The Significance Of Data Recovery And Offsite Backup In Today's Business World

The question of data recovery comes to mind when an enterprise, with much larger volume and several business centers across the globe, loses its valuable data at one of its centers from a natural disaster like the recent Katrina hurricane, earth quake, flood or a terrorist attack. An organizationรขโ�ฌโ�ขs data is considered to be its most vital asset in todayรขโ�ฌโ�ขs fast growing business world. Not convinced? Consider a few types of data items like Text documents, financial records, contact records, address books, email messages and databases that you have created on your computer or servers may disappear forever unless you take a serious action to prevent it. Besides this you can be at risk of data loss due to programming errors, media/device failures, natural disasters, virus attacks and theft too.

In such situations business owners and managers are forced to ask questions like the ones below:

รขโ�ฌยข Do we have an offsite backup of data for our destroyed or lost center?
รขโ�ฌยข How much data can be recovered and in what time frame?
รขโ�ฌยข How much cost is needed to successfully get our lost data back?

Oops! These are the questions that need to be answered instantly. Here the company owners and business managers feel the true importance of offline backup and data recovery service from a professional data recovery company.

The negated answer to first question is not easy to digest. Indubitably, the company that has suffered the situation of data loss will carry out significant measures to deal with disastrous circumstances in future. The best and the most frequent practiced solution must be to have offline backup for your valuable data periodically.

To recover data from disastrous situations requires a lot of effort and it also depends upon the severity of destruction that has really hit your storage media and devices. In most cases the lost data is recoverable up to 60 percent. But there are data recovery companies which are able to recover 80 to 90 percent data after the loss. But in spite of wasting time and money on recovery it is advisable to use more than one data backup methodologies as data loss can happen to anyone in this uncertain world.

The cost for recovering your data is very critical factor which not only flourish your business but also affects it badly when you have a limited budget. It is observed that businesses that suffer data loss never stand up again; anyhow if they manage to continue their business after suffering the loss, 90 percent end up failing within two years. Again the solution to successfully cope up with all the catastrophic circumstances is to maintain a secure backup of your vital data.

For further information of how can you protect your data, regardless of disaster and failure, and how to recover data from lost hard drives, raid servers, tapes, file recovery and other removable media like flash cards, Iomega zip, memeory cards,Jaz disks and floppy disks, please visit http://www.optimumrecovery.com

M Usman Qureshi, 22-05-06

Computer Backups

COMPUTERS AND HALLOWEEN, DO THEY MIX?

Computer backup is so important to your computer that to ignore it is to risk its damnation.

Computers require care and feeding. They require that you attend to their needs. If you donรขโ�ฌโ�ขt, then they will most surely be sent to Hell.

Halloween means Hell. What! What do you mean that Halloween means Hell?

Well, if your computer is given the option of trick or treat, which will it accept? Will it accept the trick or the treat? What do you think?

Halloween is the time that computers are subject to tricks or treats. Did you know that more computers fail on Halloween than any other day of the year? Thatรขโ�ฌโ�ขs right. Itรขโ�ฌโ�ขs true (smile). Your computer is in danger! Protect it. Do your computer backups.

Back to the Hell thing. Hell you say? Yep. Well, what do you mean by Hell?

Computer hell is the place for computers without computer backup. The failure to perform hard drive backup means that you are playing Russian Roulette with your data. Data needs your protection. Failure to protect your data may cause your home or business records to be sent to Hell.

Hell in this instance is for the records and files that cannot be resurrected. Resurrected you say, what does that mean?

It means that without computer backup as a source of salvation then the files can safely enjoy eternal oblivion. Oblivion you say, what does that mean? That means they are eternally lost from computer resurrection.

Is there any mercy for my precious files, you ask?

Why yes there is. Would like to know what the mercy for your files is? Yes! Yes! You say.

OK boys and girls listen carefully. The salvation, mercy, resurrection and redemption of your files lies in regular and consistent and persistent computer backup.

If you backup your computer consistently and persistently your files will be resurrected and saved from accidental deletion, hard drive failure and those nasty things like fire, flood, theft, earthquake, hurricanes, tornados and the like!

Computer backup is the key to your dataรขโ�ฌโ�ขs salvation!

