Data Loss, System Crash, Lost files…these are some of the words, which can give nightmares to any computer user, which has some important data on computer. These incidences do happen, and they happen at a time when you least expect them. They come as a surprise. And when you think of the reasons of data loss or corrupt files, there are many of them.

Some of the Reasons of Data Loss – When You May Need Special Tools for File Recovery

1. Data could be lost due to intention or unintentional file deletion, drive re-format and drive partitioning.
2. Corrupted system files may also indirectly affect you data by making it inaccessible. System conflict as a result of application or new hardware device installation is commonly the main culprit of system corruption.
3. Malicious-ware, like viruses, can spread like wild fire causing partial or complete damage to your valuable data.
4. Manufacturing defects, power surge, impact, heat, fire, water etc will cause mechanical or electronic damage to data media. As a result, normal access to such damaged media is no longer possible.

Whatever the causes, if one does not have proper backup procedure, data loss is inevitable. Data recovery services appear to be the last resort. However, one must understand that such rescue attempt will never guarantee that all lost data will be recoverable if the extent of damage is extremely adverse.

In this series of posts, we are looking at some of the useful and well-known File Recovery tools and here we present ADRC Data Recovery Software.

ADRC Data Recovery Software Tool

ADRC Data Recovery Software Tools contains a collection of DIY data recovery tools that supports a wide variety of drives and file systems.

The software incorporates extremely simple GUI with novice users in mind. The software zooms in to do only critical recovery functions with minimum complexity so one could recover the data easily. It gives you full control to undelete files, disk image back up, restore a backup image, copy files from hard disk with bad sectors, disk cloning, backup, edit and restore your boot parameters.

It is absolutely free! It is our pleasure to offer you the software without charge, direct or hidden, to download and use a fully functional copy of the program. The software will not install any spyware or adware. It does not gives pop-up ads or force any form of subscription to mailing lists.

The program is designed to be compact “green-ware” without any installation. In fact, the whole program is less than 130 kb and you could stuff it anywhere (such as a floppy) and run the program from there to recover data.

If you are happy with the utility, share the information with others about ADRC Data Recovery Software Tools or place to link to our download home page.

Download

Need of Portable Virus Scanners and Antivirus

Today virus infections and malwares are complex scripts. They do everything to hide themselves from the antivirus and security software and in this process, they try to take control of the entire operating system.

Because of this, sometimes it is not possible to detect and clean an already infected system. Every virus scan from the already installed antivirus utility gives a clean shit, although virus is already present in the system.

In such cases, you might need a second opinion. Second opinion from outside, from a tool, which does not require to be installed on the infected computer but in the form of a portable virus scanner and antivirus, which can be run from say a USB Drive or a CD ROM. You can easily write protect your CD ROM or USB, and the virus on the computer will not be able to affect the portable virus scanner utility.

We have already carried a series of posts on various Free Portable Antivirus programs and you can have a look at them in the end of this post.

Stinger Portable Antivirus – Virus Scanner from McAfee

Yet another portable antivirus cun virus scanner is the Stinger Antivirus, which is developed and provided by the renowned security software vendor McAfee. It is a freeware portable antivirus and you can download it from here.

Stinger is a standalone utility used to detect and remove specific viruses. It is not a substitute for full anti-virus protection, but rather a tool to assist administrators and users when dealing with an infected system. Stinger utilizes next-generation scan engine technology, including process scanning, digitally signed .DAT files, and scan performance optimizations. It detects and removes threats identified under the “List Viruses” icon in the Stinger application.

There is one important point when you use Stinger. Many people ask, that Stinger has found a virus that it couldn’t repair. Why is this? This is most likely due to Windows System Restore functionality having a lock on the infected file. WindowsME/XP users should disable system restore prior to scanning.

Download Stinger

The only way to protect the confidential excel documents from unauthorized access by others is to password protect them. Microsoft office excel 2003 and the latest 2007 version have the facility of password protection.

There are two types of password protection :

• read only : which allows others to only read the excel spreadsheet and they can’t edit them
• password protected : users with correct password can only access

How to set password for excel spreadsheets

Either you are using Microsoft office 2003 or 2007 , the method remains the same.

