One fine morning when you open your computer system and try to open an important file and the message appears ‘the particular file cannot be opened’. Now do you have the idea why the file is no longer accessible, it could be a virus attack, media corruption, file deletion or anything of that sort.
Files and folders might get corrupt or damaged due to severe virus attacks, corruption of the storage media, unexpected system shutdown, bad sectors in the disk and display of error messages are the possible reasons which lead a file to get damaged or corrupt.
You can prevent such situations by taking simple and easy to follow measures:
Perform regular Backups: Backup your data on regular basis. These backups can be created with some backup software or on some external media like – CDRW, DVD, and Tape.
Placement of your computer system: Keep your computer system in safe, dry and dust free area to prevent physical damage to the computers.
Update Virus Definitions: Viruses can attack at any point of time, so regularly update your anti-virus software. Virus attacks can result into severe data loss.
Protect your system from Power Surges: Huge power surges can destroy your computer equipment but on the contrary low level of power release can erase data on the hard drives. Always ensure that your computer system receives uninterrupted power supply, so that data can be backed up at the time of outage.
Protection from Static Electricity: The computer system should be protected from the Static Electricity which erases data or damage the equipments. The available storage media’s are becoming more vulnerable to Extraneous Static Discharge (ESD)
Use of built-in features: Now days, many of the installation and diagnostic programs provide “Undo” disks that can restore the computer system to its original configurations in case if something goes wrong.
Simple mistakes can lead to sever data loss situations. After all being human-beings we have the right to commit mistakes but the ultimate solution to this problem is – Perform backups and save your business and data.
Friday, September 21, 2007
RAID - Use Of Multiple Hard Drives For High Storage And Reliability
Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks (RAID) was introduced to increase the level of storage, redundancy and augmented performance in enterprises and server markets, but now have become much common with an end user over the past 5 years.
In simple terms, RAID can be defined as a combination of number of low cost hard drives linked together to form a single large capacity storage device with improved performance, high storage capacity and reliability of data storage. Use of RAID storage technology came into significance in late 1980s and has marked its presence as the in-demand data storage medium for corporates, professionals, manufacturing units and individual users for their need of high capacity data storage device.
Generally three forms of RAID are used for desktop computer systems – RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 5.
RAID 0 is the lowest level of RAID. This level fails to provide any level of redundancy for the data stored in array. If any of the drive fails, all the data is damaged.
RAID 1 provides simple form of redundancy for data with the help of mirroring process. This RAID level has two individual drives with same capacity. One is the active drive and the second is secondary drive termed as mirror. When data is written to the active drive, it automatically gets copied to the mirror drive.
RAID 5 is the most powerful and effective level of RAID used on desktop computer system. It requires hardware controller card to manage the array but in some desktop operating system it can be done through software. A minimum of three drives are required to build RAID 5 array with similar drives for best performance.
Other levels of RAID levels are RAID 0+1, RAID 10 or 1+0, software and hardware RAIDs which are used for the storage of data.
Advantages of RAID:
Redundancy:
Redundancy becomes the most important feature while developing the RAID server environment. Redundancy is required in means of performing backup of data in situations of drive failure in the array.
Capacity:
By combining multiple small drives into a large array, capacity to store large amount of data increases. The data storage capability of the operating system increases as the RAID server is installed thus providing you the freedom to store any amount of data which gets restricted while using the limited size drives.
Enhanced Performance:
Improved performance can be found in specific versions of RAID and this performance depends upon the number of drives used in the array and the controller. Different RAIDs when implemented provide superior performance in their own way and up to different levels, but all improve in some way or the other.
Lower Cost:
When RAIDs were introduced, the cost of implementing them became a key issue. The invention of RAID was to provide greater storage capacity as compared to use individual high storage capacity device. Difference in the cost of high and low capacity drives can be analyzed with a good example where three drives of small size cost less than an individual high capacity drive which provides more capacity.
Data Security:
The data which is stored on array is completely secured as RAID provides complete security and competence to protect the data. This security is followed even if the complete hard disk fails without any data loss or performing the restoration process of the backed up data. All RAID levels provide same degree of data security.
Improved Accessibility:
Accessibility refers to availability of data. RAID provides its users to recover data from hardware faults without any problems.
Disadvantages of RAID:
RAIDs do give an assured security to the computer systems but this security cannot be relied upon for long time. If your PC gets attacked by virus, or files and folders are deleted or your PC hits the floor or is affected by the fire – water damage leads to such situations where you don’t have any other option other than opting for RAID data recovery services. There have been many cases when more than one drive has failed causing an expensive RAID data recovery. Like such cases, anything is possible and constant backups should be maintained to avoid data loss situations even if you are using any reliable storage medium.
Conclusion:
It is agreed that RAID provides PC users with a number of benefits depending upon the version implemented. High storage capacity, security, accessibility, performance are the key features which attract users to opt for RAID. The advantage of one RAID level over the other cannot be measured as for some applications RAID 5 is better than RAID 0 and for some RAID 0 would be superior to RAID 5.
In simple terms, RAID can be defined as a combination of number of low cost hard drives linked together to form a single large capacity storage device with improved performance, high storage capacity and reliability of data storage. Use of RAID storage technology came into significance in late 1980s and has marked its presence as the in-demand data storage medium for corporates, professionals, manufacturing units and individual users for their need of high capacity data storage device.
