What is Defrag

We’ve all probably heard the advice from geeks that we need to defrag our computers now and again to keep them running efficiently, but what is defrag?

Defrag, sometimes called defragging or defragmentation, is the process of cleaning up the files in your computer, by taking all of the file fragments that have been scattered across your hard disk, and rejoining them into files that occupy the same area. The result of defrag is that it will usually speed up your computer, saving you time and also extending the hard disk’s lifetime. While defrag can sometimes be a time consuming process, it is nevertheless a regular component of computer maintenance.

In order to fully understand what is defrag, we need to know why it is performed. Most people think that their computer stores files in the same way we store them in a cabinet, meaning one file goes in one folder, and everything in that file is one collective piece of information. However, this is not the case with your hard disk. Your computer will store files more in the manner of a jigsaw puzzle, with bits and pieces of each file scattered all over the drive it’s stored on. These files are only brought together once the user accesses the file. After weeks and weeks of use, the amount of files you have stored will build up, causing your computer to take longer to find the bits of each file. This is what slows the computer down over time.

Your defrag program will scan the hard disk piece by piece, collecting all the bits of a lost file as it goes and placing them into a new place on the hard disk. Defrag can also identify any lost fragments or any parts of a damaged or deleted file that cannot be repaired or restored. The process is also able to identify any errors on the hard disk. Once defrag is completed, the hard disk won’t need to work so hard to find your files as they will all be in the same place.

Everyone should have a regular maintenance plan for their computer, and defrag should be performed as the last step in this. You could do it each month, or even just once or twice annually. Before defragging, it’s a good idea to uninstall any programs that you don’t use or need. You should also check for any major errors or damage before you defrag by using the ‘Disk Cleanup’ utility. Lastly, always remember to back up your files on a separate platform before commencing any computer maintenance.

If you are running any Windows system, then you already have one installed. In virtually all of the Windows versions the defrag program is located within the ‘Accessories’ folder, which you can access via ‘System Tools’. Once there, you will see what is defrag. Defrag doesn’t require you to download anything, nor be connected to the internet.

Even though defrag is a simple enough process, it can take quite a while to perform. While smaller hard disks or systems that are well maintained can be done in under an hour, a larger drive space that is cluttered up with many files and programs could take quite a few hours. You may prefer to defrag overnight. While you defrag, you should make sure that all other programs are turned off so that defrag program can run as fast as possible.

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Fat32 Data Recovery

No doubt there will come a time when you accidently delete or ‘lose’ a file that is really important to you, and of course you will want to know about FAT32 data recovery. Therefore you need to know what steps you should take in order to try and do so, otherwise you could do something foolish and lose your files completely, forever!

FAT32 is a very common system of filing, used by all Windows users up to and including Windows XP. Although now it is losing popularity to the NTFS system, one plus point of FAT32 is that recovering lost or deleted files is often fairly straightforward to do.

Like many people, you probably won’t have the first clue about FAT32 data recovery or what to do in the event that your data is accidently deleted. The first thing you should do is follow these steps:

If none of the above options work and you cannot afford to have a FAT32 data recovery specialist retrieve the lost files for you, it is possible to get highly technical and do it yourself, but this is not recommended unless you know what you are doing. All entries that are created within the FAT that came from the original file should still be in the file directory because it wouldn’t have been overwritten just yet. It should be possible for you to check whether any sectors that have previously had a file occupy them are marked as “used” or not in the FAT, so it might still be possible for you to recover any deleted files that are held in the FAT32.

During FAT32 data recovery, you need to make sure that there is a single uninterrupted sequence in the sectors of your disk where data is stored, so that means it can’t have been defragged. Do not attempt any defragging processes when you try to recover deleted files from the FAT32, unless you have first had the chance to look for your data. Doing this will see the chances of locating your data increase substantially.

However, it is possible that you could look forever through the vast number of FAT32 sectors on your hard drive and still not locate anything. The reason for this is that the name and appearance of your files may well have changed. Usually, the operating system will strip the identifying features deleted files, so you can’t rely on these to assist you in locating them. Therefore, if you can’t locate the files after scouring the FAT32 directory, unless you seek professional help you may have to just give the file up as lost. 

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Computer Data Recovery Services

In today’s highly competitive world, the business of computer data recovery services has become a multi-million dollar industry. Indeed, it sometimes feels as if the number of companies that perform data recovery has exceeded the amount of junk food restaurants in some cities. Many of these computer data recovery firms specialize in the retrieval of data from a wide range of platforms, including hard drives, flash drives, CD ROM’s and more.

Losing your data can be a real nightmare for someone whose business depends on it, and so these computer data recovery services perform a valuable service to thousands of people each year. In the event of you ever losing your data, it pays to be prepared and know exactly what to do when it happens.

Almost 45% of all occurrences of data loss is due to the failure of hardware. When it happens to you, if you suspect that the hard drive has crashed, the first thing you should do is shut the system down immediately. Do not even attempt trying the correct shutdown procedures, just pull the power straight out of the wall. Moreover, it’s not worth attempting to run any computer data recovery services software programs that you might have, as most of the time these will just assume that everything is working perfectly, so increasing the chances of you permanently losing data.

A commonly asked question by people who have suffered massive system failure is ‘How can I get my data back?’. Actually, the answer is not rocket science, but it is tricky. Data recovery is simply a matter of knowing what to do and having the right tools to do the job. Any major data recovery firm will have facilities with a wide range of tools, hardware and software for recovering your data.

The first thing that a data recovery expert will do upon receiving your hard drive is to carry out an evaluation and try to work out the best solution. If the drive itself has failed, the computer data recovery services expert will scan the drive in an attempt to fix the corruption in the file system.

