Securing Backups in Microsoft SQL Server

Backing up database without password contains several vulnerability of disclosing the confidential information. The reason that any database can be restored at any location makes this problem more serious. You can check it out by creating a Backup of your database and restoring it in some other machine. The information stored in your backup media also get disclosed by - Restore filelistonly or Restore headeronly options. Backing up a database without supplying password could lead to several anomalies that no company would like to suffer.

Some common problems concerned -

(1) Disclosing of company information, such as customers, policies and future plans.
(2) Disclosing of contact information or accounts information especially in case of Bank or Insurance companies.
(3) Disclosing of structure of the storage pattern of the company.
(4) Utilization of future plans by rival companies.

These are common problems, but there are numerous specific problems that could be faced. Let's have an estimate of some reasons why backup set must be password protected -

(1) Backups in Tapes is not kept in a secure manner.
This is also recommended to store all the backup off-site. In such cases where your company stores Tapes off-site, there could be some physical security problems of there storage. There are cases when disgruntled employees have sold these tapes to rival companies to gain better perk and confidence in rival companies. As you all know, each company wants to know the structure and pattern followed by other company. A employee of company may be unfaithful and he can damage some information. But damaging some data is not a big issue than selling or disclosing information.
(2) Backups can be sent as e-mail or uploaded.
This problem is not hidden to anyone. Your company firewall may be strong, but Thumbnail drives can anytime be applied in USB port and data can be transferred. Thumbnail drives are nowadays in fashion also. Anyone can have a 1GB to 10GB of such thumbnail drives. The important thing to notice about thumbnail drives is that they do not require installation. Just plugging into USB port and computer shows a Removable media and then copy and paste of files. This is so easy to do that a newbie can do this.

How to provide security in Backups ?

This only requires to add an option of password to make your backup set password protected. The advantages of providing password in backup are -

(1) Restore Filelistonly, Restore Headeronly commands does not disclose the backup information.
(2) If you want to restore from media, error is generated by SQL Server.

The following commands can be used to provide a password. I assume that you have a backup media and backup device name 'backup01'.

Statement#1
Backup database Northwind to backup01 with password='secretpass'

Now, let us have a test on this and see what SQL Server says when password is not provided.

Restore database Northwind from backup01

Server: Msg 3279, Level 16, State 2, Line 5
Access is denied due to a password failure
Server: Msg 3013, Level 16, State 1, Line 5
RESTORE DATABASE is terminating abnormally.

This was an error with severity level 16. That means it's working. Now, let us have a look on restore related commands that produce some information.

Restore Filelistonly From backup01

Server: Msg 3279, Level 16, State 2, Line 5
Access is denied due to a password failure
Server: Msg 3013, Level 16, State 1, Line 5
RESTORE DATABASE is terminating abnormally.

Again the same error. In this way, we may conclude that this approach is easier to create this. Some other options can also be provided like media name, media description and media password.

Media Name, Media Description and Media Password

There are some differences in directly applying password while backup and using media name. When you are using following command while backup.

Statement#2
Backup database Northwind to backup01 with medianame='Set-1' , mediapassword='passwd'

This would create password for backup01 and once it was done, you get the same error Msg 3279 while you execute the following command on the same media.

Backup database Northwind to backup01

So, when your provide password for the media, you can not backup any information into media unless you provide password. After the Statement#2 you need to provide password for other backups.

Backup database MSDB to backup01 with medianame='Set-1' , mediapassword='passwd'

The statement executes successfully. This is the actual difference in using 'with password=' and 'with medianame' case. After executing Statement#1, you can use the same for other backups without mentioning password or mentioning different passwords.

Conclusion

This is all about providing protection for passwords. There are many other things to research in the same scenario and I would like to share my ideas when such studies are complete. Overall, my aim was to open your eyes that backups are not only to secure your data, but due to carelessness this may lead to leakage of information. In my opinion, disclosure of important information is more serious matter than loss of information. So, awareness is important and there is a little effort to apply in securing your backups.

Novell Operating System - Recovery of Compressed Data

Problem Description

Data stored in a working Novell server is automatically compressed to save space, and is obviously decompressed before it is displayed to a user. Phoenix Novell recovers lost data exactly as it was stored in the hard disk, and the recovered data may be compressed. This gives rise to the problem of recovered data being unusable (because it is in a compressed format).

Phoenix, however, has a new and advanced uncompression engine that is able to decompress recovered data.

Technical Aspect of the Problem

Data Compression refers to the process of storing data in a format that requires less space than usual. Compressing data is the same as packing data รขโ�ฌโ�� reducing the amount of electronic รขโ�ฌห�spaceรขโ�ฌโ�ข data takes up, and compressed data usually consumes 2 to 4 times fewer bits. Typically, it is infrequently used data which is compressed to save space.

Methods of compressing data include replacing blank spaces with a character count, or replacing redundant data with shorter stand-in รขโ�ฌห�codesรขโ�ฌโ�ข. No matter how data is compressed, it must be decompressed before it can be used. This is precisely where the problem lies รขโ�ฌโ�� recovered data may be in a compressed format and thus unusable. Phoenix uses its own uncompression module to resolve this problem.

Technical Aspect of the Solution

Data recovered from a failed server may not open because it is in a compressed format. The solution to this problem needs to be followed in a systematic way for best results.

First, the hard disk containing the recovered compressed data is to be attached to a working Novell client machine and the compressed data is to be transferred from there to a working Novell server. The hard disk of the server (which now contains the compressed data) is then taken out and attached as a secondary disk to any machine with Phoenix Novell installed in it.

Phoenix then decompresses the required data, after which the hard disk (now containing the decompressed data) is to be reattached to the server. The data can then safely be transferred from the server back to a working Novell client machine.

Working of Phoenix Novell - Data Recovery Software

Compressed data can be decompressed using Phoenix Novellรขโ�ฌโ�ขs uncompression utility. The recovered compressed data is to be transferred from a Novell client machine to a Novell server. The hard disk of the server (which now contains the compressed data) is then to be attached to a machine with Phoenix Novell installed in it. The Phoenix Novell software is then used to decompress this data in a few short steps.

First, select the volume which contains the compressed data. Phoenix Novell analyses the selected volume and displays the result in an easy to understand structure. Select all the files that are in a compressed format.

Finally, click Tools -> Mark Compressed Files to start the decompression. Phoenix then decompresses all the compressed data. The server hard disk now contains decompressed data and can be reattached to the server to transfer all the decompressed data back into the client machine.

A Data Recovery Software & Service Company - Datenrettung Software

Enjoy Your Christmas Thoroughly! Backup Your Data Files!

You may wonder what backup has to deal with Christmas..and yet, there is something you can benefit from here, too.

As the only way to enjoy your Christmas thoroughly is to spend your time as you want without anything interfering with your holidays, a scheduled backup has yet something to offer here.

When to backup?

Just set a scheduled backup to run on Friday evening and also on Saturday and Sunday of the Christmas weekend (if you do work or change your files during the holidays). The best time to run a Christmas backup depends, of course, on your backup schedule, but, generally, a Friday evening is the best time to run a single scheduled backup.

What to backup?

A scheduled backup on Friday evening will make sure you have backed up all your important files (work documents, mail messages, Outlook and Outlook Express files, data files, etc.) so that you do not have to worry if something happens during Christmas. And if something happens to your files, you will have a backup ready.

Where to backup?

