Monday, April 2, 2007

Tips To Help With Hard Disk Recovering

By: Gregg Hall

IMPORTANT: Before attempting any recovery, make sure you have a viable back up copy of the information on your computer. It is essential to do a back up at least once a month, though every week is better in some cases. If you own a business, you need to have back ups.

Back up your data on disks, tapes, or sometimes on another computer and then transfer information. It is best to have a back up on a permanent disk or tape, however. Not having a back up can destroy your business.

Obviously, it is easier to manage a hard disk drive recovery on a personal computer over a business computer. Businesses demand access to their former records and programs in order to function. If you are a business, you should rely on daily or weekly back ups.

On a personal computer, items like favorite web pages, email addresses, financial records, and other documents risk destruction in a hard drive failure. These are items that you will want back ups.

Businesses are a little trickier. Software, financial documents, business databases, personnel records, customer records, and tax information are commonly stored on a hard drive. If one employee's computer crashes it is a manageable event. If the entire server crashes, it can take hours, possibly days for a computer system to be up and running again. This can be costly to any business.

Hard disk recoveries require your system to be erased and then items are reinstalled one by one. All programs have to be reinstalled. Information is added back in. It is a time consuming process that any computer expert dreads.

There is a way to eliminate a good deal of the hassle involved with a hard drive recovery. Instead of relying on your own back ups, there are companies who charge a minimal fee to go in and perform back ups for you. They keep these back ups stored in their location. If a system restore is necessary, they can then have you link to their website and transfer all your information to the correct folders and files.

To perform a hard disk recovery, you usually run a software program that restores it for you. There are online programs that will keep your data stored safely offsite with their company. Using one of these programs can save time and money. Instead of having to restore items one by one, you can retrieve pertinent information from their company.

Instead of dealing with the incredible stress and excruciating headaches that a hard drive failure can cause, why not have a solid back up available? A world of pressure can be removed from your shoulders by relying in a firm specializing in system back ups.

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All You Need To Know About Data Recovery

Sometimes, every computer user will experience the trials and tribulations of hard drive failure. The reasons behind it vary, and could include everything from a human error to damages resulting from flood or water. Viruses can play a role as well, along with many, many other factors. For many years, the need to recover data that has been lost or destroyed has made data recovery such a very valuable asset.

Today almost all hard drives can be recovered. Normally, if the drive is making a ticking or a scratching noise, you can use certain software programs to recover the data. Sometimes, due to age or bad parts, the aperture arm in the hard drive can fail, or the platters can become damaged and lose the data that they hold. If you can’t recover the information with software, you’ll need to send the hard drive off and have it either rebuilt or have technicians recover your data.

Data recovery is always an option, from hard drives that are 1 GB in size to the largest of over 600 GB or more of data. No matter what size hard drive you have, the data can generally be recovered. Keep in mind that if you’ve had a computer crash, you’ll need to send the hard drive off to have the data recovered by technicians.

One of the key benefits of data recovery is the fact that information can also be retrieved from the recycle bin as well. Partition recovery, and even information that has been lost somewhere on the disk can be retrieved as well. Even though it may seem like your data is gone forever - the technicians that specialize in data recovery can retrieve it.

From Windows to Mac, everything can be recovered. There are different filing structures and formats, including NTFS and FAT32. These are common Windows filing structures, and hold all of the information for your hard.

Those of you who have multiple hard drives in your computer, can rest assured that RAID configurations can also be recovered. If a single hard drive on the RAID configuration fails, the RAID setup will absorb the blow and there won’t be a loss of data. On the other hand, if the entire RAID configuration crashes, it will crash big time. Whenever this happens, you’ll need to send it off and have technicians restore both the RAID hardware and software.

Anytime your hard drive happens to crash or malfunction, data recovery is there to help you get back your files. Whether they are personally files or very important files that are need for business - you can put your trust in data recovery and know that you’ll get everything the back the way it was.

By: ArtL

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Best way to prevent data loss.

Author: Vitali Priadkine

How can we protect ourselves from a sudden hard drive crash? One of the ways is through SMART (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology) by predicting future failures.