In some cases, it is possible to repair a partition and then the drive can be restored to the point it was at before it failed, allowing the data to be retrieved. However, this is not always possible, and so then the computer data recovery services expert will perform a low level scan instead, searching the hard drive sector by sector for any files that can be recovered. The files can be copied to media such as a CD-ROM or a DVD-ROM as and when they are found, recovering them. These kinds of logical data recoveries can take a very long time to complete, especially in cases where the drive is on the brink of total failure.

Should the drive have succumbed to physical failure, a much more challenging recovery procedure will need to be initiated to retrieve the data stored there. Physical failure takes the form of two different sub categories; it can be due to either mechanical or electronic failure. 

One of the most important elements of data recovery after a physical failure is the need to get the vital parts of the drive working again. The problem with hard drives is that, if yours is a 25GB Maxtor Hard Drive, it will be necessary for the expert to use another identical 25GB Maxtor Hard Drive in order to salvage the lost data. Meanwhile, if it is the electric circuit board which has failed, then it will be necessary to find another identical circuit board so that you can have the replacement circuit components that you will need. In many cases, it is not even possible to swap one circuit board with another, identical one. Therefore, detailed repairs such as these will require an in depth electrical knowledge in order to be fixed. The person doing the repairing will also need good soldering skills as well.

When talking to professionals in the computer data recovery services industry, you will often hear the term “class 100 clean room” from time to time. This is a room where the air purity is maintained to an exceptionally clean level, less than 100 significant sized particles per cubic foot of air.  This air purity is essential as any internal components in a hard drive that are exposed to air particles could be damaged beyond repair. Anytime that someone performs an invasive procedure on a hard drive, it should be done in a class 100 clean room.  

In most cases, the time frame given for recovery is around 5 to 10 business days for any physical failures and 2 to 4 days for logical failures. However, if the necessary components are not immediately available, then you could be waiting for quite a few weeks before you can retrieve your data again. If this is the case with you, it might be best to find a firm that offers and expedite service and take advantage of it, whatever the cost.

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What is Fat32

It is the file system that is used by many of the older versions of Microsoft Windows, but just what is FAT32?

Introduced along with the OEM Service Release 2 for the Windows 95 edition (sometimes known as Windows 95B or OSR2), it is also the default file system for Windows 98 as well as Windows Me.

The FAT32 file system can be installed on Windows 2000 (Professional and Server only as Data Center and Advanced Server don’t support it), Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP. However, despite it being able to run on many different operating systems, both Microsoft and UITS recommend that you should use NTFS instead of the FAT32 file system. 

It is a system of allocating disk files from Microsoft, using values of 32 bits instead of 16 bit values for FAT entries. The FAT32 file system enables partition sizes of anything up to 2 terabytes (TB).

Microsoft originally decided to implement FAT32 as a way of overcoming the limited volume size of FAT16, while at the same time allowing the memory-constrained DOS code to be able to handle the format. Therefore, FAT32 was implemented as a new generation FAT system, which used 32 bit number clusters. Currently, 28 bits are used.

What is FAT32 maximum cluster size? The above should in theory support a maximum of around 268,435,000 clusters, which allows for drive sizes of about 2 terabytes. Because of the limitations of Microsoft’s scandisk utility however, the FAT file system is not permitted to grow larger than 4,177,290 clusters, which limits the volume to 124.55 GB, apart from when scandisk is not required. Both Windows XP and Windows 2000 placed a limitation of the FAT32 partition sizes, making the maximum size that can be created 32GB. According to Microsoft, this is by design rather than accident, but they do not explain why, leaving much confusion. Both of those Windows versions are more than capable of reading/writing FAT32 partitions of a much larger size. When FAT32 was first introduced along with the Windows 95 operating system, the huge number of changes that were incorporated meant it was a major improvement at the time.

4 GB minus one byte, or 232-1 bytes is the maximum file size possible for a FAT32 volume. This has become the most annoying limit for the majority of users since 2005, because many editing and video capture applications can easily far exceed this limit, and so can the system’s file swap function.

It supports disk partitions up to a size of 2 terabytes. Meanwhile, FAT16 only supports partitions up to a size of 2GB.A much lower amount of disk space is wasted using FAT32 on large partitions, because the cluster size minimum remains at just 4KB for any partition under 8GB.No compression when using DriveSpace is allowed with FAT32.Older motherboards, disk management software and BIOS are not compatible with FAT32FAT32 is often slower when compared to FAT16, though this depends on the disk size.FAT file systems do not provide file security, fault tolerance, compression or crash recovery abilities available with NTFS.Leave this article on What is FAT32 and Return to the Homepage

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What is a File System

You’ve probably heard of plenty of terms being bandied about when people talk about files systems, such as FAT, FAT16, FAT32 and NTFS, not too mention partition tables and others. If you have no idea what they all mean, and there are many people who don’t, then you would probably like to know the answer to the question "what is a file system?".  This article is going to change your perceptions, and after you’re done reading you’ll know exactly what each of these terms means.

First of all, we need to know what is a file system. Basically, a file system is a method in which your computer manages all of the files that are stored on its hard drive disk. Most computers have thousands and thousand of files saved on them. If it wasn’t for an organized file management system, the computer would be incredibly slow, and it might not even work at all.

This is quite understandable really when you think about just how much stuff there is piled up on your own office for example, and how much time it would take to search for anything that is buried in amongst it all. Now just imagine if all of that mess in your office was multiplied a thousand times. This is probably the scenario that would face your computer if it wasn’t for its efficient and highly organized filing system. So what is a file system to your computer? The answer is, everything!