Probably the best backup solution is to backup to an external USB hard drive. This method is quick, reliable and cost-effective. If you have little data to backup, you can use a flash USB drive or a DVD, depending on the amount of files to backup, of course.

Backup, and may your Christmas holidays been as pleasant as possible.

The author of this Enjoy your Christmas with http://www.FairBackup.com The owner of a site, devoted to the backup theme. Learn how to backup easily, efficiently and securely with fairbackup.com

Why It Is Essential To Back Up Your Computer Hard Drive On A Regular Basis

No matter who you are, proper data back up is required. Whether you work at home, work for a huge conglomeration, or work for a tiny store, having current data back up files can keep your business from failing during a hard drive crash.

Businesses are not the only things that would suffer. Can you imagine life without your email addresses? What about if you lost your tax files that were stored online? Even personal computers should have back up files.

Think about the items that are stored on computers: bank records, personal journals, tax information, family histories, family photographs, customer accounts, email address books, mailing addresses, and more. Without these items, many people would cease to function. We are an electronic generation. We communicate via the email. We balance our checkbooks online. We chat with family online. In essence, we need our computers. If they fail, we feel panicky and stressed without them. Recovery can come faster if a recent back up exists.

In past history, floppy discs were the main source for backing up our computer files. They still work wonderfully, but some computers have moved on. If you have a floppy disk drive, you will find that back up is a piece of cake. The files were stored on the disk. In times of hard drive failure, all of your important information could be uploaded from the floppy disk in a snap.

CD ROMs are the new format for system back ups. Newer CD RW disks allow you to write and rewrite information to the disk. CD ROM disks are inexpensive and can store ample amounts of information.

If you feel like spending a little more money, purchase a tape back up system. Your information is backed up onto a tape that can then be stored for decades without issue. The information is quick to load back into the player in case troubles do arise.

Backing up your hard drive is a time consuming event. It is also a necessary one, however. Experts recommending backing up your files every week, this is excellent advice. Do so by copying all of your important files straight to a CD in your CD ROM drive. The files then burn to your CD and you are protected in case of a hard drive failure.

Go to your documents folder and then highlight and copy all of your important files to the disk. Your computer does the majority of the work. All you have to do is click a few buttons and wait. It is the waiting that takes tremendous time.

Business or personal, there is no reason you should avoid backing up your computer. In case of a hard drive failure, you will definitely benefit from having a current back up of all your pertinent information.

Gregg Hall is an author living in Navarre Beach, Florida. Find more about this as well as a data recovery at www.datarecoveryfast.com

Zip It Up

Anyone who has seen the movieรขโ�ฌโ�ข Honey I shrunk the kids' can imagine how useful compression can be. Compression, which has become anonymous with Zip files work off the same idea only with a (add your joke here)'slightly' different technology.

You will find a lot of data compression programs in use today and some are easier and have better features than others, so in this article I will talk about compression in general, but may through in a couple of examples for comparison.

The first thing you need to know is that there can be more than one compressed file; you can have an archive (a multiple of files). The main benefit of this is that the user can:

* Save valuable disk space

* Can send and receive files on the internet quicker

* Speeds up your processor

* Depending on the file compression program can reduce files as much as 90%

The user should also be aware that files can only be opened with the original compression program that compressed it. Think of this as a form of protection, if you will since this is like an encrypted file or archive. Adding a password is another way to insure files are safe from prying eyes and some compression programs let you do this at any level of compression or decompression with the associated commands (update,move,feshien,add). Only individual files can be password protected not whole archives.

Ever since the first personal computers (PC's) came about people found how easy it is to load up there drives with programs and downloads that eat up much of there memory. That's why developers created data compression programs in the first place, to free up hard drive space and increase processor speed.

There are a lot of data compression programs and they are not exactly alike because they use different data compression algorithms. One popular program, for example looks for repeating words or phrases and assigns them there own character or number value.

A lot of users don't fully understand the more advanced features of their data compression programs so they are not really getting there full value. Syntax command lines are a good example of this confusion. There are four basic commands in syntax (the shape of a command line);

* Command: The task to be preformed like add, delete or update.

* Archive: the name of the archive.

* Switch or Option: lets user specify a file option like adding file directories for compression.

* File: name of file(s) to be processed.

A user can compress files four basic ways:

Add files to archive - old files with same name are overwritten.

Move files to archive - upon compression old files are deleted.

Update files - makes sure you have the most recent file version.

Freshen files - almost like update, seeks out the last modified file and adds it to archive.

The above commands have there basic functions but can do other things. Ex. the update & add commands can create and compress files and the Freshen command can create a new archive.

There are only a couple of data compression programs out there that give the user more than one compression method - PKZIP AND ARJ.

PKZIP has what they call an imploding method and a shrinking method; without going into great detail imploding uses less memory (90k), and is very through. This is the default setting. Shrinking is fast but uses a bit more memory (128k), works great for smaller files.

ARJ gives the user more options for data compression. It uses multiple settings (m1 to m4),

This is a tradeoff of prosessing speed versus packing dentisy. There are 2 more options available here but test runs show no significant change in time or compression.

Even with experienced compression users, extracting compressed files with a newer version of a data compression program may prove difficult, so programmers created self extracting files (SFX) to enable beginners to easily use compressed files. This small program may be part of the original program or added after as a separate program.

I realize some of this may sound confusing and for that I apologize, and after all, people will compresses data using only the basic functions and be happy and content because it suits there present needs. In conclusion you can tell there are many options available when using any data compression program and it is well worth the time (got time on the week end?) and effort to learn some of the advanced features if you want to save some serious space on your hard drive.

About The Author
Robert Hanania is a student of the internet, learning about home based businesses and computers. Robert is currently promoting his web page. All are welcome to visit him at http://www.fileanddatarecovery.com.

Document and Data Management Considerations for Private Companies

Increasingly, the need for a written, highly structured document and data management policy is becoming vital to any private company. While the recently enacted Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) rules promulgated by the Securities and Exchange Commission require such a written policy for public companies, there are ample reasons for private companies to also adopt a written document and data management policy.

Various statutes now require most companies, whether public, non-profit or private, to securely maintain written records in regard to certain aspects of their personnel information and business operations. Under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), for example, companies may be sued if a security breach or other mishap results in the unauthorized disclosure of medical records. The controversial Patriot Act requires disclosure to the federal government of certain customer data and can subject the disclosing company to a lawsuit if the customer was not sufficiently advised of the possibility of such disclosure. A proposed amendment to the federal Rules of Civil Procedure would require lawyers representing parties in litigation to discuss document management systems of their clients prior to any legal proceedings. Another proposed amendment to the federal Rules of Civil Procedure would provide a safe harbor for companies that lose information but have otherwise acted in good faith, precluding any sanctions for such information loss. Certain state laws, such as the California Online Privacy Protection Act of 2003, require website disclosure of privacy policies in regard to personally identifiable information (such as name, address, credit card number, social security number, email address, etc.), which should include a statement about the security procedures in place to protect such information.

Prudence also dictates that written records be maintained in the event of employee claims or litigation involving the company. Companies should also be vigilant in documenting incidents involving any inappropriate or improper behavior by an employee. Emails and instant messages are now often crucial in determining court cases. Employee emails are generally considered to be the property of the employer, and the companyรขโ�ฌโ�ขs HR policy and employee manual must clearly state so. Accordingly, employers should ensure that copies of all employee emails and instant messages are retained in the event of any employee-related litigation. For the same reason, in addition to maintaining copies of executed contracts and written correspondence, companies should retain copies of all emails and electronic document interchange (EDI) transactions with vendors and customers in the event of any litigation with such third parties. Companies should develop disaster recovery plans and test the recovery of all important data and information. Electronic imaging of physical documents should become standard.

