Compact Flash Memory and Data Recovery ( Part1)

Flash memory gets its name due to its microchip arrangement in such a way, that its section of memory cells gets erased in a single action or "Flash".

Both NOR and NAND Flash memory were invented by Dr. Fujio Masuoka from Toshiba in 1984.The name 'Flash' was suggested because the erasure process of the memory contents reminds a flash of a camera, and it's name was coined to express how much faster it could be erased "in a flash". Dr. Masuoka presented the invention at the International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) held in San Jose, California in1984 and Intel recognizes the potentiality of the invention and introduced the first commercial NOR type flash chip in 1988, with long erase and write times.

Flash memory is a form of non-volatile memory that can be electrically erased and rewrite, which means that it does not need power to maintain the data stored in the chip. In addition, flash memory offers fast read access times and better shock resistance than hard disks. These characteristics explain the popularity of flash memory for applications such as storage on battery-powered devices.

Flash memory is advance from of EEPROM (Electrically-Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory)that allows multiple memory locations to be erased or written in one programming operation. Unlike an EPROM (Electrically Programmable Read-Only Memory) an EEPROM can be programmed and erased multiple times electrically.

Normal EEPROM only allows one location at a time to be erased or written, meaning that flash can operate at higher effective speeds when the systems using; it read and write to different locations at the same time.

Referring to the type of logic gate used in each storage cell, Flash memory is built in two varieties and named as, NOR flash and NAND flash.

Flash memory stores one bit of information in an array of transistors, called "cells", however recent flash memory devices referred as multi-level cell devices, can store more than 1 bit per cell depending on amount of electrons placed on the Floating Gate of a cell. NOR flash cell looks similar to semiconductor device like transistors, but it has two gates. First one is the control gate (CG) and the second one is a floating gate (FG) that is shield or insulated all around by an oxide layer. Because the FG is secluded by its shield oxide layer, electrons placed on it get trapped and data is stored within. On the other hand NAND Flash uses tunnel injection for writing and tunnel release for erasing.

Natural Disasters Raise Data Recovery Awareness

Technology v Nature. The fight still continues without any clear winners. Nature's fury occasionally reminds us of how easily it can overwhelm all that modern technology has to offer, but indomitable man just goes back to the drawing board to come up with an improved solution.

The tremendous advances in data storage technology have been taken for granted by most users for whom the phenomenal growth in storage capacity can hardly keep pace with their appetite for more and more data. At the same time, the high-tech world of computers gives the users a false feeling of invincibility. While data storage devices have become more robust than in the past, the sheer numbers have made data disasters more common than ever before. There are many reasons why hard disk drives and other data storage devices can – and do – fail.

When Mother Nature strikes, as with the recent tsunami that ravaged half the earth or the winter storms that gripped much of North America, it is big news. While loss of life is truly irreplaceable, these disasters affect many other aspects of life. At times like these, there is a heightened awareness about data loss and data recovery. "But the single biggest culprit in data loss is human error," claims Allison Beckley, VP (Customer Service) at Disk Doctor Labs, Inc., one of the pioneers of data recovery. "And a close second is the inherent limitations of the data storage technology itself," adds Tariq Aslam, the CEO of Disk Doctors. It can happen anytime, anywhere, and to anybody. If you deal with data extensively, the odds are you will suffer data loss sooner or later. The important thing is being able to cope with it. And different types of users need to have different strategies for safeguarding their data. A high school student who uses his PC for gaming and the occasional term project cannot be expected to have UPS, tape back-ups and RAID systems. On the other hand, a bank cannot feel complacent that it has protected its database by installing the latest anti-virus software and anything else is overkill. The user profile, the data criticality, available budget and resources all impact the data protection strategy. However, these are some general tips Disk Doctors has for avoiding and surviving data loss:

- Make a regular back-up of all your important data (including laptop drives)
- Test your back-ups regularly (especially if it is a tape back-up)
- Carry laptops in padded cases
- If it is mission critical business data, store it on RAID systems
- Use power surge protectors, and UPS systems for critical data
- Use regularly updated anti-virus software
- Restrict unauthorized access
- If you experience problems with your drive, move the data to another drive; don't take any chances unless your data is worth less than the cost of a new drive
- If you still lose the data, do not panic; seek professional advice
- Data recovery is a specialized field, and not every computer technician can retrieve data
- If the data is critical, or if the drive makes unusual noises do not try DIY solutions
- When you shop around for a data recovery company, don't consider the recovery charges only
- Look at the company experience, expertise, locations, facilities, testimonials, etc.
- You should not have to pay an up-front diagnostic fee, or pay for any hidden extras over the quoted price, or pay for the 'effort' if you did not get your data

For more information on the data recovery please visit http://www.diskdoctors.com/

File Recovery - Basic Backup Guidelines

You can skip these backup guidelines and do not backup if you have never:

misedited a file and saved

deleted a file by mistake

had to recover from a hard disk crash, a virus, a computer theft or other similar computer disaster.

