, and represent hours and hours of work, much more than any other file format.

In an unfortunate case of hard disk crash or file system failure, what would you try to recover the hardest? Would it be a set of software products such as Windows or Office itself, which you can easily re-install from the original CD or DVD, or would it be files and documents you spent your personal time working on? Unless you have a fresh backup of your documents somewhere, the documents are impossible to simply re-install. If you have a recent copy of your Office documents, that's great! But what if your backup is several days old, and you've put a lot of work into these documents? Or even worse, what if you don't have a backup at all?

Recover latest versions of your deleted documents even after a hard drive failure with DiskInternals Office Recovery securely and reliably. Unlike general-use undelete and data recovery tools, DiskInternals Office Recovery strongly benefits from being designed specifically to handle documents stored in Microsoft Office format.

General-use recovery products scan the computer's file system in order to locate files that were deleted or corrupt because of a hard drive failure. However, they frequently fail to work properly if the file system itself is damaged, which happens a lot after hard drive failures.

DiskInternals Office Recovery scans entire surface of your hard drive in order to locate all Microsoft Office documents that are still there. In order to find the documents, it uses a set of signatures that are characteristic for the Office file types. The file system is also scanned in order to retrieve the names of the files. The results of disk scan are matched against information contained in the file system, and you are presented with a complete list of all Microsoft Office documents that are on the disk and that are still possible to recover.

Quite often you don't want to see the list of all Microsoft Office documents that were ever saved on your computer. There's no point in spending time scrolling through an endless list of files if you just need the latest revision of a PPT presentation or an XLS spreadsheet, but you need that document right away. DiskInternals Office Recovery offers an extensive set of filters allowing you to display only the files that you need with just a few mouse clicks. If you need a DOC file that you know you worked with today, you simply activate the File Format and Date filters, and only the Word documents that were modified on this day will be displayed. If you don't remember the name of the file, but know its title or the person who created the document, the Title and Author filters will show you those files. Similarly, if you only remember a line or even a few words of text from the document, you can instantly locate that particular file by activating the Text filter.

With full document preview in the free evaluation version, there are no worries or surprises in buying DiskInternals Office Recovery. Download the free trial version from www.diskinternals.com and see for yourself that it is fully capable to do the job!

Why Online Backups Are The Only Choice For Many Businesses

Online backup is a process of taking routine backups of data and files from your computers or servers and it is generally taken at least once every week and ideally every day. This is one of the preferred data protection measures and nowadays all business organisations regularly take online backups of important data and documents.

Taking regular online backups of your essential documents and data is now very easy and initially your service providers may provide a free trial for a fixed duration. To begin your service, you simply download the online backup software and the software does the rest of the job.

The program collects the various files, compresses and encrypts the files and then sends these encrypted files to the remote server of the service provider. No one, even the employees of the backup company, has access to these files and the files decrypt only when they are received back on the originating computer or server. Thus, this ensures not only the safety of the data but also its security.

There are lots of features available including open file backup, binary data transfer, and continuous or predefined backup. Generally the software has the feature of taking backups even when several files such as Outlook emails or SQL files are open. The administrator, in such case, need not plan separate maintenance and backup schedules. Another feature is continuous backup of data instead of predefined schedule. Companies and especially financial institutions need continuous backup of financial records and banking statements for FSA regulation purposes.

The latest techniques allow the identification and transfer of only binary data that has been changed from earlier backups, instead of taking whole data files. This technique not only reduces traffic on local area networks (LAN) and the time required for online backup, it also reduces the bandwidth and hence the cost of backups. The other typical feature of backup software is that it is compatible with almost all the operating system environments such as Windows, Linux, UNIX, and Macintosh.

There are many advantages of online backups over traditional backup systems. First of all the user has nothing to do manually to store data, or take the backup of data. Secondly, with online backups the data is automatically stored on the remote servers at a predefined time intervals or continuously.

Secure online backups also use software that encrypt the files so no one can have access to the data, however in traditional backup scenarios, you have to ensure yourself that the data is safe as well as secure, by keeping it in safe custody as well as password protecting it.

Online backups are necessary for data safety and you should ensure that your data or the necessary documents should be stored at a remote and safe location for your business continuity in the event of disaster or hardware failures.