In order to ensure that such procedures are in place and followed, company management must create an infrastructure that will be responsible for the implementation and monitoring of such procedures. This must come from the top down in the organization. The Board of Directors or a committee of the Board should review internal controls and written processes designed to ensure the retention and security of all company records and information and avoid misuse or unauthorized disclosure of such records and information. The Board or such committee should consult closely with members of the companyรขโ�ฌโ�ขs information technology (IT) or finance department and others responsible for company files and records in order to ensure compliance with a clearly defined operations policy for the storage, maintenance, protection and destruction of company records and information. There are numerous sources of guidance for company management and IT or finance departments in this regard. These include the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations (COSO), an independent auditing industry group that has received implicit endorsement from the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, the Sedona Principles is a set of best practices for e-discovery and the Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology (COBIT) detailing the IT or finance departmentรขโ�ฌโ�ขs role in information and security controls is recommended reading for private companies, even though it is directed at public companies in the post-SOX era.

Company management must also ensure that the IT or finance department has the necessary resources to properly maintain and safeguard electronic records. Extensive storage capabilities and related software are required for document management, data backup, and email and instant message archiving, as such records must be maintained for an extended period of time. Under SOX, for example, records are required to be stored for seven years and must be non-erasable and non-rewritable. Hundreds of outsource storage companies have emerged to assist companies with their e-document management and data storage needs. It is vital that such software and services include fast and reliable document and data search capabilities as well.

Paper records should be organized logically to facilitate their retrieval at a later date. Ideally, the contents of the files should be logged electronically using database software specifically designed for this purpose (the XML standard has gone a long way in standardizing how to identify data). Companies should also ensure that off-site records can be remotely searched.

Access to company records should be closely controlled and restricted to a limited number of individuals. Just as electronic records have audit trails of who has access and when the data was accessed, paper records should not be open and available for anyone to simply walk in and review them, or alter them.

Finally, a document destruction policy should be included as part of the written document and data management policy. Time periods for purges of electronic data and paper records should be established and followed explicitly. As a general rule, it is not recommended that data or records be destroyed until at least seven years has elapsed since the initial archive or storage of such data or records. However, the appropriate time limit depends on many factors, including the nature of the data or records, relevant statutes of limitation and governmental requirements. Company management should therefore consult with legal counsel and a document management professional before establishing a document destruction policy.

Kent Clayton is a partner and co-chair of the Business Practice Group at Berger Kahn, a full service business law firm with offices in Orange County, Los Angeles, San Diego and the San Francisco Bay area. Michael Siersema is Managing Partner and CEO of Phoenix2000 Group LLC, a technology leadership and advisory services company with offices in Huntington Beach, California, West Lake Village, California and Washington, D.C.

Recover Data From Crashed Novell NSS Volume - Novell Netware Data Recovery

Brief Overview

The Novell Storage Services (NSS) File System is the default file system for NetWare 6 and later. Its many features and capabilities include visibility, a trustee access control model, multiple simultaneous namespace support, native Unicode, user and directory quotas, rich file attributes, multiple data stream support, event file lists, and a file salvage sub-system. These features can help you effectively manage your shared file storage for any size of organization, scaling management of the system for even the largest of organizations with hundreds of thousands of employees. NSS is a 64-bit file system that can manage a virtually unlimited number of file objects.

On each physical storage device, NSS abstracts up to four physical NetWare partitions to make them appear as contiguous free space. NSS recognizes physical and logical devices up to 2 TB in size from which you can create any number of virtual storage resources, called pools. You can choose space from at least four devices of up to 2 TB each to create a pool with a maximum pool size of 8 TB. A pool can contain an unlimited number of volumes. If the pool spans devices, the volumes automatically span the devices. A single volume can contain up to 8 trillion files and grow to 8 TB in size, depending on the size of the pool and space consumed by other volumes in the pool.

NSS Volumes

The logical volumes you create on NSS storage pools are called NSS volumes. You can specify a maximum storage quota for the volume, or allow the volume to grow dynamically to the size of its pool. You can add any number of volumes to a storage pool.

Because there is no limit to the number of volumes you can create, it is possible that the combined size of all the volumes taken together is larger than the storage pool itself. NSS refers to this process as "overbooking." If you overbook space in the pool, the individual administrative size of a volume cannot exceed the size of the storage pool.

NSS allocates space from the pools to the volumes only as needed. Typically, user consumption of a volume's available space ebbs and flows; it is quite unlikely that users concurrently consume volumes at 100% of their available capacity. Each volume consumes the space it needs as it needs it. By overbooking space, NSS provides a flexible and cost effective way to accommodate expanding storage needs.

How to recover data from crashed NSS Volumes ?

Kernel for Novell NSS - Novell Netware Data Recovery Software recovers data from corrupt volume(s) of a crashed Novell Server. Kernel for Novell NSS - Novell NSS Data Recovery Software can recover and allows access to the data when the volume(s) cannot be mounted, it recovers and allows you to save your data to another drive after cases of missing volumes, deleted files, corrupt volume(s), allocation errors and novell partition loss. Kernel for Novell NSS Data Recovery Software uses quick algorithm for searching and restoring lost partitions, files and folders and hence is a fast, simple and easy to use Novell NSS data recovery software, which helps you to recover your lost data and files in minutes in case of disk crash or data loss disasters and hence supports your business continuity.

Professional Data Recovery Software and File Repair Utilities

Offsite Backup Services are Essential

Although you may not list it in on your IRS form, information is your business' primary asset. From your customer database to your financial records to your proprietary product information, information is the key element to maintaining both the day-to-day operations of your business and its long-term viability.

Unfortunately, as the sophistication of technology increases, so do the risks to your business. Viruses, hackers, and natural catastrophes can all attack your business information. At best, this renders your business inoperable for several hours or days. At worst, the loss of business information can cause you to go out of business.

Lest you think that information loss could never happen to your business, statistics reveal that the problem is pervasive and, oftentimes, devastating. During any given year, over five percent of PCs will have some type of data loss, and almost a third of PC users have experienced the loss of all of their data at some point in their lives. Almost two-thirds of companies that experience catastrophic data loss go out of business within six months. Of those companies that test their back up tapes, more than three-quarters have found problems with the tapes.

In order to minimize your company's exposure to the risk of data loss, you should create an organizational culture of security and implement a security program that helps the company prevent and recover from data loss due to viruses, hackers, and natural catastrophes.

Just as you would store your most precious documents in a bank safety deposit box, you should store your company's most important data with online backup services and use secure offsite backup.

According to SERVARE, the premiere company for online offsite backup services that are secure, affordable, and automated, you should consider backing up the following types of data:

* Databases and information that allow you to serve customers and maintain your market competitiveness. In other words, if you lost this data, you wouldn't be able to fill customer or supply chain orders or provide client services.

* Information that manages your revenue generation, such as accounts receivable, and vehicles for customer ordering and payment acceptance.

* Data that controls your cash flow, such as your accounts payable and supplier payments.

* Data that, if lost, could result in additional expenses, such as employee downtime and late delivery penalties.

* Proprietary information that could be stolen or compromised.

* Data that is affected by governmental regulation, such as the Freedom of Information Act.