Why backup?

Probably, you may even think that you do not need to backup. And you may be right, if you are so lucky. If you are not so lucky or wish to further improve your security, you can check this article as an online backup tutorial.

So what is the solution to prevent data loss?

The answer is simple: backup.

What to backup?

Once you backup all your important files, be it documents, Outlook or Outlook Express mail files, images, video or music files, etc., you will be able to recover your files easily no matter what happened to them.

Where to backup?

If you backup to an external backup medium (like CD, DVD, an external hard disk or a flash USB drive), you can move the medium anywhere for it to be safe and recover your files pretty easily. Also, you can use an extra backup medium to move the files from on computer to another for various reasons: to keep them safe, to work with files or to hand them over to a friend for collaboration.

If you backup to a remote location (an FTP or WebDAV server), you can access your files from anyplace on the planet with the Internet access. Basically this means if you are using a laptop and backed up to a remote FTP server, you can recover your files wherever you are, provided you are connected to the Internet.

If the importance of backup and easy file recovery has not yet become obvious, you may well consider ways to prevent the need to backup by increasing your file security by excellent proficiency. However, if you are unsure, whether you will succeed in this, feel free to backup.

By Yuri Filimonov

Data recovery from laptops

A lot of important data is being stored on laptops today. Laptop use has increased significantly in recent years. Increased demands for portability and convenience have been envisioned in this mobile technology.

Demand for laptops has gone up in part due to the spread of telecommuting in businesses today. Businesses often allow employees to work on laptops at home and bring them to work.

Data loss in a laptop can end up costing the company a lot of employee hours worked. Even people who use their laptops for personal use are not pleased if they lose any important data. Carrying around a laptop all day can cause stress on the machine and increase the chances of data loss.

There are many companies that can help you with the laptop data recovery process. After you contact a company, first you will likely go through an evaluation process to evaluate the extent of damage done.

A lot of companies will offer a free evaluation and a quote if they feel they can successfully perform recovery operations. It may be a good idea to shop around for services to make sure you are getting the best deal. Each company may offer a different price. Some companies even have fixed pricing.

If you are panicking over a blank laptop screen or a hard drive crash, you will be happy to learn that a high percentage of the requests data recovery companies get are successful completed. However you still need to be prepared that some of the data may never be recovered. The only way to find out is get proactive and contact representatives from data recovery firms.

Several data recovery companies have specialized departments for performing data recovery operations on laptops. You can get a lot of your data recovered and receive it in a readable format, even from badly damaged storage devices.

Laptop systems are more fragile and therefore highly susceptible to damage to their hard drives.

There are many companies online that can offer you internet-based laptop data recovery. This allows you to ship of your laptop to company headquarters and have it shipped back to you after the data has been recovered.

Some problems you may experience with your laptop is a dead screen, hard drive crash, etc. There are different types of laptop data recovery operations you can perform. Laptop data recovery can allow you to recover files after such events and after technical malfunctions. You may also be able to recover MS Word, Excel or Power Point files that you may have accidentally deleted.

Laptops can receive a lot of abuse and their hard drives can get damaged. You may need laptop data recovery support if:

- You dropped your notebook and it no longer turns on.
- An unsolicited e-mail has downloaded a Trojan or virus on your laptop.
- The laptop's hard drive crashes.
- You accidentally deleted some important company files and you want them retrieved in a hurry before your boss finds out.

If you have lost important company data and your boss just says to go and recover it, rapid data recovery can be a solution. Often companies can perform emergency operations to recover lost data and get you on your way in only 24-48 hours. However be prepared to pay up for these services. The services will be worthwhile depending on how important the lost data is to you or your business.

If you are involved in the management of a company, you may want to keep the contact information of a reliable data recovery specialist near your desk. You never know when you may need one.

By Jakob Jelling

Disaster and Recovery

Read following statistics.

