How To Avoid Data Loss Disasters.
One very common cause of lost data amongst computer users from all walks of life; being they home computer users, business users or even IT support technicians, is that which occurs following an issue with the machine that prevents it from booting. Data loss is often a side affect of attempts to get the machine working again.
Knowing how to deal with the potential for data loss is what separates those who have been there from those who are yet to experience it. So what kind of scenarios are we talking about here and what are we looking for?
Computer is working but simply won’t boot up properly: Often this can be overcome by starting your computer in safe mode if you know how, and going from there. But this will not always help as you may be suffering from a software issue or conflict or even possible a hardware issue such as a failing hard disk drive.
Computer starts to become slow: When we first get our new computer there is very little on it when it comes to programs and games for example, and over time the operating system due to the way it is designed becomes cluttered. Registry repair utilities can help operating system problems but data loss is always a risk. In extreme circumstances a total ODS re-install is the best option.
Virus or Malware infection: Computer viruses and other Malware applications, if not properly handled from the start, will inevitably lead to situations whereby a full reinstall is the only option to truly remove all trace of the malicious software from the system.
So we come back to how we handle a problem when it arises. How do we prevent data loss when we inevitably have to reinstall our current operating system or upgrade to a new one?
The best way to avoid data loss in the first place is to follow a simple protocol. Backup your important data on a regular basis. There is simply no good excuse for not doing this as external drives and online backup centers are readily available to all.
External hard drives can be purchased in most computer shops now days and a quick search online for online backup will also give you a number of remote back up options
So what options do you have to get your important or vital data back? If things seem really bad and saving the data is crucial, don’t take any risks and contact a data recovery specialist. They will have a whole host of solutions available to save your data and whilst it cannot be guaranteed, they do stand the best chance of success.
You can find more great advice on data recovery and in particular for businesses raid data recovery here.
Data Recovery Things You Need To Know
The computer seems to have taken over the world in a very short period of time and keeping every thing digital is becoming the target for organisations and business around the globe.
It saves storage and space and is more friendly to the environment so we just keep piling more and more data onto our hard drives and storage systems.
Unfortunately drives and raid set ups do go wrong and when they do disaster strikes and years of your data could now be lost especially if you have no back up solution in place.
For a home user this could mean the loss of years of family photo’s as these days we rarely in reality print out all of our photos. Equally you may have other valuable data which has taken you years to put together and if it suddenly goes the loss can be devastating. For a business data loss can be financially crippling.
When a hard drive or server RAID array fails, you need a trusted and registered data recovery operation registered with credit safe and preferably one with its own clean room preferably ISO 3 certified just in case your drive(s) need to be dismantled as a method of retrieving your valuable data.
Many data recovery operations claiming to have been in existence for many years do not have any real facilities facility or track record. And frighteningly many have no background or qualifications to carry out a data recovery task.
Equally they will have no secure areas for making sure your drive does not fall into the wrong hands.
Without correct handling more damage can be done to a drive making what was recoverable data irrecoverable so choose your service provider carefully.
Another thing to confirm if you do need data recovery is where the drive will go if it needs further investigation.
If you are based in the UK for example and the drive has to be sent abroad this will not help you get back up and running in the shortest possible time frame, which is crucial if mission critical data needs recovering.
Business down time cost a fortune so don’t take any risks.
Many IT Professionals will need raid data recovery experts to rebuild and recover the data from all kinds of raid server array and external storage including NAS and San storage drives.
Raid data recovery is an order of magnitude more complex than a standard hard drive recovery and more often than not even a professional computer support engineer will not have the skill set or tools to do this.
In summary always make sure you choose your data recovery company wisely and if you are at all unsure contact your local computer support provider who should be able to recommend a service at the very least.