Do your computer backups boys and girls.

Milk and cookies will be served in the pantry.

Trick or treat for your computer backup?

Jack Back has been in the computer business since 1983 as an IT executive and working computer consultant company owner. He has helped many clients after a computer crash who had no computer backup. Now get your FREE 2 part guide on how to quickly and easily do computer backups and to save your irreplaceable computer data from loss, damage or destruction at the Computer Backup website.

How to Retrieve Data from SQL Server Database in XML Format?

After the release of the SQL Server 2000 the way the data is retrieved has taken a new dimension. The support for XML format is there from the version of SQL Server 2000.

With that it is possible to retrieve data from the SQL Server database in the XML format. SQLXML is used for this purpose. With such possibilities it is possible to access data in the SQL Server using URL based queries where the queries are transported using HTTP.

If you are already familiar with the SQL queries then it is very easy to create queries that return data in XML format. The syntax for such SQL queries would be,

SELECT ... FOR XML mode

The values of the รขโ�ฌห�modeรขโ�ฌโ�ข may be รขโ�ฌห�autoรขโ�ฌโ�ข, รขโ�ฌห�explicitรขโ�ฌโ�ข, รขโ�ฌห�rawรขโ�ฌโ�ข, and รขโ�ฌห�nestedรขโ�ฌโ�ข. Depending on the mode that you are using the format of the XML output varies. If the mode is รขโ�ฌห�autoรขโ�ฌโ�ข, the resulting XML document will have an element for each row that is found in the table of the SQL Server database.

In the รขโ�ฌห�explicitรขโ�ฌโ�ข mode it is possible to define how the columns of the table should be returned to the query. In the รขโ�ฌห�rawรขโ�ฌโ�ข mode all the fields of the table are considered as the attributes of the element of the XML data that is returned. The columns that have null values are not included. The returned elements have a รขโ�ฌห�rowรขโ�ฌโ�ข prefix to it.

The รขโ�ฌห�nestedรขโ�ฌโ�ข mode allows formatting to be done at the client side and it is the same as the รขโ�ฌห�autoรขโ�ฌโ�ข mode except for this difference. The explicit mode is the most powerful mode for returning data. It is possible to define how you want the data and you can even use filters and sorts to get the data in the way you want.

Apart from these there are optional parameters for the SQL query. The optional parameters as the name indicates can either be used or neglected. The optional parameters that can be used are Binary Base64, Elements, and XMLData. With the optional parameters in place the syntax would take the form,

SELECT ... FOR XML mode [, BINARY BASE64] [, ELEMENTS] [, XMLDATA]

The Binary Base64 option is used if you want to retrieve data in the binary format from the database. Binary data that is found in the database should be retrieved using this option. The modes that are used to retrieve data in binary format are the รขโ�ฌห�rawรขโ�ฌโ�ข and the รขโ�ฌห�explicitรขโ�ฌโ�ข modes.

The Elements option is used to return the data in the table as child elements. The fields of the row become the attributes of the element returned if you are not using the Elements option. Thus for each row you get an element with child elements being the fields of the row.

Auto mode is the only mode in which you can use the Elements option. If you want to define the format that is returned you need an XSD schema for that. The XMLData option allows this. This option adds a schema so that you get the format that you want for your XML data.

Managed classes are available in the .Net framework for interacting with the database. The Managed classes that are useful for this are SqlXmlCommand, SqlXmlParameter, SqlXmlAdapter, and SqlXmlException.

The SqlXmlCommand is used to query the XML templates. These are the XML documents that have the SQLXML queries in them. Processing the queries on the client side is possible with this managed class.

A managed class called the SqlXmlAdapter class is available which can be used to fill the dataset. This is the adapter class for the provider.

Another managed class called the SqlXmlParameter is available which can be used to pass parameters. This class is used along with the SqlXmlCommand managed class.

A class for trapping errors from the SQL Server is available which is called the SqlXmlException managed class.