Many computer users take hard drive reliability for granted, not even thinking about minimal possibility of drive crash. They suppose that hard disk drive manufacturers have done a great improvement to their products towards disk reliability. And they have, but the reality is that all disks die eventually. Even if you have a recent backup, sudden disk failure is a minor catastrophe. How can we protect ourselves from a sudden hard drive crash? One of the ways is through SMART (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology) by predicting future failures.

The essential moment is that the user should understand how drives fail and why. There are two classes of failures the hard disk can suffer: unpredictable and predictable.
Unpredictable failures happen suddenly, without warning and can be caused by catastrophic events, handling damage, static electricity or an electronic component burning out, and there is nothing that can be done to foresee or stay away from them.
Predictable ones are 60% mechanical and occur gradually over time. The degradation of drive performance may include head crashes, head contamination, bad solder joints, bad curcuit board connections, motor break down, worn down bearing, spinning inability, excessive run out, bad servo positioning.
Most hard drives lose their performance slowly, and the disk is able to monitor and diagnose many elements’ condition through SMART, providing an early warning for many types of problems. When a potential problem is detected, the drive can be repaired or replaced before any loss of data.

This technology has developed to be industry standard for drive manufacturers and allows checking hard drive status, reporting it and providing some estimation for future failure date. SMART has been able to predict a gradual degradation of the disk. The original SMART spec (SFF-8035i) was written by a group of disk drive manufacturers. In 1995, parts of SFF-8035i were merged into the ATA-3 standard. Starting with the ATA-4 standard, the requirement for the disks to maintain an internal Attribute table was dropped. Instead, now, the disks simply return an OK or NOT OK response to an inquiry about their health. A negative response indicates that the disk firmware has determined that the disk is likely to fail. The ATA-5 standard added an ATA error log and commands to run disk self-tests to the SMART command set.

Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology systems (SMART) are built in to most modern ATA and SCSI hard disks. SMART disk drives internally monitor their own health and performance. SMART technology features include a set of attributes, which determine reliability-prediction parameters of drive and should not be exceeded under normal operation. Each attribute has an identification number (ID). Some types of reliability parameters are:
- Distance between the heads and the disk platters;
- Faulty sectors;
- Recalibration;
- Drive spin-up time;
- Drive temperature;
- Characteristics of the media;
- Motor and servomechanisms.
Attribute value is a positive integral number, usually in the range from 1 to 253. Initially, all attributes have maximum values. A value of 100 or 200 will often be chosen as the "normal" value. Some attributes are considered life-critical and others are just "informative". In case of hard drive wearing or when some components of the disk are about to fail, attributes indicate decreasing amount of values. Consequently, high values determine high reliability of the drive and low values – low reliability or high possibility of drive failure. Specific threshold is assigned to each attribute. Once the value drops below this threshold, SMART considers the disk to be faulty, which means it becomes very dangerous to store data on this drive.

Currently, the SMART system can detect about 70% of all hard drive errors.

Its main shortcoming is that it doesn't provide a direct mechanism for informing the OS or the user if problems are found. In fact, because disk SMART status is frequently not monitored, many disk problems go undetected until they lead to a catastrophic failure.
Monitoring a drive's behavior, SMART has the purpose of warning a user about the threat of drive collapse while time remains to take preventive action, such as back up the data to a replacement device. So why not use SMART monitor programs freely available on Internet to cut these problems off at the pass?


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Rescue your data

Loss of data from hard drive or a hard drive malfunction may prove detrimental to the prospects of your business. But data recovery from damaged hard drives is possible if you know what to do and whose help to ask for.

The biggest question is to what extent can data be recovered successfully. Server databases of up to forty-six gigabytes have been recovered. Data have also been recovered from hard drives damaged due to fire or flood.

Data loss attributable to human error or minor system malfunction, without damage to the hard disk, is recoverable by using data recovery software available in the market. Data is often erased accidentally and cannot be found even in the Recycle Bin. This recovery software provides an 'un-erase' feature that will allow you to retrieve data from your hard drive. There are many recovery utilities available on the internet that can be downloaded for free but they provide limited features than the paid versions. The most popular are McAfee Utilities, Gateway GoBack, Ontrack System Suite and Norton SystemWorks that can cost anything between $40 and $60.