1. The average company will lose 3 % of its gross sales within a week of sustained outage.
2. The average company that experiences a computer outage lasting longer than 10 days will never fully recover. 50 % will be out of business within 5 years.
3. The chances of surviving a disaster affecting the corporate data processing center are less than 7 in 100. The chances of experiencing a disaster are 1 in 100.

- Jon Toigo (On Disaster Recovery Planning)

What If? – Scenario is key word for disaster recovery plan. Take a pen and paper. Start with "Fish bone" diagram. List down all effects that may happen to your organization if causes are related to disaster. List down all disaster. Once you are ready with diagram, try to find out best solutions available to you. Now you are having list of alternatives with you. Select best or suitable alternative to avoid disaster.

If you are looking for creating standard disaster recovery plan, following aspects may help you.

Disaster Recovery Plan

Disaster

Fires, floods, earthquakes, and bombings are examples of disaster events. Other then natural disaster - power "brownout," a computer virus, inclement weather, flu epidemic, sabotage, negligence, disk drive failure, local telephone service failure, or software failure are also considered as problems.

Problems often take the form of unforeseen events that cause damage or lengthy disruption or threaten to do so. One can often more readily recognize the situation is a disaster with these types of occurrences. Such kind of disasters may evolve from problems that disrupt normal operations and then worsen or continue so long the disruption becomes critical.

Your plan includes –

1. List down all possible operational, legal, and financial impact from a disruption or disaster
2. List down threats that could turn your IT infrastructure and services down that cause business interruption

3. Identify probability of occurrence of each identified threat
4. Estimate the loss potential of a service area (quantitative or qualitative)

Recovery

Define your recovery strategy: The recovery strategy is an overview of the recovery process that the organization will follow if affected by a disaster.

The strategy should speak to:

1. Recovery requirements for critical business operations.
2. Provisions for off-site storage of critical data.
3. Alternative processing strategies and facilities such as.
4. Procedures for obtaining resources during both the recovery phase and the restoration phase.

Disaster recovery plans should address specific procedures for both situations.

Emergency & Escalation steps

Emergency procedures direct the response to disaster events. Escalation procedures direct the response to problems. Both sets of procedures may result in the declaration of a disaster and activation of the recovery plan.

Emergency Response

1. Life protection & Safety
2. Immediate emergency help from fire, police, and hospitals
3. Reduce loss of IT services or assets
4. Set up a crucial point coordinating the recovery plan

Problem Escalation: The purpose of problem escalation procedures is to define the steps and time intervals leading up to the declaration of a disaster.

Recovery Operations

1. Recovery flow: Define outlines and steps to follow in case of disaster situation

2. Build recovery team organization: Assign staff and management responsibilities for putting the recovery plan into effect. Include team or individual assignments of responsibility by area of expertise such as:

3. Site restoration or relocation

4. Verification and Plan maintenance

Standard recovery plan includes following details

1. Agency staff to be called in the event of a disaster:
2. Disaster Recovery Team
3. Building Maintenance
4. Building Security
5. Legal Advisor
6. Emergency services to be called (if needed) in event of a disaster: Ambulance, data processing backup, Firemen, Experts, Police, and Electricians, etc.
7. Locations of in-house emergency equipment and supplies: Electricity, Gas, Water, Ladder, IT support
8. Sources of off-site equipment and supplies
9. Salvage Priority List

Attach a copy of the records retention schedule identifying all vital/essential records series. The location and record medium of the preservation duplicate for each vital records series should be noted.

The following questions can be helpful in determining priorities:

1. Can the records be replaced? At what cost?
2. Would the cost of replacement be less or more than restoration of the records?
3. How important are the records to the agency?
4. Are the records duplicated elsewhere?

Agency Disaster Recovery Procedures: Attach a list of specific procedures to be followed in the event of a disaster in you agency, including responsibilities of in-house recovery team members.

Follow-up Assessment:

A written report, including photographs, should be prepared after recovery and attached to a copy of the disaster plan. The report should note the effectiveness of the plan, and should include an evaluation of the sources of supplies and equipment, and of any off-site facilities used.

That's what about planning. But more than plan, tackling situation in live is different. Struggling and being with actual disaster is different. William said, "Once you fully apprehend the vacuity of a life without struggle, you are equipped with the basic means of salvation". Avoiding disaster in advance is what manager taught in advance. But managing actual disaster in real life is what manager learns only when he or she actually struggles with it.

