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.

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.

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.

Expenses Involved in Data Recovery

Seized with such fear driven panic, data losers are known to have worked mindlessly. One such entrepreneur upon hearing weird noises from the computer opened the disk and poured lubricating gel over it. The strange noise disappeared along with the data. Fortunately, the data was recovered though the recovery costs were quite high.

Why are Data Recovery Costs High?

Data recovery from a hard drive is possible only if highly experienced engineers use specialised tools and work in a class 100 clean room. All these overheads are extremely expensive. These escalate the data retrieval costs.

Specialised Tools

The hard drive used in your computer is a highly technologically advanced device. Hard drives have been subjected to great technological revolution rapidly. Data recovery experts have to constantly update their tools for these turn obsolete quite fast. Research & Development (R&D) is a continuous process and the developed specialised tools are highly expensive. The tools used on the old hard drive can hardly be used. Every part of the hard drive is constantly bettered upon. Even the magnetic platters have turned glass or ceramic replacing the traditional aluminium platters. Such unique equipments necessitate expert handling by highly skilled engineers.

Highly Trained Engineers

When you pay for a data recovery service, you are also paying for the skill of the trained engineers. Retrieving data is an intricate process and the dexterity of the recovery expert determines the success rates. When your company?s fate hangs in a balance it is the experience and skill developed by these engineers over the years that can help prevent disaster. These experienced engineers have to work, with great concentration and put in extreme effort to make recovery a possibility.

Man Hours of Labour

To recover the data, the damaged parts of your hard drive have to be replaced. However, it is not possible to find an exact replacement always. The varied parts of the hard drive are synthesized to work in perfect alignment with each other. For example, if the circuit board of your hard drive is damaged, a re soldering has to be done carefully. It is not possible to replace it even if another hard drive shares the same model number. Thus some data recovery cases entail labour intensive techniques. The engineers are also required to work over the weekends if data requirements are immediate. Hours of labour intensive work are expensive. The engineers in the clean room work wearing specialised gloves, masks and different suits.

Class 100 Clean Room

A class 100 clean room should contain less than 100 particles of 0.5microns per cubic foot of air space. This room is enclosed within a shell to separate it from the rest of the building and has controlled temperature of 70� F and 45% RH. The walls and ceiling are made of plastic or polymer. The room contains filtered air and is externally lighted. Hard drives have to be opened in such clean rooms for the space between the read write head and magnetic platters is less than a spec of dust. Even submicron particles lodged on the platters can lead to hard crash and a permanent loss of data. It costs � 75,000.00 to construct, equip and maintain such class 100 clean rooms. Consequently the recovery rates are escalated.

However expensive the recovery rates might be they are still lower than the loss caused due to non availability of data. As an SME owner you would be aware that data loss results in monetary loss on various fronts. Costs are incurred on recreating data, losing hours of productive work and continuing without data.

The data retrieval costs are high due to expensive overheads. The specialised tools, class 100 clean rooms and the services of experienced engineers are costly. The work of recovery is complicated, even a single mistake leads to permanent loss of data beyond retrieval.

Data Recovery Companies

Certainly you were aware of the importance of your data as a precursor, generator and promoter of new business and were considerate about the reliance of your business on that data. Suppose the situation takes a U-turn. Some hard disk failure, virus attack or perhaps a human error creates a scenario, which may lead to the loss of the coveted data, gathered over a long period of time. Yes, you are urgently in need of some data recovery service. You are surfing the internet like a mad man and find that there is a plethora of data recovery companies, offering their services at dirt-cheap charges. What to do now? Considering the man of foresight you are, certainly you would not hire the first data recovery company you come across. Since you are desperately interested in recovering your data, it will be safe to assume that you are quiet aware of the potential value and relevance of that data for your business. Will you then allow the mere cost considerations to influence your choice for a data recovery company? Are there any other steps to be taken before you go for it? There may well be a chance that the very survival of your business, depends upon the decision you take.

So far as data recovery services are concerned, you often get what you ask for. One needs to be aware of a lot of facts, before coming to any decision. If you have started by surfing the internet, you are on the right track. However, don?t get mislead by mere verbal declarations. You need to ask a lot of questions. You aught to dig a little deeper, before coming to a final conclusion. One needs to have in advance, an idea of the services one desires, and should have a realistic estimate of the money he is willing to spend. First and foremost, try having a peep into the history of any company. The fact that a company has existed and survived over the years is in a way, a certificate of its authenticity, and is often indicative of the fact that it has the necessary experience and expertise to deliver the goods. Look for any references or testimonials from the past clients. If the list includes the name of any Fortune 500 company or some important government department, it certainly speaks well for that company. Never opt for the companies who do not give any contact number. Call the representative of the company and enquire if they have the requisite clean room environment, vital infrastructure and tools to do the job. Ask about their success rate. Data recovery is a complex task that often needs to be performed amidst many physical and logical constraints. Any company with a success rate between 85 to 95 percent is a reliable one. Any thing more or les then this, needs to be taken with suspicion. Enquire about the experience and credentials of their technical staff. Check if they have the sufficient number of technicians to execute big recovery projects and meet the peek season demands. Do they have the expertise to recover data from all kind of storage media and command the necessary research and development facilities?