SERVARE's online backup services protect your business' information from data loss by utilizing advanced file encryption before transmission; quick, safe, and secure transmission to their online backup servers via a secure high-speed Internet connection; automated backups; flexible recovery capability; and scalable storage that grows as your need for storage grows.

With an offsite backup, you'll rest easier knowing that your information is secure.

Chris Robertson is an author of Majon International, one of the worlds MOST popular internet marketing companies on the web. Visit this Computers Website and Majon's Computers directory.

The Easiest Way To Prevent Loss Of Data Is To Back It Up

Nothing could be more traumatic that losing all the files that you accumulated for years in a computer crash down. For people who work at home and earn money from their personal computer, this could mean losing not just their files but a few clients as well especially if recovery of important data is impossible. In order to avoid such incidents and getting yourself into more troubles than you would care to handle, it would be best to create some back files for the things you are doing on your computer. In fact, it would be wise to create not just one but two back up files just to make sure that if ever you have a hard drive failure, you will still have other files which you can use.

There are many ways to create back up for your files. You can buy one of those USB drives which could store large quantity of data, you can add another hard disk into your computer or you can opt for the simple CD Rom back up.

If you are on a budget, if would be a good idea to go for the CD Rom since it is a lot cheaper than the USB and the extra hard drive. Furthermore, with the CD Rom, you can easily create multiple back up by simply burning more CDs if you want. You need not worry about the cost since CDs nowadays are mass produced and the prices are very cheap.

Compare to the extra hard drive, storing and transporting files in the CD format is more convenient. A single disk could accommodate as much as 700MB of files, which is really quite a lot if you are just using the simple word or excel format. If want to save pictures and other graphic files, the CD can also accommodate a good deal of files too.

When using CD Rom for back up, you may use the writeable disc or the rewriteable disk, depending on your need. If you simply want to back up your files and create something, which you don't want to willfully or accidentally altered, you better use the writeable format. The good thing about this writeable CD format is that you file is relatively safer than in the rewriteable one since once the CD had been burned, the content thereof will in the read only format.

No one can really tamper your files if they are in the read only format so that would be best if you only want to create back ups. On the other hand, if you want to update your files every now and then, you may use the rewriteable format that allows more flexibility in terms of storing data. Unlike the writeable format which will only allow you to burn files at one time, the rewriteable format can be used several times.

Gregg Hall is an author living in Navarre Beach, Florida. Find more about this as well as a data back up at www.how-to-do-it-right.com

Corrupt PowerPoint Presentation Recovery

PowerPoint presentations are used to educate the audience through presentation of words, images, animations, block diagrams in simple steps which can be easily understood by the target listeners and learners.

MS PowerPoint is the best presentation tool till date and is used worldwide by corporates, instructors, educational institutes, marketing firms, PR professionals to communicate with their audience. But there are always high chances of these presentations being getting corrupt due to virus attacks, unexpected system shutdowns, media corruption or power failures.

There are รขโ�ฌห�nรขโ�ฌโ�ข number of reasons due to which a presentation file (.ppt, .pps, .pot) can get corrupted and similarly there are several ways to recover back the corrupted.

Whenever you receive a power point file, first perform a check;

Is the file password protected? รขโ�ฌโ�� The file might be secured by a password. In this case try to know password of the file and open it in its respective version of MS PowerPoint.

Is the file received as an email attachment? - If you have received the presentation file as an email attachment, then chances are that it might have been corrupted as the file traveled through cyberspace. In this case you can ask sender of the file to resend the file as a zipped attachment by WinZip or any other compression utility.

You might be using a new version of power point (2003) to access a presentation file created on older version of power point (2002). In this case you have to install the respective version of MS PowerPoint in which the file was originally created.

Some of the solutions and measures which are inbuilt in MS PowerPoint prove beneficial to recover data from the corrupt power point presentation files, which are:

Use of 'Slide from Files' option from the Insert menu:

1. Open a new blank presentation, select the Slides From Files option from the Insert menu.

2. The Slide Finder dialogue box will appear, browse and add your corrupt .ppt file.

3. Click Insert All

Note: If in case the "Insert All" option does not work then select the individual slide and click "Insert".

Open the presentation file in MS Word:

You can recover and repair the corrupt presentation file by opening it in MS Word:

1. Open the MS Word application

2. Click the File menu and select Open

3. The Open dialogue box will appear, click the File of Types menu and select Recover Text from Any File.

4. Browse the corrupt presentation file and click Open.

The repaired file in word will lose all its formatting, a little extra manual effort will have to be applied on to get the original formatting. Save the repaired file and with the help of Send To option in the File menu open it with MS PowerPoint.

Move the file to different place

If you are opening a .ppt file on any removable storage device (floppy disk, USB drive, CD-ROM etc.) then first copy it to your hard disk and then try to access it.

If the presentation file is not accessible then copy it to another drive of your computer system and then try to open it. For example, if the file is saved in C drive then copy or cut and paste it to D drive.

Try accessing the file on different computer system.

Try a Third Party Recovery Utility

If all of the above-mentioned solutions donรขโ�ฌโ�ขt prove beneficial in your case of file corruption, then you can take help of the third party recovery solution to recover and repair the damaged/corrupt presentation file. There are many recovery solutions which exist in the data recovery market, but not every recovery tool can provide the complete recovery possibilities in case of deleted slides, master slides, images, animations, sound effects and other corruptions of power point damages.

Kernel Recovery for PowerPoint is such a file repair tool which effectively repairs the corrupt presentation (.ppt, .pps, .pot) and recovers the deleted slides, image objects, text, animation effects, sound effects, auto shapes (basic shapes, block arrows, callouts, flow charts, stars-banners, action buttons, lines and connectors), tables, embedded OLE files, wave sound files, excel files, word files and word art images.

The Kernel PowerPoint Recovery tool outwits other power point file repairing tools by even restoring the animated, media player sound effects which were not easy to recover before. The software is equipped with two modes of recovery viz, Standard mode and Integrated mode. Standard Mode recovers major corrupted presentation files with the complete data whereas Integrated Mode is fast and is useful in the case of minor corruptions which retains formatting.

The Demo version of Kernel PowerPoint recovery software is available for FREE download. You can test and evaluate the features and functionalities of the software. After being satisfied with the recovery results in your case you can purchase the Kernel PowerPoint repair software.

About Nucleus Data Recovery (P) Ltd. Nucleus Data Recovery (P) Limited is the industry leader in data recovery products and hard disk recovery software tools, which includes file repair, file recovery, database recovery, backup recovery and email recovery products. The technologically advanced company provides world-class data recovery products and data recovery services to promote the data safe world. The Kernel Recovery software range supports recovery from Windows (95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, 2003, XP), Apple Macintosh, Linux, Novell, Unix operating system and FAT, NTFS, NTFS5, HFS, HFS+, NWFS, JFS, EXT2, and EXT3 file systems.

Hard Drive Data Recovery Evaluation Process

There is one thing that most hard drive manufacturers will not tell you รขโ�ฌโ�� most hard drives will fail although they are subject to normal conditions and use. The hard drive failure may take for about 10 years to occur, but in some instances, it can be less than a year. Well, whatever the case may be, it is very important to note and understand that when your hard drive fails, the professional hard drive data recovery is available.

But, what really is hard drive data recovery?

Hard drive data recovery is simply the process of retrieving the inaccessible or deleted files from failed electronic storage media, the hard drive. The files stored on the hard drive can become inaccessible due to a number of reasons, including software problem, computer virus, mechanical or electrical malfunction or a deliberate human act. The good news is, regardless of the cause of your data loss, there are a number of hard drive data recovery technicians today who offer hard drive data recovery services just to recover your lost data 80 to 85 percent of the time.

