Data management covers the entire system associated with organizing data as a helpful resource. Mainly, data management is the consolidation of information in such a way that data is easily maintained and capable of being retrieved when required.
The competitive environment requires businesses to capture, process, and study huge volumes of data. It may not always be possible for businesses to handle all the data that forms a part of their functioning. Apart from structured data, businesses are also required to deal with unstructured data in the form of e-mail, and images. These are to be stored for different strategic, trade and regulatory needs. Hence, businesses employ the services of data managers to handle their resources. Data management companies handle data with a comprehensive plan, which encompasses human as well as technological aspects. These aspects combine to achieve the basic aim of maintaining data without any fuss, and facilitating easy retrieval of data whenever required.
Data management companies assist businesses in developing policies and systems desirable to identify and exploit market opportunities. They help businesses in satisfying the changing demands of customers. These companies have professional specialists who have years of expertise in this field. They aid businesses in obtaining, replicating, transforming, and managing data to provide it to executives for the purpose of decision-making.
Data management companies also deal with data mining. Data mining utilizes computing power and highly developed analytical techniques to determine useful pattern relationships from large databases of the customers.
Data management companies can mine the data of their clients, or the data that they collected from their clients. Most importantly, they can show their clients how to understand data and use it to their best advantage. The data mining services offered by companies combine leading tools and statistical analysis techniques to create strategic intelligence from corporate data. This involves examining historical detail transactions to identify trends and establish and disclose hidden relationships for future predictability.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Five Steps to Data Storage
Wayne Hall examines how DVD and Blu Ray discs are becoming a real option for firms seeking long term storage.
Microboards's storage specialist Wayne Hall discusses some of the key points to address when planning your organization's storage system.
Storage is a complex business these days. Businesses face an almost overwhelming choice of differing technologies and vendors, and it can be very difficult to separate marketing hype from fact and decide which systems are the best for your organization's requirements. The situation is further exacerbated by the increasingly complex raft of corporate governance legislation and industry regulation that businesses must comply with, since much of this involves a large degree of data retention which requires a robust long term storage solution.
Before rushing into a decision about which solution to invest in, and potentially making a costly mistake, it's wise to assess the company's specific requirements, in a step-by-step process taking into account: business needs, the regulatory environment and the budget available. Here are some points to consider:
• Can you afford to be locked into a proprietary system or a specific supplier?
Not all storage devices make it easy to transfer their media to an alternative device. If the hardware you are considering fails, how easy will it be to remove the physical media and load it onto a replacement device? Worse still, if the hardware supplier should ever go out of business, will it be possible to transfer your backup media to third party hardware?
• How long do industrial or company regulations require data to be held?
Longevity is a serious issue. Systems which rely on magnetic media such as tape or hard discs are prone to corruption due to electromagnetic interference, and mechanical failure. This means that the data they store will have to migrated to new systems at regular intervals, two to three times per decade in order to maintain data integrity; this can add significantly to the total cost of ownership. Optical media offers a far greater lifespan, with DVD and Blu-Ray often certified to last up to 50 years and with the new technology available there is practically zero chance of corruption.
• Where will the hardware reside?
Server rooms are often in basements that may be vulnerable to flooding, or physical storage areas where they are susceptible to being knocked around. What would happen if the data storage unit was physically damaged – would the data survive? Server rooms can also generate a lot of hear and it they are individually cooled, the risk of a system failure is significantly increased, so they require air conditioning systems which can be expensive to install and run.
• How quick and easy does the retrieval process need to be?
This can be influenced by the number of drivers, from compliance requirements to simple business logistics. How often is it likely that stored data will need to be retrieved, and how quickly does the retrieval request need to be fulfilled? Tape backup systems can be slow at the best of times and a high number of retrieval requests can really grind things to a halt. Hard Disks and DVD/Blu-Ray Libraries offer much faster data retrieval and are better at handling higher volumes.
• What is the budget available?
Will the budget for the project be enough to buy the right kind and the necessary volume of storage? While the traditional storage technologies such as Tape and Hard Disk have held the upper hand over DVD in terms of storage capacity; the arrival of Blu-Ray has completely altered the landscape and future developments such as holography promise to provide even more competition. Currently the cost per GB favours Tape and HDD, however with Blu-Ray media costs predicted to fall consistently, it will only be a matter of months before Blu-Ray media becomes more competitive. On the hardware side, Blu-Ray already offers a lower total cost of ownership per GB than either Tape or HDD systems. DVD/Blu-Ray storage libraries offer solid, reliable long term storage, faster retrieval times that tape based systems and because they're based on such a ubiquitous media format, there are no worries about future compatibility problems.
Microboards's storage specialist Wayne Hall discusses some of the key points to address when planning your organization's storage system.
Storage is a complex business these days. Businesses face an almost overwhelming choice of differing technologies and vendors, and it can be very difficult to separate marketing hype from fact and decide which systems are the best for your organization's requirements. The situation is further exacerbated by the increasingly complex raft of corporate governance legislation and industry regulation that businesses must comply with, since much of this involves a large degree of data retention which requires a robust long term storage solution.
Before rushing into a decision about which solution to invest in, and potentially making a costly mistake, it's wise to assess the company's specific requirements, in a step-by-step process taking into account: business needs, the regulatory environment and the budget available. Here are some points to consider:
• Can you afford to be locked into a proprietary system or a specific supplier?
Not all storage devices make it easy to transfer their media to an alternative device. If the hardware you are considering fails, how easy will it be to remove the physical media and load it onto a replacement device? Worse still, if the hardware supplier should ever go out of business, will it be possible to transfer your backup media to third party hardware?
• How long do industrial or company regulations require data to be held?
Longevity is a serious issue. Systems which rely on magnetic media such as tape or hard discs are prone to corruption due to electromagnetic interference, and mechanical failure. This means that the data they store will have to migrated to new systems at regular intervals, two to three times per decade in order to maintain data integrity; this can add significantly to the total cost of ownership. Optical media offers a far greater lifespan, with DVD and Blu-Ray often certified to last up to 50 years and with the new technology available there is practically zero chance of corruption.
• Where will the hardware reside?
Server rooms are often in basements that may be vulnerable to flooding, or physical storage areas where they are susceptible to being knocked around. What would happen if the data storage unit was physically damaged – would the data survive? Server rooms can also generate a lot of hear and it they are individually cooled, the risk of a system failure is significantly increased, so they require air conditioning systems which can be expensive to install and run.
• How quick and easy does the retrieval process need to be?
This can be influenced by the number of drivers, from compliance requirements to simple business logistics. How often is it likely that stored data will need to be retrieved, and how quickly does the retrieval request need to be fulfilled? Tape backup systems can be slow at the best of times and a high number of retrieval requests can really grind things to a halt. Hard Disks and DVD/Blu-Ray Libraries offer much faster data retrieval and are better at handling higher volumes.
• What is the budget available?
Will the budget for the project be enough to buy the right kind and the necessary volume of storage? While the traditional storage technologies such as Tape and Hard Disk have held the upper hand over DVD in terms of storage capacity; the arrival of Blu-Ray has completely altered the landscape and future developments such as holography promise to provide even more competition. Currently the cost per GB favours Tape and HDD, however with Blu-Ray media costs predicted to fall consistently, it will only be a matter of months before Blu-Ray media becomes more competitive. On the hardware side, Blu-Ray already offers a lower total cost of ownership per GB than either Tape or HDD systems. DVD/Blu-Ray storage libraries offer solid, reliable long term storage, faster retrieval times that tape based systems and because they're based on such a ubiquitous media format, there are no worries about future compatibility problems.
Truths About Data Recovery Software
There may have been instances in your life or career where your day starts with a hard disk crash or a physical memory dump. If it hasn’t happened to you yet, it can happen anytime and catch you completely unawares. It can be very frustrating to loose all the important data, those great presentations, client briefs, portfolio, 3 years of research etc. If you install data recovery software on your PC, then you can retrieve all the lost data. A computer is not a perfect machine and the fear of data loss is real. Hence, we are going to share some tips and useful information on data recovery software with you.
Why is Data Recovery Software important?
Data recovery is important because most of the data on your PC or Laptop is valuable. But what is data recovery? It is retrieval of almost all the data that has been accidentally deleted from your computer or has been erased due to a hard disk error, virus attack, or bad script. You can use DOS commands to retrieve data but it will be partial recovery only. So the best solution is to have data recovery software that can retrieve the full data or undo the loss.
Most of the data recovery software available in the market can recover data from corrupted file systems like Windows (FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, NTFS5), Unix (UFS, EAFS, HTFS, VxFS, FFS), Linux (Ext2, Ext3, JFS, ReiserFS), Apple Macintosh (HFS, HFS+) and Novell Netware (NWFS, Net386, NSS). The data recovery software can also recover data from corrupt access databases, corrupt zip files, word documents and excel files.
Which data recovery software should I use and why?
There are many firms who sell data recovery services, but there are many brands who sell data recovery software. At times, it can be difficult to decide, which product will satisfy your need or requirements completely. One such data recovery software is The Undelete 3.1.1. The salient points of the software are that it is easy-to-use and it can provide a powerful backup program for Windows 95/98ME/NT/2000/XP. This data recovery software can work with FTP, local networks and even CD-R/W. It is useful data recovery software that applies powerful algorithms and methods and it can recover files that have been damaged, lost or deleted due to a power supply failure, program bugs or virus attacks. The Undelete 3.1.1 data recovery software can recover files with extensions like DOC, PDF, RTF, XLS, MDB, PPT, Visio, CSV, HTML, TXT, CPP, PAS, EML, and INI. It can also recover audio and video files with extension MP3, WAV, AVI, WMA, MPG, MOV, and ASF.
There are also data recovery software’s, which have specific use based on platforms, files and functions. You will find data recovery software that offers a range of file system utilities as well as data recovery service. These services enhance recovery of lost data due logical hard drive failures.
What should I look for in Data recovery software?