A simple example of using the managed classes for getting XML output from the SQL Server database is given below. This code uses the XML AUTO mode for generating the XML data.

static string xmlstr = "Provider=SQLOLEDB;Server=(local);database=Orders;";
public static void SampleSqlXml () { Stream objStr = Console.OpenStandardOutput();
SqlXmlCommand sqlcmd = new SqlXmlCommand(xmlstr);
sqlcmd.Root = "Orders";
sqlcmd.CommandType = SqlXmlCommandType.Sql;
sqlcmd.CommandText = "SELECT OrderNo, OrderValue FROM Orders FOR XML AUTO";
strm = sqlcmd.ExecuteToStream(objStr);
objStr.Close(); }

For more information and samples on the managed classes that are used for retrieving data in XML format from SQL Server you can refer to the MSDN documentation.

Since we know that the results of the query are in the form of XML, it is possible to write your own ASP or ASP.Net code to display the values retrieved in XML format in the webpage. You can use the XSL for formatting the output in the way you want in the webpage. This allows the user to see the values in a particular format using the browser of their choice.

Stay current with the latest technology developments related to XML and other related technologies? Visit Understanding eXtensible Rights Markup Language - XrML to get your FREE subscription now!

Why is Hard Drive Recovery So Important?

We live in a new technological age, and many of us purchase a computer and use it for everything, in fact it becomes a very important tool in our daily lives. We use it for on-line banking, job resumes, email, music downloads, just about everything. So what happens when the hard drive crashes and we lose everything we have installed on the hard drive? Think that it could never happen to you? You may be surprised to learn it happens all the time. That is when a service called Hard Drive Data Recovery is needed.

First of all most of us do not have any idea on how to fix hard drive recovery problems. We may know the basic recovery attempt using the Fdisk recovery utility. There are some reports that putting the hard drive in a plastic bag, and placing it in the freezer may help. When that does not work however, we are left scratching our heads. Fortunately there are Hard Data Recovery experts, but what most people do not realize is that service can be very expensive. For example one service offers a "look" at the hard drive for $99 with the caveat that a more detailed internal examination will cost almost $500. The question then becomes if the information or data that has been "lost" is worth the cost to recover.

If you have a home based business and there are important business files, or if you have irreplaceable family photos stored on the hard drive, then the answer is simple. For the average person however, if they kept the system software and some minimal backups a new hard drive installed will be okay, it will only cost the time to reload all the settings back to where you like them again, plus software updates and other types of personalization.

So how can you prevent this from ever happening? The first thing is to keep your computer updated with the latest virus protection and software updates. Then the "frequent" backup of the programs is an essential component in hard drive data recovery. I find that using an external hard drive is very helpful, they can purchased with various sizes available and they are very easily connected, for example by USB cable and really make backing up a snap. Sometimes people make copies on DVDรขโ�ฌโ�ขs or CDรขโ�ฌโ�ขs, but you may be limited by size of files structure if you have many photoรขโ�ฌโ�ขs or music files, that may not be practical. Some people use another hard drive, called a dual drive for backup storage of their most import hard drive data. This is usually very safe, as in most cases it is the hard drive with the operating system that is most likely to fail, but as with any computer accessories it is subject to mechanical failure at anytime as well, it is just not as likely.

So the most important thing for hard drive data recovery is to maintain copies of your most valued information and programs. You should considerate it as data insurance. As they say, you can pay now or pay later. If you have ever had to rebuild your hard drive, you know what I mean when I say it is well worth it to protect your computer and all your data. To the computer it is just code, but it could be precious memories to us.

Jeffrey Meier of Jam727 Enterprises offers detailed information about Data Recovery at http://www.jam727.com/datarecovery.htm For additional information we also recommend http://www.harddriverecoveryinfo.com/ for detailed articles on Hard Drive Recovery.

Data Security - Having Piece of Mind

Data security is a very important part of a successful computer involved business. It is essential to keep vital data secured in order to have piece of mind. Backing up data and having dedicated computers running just to store data are great ways to maintain data security.

Computer systems are subject to failures or accidents. Such failures and accidents affect the availability of data. Many businesses depend on their data for per second decision-making, and cannot afford a downtime of 5 or 10 minutes, which might result into losses of millions.

Another problem with data security is malicious computer viruses. The ideal data security for any business would be to have separate computers that constantly get updated with new back ups, but are never connected to any internet network.