Using Online Data Storage

Most people don't realize how convenient online data storage really is in these days using email storage services. The benefits for storing excess data online and freeing up space on your own hard drive is becoming a popular trend. Backing up information that could be lost if something is to go wrong on the current storage media is another very common use of online data storage.

Instead of going through a process of sending data from one computer to the next, online data storage makes files easier to access from all around the world. You can backup those pictures and important documents online for free by opening an account with a free online storage provider and access them from any internet connection.

Online data storage is an excellent way to back up files in a place that can always be counted on to find your what you backed up. Internal and external hard drives can't always be counted on for your back up needs. An internal hard drive can simply crash and you will lose all your information you thought was safe forever. An external hard drive can be stolen, or misplaced. This is why online storage sites are becoming more common for the home user and businesses.

Accessibility is everything nowadays. You don't have to go out and buy a huge pack of cds to back up all your material. Online data storage is quick and simple way for the home user or business person to quickly store information and access it at another time with out having to go through the loops of searching for everything on a computer or back up disks. Most websites will allow you to login with a secure password and access your data from anywhere in the world. Have you ever been at work and needed to access a document that would normally be stored on your home computer? This is no longer a problem when taking advantage of the advice provided by this article.

There are many different websites that promise many things when it comes to online data storage. A good way to makes sure the site that you pick is safe and reliable is to read up on the website's history and check reviews by other users that happen to frequent the site for their back up needs. Make sure the usual online subjects are present on the storage website. Also, review the terms and privacy policies to ensure you know where you understand how your data is held.

Protecting your data by backing it up online has never been so easy and free. Be a smart user and keep your important files online for the sake of the data and ease of access.

Online Backups, Are You Being Smart?

Data loss is one of the major problems especially in big business houses where a large number of data has to be dealt with and in all the circumstances the data loss can be minimized by using secure online backups. Although there are many conventional backup systems such as CD, DVD, and floppy that can be used for storing small amount of data, however for storing large amount of data secure online backup seems to be the right option.

Nowadays many commercial secure online backup providers are easily available and after paying a nominal fee, you can store your data at a remote location. These commercial online backup stores ask you to download their backup software and the software manages the backup and does the rest of job. A few commercial backup stores charge anywhere between 20 cents to 3 dollar per month for storing 1 GB of data, however there are some online backup stores who offer the online backup free for a limited period.

Actually you should ensure that the commercial online backup you have chosen is genuine and reliable and the privacy of your document is maintained. Many individuals take the benefits of these low cost commercial secure online backup facilities and store their family albums and other data. The software provided by commercial stores is easy to operate and with the instructions provided to you, you can install and operate the online backup software. You should try with a free online secure backup for a month and if satisfied with the services you should continue for the desired period.

The secure online backup software will generally have many features and the latest and modern software are equipped with highly sophisticated technique to protect the privacy of the data. The system ensures that backups are taken routinely as per your requirement and accordingly you are intimated by email. The software also ensures that the file system and directories structure is maintained during backup.

The software installed at your computer first compresses the data and sometimes the space occupied by the data is reduced to 85 percent. The data afterwards encrypted so that the privacy of these data is maintained and then forwarded to the commercial backup store via local area network or Internet. Due to the encryption of the data, these are even not accessible to the backup store employees and therefore the data are fully private and while retrieving the software installed at your computer decrypt the data.

The data loss is a very big problem for large business houses, commercial ventures and even for an individual and therefore secure online backup of data is one of the right options for each one of us. Sometimes it is also necessary to maintain the privacy of the data and therefore suitable commercial backup organization having an excellent track record should be carefully selected. So instead of taking a risk of loosing your important data, it is better to store and secure online backups available at a marginal price.

Recover Deleted Email Messages in Vista Windows Mail

Outlook Express was, and by the time of this writing still is, the most popular email client by a huge margin. It's hard to overestimate the amount of support Outlook Express has received from third party developers. Multiple free and commercial products compete for your disk space and a place in your Start menu, including tools that backup and restore email messages, and that fix and recover corrupted mail database. Outlook Express users certainly have no lack of email recovery tools that help to recover accidentally deleted email messages.

