Data Recovery after a Virus Attack

Autor: Guest

Malicious Programs

The cyber world out there is fraught with malicious programs, ready to sabotage your computer systems, once they get an opportunity to do so. Imagine a situation in which your computer suffers a virus attack, resulting in the loss of all the precious data, meticulously collected and saved over a long period of time. Will it make any considerable difference to you and your life? I am sure, it will. Most of the times, people fail to take precautions, regarding inoculating their computers against malware, thus exposing their computers to virus attacks. This casual approach regarding data security often has the potential to create big problems, at times. Three prominent computer programs that have the ability to wreck havoc with your computers are Viruses, Trojan Horses and Worms. Viruses are basically parasitic malicious programs, that have the inborn ability to duplicate themselves and often piggy-back a benign program, so as to propagate and infiltrate. A Trojan Horse, often called a Trojan, is a camouflaged program, which pretends to be something else. It may often lie dormant in your computer system for days, waiting for the appropriate opportunity to execute its nefarious designs. Worms are malicious micro programs. Unlike viruses, they do not rely on other programs to spread. Worms take advantage of the security holes in the computer systems and networks. Once you are hit by a malicious program, the results may vary from a simple blinking of a message on the monitor to deletion and erasing of important files and folders. The important applications may get damaged and the computers may lie exposed to possible data or password thefts. Hence the most urgent question is what to do in case of a malware attack? How can one save one’s precious data in such a scenario?

What to Do When Trouble Strikes

One thing to be kept in mind is that a malware strike is a crises situation, which demands a quick response on the part of the user. Any delay or fumbling may multiply the damage exponentially. As soon as you notice the problem, immediately report it to the IT security wing of your organization, if it has one. In case you do not have any IT security department, you can follow a simple procedure to respond to a possible malware strike. If your computer is connected to a network, immediately disconnect it. The malware may easily and rapidly spread from the host computer to the other computers in the network. Thus it becomes mandatory to urgently quarantine the infected hardware. Next try to back up all the intact data on a CD or any other portable storage device. However, it is not a certainty that the backed up data is free from any infection and is harmless. Try to identify the malware threat that has infected your computer. Then proceed to extract that malicious program, using antivirus software, designed specifically for the given threat. Due care aught to be taken that your antivirus software is updated on a regular basis and has the necessary patches required to deal with the threats under consideration. The chances are that the malware strike may have damaged your operating system. If it is so, you may need to reinstall your operating system using the restore CD that you received with your computer. It may be mentioned that this may lead to the loss of all the applications that you have installed in your computer or the important data that you have saved in it. Thus take care that you have all the requisite tools and information at hand, while reinstalling your operating system. Finally install the antivirus software in your computer and initiate a complete scan of your computer, not leaving a single file or segment. The chances are that you may be able to restore your computer to its previous state, using the given procedure. However if you fail to do so, you may require the services of some expert, who specializes in data recovery.

Further Precautions

You must learn from you experience and religiously back up all your important data in the future. A good back up plan will safeguard you against any malware strike and keep your valuable data intact under all circumstances. Invest in some authentic antivirus software and take care that it gets regularly updated with latest virus definitions and patches. Change all your passwords after a malware strike, as some malicious programs can steal passwords. Establish a strict protocol regarding computer usage and unexceptionally scan all the suspicious e-mail and downloads.

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RAID Data Loss and Data Recovery

Autor: shafa

Redundant Array of Inexpensive (or Independent) Disks with the acronym “RAID”, coined by a research group at UC-Berkeley, is a general term for data storage that combine an array of drives collectively to act as a single logical unit. They provide increased data reliability and/or throughput depending on the option or scheme. It is disk subsystem where a set of two or more drives (or discs) with a specialized disk controller contains the RAID operating function. The use of RAID can enhance performance and/ or is endowed with error tolerance.

RAID was developed basically for servers and stand-alone disk storage systems, but can be used on workstations like the desktop PCs. Desktop PC can have RAID added to its system by installing a RAID controller board and additional IDE or SCSI disks. More and more RAID functionality are being built on the motherboard.

Most Small to medium enterprises have gone in for RAID-configured data storage on their servers. RAID even though is very tolerant to faults; does fail sometimes. It may happen due to component failure that includes drive failures, missing partitions, controller failure etc. Data can be lost from RAID due to computer virus and worm damage, bad parity or drives out of order. But the most common cause is user error that often leaves the data unusable and corrupted.

RAID data recovery is very different to hard drive recovery as RAID is a more complex media device. It is more difficult and complicated to retrieve missing data due to drive order, parity, rebuilds, drive synchronization etc. There are six different levels with different way to spread data across multiple hard discs with specific use optimization at each level. It is essential to understand these levels for RAID data recovery.

Most RAID data recovery processes include certain steps like:
• Numbered drives
• forensically sound images of each drive are taken (exact bit by bit copies – including the blank or ‘white’ areas including the redundant drive or drives are taken)
• People in charge of recovering data reconfigure the data into a ‘virtual RAID’ on their multi terabyte server (Like HP Dual Xeon, 4Gb RAM, 8Tb SATA Storage, rack mounted, backed by UPS, backed up with a further 4Tb of storage)
• A list of files are made to be checked by the user to see if all the files he needs are there
• Copies of the data are made to a new drive or drives either external or internal as per the client specification.

The RAID data recovery is achieved through using the latest state-of-art technology, tools and techniques. However, it is ultimately the effort of the recovery experts and the software coders that differentiates between success and failure. An excellent perception and sense of pattern recognition are essential for recovering the missing data from complex RAID configurations

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Will CDs Go the Way of Floppy Drives – Out of Sight, Out of Mind?

Autor: Guest

In 1980, Sony introduced the 3.5 inch floppy disk that you now see on PCs. The floppy disk stores 1.5 MB, but still uses the same basic technology of the 1970s. Although it cannot compete with the vast storage capacity of the CD, many are still using floppy disks, and PC owners are offered an optional floppy drive. After all, floppy disks are cheaper than CDs, and they seem much more user-friendly to those who are technology-shy.

Also, in the 1980s, the CD or compact disk was invented as a result of the collaboration between Philips and Sony. Its initial function was to replace the unwieldy vinyl records of the time.

However, the CD slowly but surely began to replace floppy disks because of its higher data storage capacity. So, in this age of DVDs, is the CD going the way of the floppy disk, destined to be used only by the next generation of technology –shy users?

CDs Face the Music
In the music arena, at least, the CD is no longer hot. Plunging CD sales are forcing music stores to shut down. DVDs are taking over with their capacity for higher storage (some DVDs can store seven times more data). Says Roy Trakin, Senior Editor of the California based ‘Hits’ magazine, “The CD is turning out to be a transitory sort of item. The future of the CD may be in its enhanced content -- in a hybrid CD DVD and the more upscale formats like DVD audio and super audio CDs."

So it is seems that all is not yet lost for the CD which is poised to evolve into the Super CD.

On the other hand, David Miller, a consultant for a research group in Britain, says that the inexpensive CD single has a bleak future. It hasn’t had a chance to establish itself because instead of hoarding audio CDs, people prefer to download the music they want from the internet. There is another view on this subject of downloads. Some experts say that CDs will remain because many consumers do not feel that they own the music they download onto their hard drive.