Once you have satisfied yourself regarding the above mentioned details, you can jump to the cost considerations. Beware of the companies that quote a price that is too good to be true. It is most probably a sham and you certainly won?t prefer to leave your confidential data into the hands of some imposter. Also avoid the companies that offer a flat price. The chances are that they primarily resort to the same standardized procedures for all types of recovery problems. Any authentic data recovery will first furnish a free initial consultation and a diagnostic report, before mentioning the price. It will often give you a list of the files that can be recovered. A good data recovery concern will often exhibit a consistency of policy and a commitment to customer satisfaction. Take care that the company you selected has an online customer portal and keeps you informed regarding the recovery of your data at all its phases. Cost does matter, but what is more important is the sanctity of your data.

Hard Disk Data Recovery Still An Important Asset

Hard disks have evolved along the years to be a lot more reliable than their ancestors, but no matter how good they got to be, they are still open to damage and errors that could cause loss of data. If this happens, hard disk data recovery is the solution and a big problem solver if the information on the hard drive is important and not backed up.

A hard disk can crash because of a range of different reasons but the most encountered is an unstable power supply. A hard disk is quite open to attacks from sudden power surges or power outages. Such power problems can cause both physical damage and logical errors. Logical damages are possibly easy to fix with a HDD scan and fixing the disk file system.

In most cases, you can observe some signs or symptoms that the unit is about to crash. An imminent crash will cause frequent disk error messages. If the disk will not be shown during the startup of the operating system or the information provided is incorrect when the disk is analyzed are almost sure signs of hard disk damage. If you can hear your HDD make weird sounds, clicking or whirring, the problem is mechanical and you will need professional hard disk data recovery assistance.

Some regular clues that may suggest hard disk damage are:

* When files are accessed or the system is powered up you might head ticking, grinding or clunking noises
* Problems with the operating system booting process
* Problems reading files that exist on the hard drive

To have your data safe, in case you notice such signs, make sure you back up the drive or the most important information at least. This way you will have an easy solution if the worst happens.

There are software applications that you can use to recover hard disk data and correct logical errors but they are quite dangerous in the hands of unexperienced users. If the information present on the damaged hard drive is of an elevated importance you might want to use the services of hard disk data recovery company.

Causes Of Data Loss And Storage Devices Damage

There are a lot of storage devices used to store data but the most common used ones are the CDs, DVDs, memory cards, memory sticks and undoubtedly the hard drives. All these storage devices have on major flaw in common, they are not infallible and this means that the data stored on them can be lost or damaged through a number of unforeseen failures. Fortunately, there are companies that employ data recovery specialists that can recover your data by using special techniques, software and tools. Data recovery can sometimes be performed by the user of the damaged device by using software but there is a high risk of failure that can result in permanently erased data or damaged storage devices.

There are a number of conditions that can cause a storage device failure and they include heat, water, impacts and power interruptions. Other causes can be viruses.

Heat damage will usually be caused by fire but in the case of electronic devices and storage media, overheated equipment is the cause in most cases. For instance, in room with an ambient temperature that is too high, the air cushion thickness will be reduced by the air pressure. The hard drive heads might touch the recording plate and data will be damaged or lost.

In the case of hard drives, this kind of damage can also be caused by physical shocks or high vibration levels.

Most drives, but not all, have a seal that goes around the sides of the drive. If the seal is broken, the drive if prone to environmental contamination. The air is not very clean and with a damaged seal, particles from the air can grind the recording plate generating corruption or lost data.

If a hard drive is wet, water damage can occur even if it is turned off. Water is corrosive and will damage the metals found inside the hard drive generating microscopic pitting.

Data recovery specialists have both the required skills and the resources to perform a successful data recovery operation. This ensures a good chance that if you experience any data loss you can recover the data, be it sentimental data or business related information. The best advice is to keep a backup of the data that is important to you, this way you can avoid the expense of data recovery. If a backup is not available, expert services provided by data recovery specialists is a must.

Hard Disk Data Recovery Experts Helping The Detectives

The advances in communication that have been made in the last two decades created a new branch of detectives. These are electronic detectives, and they are required because electronic communication almost replaced the written hard copy form of communication, the majority of corporate data only existing in electronic format. Because of this, hard disk data recovery experts have become a required aid for detectives or they became electronic detectives themselves. The computer has become a focal point for investigations or for corporations to identify their employs activities.

Nowadays, a significant part of corporate investigations is the data recovery process. Through data recovery, a volume of data can be obtained and evidence can be found in documents that might be relevant to the investigation. The data recovery process ensures a mass of important information that can be used.

There are a number of terms used to describe the data on a hard disk based on its state. "Active Data", is used to describe the data form that is accessible to the user of the computer. The term "Recovered Data" is used to describe the information that has been recovered after it has been deleted from the Active Data. This data is either in a very easy to recognize format, entire files, or an expert will be required to interpret it as it is in bits and pieces. The last type of term is "Unused" and it describes either parts of the hard disk that have never been used or parts that have been deleted from the Active Data and are available to be rewritten.

If covert corporate activities take place, then the data they leave behind will be deleted and probably the hard disk will be formatted and re partitioned to hide any traces. In this case, hard disk data recovery experts can help acquire proof by using advanced hdd data recovery tools and their expertise. This proof might then be used to conclude a case.