The situation has changed momentarily. With the release of Windows Vista, Outlook Express has been superseded with a new-generation email client, Windows Mail. Windows Mail stores email messages in a new format that is completely different from Outlook Express and incompatible with anything before it. Familiar mail recovery tools for Outlook Express no longer work with Windows Mail, and, as is typical, there is no method to un-delete email messages provided by Microsoft.

Recovery for Windows Mail http://www.nsware.com/Windows-Mail-Recovery.htm is one of the first products on the market to support the new Windows email client. It is designed specifically to un-delete email messages in Windows Vista.

Windows Vista offers increased security and strengthened protection against modern threats. New security measures typically prevent users and applications from accessing important files and modifying vital information. In order to overcome these restrictions, you would have to be logged in as an Administrator, or at least as a user with administrative rights. This may become a major inconvenience for a home user, and a total show-stopper in a corporate environment.

Recovery for Windows Mail is fully aware of the new account security measures implemented in Windows Vista, and does not require you to be logged in with an administrative password. Just run Recovery for Windows Mail, and it'll do the rest - automatically!

Windows Mail differs from Outlook Express in the way it stores email. Each message is stored in a separate file, complemented by meta-information that's stored in a mail database for faster indexing. Deleting email in Windows Mail simply moves messages into the "Deleted Items" folder without affecting the files. But if you remove a message from the "Deleted Items" folder, there is no easy way to un-delete that mail.

Recovery for Windows Mail protects your messages from accidental deletion. It can un-delete and fully recover deleted mail even if it has been erased from the "Deleted Items" folder.

Recovery for Windows Mail is fully capable of recovering deleted email in the Windows Mail client. Protect yourself and download your free evaluation version here: http://www.nsware.com/Windows-Mail-Recovery.htm

THE BENEFITS OF BACKUP SYSTEMS

Remote backup is fast becoming an alternative to traditional backup procedures. Most businesses do not rely on online remote backup as a single source for storage of critical data, but instead use it in addition to traditional backup solutions. It affords them a third storage area and data recovery source in the event of a catastrophic disaster. A remote, online, or managed backup service is a service that provides users with an online system for backing up and storing computer files.

Online backup systems are typically built around a client software program that runs on a schedule, usually once a day. This program collects, compresses, encrypts, and transfers the data to the remote backup service provider's servers.

A feature of some services is the capability to back up the primary site data plus remote offices and branch offices in a relatively seamless manner.
The ability to back up files that are extensively opened, such as Outlook files or SQL database files can be useful. Such ability allows IT administrators to run back up jobs any time of the day, not requiring setting aside server maintenance time. Most online backup products need an add-on for this.

A Multi-platform backup service can back up multiple platforms such as the various flavors of Windows, Macintosh, and Linux/UNIX. A continuous backup feature allows the tool to back up continuously or on a predefined schedule. Both methods have advantages and disadvantages. Most backup tools are schedule-based and perform backups at a predetermined time. Some services provide continuous data backups which are used by large financial institutions and large online retailers. However, there is typically a tradeoff with performance and system resources.Some services allow you to access your backed up files via a normal web browser. Many tools do not provide this type of functionality.

A way to minimize network traffic is to transfer only the binary data that has changed from one day to the next. The more serious tools use this method rather than transfer entire files. Tools originally designed for network backup use this method.

Remote backup has advantages over traditional backup methods. Remote backup does not require user intervention. The user does not have to change tapes, label CDs or perform other manual steps. It maintains data offsite. Perhaps the most important aspect of backing up is that backups are stored in a different location from the original data. Traditional backup requires manually taking the backup media offsite. Some remote backup services will work continuously, backing up files as they are changed, but most remote backup services will maintain a list of versions of your files.

These computer backup systems might have, though, some disadvantages. Depending on the available network bandwidth, the restoration of data can be slow. Because data is stored offsite, the data must be recovered either via the Internet or via tape.

Often business might look at data storage in another state as additional protection against data loss, especially if the original area is prone to natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes or earthquakes. Online and remote backup is gaining in popularity for the safety and security of the data. The idea is you download your data through an online process to a remote location that stores the data in a secure environment. Your company has access to the data 24/7 for recovery needs or further backup.