Surely, this trend in the music industry is going to have an impact on the availability of the CD as a storage medium. There is still quite a way to go, since, as the experts say, there are an estimated 1.5 billion CD players in the world, and new media will take some years to establish itself.

And in the case of DVDs, he says that the new DVD-ROM offers much more than the consumer needs for storing games, movies and text. In his words, "The technology is ahead of the application."

So, once again, the case for the CD-ROM is not entirely lost, especially if it can evolve into something that can store a higher density of data, for the fact is that, currently, a large data backup requires many CDs.

Quick and Portable
CD technology offers many benefits for the corporate world. CDs and CD drives are highly portable, and this is important, as the idea of lugging around a magnetic tape drive is highly impractical. Compared to tape cartridges, CDs are lightweight, and relatively durable.

What’s more, every notebook computer comes with optional or built-in recordable CD drives. Whether you are transferring large amounts of data, video, or image files from one system to another, CDs are perfect. You can write them in three minutes flat.

An Inexpensive Medium
CDs are cheap. When purchased in bulk quantities, CDs cost a fraction of a cent per megabyte, and that’s not all. The prices of drives keep falling. Plus with all the big multinational companies that have put their names on CD technology, you can be sure that support will always be around tomorrow.

CD-R or CD-RW?
While you can only write data into a CD-R once, a CD-RW today can take a 1000 rewrites! So, unless you have backups elsewhere, it makes sense to store your most precious data on CD-R so you have less chances of losing the data.
And if you find it difficult to believe in the decade-long or century-long guarantees that sometimes come with CDs, make sure to check up on your discs every few months to determine whether your data needs re-backing up.
So, hold on to your CDs. They will survive for many years to come.

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Clean Room: Importance and Usage in Data Recovery

Autor: Guest

As more and more data gets stored on storage media increasing the risk of data loss – the opportunities of data recovery seem infinite. One of the most important aspects in the data recovery process is that of the Clean Room. Basically a corrupted media is taken to the clean room once data loss has been evaluated and a price quote has been given. A Data Recovery clean room can be defined as an environmentally controlled space free of contaminants such as dust or bacteria.

In technical jargon, one can state that clean room technology holds a key position in the data recovery field. The absence of clean room technology can actually corrupt and damage the storage medium leading to more devastating data loss that it originally had experienced. In order to understand the function and importance of a clean room in a data recovery lab – one needs to know the inner structure and working of that particular storage medium. A hard drive is a typical popular storage medium used by huge corporations and billions of personal users. Hard drive data loss can be easily recovered through clean room technology. Basically, a hard drive is a fragile magnetic storage medium. The inside of a hard drive consists of one or more heads which read and write information to the platters of the drive. These platters are magnetic in nature and are extremely sensitive -- physically and magnetically – to any external pollutant or environmental factor. Opening a drive in an unsafe environment can expose the magnetic disk structuring to pollutants contaminating the disk platters. Dust, microscopic bacteria including heat particles possess the ability to wilfully damage the disk. In short, even a small pollutant can cause irreversible data damage. Thus, for the success of data recovery, it is crucial to open the drive in a controlled, pollutant-free environment. Pollutants in most cases come from air, heat, light and human errors. They usually include humidity, movement, dust, microscopic bacteria and human hair.

Even though the pollutant may have corrupted only one section of the disk, the entire disk is prone to data damage as pollutants such as dust and bacterial particles have the ability to spread rapidly destroying entire chunks of data. This means that a clean room can be deemed unfit if cleaned and dusted by hand. The room is cleaned free of any sort of pollutants with the aid of powerful air filters. Usually data recovery companies use and maintain a Class 100 Clean Room for portable and optical storage data recovery of tape drives. A class 100 clean room is one which has less than a one hundred microscopic contaminants per square foot of space. Clean room technology is always changing for implementation and usage of better and more technically advanced cleaning procedures. The level of clean room technology is usually gauged by the amount of air cleanliness available inside the room. In addition to controlling temperature including heat, light and bacteria level, one has to look into the aspect of human contamination of the disk. Engineers and technicians are advised to wear high-tech protective suits with masks and gloves to reduce the risk of data corruption by human breathing, human sweat and hair. In other words, the main objective of a clean room is the generation of pure and uncontaminated air through the constant removal of pollutants through humans, machinery, equipment and processes.

Clean rooms were first established in the 1960s to fabricate precision technology in various research and manufacturing industries. But, by early 1980s, clean room technology began to be used in data recovery processes in manufacturing industries. Today, clean room technology is used commonly in various data recovery companies such as Ontrack, Disklabs and Vogon International. Clean rooms have become an integral part of the process of recovering data as these rooms enable engineers to separate the exact cause of the data loss and restore saved data on another disk. The available clean room technology is able to detect microscopic contaminants and retrieve data in its original format as quickly as possible.

A clean room can be as small as an office cubicle or as large as a football field. It can either be permanent, modular or portable with hard/ soft walls. The sanitised, septic-clean environment of the clean room uses layers of specialised air filters and cleaners of HEPA i.e. High Efficiency Particulate Air Filters, air showers, air locks, directed air flow called laminar flow with regular cleaning and upkeep operations. Some companies such as Aero Data Recovery have introduced the concept of Clean-Flow Benches which are used as an additional wall of security against air pollution in the clean room.

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Viruses – What They Mean to Your Computer

Autor: Guest

Computers can process information only if it is first converted into digital form. This digitisation has many benefits. It makes it easier to manipulate data, make its unlimited copies by a simple command and transfer the files from one place to another on portable storage devices or even send it across the wires instantly to computers far away. However, this ease of replication of data and its ability to travel long distances give rise to a threat that can destroy it all – computer viruses.

Computer viruses cause immense damage each year worldwide causing tremendous financial losses running into billions of dollars. As a result, a whole new industry has cropped up that specialises in making software tailored to neutralise the threat posed by these viruses. Dozens of new computer viruses are generated each month the world over. The anti-virus software companies identify and catalogue the codes of these, incorporate them in their software package and keep their databases fresh and updated so that they manage to recognise and remove latest viruses that are always coming into circulation.

But what are computer viruses anyway? A virus is nothing but a small software programme written with malicious intent. It has instructions which, when executed on a user’s computer, can cause harm to the data. It may corrupt software files, alter their code and make them unreadable.

There are viruses that are programmed to reformat your entire hard disk without your permission and purge it of all stored data! Some of them may force you to do certain tasks repeatedly – such as pressing a button on the key board every 5 minutes – that cause irritation and do not allow you to concentrate on your work.

Since viruses are software programmes – small lines of computer code – they obviously have to be written by people who know software programming. These are often teenagers or college students who get a kick out of creating something that gives them a sense of power over others.

When rogue programmers see the virus they wrote spread all over the world and cause damage to millions of computers, they get an adrenaline rush because the episode confirms to them their intellectual superiority and boosts their ego. Some programmers are just mischievous sadists who get a thrill out of causing damage, destruction and inconvenience to citizens at large. Most countries have strict cyber laws that make creating and spreading viruses a crime.