When you go out in the market to search for data recovery software, you should be able to compare various products based on five important features. These are:
Feature Set
Ease of Use/Installation
Recovery Effectiveness
Search Capabilities
Help/Documentation
The bottom line is that basic data recovery software should be able to recover Compressed Files, and Encrypted Files, should provide email recovery, network recovery and create image files. It should be able to recover from the recycle bin, damaged files, power failure, Format Disk, changed, or deleted partition, disks with bad sectors etc. It should support file systems like NTFS5, NTFS, FAT32, FAT16, and FAT12 as well.
Why is Data Recovery Software important?
Data recovery is important because most of the data on your PC or Laptop is valuable. But what is data recovery? It is retrieval of almost all the data that has been accidentally deleted from your computer or has been erased due to a hard disk error, virus attack, or bad script. You can use DOS commands to retrieve data but it will be partial recovery only. So the best solution is to have data recovery software that can retrieve the full data or undo the loss.
Most of the data recovery software available in the market can recover data from corrupted file systems like Windows (FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, NTFS5), Unix (UFS, EAFS, HTFS, VxFS, FFS), Linux (Ext2, Ext3, JFS, ReiserFS), Apple Macintosh (HFS, HFS+) and Novell Netware (NWFS, Net386, NSS). The data recovery software can also recover data from corrupt access databases, corrupt zip files, word documents and excel files.
Which data recovery software should I use and why?
There are many firms who sell data recovery services, but there are many brands who sell data recovery software. At times, it can be difficult to decide, which product will satisfy your need or requirements completely. One such data recovery software is The Undelete 3.1.1. The salient points of the software are that it is easy-to-use and it can provide a powerful backup program for Windows 95/98ME/NT/2000/XP. This data recovery software can work with FTP, local networks and even CD-R/W. It is useful data recovery software that applies powerful algorithms and methods and it can recover files that have been damaged, lost or deleted due to a power supply failure, program bugs or virus attacks. The Undelete 3.1.1 data recovery software can recover files with extensions like DOC, PDF, RTF, XLS, MDB, PPT, Visio, CSV, HTML, TXT, CPP, PAS, EML, and INI. It can also recover audio and video files with extension MP3, WAV, AVI, WMA, MPG, MOV, and ASF.
There are also data recovery software’s, which have specific use based on platforms, files and functions. You will find data recovery software that offers a range of file system utilities as well as data recovery service. These services enhance recovery of lost data due logical hard drive failures.
What should I look for in Data recovery software?
When you go out in the market to search for data recovery software, you should be able to compare various products based on five important features. These are:
Feature Set
Ease of Use/Installation
Recovery Effectiveness
Search Capabilities
Help/Documentation
The bottom line is that basic data recovery software should be able to recover Compressed Files, and Encrypted Files, should provide email recovery, network recovery and create image files. It should be able to recover from the recycle bin, damaged files, power failure, Format Disk, changed, or deleted partition, disks with bad sectors etc. It should support file systems like NTFS5, NTFS, FAT32, FAT16, and FAT12 as well.
Backing Up Your Data to Prevent Losing It!
Developing a disaster prevention and recovery plan, often the most overlooked or outdated of any business plan, can be the difference between keeping your company in the black and closing your doors forever.
The fact is that US businesses lose over $12 billion per year because of data loss. To prevent such costly loses to your business experts recommend backing up your critical files.
At very least, businesses should backup critical files on CDs or external USB hard drives on a regular basis. If a business’s data is updated on an hourly basis, it needs a more continuous data storage option. However, if backing up data on a daily or weekly basis will allow a business to retain all of its pertinent data, then that’s the best option.
The Products of Data Protection
There are several vital elements that come into play when it’s time to develop a data protection strategy. There are various data protection solutions—and a wide degree of costs associated with it—but they all come down to capacity, data transfer and data restoration.
Magnetic tapes are still the storage medium of choice for most businesses because they have a long shelf life that make archiving data reliable. Formerly, data transfer rates were relatively slow—11-30 megabytes per second. But high-end magnetic tape drives have more than double that speed and can store information in the terabytes.
Hard drives are a cost-effective alternative to magnetic tapes and can be protected with RAID to ensure hardware fault tolerance, something that magnetic tape backup doesn’t offer.
The key to both media is offsite storage. Because fires, floods and other natural disasters can wreck havoc on your equipment, giving IT managers the ability to recover most of the data from an off-site location is key to a successful data protection strategy. Co-located servers and storage methods will be unusable.
While it is always a good idea to backup your critical data, if your data is stored at the same location as your server—and you experience a natural disaster, a fire or flood—the odds are that you will still require data recovery on the hard drives, or tape restoration to get your data restored.
The Downtime of Data Restoration
The magnetic tape drives and hard drives are common ways to make sure you’ll always have critical data to run your business. But since data recovery takes time, you need to consider restoration time in your data protection strategy.
If your business can never suffer downtime, then perhaps you should consider remote mirroring or electronic vaulting. Like the storage media, both of these options have certain advantages.
With remote mirroring, you’re duplicating one or more disk arrays. You disassociate one at night and perform and offline backup of the array before re-associating it. The downtime is only 15 minutes in a 24 hour period.
The downside is that remote mirroring is expensive to implement because of the high-throughput network link and low latency that’s needed to maintain synchronous communications.
Reducing that expense is electronic vaulting, a method by which transactional information is written into log files, and is then forwarded to a backup site every few hours. Because of the asynchronous form of communication, bandwidth and latency requirements are less of an issue.
The Key of Data Strategy
Having what you believe to be an outstanding data backup system is likely not going to be useful unless testing it is part of your plan. Products, installation and maintenance make up only half of a data protection strategy.
Your test should verify how long it will take to recover data as well as if the backup process will corrupt the data. Recovery tests should be run fairly often—at least quarterly.
The fact is that US businesses lose over $12 billion per year because of data loss. To prevent such costly loses to your business experts recommend backing up your critical files.
At very least, businesses should backup critical files on CDs or external USB hard drives on a regular basis. If a business’s data is updated on an hourly basis, it needs a more continuous data storage option. However, if backing up data on a daily or weekly basis will allow a business to retain all of its pertinent data, then that’s the best option.
The Products of Data Protection
There are several vital elements that come into play when it’s time to develop a data protection strategy. There are various data protection solutions—and a wide degree of costs associated with it—but they all come down to capacity, data transfer and data restoration.
Magnetic tapes are still the storage medium of choice for most businesses because they have a long shelf life that make archiving data reliable. Formerly, data transfer rates were relatively slow—11-30 megabytes per second. But high-end magnetic tape drives have more than double that speed and can store information in the terabytes.
Hard drives are a cost-effective alternative to magnetic tapes and can be protected with RAID to ensure hardware fault tolerance, something that magnetic tape backup doesn’t offer.
The key to both media is offsite storage. Because fires, floods and other natural disasters can wreck havoc on your equipment, giving IT managers the ability to recover most of the data from an off-site location is key to a successful data protection strategy. Co-located servers and storage methods will be unusable.
While it is always a good idea to backup your critical data, if your data is stored at the same location as your server—and you experience a natural disaster, a fire or flood—the odds are that you will still require data recovery on the hard drives, or tape restoration to get your data restored.
The Downtime of Data Restoration
The magnetic tape drives and hard drives are common ways to make sure you’ll always have critical data to run your business. But since data recovery takes time, you need to consider restoration time in your data protection strategy.
If your business can never suffer downtime, then perhaps you should consider remote mirroring or electronic vaulting. Like the storage media, both of these options have certain advantages.
With remote mirroring, you’re duplicating one or more disk arrays. You disassociate one at night and perform and offline backup of the array before re-associating it. The downtime is only 15 minutes in a 24 hour period.
The downside is that remote mirroring is expensive to implement because of the high-throughput network link and low latency that’s needed to maintain synchronous communications.
Reducing that expense is electronic vaulting, a method by which transactional information is written into log files, and is then forwarded to a backup site every few hours. Because of the asynchronous form of communication, bandwidth and latency requirements are less of an issue.
The Key of Data Strategy
Having what you believe to be an outstanding data backup system is likely not going to be useful unless testing it is part of your plan. Products, installation and maintenance make up only half of a data protection strategy.
Your test should verify how long it will take to recover data as well as if the backup process will corrupt the data. Recovery tests should be run fairly often—at least quarterly.
OST File Recovery and PST File Recovery
Email communication has expanded itself from professionals to normal home users. As a child enters into teenage, he becomes familiar with the power and usefulness of email communication and uses emails to correspond within his circle of friends and relatives. If we quickly look at some of the public email portals like Yahoo, Hotmail, Rediff etc; it can be analyzed that these portals regularly increase email storage limits for its users and as long more space is provided will thus encourage the user to utilize it.
Email communication proves more useful in the corporate world where hundreds of emails are exchanged daily between the professionals. They could be meeting notices, memorandums, important business attachments or simple emails of well being. If the importance of email communication has increased, so has increased the importance of data storage and the level of corruptions of email messages. This importance has resulted into duplication of data and information, data archives, and waste of hard drive storage space.
Email Storage :
As you receive many emails in a day, have you ever wondered where these emails get stored? The answer could be an email server or on the user’s computer system. MS Outlook and Outlook Express are the widely used email clients because of their ease of use and user friendly features. While working on MS Outlook, the email files are stored in PST and OST file formats and an exchange server is maintained to handle the incoming and outgoing emails. Now arise the common questions; what is exchange server, .pst files and .ost files and how are they used to store emails?
Microsoft Exchange Server -
Microsoft Exchange Server is a messaging system which supports transfer of internal and external electronic messages. The application is widely used in organizations where Microsoft infrastructure solutions are used. The exchange server stores data in highly organized relational database with the help of algorithms thus helps in transfer of mails and manages communication between other Exchange servers also.
How does Exchange Server work?
As the Exchange server stores messages and manages incoming and outgoing process of emails, the working of the messaging server also becomes a crucial point. The process of receiving, sending and managing the messages by Exchange server is as follows:
Step 1: The client connects to the server and sends the message.
Step 2: The exchange server then processes the message and determines saving location in the messaging database.
Step 3: The recipient of the message is notified by the server.
Step 4: The client to receive the message connects to the server and receives the message.
The simple working of the exchange server makes it easy for us to send and receive messages, thus transferring data electronically.