The Evaluation Process

Prior to any hard drive data recovery operations, an evaluation of the hard drive system is usually considered. In the hard drive data recovery evaluation process, all media received goes through an extensive analysis to identify the real condition of the drive. Of course, there are some steps necessary to follow during the hard drive data recovery, and these include the following:

1. The hard drive data recovery experts will determine whether the problems are physical, logical, or both. Physical problems refer to those that occur in the hardware, while logical problems occur on the software structures.

2. Once it is determined that the problem is physical, the availability of the needed parts for repairs will then be considered.

3. If the hard drive data recovery experts obtain access to the drive, they will then create an absolute sector-by-sector mirror image of the hard disk to their equipment where the process will continue.

4. An evaluation of the condition of the data structure will follow, as well as the identification of how much of the information is salvageable.

5. When the hard drive data recovery evaluation process is done, the results of the hard drive data recovery will of course be given, and this is where the pricing of the service usually enters.

After the said steps of hard drive data recovery evaluation process, the hard drive data recovery experts you have contacted will typically contact you not only to give the results and determine the exact pricing of the service, but to obtain your approval for them to proceed on the real hard drive data recovery processes from this point.

How Long Does the Evaluation Process Take?

It is important to note that the usual amount of time for the hard drive data recovery evaluation process to be completes is typically within 24 to 48 hours. However, the time needed for the hard drive data recovery evaluation is highly depending upon the problems encountered. What usually makes the evaluation so long is obtaining parts for the uncommon drives, and if the other technicians have tried to recover the inaccessible data using disk utilities and have damaged the logical structures, the hard drive data recovery evaluation process may of course be lengthened.

http://www.y-capture.com is the publisher and writer of this article on data recovery. At http://www.y-capture.com you will find all the information you need on data recovery to protect yourself from loosing all your favorite data and memories that is stored on your computer. So to protect yourself or your business, go to http://www.y-capture.com bookmark this website because all you need to know about data recovery and how to protect yourself is there. constantly updated and reniewed by pro's.

Moving Data to a New Hard Drive in an Emergency

Yesterday I had to change my hard drive and had a few issues that I was able to fix.

The problems started in the morning when my wife called me and told me that the computer would not boot. We have been having trouble with our hard drive for a while now and I was able to fix each time by just reseting the PC. This time though the computer was not seeing the hard drive. Using tools and knowledge that I had I had to do the following:

Install new hard drive
First of all I had to install the new hard drive. I was able to do this by disconnecting my CDR and leaving myDVD drive, two old hard drives in the machine, plus a new 80 gig drive with a 16 meg cache. I was unsuccessful at loading Windows though as I kept getting an error as the Windows setup was starting, after loading the drivers I would get an error that it could not load the setup. I switched to my CDR from the DVD drive and had no problems.

Setup Windows
I successfully did a quick format of the new drive (thanks for that new feature Windows XP) and successfully loaded Windows XP although now I have my operating system on the E drive.

Rebuild hard drive partition table
After I booted to Windows I saw that my old drive was not showing up as a drive or a partition. If I reight clicked on the partition in disk Management it knew that the drive existed but could no longer find a partition on it. Windows Disk Management said that the drive was healthy, My first attempt was to create a partition but not to format the partition as I did not want to lose the data for good. I fought with this for a couple of hours as I did not back up lately and the wife would kill me if I lost all of her data. In the end I was able to use Test Disk from the Filesystem tools of the Dos Ultimate Boot Disk. It ends up that the partition table had a start but not an end and the program was able to fix thisรขโ�ฌยฆ.whew I would have been in troubleรขโ�ฌยฆ.

Migrate Windows and Office data
After I had the old drive back I went into the BIOS and chose to boot from that drive. I was able to boot to the old Windows XP installation easily enough and did not want to keep any of the data there but thought it would be a good idea to transfer my Windows settings using the file and settings transfer wizard in Windows. I saved the settings using the wizard and chose this as the old computer and in the destination I chose a folder I created on the new hard drive called "transfer files". I then decided to transfer only my settings as I knew that I was going to have to reload my software and would be manually copying over the file structure from the old drive to the new drive.

I also moved all of my settings for MS Office using the Save my settings wizard from the MS Office 2003 tools section. I was able to copy the settings, which come across as an OPS file to the same place as my Windows Transfer Files and Settings.

After I had moved the settings and files over I rebooted and went back into the BIOS and changed my first boot to the new hard drive and itรขโ�ฌโ�ขs windows XP installation. I was very happy to see that after running the wizrds for transfering the settings and after reloading MS Office 2003 I was able to move over my mail folder and saw all of my email, contacts, and best of all my email addresses (Still had to fill in the passwords for email but thatรขโ�ฌโ�ขs OK). After a relogon I also had all of my desktop settings back includig the background picture of my daughter and the animated Pingu cursors.

Copy data from bad drive
Next I just did a blanket move of all of the files from the old hard drive to new into a new folder that I created in the root of the drive. I did this simply to save time as I am not sure about the stability of the old hard drive and fear that I will lose it again.

Reload software
I have started reloading software but as usual I am going to be slow about the move this time. I will install some of my favorite freewares and will install Streets and Trips, Adobe Acrobat, Macromedia Dreamweaver and Adobe Photoshop Elements and thatรขโ�ฌโ�ขs it.

I have roughly followed about half of my Reloading Windows tutorial but since I have both drives functioning at the moment I have tried to cut some corners and make this work well as well as getting my wife up and running quickly for her work stuff this morning.

Bill Nadraszky is a Systems Analyst and runs several websites. For more Computer information you can visit Computer News. To start a computer support business you can visit XP Tech Support

Data Loss - The 7 Most Common Symptoms of a Failed Hard Drive

If your hard drive is clicking or making grinding noises, you are experiencing system blue screens or system freezes, an error message greets you with รขโ�ฌห�drive not formattedรขโ�ฌโ�ข or รขโ�ฌห�operating system not foundรขโ�ฌโ�ข, or lastly you are in a never ending loop of computer rebootsรขโ�ฌยฆthere is a very good chance one or more of your hard drives have failed. Below are the 7 most common signs you have lost a hard drive.

Clicking Hard Drive
A clicking hard drive can indicate a head crash, corrupt firmware on the drive's ROM chip, an electrical problem like a burned chip, blown heads, a bad pcb controller, overwritten servo's, damage to the hard drive's platters and alignment issues from being dropped, jarred or a power surge.

System Blue Screens
When your system blue screens when you try to boot or during the middle of an operation, it can mean the operating system has been damaged, there may be bad sectors on your hard drive that the system is unable to read, your hard drive could be failing, you might have a virus or trojan, someone may have deleted critical dll's or system files, the partition or file structure may have become corrupted or damaged.

Drive Not Formatted
A drive not formatted error usually indicates the hard drive's partition has been damaged, deleted or corrupted. It can be caused by a virus, a hard re-boot, a power outage or surge, disc partitioning utilities and sometimes updating software, anti-virus programs or simply installing new software can damage a partition.

Computer Keeps Re-Booting
The most common reason a computer keeps re-booting over and over is because the boot sector has been hijacked by a virus that creates a continuous loop. It keeps telling the system to go back to the boot sector and re-boot.