A couple of decades ago when Internet was in its infancy, viruses used to spread themselves by getting copied to removable storage media such as floppy disks and compact disks. All one had to do was run an anti-virus check on each floppy or CD before accessing them and the computer used to remain safe from infection. With the coming of the Internet, however, viruses now mostly spread online.

Whenever you download an attachment to your hard disk from the Internet, there is a risk of a virus (or its variants such as Trojans and worms) copying itself to your computer. Some viruses may without your permission quietly download themselves on your hard disk as you go about browsing harmless-looking websites. This can be a dangerous situation for the health of the data residing on your computer. To prevent this, you should always have an anti-virus solution from a reputed company such as Norton or McAfee running in the background, monitoring all downloads and files being copied to your desktop.

The moment the software spots a virus, it issues a warning and neutralises the threat. Whenever you go online, the anti-virus automatically downloads latest virus definitions from its official website and updates its library, thus keeping you safe from latest viruses that have got created since you bought the software.

If a virus strikes, you should immediately run a good anti-virus software package. These “vaccines” scan the entire hard disk and other storage devices attached to your computer, identify hidden viruses, Trojans and worms and present their names to you for necessary action.

You can then clean the infected files of the viruses. The files that cannot be cured and remain infected are quarantined and not allowed to be used by the operating system. Even otherwise, it is a good idea to scan your entire computer through an anti-virus package at least once every week so that your precious data remains safe and secure.

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Hard Disk Crash and Data Backup

Autor: Guest

A company recently launched a hard drive that has a whopping one terra-byte capacity. No other storage device currently offers so much storage space in such a small physical size.

Another benefit of hard disk is that it offers random access to data. No matter on which part of the disk a particular file is located, the read / write head can instantly retrieve it “at random” so that the operating system can process if further. This combination of very high capacities and random data access is what makes hard drives unique and an ideal media to act as primary data storage inside computers and laptops.

However, it is a sad fact of life that hard disks are not infallible. They crash. When this happens, all the data that you have on your computer becomes inaccessible instantly, leaving you in a state of utter panic. But why do hard disks go bad in the first place?

A hard disk is essentially an electro-mechanical-magnetic device. There is a vertical row of platters inside a hard disk, each of which has a magnetic coating on its surface. All data gets stored on this in the form of magnetic imprints. A read / write head hovers above, reading the data and transferring it to the operating system. A spindle motor spins the platters at a very high number of revolutions per minute.

The current industry standard is 5,400 or 7,200 RPM (revolutions per minute), though disks with an RPM of 15,000 are also beginning to be introduced in the market. In a 7,200 RPM drive, the platters are spinning 120 times a second! The higher the RPM, the faster the computer can boot up, load software and access data. Obviously, with such precise and fast mechanics, there is much that can go wrong with a hard disk.

The spindle motor can burn out, the read / write head can become unhinged and come crashing down on platter surface, scratching it and destroying data stored there. The disk circuits may get fried due to a malfunction or power spike. Then there may be software errors such as a user accidentally deleting a file, reformatting the hard disk or even a virus attack.

It is therefore a good idea to keep your data backed up in a different storage media. This has many benefits. If something goes wrong, you can just take the backup media and reinstall your files onto your hard disk. This will save you time as well as a huge amount of money that may have to be paid to the professional data recovery companies. There are a range of storage media products available in the market to suit all needs and budgets.

Floppy Drives

These have very limited data storage, not exceeding 1.4 MB. Floppies were all the rage about 10 years ago. However, by today’s standards, they are quite an old technology and are almost out of fashion now. They can be used for storing text files and not much else as a file containing pictures would easily be much more than the holding capacity of a floppy disk. These disks are also quite unreliable and frequently the computer refuses to recognise them.

Compact Disks (CDs)

Compact disks were responsible for the demise of the floppy disk industry. These can hold up to 700 MB of data or up to 80 minutes of audio. This makes them ideal for the backup needs of most individual users. They are today the industry-standard for removable storage media. These come in rewritable version too and the data can be written and rewritten over them hundreds of times.

Digital Video Disks (DVDs)

DVDs are the latest development of optical disk technology. They can hold up to 8.4 GB of data, much more than a CD. DVDs are currently quite expensive when compared to a CD, but with time their costs are going to come down. It looks like DVDs are gradually going to replace CDs totally in the next four or five years.

Flash Drives

These use a small Flash memory-based card to hold data and are commonly available in capacities of up to 8 GB. Flash drives connect to a computer through the high-speed USB port and are no larger than your thumb, which makes them quite portable. You can easily carry three or four of them in your shirt pocket.

Portable Hard Disks

These offer the same functionality as the regular computer hard disks, but they are portable and can be carried around by the user. Portable disks are used to take a backup of the entire computer hard drive. Most of these come with a software that automatically takes backup at regular intervals, thus leaving the user to concentrate on other tasks.

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Why Hard Disks Dominate

Autor: Guest

 

It has been decades since the first disk came to the market, and it is still the best solution for an internal storage medium for computers. There are no computers anywhere which do not use a hard drive inside. Seagate is no more the only manufacturer either. Samsung is giving it a healthy competition, and several other companies have come up. To comprehend why the hard disk is so popular we need to know the reasons that prompted its success.

General Factors

What are the general reasons behind the success of any digital storage device? Let us look at these reasons first.

The device should have a high capacity. The greater the memory space the higher the demand for it. There was a time when even 1GB was a great deal of space. Now even one terabyte is not enough, sometimes even for home users. It must be remembered that as days go by the number of reasons as to why we use a computer will keep multiplying. We will never have ‘enough’ space. The floppy, the CD, the DVD, or even the USB drive does not have the sheer volume that hard disks offer.

The question of security is very important. Left alone by itself, a hard disk is merely a box with a certain amount of virtual space offered on it. And this is what makes it such a favourite. Unless infected material is kept on it, a hard disk cannot get corrupted. For those who use machines without an internet connection, there is really no chance of the data to get logically corrupted unless they delete or format something by mistake. This impenetrable quality makes the hard disk a great choice. All other digital storage media are portable and, therefore, the constant plugging in and out makes them more unsafe and easily prone to attacks from virus waiting in unclean disks or directly from the net.

The third greatest factor is price. The disk is still cheapest on a comparative scale. It is obviously many times costlier than a CD, DVD, or USB drive. But the amount of space it offers is much more than any of these devices and it is still is the best bargain at the price.

The convenience factor is behind the success of every digital device that has lasted for any length of time beyond a few years. The hard disk is easy to install, the formats have standardised, there is good after-sales service, and it is not a complicated device. Even a lay person knows a few things about the hard disk.
Special Factors

Then there are some factors specific to the hard disk only that help it to score above the rest of the devices. In fact, each successful format has its own set of unique advantages; otherwise they would not have been able to survive in the race in the first place.

The effective option of being able to connect all other cards, the board, the plug-in devices directly on to the hard disk helps in saving space inside the computer. It also makes for effective machine management, and most CPU assemblers are simply won over due to the sheer convenience of having this box inside.