MS Outlook – Personal Storage Files -
“The file where MS Exchange server delivers messages”
The Personal Storage File (.pst) is the most robust storage container of emails and MS Outlook has the ability to store and deliver messages in the .pst file format, other file types can also be stored inside the PST file. But the PST file can get corrupt due to accidental file deletion, virus attacks or it can get damaged internally causing into data loss. There are number of email recovery and pst recovery software which effectively recovers mails and data from the corrupt pst files.
MS Outlook – Offline Storage Files -
“The storage file where emails and other information can be stored, which can also be accessed offline.”
In the corporate arena, Exchange Servers are used to store email messages. The Outlook Offline Storage Folder (.OST) in Microsoft Outlook provides unique synchronization method with an Exchange Server and existing mailbox accounts. The OST file gets stored on a users computer system which constantly gets synchronized with the Exchange mailbox account, which results into duplication of data on exchange server and on the user’s system. Access to .ost file requires an Exchange mailbox account, and if the mailbox is damaged, missing or removed, the .ost file will not open. For this you need to convert the .ost file to .pst file on your own or try the exchange ost recovery software.
Here I would like to guide you with some simple steps, following which you can convert the damaged .ost file to .pst file successfully in Outlook 2002 or 2003. This is the method which worked for me:
1. Backup the ost file(s)
2. Rename the outlook.ost file to outlook.pst file
3. Use scanpst.exe from Outlook 2002 to repair the outlook.pst file. (C: Program FilesCommon FilesSystemMSMapi1033)
4. Rename outlook.pst back to outlook.ost
5. Run OST to PST which will then successfully convert the file to outlook.pst
6. MS Outlook will then open the outlook.pst file
OST/PST file formats are very complex and are designed around relational database concepts. The messages in these files are organized in hierarchical format using folders to store the messages. If the above mentioned steps do not work in your case of corruption, then it might be due to major corruption which can be effectively repaired by the ost recovery software. There are number of OST file recovery and PST file recovery software to convert and repair your damaged email files.
Nucleus Data Recovery: The Solution Provider
Nucleus Data Recovery is the premier provider of data recovery software and data recovery services. Kernel Recovery for OST is such corrupt ost recovery software which effectively converts .ost files to .pst files which become inaccessible due to virus attacks, exchange server crashes, accidental deletions and database corruptions. The pst recovery software effectively repairs outlook pst emails with complete emails, attachments, email properties etc. The ost conversion software is powerful and equipped with proprietary QFSCI technology to perform effective conversion and fast recovery of emails, attachments, images etc.
Email communication proves more useful in the corporate world where hundreds of emails are exchanged daily between the professionals. They could be meeting notices, memorandums, important business attachments or simple emails of well being. If the importance of email communication has increased, so has increased the importance of data storage and the level of corruptions of email messages. This importance has resulted into duplication of data and information, data archives, and waste of hard drive storage space.
Email Storage :
As you receive many emails in a day, have you ever wondered where these emails get stored? The answer could be an email server or on the user’s computer system. MS Outlook and Outlook Express are the widely used email clients because of their ease of use and user friendly features. While working on MS Outlook, the email files are stored in PST and OST file formats and an exchange server is maintained to handle the incoming and outgoing emails. Now arise the common questions; what is exchange server, .pst files and .ost files and how are they used to store emails?
Microsoft Exchange Server -
Microsoft Exchange Server is a messaging system which supports transfer of internal and external electronic messages. The application is widely used in organizations where Microsoft infrastructure solutions are used. The exchange server stores data in highly organized relational database with the help of algorithms thus helps in transfer of mails and manages communication between other Exchange servers also.
How does Exchange Server work?
As the Exchange server stores messages and manages incoming and outgoing process of emails, the working of the messaging server also becomes a crucial point. The process of receiving, sending and managing the messages by Exchange server is as follows:
Step 1: The client connects to the server and sends the message.
Step 2: The exchange server then processes the message and determines saving location in the messaging database.
Step 3: The recipient of the message is notified by the server.
Step 4: The client to receive the message connects to the server and receives the message.
The simple working of the exchange server makes it easy for us to send and receive messages, thus transferring data electronically.
MS Outlook – Personal Storage Files -
“The file where MS Exchange server delivers messages”
The Personal Storage File (.pst) is the most robust storage container of emails and MS Outlook has the ability to store and deliver messages in the .pst file format, other file types can also be stored inside the PST file. But the PST file can get corrupt due to accidental file deletion, virus attacks or it can get damaged internally causing into data loss. There are number of email recovery and pst recovery software which effectively recovers mails and data from the corrupt pst files.
MS Outlook – Offline Storage Files -
“The storage file where emails and other information can be stored, which can also be accessed offline.”
In the corporate arena, Exchange Servers are used to store email messages. The Outlook Offline Storage Folder (.OST) in Microsoft Outlook provides unique synchronization method with an Exchange Server and existing mailbox accounts. The OST file gets stored on a users computer system which constantly gets synchronized with the Exchange mailbox account, which results into duplication of data on exchange server and on the user’s system. Access to .ost file requires an Exchange mailbox account, and if the mailbox is damaged, missing or removed, the .ost file will not open. For this you need to convert the .ost file to .pst file on your own or try the exchange ost recovery software.
Here I would like to guide you with some simple steps, following which you can convert the damaged .ost file to .pst file successfully in Outlook 2002 or 2003. This is the method which worked for me:
1. Backup the ost file(s)
2. Rename the outlook.ost file to outlook.pst file
3. Use scanpst.exe from Outlook 2002 to repair the outlook.pst file. (C: Program FilesCommon FilesSystemMSMapi1033)
4. Rename outlook.pst back to outlook.ost
5. Run OST to PST which will then successfully convert the file to outlook.pst
6. MS Outlook will then open the outlook.pst file
OST/PST file formats are very complex and are designed around relational database concepts. The messages in these files are organized in hierarchical format using folders to store the messages. If the above mentioned steps do not work in your case of corruption, then it might be due to major corruption which can be effectively repaired by the ost recovery software. There are number of OST file recovery and PST file recovery software to convert and repair your damaged email files.
Nucleus Data Recovery: The Solution Provider
Nucleus Data Recovery is the premier provider of data recovery software and data recovery services. Kernel Recovery for OST is such corrupt ost recovery software which effectively converts .ost files to .pst files which become inaccessible due to virus attacks, exchange server crashes, accidental deletions and database corruptions. The pst recovery software effectively repairs outlook pst emails with complete emails, attachments, email properties etc. The ost conversion software is powerful and equipped with proprietary QFSCI technology to perform effective conversion and fast recovery of emails, attachments, images etc.
Friday, February 9, 2007
Causes and Symptoms of Data Loss
Causes and Symptoms of Data Loss
It’s a common belief that natural disasters account for most of the data lost in today’s corporate world. Disasters such as floods, fires, hurricanes, earthquakes and tornadoes, however, only account for 1% of all data lost in today’s businesses. In fact, human error—accidental deletions and overwrites—causes 10% more data loss than Mother Nature.
But the biggest cause of data loss in today’s businesses is equipment—both hardware crashes and software corruption. System failure accounts for 78% of all data losses while software corruption accounts for 7%.
Problems such as electrical damage and malicious behavior also contribute to hardware failures and software corruption, which leads to data loss.
Because data loss can come from any of these sources, it’s imperative to recognize the symptoms of potential problems and take action to correct it. The tips below tell you how to recognize a problem with your hardware and software so that you can take swift and appropriate action to save your data.
Hardware and Software-A Lethal Combination
Basically, if you notice anything abnormal with your hardware, you may be experiencing problems that could lead to data loss. In addition to sluggishly running system, one of the earliest symptoms of hardware failure is an unusual sound, such as:
The drive spinning up or down for no reason may indicate damage to heads or platters (data storage areas)
A clicking hard drive may indicate a head crash, corrupt firmware on the drive's ROM chip, an electrical problem like a burned chip, blown heads, a bad PCB controller, overwritten servo's, damage to the hard drive's platters and alignment issues from being dropped, jarred or a power surge.
Scrapping/grinding sounds means the BIOS does not recognize the external hard drive or the system was dropped or jarred, the computer suffered water, fire or smoke damage that caused internal and physical damage to the read/write heads and or the platters.
During normal operation the heads do not rest on the hard drive platters. In a damaged hard drive, heads begin scratching the platter surface causing data loss.
Repeatedly turning the system on and off to try to get it to boot will exacerbating the situation, thus causing more damage and total data loss. The best action to take is to leave your system off to prevent further damage. This advice holds true for just about any symptoms or failures you experience with your system, including:
* A drive not formatted error
* A system that freezes or hangs
* A hard drive or device not found error
A variety of situations cause such errors.
A hard drive not formatted error usually indicates the hard drive's partition has been damaged, deleted or corrupted. It can be caused by a virus, a hard reboot, a power outage or surge, disc partitioning utilities and sometimes updating software, anti-virus programs or simply installing new software can damage a partition.
When your system freezes or hangs while trying to boot or while accessing a file or program it usually indicates that there are bad sectors on the hard disk. The system is unable to access the information it needs to open the file or load the program. It can be caused by a corrupt file or shared program files that have conflicting call procedures. It could also indicate that too many system resources are being used at once.
When you get a message telling you that the drive is not ready, hard drive or device not found it could mean the hard disk is bad, the boot priority in bios has been changed, the partition structure is damaged, or a virus has infected your system.
As indicated in the above examples, software could also be a root cause of hard drive or system failure.
Some more common examples of software problems that could lead to data loss include:
* System blue screens
* Computer keeps rebooting
* Operating system not found
When your system blue screens as you try to boot or during the middle of an operation, it can mean the operating system has been damaged, there may be bad sectors on your hard drive that the system is unable to read, your hard drive could be failing, you might have a virus, critical system files were deleted or the partition or file structure may have become corrupted or damaged.
The most common reason a computer keeps rebooting over and over is because the boot sector has been hijacked by a virus that creates a continuous loop. It keeps telling the system to go back to the boot sector and reboot.
An operating system not found message typically means that the operating system files are damaged, the boot device priority has been changed, the partition table is damaged or the hard drive has been formatted.