System Freezes or Hangs
When your system freezes or hangs while trying to boot or while accessing a file or program it usually indicates that there are bad sectors on the hard drive and the system is unable to access the information it needs to open the file or load the program. It can be caused by a corrupt file or shared program files that have conflicting call procedures or too many system resources are being used (the system memory gets full or overloaded).

Drive or Device Not Found
When you get a message telling you the drive is not ready, hard drive or device not found it could mean the hard drive is bad, the boot priority in bios has been changed, the partition structure is damaged, or a virus has infected your system.

Operating System Not Found
An operating system not found message typically means that the operating system files are damaged, the boot device priority has been changed, the partition table is damaged or the hard drive has been formatted.

If your hard drive is experiencing any of the above, your safest option is to turn the computer off. Continued use may damage the platters (data storage area) and make your data unrecoverable. You should then make a note of what happened and consider contacting a company that specializes in data recovery.

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

Hard Drive Recovery Equipment

Today the world revolves around the computer. From homes and offices to schools, airports and hospitals, computers have become an integral and indispensable part of our daily lives.

One of the foremost uses of computers is data storage. Data stored on the computer resides on a physical memory disk known as the hard drive that is a layer of magnetic disks. As people become increasingly dependant on computers, the risk of data loss also surfaces.

Hard drive crashes are a common occurrence. They are classified into two categories -- logical and physical. While the logical aspect deals with failure of the file system and software, the physical aspect is related to some sort of electrical or shock damage to the disk. However, modern technology allows us to recover up to 80% of the lost data, thereby allaying some of the fear related to hard drive recovery.

Hard drive recovery, whether physical or logical, is a complex process and requires expert help in most cases. Special equipment and tools are necessary to carry out this process successfully. A functional computer with the necessary software is the primary equipment required for any hard drive recovery process. Data backup devices such as CD recorders, external hard drives and CD and DVD media are also used while recovering data from a damaged hard drive.

If the hard drive has suffered physical failure, proper electronic knowledge and equipment is a must. A soldering iron might prove useful when working on a damaged circuit board. Advanced tools such as magnetometers may also be used to physically extract lost bits from the magnetic media. These bits are used to rebuild a disk image.

In addition to the hands-on equipment required, certain other precautions must be taken. The hard drive, when removed, should be wrapped in anti-static material. The drive should be well cushioned to prevent further damage. Finally, the recovery process should take place in a ?Class 100 Clean Room? to avoid any contamination by dust.

Hard Drive Recovery provides detailed information on Hard Drive Recovery, Hard Drive Recovery Experts, Hard Drive Recovery Software, Hard Drive Data Recovery Services and more. Hard Drive Recovery is affiliated with Hard Drive Data Recovery.

One Method of Data Recovery from a Dead Hard Drive

Here is the situation. A laptop comes to us with a dead hard drive. Unfortunately, the user needs some files off the dead drive. After much research on the internet and a couple of data recovery quotes we decide to try and recover the information ourselves.

Luckily for us the drive won't spin up at all. I say luckily because the usual problem is that the circuit board on the bottom of the drive went bad. That doesn't mean that something else isn't the problem, but replacing the circuit board is the simplest thing to try.

The first thing needed is another hard drive. That may sound easy but it isn't. You need an identical hard drive, and by identical I mean the same model number, part number, firmware, everything. In our case we had a Hitachi Travelstar hard drive that had three numbers to match. The important numbers were the model number, part number, and MLC number. I believe the MLC number has something to do with the firmware revision but don't quote me on that. After speaking with Hitachi I was referred to a company called CueTech. They specialize in finding "hard to find" or obsolete computer parts. The wanted to charge between $200 and $400 for the drive, which I thought was reasonable for the work required to find one. Instead of using them I decided to search on my own and after two days, still had not found another drive for sale that met my needs. We then started looking in house for similar laptops and found one that had an identical drive. Now we were in business.

Now that we had our drive, we needed to protect ourselves because the user wanted their machine back in working order. So before we started any kind of surgery we made a ghost image of their hard drive. After waiting the 20 minutes or so for the backup to finish we began the surgery. First we removed the hard drive from the working system and laid it on a static pad with the circuit board up. We then used a T-5 Torx drive to remove the screws securing the circuit board to the hard drive. Your drive may need a different size or style of screwdriver. We then repeated the process on the bad drive. We put the circuit board from the good drive onto the dead hard drive and placed it back in the laptop. It booted! As soon as we new it worked we then setup the system to make a quick drive image. After waiting another 20 minutes we had a drive image of the bad hard drive and our data was recovered.

To finish the process we had to put the circuit board back on the original good hard drive and verify that it was working correctly. Once that was completed and the laptop returned to its owner, we installed a brand new hard drive in the system that had the original issue. The last step was to restore the drive image to the new hard drive, verify that it worked, and give the laptop back to the owner.

Gary Higbee
http://www.greatnorthcomputing.com - A community for SysAdmins and Programmers.

Interior Decorating Ideas

Creativity is the core of interior decorating. You need to let loose your imagination, aesthetic sense, and intelligence, and cull out as many ideas as possible. Interior decorating can be compared to poetry, as both are vast and simply do not seem to have a definite end. You can go on and on and on.

There are several styles of interior decorating. You can browse through them leisurely, compare and contrast their features, advantages and effects, and then select the best option. Broadly speaking, interior-decorating Ideas can be obtained from catalogs, brochures or promotional advertisements released by interior decorators or designers.

Before deciding to adopt any particular idea, its feasibility, affordability, and flexibility needs to be determined. You should never go just by appearance, but consider the appropriateness of the idea. Interior decorating can be obtained from various styles belonging to different areas. The most popular among them are colonial, post-colonial and Georgian.

Primarily, interior-decorating Ideas can be either contemporary or exotic. It depends on the individualรขโ�ฌโ�ขs taste and perception of beauty.

The field of interior decorating is undergoing constant change and growth. It can also include insect and pest-control measures like termite control.

Interior decorating ideas can prove very useful when combined with scientific principles. A small example for this can be seen from a study made by Michigan State University Extension, which found that among the materials used for flooring, slates retained the maximum percentage of heat. On the other hand, bricks absorbed the least percentage of heat.

Interior decorating ideas communicate to the guests too. Hence, the theme of an interior decorating Idea should be to adorn a building in a suitable way. Interior decorating does not stop with mere decorating. It should be an ongoing activity and take into account maintenance, repair, and preventive measures too.

Interior Decorating provides detailed information on Interior Decorating, Interior Decorating Ideas, Home Interior Decorating, Office Interior Decorating and more. Interior Decorating is affiliated with Home Interior Designs.

Backup-Backup-Backup

Why Do I Need To Backup My Computer?
The question is this. If your computer happened to up and die one day and you lost all the information on it, would this affect your mood that day? If your answer was no then you would be one of the few that doesnรขโ�ฌโ�ขt need to Backup their computer. However, many of us would look at the same dead computer wondering if by staring at it blankly it might come back to life by some miracle. The reality would eventually kick in and we would have to come to terms with the loss each in our own way.

Unfortunately this is a very common way in which people learn the value of Backing-Up their computers.

Some Situations Where Computer Data Can Be Lost:

• Hard Drive Failure.
• Viruses.

• Lost or Stolen Computer/Hard Drive.

• Accidental deletion of data.

• Water and/or Fire damage.

• Improper software installation overwriting important Data.

• My Dog ate it!

The possibility even for the computer savvy is always present so donรขโ�ฌโ�ขt just think about itรขโ�ฌยฆ do it!