The Need For Remote Backups

Remote backups, as the name suggests, are backups taken remotely. These backups are taken without interfering with the server, the data of which is being backed up. Remote backups are relatively new but are catching up quite rapidly as compared to other forms of backup.

Remote backups are exactly similar to online backups. Online backups involve copying the data while it is being saved on the server and simultaneously saving it to some offsite location. Online backups are also known as real time backups as they involve backing up the data in ?real time' that is almost simultaneously to the entry of the data. In the same way, remote backups involve taking a backup of the data to be backed up in real time. Real time backups involve backing up the data as and when it is entered into the system. However remote backup and online backup should not be construed to mean the same thing. Remote backups are a part of online backups. Remote backups are a type of online backups, which are normally preferred by organizations as they do away with the shortcomings of conventional backups as well as the shortcomings of other forms of online backups.

Remote backups involve backing up of the data of a particular server from a place distant to the server. Online backups involve running a backup process simultaneously on he server, which is to be backed up. This often leads to the server being overloaded with multiple processes and programs. This leads to low performance and output levels from the server. It also increases the risk of a server crash due to overloading. These shortcomings of other forms of online backups led to the origin of remote backups.

Remote backups do away with almost all shortcomings of conventional forms of backing up data. Remote backups do not involve interfering with the server being backed up. This virtually rules out any form of mishap to the server due interference during the back up process. Hence data integrity is not compromised on during the process of remote back up. Also remote backups are conducted simultaneously to the process of data entry. Hence, this form of backup does not require the server to remain idle for some time. This form of back up thus does not involve any down time on the part of the organization. Thus the organization can save on many productive man-hours. These can further be used profitably by the organization.

Remote backups also do away with the shortcomings of the other forms of online backups. As they are not run on the server being backed up, they do not compromise on the integrity of the data being backed up as also on the performance of the server. Also, such backups can be retrieved almost instantly. This is not the case with other forms of online backups, which can be retrieved only with a certain time lag. Remote backups also have a distinct advantage in comparison to other forms of backup. Remote backups are taken simultaneously offsite on a different server and hence are almost always reliable. Remote backups are steadily gaining ground among corporate and other organizations due to their obvious advantages and are here to stay.

Electronic Discovery 2.0

Electronic Discovery 2.0, or ?e-discovery 2.0? refers to the next generation of processes, technologies, and services that streamline and modernize the traditional e-discovery process as well as allows businesses to manage huge volumes of data, lower costs, and meet tight deadlines. In this Electronic Discovery process civil litigants seek to acquire information from both parties and from third parties.

In the early days Electronic Data & Evidence Recovery meant just handling over a few boxes of paper, but in today?s rapidly growing world where it involves terabytes of electronic data & valuable time, it is a different story. To deal with the increasing volume & complexity of e-discovery issues, companies have to adopt new technologies and processes.

If technology has created problem, then it can also solve it. In recent years lot of new technologies have emerged which enables organizations to store and search through their data to fulfill electronic discovery obligations.

As the cost of disk storage is reducing, people are moving from tapes to disks. This enables them to keep their data online and readily available for e-discovery from basic keyword search to sophisticated analysis tools. That mines all meta data from e-mails and groups them together for relevance and allow users to search thousands of mails and logs in minutes to identify and export the data.

From the company?s perspective Electronic Data Discovery has become a core competency and a part of doing business.

iPod Solutions: Data Recovery for Lost MP3 Files

What exactly is an iPod? iPod is a brand of portable media players designed and marketed by Apple and launched in October 2001. Devices in the iPod range are primarily digital audio players, designed around a central click wheel?with the exception of the iPod Shuffle, which uses buttons because of its size. As of October 2005, the line-up consists of the video-capable fifth generation iPod, the smaller iPod nano, and the displayless iPod shuffle. The full-sized model stores media on an internal hard drive, while the smaller iPod nano and iPod Shuffle use flash memory. Like many digital music players, iPods can also serve as external data storage devices. In January 2007, Apple announced the iPhone, a device that combined the features of the video-capable iPod with mobile phone and mobile Internet capabilities. Apple's iTunes software is used to transfer music to the devices. As a free jukebox application, iTunes stores an entire music library on the user's computer and can play, burn, and rip music from a CD. It can also transfer photos, videos, games, and calendars to the models that support them.