For any business that could simply not afford to have its vital data be wiped clean from the face of the earth, backing up in other parts of the world can be a great way to avoid things like theft, natural disasters and human error. As long as you have absolutely topnotch network security, your data will be safe on a server in a different part of the world.

If you happen to wipe a hard disk clean, there are ways to recover that lost data. Many times damaged hard drives can be recovered, many times they cant, and often data recovery costs massive amounts of money.

How a hard drive works is a complicated process, but if you know that when you delete data off a hard drive, it doesnรขโ�ฌโ�ขt disappear, its still there, but it is ready to be written over. If you make a boob, delete something, as long as you donรขโ�ฌโ�ขt go filling up those same disk sectors you can probably retrieve that data. Mind you, this process is not easy, and a regular computer chump probably couldnรขโ�ฌโ�ขt do it, this is why data recovery is often left to professionals, and often costs you big bucks.

As you can see, data security is vital for the smooth operation of any business. If you practice good data security then you donรขโ�ฌโ�ขt ever need to worry about data recovery.

Bart Samuri enjoys writing about all kinds of great topics. Feel free to re-print this article as long as nothing is changed, all links remained intact, and the bio remains the same. Thank-you - Please visit my data recovery and data security website @ data-security-center

XCACLS, SUNINACL, And Other Permissions Security Recovery Tools

You Have 50GB Of Data To Move Along With Permissions Security
---------------------
This article is about several tools that can save a Windows administrators you know what in the event of a large scale permissions security problem.

Here is a fictional scenario we can use to illustrate the use of the XCACLS tool. We need to move or copy 50GB worth of data that is comprised of several thousand directories containing hundreds of thousands of small files from one storage system to another. These systems happen to part of a Windows 2000 Domain and permissions are quite granular in definition. We start the replication of that data using a favorite replication or synchronization tool and walk away for the evening. When we return the next day, everything has copied and all looks well. That is until you try to access the data.

The Data Is Copied, But I Cannot Access It: Permissions Security Problem
---------------------
What you did not know, until just now, is that the root directory of the drive that you copied the data to had the wrong permissions assigned to it. In addition, inheritance was configured such that any data that is placed on the drive is over written with the permissions of the root directory. In this case, it was an old account that no longer existed. Believe it or not, that can happen, and system administrators will know what I am talking about. Now you are left with trying to figure out what to do. Do I format the new drive, change the permissions and inheritance on the root directory so they are correct and start all over again? Do I make the changes on the root drive so they have the correct permissions and wait hours upon hours for the permissions to propagate? No, there is another, very fast way of resolving this issue with XCACLS or another tool called SUBINACL.

XCALCS Quickly Resets Permissions On Directories And Files
---------------------
Becasue I have limited space in this article, I am going to use XCACLS as the tool to correct this problem. However, in complex permissions structures, you will most likely want to use SUBINACL to fix the issue. I will talk about SUBINACL briefly at the end of the article.

XCACLS as a very fast tool that can set, remove, add, and change permissions on files and directories. For intance, the following command replaces all existing access rights and accounts with that of "dmiller" on the file "file.txt" with read-only access: "xcalcs file.txt /Y /T /G domaindmiller:r". Although that is pretty easy and helpful, what about changing all my directories and files, which I have thousands of, to allow the domaindmiller account to have full access? To do this in a very fast fashion you could execute the following from the root directory of the drive: "for /d %g IN (*.*) DO xcacls "%g" /Y /T /G domaindmiller:f". This will go through every directory, subdirectory, and file and replace the current permissions with dmiller having full access to the object. You'll notice I put "" around the %g in the example. This is not required, but if you have directories that have names with spaces in them you will need to have the "".

What Other Ways Can I Use XCACLS To Change Security Permissions
---------------------
To give you a few additional handy examples of how you can use this tool take a look at the follow command prompt methods for replacing, updating and removing accounts and permissions from large numbers of directories and files.