Whatever symptoms your experience, your data can be saved and/or recovered if you take swift action.
It’s a common belief that natural disasters account for most of the data lost in today’s corporate world. Disasters such as floods, fires, hurricanes, earthquakes and tornadoes, however, only account for 1% of all data lost in today’s businesses. In fact, human error—accidental deletions and overwrites—causes 10% more data loss than Mother Nature.
But the biggest cause of data loss in today’s businesses is equipment—both hardware crashes and software corruption. System failure accounts for 78% of all data losses while software corruption accounts for 7%.
Problems such as electrical damage and malicious behavior also contribute to hardware failures and software corruption, which leads to data loss.
Because data loss can come from any of these sources, it’s imperative to recognize the symptoms of potential problems and take action to correct it. The tips below tell you how to recognize a problem with your hardware and software so that you can take swift and appropriate action to save your data.
Hardware and Software-A Lethal Combination
Basically, if you notice anything abnormal with your hardware, you may be experiencing problems that could lead to data loss. In addition to sluggishly running system, one of the earliest symptoms of hardware failure is an unusual sound, such as:
The drive spinning up or down for no reason may indicate damage to heads or platters (data storage areas)
A clicking hard drive may indicate a head crash, corrupt firmware on the drive's ROM chip, an electrical problem like a burned chip, blown heads, a bad PCB controller, overwritten servo's, damage to the hard drive's platters and alignment issues from being dropped, jarred or a power surge.
Scrapping/grinding sounds means the BIOS does not recognize the external hard drive or the system was dropped or jarred, the computer suffered water, fire or smoke damage that caused internal and physical damage to the read/write heads and or the platters.
During normal operation the heads do not rest on the hard drive platters. In a damaged hard drive, heads begin scratching the platter surface causing data loss.
Repeatedly turning the system on and off to try to get it to boot will exacerbating the situation, thus causing more damage and total data loss. The best action to take is to leave your system off to prevent further damage. This advice holds true for just about any symptoms or failures you experience with your system, including:
* A drive not formatted error
* A system that freezes or hangs
* A hard drive or device not found error
A variety of situations cause such errors.
A hard drive not formatted error usually indicates the hard drive's partition has been damaged, deleted or corrupted. It can be caused by a virus, a hard reboot, a power outage or surge, disc partitioning utilities and sometimes updating software, anti-virus programs or simply installing new software can damage a partition.
When your system freezes or hangs while trying to boot or while accessing a file or program it usually indicates that there are bad sectors on the hard disk. The system is unable to access the information it needs to open the file or load the program. It can be caused by a corrupt file or shared program files that have conflicting call procedures. It could also indicate that too many system resources are being used at once.
When you get a message telling you that the drive is not ready, hard drive or device not found it could mean the hard disk is bad, the boot priority in bios has been changed, the partition structure is damaged, or a virus has infected your system.
As indicated in the above examples, software could also be a root cause of hard drive or system failure.
Some more common examples of software problems that could lead to data loss include:
* System blue screens
* Computer keeps rebooting
* Operating system not found
When your system blue screens as you try to boot or during the middle of an operation, it can mean the operating system has been damaged, there may be bad sectors on your hard drive that the system is unable to read, your hard drive could be failing, you might have a virus, critical system files were deleted or the partition or file structure may have become corrupted or damaged.
The most common reason a computer keeps rebooting over and over is because the boot sector has been hijacked by a virus that creates a continuous loop. It keeps telling the system to go back to the boot sector and reboot.
An operating system not found message typically means that the operating system files are damaged, the boot device priority has been changed, the partition table is damaged or the hard drive has been formatted.
Whatever symptoms your experience, your data can be saved and/or recovered if you take swift action.
Creating a Complete Data Protection and Restoration Strategy
Creating a Complete Data Protection and Restoration Strategy
Backing up your data is the best way to prevent losing it. This method comes into play when you’ve suffered a system failure or hardware corruption. Your IT folks simply—or not so simply, depending on the method you used for backup—restore your data from the backed up files.
No matter what you do, data backup is the most essential part of a data protection plan. But is there something you can do to potentially prevent you from losing your data at all?
There are other steps you can take, in concert with data backup, to help protect your data. The best data protection strategy is to create a holistic plan that incorporates both prevention and restoration.
With data backup as the cornerstone of your plan, there are about a half a dozen other actions you can incorporate across the board at your company.
* Run an anti-virus program to prevent and eliminate viruses that could take advantage of security flaws and compromise your data.
* Use power surge protectors everywhere to prevent power surges from causing hard-drive failure and potentially damaging your data.
* Always quit your programs and shut down your computer properly to eliminate the risk of losing any unsaved data. Quitting programs and shutting down properly allows the system to save vital data before exiting a program.
* You should neither disassemble your hard drive nor shake nor remove the covers on hard drives or tapes, because data will likely become unrecoverable once you have tried to perform a task with which you are not familiar.
* Checking the health of your computer with diagnostics programs is a good idea, allowing such programs to repair any issues they find can make it more difficult to recover data if you lose it.
* Assure your computers and laptops are in safe locations where they won’t be knocked over, stepped on, sat on, dropped or spilled on.
* Avoid moving your computer, especially when it’s in operation.
Above all, never attempt any operation such as installations or repairs with which you have no experience. Leave the diagnostics to a data recovery specialist who has experience with all types of hard drives and knows how to perform successful data recovery.
Backing up your data is the best way to prevent losing it. This method comes into play when you’ve suffered a system failure or hardware corruption. Your IT folks simply—or not so simply, depending on the method you used for backup—restore your data from the backed up files.
No matter what you do, data backup is the most essential part of a data protection plan. But is there something you can do to potentially prevent you from losing your data at all?
There are other steps you can take, in concert with data backup, to help protect your data. The best data protection strategy is to create a holistic plan that incorporates both prevention and restoration.
With data backup as the cornerstone of your plan, there are about a half a dozen other actions you can incorporate across the board at your company.
* Run an anti-virus program to prevent and eliminate viruses that could take advantage of security flaws and compromise your data.
* Use power surge protectors everywhere to prevent power surges from causing hard-drive failure and potentially damaging your data.
* Always quit your programs and shut down your computer properly to eliminate the risk of losing any unsaved data. Quitting programs and shutting down properly allows the system to save vital data before exiting a program.
* You should neither disassemble your hard drive nor shake nor remove the covers on hard drives or tapes, because data will likely become unrecoverable once you have tried to perform a task with which you are not familiar.
* Checking the health of your computer with diagnostics programs is a good idea, allowing such programs to repair any issues they find can make it more difficult to recover data if you lose it.
* Assure your computers and laptops are in safe locations where they won’t be knocked over, stepped on, sat on, dropped or spilled on.
* Avoid moving your computer, especially when it’s in operation.
Above all, never attempt any operation such as installations or repairs with which you have no experience. Leave the diagnostics to a data recovery specialist who has experience with all types of hard drives and knows how to perform successful data recovery.
User Guide for Data Recovery-Through Data Recovery Software
A disk drive can be damaged due to a number of causes such as virus attack, voltage glitches, software malfunction, hard disk format, accidental file/directory deletion, human error or even sabotage. Such events cause corruption or damage to the disk drive, and make the data completely inaccessible to the user.
Data Recovery comes into play when your storage stops responding to your request. This is the most critical time for your data and the impending problem with the hard drive. A wrong step can make your hard drive & data inaccessible for ever. First and foremost thing is Don’t Panic!
Now check whether you have a physical failure or logical one. Normally in 80% of cases there is a logical failure. To know the type of failure you have hear whether any ticking sound is coming from the hard drive or not? If not that means that it is a logical failure and you can recover your data through data recovery software.
You can choose the data recovery software by searching on Google with keywords like data recovery software, hard drive recovery etc. While scanning different software product consider these factors:
See to this whether the software supports your systems hardware like RAM (Random Access Memory), Operating Systems (particular Window flavors, Unix, Linux, Solaris etc). You must check your RAM before installing the data recovery software, as these software uses recursive search operation which requires lots of virtual memory. For a fast recovery you have large size of virtual memory. I would recommend 256 MB or 1 GB would be best.
After selecting the software it’s the turn of software Installation. NEVER means NEVER install the software on the same physical drive from where you have lost your data. As it may get over written and you will lose it for ever.
Always use a working computer with a drive having enough free space to store your recovered data.
Verify that the drive in the PC is connected on the Primary Channel as Master.
You can connect the drive as:
• Slave on the primary channel OR AS
• Master or Slave on the secondary channel
Note: You can take help of support executive in your office or your maintenance engineer if you are not comfortable in connecting the drives.
Attaching the Drive in to slave has three simple steps:
• Set the jumpers on the hard drive or CD ROM
• Plug and screw the drive in
• Boot the computer up and make sure the drive is detected
Let’s take the example of Stellar Phoenix Data Recovery Software Run setup.exe from Stellar Phoenix software CDROM or diskette. If you have downloaded Stellar Phoenix from www.stellarinfo.com or a download engine, run the application setup.exe file from windows explorer to begin the installation process.
Note: Make sure you are logged in as administrator before initializing setup, as the software installation requires admin rights in Windows NT/2000/XP.
Setup starts to install the software, creates a desktop shortcut and creates an entry in program groups menu. The default path where software is installed is C:Program FilesStellar Phoenix FAT & NTFS 2.0 Software creates an entry in Add Remove program group for uninstalling the software.
Data Recovery comes into play when your storage stops responding to your request. This is the most critical time for your data and the impending problem with the hard drive. A wrong step can make your hard drive & data inaccessible for ever. First and foremost thing is Don’t Panic!
Now check whether you have a physical failure or logical one. Normally in 80% of cases there is a logical failure. To know the type of failure you have hear whether any ticking sound is coming from the hard drive or not? If not that means that it is a logical failure and you can recover your data through data recovery software.
You can choose the data recovery software by searching on Google with keywords like data recovery software, hard drive recovery etc. While scanning different software product consider these factors:
See to this whether the software supports your systems hardware like RAM (Random Access Memory), Operating Systems (particular Window flavors, Unix, Linux, Solaris etc). You must check your RAM before installing the data recovery software, as these software uses recursive search operation which requires lots of virtual memory. For a fast recovery you have large size of virtual memory. I would recommend 256 MB or 1 GB would be best.