Just as there are thousands of people in the world who would all organize their own office differently, there is a whole batch of different filing systems out there too, all offering a variety of different features. There are though, several key functions in filing systems that none can do without:

Efficient use of available hard drive space to store all of the necessary files.The organized cataloging of every file on a hard disk in order for retrieval to be quick and reliable.Provision of basic tools to enable the user to conduct basic operations like saving, deleting, renaming, copying and moving.A data structure that must be provided so that the computer can boot from the file system.

Of course, there are many file systems that go much further than these basic system requirements, offering extra functionality such as encryption, compression, password protection, permissions and file streams.

In order to know in detail about what is a file system, we need to take a look at some of the most popular file systems.

FAT stands for ‘File Allocation Table’ and it was created way back in 1977 by Microsoft. Despite its age, FAT remains quite widely used even today, especially as the preferred filing system for high capacity, portable storage devices such as flash drives and floppy drive media.

Microsoft used FAT as its primary file system in virtually all of its available operating systems since MS-DOS right through to Windows ME. However, while FAT is still supported on newer Microsoft operating systems, the NTFS system is now the primary option.

Over its lifetime there have been a number of advancements in the FAT file system, mostly because of the requirements to support bigger and bigger hard drives and larger sized files. This can make understanding what is a file system more complicated.

There are three versions of FAT detailed below:

FAT12 – This was the first ever FAT system, released during 1997. It was brought out before MS-DOS even, and remained as Microsoft’s primary filing system up until the release of MS-DOS 4.0. Drive sizes up to 32MB can be supported by FAT12.FAT16 – The FAT16 edition was the second implementation, first coming out in 1988. Beginning as Microsoft’s primary file system with the MS-DOS 4.0 operating system, it remained so up until Windows 95 was released 8 years later. Drive sizes up to 2GB can be supported with FAT16.FAT32 – The latest version of the FAT, released in 1996 in conjunction with Windows 95 OSR2. FAT32 was the primary file system choice with that system up until Windows ME. Drive sizes of up to 8 GB are supported by FAT32.

You won’t know what is a file system until you know about NTFS. NTFS stands for ‘New Technology File System’ and was originally introduced during 1993 by Microsoft along with the Windows NT 3.1 operating system. Hard drive sizes of up to 256TB can be supported with NTFS.

Microsoft has made NTFS the primary filing system for use in the Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows 7, Windows XP and Windows Vista operating systems. Also, NTFS is primarily used in the Windows Server operating system series.

FAT was the primary filing system for any Microsoft operating system that predates these, but it remains supported even now, along side NTFS.

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Hard Drive Maintenance

Your hard drive is a vulnerable thing, and so it’s something that you’ll need to protect at all costs. Think of your hard drive as the soul of your computer, without it your computer is nothing but an empty shell. Hard drive maintenance is vital. Lose your hard drive and you lose your personal files, records, photos, programs and a whole lot of other things.

In order to avoid this happening, you need to keep your hard drive well maintained, and to do that well, you need to know exactly what needs to be done.

The first thing you do before any hard drive maintenance check. You can do this by going to the Start menu, clicking on Programs, then Accessories, System Tools then Scandisk. This takes a while so you might want to do it at night or when you are sure nobody will be using the computer for a while.

Performing this action regularly will keep your program files organized, resulting in your computer running as efficiently as possible. Again, you can access this tool under the System Tools function, and ideally you should do this once a week, certainly at least once a month. More information on Defragging Your Hard Drive.

The Disk Cleanup tool will search your hard drive and then it will show you all of the temporary files, cached internet files and any other unnecessary files that you have on your drive. All of these files can be safely deleted, and it is advisable to do so.

Disk Cleanup can be accessed via the System Tools menu, and once again it should be performed on a weekly basis for best hard drive maintenance practices.

You can also get rid of lots of other garbage and clutter on your computer system, older temporary files and cache files etc. There are also other kinds of files that can be left dotted around all over your hard drive that you will want to get rid of. For instance, one of the biggest pieces of clutter you’ll find during hard drive maintenance is known as “mscreate.dir”, and then there are dozens of files that end with the “gid.” extension. Mscreate files are usually created as a program is being installed on your hard drive, and once the installation is done these files have served their purpose and are no longer needed. The .gid files are actually help files, which you really don’t need because they can be created at any time when you hit the “Help” button.

If you want to perform a manual clean up of your hard drive, you can select Start, then Find, then click on Files or Folders and look for these clutter files.

In order to locate and delete these folders, once again you need to select the Start menu, then click Find, Files or Folders and then enter *.tmp and this should find them all, allowing you to delete them.

If you are experiencing errors with Windows shut down, you can possibly fix these by searching for *.chk instead and deleting them as well.

You should try to make sure that your temporary folders directory is cleaned out once a week. While this folder does create various things that are needed by your system, deleting any of these will not cause a big problem as Windows can simply recreate anything it needs. The worst that will happen is that you might need to reboot your computer, but that is a small price to pay for a healthy hard drive.

It’s very important to clear out your temporary files during hard drive maintenance because if you never do this, the file will grow to a massive size and can slow down your computer significantly.

The only two files that you should leave well alone are the Windows System Folder, which should be obvious, and the Sysbackup folder. Both of these files are vital to keep Windows working properly.

Do you actually use these programs or are they just there? If you don’t, then it might be beneficial for you to delete the online services from both the desktop and your program files, and delete MSN from your desktop. Hard drive maintenance is often about deciding what programs you need and what you can live without. Deleting the unnecessary ones will save you a lot of space on your hard drive.