The following command replaces all existing access rights an accounts with that of dmiller with read only access rights: for /d %g IN (*.*) DO xcacls "%g" /Y /T /G domaindmiller:r

The following command does not replace existing account permissions, instead, it adds the account, in the example the local admin account, with read only permissions: for /d %g IN (*.*) DO xcacls "%g" /Y /E /T /G administrator:r

The following command removes the account "administrator" permissions from all directories, files, and subdirectories: for /d %g IN (*.*) DO xcacls "%g" /Y /E /T /R administrator

This command should update all the directories and their contents to allow Domain Admins full access: for /d %g IN (*.*) DO xcacls "%g" /Y /T /G "Domain Admins:f"

I did a test on my XP Pro workstation and was able to change the permissions on approximately 10000 directories and files in less 1 minute. On one of my servers I was able to achieve a 500% increase in speed. It is blazingly fast.

SUBINACL Is More Complex But Man Can It Really Save The Day
---------------------
I cannot go into specifics about this tool in this article but I will tell you what it can do. And again, it does it very very fast. Using the same scenario as above, let's say that you had to fix the permissions on thousands of home directories. With SUBINACL, you can actually go to the original directories and files, use the tool to create what is called a "play file", a text file that contains the right account and permissions from the source files, then use that same file to tell SUBINACL to fix the permissions on the target storage system, the one with the screwed up permissions. It's quite the life saver if you ever find yourself in the type of predicament.

Also check out "CACLS". This command is inherent to Windows XP Professional.

Conclusion
---------------------
These tools are contained in the Windows 2000 and 2003 server resource tool kit, however several of them also exist native to the Windows XP environment. Check them out if you don't already know about them. Even if you have no use for them right now it may save you hours of hard work and stress in the event of a future permissions problem.

You may reprint or publish this article free of charge as long as the bylines are included.

Original URL (The Web version of the article)
---------------------
http://www.defendingthenet.com/NewsLetters/XCACLS-SUBINACL-AndOtherPermissionSecurityRecoveryTools.htm

About The Author
---------------------
Darren Miller is an Information Security Consultant with over seventeen years experience. He has written many technology & security articles, some of which have been published in nationally circulated magazines & periodicals. If you would like to contact Darren you can e-mail him at Darren.Miller@defendingthenet.com. If you would like to know more about computer security please visit us at http://www.defendingthenet.com.

PC Backup Software - Are There Any Good Ones?

Why bother with backup? Can you imagine what would happen if all of a sudden *poof* everything is wiped off your computer. You had not installed any pc backup software. You could not get into files, retrieve pictures or music downloads and all programs and saved documents were lost. Permanently. Most people dread the thought and yet system crashes, file corruption and emergency disasters do happen to computers on a daily basis. So what can be done about it?

Saving the day

There are numerous commercially available software programs designed to backup your computer. Installing a pc backup software is critical to maintaining your computer and avoiding any unnecessary reinstalls or lost material. Pc backup software will store and save:

* Data entry files
* Emails
* Music
* Photographs
* Financial records
* Billing and invoicing records
* Programs and downloads
* Operating systems

Pc backup software works by protecting, preserving and archiving the data on your computer at regularly scheduled times. Programs can then be restored through the pc backup software program. By using pc backup software you do not have to go through the trouble of reinstalling operating systems and other programs. Wizards and easy to follow step-by-step instructions make pc backup software easy to use for beginner and advanced computer users, whether you are backing up just a few files or the whole system.

What is on the market?

There are multitudes of pc backup software items on the market. As with any program, knowing what you need is essential to determine which pc backup software program will most closely match your needs. A very brief list of pc backup software can be found below:

* Backup MyPC - is available for personal, small business computers as well as small networks. This pc backup software has won awards from PC World Magazine for three years in a row. It offers provides easy to follow wizards to help you automatically set-up your pc for regularly scheduled backups. This pc backup software uses password protection to ensure continued safety and security for your data.

* NovaBACKUP - allows backup to any number of devices such as tape, CD-RW, DVD or disk. In addition to the features mentioned above it also is network friendly and all computers on a network can be backed up from one pc. This pc backup software also scans for viruses while performing the backup and uses open file backup to allow files that are opened to be saved even as data is being entered.

* Norton Ghost - is also an award winning pc backup software. It has been editor's choice for two year in PC Magazine and in 2004 for Bityard. This program works only with Windows XP Home Edition/Professional or Windows 2000 Professional. There is a version, Norton Ghost 2003, that will work with Windows 98 and Me. This pc backup software offers fully automatic backup for everything on your computer.

