Data Loss Due to Natural and Man-made Disasters

But, if they do strike, they usually cause a large amount of damage and recovery of data is usually not possible. Also, they strike without any warning and hence, it is always beneficial to be proactive and have sufficient protection against them thus ensuring the safety of your data. Let us have a look at each of these disasters in turn and gain some information about the damage caused by them.

Types of Disasters

Floods: Even a small amount of water can cause a large amount of damage to your computer. In case of floods, there is a possibility of your entire computer being submerged in water and it is likely that it will stay so for a few days. Thus, even if some amount of water is left in it, it will cause a short circuit that may lead to data loss. Even if your computer is dry, there is always the possibility of dust having accumulated inside it. This may lead to head crash (the read-write head of the hard drive touching the rotating part) etc.
Fire: This includes fires caused due to human errors or those that are caused intentionally i.e. arson. Even though the damage caused by fire is high, in many cases, recovery of data is still possible. This is so because even a small fire leads to the melting of the plastic components within your computer but, usually do not affect the metal areas. The measures taken to keep the fire under control may cause damage similar to that caused by floods viz. dirt and water accumulating within the devices.
Power Surges or Outage: These are most common among all the disasters that lead to data loss. These may be in the form of sparks within your computer, spikes in the current etc. that are in turn caused by irregular power supply, lightening etc. If the power surge is large in magnitude, it may cause physical damage to your equipment. But, more common ones are those that are small in magnitude and thus cause only logical damage. Data recovery in the latter case is often possible but cannot be guaranteed in case of physical damage.
Earthquakes: Earthquakes cause a lot of damage. This includes damages caused to computers and other data storage media as well. Data recovery is possible if the earthquakes are not severe in nature.
Terrorist Attacks: The loss of data due terrorist attacks has come into the limelight especially after the 9/11 attack on World Trade Centre. Such attacks can lead to fire, explosion, etc. resulting in data loss that usually makes the data irrecoverable.

These are some of the disasters that may lead to data loss. As most of them are not avoidable, backup of data is the essential to ensure the safety of your data. Information about the type of backup to be used in these cases has been provided below.

Data Backup to Ensure Safety Against Data Loss From Disasters

These disasters usually strike at a particular area (simultaneous disasters at more than one location are unlikely) and hence, are likely to affect all your computers, local server (if any) and the data backup media that are stored at your workplace. Hence, localised data backup does not prove to be useful in case of such disasters and remote backup of data is essential.

The term ?Remote Backup? implies storing the data at a different geographical location. Such backup can be achieved by manually transferring the data to a different location or by making use of the internet. These days, there are many companies that offer online remote backup. This proves to be convenient as the process does not require any human involvement at all and even provides immediate backup of data which proves to be useful as these disasters often strike without warning.

As this process is usually expensive, small businesses may not always be able to avail it. If such is the case, it is advisable to backup the most important data that you have at a different location.

Thus, it can be seen that recovery of data from the original media is usually impossible in case of such disasters and backup of data is the only solution.

How to recover lost photos

It happens all too often. You're downloading your latest snaps from your digital camera, and the computer freezes. After you restart and try again, there appear to be no pictures in the camera. Or perhaps the photos were on your hard drive and you deleted them accidentally, or you didn't have a backup and your hard drive failed.

Whatever the cause, there is no reason to panic. The computer may no longer be able to find your pictures, but it's unusual for a fault to completely wipe them from the storage card or disk. With the aid of some inexpensive data recovery software, you're almost certain to be able to get your photos back.

There are many data recovery programs on the market, but for photo recovery I strongly advise using software specifically designed to recover digital images. This kind of software has several benefits, not least the ability to show a preview of every recovered image. Often, data recovery tools find files that look like they might have been a digital image, but aren't. The preview feature saves you wasting time recovering files that turn out to be junk.

Another advantage of specialised photo recovery software is that it looks only for photo image file types. It knows what JPEG and other image files look like on disk. This improves the chances of a successful recovery, and reduces the number of junk files that are found.

Modern data recovery software is easy enough to use that anyone can do it. You just start the software and tell the program where the drive containing the missing images is. The software scans the drive looking for the patterns that it recognizes as photo image files. When it has finished, it will display a list of files, with thumbnail images showing the content. All you have to do is select the photos you want to recover, and safe them to a safe place on your hard disk.

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.

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