To enable read-only protection:

1. Open the file.
2. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click Security.
3. In the Password to modify box, type a password, and then click OK.
4. In the Reenter password to modify box, type the password again, and then click OK.

To password protect a file:

1. Open the file.
2. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click Security.
3. In the Password to open box, type a password, and then click OK.
4. In the Reenter password to open box, type the password again, and then click OK.

You might have noticed so many users especially employees of a company will be using this feature to password protect confidential excel documents. Just imaging What will happen if they forget the password . No one can access the file without knowing the previous password. Even a careless mistake can make the employee to loose his job.

Excel Password Recovery Tools

Although you can set password to the excel documents , you can’t recover the password in case you forgot or lost the password. Never wonder now you can easily recover the lost password of excel documents with excel password recovery tools. With EXCEL password recovery tool you can easily recover your lost or forgotten password without much difficulty. You can even unlock password-encrypted Microsoft Excel documents quickly as possible.

In order to recover your lost or forgotten password just follow the simple steps :

First download and install the free office password recovery tool in your PC. Once you have finished installing the software , you can begin the recovery process. During the recovery process you can easily decrypt the spreadsheet or make it to display the original document password.

In this Excel password recovery tool , two options are available :

•  100% Instant Document Decryption
• Recover the Password to Open

100% Instant Document Decryption Method

With this option one can securely ping the Password Solutions’ server to determine the type of encryption used on the file and can determine the best decryption method for removing the password from the Excel spreadsheet.

Password Recovery Options
Instead of decryption , if you want to recover the original lost password then you can opt this choice. You’ll then be asked a couple questions to aid in determining the password schema. These are geared at narrowing the applications search for possible matches, but are not mandatory.

So if you ever forget the password of an important excel spreadsheet, no need to worry about that. With the office recovery wizard you can easily recover the passwords of encrypted excel documents. You can download the office recovery tool from

Download

Excel Data Recovery

Today I am going to introduce several 100% FREE data recovery software for Mac OS X, NO Kidding. I notice that there are too many mac data recovery program providers saying their products are free to download or free to try (just take a try and search “free mac data recovery” on Google), but only limited with scan stage which means if you want to recover the found files you’ve got to pay for that. And the price usually not cheap. But the question is whether it is worth paying for a third party program if you accidentally deleted or formatted devices and need recovery on your Mac. To be honest I doubt it. Why? The answer is obvious because that’s the reason why I wrote this post.

Free Mac Data Recovery 1 – Time Machine
You may think it’s inappropriate to put Time Machine in the line of data recovery software on Mac. But I insist doing this and put it in the top first place. As you know, Mac computers manufactured after November 2007 are equipped with an important feature – Time Machine. The backup and recovery utility is able to backup almost everything on your Mac every hour with its unique functions. You can easily recover data from Time Machine backup once you deleted or lost your some critical files such as applications, documents, photos etc. Learn how to set up and restore backup from this Apple Support page.

Most of the case Mac users tend to forget backup or not so interested in using Time Machine. So when you lost files by means of emptying Trash bin, quick formatted the drive, partition became inaccessible etc. without backup. The only way is to try a third-party mac data recovery software. Here are two file recovery freeware based on Mac OS X.

Free Mac Data Recovery 2 – TestDisk & PhotoRec

TestDisk was primarily designed to help recover lost partitions and make non-booting disks bootable again when these symptoms are caused by faulty software, certain types of viruses or human error (such as accidentally erasing your Partition Table). PhotoRec is designed to recover lost lost files from external device (memory card, pen drive, removable disk), even hard disk and CDRom. As a result, if you have lost partition or strange problem with your hard disk partitions, try TestDisk. To recover lost digital pictures or files, try PhotoRec.Note: This recovery tool operates through command line (similar to DOS) without GUI. But it won’t be hard for you handle it as there are corresponding instruction texts within steps.Download TestDisk & PhotoRec from CNET.See TestDisk Step by Step Tutorial and PhotoRec Step by Step Tutorial.