After selecting the software it’s the turn of software Installation. NEVER means NEVER install the software on the same physical drive from where you have lost your data. As it may get over written and you will lose it for ever.
Always use a working computer with a drive having enough free space to store your recovered data.
Verify that the drive in the PC is connected on the Primary Channel as Master.
You can connect the drive as:
• Slave on the primary channel OR AS
• Master or Slave on the secondary channel
Note: You can take help of support executive in your office or your maintenance engineer if you are not comfortable in connecting the drives.
Attaching the Drive in to slave has three simple steps:
• Set the jumpers on the hard drive or CD ROM
• Plug and screw the drive in
• Boot the computer up and make sure the drive is detected
Let’s take the example of Stellar Phoenix Data Recovery Software Run setup.exe from Stellar Phoenix software CDROM or diskette. If you have downloaded Stellar Phoenix from www.stellarinfo.com or a download engine, run the application setup.exe file from windows explorer to begin the installation process.
Note: Make sure you are logged in as administrator before initializing setup, as the software installation requires admin rights in Windows NT/2000/XP.
Setup starts to install the software, creates a desktop shortcut and creates an entry in program groups menu. The default path where software is installed is C:Program FilesStellar Phoenix FAT & NTFS 2.0 Software creates an entry in Add Remove program group for uninstalling the software.
Four Basic Backup Steps
"I have this cool backup tape drive in my new computer and a couple of tapes so I am all set!" That is true, you now have a level of protection that a lot of people do not have but are you going to do it right? Change the tapes regularly, replace them when their life runs out, clean the tape drive and store them offsite?
First, having more than one tape is a good thing but you will need more than the standard four or five. I would suggest slowly adding to the stack at about 5 per week until you have around 35. The reason is simple. Tapes were not meant to be used and reused infinitely.
Which bring me to my second reason. Tapes also wear out and break. They are not indestructible and they should be cared for much like a volatile piece of hardware. After all, it is your data on the tape so keep it safe. They also stretch over time so if you replace your tape drive after three years and you never replaced your tapes; then you might have a problem.
This one catches a lot of people. Clean the tape drive at least once per week. Even though the tapes and the drive itself is new; dust and dirt can get inside the unit. It never fails, when you absolutely need a backup to be made then that is when it will fail because of a dirty head.
Store the tapes offsite. If this is your home computer then think of a place where you can store it routinely. Preferably, at work or a friends house but definitely not on top of the computer.
One last piece of advice. Test your backups. This one act can save you countless problems. It is better to find out that the backup did not work after you made the backup than it is to discover the failure when you need the backup for recovery.
First, having more than one tape is a good thing but you will need more than the standard four or five. I would suggest slowly adding to the stack at about 5 per week until you have around 35. The reason is simple. Tapes were not meant to be used and reused infinitely.
Which bring me to my second reason. Tapes also wear out and break. They are not indestructible and they should be cared for much like a volatile piece of hardware. After all, it is your data on the tape so keep it safe. They also stretch over time so if you replace your tape drive after three years and you never replaced your tapes; then you might have a problem.
This one catches a lot of people. Clean the tape drive at least once per week. Even though the tapes and the drive itself is new; dust and dirt can get inside the unit. It never fails, when you absolutely need a backup to be made then that is when it will fail because of a dirty head.
Store the tapes offsite. If this is your home computer then think of a place where you can store it routinely. Preferably, at work or a friends house but definitely not on top of the computer.
One last piece of advice. Test your backups. This one act can save you countless problems. It is better to find out that the backup did not work after you made the backup than it is to discover the failure when you need the backup for recovery.
How Data Recovery is Performed on Failed RAID 5 Arrays
RAID 5 arrays are used for many applications because they are for the most part cost-effective and provide a level of fault tolerance not provided by some other levels of RAID. As with any RAID level, RAID 5 can experience many different types of problems. This article will provide a brief discussion of some of the problems causing RAID 5 failure and how data recovery can work to solve these problems.
Problems That Can Cause RAID 5 Failure
Bad Sectors
A RAID 5 can fail due to bad sectors on any of the disks in the array. This can force the array to go offline.
Corrupt Data
A RAID 5 can suffer from corrupt data due to many reasons including viruses, user error, overwriting files, and scratches on the surface of the disk platters.
Degraded RAID 5
A RAID 5 becomes degraded when there is a loss of one of the member disks. This causes a huge decrease in performance and also removes the fault tolerance of the RAID 5. Operating a degraded RAID 5 is dangerous because the loss of a second disk will cause the entire array to be lost.
Deleted Files
Many times a user will accidentally delete important data in a RAID 5 array. Other times, it is done intentionally by disgruntled employees. In most situations, deleted files can be recovered.
Missing Partitions
In many cases, the partition table can become corrupt or missing causing an entire partition to disappear or become unusable. This makes data recovery necessary. Attempting recovery with software will increase the risk of permanent data loss.
RAID 5 Controller Failure
A Hardware RAID 5 array uses a controller which contains all of the logic and handles the operations of the array. For many reasons, the array can experience a controller failure. This can cause the array to not boot. It could also cause the logical volume to disappear.
RAID 5 Disk Failure/RAID 5 Drive Failure
A RAID 5 is a set of three or more disk drives. Any of these drives can experience failure. A RAID 5 is configured with the ability to withstand the failure of only one disk at a time. In most cases, the RAID can be recovered in a data recovery lab using parity data written to the disks by the array. Even if more than one disk has failed, data recovery is still possible in a recovery lab.
RAID 5 Firmware Failure
Firmware problems can occur in the RAID controller or the member disk drives.
RAID 5 Rebuild Failure
For various reasons, a RAID 5 array can experience a rebuild failure. This may keep member disks offline and render the array unusable.
Server Crash
Many times, the host server experiences problems and can crash. This of course makes the array unaccessible. A data recovery lab can recover the data from the member disks.
How to Ensure RAID 5 Data Recovery is Successful
If you have experienced a RAID 5 failure, it is important that you do not take matters into your own hands. This can cause the parity data to be overwritten. Parity data, which is written to the member disks, is in many cases vital to ensure a successful recovery. The very first thing you should do is power off the RAID server immediately to ensure that no additional writes are performed. Any events describing what may have happened to cause the problem should be noted. If the member disk drives are removed from the server, they should be labeled in the correct order they were removed. The disk order is very important if time is of the essence. This is also important if you have a large number of member disks.
Problems That Can Cause RAID 5 Failure
Bad Sectors
A RAID 5 can fail due to bad sectors on any of the disks in the array. This can force the array to go offline.
Corrupt Data
A RAID 5 can suffer from corrupt data due to many reasons including viruses, user error, overwriting files, and scratches on the surface of the disk platters.
Degraded RAID 5
A RAID 5 becomes degraded when there is a loss of one of the member disks. This causes a huge decrease in performance and also removes the fault tolerance of the RAID 5. Operating a degraded RAID 5 is dangerous because the loss of a second disk will cause the entire array to be lost.
Deleted Files
Many times a user will accidentally delete important data in a RAID 5 array. Other times, it is done intentionally by disgruntled employees. In most situations, deleted files can be recovered.
Missing Partitions
In many cases, the partition table can become corrupt or missing causing an entire partition to disappear or become unusable. This makes data recovery necessary. Attempting recovery with software will increase the risk of permanent data loss.
RAID 5 Controller Failure
A Hardware RAID 5 array uses a controller which contains all of the logic and handles the operations of the array. For many reasons, the array can experience a controller failure. This can cause the array to not boot. It could also cause the logical volume to disappear.
RAID 5 Disk Failure/RAID 5 Drive Failure
A RAID 5 is a set of three or more disk drives. Any of these drives can experience failure. A RAID 5 is configured with the ability to withstand the failure of only one disk at a time. In most cases, the RAID can be recovered in a data recovery lab using parity data written to the disks by the array. Even if more than one disk has failed, data recovery is still possible in a recovery lab.
RAID 5 Firmware Failure
Firmware problems can occur in the RAID controller or the member disk drives.
RAID 5 Rebuild Failure
For various reasons, a RAID 5 array can experience a rebuild failure. This may keep member disks offline and render the array unusable.
Server Crash
Many times, the host server experiences problems and can crash. This of course makes the array unaccessible. A data recovery lab can recover the data from the member disks.
How to Ensure RAID 5 Data Recovery is Successful
If you have experienced a RAID 5 failure, it is important that you do not take matters into your own hands. This can cause the parity data to be overwritten. Parity data, which is written to the member disks, is in many cases vital to ensure a successful recovery. The very first thing you should do is power off the RAID server immediately to ensure that no additional writes are performed. Any events describing what may have happened to cause the problem should be noted. If the member disk drives are removed from the server, they should be labeled in the correct order they were removed. The disk order is very important if time is of the essence. This is also important if you have a large number of member disks.
Data Recovery Software
Data recovery is not a familiar word with individuals in normal day to day life. The importance of data recovery software comes into existence when an individual experiences data loss situations. He then hopes to get his lost and inaccessible data recovered as soon as possible but has very less knowledge about the data recovery software.
Data Recovery Software are mainly developed to help individuals recover data lost due to virus attacks, hard disk crashes, improper system shutdowns, media errors, accidental deletion of files and folders, fire and water damages, loss due to power outages and many un-defined and unknown reasons.
Is Data Recovery Software Useful?
Yes, data recovery software does prove useful. There are ‘n’ number of data recovery software provider companies existing all around the world, which provide powerful and effective data recovery software range to recover and restore data. The software range is efficient enough to get back your lost data. The data recovery becomes easy and helpful process to have the data back to your computer.
How to select a Data Recovery Company?
As the data recovery industry is emerging very fast, simultaneously are emerging the false and scam artists who declare to provide the data recovery software or data recovery services but at last land you up in paying heavily for the software or service.
As you perform a complete check before purchasing any personal commodity likewise you should also enquire about the company from where you decide to buy data recovery software. Here I will help you out with some checks which should be performed before selecting the data recovery company and my recommendation for a great one.