Can Lost Data Be Reocvered?
It depends what the reason is for the lost Data. For example a computer that was lost or stolen would be hard to recover any information unless the actual computer was recovered and had not been reformatted or erased. There are also companies that specialize in Data recovery and can recover Data even from water and fire damaged Hard Drives. This is not an inexpensive option; it comes down to how important the Data is that needs to be recovered. You may pay just about anything to get your special moment Photos or important Business Documents back. Another option is to purchase a program designed to recover accidentally erased information. This type of recovery must be done as soon as possible to the initial erasing of the Data before new files have the chance to overwrite the erased files.

What Backup Options Do I Have?
Some Common Backup Options Are:

Backup to a separate Hard Drive:
This is an excellent option if you have a lot of Data to Backup and need to Backup often. I would recommend using an external Hard Drive as opposed to an Internal so that the Backup Drive can be easily moved or located to a different location as needed for security.

Backup to a DVD or CD Disk:
Since most newer computers already have CDR/W and DVDR/W Drives in them this makes a very economical and convenient way to Backup important Data. The downside is that there is a limitation of how much Data can go on one of these Disks making sequential Disk Backups time consuming and not nearly as self sufficient as Backing up to a Hard Drive. This is still a much better solution then not Backing up at all!

Backup to a Network Drive:
If you are on a Home, Business or Internet Network that has an available Network Drive to Backup information to this could be yet another option. Backing up to Network Drives, especially Internet Network Drives may take some time depending on the speed of the Network connection. Size limitations can come into effect also.

For Example: Apple Computers offer an iDisk Network Drive for storing Data to all of their Dot-Mac account Users. It can store 1 Gigabyte of information and also works seamlessly with their included Backup software. This is great but limiting as most people will easily exceed this space. I would recommend using this to Backup specific files that are very important but not large in size, like Accounting and Data base info that would be horrendous if lost and time consuming to reenter.

What Should I Backup?
This is entirely up to you and may be dependant on what Backup method you choose and how much space is available. In my opinion items like the Operating System state and installed Application are not nearly as important as your Home User Directory because your OS and Programs can always be reinstalled and updated getting you back up and running in a few hours. This is good but without all of your Contacts, Emails, Calendar Info, Photos, Movies, Data Base, Bookmarks and Funny Jokes then your computer is like a blank canvas, you will never get it back to the exact way it was before your Data loss.

On a Macintosh running OSX, Backing-Up all of your current User information is as simple as Clicking on your HardDrive, Click on the folder called Users, Select the account that you are logged in as and drag it to the Mounted Backup Hard Drive.

On a PC the same can be done by Clicking on the My Computer Icon, then Click the Documents and Settings Folder, Select the User that you are currently logged in as and Copy this to the Backup Drive of your Choice.

Of course there are programs that do this more effectively and efficiently by daily/weekly Backups that automatically do this for you and only update any new or updated documents.

Here is a thought to leave you with when deciding if Backing up your Data is a good idea. How do you feel about Car insurance, or House Insurance, even Medical Insurance for that matter. Have any of these come in handy for you and would you even consider not having one or all of these? Think of a Backup plan for your data like Insurance, it is not mandatory but some believe would be foolish not to have.

Michael Kaye - founder of http://www.DigitizeMe.info

Do you have difficulty when people talk about computers? Does it feel like they are speaking another language? We are here to help with the language used in computers, digital gadgets, email and the Web.

How to Become a Data Recovery Expert

A data recovery expert is capable of retrieving lost data caused by damaged hard drives and by human mistakes. Data loss is a problem that everyone always has to contend with. Data loss can either come suddenly or may be the result of accidental operation. There are many different ways to lose data. It can come from corrupted files as a result of equipment design flaws or equipment malfunction. Some popular cases include human mistakes and negligence from the user.

A computer needs to be treated as a sensitive machine. A sudden bump can sometimes be enough to damage and result in loss of data. And it is too valuable equipment not to use for day to day business. Data loss along with computer breakdown can be a major problem for most companies that rely on data. A computer and data recovery expert can help you in trying to remedy and help you prevent further data loss and damage by offering you these tips.

You are capable of using the computers built in resources for retrieving your data. Whether you are using a single user notebook or desktop computer or running a corporate server, always consider backing up your files every day for preventing these problems. Backing up your data means making a copy of valuable files on a different and separate media from the main file set in current use. By this, if your main documents are lost during a crash or another problem, you will have another set of back up files that you can access anytime.

If you have already created a back up of your documents, try to practice restoring your drive even when you do not need to. Testing your back up system will make you more prepared and sure that your back up files can be accessed easily when the need arises. It is also very important to back up all your data before upgrading your computer, this way, if anything goes wrong, you still have your complete backup. Try also to document your system procedure by listing all your computer applications and check if you are backing up on a regular basis all the files being used on each of them. Have all your data and software well organized in case a data recovery expert has a use for them.

Preventive maintenance is the key to avoid problems, preventing a data loss is as important as starting your computer. Try to keep your equipment under favorable environmental conditions. Be always aware of the temperature and humidity condition of the room where your computer system is located. If possible, make use of air conditioning to ensure that your computer is always under a favorable environment. It is also a very good idea to install power surge protection in case the electrical installation on the place where you work suffers any problem.

Keep your computer clean since this is one of the main problems that computers experience today, dust accumulation can translate into larger problems. Always make it a point to also clean tape and optical drives by using special cleaning devices. Data loss and computer problems can be avoided by following preventive measures to ensure that you have a system in place that will help remedy potential loss of data. These tips from a data recovery expert will provide you with the possibility of forever avoiding data loss problems and being able to work without concerns.

Nic Ricciuti is a successful freelance writer and website publisher of Datarecoveryuniversity.com that offers successful tips on becoming a Data Recovery expert and other free data recovery information.

Novell Data Recovery - Recovery of Formatted Volumes

Problem Description

Formatting a volume effectively means erasing it in its entirety. Formatting is usually done to remove sensitive data on a volume, or it may be done to prepare a volume for fresh usage (usually done after corruption), or it may just be the result of plain human error. Whatever the reason, the end result is that the user cannot access data. Phoenix Novellรขโ�ฌโ�ขs advanced software engine can recover data from formatted volumes.

Technical Aspect of the Problem

Formatting a volume, in reality, means removing the current pointers to the data in the volume and redesigning the organizational structure of the actual data in the volume.

Each Volume has its own Volume Table which contains information regarding the organization of the actual data. This Table has pointers or references to the actual data in the volume. A particular configuration of a Volume Table is known as a File System. The two file systems that Novell follows is NSS (Novell Storage System) and NWFS (NetWare Traditional File System).

When a volume is formatted, the actual data in it is not erased รขโ�ฌโ�� instead, only the pointers to the data are removed. This means that none of the data is now accessible. This is similar to a house without an address or a person without a name - they exist, but there is simply no way to refer to them. Phoenix makes use of this fact and can effectively scan and recover data from a formatted volume.

Technical Aspect of the Solution

Phoenix Novell is a Windows based application and can only be installed on a Windows based hard disk. Therefore, the failed Novell based disk needs to be attached as a secondary disk to a Windows based disk with Phoenix installed in it. After the damaged disk is attached, Phoenix needs to be run from the working disk.