If you decide later on that you would like to use them, they are still on your Windows CD or you can easily download them again, so it’s no big deal. The point is, it’s senseless to keep them if they are never being used, and they can slow your system down a lot just by being there.

Another thing that you can wave goodbye to is the Internet Connection Wizard, once you are online. It really isn’t necessary to connect to the internet at all, and if you want to you can always use the internet Dial Up Connection Panel. Once again, if you need it later on it’s still there on your Windows disk, or you can receive it via Windows Updates too.

While you are probably going to want to use the full version of Microsoft Word on your computer, if you don’t use any of the other programs, for example Excel, Infopath and Powerpoint, then you really don’t need to install the whole Microsoft Office program. The full version takes up over 2.5 GB of your hard drive space, and will slow you down quite significantly.

Meanwhile, if people are constantly sending you files in different formats, it’s worthwhile to invest in a piece of software called the Jasc Quickview Plus Program. This program is great as it lets you open, read, write and even edit more than 200 different types of file, meaning that you won’t need to have dozens of different programs installed to read each of the different file types.

Just remember that the more programs and files that you have stored on your hard drive, the more prone it will be too errors and the less effective your hard drive maintenance will be.

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Data Recovery from Crashed External Hard Drive

When your external hard drive crashes then what you need to do in order to retrieve your date will depend on whether it is still mechanically working or not. Data recovery from crashed external hard drive is tricky, yet with luck, the drive will be working, but the data index may still be lost.

You’ll have to check this first of all by attaching it to your PC and seeing if the computer recognizes the hard drive or not. If your PC does recognize the external hard drive, but doesn’t show any data on it then follow the advice under Software Data recovery from crashed external hard drive section.

However, if your hard drive is not recognized by the computer, then you can try taking it out of its case and manually attaching it to your PC. Now you can check again to see if the hard drive is recognized or not. If it is, and you see all of you data still intact, then the likely problem is with the power supply for your external drive. However, if the drive appears to be dead, then you will need to read further in the Lab Data recovery from crashed external hard drive section.

In the case of a logical failure, for instance when the data has been corrupted by the Master File Table, or MFT, your data is still saved somewhere on the hard drive, but the index for it is not there. In this case, the data is usually quite easily retrieved.

You will need to get yourself another hard drive that has the same capacity or more as the damaged hard drive, plus you will need some data recovery software. Data Recovery Pro, GetBackData and ParetoLogic are all good ones you can try, costing between $49.99 and $199. Alternatively, you can try a free data recovery tool downloaded from the internet, such as Recuva.

If you’re not too sure about doing it yourself, then you should outsource this job to someone who has a bit more experience with computers. The actual data recovery process may take several days to complete, depending on the size of your hard drive, and so the recovering computer needs to be left on during this time. There is a good chance that you will be able to recover all of your data, or at least a big part of it. If the MFT index is not reconstructed, you will still recover your data, however it will be in individual files with no folder structure.

If your external hard drive is not working at all, then you shouldn’t attempt to fix it yourself. Never open up a hard drive unless you know what you are doing, or you will risk losing your date forever. You will need to contact a specialized data recovery from crashed external hard drive lab in order to get them to do it for you.

Of course the easiest option is to prevent the need for data recovery in the first place! You can do this by regularly backing up all of your data on another drive, as the chances of both of them breaking down at exactly the same time are very remote.

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Hard Drive Data Partition Recovery

When one of the partitions in your hard disc packs up, there are two main methods of hard drive data partition recovery available.

Firstly, it’s possible to run special data recovery software in order to retrieve your most vital data files from that partition. Usually, in most cases you will be able to retrieve the data that you need without too much difficulty, with either free software or buy purchasing fully supported data recovery software.

If the problem with your hard drive data partition recovery is due to faulty components like the head arm breaking or simply due to aging, then using software might not work. In this case, your only real option is to call up an expert technician to take a look at things and see if they can gain access to any of your precious data, but this can be expensive.

There are no limitations regarding the size of your hard drive partition where hard drive data partition recovery is concerned. No matter if you are trying to retrieve data from a 1 MB flash drive or a 1 TB Ultra-SCAI hard drive, it should still be possible to recover data from it.

In addition, there aren’t any limitations regarding the kind of operating system you are attempting to extract the data from. Whether you are using Microsoft Windows or Linux, it should still be possible. This also extends to the different file formatting systems that are used, including NTFS and FAT32, both very common Windows systems, or the OS file system that is used by Mac computers.

Data can be recovered from any part of your damaged hard drive, and this even includes files that you may have previously deleted and have ended up in your recycle bin. All of these files are recoverable.

Secondly, hard drive data partition recovery by an expert should ensure that all your lost data is able to be recovered. It’s hardly a surprise that by far the most common damage seen is attributed to dropping or spillages, especially with regard to laptop computers.

At a corporate level, many companies employ the RAID configuration as a way of protecting their data, thus negating the impact of single hard drive failure. In a RAID 5 disk set for example, there would be no data loss should just one of the hard drives fail, as it would be possible to reconstruct the lost data from the failed member using the remaining disks. If the entire RAID 5 set happened to fail though, then this would be a major problem for the company.

Should the entire RAID volume fail, then there would be no alternative for the company but to call in the help of data recovery experts to try and restore both the RAID configuration and the data itself. Should your disk partition fail, and you were left unable to gain access to the data that is stored on that part of the hard drive then again, you would to call in an expert for hard drive data partition recovery.

