Sunday

Why hard disk data can be recovered?

Hard disk recovery is possible because of data remanence, which means that some data continues to exist on the hard disk drive even after it has been deleted. While data remanence is beneficial to hard disk recovery, there is also a downside; that is, data remanence is one of the most convenient tools used in cyber-espionage. That's why computer security experts tell you that simply erasing a file doesn't always completely delete it.

The best free hard disk recovery software - EASEUS Data Recovery Wizard Free Edition, reconstructs lost files, regardless of whether they were deleted accidentally or are inaccessible due to a crashed hard drive, hardware failure or virus infection. In some circumstances, the hard disk may become inaccessible because of a hardware problem. The actuator arm, a small mechanical arm that moves back and forth across the hard disk, may have suffered a mechanical error. In this situation, the data is not lost at all, but is just inaccessible due to this hard diskmechanical problem. Similarly, the circuit board may develop flaws, which may make the hard disk inoperable. If there are strange noises or no noise at all, the cause is likely mechanical, and a technician will have to disassemble the hard drive to repair the problem. In some cases, the mechanical problem may cause the drive itself to become damaged, which may directly affect the data. Alternatively, data loss may occur due to a software problem.

Taking a little preventive action can help prevent the need for hard disk recovery. When files become fragmented, they are stored in multiple clusters on the hard disk drive, which makes the computer take more time to read it. A drive with a lot of fragmentation will be harder to recover in the event of a crash. Therefore, it is recommended to regularly defrag your hard disk drive.

When a file is deleted, the operating system marks the file name with a character that informs the computer that it has been deleted. The deleted data is actually still on the hard diskdrive until the file system overwrites it, but the operating system can no longer access it. The process of hard disk recovery finds the data that the operating system is unaware of, but still exists in individual clusters on the hard disk drive. However, clusters that have become corrupted or physically damaged cannot be recovered. In these cases, hard disk recovery has a greater likelihood of success if it is attempted immediately after the failure so as not to give the sectors with missing data an opportunity to be overwritten. A professional hard disk recovery service will not work on the hard drive itself, but will instead make a sector copy of the hard drive and work from that.

Wednesday

How To Prevent Data Loss?

A serious loss of data is the worst time to figure out how it can happen. To protect critical business processes, managers should think about all preventing the disasters that can befall their data.

First of all, the computing environment should be clean, dry, secure, dust-free and arranged in such a way that equipment cannot be jolted or damaged. Larger companies and institutions should have uninterrupted power supplies (UPS) to save data during power outages while smaller organizations can use power surge protectors.

Most businesses keep their backed-up data off premises in a safe location, but all too often they ignore the simple step of verifying that the right data is going on to good tapes. It's not enough to see data on the tape - what if it's older data that isn't being overwritten by new information?

Viruses are becoming a more important threat to data and they can arrive from unexpected sources. Any and all data coming into the network must be scanned, and the system should be scanned regularly. The scanning software itself should be updated at least four times a year.

Any storage device that has been visibly damaged or exposed to heat, moisture or soot should not be used. Drives that sound "funny" should be shut down immediately to prevent complete destruction of data.

Data Loss Prevention Tips: An Ounce Of Prevention Is Like A Pound Of Cure.

Nobody likes to hear the words, I told you so, especially when they are busy trying to recover from a serious data loss. Here are some tips to help you avoid hearing them.

Computers should be located in safe, dry and dust-free areas. Low-traffic locations are best, to prevent physical damage to the computers.

Data must be backed up regularly, and the backups verified by actually getting the data off the tape and back into the computers.

Large power surges can destroy computer equipment but even relatively low-level bursts of energy can erase the data on hard drives. Uninterrupted power supplies give protection during lightning and electrical storms, so data can be saved or backed up during an outage.

Protect equipment from static electricity that can erase data or damage components. Today's storage media is becoming more vulnerable to Extraneous Static Discharge (ESD).

Viruses may not be as common as the news media makes them seem, but they do exist and they can be deadly to data. Use virus detection protection programs and keep them updated.