However, if the problem is more serious than a mere loss of data, then it is advisable to send the hard drive to a reputable data recovery service provider. If you are having problems with a damaged hard disk, the best thing to do will be to leave it alone and send it to the recovery service provider. People have been known to install recovery utilities on the damaged hard drive but only to worsen the damage. If you are keen on trying to recover the data on your own, then first attach the damaged hard disk to another computer and use as a secondary slave disk before trying to retrieve the data.

Before sending the damaged hard drive for data recovery service, the reputation of the service provider should be taken into account. Companies that have established their credibility in this field should be your first choice. It is also advisable that you ask for an estimate of the cost and time within which the recovery process would be done. Usually, it takes 3 to 5 days for the process to be completed. Depending on the complexity of the problem the cost may be between $300 and $2500. Some of the more established data recovery companies are Ontrack, CBL Data Recovery Technologies, Vogon International, Data Recovery Clinic and Action Front though this is not an exhaustive list.

Though there are ways to recover data, there is no harm in taking measures beforehand. Important data, especially server databases, should always be backed up and businesses should assess the risk involved to take proper preventive measures.

By: Sue Jan -

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Hard Drive Mirroring “a Good Way To Protect Your Data”

Mirroring is the automated process of writing data to two drives simultaneously. Mirroring is used to provide redundancy. If one drive fails, the redundant drive will continue to store the data and provide access to it. The failed drive can then be replaced and the drive set can be re-mirrored.

This is quick how to setup your mirroring with two exactly the same hard disks. It assumes you're building a new system from scratch, and setup mirroring at install time. But let's get something straight first: Software mirroring does not mirror the disks - it mirrors partitions. Thanks to Ed Wilts from Redhat General Newsgroups for this remark. So in this guide I'll show you how to setup your partitions on one disk and mirror them to another. After that, we will learn how to rebuild our mirrored partitions after one disk dies.

Need of Software Mirroring

Mirroring is an easy way of protecting the data, from beeing lost from disk crash. For example, If you keep your private stuff on one partition you can mirror this partition to another on the second drive, and if one disk fails, you will not lose your data, since you have the exact same copy of your files on the second disk. The same goes for the whole filesystem. If you setup mirroring correct, you might never have to reinstall your system again.

Software Mirroring vs. Hardware Mirroring

• Disk mirroring can be implemented entirely in software. Software mirroring can be less expensive, but it is also slower. Software mirroring requires the host computer to write the mirrored data twice.

• Disk mirroring can be implemented in hardware on the host I/O controller. The burden of writing each bit of data twice is placed upon the I/O controller, which is specifically designed for it.

• Disk mirroring can also be implemented in hardware on an external storage device, such as a RAID array. In this case, mirroring is completely removed from the hosts responsibility

Benefits of Software Mirroring

• Data is backed up as changes are made keeping the backup copy current.

• Immediate access of an up-to-date remote data backup in case of local server failure.

• Rapid disk to disk data recovery from the central server to remote server.

• When data is restored, data loss is reduced to a minimum.

• Continuous real-time disk to disk backup operation minimizes impact on network performance.

• Backup windows all but eliminated.

• Provides 24X7 data availability and disaster recovery.

By: subhash

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Tips For Buying An External Hard Disk

By: Cedric Dirose


The first external harddrive which first hit the market, was large, clunky, slow and very expensive. Like most aspects of the world of computer technology, however, the prices of these external had drives have steadily fallen, even as the speed, reliability and storage capacity has increased so greatly. While the storage capacity of the first external hard drives was measured in mere megabytes, today most external hard drives are capable of holding hundreds of gigabytes worth of data.

There are a number of reasons why a computer owner would opt to buy an external harddrive instead of installing a secondary hard drive inside the computer case. One of the most significant benefits, of course, is that of convenience and simplicity. After all, many computer users are simply not comfortable opening the cases of their computer and installing additional hardware. When you opt for an external rather than an internal hard drive you do not need to crack the case; you simply need to plug it in and go.