So you can see what the different situations call for. If your personal hard drive fails, it should be possible to use data recovery software to extract your data. However, if your hard drive is damaged beyond repair, or if your RAID volume set fails and if one of your drive’s partitions fails, then the best option is to get professional assistance from a data recovery expert.

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What are Disk Partitions

We here people talking about this all the time, and we see so much disk partitioning software everywhere, but exactly what is disk partitions?

In a nutshell, disk partitioning is where we divide up the space on a hard disk into a number of virtual hard disk drives. So it’s one hard disk that is split into many and they all act as separate entities. They are known as partitions and labeled differently so that we treat them as independent drives. As well as asking “what is disk partitions”, we could also ask “what is slices?” since disk partitions are often known as ‘slices’ for different operating systems that are based on Solaris and BSD. These partitions can be easily created, resized, manipulated or even deleted by using partition editing software.

Usually, the total storage space on a PC hard drive disk can be split up into four primary partitions at the most. An alternative is to create three primary partitions and then make an extended partition. Both of these partitions can be seen described in the Partition table by 16 byte entries, found within the master boot record of your PC. The type of partition can be identified by looking in the partition table entry for it, at its 1 byte code.

As soon we know what is disk partitions and once the identification of a partition type is known, it is possible to find extra information about the purpose of it and what contents there might be in it. For instance, oftentimes there are partition type codes that hide the contents of a partition from many operating systems. However, its file system might not remain hidden if the operating system or a partitioning tool is able to examine the partition’s boot sectors, so long as the OS or partitioning tool has been programmed to do so. As well as this, boot indicators and partition types can be modified easily by the use of applications like MBRWizard if needed.

The operating system and its program files can be separated. This means that you can make image backups (sometimes called clones) of not only the OS, but also any installed software that you have.You can create space for virtual memory swapping and paging by the operating system.Storing programs that are frequently used and their data near to each other, allowing for easier access.You can separate log files and cache files from other files stored in your system. This is useful as these files can alter size rapidly, potentially filling up a file system.You can install more than one operating system on a PC by using multi-boot setups. For instance, it is possible to install Windows, Mac OSX and Linux on separate partitions on the same hard drive, so that you can choose during boot up which operating system you want to use.It’s possible to protect and isolate certain files, making it much easier to recover data from a corrupted file system. If only one of your partitions has been corrupted, the file systems on the other partition will remain unaffected and can still be salvaged.Partitions can raise the overall performance of your computer if it runs on a system that is more efficient using smaller file systems. For example, a large hard drive that has just one NTFS will in most cases have an MFT (Master File Table) that is very large. It takes longer for your system to read this than it does to read a smaller MFT split up in partitions.

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RAID Failure Prevention Tips

There are several ways in which you may prevent failure of your RAID disk or array. Before you prevent this, though, you must exercise caution so that if failure does occur, you are not left without extra copies of your original data. So that means…

Rule #1: Always keep backups of your original data on a separate disk from your current disk or array and preferably in a completely different location. The reason for the different location is in case of fire, flooding, power surges, etc. which can damage all the information in one place.

Rule #2: Test your disks often. Test fault tolerance of disks before uploading important data, and check the SMART status of all of your drives on a regular basis. This monitoring is important so that you are aware of potential hard drive failures before they become a much larger problem. It is also recommended to label all of your drives correctly and thoroughly so that if one does experience failure, you remove the correct drive.

Rule #3: Learn how to replace a faulty drive correctly. When attempting to replace a faulty or failed drive in order to restore your system to complete health, the rebuild is incorrectly initiated or completed, which can result in overall system failure or severe weakening of the system.

Rule #4: Install comprehensive virus protection. RAID does not protect itself from viral infections, and malicious code can cause extensive damage, which may result in the necessity to replace the entire array. Make sure that your virus protection is regularly (and automatically) updated so that your computer is not affected.

Rule #5: Consider multiple manufacturers. RAID disks are often purchased at the same time and from the same manufacturer. This means that any inherent weakness in a line of disks will be multiplied by putting them together in the same array. Avoid this by implementing some sort of variety in your purchasing.

Remember that prevention of RAID failure is significantly cheaper than fixing a problem after it occurs. Keep this in mind when implementing steps to prevent failure. It may seem tedious, but it is far more financially efficient in the end.

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How to Recover Data from a Hard Drive

The hard drive on your computer has one of the shortest life expectancies out of your PC’s components, and at some point, it will inevitably fail you.

It is inevitable, and always seems to happen at the worst possible time – When your data isn’t backed up! So what can you do now? How to recover data from a hard drive? Is it still possible?

This will depend on exactly what it is that happened to your hard drive, however in most cases it is possible to recover at least some of your lost data.

This is the simplest method of recovering lost data, yet it won’t always work. So, how to recover data from a hard drive using an external case? Remove the damaged hard drive from your PC and then insert it carefully into the external hard drive case, then plug it into another PC and see if you can open the drive. If you’re lucky, you will be able to navigate through the damaged hard drive and open your old documents up, and you’ll be able to copy them onto another hard drive.

If the above solution doesn’t work, or seems a little too complex, then you could try using some data recovery software. There are many different free data recovery programs that you can download that will show you how to recover data from a hard drive, or there are some that you can buy, and if you’re lucky you may actually have some success with it.

One of the most reliable data recovery programs is Data Disc Recovery, which is simple to use and more importantly, totally free. It can recover data from crashed drives, while it can also retrieve any deleted files you want to save.

For this method, you’ll need to use another computer and download a program called Linux Live CD, and burn it onto a blank CD. There are different types of programs, though the best ones are Puppy Linux and Damn Small Linux.