Thus, it can be seen easily that the wide use of the iPod, coupled with its vast storage space (anywhere between 512 MB and 80 GB; the latter compares with some full-size hard drives for PCs) together creates situation in which iPod users are not immune from data loss and the subsequent need for data recovery. Data recovery, you exclaim? Is people?s music that important? In fact, it is; however, increasingly commonly, people have been storing data other than music on their iPods. A recent survey conducted by Newsweek magazine reported that of 500 iPod owning-respondents, 492 reported storing music on their iPod. Of these, 342 reported that the iPod contained their most recent and entire music collection. Further, they reported that they would feel ?extreme distress? if they were to lose this collection due to data loss. Of the entire respondent pool, 145 respondents stated that they stored data such as documents, spreadsheets, and other work- and business- related documents on the iPod, elucidating that the iPod?s extreme portability and reliability lead to their doing this.

Thus, it is clear that people do store rather important data on their iPods. Apple reports that 55% of all iPods sold contain hard drives, while the rest use flash-based memory, which is far less prone to data loss due to its lack of moving parts and solid-state technology. However, this renders over fifty million iPods the world over prone to data loss. Experts report that iPods are, in fact, more prone to data loss than typical PCs because of their portability and consequent exposure to far more risky situations and unusual circumstances. Underwriters Laboratories LLP, the world?s leading product testing agency reports that it has received confirmed accounts of iPods that have unwittingly been exposed to the following hazardous situations: fire, water, floods, earthquakes, dropping from a few feet, dropping from ten to twenty-five feet, dropping from four storeys or more, electrocution, power surges, power failures (within and without the devices), physical damage due to children, pets, and extreme anger, and so on.

As with any hard drive, physical trauma to an iPod may result in data loss. Further, logical failures, though rare for iPods, are also possible; an estimated .5% of all iPods sold worldwide had defective hard drives that are more prone to logical failures. This exposes 500,000 potential users to this problem, creating the need for redressal.

iPods that have experienced data loss are treated in the same manner as that for PC hard drives; first, methods employing software are tried. If these fail, more aggressive methods such as removing the hard drive and attempting to access the data through another system/IDE controller are used; however, the latter are costly and are only done in cases in which the data is critical, as these methods involve considerable expense.

However, it is important for iPod owners experiencing possible data loss to remember that their data is eminently recoverable, except in the rarest and most extreme situations. One can say that even in the bleakest of situations, hope is still alive for their precious music libraries and data collections.

An Introduction to Hard Disk Drives

The word ?drive? is usually associated with a device that is used to play the disc ? just like the floppy drive is used for floppy discs, or CD/DVD drives for those discs. In fact, looking at the history of Hard Disks, one would note that it too started out as removable media like these. All HDDs are sealed within their protective metal casing. It all changed in 1980 when Seagate came up with the new version of the smaller HDD.

The Manufacturers

In 1980, Seagate Tech made ST 506, the first 5.25 inches Hard Disk. Its capacity was 5 megabytes. Till date, making Hard Disks remain an arduous task requiring huge technical resources, a high degree of precision, and special atmospherically controlled manufacturing units. As a result, 98% of the world?s Hard Disk production is still monopolised by a few big companies ?Seagate, Samsung, Western Digital, and Hitachi, which has taken over the disc manufacturing section of IBM. Fujitsu is another company that makes hard drives, but not for desktops. Toshiba makes 2.5 inch and 1.8 inch notebook discs, specifically with laptops in mind. Between 1985 and 1999, a lot of smaller companies came into the market and went away too, as they could not sustain production. So, it can safely be said that Seagate is the market leader in hard drive manufacturing, followed by Samsung, and then Hitachi and Western Digital.

Types of Hard Disks

Hard Disks can be divided into two groups, according to where they are used, and according to the interface used by them.