Free Mac Data Recovery 3 – Exif Untrasher

Exif Untrasher(version 1.4.3) is able to recover deleted or formatted photos(with only JPG format) from external device such as digital camera or USB flash drive etc on Mac OS X for free. But it won’t support internal Mac hard drive. So I’d like to tag it with “Digital Media JPG Photo Recovery for Mac”. This Mac recovery freeware can be used when you want to recover those lost JPEG photos from digital camera or camcorder etc if you have your own Mac machine. If your camera saves in the RAW format, you are out of luck.Note: versions 1.4 and newer will require Mac OS X 10.3 or newer. Language options: English, German, French and Italian.Download from its official site.

The programs talked above are completely freeware without any limitations though each has its own shortcoming. There are many other providers on the market claiming its products as “free Mac data recovery software” or “free version” but it’s not real

Data loss is an unpredictable event that always has deep consequences. First comes the panic, then the frantic efforts to recover data, quite likely destroying residual data in the process. Then the long process of recovering data but unsure of whether the data is usable or not.

At the most, data recovery is a risky business and has to be conducted in the most responsible manner possible, with all possible respect for the data that has been lost. There are ways to recover data on Mac computers depending on the reason for the data loss in the first place.

Data Lost During Disk Initialization
Mac uses several steps to format disks, such as disk formatting, disk verification, and disk zeroing. It is not unknown for errors to occur during this process, causing data loss. Disk Initialization is the dominant data loss threat in Mac external drives, sometimes destroying a Mac user’s critical data. You’ll have to invest in a good Mac data recovery software to recover data lost during disk initialization. One way to prevent this is to always back up your data on a daily or weekly basis, depending on your need.

System Data Corruption Leading To Data Loss
If the data structure of your system is corrupted, or if you upgrade your system, the Finder tool might stop working and throw up error messages that are hard to understand. This renders your volumes inaccessible, and results in loss of vital data. In this case you’ll have to restore the Finder using Disk Utility and restore data using a good Mac data recovery software.

Accidental Data Loss
This would be the most common way to lose data. Accidents occur every day in our lives. We sometimes delete data that might be important, without thinking. Data lost accidentally can be recovered if you take the right measures. However, even accidentally lost data cannot be recovered if too much time passes.

What Are Chances Of Data Recovery?
The first thing to do when you realize that you’ve lost data is to stop using your Mac immediately. This ensures that the space that was occupied by your deleted data is not filled up by any other information. As your Mac’s operating system doesn’t immediately re-use the space left behind from files are deleted, you can recover the deleted data in a few days. However, the likelihood of recovering deleted files successfully decreases the longer you delay, as some or all of that space will be re-used.

It all depends on how full your computer’s hard drive is. The fuller your drive, the sooner the free space will be used by other files. Also, chances of file recovery will be severely impacted if you have de-fragmented your hard drive after the file was deleted. It’s possible that during de-fragmentation, current files will have been moved into the free space left by deleted files in order to reduce fragmentation. This makes it much less likely that any undelete software will be able to find anything useful.

DiskInternals Linux Recovery is a handy no-cost utility that runs under any version of Windows and designed to recover the erased or damaged information that is kept on Ext2/Ext3 partitions.

DiskInternals Linux Recovery might come in handy on a number of occasions when due to the unforeseen contingencies there was a loss of important data stored on Ext2/Ext3 disks.

DiskInternals Linux Recovery can recover both the files you just accidentally deleted and the files which have been erased long time ago. It’s also capable of restoring corrupted files and can read and recover the information located on an inaccessible drive. The files you restore can be saved on any (including network) disk, which is visible to the host operating system.

The utility also allows you to repair a corrupt or damaged partition table and attempt to restore a disk after a serious crash, so you’ll have a chance to repair a serious malfunction right away.

Partition and Raid Recovery

http://www.diskinternals.com/download/Linux_Recovery.exe

Before we talk about partition recovery let’s make it clear what a partition is. In most simple words, it’s a logical division of a physical hard disk. The system recognizes and displays them as separate disks and you see them as disk “C:”, “D:, etc. in Windows (they are also called “volumes”). Partitions are created when you format a disk and in some cases significantly improve and optimize the work of your computer:

• When you have several operating systems on you computer, you are recommended to install them on different partitions to avoid conflicts between different OS.
• If your hard drive is large, you may want to define different cluster sizes for different partitions to optimize disk space usage, enhance computer performance and avoid disk space waste if you have many small files.