Many installation and diagnostic programs offer 'undo' disks that can restore systems to their original configuration if things go wrong. It's good practice to take advantage of this feature.

There are also software programs that can detect impending problems within hard drives. Using them regularly can head off problems.

The people who operate computer systems are only human. Physical components can wear out and break down. Good backups are good business.

The checklist gets longer but the message is short: if you cannot verify your data is safe today, it may not be around tomorrow.

Info For better data security, our free backup software - EASEUS Todo Backup will help you a lot. It provides easy-to-use interface to backup and restore your system, disk and partition in a few minutes.

Sunday

Understanding Data Loss

Data loss is one of Information Technology industry's most misunderstood concepts. Very little information has been made public about data loss, and the information that does exist is inconsistent. Due to the mixed messages they receive, users find it difficult to properly evaluate their data loss situations and make educated decisions to recover from them.
Most lost data is not lost at all; it has simply become inaccessible to the user. Hundreds of thousands of gigabytes (GB) of data have been lost simply because users were not aware of their options and gave up hope of recovery.

How does a hard disk drive store data?

Hard disk drives store data on one or more metal oxide platters. These platters, which spin at a rate of 3600-10,000 revolutions per minute, hold magnetic charges. A read-write head attached to an actuator arm actually floats on a cushion of air, 1-2 micro-inches (one millionth of an inch) above the surface of the platters. Data flows to and from these heads via electrical connections. Any force that alters this process may cause data loss to occur.

More data is being stored in smaller spaces. Ten years ago hard drives stored 40 Megabytes (MB) of data. Today's hard drives store up to 80 gigabytes (GB) on a smaller surface than the drives of a decade ago. Increasing storage capacities amplify the impact of data loss. As more and more data is stored in smaller and denser areas, mechanical precision becomes crucial.

As a part of this advancing technology, the drive tolerance (distance between the read-write head and the platter where data is stored) is steadily decreasing. A slight nudge, a power surge or a contaminant introduced into the drive may cause the head to touch the platter, resulting in a head crash. In some situations, the data residing in the area touched by the head may be permanently destroyed.

The current tolerance drives is 1-2 micro-inches (millionths of an inch). Comparatively, a speck of dust is 4-8 micro-inches and human hair 10 micro-inches. Contaminants of this size can cause serious data damage.

About Data Recovery

The Data Recovery is the process of retrieval of inaccessible or corrupt data from digital media that has become damaged or has been corrupted in some way. The Data Recovery can be used to recover data from devices as varied as Hard Disk Drives, Memory Cards, Tapes, Mobile Phones, Personal Digital Assistants, Floppy Disk, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, Data Cartridges, Xbox and many more items.

The Data Recovery may be needed for reasons which could include issues as diverse as hardware failure, (the tape has been "chewed" up, the hard disk drive has failed, it could have suffered fire or flood damage, or logical failure, there can be corruptions in firmware, semiconductor failure, or accidental partition or file failure/deletion, a storage device could have been dropped, a hard disk drive may have been "accidentally" formatted). All of these instances will require the services of a professional data recovery company or a Data Recovery Software if the data was of such value (be it sentimental or financial) that the cost of the services is less than the perceived value of the data which is no longer accessible.

There are numerous ways that data can be recovered from digital media which can vary greatly, our professional Data Recovery Wizard software tools are available. If your storage has physical problems, we advise you to send it to a professional data recovery company.

The next problem is what happens when the hard disk or storage device doesn't work. For the smaller "Data Recovery Companies", this is a problem, and it is when the more serious Data Recovery Companies get involved, who specialize in higher end Data Retrievals. It is always recommended that the most critical work should be sent to a true data recovery specialist, (check out the accreditations - ensure the specialist has ISO9001-2000 Quality Assurance status, and is certified by ISO BE EN 14644 to ensure that their clean facility is at the correct level for intrusive data recovery work, find out how long that company has been trading, and check their testimonials).

And BACKUP is a good way to protect data.