A. According to where they are Used:

1. Internal Hard Drives: Most of the hard drives used today are internal drives, i.e., the ones found inside a computer ? from a home pc to a powerful office workstation. Most computers now use a minimum of two Hard Disks within themselves ? one of which is usually kept aside to house all programme files, while the other disk is used for storage and other work. Most hard drives are more or less fast, reliable and offer almost 100% of their space for storage.
2. External Hard Disk Drives: These come with an additional protective casing. Therefore, these can be used by customers who have to travel a lot, or work from multiple computers.
3. Laptop Hard Drives: They are made much in the same way as a pc internal hard drive, but they are more compact in design. Like the ones used in a home computer, laptop hard drives are also of two types ? in-built, and ones that can be quickly installed and removed. It must be mentioned here that many laptop hard drives are designed for a specific model only, and installing them on a different model will fail.

B. HDD s according to Interface:

1. EIDE (Enhanced Integrated Drive Electronics) or ATA drives: These are the most common interfaces used in the market.
2. SATA (Serial Advanced Technical Attachment): This format is gaining popularity fast, since it has several advantages over EIDE. The two greatest benefits of SATA are ? they are much faster ? and have much smaller cables, thus allowing more ?breathing space? inside the computer. The less cluttered the inside of a CPU is, the more chances it has of maintaining an air flow, and not getting overheated.

Data Recovery and the Hard Drive

We store data in the hard drive, precisely because it is supposed to be safer than the other media devices. But, sometimes, data stored in a hard drive that is securely installed in a computer can also be negatively affected. Broadly speaking, there are two ways in which a Hard Disk drive may lose or damage data:

1. Physical Data Loss: The HDD may be physically damaged due to water, humidity, fire, accident, water, or the impact of a fall. It can also be caused by the malfunctioning of other components, like a jammed read or write head, or a motor failure.
2. Logical Data Loss: Here the HDD itself remains unaffected, but the data is lost or corrupt. This happens due to accidental or malicious formatting of a logical partition or the entire disc, overwriting, fragmentation, virus infection and sudden power surge or spike.

To recover data, one may simply install and run a data recovery software available from the net, or approach a professional data recovery firm ? depending on the extent of damage done, and the volume and preciousness of the data.

Fast and Reliable Recovery of Microsoft Office Documents

What would you value most in a data recovery solution should you lose an important document? Would it be speed, convenience, or ease of use? These things surely matter for all kinds of computer software, but data recovery has one specific demand that outweighs everything else by a huge margin. This factor is reliability of the recovery.

Microsoft Office documents store results of many hours, days or even years of work of practically all office employees and most people who use their computers at home. Microsoft Word dominates the market of word processors, and most if not all documents are stored in RTF and its proprietary DOC formats. Microsoft Excel and its XLS file format dominate spreadsheet market. Most presentations are created in Microsoft PowerPoint and stored in PPT files, and most charts and drawings are drawn in Microsoft Visio and saved as VSD files. Combined, files in these formats occupy significant space on the users' hard drives, and represent hours and hours of work, much more than any other file format.

In an unfortunate case of hard disk crash or file system failure, what would you try to recover the hardest? Would it be a set of software products such as Windows or Office itself, which you can easily re-install from the original CD or DVD, or would it be files and documents you spent your personal time working on? Unless you have a fresh backup of your documents somewhere, the documents are impossible to simply re-install. If you have a recent copy of your Office documents, that's great! But what if your backup is several days old, and you've put a lot of work into these documents? Or even worse, what if you don't have a backup at all?

Recover latest versions of your deleted documents even after a hard drive failure with DiskInternals Office Recovery securely and reliably. Unlike general-use undelete and data recovery tools, DiskInternals Office Recovery strongly benefits from being designed specifically to handle documents stored in Microsoft Office format.

General-use recovery products scan the computer's file system in order to locate files that were deleted or corrupt because of a hard drive failure. However, they frequently fail to work properly if the file system itself is damaged, which happens a lot after hard drive failures.

DiskInternals Office Recovery scans entire surface of your hard drive in order to locate all Microsoft Office documents that are still there. In order to find the documents, it uses a set of signatures that are characteristic for the Office file types. The file system is also scanned in order to retrieve the names of the files. The results of disk scan are matched against information contained in the file system, and you are presented with a complete list of all Microsoft Office documents that are on the disk and that are still possible to recover.