Further Readings & Source

Information Technology Disaster Recovery and Business Resumption Planning Standards Basic Guidelines for Disaster Planning

By Jay C

Okay, computers a machine, right? Okay, maybe not yours. You

Data recovery is a tricky thing, and if you've somehow deleted or had your important files corrupted or lost due to human error, business espionage, faulty hardware or software or any other reason; the good news is that your lost data is probably recoverable. This article will show you a few things NOT to do when an event such as this occurs.

Don't run the drive anymore, or use the device. (MP3, portable storage, camera card, whatever) If you think it won't hurt to even just poke around the internet for a solution to this mess you've made/found, you're wrong! Don't install or run anything on the drive you hope to recover data from. Only access this drive again from a healthy PC with the software solution you're going to use. Since files are overwritten in the order they've been deleted, the last files that have been excised from your drive will be the first to be lost permanently. Even just surfing, with all the cookies and temporary internet files that are always being generated will often doom the process without you even knowing about it.

Don't use tools that may reside on your computer, such as Scandisk, or a boot record utility, as these will probably overwrite exactly the files you're seeking to get back.

In short, be careful! Your data may very well be recoverable, as long as you don't do something to erase it forever! Find a good data recovery software solution, and then follow the instructions to the letter, and you'll more than likely live to see your lost data return!

Keith Thompson is the webmaster at Data Recovery Service where you can find solutions to your data recovery needs!

User Guide for Data Recovery – Through Data Recovery Software ( part2)

Attaching the Drive in to slave has three simple steps:
• Set the jumpers on the hard drive or CD ROM
• Plug and screw the drive in
• Boot the computer up and make sure the drive is detected

Let's take the example of Stellar Phoenix Data Recovery Software Run setup.exe from Stellar Phoenix software CDROM or diskette. If you have downloaded Stellar Phoenix from www.stellarinfo.com or a download engine, run the application setup.exe file from windows explorer to begin the installation process.

Note: Make sure you are logged in as administrator before initializing setup, as the software installation requires admin rights in Windows NT/2000/XP.

Setup starts to install the software, creates a desktop shortcut and creates an entry in program groups menu. The default path where software is installed is C:Program FilesStellar Phoenix FAT & NTFS 2.0 Software creates an entry in Add Remove program group for uninstalling the software.

Here we came to the end of installation. Now you can perform the desired activity like recovering the complete partition, deleted files or repair the corrupted files.

In my next article I will guide you in recovering the Deleted files & folders by using Stellar Phoenix Fat & FTFS – Data Recovery Software

User Guide for Data Recovery – Through Data Recovery Software ( part1)

A disk drive can be damaged due to a number of causes such as virus attack, voltage glitches, software malfunction, hard disk format, accidental file/directory deletion, human error or even sabotage. Such events cause corruption or damage to the disk drive, and make the data completely inaccessible to the user.

Data Recovery comes into play when your storage stops responding to your request. This is the most critical time for your data and the impending problem with the hard drive. A wrong step can make your hard drive & data inaccessible for ever. First and foremost thing is Don't Panic!

Now check whether you have a physical failure or logical one. Normally in 80% of cases there is a logical failure. To know the type of failure you have hear whether any ticking sound is coming from the hard drive or not? If not that means that it is a logical failure and you can recover your data through data recovery software.

You can choose the data recovery software by searching on Google with keywords like data recovery software, hard drive recovery etc. While scanning different software product consider these factors:

See to this whether the software supports your systems hardware like RAM (Random Access Memory), Operating Systems (particular Window flavors, Unix, Linux, Solaris etc).

You must check your RAM before installing the data recovery software, as these software uses recursive search operation which requires lots of virtual memory. For a fast recovery you have large size of virtual memory. I would recommend 256 MB or 1 GB would be best.

After selecting the software it's the turn of software Installation. NEVER means NEVER install the software on the same physical drive from where you have lost your data. As it may get over written and you will lose it for ever.

Always use a working computer with a drive having enough free space to store your recovered data.

Verify that the drive in the PC is connected on the Primary Channel as Master.
You can connect the drive as:
• Slave on the primary channel OR AS
• Master or Slave on the secondary channel

Note: You can take help of support executive in your office or your maintenance engineer if you are not comfortable in connecting the drives.

contd...

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More on data recovery

You can either hire professional service to help you solve your problem or attempt a recovery on your own.

You can carry out data recovery operations on your own computer if you know what you are doing. There is data recovery software widely available that can assist you in the process.

Data recovery can become complicated if you overwrite on the storage device that has the lost data. Therefore if you do not know what you are doing, it is advisable to contact a professional service firm.

