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More than 20 years have been passed in personal computing. But still some issues have not been resolved completely. One of them is data backup and recovery. There are many ways one can lose his or her critical files and data either accidentally deletion of file or media corruption. This can happen with a single user as well as with an organization. In any case, important data files always remain important.

In most of the cases, we usually store our data on hard disk drives. There are some common errors by which data can be lost. Some of them are:

User Errors
Software error
Hard drive electronic failures
Hard drive arm failures
Hard drive platter failures

What ever the failure case is, a question arises how we can prevent our data files from failure? There are two solutions of this problem.

1. Prevent data before data corruption/loss

2. Recover data after data corruption/loss

Prevention before data loss

The above specified user errors and software errors fall in this category. In this scenario, we can save our critical files on more than one media. In other words, we must take backups of data on regular basis.

The other solution of this is to use third party data prevention tool. These tools keep record of every deleted file by the operating system and can recover it if it is not overwritten by any newly created file. One example of this is UnErase in Norton Utilities software package. There are others too available which provide this type of solutions.

Recover data after loss

No doubt, taking backups on regular basis and using third party tools to prevent accidentally deletion of file is a good practice. But what if, you have used all these techniques and you face media failure? In other words, the media on which data is being stored has been corrupted. This can be due to hard drive arm failure, hard drive platter failure or electronic failures. By happening this type of failure, your hard drive can make noises or even not detectable by the computer system.

So how we can recover and use our hard drive? If the case is only data file loss and hard drive condition is fine, we can try recovery softwares. These softwares actually read the file system table and then try to recover files. 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 remains on the drive 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 drive. So we can say, a file can never be lost but can be overwritten. We can try to recover these files by any recovery software. But the risk remains as the softwares can make mishaps.

On the other hand, if the case is media failure then what? As there are organizations which provide better storage solutions, there are also those who provide better recovery services. The purpose of this is to provide the recovery solution on large scale basis as well as individual users. In critical situation, they take responsibility of your data. This is some how an expensive solution but usually 80-90 % of the lost data can be recovered on emergency and regular basis. However for free data recovery evaluation service visit Optimum Data Recovery Labs.

In above discussion, I have provided the example of hard disk. But remember, whatever the storage media is e.g. tape drives, RAID, Flash, Floppy etc., all these things can happen with them too. So make sure you have proper recovery solutions and backup plan for your organization’s data.

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About Author
Shahbaz Ahmad is working in software industry since 2002. His programming experience includes C++,C#, Java and .NET. His current area of interests is .NET, C#, ASP.NET and SEO. He is working as software engineer. He has also worked on ATMEL micro controller programming, GPS (Geographical Positioning System) and VLSI design & Analysis. He holds Bachelor and Master Degree in Computer Sciences.

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As far as anyone knows it’s going to be just another, average Monday morning. However, lying hidden and unforeseen within your company’s computer infrastructure is a major disaster waiting to strike. Upon initial booting is heard the spine tingling sound of a strange, clicking or grinding noise coming from the hard drive. Instead of seeing the usual start up screen, you are faced with a blank blue or black screen. Your system refuses to boot. “This can’t be happening!” is the mind-numbing thought that keeps racing through your head.

Instant access to electronic data has become more crucial in day-to-day business and for a company to not be prepared in a situation where a critical information is at risk is dangerous to the survival of a company. Data is a commodity to all businesses and as such should be safe guarded against potential loss. As technology for hard drives improves and larger hard drives become available to consumers, more and more vital data is being stored on fewer but larger spaces. Unfortunately, disaster prevention or recovery plans are often not considered until it is too late.

When you lose data, it is tempting to try and fix it yourself and that is what most people try to do, but trying to recover files on your own usually makes things worse. If your hard drive is clicking, grinding or making unusual sounds, the read/write heads are scratching the platters. Allowing your computer to run in this condition is like cleaning your CD’s with sandpaper. It will destroy your data. Restarting your computer, rebooting it over and over hoping it will fix itself, or running utilities in an attempt to recover files can corrupt your data. You should turn your computer off immediately in order to avoid making your data unrecoverable.

Asking your IT department to recover data from a failing hard drive or corrupted RAID array, without specialized equipment and professional training, may also result in permanent data loss. In addition, swapping hard drives in a server runs the risk of overwriting the striping and parity, making it nearly impossible to rebuild your RAID array. Please do NOT put your critical business data at further risk by experimenting with it you should seek out a company that specializes in data recovery.

If you have fallen victim to a damaged hard drive or RAID due to any reason, ADR Data Recovery is available to evaluate the damage and potentially recover your lost data. For more information on ADR Data Recovery’s service, visit http://www.adrdatarecovery.com.

Jason Perry, ADR Data Recovery http://www.adrdatarecovery.com

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