The hard disk, with its convenience of RAM, ROM and increasing the cache memory as well is the best solution for those who mean to upgrade their machine later or have other hardware devices running from it as well. Everything is routed via the hard disk since it contains all the data, the OS, and any extra software to run these other applications.

Most people refer to their hard disk as their ‘computer’. The whole idea is to use a machine optimally, putting each byte it offers to use. The hard disk is the best device in that way. It is the perfect example of value for money and the most economical as well as organised space where we can keep our entire data securely.

The hard disk is most compatible with most recognized OS and does not need any special arrangements to work. Its very high access speed makes it a sensible choice as well.

As further proof of its popularity, some mobile phone versions and DVD players are integrating mini hard disks within their system setups.

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What are Diesel Generators?

Autor: Guest

We have to thank Rudolf Diesel who issued a patent for a proposed engine back in 1892 for this radical form of power plant and he eventually got the patent approved in 1898.

His aim was to provide a convenient mobile internal combustion engine that would run efficiently in any conditions. Although he had in mind the newly invented automobile, Rudolf Diesel was looking at the use in industry to move heavy loads and provide independent power for factories that has been up until that time been using steam and water power.

It was Rudolf Diesel, the father of Diesel Generators , who proved that fuel could be ignited without the requirement of a spark. This is particularly useful when requiring power in confined or dangerous areas, such as fuel depots, ships, submarines, factories. When compared with petrol engines, diesel power plants are far more cost effect as they provide more power from each litre of fuel as well as requiring at least 50% less fuel than an equivalent petrol driven engine.

One hundred years later his designs have been significantly improved, although the basic engineering philosophy remains the same.

Diesel Generators are the most common form of mobile or standby power in the world. The recent surge in Asian Growth, especially in China, as seen the renaissance of the diesel generator.

Available in sizes from 5kVA up to 5 Megawatts, diesel generators are the back bone of world wide industry.

Standby Diesel Generators are commonly used by all major Hospitals, Military forces, government buildings, data centres, banks and distribution networks to protect their critical systems from power failures caused by power outages.
Companies such as Volvo and Scania famous for their indestructible trucks have also long been synonymous with manufacturing powerful Diesel Generators for use in Cruise liners, Factories and as Standby Generators.

Diesel generators can work at altitudes impossible for any other form of power plant. Temperatures too cold for other forms of power are easily accommodated by diesel generators because they have a built in water heater to keep the vital parts and the oils warm, 24-7 enabling this modern day work horse to continue around the clock.

Treated kindly, a diesel generator will out last any other form of power plant . Regular maintenance , oil changes, injections etc. will guarantee 30, 40 of even 50 years of service out living the work force it protects.

When a disaster happens, its diesel generators that are airlifted to help the needy.

The world owes a debt to Rudolf Diesel. He was famous in life and a legend in death.

PowerContinuity Means Business Continuity

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What is Critical Power?

Autor: Guest

 

Critical power is any form of power that if it were not available would have disastrous consequences.

What type of places would require continuous uninterruptible critical power supplies? Hospitals, Surgeries, Military Field operations, Banks, Airports, Space Bases, Communications networks, distribution centres, food manufacturing plants.

Surprisingly there are thousands of environments that require their to be always available 24-7 without any disruption, come hell or high water.

The only true way to protect critical power is with the installation of uninterruptible power supplies , known as UPS Systems which in turn are supported by Diesel Generators.

This system would then need to be made totally invincible to any power outage, however improbable or likely.

To achieve this, the UPS system and generator system would need to be replicated more than once in the event of mechanical failure. The term used is N+1 this equates to a double system. N+2 will be 200% cover and N+3 would be Triple cover.

Most Hospitals would protect their critical power with an N+3 power protection system.

An in depth understanding of how to protect critical power can be reviewed in the section on this website entitled, How does a disaster prevention system work?

How safe is the critical power at your office or business?

Most businesses today couldn't operate without their servers, so the perception that only hospitals require critical power is rapidly changing. Many now require total Disaster Prevention.

Any business should take the time to have any energy audit. Classify what is Critical, what is necessary and what you can do without. Then prioritise. Takes steps to protect your critical power before its gone.

The assumption that all power is critical power, so power downs will never occur is naive.

If you need critical power then protect it.

Read the article on Disaster Prevention to understand when to do.

PowerContinuity Means Business Continuity

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What is Power Protection?

Autor: Guest

Everyone whether a home owner of company director expects power to be provided by large multinational companies or government owned production facilities to their electrical appliances. Just plug into an electrical socket and the power must be there anytime.

So, power protection, means the pre installation of power systems that will in the event of a power outage immediately take over from the exiting lost supply and replace this with an independent source of power.

This form of power protection is usually undertaken by the installation of uninterruptible power supplies which is turn by backed up by Diesel Generators .

Electricity is manufactured by many means, although the most common methods are from burning coal (China opens two new coal fired power stations every week, of every year), hydro power (from river or lake waters), nuclear power and most recently wind turbine farms. So if power is so readily available, why would anyone need power protection?
Sadly, we live in an unpredictable world. The treat of natural disasters, terrorism, fuel embargoes, and ageing power plants have all lead people to readdress their dependency of electrical power always been available. Today there is a real need to be able to protect your power requirements. Why?

Hospitals couldn't operate at all without serious power protections been in place. Police and security forces need to protection their power in keep communications lines open, whatever the eventuality. Military forces can no longer operate in the theatre of world with out uninterruptible power supplies and power protection. In fact they need more than just power protection, they require Disaster Prevention .

Power Protection is insurance, allowing anyone or business to continue as normal, without catastrophic loss of power.

Is power important? Remember the millions who lost power the US winter of 2004. The floods in Europe in 2005. Floods in the UK in 2007. In every instance, government institutions were able to come to the rescue because they already had power protection systems in place.

Today it is common for even home owners to install some form of power protection.

It's more common for small to medium businesses to invest in power protection.

No one can work in a factory or office with out electricity.

Today more than ever, power protection is the only way to maintain a functioning society.

Standby Diesel Generators working in tandem with uninterruptible power supplies are commonly used by all major Hospitals, Military forces, government buildings, data centres, banks and distribution networks as power protection for their critical systems.

How safe is your critical power?

Do you have power protection?

Do you need Disaster Prevention?

PowerContinuity Means Business Continuity.

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What are UPS Systems?

Autor: Guest

Many people have small desk top UPS box which contains a battery or batteries and a line interactive electronic device. This will hold up the PC and monitor in the event of a small power outage but will not protect the equipment against spikes or brown outs.

A real UPS is a True OnLine system which actually converts the AC to DC and then back to AC with the use of inverters and rectifiers. This UPS system actually provides both clean seamless power as well as total protect against spikes and brownouts. If you want power protection that buy a True On Line UPS systems and not a line interactive UPS.

UPS systems , implies more than one uninterruptible power supply working with another uninterruptible power supply. This is a parallel UPS system which provides redundancy and therefore offers greater protection of any critical equipment. The power is held within the UPS systems by batteries, usually sealed lead acid batteries. Most commonly used batteries have a 5year design life and should be replaced after 4 years. Why after 4 years? Because no one knows when they will fail.

