|
|
|
Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery - Selecting A Business Continuity Strategy
The risk analysis and business impact analysis have identified risks to key business functions. Also, the potential impacts and probabilities of these risks as well as the costs to prevent or mitigate damages and the time to recover will have...
Data Recovery and Data Safety Tips
Whether you own your own business or work for someone that does
you'll find that data protection is one of the smartest and
safest approaches you can take to ensure the profitability and
livelihood of your business. When dealing with data...
Insure Your Information - Backup Software
There are so many ways to lose precious data stored on your hard disk - power loss or power surge, overheating, electrostatic discharge, virus attack, software failure, etc. Are you still thinking your data is safe? Don't! Backup! Backup early,...
Quick System Restore with ASR Backups
ASR (Automated System Recovery) is a feature available on the Windows XP Pro and Windows Server 2003 operating systems for quick and efficient system backup and restore. Typically, the restore process involves reinstalling the operating system and...
Scalability testing: 7 steps towards success
Systems that work well during development, deployed on a small scale, can fail to meet performance goals when the deployment is scaled up to support real levels of use.
An apposite example of this comes from a major blue chip company that...
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Your Hard Disk Failed... Don't Panic !
Inability to access your data stored on the data storage device could be caused by many reasons, from those that are easy to fix to those which are completely impossible to fix. If the damage is irreversible then data loss will occur. The causes of the failure of your hard drive or CD-ROM drive could vary from a bad connection due to a loose wire (which is easily recoverable) to damage to the media itself, which could still be recoverable in many cases.
As in the medical profession, the first principle of data recovery is: "do not harm".
If you are facing a data loss situation, what not to do is very important!
- Do not power up a device that has obvious physical damage.
- Do not power up a device that has shown symptoms of physical failure. For example, disks that make "obvious mechanical fault noises" such as ticking or grinding, should not be repeatedly powered on and tested as it just makes them worse.
- Activate the write-protect switch or tab on any problem removable media such as tape cartridges and floppies. (Many good backups are overwritten during a crisis.)
- Do not use free software. This is very important. Free data recovery software can be extremely dangerous and ruin your chances for a successful data recovery. Many companies offer free data recovery software -- also called Do-It-Yourself (DIY) data recovery software -- available for download on their website.
Even the best programs only work in very specific situations. While these free tools that are available may help, they usually only help if you are encountering one of a very few specific data loss situations.
Some programs may cause further or permanent data
loss. While these programs are provided with good intention, even when carefully used these utilities may cause recoverable data to be permanently lost and may cause the loss of additional data.
Anyway, there is something you CAN do; if you are having data access problems and your media has no symptoms of physical failure or damage, try and check some obvious issues before deciding if you need data recovery:
- Are the power and disk cables properly connected?
- Is configuration or disk information correct?
- Try the defective unit with a different adapter/controller interface or on a different computer.
- Is there an experienced technician at a local store or the company help desk that you can consult, if these steps are beyond your capabilities? (Make sure whoever is in contact with your data loss situation is fully aware that they should do nothing during their troubleshooting that will risk hurting your data.)
Doesn't work? Don't panic; if the damage occurred to the drive's electronics, it most likely could be fixed. If the damage occurred to the, for example, system areas of the disk, leaving the data zone intact, those data could be theoretically, and (in some cases) practically, recovered by a professional.
Look on the Net for data recovery companies, ask them questions, explain them your situation. In most cases they will be able to understand your problem and fix it for a fair price.
About the Author
Emanuele Allenti is the owner of Backup and data recover tips, a website with useful information written by experts for those interested in backup and data recovery
|
|
|
|
|
|