Data recovery specialists can help police investigations in many cases but the most expectable are cyber crime investigations that are related to credit card information theft or online money transfers. They also help in cases of child pornography.

With computers becoming a required standard in any office and workplace hdd data recovery experts will be tomorrows detectives in many investigations that include cyber crimes. They will be the ones that will uncover vital information for the conclusion of important cases.

Data Recovery For Laptop Hard Drives

If you compare the hard drive of a desktop with the hard drive of a laptop, the only difference you will notice is the size. Their technologies are the same, but this size variation makes the laptop hard drive more difficult. Still, there are companies that have the required equipment for such fine data recovery procedures.

Because laptops provide the ability to work anywhere they are now preferred over the usual desktop work stations. This leads to a lot of important data being stored on their hard drives. While their hard drives are no weaker than the drives the old work stations had, they are however highly susceptible to damage. That's when you will need to call in a laptop data recovery specialist.

The best way to choose a data recovery specialist is to allow the required time frame to make the research and correct choice. To do this, you will need to recognize the symptoms of probable hard drive problems. When choosing a recovery specialist, by checking multiple companies and comparing their price statements you can avoid those that will try to use your need for help right away. The data recovery company should have sterilized facilities for full recovery procedures.

The most common signs that a damaged hard drive provides are ticking and clicking noises when access is required to stored data. These are mechanical damage symptoms. There are also logical errors that can cripple the booting process of the computer or that will disable the reading of certain files that are stored in damaged sectors

If the problem of the drive shows signs that the issue might be of mechanical nature, drive not spinning or you can hear noises when reading, the help of a data recovery specialist in imperative. The drive might have a critical failure and attempting to recover the drive yourself will probably make it worse.

If the drive has logical errors or you deleted a file by mistake, there is enough software on the market to help you but there is the possibility that you misuse it so the help of a data recovery specialist is still recommended.

All in all, if you have problems with your laptop hard drive you can attempt to fix the problem yourself, as long as it is not a mechanical one. If you need a data recovery specialist, make sure the research is done prior to sending the media.

Laptop Data Recovery Explained

Some things in life are just unwanted, but still, can happen to anyone of us. A thing like this is loosing your data from your laptop hard drive, we don't want it, but can happen. All our important information got wiped out in a second, all of it. You can go to your tech friend or even to a computer store to ask what you can do about it but you will probably receive an answer that you can't do anything with it.

We can prevent this by backing up all our information from the laptop hard drive in time but sometimes we just don't think about it and the worst will happen. We know it's our fault for not backing up the files. The good news is that now, we can investigate and research some data recovery companies and ask them for help.

The process for data recovery from laptop hard drives is usually more succesful then normal desktop hard drives, that's good news also. This is because laptop hard drives were always built for mobility and are designed in such way to prevent severe hard drive crashes. The heads on a laptop hard drive are not likely to touch the platters, this can happen mostly on normal desktop hard drives. Because of this, the process of data recovery from laptop hard drives has a higher success rate compared with desktop hard drives.

Even if it has a higher success rate, the process is still difficult and expensive if done by an individual. If you would think about opening it up you will have to make sure to open it in a class 100 clean room. Bad news is that such a room costs about $50000 - $70000. Your best pick is to find a company that can handle the process for you for a cost.

If you don't want to remove the hard drive from the laptop yourself, most companies will do this for you with no extra cost, you will be able to send them the full system. Also, most companies will not charge you if they will not be able to recover your data after the data recovery process.

Any type of data lost is something nobody needs or want, if data lost happen for your laptop hard drive is good to know that the odds are in your favor. Take some time to research for a good company and with some money you will be able to get your data back soon. After this, make sure to always back up all your data.


For Laptop Data Recovery or for Mac Data Recovery and external Lacie Data Recovery visit the links .

Professional Data Recovery

By James Walsh

Otherwise, don’t lose your sanity, money and your precious data. Leave the data recovery to the professionals!

Did you know that the single predominant reason for data loss, worldwide, is due to hardware failure or malfunction (44% to 78%)? Human error came in as the next single contributing factor for your data going missing (minimum of 26%). Software errors, acts of nature and the extremely dangerous malware camp contributed the least (each of them accounted for single digit percentages). From these statistics given out by software giants like Microsoft, data recovery specialists – Ontrack and a host of other information tech companies, it is obvious that either your machine caused the problem or you had a hand in inadvertently messing up your data.

Why not take on the data recovery job yourself? After all, you know your data better than anyone else and what’s more, the data recovery specialists use data recovery software!

If your machine caused the problem, you cannot even think of holding the manufacturer responsible because your machine has passed with flying colours, the several prescribed quality control checks, before it left the factory premises. Anything could have gone wrong after that (an unintended heavy knock, a problematic power outlet or the neighbourhood Dennis the Menace treating your CD Drive to a rare treat of diet coke). On the other hand, if you somehow deleted that important .dll file and you don’t know which one, the effect is the same. It’s like looking for the proverbial needle in the haystack. The critical knowledge to analyse and solve the problem is the specialty of trained full-time specialists.

In today’s high-tech world, progress is being achieved in all walks of life with high levels of automation and equipment usage. We are increasingly using machines to execute the work and to supervise. Naturally, somebody in turn has got to supervise those machines. At the end of the line, human supervision (though restricted to the barest minimum) is absolutely required. So, even if you were to buy off-the-shelf data recovery software and try recovering the data yourself, you will physically have to supervise the operation of the software.