The larger the site the greater the UPS system. Modern Communications Centres may have as many as 24 500kVA UPS's forming an N+3 disaster power protection system. These UPS systems need regular monitoring to ensure that they are functioning 100 cover and N+3 would be Triple cover.

What are the very best makes of UPS systems?

Ask the bank and Hospitals. They only use, Liebert, Powerware, Chloride and the larger APC kit genuine Tier one companies. Enough said.

PowerContinuity Means Business Continuity
For further information regarding UPS Systems please visit our website.

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Why is the Data Recovery Industry Booming?

Autor: jameswalsh

We find such occurrences strange, but for recovery experts it is a part of their day’s work. They are accustomed to recovering data from wine soaked hard drives or from disks crushed under the wheels of vehicles.

Recovering data from such damaged hard disks requires much patience and an eye for minute detail. This field of data recovery can be described as both, a science and an art. Data recovery professionals are a motivated lot too, for they enjoy high success rates. (Success rates are high, for the complete destruction of data is extremely rare. In majority of the cases, data lies on the hard drive and would have merely turned inaccessible.) A career in this industry is financially rewarding and interestingly promising. Would you like to belong to work here, your services would be highly sought after?

Data Recovery as a Career

The nature of this profession demands certain characteristic traits. You would have to be patient and hard working. Companies require data within hours of losing it (for their very survival depends upon its availability.) To recover their lost data you might have to work for extra hours or over the weekends too, if the need arises.

You can expect much career growth for the future of data recovery industry seems promising. With the increase in digitalisation of company records, data recovery has become a billion-dollar industry.

Data Recovery Industry is on a Path of Rapid Growth

Two simple factors are driving the demand for data recovery and are responsible for its growth. These are:

Data is stored on the hard disks, which are prone to failure

Data is very important for business and individuals

We are increasingly depending on computers. This can be proved by the simple fact that, globally more than a billion computers are being used. It is rare to come across offices that have not yet digitalised. 9 out of 10 offices rely on computers for carrying out their business. Globally, petabytes of information is being generated and more than 75% of it is not backed by a hard copy version.

The generated information has to be stored on hard disks, which are prone to failure. Ideally, a hard disk has to last for at least 10 years. However, they are extremely unpredictable. Life of any data is short for even computers are extremely volatile. Apart from hard disk failure, PCs can be affected by many other factors that might result in data loss.

As data is prone to loss and business survival depends on its existence, companies seek data retrieval expertise to recover lost data. This is driving up the demand for data recovery service providers. The rising demand and increasing profitability of this line have attracted many players to the market turning it a highly competitive venture.

Hard work is required to develop the business, for competition is rife and the hard disks are changing at a rapid rate. The changing nature of hard disks is necessitating a subsequent change in the tools used. Companies are finding it difficult to evolve tools to keep pace with the rapid technological changes. Producing tools requires much research and development (R&D) which is an expensive process. Majority of the companies are, therefore, shifting to logical recovery for the low investment it requires.

Future of the Data Recovery Industry

Currently, there are a few major global data recovery companies. Success of a company lies in tying up with smaller businesses. As smaller companies are concentrating on logical recovery, they outsource the physical data recovery work to the larger companies.

Rapid globalisation is also necessary for company development. When mission critical data is lost, companies like to get their data retrieved within a few hours. They would prefer to approach a company that is geographically close, for lost data is very expensive. Companies that lose data experience great financial loss due to downtime, loss of business, loss of productivity and cost of reconstructing or recovering data. The significance attached to data is responsible for the growth of the data recovery industry. Though it is a competitive business, companies are motivated by the high success rates they enjoy. Success has a tendency to feed itself.

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Reconditioned or Recycled Computer Tape Media

Autor: Guest


Recent studies have indicated that many businesses face the risk of bankruptcy in case of data loss stemming from inadequate protection. Therefore, data storage and preservation is not just a wasteful practice adopted by businesses today. It is an important means to an end.

Effective data storage practices can insure your business against data loss incidents in the best possible manner so that your business can recover from the data loss incident with minimal or no damage. Not having adequate data protection policies and procedures can result in huge economic losses as well as loss of business reputation. Therefore, data storage is all about assuring that the data is safe and can be recovered at any point in time.

The costs associated with data storage are positively correlated with the demand for data storage. Therefore, as the demand for data storage increases, so does the cost of these data storage devices. However, can you afford to adopt a cost-cutting option at the cost of losing or damaging your data? This is exactly what you should be analysing when you think about using recycled tape media.

Recycled tape media is a cheap data storage option because these tapes are not new. The recycled tapes have a significant amount of risk associated with them. In addition, the lifespan of the recycled tapes is far less than the new tapes. While the new tapes can last as long as twenty years when stored appropriately, the recycled tapes will last no longer than five to ten years. Therefore, these tapes are priced far cheaper than the new tapes.

The recycling may use a process called degaussing. The process of degaussing erases the data from the tapes. Alternatively, manufacturers of these recycled tapes tend to rewrite over the existing data to erase the previous data. There are times when manufacturers tend to use a tape scraper blade and vacuum system within a tape drive for cleaning the tape surface to remove any dust or debris. However, this process can ruin the tape further.

Tape media is very fragile and should be handled with extreme caution. The rough scraping process can cause severe damage to the surface of the tape. The proposition of buying a cheaper recycled tape media may seem attractive but this involves substantial risks. Recycled tapes are used tapes that have been bought as scrap and recycled to look as if they are as good as new.

The most important problem with the recycled tapes is that you will have no idea about how these tapes were used or misused prior be being disposed. In addition, you will never get to know how these tapes were stored or the quality and cleanliness of the drives these tapes have been used in.

There have been instances when tapes have been used on ill-maintained drives that had accumulated dirt from dirty heads. This dirt and debris can be easily transferred to the tape media. Consequently, when these recycled tapes are used on an error-free drive, they transfer this dirt and corrupt a perfectly good drive. This corrupt drive can ruin even the new tapes that are used on this drive. Therefore, your short-term saving goal can become a long-term nightmare. Sadly, the recycling process does not repair the initial damage done to the tape media.

Sellers of these recycled tapes often claim that they use state-of-the-art data centres to manage the recycling process of the tape media. However, consumers should be cautious of such claims.

Typically, these data centres are stressful environments for the technicians working in them. Since the workload of these technicians is so high, it would be unrealistic to think that they would handle each and every tape as fragile objects. In addition, tape media in data centres get loaded and unloaded by automated systems several hundred times in a week. Then these tapes are loaded and unloaded from the data centre to the storage site in all types of weather.

The new tapes usually come with a lifelong warranty whereas the warranty period of the recycled tapes ranges between five to ten years only. If your IT budget is restricted and you must buy recycled tapes, always make sure that you choose a company that certifies and guarantees the quality of these tapes. However, the recycled tape media industry has not specified any standard definition for the term “certified” with respect to recycled tape storage. Therefore, your best bet would be to rely on the company’s reputation. In addition, choose a company that offers the maximum guarantee period.
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Basics of File Recovery

Autor: Guest

Data is stored in computers in digital form. This digital representation of information allows for its quick transfer, instant copies and convenient storage. Unlike conventional means of physical transfer of information which requires more time and effort, digital data can reach another destination in seconds. In case more copies are required, innumerable number of them can be made with the press of a button. A whole library can be stored in a small thumb drive as digital files.