Let’s see how it works (we’ll take Windows XP as an example). The number or partitions, their size and location are defined in the partition table in Master Boot Record (MBR), located in the first sector of your hard drive. MBR is also responsible for booting process. The partition table may include up to 4 partition entries. These partitions are called Primary Partitions. But sometimes users need more than 4 volumes on the disk, for various reasons.

In such cases, instead of pointing to a single volume directly, a partition entry defined in MBR is pointing to Extended Partition Pointers (EPPs). An EPP block points to a volume (which is assigned a volume letter) and, optionally, to another EPP in the chain. In this way, a hard drive can be divided into a large number of volumes, until you run out of letters or disk space. Together, MBR and EPPs are called Partition Tables.

When you need a partition recovery?

• Accidental deletion of a wrong volume which actually means the deletion on pointer to the volume, while the information remains intact.
• In some cases a pointer to a logical disk can be broken and the disk is lost. Accordingly, if there are other volumes in chain under that logical drive, they will become inaccessible as well.
• In more serious cases (often caused by viruses) the boot sector may be damaged with all partition tables gone.

If data loss has already occurred, we recommend to have a look at the brief data file recovery guide, that can help you avoid critical mistakes and prevent total data loss.

Successful partition recovery is based on finding out the size, the location and boundaries of the lost volumes. That is why the case with a disk containing a single logical drive is relatively simple. It can be assumed that the lost volume occupied the whole hard drive and the rest is done with recovery software. The slight difference in boundaries of the lost and the assumed volume is possible, but that won’t matter in this case. If the hard drive contains many logical drives, the situation is worse, especially if the damage occurred to MBR or somewhere at the beginning of the EPP chain. Use special partition recovery software to restore lost partitions.

There are several ways in which you may prevent failure of your RAID disk or array. Before you prevent this, though, you must exercise caution so that if failure does occur, you are not left without extra copies of your original data. So that means…

Rule #1: Always keep backups of your original data on a separate disk from your current disk or array and preferably in a completely different location. The reason for the different location is in case of fire, flooding, power surges, etc. which can damage all the information in one place.

Rule #2: Test your disks often. Test fault tolerance of disks before uploading important data, and check the SMART status of all of your drives on a regular basis. This monitoring is important so that you are aware of potential hard drive failures before they become a much larger problem. It is also recommended to label all of your drives correctly and thoroughly so that if one does experience failure, you remove the correct drive.

Rule #3: Learn how to replace a faulty drive correctly. When attempting to replace a faulty or failed drive in order to restore your system to complete health, the rebuild is incorrectly initiated or completed, which can result in overall system failure or severe weakening of the system.

Rule #4: Install comprehensive virus protection. RAID does not protect itself from viral infections, and malicious code can cause extensive damage, which may result in the necessity to replace the entire array. Make sure that your virus protection is regularly (and automatically) updated so that your computer is not affected.

Rule #5: Consider multiple manufacturers. RAID disks are often purchased at the same time and from the same manufacturer. This means that any inherent weakness in a line of disks will be multiplied by putting them together in the same array. Avoid this by implementing some sort of variety in your purchasing.

Remember that prevention of RAID failure is significantly cheaper than fixing a problem after it occurs. Keep this in mind when implementing steps to prevent failure. It may seem tedious, but it is far more financially efficient in the end.

First of all, remember that a hard drive’s life is limited, all hard drives fail sooner on later. If your hard disk didn’t die in the first year, chances are that it will last for up to 6 years. The length of your hard drive will depend on wear and tear and how you handle it.

Prolong Your Hard Drive’s Life

There are no universal remedies guaranteeing 100% that your hard drive won’t fail. However, the tips below will help you to prolong your hard drive’s life and avoid the distressing experience of hard drive recovery.

Don’t keep your computer running around the clock if it is not really necessary (e.g., your laptop is performing an important task). Set your hard disk to spin down when you computer is idle for a certain period. The point is that the bearings that enable the disk to spin is the part that undergoes the worst wear. That’s where the loud, unpleasant grinding sound comes from. However, the balance between keeping the computer on and shutting down regularly is very delicate. No need to shutdown every lunch time, that will do more harm than good because booting up and shutting down is the most “stressful” operation for your hard drive.