On http://www.build-computerz.com/ you will find articles on build your custom computers and make your own computers.

A Look At Some Of The Data Recovery Methods Available To You

You have just returned from the vacation of a life time and downloaded your pictures to your computer, typed up the diary you kept while vacationing and drafted many emails to your friends about the trip, now it is all gone, thanks to some incomprehensible computer glitch. Understandably, losing documents that meant time and significance is quite frustrating. However, occasionally not all is lost.

Start at the Recycle Bin of your computer. If your file is there, the recovery will be easy. If not, try a tool that will undelete a file. Although this may find your file, it may not find every part of the file. In this case the file will be corrupt and not likely much use to you. If your file is large, the chance of corruption is higher than that of a small file, simply because more information groups have the chance to get lost. For example, photos are often larger files than text documents, thus lost photos can be difficult to find.

Losing a photo can be slightly more traumatizing because often a photo is more valuable than words, and secondly, photos can be more difficult to recover. Once the deleted photo file is used more than once, a recovery program often does not know what it is supposed to be looking for. Since the program will not help you right away, you need to know what it is you want to find. Do you know what kind of file it was? JPG, TIFF, GIF? The more you know about the deleted image, the higher your chances are of finding the image. Even if you find the image, it is likely to be corrupt. At this point it is difficult to put together your image.

E-mails function in a way not like photos or text files. The chances of getting back a deleted e mail depends on the type of e mail program you have. Most programs have a Trash or Deleted folder. Typically you set how frequently the e mail service deletes everything in these folders. If you have a habit of deleting e mails accidentally, set this option for the greatest length of time possible. It is very simple to recover a deleted e mail from the Deleted folder; a click of the mouse will usually suffice. However, if the Deleted folder has been emptied by your e mail service, it is unlikely you will be able to find and recover the deleted e mail.

Beyond these options are special programs and offered services to assist you with recovering files. Recovery programs exist especially for photos, Microsoft Word and Excel files, e mails and other file types. You also have the option of hiring a human specialist to find your files. You often get what you pay for with all these services. A human specialist can be costly and recommended only for use with extremely valuable files.

After you have spent much time, and possibly money on this project, be sure to save your file and save again. Save on disks, USBs, hard drives and servers if these options are available to you. If this file is changed often, remember to resave the file in all the original locations to ensure you can always access a recent version of your work.

Gregg Hall is an author living in Navarre Beach, Florida. Find more about this as well as data backup at http://www.fastcomputerrepair.com.

Data Recovery Services: What To Do When Your Hard Drive Fails

According to most people, there are two types of hard drives: those that have failed and those that will fail. But for folks who use Data Recovery Services, there is a third type of hard drive: one that does not fail.

A hard drive is the most vulnerable part of a computer; it has moving gears and is hence prone to wear and tear. So when you need hard disk data recovery, you must deeply consider the service and practice of the various repair companies in your area. A company that has been around the block more than a few times is ideal.

But more importantly, experts that ask questions and appreciate your situation are a necessity; companies that approach your needs in an impersonal way simply cannot diagnose your computer problems properly. For example, an expert who is on hand to ask specific questions about your hard disk will know whether or not to go about repair with mere software or through more professional means.

There are a variety of problems that lead to hard drive failure. If the hard drive is part of a mirror set, mirrored stripe set, or stripe set with uniformity, then all you will need to do is replace the drive รขโ�ฌโ�� any lost data will mechanically regenerate.

A local service company can handle all your concerns though. Fixing a hard drive yourself is a tedious process, requiring lots of time and even research. Your next-door neighbor might be a computer geek, but that doesnรขโ�ฌโ�ขt mean his or her advice is remotely accurate. After all, a computer can fail for many different reasons and they are not always easy to pinpoint.

The ideal solution is usually to replace a failed drive and re-establish your backup. This does not always work though, as many people find the necessary backup is outdated or sometimes, non-existent.

If a hard drive is beyond repair, data recovery is obviously not an option. So prepare for unexpected charges; you might have to buy a whole new drive. In this case, just be careful when replacing it, as you donรขโ�ฌโ�ขt want to lose your data.

Stu Pearson has an interest in Business & Technology related topics. To access more information on data recovery or on file recovery, please click on the links.