Once you have burned the disc, insert it into your damaged computer, and then restart it. When the computer begins to boot, press F2 so you enter BIOS. Set the boot sequence to CD, then save this setting and exit. The Live CD should start, and all you have to do now is follow the on screen instructions on how to recover data from a hard drive. Once the OS starts, you should be able to see your hard drive on the desktop; it should appear as something like “80GB”, etc. Now all you need to do is hook up an external drive to the computer and copy and paste your files to this new drive.

You may find this method somewhat surprising, but it’s possible to freeze your hard drive and recover your data. The idea behind this is that by freezing the hard drive, some of the loose parts in it will constrict, making the drive work again for a short time.

But how to recover data from a hard drive by freezing it exactly? It’s quite simple, but you’’ll need to work fast! First, place the damaged hard drive into a sealable bag and freeze it overnight, then in the morning take it out and place it straight into an external hard drive case, plug it in and see if you can transfer the data to a new hard drive before it defrosts and crashes again.

I hope this article on “How to Recover Data from a Hard Drive” has been beneficial to you and that the various methods above might help you to recover that precious data to your computer! Whether using an External case, Data Recovery Software, a Live CD or even Freezing a Hard Drive, there are various methods to prevent the loss of valuable Data!

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Configuring your RAID Array

When putting two drives together into an array, restart your computer. Type Cntrl+A during start-up in order to enter the RAID BIOS area. After the RAID configuration utility is open, click on Create Array in the Main Menu. You will see all of the drives set up to be in your array in a box on the screen. The “gray” drive name is your boot-up drive, which is the drive you are using now. Now that you see that everything is in order and that all of the drives you will be using are displayed, you can return to the Main Menu by hitting your Esc key.

Click on Configure Drives, hit your Ins (Insert) key to select all drives together, hit Enter, and you will probably see a warning. Just hit Y for Yes in answer to the warning. This process will create a mirror of information on both or all of the drives in your new array. After all of this is done, restart your computer and you are finished.

Replacing a PATA drive with a SATA drive

Turn your computer off and disconnect the power cord. Unplug the IDE and power cords from your PATA drive and unscrew it from the enclosure. Using the other lead from your Y adapter, connect the SATA power cable to your SATA drive. Also connect the free data cable from your RAID controller. Screw your new SATA drive into place in the enclosure, and close everything back up. Connect your power cord again and turn on your computer. You should be able to access your new SATA drive from Windows.

Choosing between Different Types of RAID Arrays

RAID 0 (not technically a true RAID, since there is no “redundancy”) improves computing performance through the use of multiple drives.

RAID 1 mirrors data found on one disk by mimicking it across all of the disks in your array, so that if one disk fails you data is still not lost.

Although safety and performance tend to be concerns when dealing with this array and it requires a minimum of three drives, RAID 5 has been popular because it offers independent readings of different blocks from several different drives, rather than, say, RAID 3 or RAID 4, which must read the same block from all of the drives together.

RAID 10 requires a minimum of four drives and offers both redundancy (mimicking of data) and improved computing performance.

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How to Recover Data from a Hard Drive

The hard drive on your computer has one of the shortest life expectancies out of your PC’s components, and at some point, it will inevitably fail you.

It is inevitable, and always seems to happen at the worst possible time – When your data isn’t backed up! So what can you do now? How to recover data from a hard drive? Is it still possible?

This will depend on exactly what it is that happened to your hard drive, however in most cases it is possible to recover at least some of your lost data.

This is the simplest method of recovering lost data, yet it won’t always work. So, how to recover data from a hard drive using an external case? Remove the damaged hard drive from your PC and then insert it carefully into the external hard drive case, then plug it into another PC and see if you can open the drive. If you’re lucky, you will be able to navigate through the damaged hard drive and open your old documents up, and you’ll be able to copy them onto another hard drive.

If the above solution doesn’t work, or seems a little too complex, then you could try using some data recovery software. There are many different free data recovery programs that you can download that will show you how to recover data from a hard drive, or there are some that you can buy, and if you’re lucky you may actually have some success with it.

One of the most reliable data recovery programs is Data Disc Recovery, which is simple to use and more importantly, totally free. It can recover data from crashed drives, while it can also retrieve any deleted files you want to save.

For this method, you’ll need to use another computer and download a program called Linux Live CD, and burn it onto a blank CD. There are different types of programs, though the best ones are Puppy Linux and Damn Small Linux.

Once you have burned the disc, insert it into your damaged computer, and then restart it. When the computer begins to boot, press F2 so you enter BIOS. Set the boot sequence to CD, then save this setting and exit. The Live CD should start, and all you have to do now is follow the on screen instructions on how to recover data from a hard drive. Once the OS starts, you should be able to see your hard drive on the desktop; it should appear as something like “80GB”, etc. Now all you need to do is hook up an external drive to the computer and copy and paste your files to this new drive.

You may find this method somewhat surprising, but it’s possible to freeze your hard drive and recover your data. The idea behind this is that by freezing the hard drive, some of the loose parts in it will constrict, making the drive work again for a short time.

But how to recover data from a hard drive by freezing it exactly? It’s quite simple, but you’’ll need to work fast! First, place the damaged hard drive into a sealable bag and freeze it overnight, then in the morning take it out and place it straight into an external hard drive case, plug it in and see if you can transfer the data to a new hard drive before it defrosts and crashes again.

I hope this article on “How to Recover Data from a Hard Drive” has been beneficial to you and that the various methods above might help you to recover that precious data to your computer! Whether using an External case, Data Recovery Software, a Live CD or even Freezing a Hard Drive, there are various methods to prevent the loss of valuable Data!