The convenience of this digital format goes hand in hand with its volatile nature. It is very easy to steal digital data especially because of the new range of compact storage devices. Also, years and years of carefully stored vital information can be deleted with a single flick of a wrong button.

This deletion of file (intentional or accidental) can take place due to many reasons. They can be broadly divided into two categories: physical errors and logical errors.

Physical errors include cases of hardware failure like hard disk crash, impact trauma, power surge, natural calamities like fire and flood. Hard disk crash is amongst the most frequent reason for data loss on computers and notebooks. This can result from power surge, crashing of read/ write head onto the platter surface and failure of controller card.

Logical data failure is a software glitch. It is responsible for more data losses than physical errors. It can be subdivided into two parts: system error and user error. System error consists of a virus attack which enters the system either through internet download or copying of corrupt CDs, floppy disks. Computers now run anti-virus software as a safeguard against this.

Another cause of system error is deletion of important components or partitions of an operating system due to corruption of files while the computer is midway between reading or writing data on storage media.

User error consists of accidental deletion of files. These files may be lost by emptying the recycle bin or using other deletion actions that bypass the recycle bin altogether. These include shift-delete, command line deletion, deleting excessively large files etc.

When a file is deleted from the recycle bin or if the recycle bin has been bypassed totally, the file can no longer be recovered by the operating system. Contrary to popular belief, the content of the file still remains on the drive, relatively intact, until the section of the drive it occupies is overwritten by another file.

What really happens when a file is deleted is that its name from the table of contents that tells the operating system which file is stored where is erased. This makes the operating system conclude that the data is no longer needed and it marks the place as vacant, to be used up later.

This is the reason when a file is accidentally deleted the user should stop working on the computer immediately lest the deleted file gets overwritten by a new data making it impossible to recover.

The file recovery options include buying DIY software with easy-to-follow instructions. In case this fails or you are not comfortable with the idea, then one should contact a professional data recovery firm.

File recovery software identifies the contents of lost files on the hard drive and allows you to recover them. If a file has been partially overwritten, then it attempts to reconstruct as much of a file as is possible with the remaining contents. While deciding on a DIY recovery software look for the features such as:

1. It should be able to recover files from all types of storage media.

2. It should have a rapid scan engine to scan a typical hard drive within a short period of time.

3. It should be able to scan all the files and directories on selected hard drives simultaneously.

4. It should be able to recover a file using a part of, or its entire file name.

5. It should have a non-destructive, read-only file recovery approach and should make no changes in it at all.

6. It should be able to recover multiple files in one action.

7. It should support all standard hard drives including those larger than 8 GB and also those formatted with different file systems.

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Data Transfer Made Easy By Pen Drive

Autor: robertoms2003

 

Pen drive is the ideal for people who are looking for bigger space to store their data and want an easy-to-operate storage space. Transferring large quantity of data from one computer to the other has always been a problem, mainly due to lack of suitable data storing device. Storage mediums like CD, floppy and e-mails have always failed us in urgent times because of their shortcomings like small storage and large time-consumption for data transfer.

Pen drive is the best solution to end this problem. These USB flash drives are integrated with a USB interface. They are small, removable, lightweight and rewritable. Their main advantages over other storage devices are that they are faster, more compact, can hold more data and are much more reliable thanks to their durable designs and lack of moving parts. It is the revolution of pen drives that more and more computers are being made without the floppy drive while the USB port has to be present on almost every mainstream computer and laptop.

A pen drive consists of a printed circuit board generally in a metal or plastic. The memory storage of pen drives range from the usual to 250MB to 2GB or more. It is as small as a key-ring. For the pen drive to work, both the computer should be USB-compatible systems.

Pen drives are faster to use than downloading data through e-mail and easier than using dozens of floppies. Pen drives can store data, video and audio files, with plug and play ease. The best feature of a Pen Drive is you don`t need any software to make it work thus simplifying your work of copying or transferring. Moreover, it also does not require any type of battery. These features make the pen drive totally portable.

You don`t need to install pen drive for Windows 2000, XP or ME as it is done automatically by the operating system. But for Windows 95/98/98SE, you need to install the drivers manually.

These pen drives are most popular amongst system and network administrators. They can load them with information about configuration and software that can be used for the system`s maintenance, recovery and troubleshooting. They also enjoy noteworthy success in the field of PC repair as a mean for transferring recovery as well as antivirus software to infected computers, and also allowing a segment of the data of host machine to be archived for emergency cases.

Pen drives act as Application carriers and are utilized to carry applications for running on the host computer without installation. Some applications that use this technique are U3 and airWRX. An open software platform, Portableapps also allows similar functionality on non-U3 drives. But undoubtedly the most common use of pen drive is for personal data transportation you can transport and store your personal files like documents, videos and pictures. You can also store certain medical alert data on Medic Tag flash drives to be used in case of emergencies and for preparation of disaster. Apart from this, pen drives are used in Audio players.

Pen drives present a considerable security challenge for big organizations. Their ease of use and small size allows unsupervised guests or unscrupulous staff to smuggle off confidential data with little or no chance of detection. To avoid this, some flash drives have features like encryption of data stored on them. This is a preventive measure to stop an unauthorized person from gaining access to the stored data stored. Newer pen drives support the biometric fingerprinting for confirming the user`s identity. This process though costlier is a better way to protect sensitive data from leaking out.

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The Possible Consequences of Data Loss

Autor: jameswalsh

Loss of personal data can lead to a situation where there is no longer any trace of you. Your existence on planet Earth is going to be one long miserable sequence (You could turn into a zombie, like in the movies), unless you can rectify the situation overnight. Your business entity is no different. But scientific surveys have shown that businesses which do not recover the major portion of their lost data, do not survive beyond 5 years.

Loss of precious data, irrespective of the owner of the data, is one of the most effective ways of crippling any business, organization or individual, for a long long time (you could call it slow-sure-business poisoning). Data, permanently lost is an irreparable loss. The thought of losing data, even on a temporary basis, is the stuff that businesses have nightmares about.

Can you afford a loss of data, albeit temporarily? Look at the obvious cost. The cost of data loss is estimated at more than billion annually, in the U.S alone. (That figure was compiled from those who truthfully admitted that they had lost data! What about the rest of the world and the remaining lot of people who lost data, but won't acknowledge it or do not know that they have lost their data in the first place?

Entire countries do not even have that kind of annual revenue. You could feed, clothe and provide shelter to a large segment of the worlds downtrodden, with that kind of money. All this money is trickling steadily into the drain, year after year, because someone somewhere just did not adhere to set instructions or did not take the necessary precautions to secure the valuable data. That's a huge monetary loss for society as a whole. Of course, you could compensate some of that loss, by providing more employment to an army of data entry experts, deployed to re-enter or retype the lost data, at rates ranging from 0 per hour to 0 per hour.

