Tony Mancini asked:




There are two main methods of recovering data from failed hard drives.

First of all, you can run specialized data recovery software that could retrieve all of your important data files. In the majority of cases, you will be able to recover the data from your failed hard drives without too much trouble using data recovery freeware, or purchase fully supported software if you prefer.

Please note hat data recovery is not always possible if the actual problem is due to aging or faulty hard drive component such as a broken head arm. In those extra-ordinary cases you would have the hardware fixed by an expert technician before being able to access any of the precious data on the hard drive.

As far as data recovery in concerned, there are no limitations to the physical size of your hard drive. Whether you are trying to recover data from a 1 MB pen drive or a 300 GB Ultra-SCSI drive, you should still be able to recover the data.

Additionally, there are no limitations to the different types of operating systems which you may be trying to recover data from, such as Microsoft Windows to Linux systems. This also extends to include different file formats such as FAT32 and NTFS which are very common file formats for Windows systems, or the Mac OS file system used by Apple Macs.

Information can be retrieved from all sectors of the hard drive – even files that you may have deleted in the past which had ended up in recycle bin prior to your hard drive failing would be recoverable.

Secondly, data recovery experts will be able to recover lost data from most damaged hard drives. It’s not surprising that most common damage is attributable to drop damage and spill damage, especially in the case of laptops.

At the corporate level, most companies use RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks) configurations to protect their data and to negate the impact of a single hard disk drive failing. There would be no loss of data if one of the disks in a RAID 5 disk-set failed as you would be able to re-construct the data for the failed member from the remaining disks. However, if the entire RAID volume failed, then that would be a cause for concern.

In the case of a RAID volume failing you would have little alternative but to send your hard drives to a data recovery expert to restore the RAID configuration as well as the data. This would also be the case if your disk partition failed and you were unable to access the data held on that particular partition or disk.

The recovery of your important data and files from failed hard drives is possible using data recovery software. If your hard drives are badly damaged, or the RAID volume-set has failed and the data on the hard disks is inaccessible, requesting professional assistance from data recovery experts would be a better option.

recover data

Mike Marciano asked:




Help! My system crashed and my data is gone! Losing data is all but impossible for those with just a little bit of technical experience these days. Purchasing a backup program or an external hard drive to store our most detailed information safely is inherent and we don’t even think about it anymore…it just happens with a magical poof. Right? Unfortunately, this is not the case.

There are several methods and programs that assist in the prevention of data loss due to heat, corruption or virus infection. We receive emails, pop-ups, news reports and more on the latest virus or technological solution but with our fast paced jobs and soccer games and pictures we need to download, we put it off for another day.

However, once the system crashes, the motherboard fries or the screen goes black and the button thingamajiggy doesn’t work anymore, panic hits. We cry out and begin plugging and unplugging, calling the Geekaroma, Little Joey down the street that just fixed Aunt Edna’s machine or anyone that will listen to our sad, sad story about how we almost finished the proposal on time.

Yet, in reality, our data is still there. Many data recovery companies can even retrieve data from hard drives after a flood or fire.

There are several levels of security policies that can be configured on each computer. Then, there’s the operating system and the hard drive. It all seems quite complicated but data retrieval is usually fairly simple as long as encryption or major disaster is not involved.

For the at home user that browses the internet and downloads pictures from the latest Disneyland vacation, the reason for the system crashing tends to involve a faulty electrical wire or surge protector. Most systems purchased for home use only are not encrypted and therefore data retrieval is quite simple.

In many of these cases, the retrieval can be accomplished by simply adding the hard drive to another computer and configuring the computer to use both drives. However, it’s best to allow and Information Technology (IT) professional handle these situations. And, with the need for these services on the rise, pricing is very reasonable.

With the current economical issues that our country faces, many IT professionals are offering their services as a side job or in the interim while job searching. If you consider this type service, it’s important to consider a contract with the individual which discusses any additional damage to the computer or hard drive. The best choice would be to use a company that is known for their service.

Create a video blog…instantly.

