BB Data Recovery Guide

This is not urban legend, it is as real as your blood pressure silently creeping up on you. When you first notice it, it is too late because you need medication to restore its balance.

Similarly, you and your computer are a likely target for attack by computer viruses and malware programs. Bad guys use their programming expertise to design viruses and other malware to gain control of your computer, for their own benefit. This can mean creating havoc in your computer system or destroying your data files.

A computer virus acts the same way a biological virus does. It copies itself and passes on these copies to files, programs, and even other computers. Viruses are among several types of malicious software, also known as malware. Viruses can range in nastiness from taking up valuable memory space, to deleting files, to freezing your computer system.

Trojan horses and worms are another types of malware. Worms and viruses work much the same way, except a worm doesn’t need another program to make it start working. Finally, trojan horses are another brand of malware used to carry its poison by programs you might innocently download from the Internet.

Clever misfits design malware for more than one purpose. Some can delete your operating systems files or your data files. Others can take your personal information and then send it back to the person who sent the malware. This an ingenious trick used to gain access to your credit card number and password, steal money from your bank account, or send you official sounding fake letters to get you to allow a particular transaction. Finally, these destructive programs can wipe out your data.

You need to protect your computer from these mischievous programs. Install an anti virus program and add a firewall to control what data gets in and what goes out from your computer.

Imagine you have just made the final changes to the presentation you will make to your boss in the morning. Your career hinges on the outcome of this meeting. But you have worked hard and are confident that you will impress her with your sleek graphics. You have all the information you need on your trusty computer.

You go to sleep and while you dream of promotions, there was a power surge that knocked out your computer. It also knocked the wind out of your sails, too because you did not back up your files. What can you learn from this lesson that happens to more people than you can imagine.

Backing up your data is an important step in using your computer. Not backing up may not get you fired or demoted to a lower paying job, but will save you trouble and anxiety. Also, storing your important data in only one place, is akin to putting your entire life savings in one mutual fund. Mutual funds, like hard drives, fail when you expect them to keep you running. Hard drives spin at speeds reaching 7200 rpms, and even though they can tolerate high levels of jarring and jostling, problems still occur that may lead to physical damage and possible data loss.

Data loss can occur through no fault of your own. Possible events that can lead to data loss include a power surge, lighting strike, tampering, and equipment failure. This is why it is essential to back up your important data.

A safe way to backup is to make copies of your files onto a disk, and store them in a separate place so you can easily access the information when you need it. Depending on how importance the data is, you may want to store the disks in a safe-deposit box, or simply in a desk drawer at work.

The widespread use of computers is a blessing as well as a curse for society. It is good because we can save time and energy in creating valuable products and services. On the other hand, the dark side of society uses them for sinister and selfish purposes. Forensic computing portrays this battle between good and evil, all too well.

The field of forensic computing has seen a steady rise because more and more people are using computers to commit crimes. Forensic computing refers to the practice of finding and analyzing information contained on computers and other digital media. Legal professionals use forensics to gather evidence to prove crimes such as identity theft, phishing, or commercial sabotage.

The legal profession makes frequent use of forensic computing. Some experts estimate that forensic investigations find between thirty and forty percent of documents on suspect computers. Lawyers use this evidence to help prosecute the bad guys. If you think someone uses your computer, or another one, to commit a crime, you need to preserve the system integrity.

The crime can be as simple as an employee wiping out his computer before leaving on his last day, or as complex as embezzling money from the company and trying to hide evidence. Once you become suspicious, do not use the computer more than necessary until you or someone in authority contacts a forensic expert.

Finding and recovering evidence is the first step in forensic computing. Investigators look for anything that may prove useful for law enforcement. In someways, this process is similar to the techniques used in data recovery.

The biggest difference is the culprit may have deleted the evidence on purpose rather than accidentally. Also, sophisticated criminals may have a working knowledge of computers and how the system stores information on them. This means they will try to delete information in a way that could stump the experts.

If the hard drive was only in water for a short time, you may find the water was not able to get inside your hard drive. If the water makes its way into your drive, it is important that you get it to the recovery service immediately.

You need to keep the drive wet, do not allow it to dry it out until it is in the hands of an expert. You must allow the drive to drive properly or more damage could occur. Also, floodwater may contain dirt and other impurities which may pile up inside the drive once drying has started. This buildup may prevent data recovery.

After a flood or fire, you should never try to run the computer without having a technician check it first. If you run any power to a damaged drive, it could result in a total loss of data with no chance of recovery. Your only choice is getting the drive to a recovery service, in its present condition, as fast as you can. The longer you wait, the less chance you have for recovery.

Ship the drive to a competent recovery service who has experience in restoring data from damaged or destroyed equipment. While there are standard procedures used in recovering data, your chances get slimmer with destroyed or damaged equipment. So it is important to find a service who has above average technicians and know-how.

If you select an inexperienced recovery service, you might find that you lose data instead of salvaging it. Since errors are so critical to the recovery, one mistake can sink the chances of a successful recovery.

You can usually depend on your insurance carrier to pay the bills that you run up when trying to recover your data. After all, they would calculate this is much cheaper than paying for loss of income coverage.