Another great benefit of an external harddrive is its portability. Unlike internal hard drives, external hard drives can be moved from computer to computer in a matter of minutes, simply by unplugging them from one computer and plugging them into another. For this reason, external hard drives are often used in the business world, especially by traveling employees. Traveling employees can instantly sync up the data on an external hard drive with that on their desktop or laptop PC, and then easily transport that data anywhere in the world.

There are a number of things to consider when buying a new external hard drive, whether the drive is to be used for business or personal purposes. One consideration, of course, is that of price. While there used to be a huge price differential between internal and external hard drives, with external hard drives costing far more than internal had drives, these days the difference in price has dropped significantly, making an external harddrive a more realistic choice for more and more people.

Storage capacity, of course, is important as well. As with any type of hard drive, it is best to buy as large an external hard drive as you can afford. Even if you do not think you will ever need all those gigabytes of storage, it never hurts to have it available, and the price differential between large drives and smaller ones is generally quite low.

It is also important to look at the speed of the hard drive you are considering. The speed of the external hard drive will be expressed in RPMs, and the higher this number the faster the drive will be. In addition, you will see an average seek time number, expressed in milliseconds. The lower this number, the faster the drive should run, and this is an important consideration, especially for business users.

When the first external harddrive first hit the market, it was large, clunky, slow and very expensive. Like most aspects of the world of computer technology, however, the prices of these external had drives have steadily fallen, even as the speed, reliability and storage capacity has increased so greatly.

Cedric has been a technical writer of a computer magazine for over 6 years. He also has a website that helps people with their technical computer problems as well external hard drive reviews. Visit http://www.altsyssoft.com for a technical priority list on what items to look for when choosing a hard drive for your new computer.
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Not too late to recover your data

 Data recovery can save a majority of your data information, in the form of hard drives, zip disks, CDs, DVDs, and other means of storage. Data recovery is very common these days, as it can help you get back on track after your hard drive crash or other means of destruction to your data.

On the professional side of things, there are a lot of companies out there who excel in data recovery. They have technicians who are experts in recovering your data, and spend a majority of their time working on hard drives. Recovering the information from a hard drive can be a very time consuming process, all depending on just how bad the drive has been damaged. If the hard drive is damaged physical or the sectors have been damaged, some of the data that was stored on it may be lost forever.

If you take immediate action and seek a repair service for your hard drive, you just may be able to save everything. In the result of a crash, virus, accidental deletion, or other disaster, you shouldn’t waste any time at all. You should always look into a company, preferably local, that can help you with your hard drive. The company will first do an evaluation on the hard drive, then contact you and discuss what options you have available with you.

To safely and efficiently recover your data using software, companies have a few choices they can use. Below, you’ll find some software examples that companies use to recover lost data on hard drives.

FIRE recovery

FIRE is a bootable program that can immediately take action with data recovery. It can also assist with virus scans, incident response, and forensic analysis. FIRE is a very common program, widely used by data recovery specialists around the world.

LDE recovery

Known as Linux Disc Editor, the LDE method of recovery was originally created for recovering lost files in Linux. It is an older method of software and data recovery, which proved to be very beneficial to those who used Linux.

NT recovery

The software for NT data recovery provides the proper read access for hard drives that are set up with NTFS in the Windows or MS DOS environment. This software is among the most popular for data recovery technicians, allowing them to copy files from NTFS to FAT volumes.

The above examples are all but a few among the software recovery methods. Software recovery can work with most hard drives, if they aren’t too badly damaged. If the hard drive has been damaged by flood, fire, or other physical damage, it will probably need to be rebuilt. Again, if you don’t waste in time seeking a technician, you may be able to get everything fixed. Rebuilding the hard drive will take quite a bit of time, as the technician will have to go through every inch of the drive and replace the parts that have been damaged.

As important as your data is, it’s always in your best interest to get on the ball and don’t let any time be wasted. Time is always of the essence, especially when it comes to recovering all of your data and information. Time will always prove to be the ultimate and deciding factor with your information - which is why you shouldn’t let one precious second be wasted whenever something happens to your hard drive.

By: Kanicen

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