Nicholas Moller asked:




After a long time we are back to talk about some more cool tech stuff you can do with a USB flash drive. Today’s topic will focus on booting the Linux OS from a USB stick. The purpose for booting Linux from a USB drive, at least the purpose of this guide, is to recover files from a broken install of the windows OS or any other OS for that matter. We can also run virus scans from the Linux distro securely without infecting other PC’s or having to boot the infected PC.

What you will need:

* A USB stick anywhere from 512mb to 2GB (Depending on the distro)
* A main board capable of booting from a usb device.
* and about 15 minutes plus download time.

Software to be used:

* Latest stable version of UNetbootin

Step #1: Prepare the USB Drive

Once you have all your materials together go ahead and plug the USB drive in and backup all files you may have on the disk.

Step #2: Installing to The USB

Start up UNetbootin and select the following:

1. Use the first radio button “Distribution”. This will download and install, automatically, the distro we want.
2. Pick SystemRescueCD. We are going with this because it is easy the ntfs file system driver comes prepackaged so no additional customization is required.
3. Next select your flash drive.
NOTE: Be sure to select your flash drive and not your windows partition or primary partition, ’cause if you do then you will destroy the currently installed OS.
4. Finally click “Ok”.

UNetbootin options to select are shown in an image in the source article located at the link at the bottom of this article.

Step #3: Configuring Bios

We will need to setup your computer to boot from the USB stick. To do so first you mother board will need to support this feature and second you will need to do some configuration.

1. Reboot your computer and hit “F2? or “del” depending on your mother board to enter BIOS config.
2. Search for the section labeled boot sequence, or named similarly. This will sometimes be filed under a separate section like advanced BIOS features, or similar.
3. Move removable or USB to the top of the list. If you do not see these options listed your mother board most likely does not support USB boot. Consult Google for more info on this.
4. Reboot the computer with the drive plugged in.

Step #4: Booting Linux

We are going to boot into command line for this guide. There are options to load a GUI for those of you who tremble in the face of CLI. I must warm you though Command Line is by far easier and faster.

1. Once your computer passes post you will see the boot loader screen. Navigate to “VMLinuz64″ and hit enter.

After a bunch of OK’s on the screen and most likely 1 red FAIL you will be at the prompt “root@sysresccd /root %”. This would indicate a success.

Step #5: Copying files from a windows partition onto an external hard disk.

For this you will need an external medium on which to move your files have this ready to receive your data. You can also use the usb stick which you booted from, if of course there is enough space on it.

1. First we will need to identify our drives. I will assume you have two storage devices plugged in one being the flash drive and the other your windows hard drive. Execute the command below:
fdisk -l | lessThis command will show you all the storage devices on your system. Use the down and up arrows to navigate the output as it may be larger than your screen. My output for this command is shown below:
Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160000000000 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19452 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0xd0f4738c Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 * 1 19451 156240126 7 HPFS/NTFS Disk /dev/sdb: 2085 MB, 2085617664 bytes 2 heads, 63 sectors/track, 32329 cylinders Units = cylinders of 126 * 512 = 64512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x00502bcd Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdb1 * 1 32330 2036720 6 FAT16My device is 160GB NTFS partition. Knowing those two bits of info we can take an educated guess and say /dev/sda is our windows device.

NOTE: To exit this output screen press “q”.

2. Mount the windows drive so that we can access the files on it. Run the mount command below:
mount /dev/sda /mnt/windowsNOTE: you will need to replace “/dev/sda” with your device found from the output of fdisk -l. It is likely though that they will be the same.

3. Lets find out if we mounted the right device now. Run:
ls /mnt/windowsThis command will list the files and folders in a directory. If you see the tell tale Program Files and WINDOWS directories it was successfully mounted.

4. Time to get our backup device out. Plug it in and wait a few seconds then run the fdisk command again:
fdisk -lor
cat /proc/partitionsYou should see both devices you saw last time and now a new one should be there. Match the size of the device to yours and note the device location most likely /dev/sdc.

Mount this device to the pre-made backup folder using the mount command again:

mount /dev/sdc /mnt/backup5. Now it is time to copy things from the old windows drive to the backup disk.