“Hey, what’s going on here.” You can’t believe your luck as you struggle with one problem or another. Now it is your computer’s turn to poke you where it hurts most. “Ouch!” You look at the blank screen of death depicted on your monitor, knowing it’s bad because you have that sinking feeling in your stomach. You have so much information on this computer. Your work files, your family pictures, everything. How are you going to fix this? Then you remember your friends talking about data recovery software.

You can use data recovery software when errors occur in the hard drive resulting in data loss. The market has several brands of data recovery software today, all with their pros and cons. Shareware or Freeware utilities make up most of them, but there are several high quality commercial products.

Don’t use a data recovery program on your hard drive if you know it’s damaged. Also, you should get your computer to your local computer repair shop if the drive makes strange noises you do not recognize. Continuing to use a damaged hard drive could further damage it, possibly making your lost data unrecoverable.

Data recovery software uses two main techniques to fix errors in the file systems. These errors prevents you from gaining access to your files. Forensic experts call the first technique consistency checking. Here the program scans the logical structure of the file system looking for differences such as missing or unexpected outcomes. In other words, if there is something abnormal, the program will flag it for you to explore further.

You may know about Microsoft’s CHKDSK and ScanDisk utilities. The Linux file system consistency check (or FSCK) is an equivalent one. These utilities usually run at startup, checking for errors caused by improperly shutting down your computer. However, the file system consistency checking does not work on badly damaged system files.

We don’t imagine the worst for us because we assume that what happens to Sam and Sally down the street, would never happen to us. After all, we are as careful with our assets, as a mother is to her newborn infant. So when disaster strikes we go into denial, until someone or another cause forces us to get a handle on reality. A fire which ravages our home or business is one of those “never can happen to us” events that strikes every so often. Similarly, a flood caused by a heavy rainfall while you are away can have you bailing out more than water.

If a flood or fire strikes your home or business, your insurance company would normally help you recover the costs of getting things back up and running. However, money cannot replace the lost information. You could find that it is impossible or at the least time-consuming to replace and rebuild financial records and customer files, especially if you have no data backup stored off-site. However, don’t despair, there is still a chance you might recover the data stored in the destroyed or damaged equipment.

Recovering data after a flood or fire can be a challenge. Yet, you may find that a recovery service can likely recover the data even if the fire melted the plastics parts. Also, the fire or flood may have spared the interior of the drive. In this case a competent technician could rebuild the electronic parts damaged in the fire, making data recovery possible.

At the same time, intense heat from the fire may have melted the head platters. Melted platters could kill the chances of successful data recovery. However, you will not know this or the extent of the damage until someone at the recovery service opens and inspects the drive.

When you use your computer, you probably don’t think about how your computer works. Far less, do you agonize the operating system in your computer using a particular method for organizing its free space and data. But you have to trust me when I tell you that this file system method controls how Windows writes and reads data onto your hard drive.

In general, there are two systems mainly used by Windows. The NTFS, also called the NT system, is most often used by the Windows XP and Windows NT operating systems. The second file system, the FAT-32 (File Allocation Table), uses 32 bit storage elements.

Windows 95 and earlier versions used the FAT-16 or 16 bit storage elements. If necessary the operating system can use file systems from older versions. This means you could use the hard drive from a system such as Windows 3.11 with the new Windows XP version to recover data.

Both the NTFS and FAT use the MBR (Master Boot Record) with a partition table for the structure of files. You can find these within the first sector of the drive. If an error occurs within the partition table or MBR, Windows cannot read anything that is on that particular drive.

Sometimes, you can use different utilities provided by Windows to fix any problems you have with your partition table. You would use Chkdsk for problems within Windows XP and NT, while you can use Scandisk with partition tables on older platforms.

Typically, when you turn on your computer and it begins to boot up, Windows will run these programs to check for problems when the computer has abruptly shut down . You should first use these utilities when trying to repair file system errors. Since they come with the system, with a few clicks of the mouse you can begin checking for errors.

Microsoft Windows is one of the most popular operating systems on computers today. Therefore, you will find solutions for data recovery for every incarnation of the system possible. Many software packages are available in the market that allow for the recovery of lost data and files. However, software does not always have to be the answer, there are other steps you can take to recover files.

Looking in the recycle bin sometimes does the trick. That is, if you only deleted the files from your computer, you can still get them back. However, you would have a challenge ahead of you if your disk drive failed.

A corrupt partition table or MBR (Master Boot Record) will cause disk failure, meaning the drive will not start up. The first response some people have to this is panicking and running out to buy a new hard drive. Others may just give up assuming the entire computer is kaput. Of course, this does not work if you have important information on the computer.

If you have Windows XP, you can examine the file system and partitions with the CMP (Computer Management Program). This utility is available by right clicking on the “My Computer” icon on your desktop. From a list of several options, you can then choose the one called “manage.” When you click on the manage button, you will see a window called “Computer Management”.

On the left side of this window, you will notice a list of items, select “Disk management.” The windows system will then provide you with a list of every drive on your computer including DVD, CD, and hard drives. For each listed drive, you will see a partition structure, file system, and working status of the drives.

You are now ready for data recovery using your Windows system.