Data recovery professionals are experts in recovering data from all sorts of media and from a variety of damages done. There are many specialists out there who have years of experience in the IT field. The kind of data recovery operation to use will depend a great deal on the storage device and other variables such as the amount of damage done or the operation system used such as Macintosh, Windows or Linux.

There are some cases where it may be impossible to recover any data. However do not fret as the odds lie in your favor since a high percentage of data recovery operations are successful.

Preventing data loss

Of course the best way is to prevent data loss in the first place.

Data backup allows for restoring data if data loss occurs. Even ordinary pc users can set up their computer to carry out regularly scheduled backup operations. In the event of a hard drive crash or an unwise change in settings by an uninformed user, the restore tool can be used to retrieve deleted data or to restore the computer's settings from an earlier time.

For the back up process to be useful it should involve several reliable backup systems and performing drills to make sure the data is being stored correctly. Additional protection methods from data loss include making sure that the hard drive is protected from damages from the external environment. This includes protection from sunlight and temperature extremes.

Also plugging in your pc into a surge protector rather than an ordinary outlet can give your computer a protection layer from electricity fluctuations. Keep your virus protection up to date. Also remember to keep your backup data separate from your computer.

Nevertheless a lot of companies will go through a disaster and experience data loss. The best thing to do is not to panic and also not to ignore the situation. The quicker you rectify the situation the better. Counting on data loss will help you be prepared for any such event.

By Jakob Jelling
Published: 2/13/2005

What is data recovery?

Data recovery is the retrieval of inaccessible or contaminated data from media that has been damaged in some way. Data recovery is being increasingly used and is an important process nowadays.

There has been a lot of progress in increasing the memory capacity of data storage devices. Therefore data loss from any one incident also tends to be very high. The relevance of lost data can vary greatly. Maybe you have had the experience of storing a homework assignment on a floppy disk only to have it missing on the day the assignment in due.

Consider the fact that a large amount of businesses nowadays have vital organizational related data stored on machines. Also hospitals store data on patients on computers. Large amounts of websites nowadays use databases technology to enhance their websites and make them more dynamic. Php and MySql use has been on the rise on the Internet. Database failure is not uncommon and so it is not a fail proof method of storing information.

Companies have high reliance on computer technology to write and store data relevant to their business operations. Thus the data being stored can have a great deal of impact on personal lives and operations of companies.

There can be several causes of data loss.

Data loss can occur from unexpected incidences including national tragedies such as floods and earthquakes.

Often power failure can cause loss of data from hard drives. Sudden power surges can also cause a lot of damage to a computer's hard drive.

Accidentally deleting a file or formatting a hard drive or floppy disk is a common reason for data loss.

If you have accidentally lost any important documents there are several steps you can take. Remember that if you have accidentally erased a file, it may not have vanished from your computer. It may have left an imprint in a different format on the computer's hard drive or other storage devices. Recovering the data involves locating it and transforming it into human readable form.

Not all data may be recoverable. cotd..

Urgent Data Recovery

If you find yourself in the unfortunate and sometimes awkward position of having lost some important data and need data recovery urgently, find a professional data recovery company to retrieve your lost data.

For urgent recovery of your lost data, you can usually rely on the expert services of data recovery professionals. With a good data recovery expert you can expect a free delivery and collection of the problem memory storage device, along with a free evaluation. Choose a data recovery company which offers a no recovery – no charge policy, although with most good data recovery experts you can expect a recovery success rate of over 90%.

So, if you hear unusual noises from you machine or media device, or if the system is not booting-up, or perhaps the drive cannot be found on your system or you have accidentally deleted important files then a data recovery expert is the answer for you.

Whatever the reason for the data loss, most professional data recovery companies will endeavor to retrieve the data. Data recovery companies will be able to recover lost data in most circumstances – such as password loss, virus corruption, system sabotage and more. A professional data recovery company will be able to conduct and urgent data recovery on almost all operating systems and media, such as CD and DVD’s, backup tapes, damaged disks and more. Whatever the memory storage device, from cameras to computers – your chosen data recovery expert should be able to recover urgent lost data.

Data recovery companies employ teams of experienced and qualified technicians who can solve most data loss problems. So, if the data was accidentally deleted or you have experienced some electromechanical failure or virus infection, call in the professional to retrieve your lost data.
If you require an urgent data restore for a criminal case, get a professional data recovery company to expertly extract and recovery electronic evidence.

We will discuss more on this forth coming posts....

datarecovery tips

Datarecovery tips