If you want to copy your entire windows drive to your back up drive run this command:
cp -R /mnt/windows/* /mnt/backup/YOUR_FOLDER_NAMEIf you plan on copy single files type the full file path and then the full destination path.

Additional Useful Commands:

* Sometimes a virus can infected the very first bit of code that is executed on your system the MBR (Master Boot Record). Luckily we can clean this up with relative ease in linux. Execute:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb bs=512 count=1Remember to replace “/dev/sdb” with your device cause if you miss and clean the wrong one you may have some issues.

* Maybe you do not have an external device to back stuff up but you have another computer with a network share. Well lets mount that network share so we can copy files to it. Create a mount point:
mkdir /mnt/networkMount the share:
mount -t smbfs //computername/folder /mnt/network -o username=user1,password=mypasshereNow you can copy and move files to the network share just like any other directory.

To mount a share without a password use:
mount -t smbfs //computername/folder /mnt/networkUntil Next Time.

Create a video blog…instantly.

Paul Harry asked:




Are you unable to access pictures from a corrupt pen drive? Well, that happens to most of us, and is quite a common phenomenon since pen drives have the tendency to get corrupt and render data inaccessible. Most of the times corruption creeps in a pen drive when it is being used for transporting data among many systems. As a result, you end up losing pictures and other data stored into it. Such a situation can, however be dealt with, provided you have a valid backup in store. In case, there is no backup available, don’t fret at the loss of pictures as you still haven’t lost them. There is a great amount of hope as far as recovering pictures is concerned. A hassle-free way is to go for a picture recovery software.

Such utilities are designed to recover pictures in almost all possible cases of data loss. Recovery is possible from various corrupt or damaged storage media including USB’s, memory cards, memory sticks, digital cameras, camcorders, hard drives, zip disks, and many other removable media.

Choosing a third-party picture recovery utility, however, requires a good amount of your attention. It is very important to select a reliable and safe utility which has the capability of recovering pictures successfully. Though, you may find various competent-looking tools on the Internet, it is recommended that you should never go on the face value and shallow promises. Before selecting a particular tool to perform recovery, make sure to check the following attributes:

1. It has to be a read-only software
2. It should incorporate an interactive graphical user interface
3. It should be capable of recovering all picture formats
4. It should be capable of recovering data from a pen drive in the event of corruption
5. It should be an easy-to-use utility

After analyzing the above points, you must download and try the demo version of the chosen software before going for actual picture recovery. If you see the preview of all the required pictures, then go ahead with the process of recovering them without any further delay. Within minutes you will see the results and the pictures getting saved to your set location.

Picture Recovery Software is an exceptional utility which recovers lost, deleted or formatted pictures in almost all cases of data loss such as accidental deletion, unintentional or intentional formatting,file system damage, corruption, virus attacks and etc. It recovers all picture formats including JPEG, RAW, Exif, PNG, TIF etc.

Caffeinated Content – Members-Only Content for WordPress

Bipsa Rawat asked:




The use of Windows OS is widespread these days on account of its wonderful features. Moreover necessary steps have been taken for increasing its utility more than what was found earlier to make it most reliable and attain maximum possible stability.

Furthermore Microsoft has also been successful to a great extent in this regard and made the latest version of windows the most powerful, than ever earlier.Special care has been taken to tackle data loss situations thereby facilitating competent data management tools.

But till today, the desired level of techniques has not been achieved that has the capability of recovering lost or deleted data. Windows XP data recovery was thus designed by third party programmers to grant satisfaction to window users in securely employing windows for use and to store data.

Whenever window encounter errors it starts behaving in a manner different than that of normal functioning. Data present in the system may be lost due to sudden or improper system shutdown, virus destructing the system data or due to hardware or application error. Although efforts to avoid data loss have been taken but they have not been able to issue the desired comfort and relaxation from different factors causing data loss.