Generally three forms of RAID are used for desktop computer systems – RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 5.
RAID 0 is the lowest level of RAID. This level fails to provide any level of redundancy for the data stored in array. If any of the drive fails, all the data is damaged.
RAID 1 provides simple form of redundancy for data with the help of mirroring process. This RAID level has two individual drives with same capacity. One is the active drive and the second is secondary drive termed as mirror. When data is written to the active drive, it automatically gets copied to the mirror drive.
RAID 5 is the most powerful and effective level of RAID used on desktop computer system. It requires hardware controller card to manage the array but in some desktop operating system it can be done through software. A minimum of three drives are required to build RAID 5 array with similar drives for best performance.
Other levels of RAID levels are RAID 0+1, RAID 10 or 1+0, software and hardware RAIDs which are used for the storage of data.
Advantages of RAID:
Redundancy:
Redundancy becomes the most important feature while developing the RAID server environment. Redundancy is required in means of performing backup of data in situations of drive failure in the array.
Capacity:
By combining multiple small drives into a large array, capacity to store large amount of data increases. The data storage capability of the operating system increases as the RAID server is installed thus providing you the freedom to store any amount of data which gets restricted while using the limited size drives.
Enhanced Performance:
Improved performance can be found in specific versions of RAID and this performance depends upon the number of drives used in the array and the controller. Different RAIDs when implemented provide superior performance in their own way and up to different levels, but all improve in some way or the other.
Lower Cost:
When RAIDs were introduced, the cost of implementing them became a key issue. The invention of RAID was to provide greater storage capacity as compared to use individual high storage capacity device. Difference in the cost of high and low capacity drives can be analyzed with a good example where three drives of small size cost less than an individual high capacity drive which provides more capacity.
Data Security:
The data which is stored on array is completely secured as RAID provides complete security and competence to protect the data. This security is followed even if the complete hard disk fails without any data loss or performing the restoration process of the backed up data. All RAID levels provide same degree of data security.
Improved Accessibility:
Accessibility refers to availability of data. RAID provides its users to recover data from hardware faults without any problems.
Disadvantages of RAID:
RAIDs do give an assured security to the computer systems but this security cannot be relied upon for long time. If your PC gets attacked by virus, or files and folders are deleted or your PC hits the floor or is affected by the fire – water damage leads to such situations where you don’t have any other option other than opting for RAID data recovery services. There have been many cases when more than one drive has failed causing an expensive RAID data recovery. Like such cases, anything is possible and constant backups should be maintained to avoid data loss situations even if you are using any reliable storage medium.
Conclusion:
It is agreed that RAID provides PC users with a number of benefits depending upon the version implemented. High storage capacity, security, accessibility, performance are the key features which attract users to opt for RAID. The advantage of one RAID level over the other cannot be measured as for some applications RAID 5 is better than RAID 0 and for some RAID 0 would be superior to RAID 5.
Corrupt Word File Recovery
There are as many ways to recover the lost data as there are the reasons to lose it. If there are 10 ways to loose data then there are 12 methods to recover back the lost/deleted data. Generally, a word file gets corrupt due to unexpected system shutdown, power outage, software crashes, file corruption, virus attacks and due to many other endless reasons.
The in-built recovery facility in MS Word helps you to recover the minor corrupted files.
MS Word allows you to create a backup copy of your work every time you save the file, which can be easily accessed in case if the .doc file gets corrupt or damaged.
For example, if you are working on a ‘Support.doc’ in MS Word and you have enabled the backup option, Word will automatically create a backup copy called ‘Backup copy of support.doc’. So if in case your document file gets corrupt you can use this backup copy.
To turn on the backup option in MS Word, perform the following steps:
1. Launch MS Word.
2. Click Tools > Options and click the Save tab.
3. Select the Always Create Backup Copy check box.
The AutoRecover feature in Office XP constantly saves data of the file you are working on and helps in undue circumstances of unexpected system shutdown, power failure, software crash where the document automatically gets closed. The next time you launch the application, Word restores the last saved data and presents the recovered file. The “Document Recovery Window” gets open on left side of the document screen with the list of recovered files. Double click the appropriate file or right click and select Save to save it.
The in-built recovery facility in MS Word helps you to recover the minor corrupted files.
MS Word allows you to create a backup copy of your work every time you save the file, which can be easily accessed in case if the .doc file gets corrupt or damaged.
For example, if you are working on a ‘Support.doc’ in MS Word and you have enabled the backup option, Word will automatically create a backup copy called ‘Backup copy of support.doc’. So if in case your document file gets corrupt you can use this backup copy.
To turn on the backup option in MS Word, perform the following steps:
1. Launch MS Word.
2. Click Tools > Options and click the Save tab.
3. Select the Always Create Backup Copy check box.
The AutoRecover feature in Office XP constantly saves data of the file you are working on and helps in undue circumstances of unexpected system shutdown, power failure, software crash where the document automatically gets closed. The next time you launch the application, Word restores the last saved data and presents the recovered file. The “Document Recovery Window” gets open on left side of the document screen with the list of recovered files. Double click the appropriate file or right click and select Save to save it.
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