1. Clean Room:
To recover data from the corrupt and damaged hard drives, it’s necessary that the data recovery company should be equipped with clean room to perform data recovery. Clean room environment with biometric security is required to work on corrupt hard drives as they are extremely sensitive devices. Here 100 rating for clean room refer to the number of micro particles per cubic foot of air and this becomes the safe and secure environment for corrupt hard drive recovery.
2. Clientele:
Analyze the clients of the data recovery company which you select to contact for data recovery software. The best way to judge is by the people who use them. Check the client testimonials – the more, the better.
3. Data Recovery Methods:
Check for the data recovery techniques which data recovery software performs during the recovery procedure. Does the hard drive recovery software use non-destructive methods or the technicians just start the data recovery process on the damaged hard drive. If the technician starts this process on your corrupt hard drive then you can immediately know that the company is not genuine as while doing this it can permanently damage platters and kill your data.
“ Data recovery should always be performed on a good device after which the recovered data can be transferred to an external media. “
4. Percentage of Data Recovery :
Most companies declare 80 % to 90 % of data recovery chances. Always ask for the detailed figures about the said percentage. If the company is true to its figures then it will explain you the entire percentage but if not, you can discover that too – they might not include the cases of drives from which they were not able to recover data, and may declare partial recoveries as complete recoveries.
Always remember to ask questions and make enquiries about the company and hard drive recovery software, as these questions can help you to get back your data with safe means and do help your pocket from heavy expenditures.
Nucleus Data Recovery is such an organization which provides best and professional data recovery software. The data recovery software range offered is fast, technically advanced and safe for your needs of data recovery.
Data Recovery Software are mainly developed to help individuals recover data lost due to virus attacks, hard disk crashes, improper system shutdowns, media errors, accidental deletion of files and folders, fire and water damages, loss due to power outages and many un-defined and unknown reasons.
Is Data Recovery Software Useful?
Yes, data recovery software does prove useful. There are ‘n’ number of data recovery software provider companies existing all around the world, which provide powerful and effective data recovery software range to recover and restore data. The software range is efficient enough to get back your lost data. The data recovery becomes easy and helpful process to have the data back to your computer.
How to select a Data Recovery Company?
As the data recovery industry is emerging very fast, simultaneously are emerging the false and scam artists who declare to provide the data recovery software or data recovery services but at last land you up in paying heavily for the software or service.
As you perform a complete check before purchasing any personal commodity likewise you should also enquire about the company from where you decide to buy data recovery software. Here I will help you out with some checks which should be performed before selecting the data recovery company and my recommendation for a great one.
1. Clean Room:
To recover data from the corrupt and damaged hard drives, it’s necessary that the data recovery company should be equipped with clean room to perform data recovery. Clean room environment with biometric security is required to work on corrupt hard drives as they are extremely sensitive devices. Here 100 rating for clean room refer to the number of micro particles per cubic foot of air and this becomes the safe and secure environment for corrupt hard drive recovery.
2. Clientele:
Analyze the clients of the data recovery company which you select to contact for data recovery software. The best way to judge is by the people who use them. Check the client testimonials – the more, the better.
3. Data Recovery Methods:
Check for the data recovery techniques which data recovery software performs during the recovery procedure. Does the hard drive recovery software use non-destructive methods or the technicians just start the data recovery process on the damaged hard drive. If the technician starts this process on your corrupt hard drive then you can immediately know that the company is not genuine as while doing this it can permanently damage platters and kill your data.
“ Data recovery should always be performed on a good device after which the recovered data can be transferred to an external media. “
4. Percentage of Data Recovery :
Most companies declare 80 % to 90 % of data recovery chances. Always ask for the detailed figures about the said percentage. If the company is true to its figures then it will explain you the entire percentage but if not, you can discover that too – they might not include the cases of drives from which they were not able to recover data, and may declare partial recoveries as complete recoveries.
Always remember to ask questions and make enquiries about the company and hard drive recovery software, as these questions can help you to get back your data with safe means and do help your pocket from heavy expenditures.
Nucleus Data Recovery is such an organization which provides best and professional data recovery software. The data recovery software range offered is fast, technically advanced and safe for your needs of data recovery.
Disaster Recovery
In today's world, businesses are beginning to demand more from their information systems. At the same time, the outer limit of technology is being stretched to its limit to meet this demand. This in turn puts a greater responsibility on the service Organisation, with the kind of daunting challenge that it faces. A standard reactive service does not solve the situation with solutions that it can present. To handle the situation, a more pro-active approach should be adopted to run mission critical operation in today's heterogeneous client/server networks.
If enterprise applications are not planned, taking into consideration all aspects of data loss, this can cripple the enterprise all together. A system downtime can cost the enterprise tens of thousands of dollars per minute, and considering the days it takes for recovery, the loss could be well imagined. Selecting, implementing and maintaining a data disaster recovery infrastructure is a challenging job. If you find that it is making you taking chances, there are such services available, who are professionally experienced, equipped with high availability technology and proven best practices in such disaster management.
To understand a recovery process, you should first understand your current state, find out ways mitigating the risks, and last of all make a thorough plan of recovery. You should use available tools to audit your infrastructure risks and identify the danger in the process, prioritising the system restorations. You shall need to make sure that you have with you the experience in the team, looking after the aspect of data loss and disaster recovery and building up test procedures for various disaster scenarios. The strategy of data or disaster recovery should be where all such disasters are withstood with a well chalked out plan. Such recovery operations are generally transferred to a remote service centre or a facility to have the enterprise back on the rail, within the recovery time objective and the objective targets.
For quite some years, professionals in Information and Technology took disaster recovery to be the simple data recovery process of data files in case of a computer or disk failure. Things are different today, with increasing complexity in data handling and management, data losses are termed as disasters to any enterprise functioning. Today's concept demands the constant availability of the complex data and the notion of the data being made available within a short period of time if there should be that unfortunate data loss or disaster.
Disaster is not just a serious loss of data, a dead hard drive or a power loss, through human error or through malicious software. Instead, a disaster could mean complete loss of communication through out the network, including serious data losses, through-out the enterprise. To handle such situations disaster recovery mandates are necessary that insist on instant recovery.
The impact on user is an important factor when the implementation of high reliability disaster recovery system is being considered and implemented. In the event of the initiation of a recovery process, the user should continue to be connected to data, as the disaster recovery process takes over. The process of disaster recovery should be totally transparent to the user. This is mostly with the instance, when the source and the location of the data changes take place, when the data disaster recovery process is in process. Therefore, user functions should go on uninterrupted and such should be for both, the internal and external users, for example, the users who are accessing the web-servers or your VPN servers. The user function should be a continued process, without having to shut down and restart the system.
There are some basic requirements needed to be considered, while you are planning and designing data recovery procedures for your site. The general guidelines of these requirements include the following:
# You need to make sure that the sites have top level of support from the hardware and software vendors.
# For any mission critical applications, it is mandatory to use uninterrupted power supply.
# You need to set up a system, more appropriately a monitoring tool to proactively detect problems. Your monitoring tool should be capable of event monitoring and problem reporting, may be by sending a message to the email inbox of your DBA. Additionally, the tool needs to monitor space usage and other crucial aspects of data storage in a proactive manner.
# Internet connectivity to your site is a necessity, for, in case of problems your hardware, software vendors or any disaster recovery service agency can remotely access your site and take necessary actions to monitor, diagnose and repair the fault.
# Each of your production sites should have the right hardware protection system. This may include a hard disk mirroring device, implementation of a back-up and recovery plan and stocking of enough spare parts to service your hardware when necessary. RAID (Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks) may be one way to make continuous availability of your data, building up the capability of fault tolerance implementation. However, the reliability of this fault tolerance and improvement of data reliability will depend upon the RAID level used.
# Your production site must be kept in such an environment which is hazard free, and an environmental audit is done from time to time.
# If you have very large database (VLDB), you should preferably maintain a test bed and part of the data should be held in the test bed system. This would be required when you are performing on-site testing and migration planning for future database expansions.
# Operation logs are ideal for such sites, where any kind of physical, design, operational, environmental or scheduled task is logged each time they are performed.
Storage business practices, leading to well formulated disaster recovery planning, is gained from enterprise client implementation and operations. Data recovery services bridge the gap between enterprises having mission critical applications and the experience required for managing the necessity of data recovery and disaster management processes. It has to be understood, that more importantly, the process and people behind that process count more than the technology, and disaster recovery service agencies help their clients in identifying the areas of operational improvements, there-by aligning the necessary technology with the requirement of the clients.
I am a post graduate in Computer Science and have been working as the profit center head of an international organisation. I look after 15 to 18 Oracle database projects in Europe.
As a hobby I have been writing for the last 10+ years on various subject matters. I have expertise in project report preparations, preparations of technical tutoring documents, presentation preparations, writing of technical articles, technical documentations abstructs of various books, copy writing, reviews, articles, proof reading, news papers, magazines,presentations, including SEO articles, etc., and also contributed in writing press releases and various profiles. I have been writing for over 10 years. I have good experience in writing papers, including transcriptions on various topics with extensive research on the subject. I have also participated as a freelancer in online sales and marketing. All my works are quality orginals. I am generally involved with few but large continued assignments in writing technical & non-technical articles.
If enterprise applications are not planned, taking into consideration all aspects of data loss, this can cripple the enterprise all together. A system downtime can cost the enterprise tens of thousands of dollars per minute, and considering the days it takes for recovery, the loss could be well imagined. Selecting, implementing and maintaining a data disaster recovery infrastructure is a challenging job. If you find that it is making you taking chances, there are such services available, who are professionally experienced, equipped with high availability technology and proven best practices in such disaster management.
To understand a recovery process, you should first understand your current state, find out ways mitigating the risks, and last of all make a thorough plan of recovery. You should use available tools to audit your infrastructure risks and identify the danger in the process, prioritising the system restorations. You shall need to make sure that you have with you the experience in the team, looking after the aspect of data loss and disaster recovery and building up test procedures for various disaster scenarios. The strategy of data or disaster recovery should be where all such disasters are withstood with a well chalked out plan. Such recovery operations are generally transferred to a remote service centre or a facility to have the enterprise back on the rail, within the recovery time objective and the objective targets.