The software first detects all the disks along with the associated volumes/partitions and displays the list. It then scans the selected volume and displays the list of found data some or all of which can be recovered. If the recovery is not satisfactory, there is an option to change the รขโ�ฌห�linking modeรขโ�ฌโ�ข. The three linking modes are FAT1, FAT2, and Contiguous. The Contiguous mode is the most intensive, as the software scans the volume itself, as opposed to FAT1 and FAT2 where the software scans only the Volume Table (File Allocation Table (FAT) + the directory tree). The Contiguous mode is especially effective in formatted volumes, since the new File Allocation Table (created after the formatting) is irrelevant.

Working of Phoenix Novell

The damaged server disk needs to be connected as a secondary to a working Windows based disk with Phoenix Novell installed in it. The software is then run to start the recovery process.

Clicking รขโ�ฌห�Select Netware Partitionรขโ�ฌโ�ข will display a list of hard disks with their respective volumes. Select the damaged volume on the server disk to start the scan process. The entire list of found data is then displayed.

Any number of files can be selected for recovery, and clicking รขโ�ฌห�Recover Selectedรขโ�ฌโ�ข will restore the selected files. Alternatively, clicking รขโ�ฌห�Recover Deletedรขโ�ฌโ�ข will recover all the files listed in the displayed list of files. If the recovery is not satisfactory or if some of the files are recovered improperly, clicking Tools -> Change Linking Mode -> Contiguous Mode will change the linking mode to Contiguous which is a much more comprehensive scan of the volume, especially if the volume to be recovered has been formatted.

A Data Recovery Software & Services Company
Datenrettung Software
Recupero Dati

How to Back Up Data and Find a Good Data Recovery Company

There are about as many ways to perform data recovery as there are files and systems in the computing world.

The most important thing to know when it comes to data recovery is how to prevent ever needing to perform it. Having a separate backup for critical data is vital and there are many ways to go about doing this. The easiest way is to simply save data to an external device, such as a tape drive. You can perform the same function with a CD-R drive and burn your data to a CD whenever necessary. On the other end of the spectrum are the software and hardware solutions specifically geared toward keeping your data secure and always available. Many of the companies that offer data recovery services also provide software tools that will assist you in backing up data on your system, keeping it free from virus attacks, accidental deletion or other system failures. The type of backup system you need will depend upon the criticality of your data. Of course, it may not seem critical until its gone, so at the very least, it is a good idea to save a copy of things like your "My Documents" folder on an external device every few months.

So what do you do if you havenรขโ�ฌโ�ขt been using a backup plan and your system crashes or a virus wipes out your files? You will probably have to call in the pros at this time. There are many companies that specialize in recovering data from any type of media for just about any type of system failure. Some of the companies also specialize in recovering certain types of files that have been corrupted. For example, if you have a corrupted Microsoft Excel file, look for a company that specifies expertise with that type of file.

Remember, when looking for a professional data recovery service, it is always a good idea to get multiple quotes and check the Better Business Bureau for complaints.

Written by Deron Van, president Gotta get my info. You can find more about data recovery and all things related to computers at the Computer page at Gotta Get My Info.

(Authors permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)

About The Author
Deron Van is a software engineer at Intel, he received his bachelor degrees in CIS and marketing from Arizona State University and is the marketing manager at http://www.gottagetmyinfo.com you can email him at deron@gottagetmyinfo.com.

The Importance of Backing Up Data

Back-ups are a very important, yet often neglected, part of using a computer. I learnt this the hard way. I had to rebuild my computer from scratch several times before implementing complete back-ups on the full system. Most people back up little to none of their files on a daily basis. They donรขโ�ฌโ�ขt back-up emails, address books or even accounts data, and then get frustrated when all work is lost.

Speaking from experience it takes several months if not years to get your computer just right for your needs. Meaning internet shortcuts, software installations, FTP accounts and so forth.

Imagine you had all your files backed up. To recover an operating system and all your software that you had installed on your computer is going to take a lot of time and effort. Now imagine you didnรขโ�ฌโ�ขt back-up your files, this would be a nightmare.

Youรขโ�ฌโ�ขre probably thinking that doing these back-ups are going to take a lot of time that you donรขโ�ฌโ�ขt have. This is no excuse. There are several software packages on the market that automate these backups. All you need to do is configure the software, then get it to run on a daily basis at a time that is convenient (eg. 2am, when you most likely wonรขโ�ฌโ�ขt be using your computer).

The best way of storing these back-ups would be on a secondary drive. The expense of the software and the secondary drive will be minimal, considering the time and effort it would cost you if you didnรขโ�ฌโ�ขt have back-ups to re-build your computer. Furthermore it would be even more effective to keep a back-up of your files in an off-site location. Meaning at another physical location. If your computer was to catch on fire a back-up on a secondary drive would not be much help. This would ideally be performed every month or every three months.

With regular back-ups you can work with the peace of mind that if something happens to your valuable data, you can restore it with the click of a mouse.

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Recover your Hard Drive Data 101

Most people do not realize the importance of backing up their files. As the clichร�ยฉ goes, you only realize the importance of something once it is gone. You accidentally delete your file or your hard drive goes nuts. Now your files are gone, and you feel miserable, depressed and frustrated because those are precious files. May it be work-related, school-related, sentimental value-related, you now feel the impact of your lost files because those files are indeed important.

So now what are you going to do? You can wallow in grief and learn your lesson to back up your files the next time.

But you canรขโ�ฌโ�ขt help but think of how important those files were. Your boss is going to be raging mad. Those reports should be submitted on time. Is there a way to recover them?

Of course there is.

If you accidentally deleted a file from the recycle bin, donรขโ�ฌโ�ขt fret. You could still recover that file because it is not completely deleted. Windows only modifies the first letter of the file name in the disk's bookkeeping system so technically the file is still there. In order for you to recover that file, the fileรขโ�ฌโ�ขs original name and retags should be restored before Windows overwrites it.

Because Windows hasnรขโ�ฌโ�ขt exactly deleted your files, it is only sensible that you do not anymore save anything on the hard drive. Why? Because once you have saved a new file, your deleted file (that you badly need to recover) will be overwritten to give way to the newly saved file.

You do not want that to happen right? So leave it as is or else you could do more damage than ease out the situation.

Now what? There is no magic formula to recover your files. To recover your files you will need a special recovery software or utility.

There are many commercially available recovery tools that you could use. Most of these tools access the disk through an operating system. Search the internet for programs that can restore your files. But before you actually buy a product that you think will work, read and research on several product reviews so that you not only get to recover your files but you also get your moneyรขโ�ฌโ�ขs worth.

If you canรขโ�ฌโ�ขt afford to spend on special recovery tools, you can find freeware restoration utilities on the internet. FINDNTFS, NTFS reader for DOS, TESTDISK, PC Inspector and Restoration are good freeware restoration tools that you can use.

If unfortunately all else fails, your last option is to hire a professional data recovery service but be prepared to shell out some serious cash. Prices can range from $300 to $4000. Just make sure you look a for a data recovery service that is reliable and wonรขโ�ฌโ�ขt charge you if you canรขโ�ฌโ�ขt recover your data.

Also if you already decided to seek professional help, be prepared to supply them with your PCรขโ�ฌโ�ขs necessary information like drive size, operating system, and the cause of failure.

Now you have learned your lesson. Data loss is due to many reasons; user error, software error, hard drive failures, etc. Hard drives are not immortal; they too wear out, get defects and eventually die. You are not perfect; you make mistakes and accidentally delete things. You can prevent costly data recovery and other hassles if you will back up those files.

If you found those tips useful more information on Data Recovery can be found at "Data Recovery without heartache"