To put it more precisely, the required time and attention were not allocated to protect the sensitive data. So if you were to correlate this monetary cost of data loss (in terms of man hours lost), that would be tantamount to a few million hours wasted. It does not make the least business sense to let your precious human resource twiddle their thumbs and sit around, waiting for the data to be magically restored. If your active data disappears down a bottomless trench, your workforce is sure to idle on the bench. Many idle minds on the bench could mean serious rifts within your office and breakdown of office atmosphere, before long. This could be your worst case scenario, in-house, if a major data loss occurs and persists in remaining that way.

But what happens when your statutory data is lost. You are in deep trouble with the various Governmental agencies. Convincing dyed-in-the-wool bureaucracy about the genuineness of your data loss, the absence of reliable backup etc. is an uphill task. Then after a lot of effort, just when you have managed to stabilise the situation in respect of the governmental agencies, where are your customers? Slowly drifting away to your competitors or other alternatives, the dwindling numbers of your customer base undoes all that painstaking effort put into the building up of your sales, over the years. A lawsuit from a disgruntled customer is also a blow below the belt. You can only try to stem the damage first until the time you begin to reverse the damage. So getting back your data can put your business back on its feet?

With the level of technology available today, there is no guarantee that you will get your data back completely (the quantum and the exact form of your original data) and that too, with a snap of your fingers. Forget the magic wand. There's no such thing. You will have to patiently work your way back: try to locate the missing data yourself and restore it, call in the experts and pay through your nose to set it right; patiently put up with the loss of your projects, watch your customers slowly disappear, humour the remaining employees left behind in the debris of the data loss storm etc or take the easy way out: pull the shutters down and flee.

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Why People Go for Professional Data Recovery

Autor: jameswalsh

People and organizations that primarily rely on computers for their day-to-day activities, inevitably come across data loss problems at some time or other. No matter what may be the cause of a data disaster, the natural human urge, after all, is to recover the lost data with a high success rate and without incurring exponential expenses.

There are several DIY data recovery software available in the market which can be successfully used by an individual or an organization to recover the lost data. Besides being really cheap and cost-effective, DIY data recovery software offers many other advantages, which makes it a very appropriate data recovery solution. Yet, it has often been observed that people prefer to go for professional data recovery services rather than using recovery software. One of the reasons for this may be that the data recovery software is of no use in case of a mechanical failure of any storage media. Besides this, the professional data recovery companies offer many other advantages such as:

1) Human Supervision and Assessment of the Problem

In case of any major data loss scenario, what people tend to hate most is the sense of vagueness and uncertainty associated with the situation. They desperately look for some one who can give them a realistic assessment of the situation and can supervise the entire recovery process with confidence and surety. The human factor associated with professional data recovery services makes them a great success.

2) Professionalism

When the data at stake is very precious and critical for survival purposes, people and organizations expect it to be recovered with ample professionalism and responsibility. They know that any amateurish attempt to salvage their data may end up in a disaster and can render the lost data irretrievable for ever.

3) Experience

The technical staff working for a good data recovery service has the requisite experience of working with and recovering data from various types of storage media subjected to all types of abuse and mishandling. Hence, they are often in a position to recover the lost data with a high rate of success.

4) Qualified Staff

All the authentic data recovery companies have a highly qualified staff and well-trained data recovery technicians. Many good companies even hire PhD-level data recovery experts for advisory and technical purposes. This gives a prospective customer a sense of confidence regarding the recovery of his inaccessible data.

5) Use of Specialized Software and Hardware Tools

A genuine data recovery company always has a well-stocked inventory of many types of software and hardware tools at its disposal, so as to perform any type of data recovery job with success and confidence. In addition to this, the highly skilled data recovery technicians are often in a position to improvise and customize the tools to suit the situation.

6) Free-of-charge Assessment and Advice

Almost all the major data recovery companies offer a free-of-charge assessment and diagnosis of the data recovery problem submitted to them. They often advise their customers regarding the data recovery solution that will be most appropriate for them, without asking for any special fee. This helps the customer in deciding upon and planning his or her future course of action.

7) Advanced Estimates about Recovery Cost

A reputed data recovery company always provides its customers with a realistic estimate of the expected recovery costs. Whether he or she wants to avail their services or not is entirely left to the discretion of the well-informed customer.

8) No-recovery-no-charge Policy

All the well-established data recovery companies follow a policy of no-recovery-no-charge. They charge their customers only for the data recovered and in case of a failure to recover data, the customer is not charged anything. This arrangement makes the data recovery companies a very tempting option.

9) Entire Onus on the Recovery Company

Once a storage device or a digital gadget is submitted to a data recovery company, the entire onus lies on the recovery firm for the success or failure of the recovery procedure followed or any damage incurred to the media under consideration.

Considering all the above mentioned benefits of hiring the services of professional data recovery companies, no doubt, people mostly prefer to go for professional data recovery.

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Recover Your Data Without Spending A Cent

Autor: ajeetKhurana

The hassle that a person who has lost all his important data due to a computer crash is huge. With the business world becoming so dependent upon the internet, computers, and information in this century, losing valuable data can cost your company thousands of dollars and cause headaches, as well.

Because computers are prone to crash, there are a number of data recovery systems available to make sure that all you important data is protected. By using these three products, you can get your stuff back at a barely there price.

SMART DATA RECOVERY
Smart Data Recovery is a system that can aid you in getting back your data without costing you the first penny. Since the majority of business owners are using the Windows operating system, this program is interested in recovering files and data used on that system.

The best thing about this system is that it can recover data easily from any operating system. Instead of laying emphasis on hard drive data recovery like most data recovery systems, Smart Data Recovery allows for recovery from digital cameras, flash drives, USB drives, and quite a few other storage devices.

With a quick, free, and easy download of this product, pictures, music files, and other forms of data can be recovered in a short time. The product also has compatibility with FAT files and NTFS systems, so you can be sure that all of your important data is protected if the voltage were to fluctuate suddenly. If you have any of the most recent Windows operating systems, then consider Smart Data Recovery and their no hassle download for the protection of all the information that you have been gathering.

TESTDISK
Another extremely powerful product along these same data recovery lines is known as TestDisk. It is a product that has powerful capability and because of that, serves as a last resort type of solution for those that are trying to deal with the loss of data. In short, TestDisk specializes in helping to make faulty disks bootable again dues to malfunctioning software. It can also help to recover lost pieces of data that make life so much easier for you.

One of the best things about TestDisk is that it can be used effectively by both expert computer users and novice users. If you have enough knowledge about computers, then you could use the software to do some fairly advanced things. If it is your goal to simply recover a little bit of data, then the simple recovery software should be enough for you. This dual capability has made TestDisk quite a popular choice for data recovery.

Another excellent aspect of TestDisk is that it can work on a number of different operating systems. This is one factor that sets it apart from other specialized products which either work with MacOS or Windows. This piece of software can help recover data and reboot disks on those two popular operating systems as well as on other systems. Other supported operating systems include Dos, Linux, and SunOS.

PC INSPECTOR SMART RECOVERY
If you have ever deleted or changed your favorite pictures from your digital camera and wish you could undo your actions, then this software is just the thing. As one of the leading downloadable data recovery systems in this field, the PC Inspector software has proven time and again to be successful in recovering pictures from storage spaces of many types.

