Q&A For Computer File Recovery

Q: What is computer file recovery?

A: It is titled, data recovery. Data recovery salvages information from failed, corrupted, or damaged hard disk drives, CDs, and various other electronics. Data recovery is also the course of action taken to retrieve and secure information from storage media for the purposes of spying such as in spy ware.

Q: What can I do to prevent losing data again?

A: Back up your hard drive on to a CD, DVD or an external drive as much as possible. Not only does this keep your information, pictures, and business documents safe, but then it will travel with you anywhere and is easily accessible.

Just a note: We live in an age of electrical data consumption by end users. End users collect data for commercial and sometimes personal use. Along with that comes the risk of computer viruses, trojan attacks, or corrupted files making your data inaccessible. Because so much of this is out of your control, there are several companies whose job it is to retrieve your lost or corrupted files.

Q: Can I retrieve information I need from my recycle bin?

A: Absolutely. Go to your recycle bin icon on your desk top and right click. Select file or folder and then click restore. If you emptied your recycle bin recently you will need third-party software specializing in data retrieval.

Q: I have a new computer but I need to recover data from a crashed computer. How do I accomplish that?

A: Use a third party software data retrieval CD. Or, you may remove the hard drive from your crashed computer and get an adapter to hook up to the other computer as an external drive.

Q: Due to a power outage my computer failed. I can't find the business template I was working on. What can I do?

A: This is what is called logical damage. You may have to repeat your work, but first, run your de-fragment and disk check-up program. Continue to do this on a regular basis and it will help your computer to keep from defragmenting information you have not saved during a power outage. Also, a backup power system may be necsassary.

File Recovery in Windows Vista If the Bootrec Can't Resolve Startup Issues

You might come across a number of issues while starting up your Windows Vista computer. These issues could be related to MBR (Master Boot Record), BCD (Boot Configuration Data) store and boot sector. Startup issues might prevent your system to boot up and thus you can not access files from your hard drive. This behavior of Microsoft Windows results into critical file loss situations and require Windows Data Recovery to be sorted out.

Startup issues in Windows Vista can be resolved with the help of Bootrec.exe utility in the Windows RE (Windows Recovery Environment). This tool can troubleshoot and repair the below items in Microsoft Windows Vista:

MBR

Boot Sector

BCD store

Damage or issues with these Windows Vista items generally cause startup problems.

When you attempt to troubleshoot startup issues using Windows RE, you should first use Startup Repair feature in System Recovery Options dialog box. If Startup Repair does not fix the problem or you need to troubleshoot more steps, use Bootrec.exe utility to perform File Recovery.

To run Bootrec.exe utility, follow the underwritten steps:

Insert Windows Vista installation DVD in disk drive and restart the system.

Press a key when you're prompted.

Choose a language, time, currency, keyboard or input method and click Next.

Select Repair your computer.

Choose the OS that you wish to repair and click Next.

In System Recovery Options dialog box, select Command Prompt.

Type Bootrec.exe and press Enter key.

Bootrec.exe tool supports a number of options such as /FixMbr, /FixBoot, /ScanOs, and /RebuildBcd. Select an option, which is appropriate for your situation.

Though, Bootrec.exe is a useful utility, but in some situations like severe file system corruption, system partition damage and partition table corruption like situations, it may not help you. In such case, the problem persists and you need to go for Windows Data Recovery Software to get your missing, lost or inaccessible files back.

These are effective third party applications, which are capable of methodically scanning whole hard drive using efficient scanning mechanisms and retrieving all sorts of lost files. File Recovery Software come equipped with interactive and simple graphical user interface that let you perform easy, quick and absolute recovery of your mission critical files. Safe and original recovery is performed by these applications in all cases as they have read only conduct.

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery is the most comprehensive and robust software that can recover lost files in all cases. It recovers files from all FAT32, VFAT, NTFS and NTFS5 file system partitions. This software is compatible with Microsoft Windows 7 RC1, Vista, 2003, XP and 2000.

File Recovery When Windows Operating System Becomes Dead

Operating system (such as Microsoft Windows) is the most critical component of a computer system that provides an interface between user and hardware. It is responsible for managing and coordinating the activities and sharing of resources of a computer. It ensures proper working of all the applications and effective management and accessing of your data. You can not run your computer system without O.S. In some situations, the O.S may get damaged and you can not boot up your system. At this point, all of the files stored on your hard drive become inaccessible file loss situations occur. You need to go for Windows Data Recovery solutions to sort out this issue and get all of your valuable and mission critical files back.

In a practical scenario, when you boot up your system, the process might fail halfway and you come across any of the below given error messages:

• Error loading operating system
• Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: WINDOWSSYSTEM32CONFIGSYSTEM
• ERROR_EA_FILE_CORRUPT The extended attribute file on the mounted file system is corrupt.
• ERROR_BADDB The configuration registry database is corrupt
• Missing operating system
• Operating system not found

All of the above error messages indicate that your Windows operating system is either damaged or missing. This behavior of Windows operating system might occur due to virus infection, file system corruption, improper system shutdown, registry file corruption and system metadata structure corruption. In such situations, it becomes extremely important to carry out Windows Recovery by resolving this issue.

Resolution

In order to work around this issue, you need to format the hard drive and install a fresh copy of Windows O.S. Formatting is capable of resolving most of the disk related issues. But it also has a disadvantage that it removes all of the file stored on your hard drive.

To prevent this situation, you need to go for Windows Partition Recovery Software that provides Boot DVD to recover data from Windows hard drive. These software are quite easy to use and recovers lost, missing and inaccessible files in most of the cases. Using Boot DVD of these software, you can directly boot your system and get into recovery options.

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery is the most advanced tool to recover FAT32, VFAT, NTFS and NTFS5 file system partitions. To recover data from unbootable system, Boot DVD of this software is available. This Windows Recovery Software is designed for Microsoft Windows 7 RC1, Vista, 2003, XP and 2000.

Author is doing research on partition recovery related problems and discussed on booting problem. Author suggested to use partition recovery software in case of partition loss or file corruption.