Scan and defrag your hard drive from time to time and keep your system optimized. That speeds up your computer, reduces hard drive wear and tear and, consequently, prolongs your hard drive life. In addition, having your files defragmented is far more advantageous from data file recovery viewpoint, if data loss occurs. Of course, that doesn’t mean that you should defrag 24/7. Do it within reasonable limits only, remember that everything should be measured and balanced.

Don’t expose the hard drive to vibration, shaking, water, high temperatures, electric fields, electric damage. That is apparent.

Never remove the cover of your hard drive! The operation should be implemented only in special clean rooms. If dust particles are caught between the head and the platters you can say farewell to your hard drive.

Tip of the Day

Also, hard drive life length depends not only on how you handle it. Always backup important files.

No doubt there will come a time when you accidentally delete or ‘lose’ a file that is really important to you, and of course you will want to know about FAT32 data recovery. Therefore you need to know what steps you should take in order to try and do so, otherwise you could do something foolish and lose your files completely, forever!

FAT32 is a very common system of filing, used by all Windows users up to and including Windows XP. Although now it is losing popularity to the NTFS system, one plus point of FAT32 is that recovering lost or deleted files is often fairly straightforward to do.

Like many people, you probably won’t have the first clue about FAT32 data recovery or what to do in the event that your data is accidently deleted. The first thing you should do is follow these steps:

Step-by-step FAT32 Data Recovery

• Check that the file has really been deleted. You can start by double checking in the folder where the file was supposed to be, and then you can go through other common folders it might have been moved into, such as desktop, my documents and so on. Then you can use the search function in the ‘Start’ menu and enter the file name there to see if it shows up anywhere on your hard drive.
• Next, check the recycle bin. The file may well be in there if it has been deleted recently. You can sort the files out by date and then check, from most recent until later on. Usually, most recycle bins permanently delete files after 30 days. If you are lucky and spot your missing file, it’s very easy to restore it – right click on it and select ‘restore file’, and it will be automatically returned to its old folder.
• If you can’t find the file in the recycle bin, you might want to try using some free recovery software, of which there are many kinds available online. Whatever program you decide to use, make sure you choose the version for FAT32 data recovery, not NTFS. Essentially, most of these programs work in the same way. Install the software, run the program and then you can direct it to the folder or hard drive where the file last was. Select “search” and you should then be able to browse through recovered files that used to be in that folder and find the one you are looking for. If it turns up, again just right click and select ‘restore’ and it should return to the folder it was in before.
• Still no luck? Then you can always try ‘System Restore’. If you are using Windows, then there is a useful little tool that lets you return your computer to a previous state that it was in, back in time. Select a date not too far in the past; though make sure the date is before the time that you lost your file. Hopefully, after you reboot the system you should find the file restored in its old place.
• The most expensive option if none of the above work is to send your computer to a data recovery specialist and let them find it for you. However, it is only advisable to do this if you consider the file to be so important that you simply can’t live without it, as data recovery firms can sometimes charge thousands of dollars for their services.

Is it possible to recover the data myself?

If none of the above options work and you cannot afford to have a FAT32 data recovery specialist retrieve the lost files for you, it is possible to get highly technical and do it yourself, but this is not recommended unless you know what you are doing. All entries that are created within the FAT that came from the original file should still be in the file directory because it wouldn’t have been overwritten just yet. It should be possible for you to check whether any sectors that have previously had a file occupy them are marked as “used” or not in the FAT, so it might still be possible for you to recover any deleted files that are held in the FAT32.

During FAT32 data recovery, you need to make sure that there is a single uninterrupted sequence in the sectors of your disk where data is stored, so that means it can’t have been defragged. Do not attempt any defragging processes when you try to recover deleted files from the FAT32, unless you have first had the chance to look for your data. Doing this will see the chances of locating your data increase substantially.

However, it is possible that you could look forever through the vast number of FAT32 sectors on your hard drive and still not locate anything. The reason for this is that the name and appearance of your files may well have changed. Usually, the operating system will strip the identifying features deleted files, so you can’t rely on these to assist you in locating them. Therefore, if you can’t locate the files after scouring the FAT32 directory, unless you seek professional help you may have to just give the file up as lost.