If your picture data has been lost on Flash Card, Smart Media, Sony Memory Stick, IMB Micro Drive, or any sort of Secure Digital Card, then this free download might assist you in making that recovery.

The creators of this software also realized that people keep their pictures in a bunch of different formats. Because of that, over forty different picture formats are supported by this software. If you happen to have a system failure occur that causes you to lose those important pictures from your wedding or honeymoon, make sure you stay calm. Within minutes of downloading this product, you can have those pictures back in all of their original quality.

The Smart Recovery system from PC Inspector puts your data back into your hands for an economical cost. Such a system is absolutely essential for any person who is always working on his computer and puts a great deal of importance in his pictures.

These three data recovery systems all offer their own different aspects which make them a popular choice for various groups. Depending upon where your data was stored and what kind of operating system you have, you might find a different one of these three to be a quality download.

Free data recovery software can easily be subscribed to and provides a bit of insurance against system failure. With more and more computers crashing and more business being done online, business organizations have to invest in data recovery software in case of data loss.

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Why People Do Not Go for Professional Data Recovery?

Autor: jameswalsh

Right from important official documents to the photos of your loved ones, the data on the computer has a lot of financial and emotional worth attached to it. So, whenever there is a data loss, we are shocked and try every possible means to recover the data.

Professional data recovery services are the best options for data recovery. They offer high probability of data recovery as compared to other recovery methods. However, data recovery services also have their own limitations. Let us see some of the limitations of these recovery services, which make people to have a second thought before opting for these services.

Limitations of Data Recovery Services

1. Cost Factor: Data recovery services are costlier than any other means of data recovery. Recovery services require special infrastructure, equipments and software. The cost spent on all these facilities would be passed on to the customer leading to heavy cost of recovery services. On the other hand, data recovery software available on the internet is extremely cheap and affordable.

2. Inconvenience: When you choose a data recovery service, it becomes your responsibility to ship the storage media to the company. If the storage media happens to be internal device such as hard drive, you would be required to open the system tower and remove the device from it before finding a courier company to ship it out. Once, it is returned, you would have to physically install it back in the computer.

This requires effort on the part of the customer which many would not be willing to undertake. Also, a person needs to be knowledgeable about computers in order to open the computer and install/uninstall the hard drive.

3. Time Factor: Unlike data recovery software that works instantaneously, data recovery services could be time-consuming. Apart from the time taken to ship the storage media to and fro, considerable amount of time would be taken for evaluation and actual recovery of data. The turnaround time could be several weeks. Usually, only when a data is extremely crucial and immediately required, do we avail of data recovery services. Hence, having it recovered so late might prove to be useless.

There are companies that offer express service. However, faster the service, higher would be the cost of recovery.

4. Classified Information: Sometimes, you might want to recover important and confidential data that cannot be shared with anyone. Your data might be viewed by the recovery experts and if there happens to be unscrupulous personnel among them, your data could be sold for monetary gains. Hence, in cases where the data should not be accessed by a third party, the customers would opt for data recovery software so that their data does not fall into wrong hands.

5. Trusting the Unknown: Some of the computer users might not be ready to entrust their storage media and the data with a person whose expertise they are unaware of. When the data or the storage device is really invaluable to the customer, they might not want it to be handled without their direct supervision. In these cases, they would rather prefer data recovery software, which they can use it on their own.

6. Credibility of the Company: Although it is easier to check out the credibility of a physical recovery company as compared to an online company, we cannot be completely sure of the expertise of all the people working in the place. While the company could indeed have a few experts, they might operate with skeleton staff. Whenever there is excessive work, these companies tend to outsource their recovery job to third party outfits, who work on meagre commission. We cannot estimate the expertise of these third party outfits and our data might be in danger.

The Final Word

Every form of data recovery has its own advantages and disadvantages. So, before choosing a particular type of recovery, make sure to select the one that suits your requirement. For example, if your data is crucial and you have time, opt for data recovery services. On the other hand, if the data is not very important and you have lost it due to a simple OS issue, choose data recovery software.

Still better is to have multiple backups of all your important data, so that you need not worry or spend money and time in trying to recover it after losing it.

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Floppy Disks and Data Recovery

Autor: Guest

Before looking into the recovery of data from them, let us first have a look at how the floppy drives function and what they are used for.

What are Floppy Disks?

The floppy disks consist of a thin disk that is made up of magnetic material and is enclosed in a plastic cover. The disks have a hole in the centre. In the hole, a metal apparatus is fixed. The spindle that is present in the floppy disk drive can fit into this apparatus and thus make the disk rotate.

A slot is present in the cover of the floppy disk from where contact can be established in between the read/ write head and the disk itself. Thus, data can be written onto the disk or can be read from it.

The method in which data is stored on the floppy disks is similar to the storage method used in case of hard drive i.e. the disk is divided into a number of sectors that are present in the form of circles on either of the disk’s surfaces. Each of these sectors has a specific address and can store 512 bytes of data. The above configurations may vary depending upon the type of floppy disk.

In the 3 and a half inch versions of floppy disks (the ones that are commonly used these days), a fabric is present within the cover in order to remove any dust that is present on the disk surface.

As far as the floppy disk drives are concerned, they are available in some of the desktop computers. On others, they have to be installed or external drives have to be used.

Use of Floppy Disks

These days, most of the software or applications that are used have sizes greater than the space available in a floppy disk. Thus, they cannot be stored in it. This is one of the reasons for floppy disks becoming obsolete.

However, they are still used in some of the older computers. Such computers usually lack an optical disk drive (one that can read data from CDs or from both CDs and DVDs). Hence, in case of a system crash, floppy drives come in handy where CDs cannot be used to boot the computer.

They can also be used for the transfer of data from such systems. In some rare cases, floppy disks are used for backing up of data. This data may include documents, software that is small in size, photographs etc.

How Data can be Lost from Floppy Disks?

The floppy disks are data storage media that are highly vulnerable to damage. The data present in them can be lost easily. Data loss can occur in the following ways:

The floppy disks are highly sensitive to dust. The plastic cover that is present on the floppy disks is usually insufficient to provide adequate protection over a long period of time.

The data present on the disks can be lost due to an effect of external magnetic field.

The data present on floppy disks can also be lost if they are mishandled. For example, scratches can form on the disk surface, the cover of the disk may open up etc.

The disks are also susceptible to logical errors. Such errors can take place when a file gets written incompletely on the disk due to power surges, power cuts etc.

Finally, the data retention capacity of the floppy disks goes on reducing with use. Some of the bad quality floppy disks may even stop functioning within a couple of weeks.

Recovering Data from Floppy Disks

In case the cause of inaccessibility of data from the disk is lack of proper lubrication, then the data can be recovered by making use of a proper lubricant.

To repair the logical errors that may be present in the data stored on a floppy disk, many data recovery software are available on the internet. Good quality software can be chosen from the same in order to recover the data.

In some cases, you can access the data present on the floppy disk by making use of a different floppy disk drive. Thus, one can try inserting the floppy disk into different computers in an attempt to access the data present on it.

Remember that floppy disks show the largest amount of failures. Hence, preferably they should not be used. In case the use of floppy disks is unavoidable, the data present on them should be backed up onto the computer hard drive before use.

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