For quite some years, professionals in Information and Technology took disaster recovery to be the simple data recovery process of data files in case of a computer or disk failure. Things are different today, with increasing complexity in data handling and management, data losses are termed as disasters to any enterprise functioning. Today's concept demands the constant availability of the complex data and the notion of the data being made available within a short period of time if there should be that unfortunate data loss or disaster.
Disaster is not just a serious loss of data, a dead hard drive or a power loss, through human error or through malicious software. Instead, a disaster could mean complete loss of communication through out the network, including serious data losses, through-out the enterprise. To handle such situations disaster recovery mandates are necessary that insist on instant recovery.
The impact on user is an important factor when the implementation of high reliability disaster recovery system is being considered and implemented. In the event of the initiation of a recovery process, the user should continue to be connected to data, as the disaster recovery process takes over. The process of disaster recovery should be totally transparent to the user. This is mostly with the instance, when the source and the location of the data changes take place, when the data disaster recovery process is in process. Therefore, user functions should go on uninterrupted and such should be for both, the internal and external users, for example, the users who are accessing the web-servers or your VPN servers. The user function should be a continued process, without having to shut down and restart the system.
There are some basic requirements needed to be considered, while you are planning and designing data recovery procedures for your site. The general guidelines of these requirements include the following:
# You need to make sure that the sites have top level of support from the hardware and software vendors.
# For any mission critical applications, it is mandatory to use uninterrupted power supply.
# You need to set up a system, more appropriately a monitoring tool to proactively detect problems. Your monitoring tool should be capable of event monitoring and problem reporting, may be by sending a message to the email inbox of your DBA. Additionally, the tool needs to monitor space usage and other crucial aspects of data storage in a proactive manner.
# Internet connectivity to your site is a necessity, for, in case of problems your hardware, software vendors or any disaster recovery service agency can remotely access your site and take necessary actions to monitor, diagnose and repair the fault.
# Each of your production sites should have the right hardware protection system. This may include a hard disk mirroring device, implementation of a back-up and recovery plan and stocking of enough spare parts to service your hardware when necessary. RAID (Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks) may be one way to make continuous availability of your data, building up the capability of fault tolerance implementation. However, the reliability of this fault tolerance and improvement of data reliability will depend upon the RAID level used.
# Your production site must be kept in such an environment which is hazard free, and an environmental audit is done from time to time.
# If you have very large database (VLDB), you should preferably maintain a test bed and part of the data should be held in the test bed system. This would be required when you are performing on-site testing and migration planning for future database expansions.
# Operation logs are ideal for such sites, where any kind of physical, design, operational, environmental or scheduled task is logged each time they are performed.
Storage business practices, leading to well formulated disaster recovery planning, is gained from enterprise client implementation and operations. Data recovery services bridge the gap between enterprises having mission critical applications and the experience required for managing the necessity of data recovery and disaster management processes. It has to be understood, that more importantly, the process and people behind that process count more than the technology, and disaster recovery service agencies help their clients in identifying the areas of operational improvements, there-by aligning the necessary technology with the requirement of the clients.
I am a post graduate in Computer Science and have been working as the profit center head of an international organisation. I look after 15 to 18 Oracle database projects in Europe.
As a hobby I have been writing for the last 10+ years on various subject matters. I have expertise in project report preparations, preparations of technical tutoring documents, presentation preparations, writing of technical articles, technical documentations abstructs of various books, copy writing, reviews, articles, proof reading, news papers, magazines,presentations, including SEO articles, etc., and also contributed in writing press releases and various profiles. I have been writing for over 10 years. I have good experience in writing papers, including transcriptions on various topics with extensive research on the subject. I have also participated as a freelancer in online sales and marketing. All my works are quality orginals. I am generally involved with few but large continued assignments in writing technical & non-technical articles.
5 Tips For Backing Up Your Files
It has happened to nearly everyone at one point or another; we have lost some or all of our data - whether it be due to a computer crash, virus, losing the only disc, or deleting the only copy. Whatever the case may be, there are steps you can take to reduce the risk and not be put in that position again.
The key to backing up your files is to devise some type of system that works best for you and stick to it. You may choose to do it manually or use an automatic backup program. Whatever your case is, stick with it and do it frequently. Also, name and date your backups. If you have multiple versions, you will be able to tell which version is the most recent.
Hard Drives - Today external hard drives are so cheap that everyone should have one. They are not only perfect for storing all of those family photos and mp3's, but the perfect solution for backing up critical files and in most cases ALL of your files. They are also a fast way to backup large files that may be too big for CDs or even DVDs.
CDs & DVDs - Backing up your files on a CD or DVD is also very important. Hard drives can go corrupt, get viruses, and can crash. Once your files are burned on a disc they are relatively safe. Blank discs are so cheap that it should be a part of everyones backup procedure. Discs are also a prefect solution for archiving files that you no longer need on your computer.
Offsite Backup - It is also extremely important to have at least some form of off-site backup. You could have a dozen backups at your home or office, but something could happen to that location such as a fire, theft, or a natural disaster. They will not do you any good if they are all lost. A simple fix is to keep a copy of your files at both your home and office. Or mail CDs or DVDs of your files to a friend or relative in another location. If something were to happen you would at least have that as a "fail safe". Also Online Storage is another form of off-site backup.
Online Storage - There are plenty of online options such as xdrive (www.xdrive.com) and box (www.box.net) that range in price from free or start at around $5 a month. You may also use your current web-hosting as another form of backup. Most hosting plans offer at least 5 gigabytes of hosting space. You could create a folder on there called backup and upload all your files there.
Other Alternatives - Most web-based email accounts offer a large amount of storage space that could be used to backup files. Either upload your files there, if that is an option, or simply email yourself an attachment and you have another copy of it online. There is a great service called yousendit (www.yousendit.com) that allows you to email large attachments. It only stores them online for 7 days, but it is a good way to send a large file from the office to your home to then backup later.
*Side Note - Battery backup systems for your desktop computer are a must have in case of a power outage. They will keep your computer running for several minutes giving you time to save and shut down your computer. No more loosing files due to power outages.
The key to backing up your files is to devise some type of system that works best for you and stick to it. You may choose to do it manually or use an automatic backup program. Whatever your case is, stick with it and do it frequently. Also, name and date your backups. If you have multiple versions, you will be able to tell which version is the most recent.
Hard Drives - Today external hard drives are so cheap that everyone should have one. They are not only perfect for storing all of those family photos and mp3's, but the perfect solution for backing up critical files and in most cases ALL of your files. They are also a fast way to backup large files that may be too big for CDs or even DVDs.
CDs & DVDs - Backing up your files on a CD or DVD is also very important. Hard drives can go corrupt, get viruses, and can crash. Once your files are burned on a disc they are relatively safe. Blank discs are so cheap that it should be a part of everyones backup procedure. Discs are also a prefect solution for archiving files that you no longer need on your computer.
Offsite Backup - It is also extremely important to have at least some form of off-site backup. You could have a dozen backups at your home or office, but something could happen to that location such as a fire, theft, or a natural disaster. They will not do you any good if they are all lost. A simple fix is to keep a copy of your files at both your home and office. Or mail CDs or DVDs of your files to a friend or relative in another location. If something were to happen you would at least have that as a "fail safe". Also Online Storage is another form of off-site backup.
Online Storage - There are plenty of online options such as xdrive (www.xdrive.com) and box (www.box.net) that range in price from free or start at around $5 a month. You may also use your current web-hosting as another form of backup. Most hosting plans offer at least 5 gigabytes of hosting space. You could create a folder on there called backup and upload all your files there.
Other Alternatives - Most web-based email accounts offer a large amount of storage space that could be used to backup files. Either upload your files there, if that is an option, or simply email yourself an attachment and you have another copy of it online. There is a great service called yousendit (www.yousendit.com) that allows you to email large attachments. It only stores them online for 7 days, but it is a good way to send a large file from the office to your home to then backup later.
*Side Note - Battery backup systems for your desktop computer are a must have in case of a power outage. They will keep your computer running for several minutes giving you time to save and shut down your computer. No more loosing files due to power outages.
Five Steps to Assuring Successful Recovery of Data
According to the National Archives & Records Administration in Washington, D.C., 93% of companies that lost their data center for 10 or more days due to a disaster filed for bankruptcy within one year.
Whether your business data is in the form of a customer electronic database, office documents or e-mail content, this statistic illustrates the importance of data in any business. Typically, without data, there is no business.
When this vital data is suddenly not available, the business suffers. Data can become corrupted because of various reasons, including:
* Hardware & system failure
* Human error (accidental deletion & overwrites)
* Software corruption (upgrades & installations)
* Electrical damage (power surges, outages)
* Natural disasters (floods, fires, earthquakes)
* Computer viruses
* Malicious behavior (disgruntled employees)
* Backup tools and techniques are not implemented
The good news is that your data, whether it's housed on a single hard drive, multi-drive RAID arrays, external hard drives or some other media, is likely not gone forever. But, in order to get your vital data back, you must first take action.
Before you can get your data back, it's vital that you follow these five data recovery tips:
STEP ONE: Determine the value of the data. Before you try to recover the data from your computer, you should first determine what the value of the data is to your company. If the data is not essential to your operation and has no potential future ramifications then you could attempt to recover the data yourself.
In the real world, however, most data is crucial in day-to-day business. In fact, U.S. businesses lose on average $12 billion per year because of data loss. In an Ontrack report entitled 2001 Cost of Downtime Survey Results, 28% of respondents said that data loss would cost them between $51,000 and $250,000 per hour and 25% said it would cost them more than $251,000 per hour.
You actually need to be evaluating the cost of your data on an hourly basis. Twenty-one percent of respondents in the same Ontrack survey said that their company would be in serious risk if they lost their data for 48 hours. Twenty-four percent said that their business is at risk in less than a day of data loss.
So if you're experiencing a hard drive crash, server problems or another crisis where data loss could be imminent, ask yourself:
* How will it affect me and my company if I lose this data?
* What will it cost me in dollars and down-time to re-enter this data?
* Can I recreate this data if I need to?