To supervise, you will need to have a fairly good understanding of how the software works and the conditions under which it can work. This is because readymade software cannot comprehensively make provisions to recover any type of data or to recover data lost due to various types of circumstances. Some data recovery software vendors claim that their software can recover data which was lost due to physical damage while others claim that they can recover data which have even been securely deleted. On buying the software, you discover that they do not recover data perfectly.

Imagine if your doctor prescribed medication or suggested surgery without even wanting to know your symptoms or deciding on your ailment! It makes sense to get an assessment of the damage and its success rate before venturing into the vast unknown world of lost data. Almost all data recovery professionals give a free and fair assessment of what could be the problem area and the success rate. You would surely agree that it’s a lot better going into surgery, knowing that your chances of a cure are above 75%, instead of not knowing anything at all.

Since the cost of recovering the data and the time required to do it are also indicated beforehand by these data recovery specialists, it helps you decide whether it is worth rescuing the data. All this is done for free, in the shortest possible time, unlike the trial and error methodology employed by readymade data recovery software. Most specialists also give a guarantee of recovering your data to the maximum possible or your money back.

The data recovery specialists make it their business to recover your missing data. They therefore employ various specialized tools of their trade (both hardware and software) to do an efficient job. They know how most data is stored and where it is stored. They are also required to keep up with the mind boggling trends in exploding data storage mediums and methods (terabytes and miniscule drives). Since no single piece of data recovery software can perform a 100% data recovery all the time, even the specialists use a pool of software and hardware to achieve remarkable degrees of success.

The data recovery expert encounters a variety of data loss situations in the everyday routine. Every situation is a source of practical knowledge and experience gained (though at your expense) to serve the next customer better. Many of them don’t pay much attention to your detailed ramblings (of how you were working on your favourite PC and then suddenly everything stopped). But one look at your hard disk and that’s sufficient to give you a prognosis.

About the author:
James Walsh is a freelance writer and copy editor. If you are concerned about data loss and would like more information on Data Recovery see http://www.fields-data-recovery.co.uk
Article Source: http://www.Free-Articles-Zone.com

How To Recover Lost or Deleted Data Files: Data Recovery Software Information

By Maria Markella

Have you heard of data/file recovery? The definition of the term Data Recovery is "..Making previously lost or damaged data available again.." A data recovery software or method can help us recover destroyed data e.g. an accidentally deleted file. It happens all the time. You delete an important file on your PC and send it to your recycle bin by mistake. You realize what you've done only after you've cleaned the contents of the recycle bin.

What do you do now?
That file you deleted was so important. Fortunately there are lots of methods (Data Recovery Methods) and software (Data Recovery Software) available to help you get your lost files back.

Let's start by mentioning some possible reasons for the loss of data:

* You accidentally delete an important file. Then you immediately shred the contents of your recycle bin
* During today's system crash some files just disappeared and cannot be located or accessed
* You format your hard drive but then you remember those important .zip files previously stored in the newly formatted empty medium.
* A power outage prevented some files from being written to the hard disk.
* Data loss can also occur due to physical damage of the storage media. For example the surface of your CD-ROM may be scratched off or your hard disk may suffer from all kinds of possible mechanical failures.

..and the list goes on.

Is Data Recovery Important?
Data recovery is a very misunderstood concept. A lot of people may not even be aware of the existence and the importance of data recovery. Maybe they think of it on a personal level. The truth is, lost data causes financial disasters to companies all over the world. The cost associated with computer downtime and lost data is enormous (several million dollars) for businesses.

How to deal with data loss?
Losing files is easy but recovering them can be difficult. If the loss was due to physical damage then you need someone with experience, a hardware technician or something. It wouldn't be wise to try to overcome hardware failures alone unless you are a professional.

Now, if the loss of data was due to logical failure or human error then the solution is data recovery software. The data recovery software should be able to:

- Undelete files even after you've shred the contents of your recycle bin
- Recover files after you've been infected from a malicious threat (trojan, worm or other virus)
- Recover files from reformatted hard disks or after your system crashes or your hard disk fails
- Recover all types of files (all kinds of documents, images, music, videos, email messages, zipped files etc)
- Recover data from all types of storage mediums (hard disks, external drives, CD-ROM, usb drives, floppy disks etc)
- Recover files easily and successfully. Should be user-friendly allowing someone with no data recovery skills to use it
- Take/create backups of critical system files or files you choose

The best way to avoid data loss is to start taking backups of your important storage mediums. Either create backups of data on CD-ROMS or use an external drive or zip drive to back up your critical files. If you want to go further look for software that automates the process of backing up and storing your data. These programs are kind of "set and forget". You set it up to take backups every hour or every day or month etc. and let the software do the rest.

About the author:
Now you know it's possible to restore almost every type of lost or deleted file, it's time to learn how to do it. How about this highly recommended Data Recovery Software that will restore all your lost data quickly and easily? There's a free trial version waiting for you to download. Give it a try. The author is a webmaster of DigitalStarProducts Digital Products Directory

Recovering Your Lost Or Deleted Files: How I Entered The Data Recovery World

By Maria Markella

I Recently faced one of my worst computer nightmares. I accidentally deleted a folder stuffed with really important files and then I immediately cleaned the contents of my recycle bin. Minutes later I discovered the bitter truth. My precious files where lost. This sad and frustrating incident got me involved in the data recovery world.