Quite often you don't want to see the list of all Microsoft Office documents that were ever saved on your computer. There's no point in spending time scrolling through an endless list of files if you just need the latest revision of a PPT presentation or an XLS spreadsheet, but you need that document right away. DiskInternals Office Recovery offers an extensive set of filters allowing you to display only the files that you need with just a few mouse clicks. If you need a DOC file that you know you worked with today, you simply activate the File Format and Date filters, and only the Word documents that were modified on this day will be displayed. If you don't remember the name of the file, but know its title or the person who created the document, the Title and Author filters will show you those files. Similarly, if you only remember a line or even a few words of text from the document, you can instantly locate that particular file by activating the Text filter.

With full document preview in the free evaluation version, there are no worries or surprises in buying DiskInternals Office Recovery. Download the free trial version from www.diskinternals.com and see for yourself that it is fully capable to do the job!

What NOT to do When Your Hard Drive Crashes

With the amount of use most of us put on our computers these days, a hard drive crash can mean quite a panic. Not only are more people using their computers for their small businesses (both home based and otherwise) than ever before, but many people now have almost all personal information stored on their hard drives as well. This information can include obvious personal documentation such as digital pictures, videos, important documents, and calendars with date reminders, as well as information that is not so obvious, such as passwords to various banking services and other online businesses. Your hard drive may also maintain a record of web sites and services that you have used, which for many people is a deeply private matter.

When your hard drive containing all of this information does crash, many people will make hasty decisions on how to rectify the problem as their immediate concern is restoring the information and getting their lives back on track. Hasty action is often the wrong thing to do, however, especially where your personal information is concerned; one of the things to avoid when it comes to a hard drive crash is jumping on the first opportunity that comes along to get your information restored.

Most people will immediately look through the Yellow Pages to get the problem fixed, but this may lead you to a computer store or the computer department of a big box store. Retail stores are generally not the way to go when it comes to data recovery. The process can take a long time and in the end your information is not as important to them as fixing the problem with your computer; many times they will simply install new components or operating systems with no regard to the lost information. Not to mention, there is always the issue of privacy guarantees when it comes to these options or even using a close friend.

What, then, are the options when it comes to recovering your hard drive information? Well, just as you would go to a service store that specialized in tires when getting winters, you should go to a data recovery center for restoring your hard drive. These companies make their businesses solely from restoring your information, not from selling you a new hard drive. This specialized service is in itself a guarantee of the work involved. Their skill and their reputation for keeping private information private are necessary in order to stay in business.

Never use the services of a friend or generic computer shop when it comes to hard drive recovery. It simply is not worth the risk either to your hard drive, your information, or your peace of mind. These options are acceptable when it comes to computer repairs, but information is a specialty that should only be handled by experts.

Instant Access to Password Protected Microsoft Office Documents

If you were ever unable to open a Microsoft Word document or Excel spreadsheet protected with a password, you know how frustrating it feels. If you need to access that document right away, the frustration turns into urgent need to recover protected data.

Fire up a Google search and you'll be hit with numerous offers to recover your documents' passwords for highly varying fees. Such companies typically provide very fast recovery times ranging from an instant to very fast, depending on the complexity of your password and the version of Microsoft Office software that was used to save the document. Data recovery is their business, allowing them to have clusters of super computers handy to quickly break passwords of any length. Some of these services even do not ask for an upfront payment, billing you only if a document has been successfully recovered.

But what if your Excel spreadsheets or Word documents contain sensitive information? What if your company has strict security policies that forbid sending documents out of the corporate setting? Simply speaking, what if sending the encrypted document to an online data recovery service is not an option for security reasons?

In case you don't have a super computer handy, you are restricted to the limited resources of your personal or office computer, or your corporate server at best, thus making password recovery with brute force attacks a very lengthy process.

Solution? Try software designed specifically for instantly recovering Microsoft Word or Excel passwords regardless of your computer's performance. Office Password Recovery suite by Intelore (http://www.intelore.com/office-password-recovery.php) offers you an ability to recover both Word and Excel passwords, while if you are on a budget, Word Password Recovery and Excel Password Recovery are available separately (from http://www.intelore.com/word-password-recovery.php and http://www.intelore.com/excel-password-recovery.php respectively).