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RAID Data Recovery

RAID data systems can greatly increase your data’s speed and availability, but sometimes the system can fail meaning you’ll need to implement RAID data recovery.

RAID is a very common method of data storage, the term ‘RAID’ meaning ‘redundant array of disks’. First designed in 1987, the name is now used to describe any method of storing data that uses separation and duplication of data amongst a number of different disk drives.

RAID can improve your data storage system’s reliability thanks to the way it creates a network of drives to store your data on. Therefore, if one of the drives fails, all of your data remains protected due to the fact it is also stored on other drives in the array. RAID protects you from losing your vital information. The chance of each of your drives failing at the same time and you needing to perform RAID data recovery is very small, yet there are occasions when it can fail:

Power surgesVirusesPhysical damage to your computer, for example water, fire or impact damageController failure – While many RAID systems use multiple disk drives, there is only ever one controller. If the controller fails, so will the arrayMulti-Drive failure – While it won’t happen very often, there is a chance. Remember that because each of your drives are doing the same amount of work, once one goes, there rest may not be far from failing eitherIncorrect configuration of drivesProblems with reformattingThe occasional failure of individual drives, causing deterioration over time

On the rare occasions when RAID does fail, the effect on your business operations can be catastrophic. Therefore, we shouldn’t even have to mention the necessity of backing up all of your systems regularly as a precaution. The trouble with RAID is that its overall safety is so good that many are led into a false sense of security about the safety of their data. They feel that it isn’t necessary to back up their system, and it is this mistaken belief that all too often leads to disaster.

There are two options when RAID fails. Buy a good RAID data recovery program and install it on your system before you experience any problems with it. As these RAID data recovery programs are able to access your drives and assess what has happened, it may be able to fix any potential problems, so long as there aren’t any physical problems with your array.

Chances are though, that you will need to call on the RAID data recovery professionals to come to the rescue after the damage is done. From a technical point of view, RAID data recovery is a very difficult method of recovering data, yet the professionals may be able to help you.

In order to give yourself maximum protection against RAID failure and the loss of your crucial data, you can take note of the following tips:

Regularly back up all of your dataMake sure that your array configuration is well documented, if possible when it is first set up. Documentation should include the actual setup as well as the connection orderYou can test the ability of your system to recover after drive failure, but make sure you backup your data first!Replace a hard disk drive straight away once it has failed, and make sure that the replacement drive has been tested and conforms to the specifications of your systemDo not attempt the rebuilding of any corrupted RAID file system, this will only damage your data even moreIf you notice a RAID fault warning or any other odd system behaviour, for example strange sounds, never ignore this. Ignoring these warnings means that your hard drive could be running in a degraded mode, so you will be left without options in the event of a second drive failingIf there is a fault with more than one drive, then you can do nothing more to try and recover data by yourself. You should call out a professional RAID data recovery specialistDo not attempt different methods of data recovery. In most cases, someone who doesn’t know what they are doing will only make the situation worse, reducing the chances of getting the data retrieved. Professional help needs to sought as soon as possible

Just as in life, it only takes a little preparation and common sense to protect your important data. While RAID systems hardly ever fail, just remember that nothing is unsinkable and when disaster does strike, the results for your business could be devastating if you are not prepared. Ensure that your system is properly set up, take precautions with safety and fix any problems the moment you notice them.

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Hard Drive Data Recovery

Okay, so we can cut out all the I told you so nonsense, that isn’t going to get us anywhere.

Chances are that if you find yourself needing to perform hard drive data recovery, then it is almost certainly because you forgot computing cardinal rule: Always backup your data. Learn “How to Recover Data from a Hard Drive” here…

Hard drives are not indestructible, and they will all fail eventually. So really, the choice is yours – Do you want to learn the hard way or the easy way?

But then of course, you already have your data backed up don’t you? Right???

But what to do if, lo and behold, you never did back up your files and now your files are gone and lost? The first thing you mustn’t do is panic! There’s really no need, there are many options that you can resort to as you attempt hard drive data recovery.

First of all, you need to find out if the hard drive really has failed, or if the error is just one of the many computer or equipment glitches that can lead to a boot failure. If you can get access to a second computer, then it’s possible for you to take out the broken hard drive and connect it to the alternate PC as a secondary drive. You can do this quite easily by using a USB adapter, they only cost around $30 and they are very useful to have around for all kinds of diagnostics involving hard drives.

If you are using an Apple Mac, then the process is even easier. You can hook up your broken Mac to a Mac that is working by using a FireWire cable. Then, all you have to do is the target boot tool on the broken machine, simply by pressing and holding the T-key when you power on the machine.

Whatever method you use, there is a good chance that your hard drive will actually appear on the healthy computer, and you will be able to access all of the files on it. If so, then your hard drive probably hasn’t failed, and the problem is with your operating system (it will need to be reinstalled). However, before fixing the operating system, now might be a very good time to back up all of those files!

If the files do not appear after hooking up your hard drive to a healthy computer, then you are at a pivotal moment in your life! You’re going to need to decide how much value all of that lost work, photos and other treasure memories you have saved really have.

While it will depend very much on the scale of damage that the drive has suffered, the chances are that recovering your data could cost anything from $100 to $1000 or even more! And not only is it expensive, the whole hard drive data recovery process can take many days to complete, and even then there is absolutely no guarantee that you are going to get your files back. I can guarantee it will cost you money though!

Okay, so now the depressing task of setting your expectations has been done, now’s the time to share some good news. In most cases, the data that you think you have lost can be recovered.