If you conclude your data is essential, stop what you're doing and turn off the system and follow the remaining steps.
STEP TWO: Don't listen to anyone but a data recovery specialist. Data recovery is a highly specialized task that only experts should perform. Your corporate IT folks may think they know what they're doing, but they don't. Not even the system manufacturers are able tell you the right steps to take to recover your data.
Do not listen to anybody, including the manufacturers that tell you to rebuild the array, re-stripe it or reconfigure it. The difference between a RAID and a single drive is the complexity in the way it writes to these drives. If you do the wrong thing, it completely wipes it out and reduces any chance of recovering data.
STEP THREE: Gather information about what happened. When you realize your hard drive is having a problem, the first thing you must do is turn off your system. If your hard drive is clicking, for example, continued use may damage the platters and make your data unrecoverable.
Next, write down the symptoms, which could include:
* Hard drive clicking
* RAID drives in degraded mode
* RAID controller failure
* Empty containers
* Volume not mounting or recognized a BIOS error
Then make a note of exactly what was happening before you discovered the problem:
* Write down what error messages you received
* What the screen condition is
* How many drives are affected
* The position of the array
* The block and stripe size%u2014both forward and backward.
It's essential you gather as much information as possible and be honest about what is happening.
The reason this information gathering step is so important is that many employees or IT professionals fear they'll get reprimanded or lose their jobs if it is discovered that human error caused the server crash. Therefore, they often don't disclose all of the necessary information.
Since human error accounts for 11% of all data loss, it would save you a lot of valuable time, if the data recovery company who you are working with had all of the information up front. Even information that may be embarrassing or not seem relevant is important to share.
STEP FOUR: Never restore or rebuild the hard drive and use it again as if nothing happened. If your server has failed, you should not attempt to manually rebuild the array. If you do, you'll overwrite the original structure, stripping and destroying the data that you need to recover.
Many IT professionals think the solution to the problem is to backup data onto the array that is damaged. If the backup array is faulty, the IT professional just restored garbage on top of good data.
Furthermore, if the hard drive becomes inaccessible or fails, many IT professionals will run a fresh installation of the operating systems. But if they've reformatted the hard drive, they've just eliminated any data that was there.
If you have to install software, do not do it on the same drive from which you're trying to recover data, because the more you write on a drive the more you run the risk of overwriting the sector your data's on.
Instead of fixing the problem yourself, turn the PC, server or laptop over to a professional data recovery expert to avoid permanent consequences of data loss on your hard drive.
STEP FIVE: Call an expert! Essentially, most data is recoverable. You can even find professionals who will recovery your data in emergency situations where time is of the essence. The best thing to do is to follow the steps above and call a data recovery specialist. You'll eliminate the guess work and be assured you're doing all of the right things to recover your data.
Whether your business data is in the form of a customer electronic database, office documents or e-mail content, this statistic illustrates the importance of data in any business. Typically, without data, there is no business.
When this vital data is suddenly not available, the business suffers. Data can become corrupted because of various reasons, including:
* Hardware & system failure
* Human error (accidental deletion & overwrites)
* Software corruption (upgrades & installations)
* Electrical damage (power surges, outages)
* Natural disasters (floods, fires, earthquakes)
* Computer viruses
* Malicious behavior (disgruntled employees)
* Backup tools and techniques are not implemented
The good news is that your data, whether it's housed on a single hard drive, multi-drive RAID arrays, external hard drives or some other media, is likely not gone forever. But, in order to get your vital data back, you must first take action.
Before you can get your data back, it's vital that you follow these five data recovery tips:
STEP ONE: Determine the value of the data. Before you try to recover the data from your computer, you should first determine what the value of the data is to your company. If the data is not essential to your operation and has no potential future ramifications then you could attempt to recover the data yourself.
In the real world, however, most data is crucial in day-to-day business. In fact, U.S. businesses lose on average $12 billion per year because of data loss. In an Ontrack report entitled 2001 Cost of Downtime Survey Results, 28% of respondents said that data loss would cost them between $51,000 and $250,000 per hour and 25% said it would cost them more than $251,000 per hour.
You actually need to be evaluating the cost of your data on an hourly basis. Twenty-one percent of respondents in the same Ontrack survey said that their company would be in serious risk if they lost their data for 48 hours. Twenty-four percent said that their business is at risk in less than a day of data loss.
So if you're experiencing a hard drive crash, server problems or another crisis where data loss could be imminent, ask yourself:
* How will it affect me and my company if I lose this data?
* What will it cost me in dollars and down-time to re-enter this data?
* Can I recreate this data if I need to?
If you conclude your data is essential, stop what you're doing and turn off the system and follow the remaining steps.
STEP TWO: Don't listen to anyone but a data recovery specialist. Data recovery is a highly specialized task that only experts should perform. Your corporate IT folks may think they know what they're doing, but they don't. Not even the system manufacturers are able tell you the right steps to take to recover your data.
Do not listen to anybody, including the manufacturers that tell you to rebuild the array, re-stripe it or reconfigure it. The difference between a RAID and a single drive is the complexity in the way it writes to these drives. If you do the wrong thing, it completely wipes it out and reduces any chance of recovering data.
STEP THREE: Gather information about what happened. When you realize your hard drive is having a problem, the first thing you must do is turn off your system. If your hard drive is clicking, for example, continued use may damage the platters and make your data unrecoverable.
Next, write down the symptoms, which could include:
* Hard drive clicking
* RAID drives in degraded mode
* RAID controller failure
* Empty containers
* Volume not mounting or recognized a BIOS error
Then make a note of exactly what was happening before you discovered the problem:
* Write down what error messages you received
* What the screen condition is
* How many drives are affected
* The position of the array
* The block and stripe size%u2014both forward and backward.
It's essential you gather as much information as possible and be honest about what is happening.
The reason this information gathering step is so important is that many employees or IT professionals fear they'll get reprimanded or lose their jobs if it is discovered that human error caused the server crash. Therefore, they often don't disclose all of the necessary information.
Since human error accounts for 11% of all data loss, it would save you a lot of valuable time, if the data recovery company who you are working with had all of the information up front. Even information that may be embarrassing or not seem relevant is important to share.
STEP FOUR: Never restore or rebuild the hard drive and use it again as if nothing happened. If your server has failed, you should not attempt to manually rebuild the array. If you do, you'll overwrite the original structure, stripping and destroying the data that you need to recover.
Many IT professionals think the solution to the problem is to backup data onto the array that is damaged. If the backup array is faulty, the IT professional just restored garbage on top of good data.
Furthermore, if the hard drive becomes inaccessible or fails, many IT professionals will run a fresh installation of the operating systems. But if they've reformatted the hard drive, they've just eliminated any data that was there.
If you have to install software, do not do it on the same drive from which you're trying to recover data, because the more you write on a drive the more you run the risk of overwriting the sector your data's on.
Instead of fixing the problem yourself, turn the PC, server or laptop over to a professional data recovery expert to avoid permanent consequences of data loss on your hard drive.
STEP FIVE: Call an expert! Essentially, most data is recoverable. You can even find professionals who will recovery your data in emergency situations where time is of the essence. The best thing to do is to follow the steps above and call a data recovery specialist. You'll eliminate the guess work and be assured you're doing all of the right things to recover your data.
What Causes "Inaccessible Boot Device" Stop Error 0x0000007B?
An inaccessible boot device stop error can be caused by any of the following and typically associated with an error in the Windows operating system or hardware upgrade. Some common causes could include:
* A boot sector virus
* Corrupt Windows registry
* Upgrading the motherboard in your computer
Not all inaccessible boot device errors are caused by the operating system. Sometimes they may be the result of a physical hard drive crash or damage to the disk drive.
* Moving a boot drive from one computer to another
* Bad or partially connected data cables
* Bad sectors on the hard drive
* Power surge or outage
The most commonly recommended solution to this inaccessible boot device error is to format the hard drive and run a fresh reinstall of the operating system.
There is a problem with this recommendation...You will lose your data! You should only reinstall or format the hard drive if you are absolutely sure you do not need any of the files from it (you can only be sure after you check your backups).
Customers and technicians alike who thought they had backed up or saved their data from a hard drive only to realize that after formatting, there were files that hadn't been saved or weren't included in the backup session.
In most cases, data can be recovered after a hard drive has been formatted or after a fresh install of the operating system has been performed. However, there is always a risk that all of your data may not be recoverable, especially if the drive has been used after the format or reinstall.
Technical Support Told Me To! Nearly every day technical support technicians tell users to run their recovery disk. This is not a solution if you don't want to lose your data! An experienced data recovery specialist can usually recover data at this point, but e-mail and other files may be corrupt and it's tough to get a 100% recovery.
When it comes to recovering vital data from a crashed hard drive, you need to choose a company that has the experience, training, and equipment necessary to recover your files.
* A boot sector virus
* Corrupt Windows registry
* Upgrading the motherboard in your computer
Not all inaccessible boot device errors are caused by the operating system. Sometimes they may be the result of a physical hard drive crash or damage to the disk drive.
* Moving a boot drive from one computer to another
* Bad or partially connected data cables
* Bad sectors on the hard drive
* Power surge or outage
The most commonly recommended solution to this inaccessible boot device error is to format the hard drive and run a fresh reinstall of the operating system.
There is a problem with this recommendation...You will lose your data! You should only reinstall or format the hard drive if you are absolutely sure you do not need any of the files from it (you can only be sure after you check your backups).
Customers and technicians alike who thought they had backed up or saved their data from a hard drive only to realize that after formatting, there were files that hadn't been saved or weren't included in the backup session.
In most cases, data can be recovered after a hard drive has been formatted or after a fresh install of the operating system has been performed. However, there is always a risk that all of your data may not be recoverable, especially if the drive has been used after the format or reinstall.
Technical Support Told Me To! Nearly every day technical support technicians tell users to run their recovery disk. This is not a solution if you don't want to lose your data! An experienced data recovery specialist can usually recover data at this point, but e-mail and other files may be corrupt and it's tough to get a 100% recovery.
When it comes to recovering vital data from a crashed hard drive, you need to choose a company that has the experience, training, and equipment necessary to recover your files.
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