What makes these products really different is their ability to unlock your password protected documents and spreadsheets momentarily, without sending the entire document outside of your organization. If a document is password-protected for modification, or if it is weakly protected, the protection can be easily removed. Under these circumstances, no information will be sent outside of your corporate setting.

Other types of documents may also be recovered instantly. Instead of providing the entire document with sensitive information to a third party, Intelore servers only take document encryption parameters, and then the decryption itself occurs on your computer, so that your sensitive information never leaves your organization.

How is this even possible, and why all the password recovery services still exist?

This is a legitimate question. The answer is simple: instant password recovery is only possible under controlled circumstances. You can only recover documents that are protected with a password to open, and then saved by Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word 2000 and 97, as well as documents saved by later versions of Word and Excel XP, 2003, and 2007 in Office 2000/97 compatibility mode. In practice, vast majority of corporate documentation is saved in these legacy formats to ensure up and down compatibility within organization. Thanks to corporate policies regarding document compatibility, your Word and Excel documents may still be stored in the format that can be easily and instantly recovered with Office Password Recovery tools.

Try Word, Excel or Office Password Recovery suite to gain instant access to your protected documents! Download free evaluation versions at http://www.intelore.com/

How to Take Care of Your Hard Drive to Prevent a Crash

They are also not immortal ? in fact ? a hard drive has a life span of only three to five years. We should always bear in mind that the drive may crash for no fault of ours, and we want our data to remain intact. Maintenance is important because that way we prolong the life span of the drive, and of the data in it. The whole effort is to prevent a crash from happening at all.

Below are some guidelines to help in the maintenance of hard drives. However, it should be underlined that even if you follow all of them stringently, backups are still important.

Do not take out the disk itself from its protective casing, even if your hands are exceptionally clean. Even a little unseen speck of dust can fatally scratch your drive. The surface of the disk is extremely delicate and cannot stand high temperature, direct sunlight, dust, moisture or rough handling.

Make sure that there is enough ventilation inside the CPU. A modern drive working at high speed can raise its temperature up to 70 degrees Fahrenheit. If the temperature rises beyond the melting point of iron, then the metal will just soften, and your data will literally vaporize from it. All CPUs now have built in fans and cooling systems, but it is important to arrange the wiring and placement of cards etc. in such a way that the space does not become too cramped in there. It is advisable to keep the machine in a room with controlled temperature.
Moisture is a killer for the hard disk.

Avoid moving your computer around too much if it is a desktop. A dropped computer can be bad for the data, and this happens often with laptops. If the shock level is beyond the absorption power, or the vertical component of the drop is higher than the speed at which the disk is rotating, the disk will be permanently damaged. This is true after keeping in mind that modern disks are much more robust.

Do not touch the pins under the drive if you have to take it out for some reason. Be very careful about wiring and putting in cards. A wrong plug in will blow the circuitry of the drive. Precaution needs to be taken against electrostatic discharge and strong magnetic fields. Do not plug in the room cleaner, heater and computer from the same plug in strip. If you take out the hard drive or are plugging in cards into it, keep touching an unpainted surface like the chassis of the computer to ensure that electrostatic discharges are not conveyed through you, and you do not end up electrocuting your own drive.

Keep the computer away from open doors and windows. If the drive is to be transported somewhere, try to move it round in the same packaging in which it came. Always carry a hard drive in a shock-proof and electrostatic shock-protected bag. If there is a severe hardware problem, or if there has been a disaster, do not take out the drive. The data recovery experts would know how to handle it best. If the computer has been burned, do not use water on it. Ship the entire CPU, with the disk sealed with heat inside it to the recovery firm. It is important to keep your data updated. It is also important to defrag your machine at regular intervals. The file endings will be hopelessly scattered and muddled if you do not do so, corrupting the data.

Make sure all hardware you are plugging in are compatible with your computer. Installing an anti-virus is not enough. Keep updating it regularly. Install a firewall and ensure that it is the latest version, and actually working.

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.