Many people may not even know the existence of the data recovery industry. Did you know that it is actually a multi-million dollar industry? Businesses all over the globe worry so much about data loss and data recovery that they spend millions on research, prevention and data restoration methods.

Anyway, back to my story. I wanted to know if my files could be restored somehow. So I first learned that all my data can be recovered even though they seemed lost. I learned that although I have the impression that a file no longer exists, my hard drive always keeps a record of all the data that's been stored/written inside it. Even if you format and reformat the hard drive, there's still a chance to recover lost or deleted files.

Then I wanted to find a way to restore lost data/files on demand. I discovered hundreds of data recovery software offers. So I decided to research the web and learn everything about data recovery before I buy any software.

And here's what I found:

- 50% of all data loss is caused by human error. People are accidentally deleting files all the time. Then they shred the contents of their recycle bin. These "lost" files are actually -hiding- inside the hard disk and they are 100% recoverable. They can be restored.
- 30% of all data loss is caused by hard drive failure (physical damage). People do not follow proper shut down procedures or the hard drives may suffer from all kinds of mechanical/hardware issues.
- 20% of all data loss is caused by viruses, worms and other types of malicious threats. People forget to frequently update their anti-virus database (some of them do not even have anti-virus software). These days not too much people know what Internet security is.
- 10% of all data loss is caused by several other reasons.

It's time you start worrying about data loss and data recovery too, especially if you have critical files stored on your hard disks. Before you even think of buying data recovery software to restore your lost data, it would be a good idea to implement a data loss prevention routine:

1. Always store your important/critical files in a separate folder. Always back up your data. Either on CD-ROMs or external drives, it doesn't matter.
2. Always follow proper shut down methods. Do not just power off your PC by unplugging the power cable. Your system needs to do a little write/delete maintenance to your files before it shuts down. Also, never kick or punch your computer.
3. Protect yourself and your privacy online. Use anti-virus/anti-spyware software and keep updating it often since new malicious threats arise all the time.
4. Be optimistic. Never think that you might lose an important file. This actually helps a lot. The idea is to create a mindset of invincibility for your data.
5. Be prepared to act if something goes wrong (e.g. you lose an excell files with your clients list). In most cases lost data is recoverable.

About the author:
Now you know it's possible to restore almost every type of lost or deleted file, it's time to learn how to do it. How about this highly recommended Data Recovery Software that will restore all your lost data quickly and easily? There's a free trial version waiting for you to download. Give it a try.
Mary Markell is a webmaster of DigitalStarProducts Digital Products Directory

Data Recovery Wizard Explained

By jack robinson

Data Recovery Wizard is designed as a one-stop data recovery solution. It will recover files that have been deleted by accident, recover lost files after its partition has been formatted and recover files after the attack of a virus or a computer crash. It can recover most any type of a file, including Word documents, Outlook messages, Excel spreadsheets, video, audio files, etc.

Data Recovery Wizard is 4.59 Mb and dog simple to install. You download the installer from http://www.easeus.com/datarecoverywizard/download/drwdemo.zip, unzip the archive and click the installer icon to start the installation. Basically what you see is a typical series of installation dialogs and the best thing is to click Next to do them all.

Starting the program opens a user interface with 5 large buttons that looks like a roadmap with several ways to go depending on the problem you have. Each button starts a wizard that will get you around the recovery in a step-by-step fashion. The interface looks clean and clear and doesn't shout with bright colors or too many elements.

There may be different problems that require data recovery. The most commonplace problem is deleting a file by mistake and then empting Recycle Bin. The second typical problem is when a file was lost because you had formatted the hard drive.

Data Recovery Wizard offers various data recovery techniques and each technique is suitable to recover one type of a data loss or another. For example, using 'DeletedRecovery' option, you can undelete lost files or folders. If you lost a file when you formatted the hard drive, then it's best to use 'FormatRecovery'. 'AdvancedRecovery' is good to recover files after a computer crash, virus attack or formatting a bad drive. You should choose 'RawRecovery' to scan severely corrupted partitions for files with a file signature search algorithm. This tool will help you recover files from a partition with damaged directory structures. If you interrupted the last recovery job, choose 'ResumeRecovery' to recover on!

Well, now it's time to see Data Recovery Wizard in action. Let's assume we have deleted a file and emptied Recycle Bin. Click 'DeletedRecovery' and you are taken to the dialog that displays all storage devices (hard drives, digital camera, USB, etc.) which are connected to the computer. Now you should select the device you want to search by highlighting it with the mouse. Then, it's also possible to select the folder to search by using 'Search Specified Folder' option. This allows you to narrow your search to a specific folder, which takes less time.

Click Next and it starts the scan that depending on the drive size could take 10-20 minutes. In my case that was 8 minutes and then Search Complete dialog popped up. On clicking Ok, Data Recovery Wizard shows found folders and files like in Windows Explorer: the folders in the left area and files contained in each folder in the right area. For each file you can see the associated information, including file name, size, file type, modification time, creation time, last access date, attribute and state.