Let’s have a look at the features of this most awaited efficient data retrieval tool, Windows XP data recovery:

1.Secured storage of recovered data in the desired destination
2.Powerful still, easy to use
3.Permanently deleted data is recovered accurately
4.Data lost from formatted or partitioned drives is quickly recovered
5.Documents, text files, images or video is also recovered with the help of Windows XP data recovery
6.Working methodology is based on advanced technology that improves the search mechanism
7.NTFS and FAT file systems are recognized and supported
8.All window versions supported including windows Vista along with Intel or equivalent processor and RAM of 512 MB is needed to swiftly recover lost data.

We just can’t think of protecting our data at all times instead of using it for the much intended purpose. If, it happens so then the utility of that specific device is disappeared completely.
Regardless of the reasons behind data loss, mainly because we can’t avoid all of them at all times of our life. An ultimate solution for restoration of lost data was immediately needed.

Kansieo.com

Shaun Pattrik asked:




Is your SanDisk SDHC memory card corrupt and you are unable to access stored photos from the device? Are you wondering, if it is possible to recover lost photos from a corrupted card? Irrespective of the brand of your digital camera, these cameras do not remove photos completely from card in any case. They are still recoverable! You can get your memorable photos recovered using advanced Photo Recovery Software in all cases of photo loss.

Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC) is an extension of SD standard that increases storage capacity of card up to 32 GB. It uses sector addressing for increasing the addressable storage. You can use SanDisk SDHC memory card with a wide range of devices, such as digital cameras, camcorders, mobile phones, portable music players, and portable computers.

In case of corruption of the SanDisk SDHC memory card, you can not access the card using digital camera or computer. At the same time, you may come across various error messages, similar to the following ones:
“Windows was unable to complete the format” while trying to format corrupted SDHC card. “I/O device error” while reading data from or writing data to the card. “This device cannot start” after inserting the card to a new device. “Memory card error” while accessing the card using any device, like digital camera, mobile phone etc. What causes SanDisk SDHC card corruption?

There are numerous factors, which may damage the memory card:
File system of memory card is corrupted and device can not recognize the structure of the card. Memory card is pulled out during the write process. Card data structures are missing or corrupted. Mishandling of the card. When any of the above problems occur, card becomes inaccessible and unusable. However, the photos are still there on the card and can not be accessed due to corruption. In such circumstances, you can easily recover the lost, missing, and inaccessible photos using Digital Photo Recovery Software.

These powerful utilities are incorporated with efficient scanning algorithms to Recover Lost Photos in all cases of card corruption. The applications enable you to perform Photo Recovery on your own as they have simple and self-descriptive graphical user interface.

Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery software safely recovers all types of lost multimedia files like photos, songs, and videos. The software is available in two different versions to recover data from Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X supported storage media. It recovers lost files from all types of memory cards, such SDHC, SD, XD, MMC, MicroSD, and CF.

recover data

Matthew D. asked:




Have you erased by mistake your files from SD card? Or have you accidentally format your SD card? Whatever the case, you can easily recover files erased by mistake. But, make sure that your card is still in good condition. If it is broken, you might have a difficulty recovering your files (but it is still possible). If it is still on good condition, below are the easy steps to follow.

1. The first thing you need is a data recovery tool. This tool will perform a search on your card to see the possible files that can be recovered. You will find later on this article the best tool to use for SD cards. Before that, let me show you the steps.

2. Create a new folder anywhere on your computer. This is where you will save the files you will recover later.

3. The next step is to connect your SD card on your computer. You may want to use a card reader here because if you will use for example a digital camera on connecting your SD card, your camera might get a low battery during search. This is alright but make sure that your battery is fully charged.

4. Open your data recovery tool and then make a complete search on your SD card. While doing this, you will notice that the tool is recovering the files from your card. Wait for the search to be finished.

5. How to recover files erased by mistake from SD card? If the search is finished, look for files you want to recover and then save it to the folder you have created earlier.

Create a video blog…instantly.

Steve Bellamy asked:




Have you lost an important video from your PC or camera? With cheap and fairly high-quality digital cameras, almost everyone has the ability to make videos from home. Plus, webcams, saved files, and other video sources can add to a video collection. But what happens when they get deleted?

Advanced recovery software is able to bring back your deleted video files. No matter if your video files were lost due to accidental deletion or system error, you should still be able to recover the movies.