In fact, you will probably be surprised at just how resilient information stored on hard drives can be, and if you don’t believe me you can ask any jailed corporate embezzler that tried deleting the evidence from their computer if this is true or not! This is actually a very apt comparison, because the tools that are used by police to uncover digital misdeeds are also used by hard drive data recovery specialists to find your lost data too.

The only safe way to recover your data if you’re not a computer geek is to seek professional help, and this is going to cost you money. How much money does hard drive data recovery cost?

Well, to get an idea of that, we’ll need to understand the two ways in which a hard drive can crash. They can suffer either logical failure or, much worse, mechanical failure.

Logical failure is what happens when something happens, usually a file corruption or some kind of accidental formatting that stops the drive being able to navigate and find the data stored on itself. The components of the drive itself are not actually damaged in any way, and so your data is almost certainly still on the drive and easily retrievable (for the experts!) so long as you haven’t overwritten it. You may be lucky and only be charge a couple of hundred dollars for this service.Mechanical failure is much worse. This is when you hard drive has damaged some of its components and this is what prevents it from working normally. Often, a busted hard drive will make a tell-tale clicking noise in its futile efforts to access the files inside it. If you can hear this sound, then chances are good that your data is still there somewhere, but unless you call in some specialist hard drive data recovery help, you are not going to get it back very easily.

Unfortunately for you, if you have indeed suffered mechanical damage to your drive, these data recovery experts charge an awful lot of money for their services. For example, top hard drive data recovery firms like Seagate i365, Iomega and Kroll Ontrack all charge a fee ranging from $500 to as much as $2500 for their efforts in attempting to recover your lost data. The exact cost will depend on how severe the situation is.

So quite rightly, having found out about the huge costs involved when you get the experts involved, you are going to ask about data recovery software that you can buy. Does it work? Well, sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t!

What you have to realize about data recovery software is that no program will recover your files in their original condition. So things might be very messy. What these programs do is perform a data jump, transferring the files from the old drive to the new one. All of your files will be organized according to file type, with word docs in one folder, JPEG’s in another and so on.

Meanwhile the program will also change the name of each of your files, replacing them with random numbers and letters, making it even more confusing for you! And of course, there is always the chance that the program simply won’t work, and the crucial files you wanted most of all simply didn’t turn up. Perhaps now is a good time to back up your files, if you haven’t already done so..

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Windows XP Data Recovery

Restoring previous or lost data on Windows XP is easy. There are several steps you can take in order to do this. You will want to use these tools in the order presented, because System Restore is far easier than later tools, and if you can fix your problem with that, then you are good to go.

System Restore

System Restore is when your computer makes “saves” or “photographic snapshots” of the current running system and files periodically, and you can restore your computer back to any of these times if your computer crashes or a virus is affecting your files. Be sure to get rid of the virus first, before restoring your computer to a previous state. System Restore is automatically enabled on some computers. You must check to make sure that your computer is currently backing your files up and that you have the availability of using System Restore in the future. Most of the time, however, this is selected and done by default, so you should not have to make any changes.

Make sure you are using an Administrator account when doing this. This is opposed to logging into a User Account which does not have Administrative privileges. Go to Start Menu, then All Programs, then Accessories, followed by System Tools and click on System Restore. This will open a window which tell you about System Restore and have two options. Click the option which says “Restore my computer to an earlier time” and then click Next. The following page will have a tiny calendar with hyperlinked numbers on all of the days which you can restore your system back to. Click on the most recent date BEFORE your computer crashed, and click Next. Confirm your restore point selection and click Next. After the System Restore is complete, you will need to restart your computer, log back in using an Administrator account and click Restoration Complete.

Data Recovery Software

Pandora (found here) and Easeus (found here) are both excellent and free data recovery software programs. With these programs, you should be able to find individual files and sets of lost files, by following the instructions in the program. Download one of them safely from an accredited site, such as download.cnet.com. You should be able to recover lost files with these. If not, you may have to take your computer in to see an expert or try our tutorial if your external hard drive has crashed.

If System Restore and Data Recovery Software are not working for you, then you may have to take your equipment in to see an expert who would be able to set things right for you. Do not despair. Experts in this field are sure to recover your lost data.

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Windows 7 Data Recovery

Data recovery with the new Windows 7 is easier than ever. When information is lost due to computer viruses or crashes, then you may be able to retrieve the lost data with System Restore. If this is not effective, then you may use Data Recovery Software to fish out the files of your choice. If these steps are ineffective, you may need to take your computer to a file recovery expert. Before you do, however, try these options.

System Restore is made possible by the fact your computer periodically takes “pictures” of the current files, settings and state of affairs, and this state can be restored if damage is created in the current state.

In order to invoke System Restore on your Windows 7 PC, click on Start Menu, then All Programs, then Accessories, then System Tools, and finally click on System Restore. A window will pop up which will give you the option of starting a System Restore, so click Next to continue. The next page will show all of the most recent restore points to use. You should click on the most recent point BEFORE your computer crashed or problem began, and click Next. You will be able to select Finish before it begins, so be warned that your computer will restart at this point. Non-system files will not be affected, so if you are looking to restore those, continue to the next step.

Partition Wizard (found here) and Paragon (found here) are both excellent with Windows 7 systems and file and partition recovery. Download and run one of them, being careful to read and follow all of the instructions. Your file recovery should be quick and effective. If you are still not able to recover the desired files, you might need to take your computer in to see an expert.

Windows 7 is less likely to crash than previous versions, but viruses, age and hardware problems can still create problems. Back up your information, always use comprehensive virus protection and try to avoid spilling drinks on your laptop.

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