The results of the search indicate the files that can be recovered and those that cannot because they have been overwritten. The best way to see if the file can be recovered or not is to preview it using the Preview option. The file can be previewed as text, HEX, or as an image. If the preview of the file is not available, the file is unlikely to be recovered.

To recover a file, you should tick its checkbox with the mouse and click Next. That's all.

Once the file has been recovered, you can save it to any folder of your choice. The restore and save operations are available to registered users. Please, register to gain these abilities.

As you can see, file recovery using Data Recovery Wizard is super-simple and doesn't require technical knowledge. In my case I recovered a deleted file. As for the other types of recovery, you can try them on your own. Download a free evaluation version of Data Recovery Wizard and see it in action: http://www.easeus.com/datarecoverywizard/download/drwdemo.zip.

About the author:
http://www.easeus.com

Data Recovery and Disaster Recovery Differ!

By Ken Roberts|

Data Recovery is not Disaster Recovery - contrary to popular belief. Ask somebody what data recovery is, and nine times out of ten the response is, "backup". Thinking the question is too vague, I set out to ask a better one: "What is the difference between disaster recovery and data recovery?"

Technicians, you'll love this one...

When speaking to a group of corporate executives - while attending the world's largest technology conference in Germany - I opened the discussion by asking them to define their data recovery strategy on a piece of paper in thirty seconds. Some of the answers were mind-boggling. The most popular one: "backup server". The most honest: "I don't know, our IT department handles that." And the most ridiculous: "We don't have this problem."

The data recovery dog and pony show...

One man came forward and said, "I've lost some data that I need to present at a talk tomorrow. Do you think you could help me out?". After listening to all the...I can't believe what I am hearing, I thought of an idea: Recover this guy's files right here in front of everybody, and they will get a first-hand experience of what data recovery is. So, I canned my speech on Implementing Effective Data Recovery Strategies.

Everybody raised their hands when asking them if they would like to see a demonstration of data recovery. I stated that, 'This man - Herb from South Africa - has lost some data that he needs for tomorrow, and that I will first attempt to recover some of it.

Smiles, chuckles, and laughter...

Luckily, all of Herbs pictures were recovered. In fact, the data recovery went so well that many more pictures he had lost were recovered too, but I did not know it at that moment. I asked Herb if I could do a slide show of what I recovered. Slide one: A mind-map laying out his presentation for tomorrow. The next few slides: Details of slide one. Then came the pictures that roared down the house. Let's say that Herb was revealed in a way I cannot discuss here.

What is data recovery?

What the executives learned is that data recovery is your last resort to recover lost data after every possible backup method has failed - while disaster recovery is implementing a comprehensive data backup plan, so that when data is lost, you simply access the backup server or a local storage device, like a USB key, to retrieve your lost file.

Herb made his presentation on the airplane on the way to the show, but failed to back it up. He thought saving then to his laptop hard drive was good enough. In this case, he was not able to access his files because his computer would not boot to the desktop. So, data recovery software was used to access the computer, and then to reconstruct the file system, so that the data could be recovered to another storage medium to be used again by Herb.

Data recovery is a multi-billion dollar business...

The data recovery industry would be bankrupt if everybody would have a complete backup plan. But every day without fail, we get calls from people like Herb who are intelligent and run multi-million and billion dollar companies who have lost their data. Our advice: Backup your work - and not to the computer you are using. And then confirm it, because failure is quite common. Finally, make sure you use the Disk Defragmenter function regularly, so that if you do encounter a situation where data recovery becomes inevitable, the success rate will increase substantially.

About the author:
You can find more written, audio and video information discussing the data recovery industry at http://www.atl-datarecovery.com/data-recovery/index.htm . Ken Roberts has been developing data recovery software and performing data recovery services worldwide for over 15 years.

Importance of Data Recovery

Know the importance of data recovery software and data recovery services when you face the situations of data loss and its inaccessibility. The number of data recovery software present in the market enables you to retrieve your lost data and the data recovery services prove helpful in recovery of data in cases of major corruptions to your storage media.

What happens when you are working on a special project or document and your computer system displays a blank screen? Or one of the partitions is not recognized by the BIOS - It could be anything.

So is this a warning from your computer about some mis-happening about to happen such as hard disk failure, system crash or some other problem that caused your system to shut down? Don’t be surprised! This could lead your computer system to become dead and all your valuable data is gone forever. But Stop, Don’t Panic, the relief is there.

“The data which appears to be lost and inaccessible, in real terms is not lost forever. The lost data can be recovered with the help of professional data recovery software and services.”

Many times organizations or individuals do not give much importance to such kind of incidents and after wards suffer major loss of their valuable data. In such cases when the computer system shut downs or reboots or there are indications of disk failure, it means that your computer system needs your immediate attention.

You need a data recovery solution if you experience inaccessibility of files and folders, unrecognized format, virus attacks, accidental deletions, permanent deletion of files, inaccessible partitions, corrupt documents, unexpected system shutdowns, error messages while opening a file and there are endless reasons due to which you cannot access your data.

As the article targets towards importance of data recovery, the first question arises - What is Data Recovery?