Why? When you save a file on your PC, the information is recorded as a complex code on your hard drive. The user sees the video, the icon, and the file name. When the file is erased, the video can no longer be accessed.

However, the actual information on the hard drive is still there. This is how data recovery is able to bring back your files. Recovery technology can automatically scan your hard drive for this lingering ghost data, analyze it, and return it to your computer, where you can watch it just like before.

There are some issues to consider when recovering video files though. The most important is the size of the video. The larger the size of the video, the greater the chance that some small portion of it would be overwritten and corrupted. Essentially, it creates a larger target for damage. If you have a quite large video, corruption could completely destroy the video, cause some distortion, or just leave a few seconds distorted. There is no way to tell if your video is available for recovery or not, and for this reason, good recovery programs offer a free scan feature. This way, you will be easily able to see if the video is there.

Plus, recovery programs can recover programs directly from the memory card of your digital camera. Even if your video never made it off your camera, you can still recover it. Simply attach the camera (or memory card), select it with the recovery software, and start the scan. You will then be able to see if the file can be recovered.

Don’t give up on your video files! Advanced restoration technology means you can bring them back.

Caffeinated Content

E. Eash asked:




My flash disk is 2 Giga bytes in size. I connected it to my laptop and when I tried accessing it a message popped up saying my disk needs to be formatted. I felt as if I was in the verge of yelling. That was then, now my flash disk shows it’s empty but when I run properties I can clearly see its half way full with information. Yes wonders never cease. I consulted my friends on different forums only to realize my flash disk was infected with a virus and it had a physical failure.

I realized that when I changed my operating system, vital files were lost and I had to format my flash disk to get rid of the corrupted file structure. I couldn’t format the flash disk as it contained many files including photos that I wasn’t ready to part with. I consulted a data recovery company and this is where I discovered that from logical failures, the disk couldn’t be identified by my computer. A disk integrity check was carried out with advanced software which rectified the mistake. My data was recovered and the flash disk was formatted.

The indication of the disk been empty was due to virus infection. We physically identified the viruses and got rid of them all.

If you have a disk with such characteristics don’t despair, data recovery companies handle even more technical damaged storage devices that at first seem unrecoverable. The most important thing is to avoid tampering with the disk. This prevents extending the damage or overwriting the disk. The nature of the defect is easily identifiable making the recovery process more successful.

Get more information on signs of data loss from this hard drive recovery information site.

Caffeinated Content – Members-Only Content for WordPress

Shally Spears asked:




Sony A-100 is the first Digital Single Reflex (DSLR) camera launched by Sony. The camera possess 10.2 Mega pixel lens and its large APS-size CCD image sensor allows you to capture exceptional quality digital pictures. The pictures shot by Sony A100 Camera camera are stored in Compact Flash (CF) memory card. Sometimes, when you try to view or access the files stored in the memory card, you may encounter an error message. The error message can occur due to corrupted file system, logical inconsistency, virus or malware infection, or switching off the camera while a read/write process is going on. This results in inaccessibility of data from the hard drive. To overcome such situation, you can restore the pictures from a recent backup. However, if the backup is unavailable, you can use a powerful Image Recovery Software to recover your lost data completely.

Consider a practical scenario — You clicked a lot of photographs on a particular occasion. When you try to access or view the pictures, you encounter the below error message:

“Unable to use card”

The primary cause of the above error message is that Sony A-100DSLR is unable to read the data saved in the compact flash memory card. After the occurrence of the above error message, the pictures stored in the memory card becomes inaccessible. In addition, you get the same error message, everytime you try to access the data.

Resolution:
To resolve the above error message, try the measures below:

– Make sure that the memory card is properly inserted into the Sony A-100 DSLR camera.
– Try using a different quality memory card.

If you format your CF card, all the data stored in the memory card will be erased. In such case, to recover your data fully, you need to use an effective Digital Image Recovery application. These Image Recovery tools employ extremely powerful scanning algorithms to ensure quick and accurate recovery of your lost data. These utilities are embedded with highly enriched user interface, which makes them easy to use and understand.

Caffeinated Content