Talking in simple terms, it’s like repairing a broken toy with the help of glue and making it usable again. Here, the broken toy is your damaged and corrupt storage media and glue refers to recovery of data with the help of software and services which instantly gets back your lost and inaccessible data to life.

In technical terms, Data Recovery is defined as a scientific approach followed to get back the lost and inaccessible data. This can be made possible through data recovery software utilities and services.

How useful are Data Recovery Software?

Data Recovery software effectively recovers and repair files, databases, storage media, corrupt partitions and brings back your data safely. The recovery software are helpful and effectively recovers back your lost, deleted data, which can be easily purchased through on-line sale transactions. Almost every data recovery company provide FREE demo version of their software range. The Free demo version is the best evaluation technique for a user. You should always try demo version of the software before deciding to purchase it. Test your corrupt hard drive or file with the demo version and see whether the software is capable enough to recover back your data. This is a reliable means to test features, performance, speed, user friendliness of the software. If the demo version displays your data then you can purchase Full version of the software as the demo versions might not allow you to save the recovered data.

The number of data recovery software present in the market promise to recover data from the damaged or corrupted file systems: Windows (FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, NTFS5), Linux (Ext2, Ext3, JFS, ReiserFS), Unix (UFS, EAFS, HTFS, VxFS, FFS), Novell Netware (NWFS, Net386, NSS) and Apple Macintosh (HFS, HFS+) and also from corrupt access databases, MS backup, corrupt zip files, corrupt excel files and corrupt word documents.

So whenever you face situations of data corruption or data loss, always follow the rule: “Test, Evaluate and Purchase!!!!”

How useful are Data Recovery Services?

Following the scientific approach, data recovery services are performed in Class 100 Clean rooms with high biometric security to recover every bit of data. These clean rooms should be equipped with the entire infrastructure like, air flow rate and direction, pressurization, temperature, humidity, specialized filtration and other standards required to perform recovery of data.

Data Recovery Services are usually performed when the software to recover data is unable to recover your data or the complexity of the damage to data is to such an extent that specialized attention of the data recovery technician is required. This generally happens in cases when your hard drive or storage media indicates the following symptoms:

* Clicking noise from the hard disk drive
* Lots of bad sectors
* S.M.A.R.T failure
* Drive not recognized by the BIOS
* Fire and water damage
* Hard disk component failure
* Computer is not bootable and many other undefined reasons.

The specialist data recovery service providers offer services to recover data from hard disks of desktops and laptops, RAIDs, Tape media, Pen drives, Zip drives, Compact disks, DVDs, Digital Cards, Memory Cards etc where data gets lost due to Logical and Physical crashes.

Always ensure that the data recovery company has a Class 100 Clean Room and lab to perform data recovery on your media, as this would increase the possibilities and assurance of recovery of your data.

Computer forensics has also indulged itself in data recovery services. This kind of investigation is required for legal argumentation in the cases of evidence recovery or to prove any case in court against any theft of data, digital fraud, unauthorized data duplication, bankruptcy data investigation, private investigation of personal computer - PDA, disloyal employees, forgeries, murder, industrial espionage, theft, assault, IP theft, computer break-ins, inappropriate internet usage, internet abuseFree Web Content, email abuse and there are endless reasons to carry out legal investigation on an employee or individuals computer system.

Data recovery services are the most efficient and economical way to recover your data and files. If you choose for data recovery services you can be assured that you will get back your data.

Conclusion:

Data Recovery has become essential activity for the people in the computer world. The valuable data can get corrupt or lost at any point of time or the partitions might become inaccessible. In these situation(s) you need to contact data recovery specialists.

The importance of data recovery can be measured by the number of organizations opting for data recovery services from the data recovery service providers.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

AuthorNeha Gupta

http://www.recoveryfix.com

What is Data Recovery? - A brief Introduction

Data Recovery is the process of retrieval of inaccessible or corrupt data from digital media that has become damaged in some way. Data Recovery can be used to recover data from devices as varied as Hard Disk Drives, Memory Cards, Tapes, Mobile Phones, Personal Digital Assistants, Floppy Disk’s, CD’s, DVD’s, Data Cartridges, Xbox’s and many more items.

Data Recovery may be needed for reasons as diverse as hardware failure, (the tape has been ‘chewed’ up, the hard disk drive has failed, the user has maliciously damaged the computer or digital device, or it could have suffered fire or flood damage). All of these instances will require the services of a professional data recovery company if the data was of such value (be it sentimental or financial) that the cost of the services are less than the perceived value of the data which is no longer accessible.

It is not just businesses who are at risk from Data loss. Clients requiring data recovery come from all walks of life, including large corporates, smaller businesses, and the self employed to “joe public” who, with the introduction and subsequent boom in the use of digital cameras etc to record holidays and special occasions may have lost anything from sentimental data to critical e-mails, and personal account details. Students are often grouped under this heading too.

There are numerous ways that Data can be recovered from digital media which can vary greatly, the simplest method can often involve the running of basic software on the storage medium in question. This is always a dangerous idea, because the recovery data could overwrite the very data that is being recovered. More complex commercial software tools are available which will do this job more professionally. No software fix should be attempted prior to the original media being imaged, enabling the recovering company to work on a ‘back-up’ of the original software. The most professional companies will also take a second image should there be a problem with the first image that is being worked on for recovery.

The next problem is what happens when the hard disk or storage device doesn’t work. For the smaller ‘Data Recovery Companies’, this is a problem, and it is when the more serious Data Recovery Companies get involved, (such as Disklabs, http://www.disklabs.com ), who specialise in higher end Data Retrievals. It is always recommended that the most critical work should be sent to a true data recovery specialist, (check out the accreditations - ensure the specialist has ISO9001-2000 Quality Assurance status, and is certified to ISO BE EN 14644 to ensure that their clean facility is at the correct level for intrusive data recovery work, find out how long that company has been trading, and check their testimonials). Once you have found the company that you are happy with, if the data storage device doesn’t work, there is a high likelihood that the digital media will require spare parts, this is where organisations such as 1st Computer Traders Ltd, ( http://www.1ct.com ) are of service. Organisations such as 1CT sell spare parts for hard disk drives to organisations such as Disklabs, ( http://www.disklabs.com ) enabling them to get the original data accessible for long enough to image the data onto a stable storage device, enabling that data to be duplicated again which in turn allows a safe recovery attempt to be achieved.

The data recovery job is generally finished when a list of all the recovered files is sent to the client. Once the client approves this file listing, they are then shipped the data of an appropriate media. This can be a hard disk drive, floppy disk, CD or DVD. Alternatively, if a file is considered critical, it can be encrypted and then emailed to the client.

It should be noted that in extreme cases it may be impossible to recover any data, however the bottom line isFeature Articles, as soon as you have lost data you should power off your device and send it to a professional Data Recovery Company to optimise your chances of a successful recovery.

Simon Steggles
Disklabs Data Recovery and Computer Forensics Services

www.disklabs.com
www.mobilephoneforensics.com
www.1ct.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Simon Steggles is a Director of Disklabs and also a director of 1st Computer Traders Ltd, (www.1ct.com). Disklabs are data recovery and computer forensics specialists, 1CT.com specialise in hard disk drive repair.

What is data recovery?

Data recovery is the retrieval of inaccessible or contaminated data from media that has been damaged in some way. Data recovery is being increasingly used and is an important process nowadays.

There has been a lot of progress in increasing the memory capacity of data storage devices. Therefore data loss from any one incident also tends to be very high. The relevance of lost data can vary greatly. Maybe you have had the experience of storing a homework assignment on a floppy disk only to have it missing on the day the assignment in due.

Consider the fact that a large amount of businesses nowadays have vital organizational related data stored on machines. Also hospitals store data on patients on computers. Large amounts of websites nowadays use databases technology to enhance their websites and make them more dynamic. Php and MySql use has been on the rise on the Internet. Database failure is not uncommon and so it is not a fail proof method of storing information.

Companies have high reliance on computer technology to write and store data relevant to their business operations. Thus the data being stored can have a great deal of impact on personal lives and operations of companies.

There can be several causes of data loss.

Data loss can occur from unexpected incidences including national tragedies such as floods and earthquakes.

Often power failure can cause loss of data from hard drives. Sudden power surges can also cause a lot of damage to a computer's hard drive.

Accidentally deleting a file or formatting a hard drive or floppy disk is a common reason for data loss.

If you have accidentally lost any important documents there are several steps you can take. Remember that if you have accidentally erased a file, it may not have vanished from your computer. It may have left an imprint in a different format on the computer's hard drive or other storage devices. Recovering the data involves locating it and transforming it into human readable form.

Not all data may be recoverable.

You can either hire professional service to help you solve your problem or attempt a recovery on your own.

You can carry out data recovery operations on your own computer if you know what you are doing. There is data recovery software widely available that can assist you in the process.

Data recovery can become complicated if you overwrite on the storage device that has the lost data. Therefore if you do not know what you are doing, it is advisable to contact a professional service firm.

Data recovery professionals are experts in recovering data from all sorts of media and from a variety of damages done. There are many specialists out there who have years of experience in the IT field. The kind of data recovery operation to use will depend a great deal on the storage device and other variables such as the amount of damage done or the operation system used such as Macintosh, Windows or Linux.

There are some cases where it may be impossible to recover any data. However do not fret as the odds lie in your favor since a high percentage of data recovery operations are successful.

Preventing data loss

Of course the best way is to prevent data loss in the first place.

Data backup allows for restoring data if data loss occurs. Even ordinary pc users can set up their computer to carry out regularly scheduled backup operations. In the event of a hard drive crash or an unwise change in settings by an uninformed userFeature Articles, the restore tool can be used to retrieve deleted data or to restore the computer's settings from an earlier time.

For the back up process to be useful it should involve several reliable backup systems and performing drills to make sure the data is being stored correctly. Additional protection methods from data loss include making sure that the hard drive is protected from damages from the external environment. This includes protection from sunlight and temperature extremes.

Also plugging in your pc into a surge protector rather than an ordinary outlet can give your computer a protection layer from electricity fluctuations. Keep your virus protection up to date. Also remember to keep your backup data separate from your computer.

Nevertheless a lot of companies will go through a disaster and experience data loss. The best thing to do is not to panic and also not to ignore the situation. The quicker you rectify the situation the better. Counting on data loss will help you be prepared for any such event.



ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jakob Jelling is the founder of http://www.sitetube.com. Visit his website for the latest on planning, building, promoting and maintaining websites.

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