'Hard Drive Data Recovery Software & Services' Blog RSS Feed

Data Recovery Post “System 32 Corrupt or Missing” Error Message in Windows XP

jacobluis — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 04:34:48 -0700

System 32, a hidden file usually located in the C:\ drive, is the most vital part of your computer. The system 32 file is responsible for proper functioning of your system. This file is generally hidden to prevent any unintentional or accidental alterations by any user. Although the system 32 file is hidden, the possibilities of its corruption always exist. In such situations, your computer system becomes unbootable making the data stored in it inaccessible.
To surmount the problems created due to system 32 file corruption, a healthy backup provides you great support by restoring the data. But, if the backup is unavailable, corrupt or incomplete, then you need to search for powerful hard drive recovery solutions.

For instance – Sometimes, when you try to boot your Windows XP-based system, you may receive underneath error message:
“System32 Corrupt or Missing”
After this error message, the booting process of the system halts and eventually the data stored in the hard drive becomes inaccessible.

Root Cause:
The main cause of the above mentioned error message is corruption of System 32 file. This corruption can be caused due to some improper alterations in software or hardware configuration.

Resolution:
To resolve the issue and access your hard disk data, follow the below mentioned troubleshooting steps:

Reboot your computer in Safe Mode (press F8) during the boot sequence until you get into the boot menu.
Select “Boot Using Last Known Good Configuration.” The computer will now start using a configuration that worked in the past.

But, if the problem still persists, then use the XP Recovery CD and reboot your computer. However, you need to be careful while doing this as you have to type a few below specified commands. These commands, if written incorrectly, can completely damage your system. The commands are as follows:

md tmp

copy C:windowssystem32configsystem C:windowstmpsystem.bak

delete C:windowssystem32configsystem

copy C:windowsrepairsystem C:windowssystem32configsystem

In most cases, you will be able to resolve the issue by following the above given measures. But, if the above measures fail to resolve your issue, then the only way to resolve the problem is to re-install Windows XP. While re-installing allows you to reboot your system, it also erases all the pre-existing data from your hard drive. To recover your data after reinstalling, you will need to opt for a good-quality hard drive recovery software . Such software employ high-end scanning algorithms to provide absolute hard disk recovery.

Stellar Information Systems Limited is the foremost provider of advanced data recovery software. These software provide comprehensive hard disk recovery from almost all operating systems, such as, Windows, Linux, Novell, etc. The company also provide complete data recovery services to recover data after physical damage of your hard drive.

How to Resolve “Invalid Data” Error in Microsoft Windows

jacobluis — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:18:58 -0700

There are some Windows users who do not know about the slipstream. This is actually a fix, upgrade or enhancement to the operating system without creating new version to identify its changes. This is a quick and easy way to get specified updates. It is generally done for security updates and some hotfixes. But in some situations, after this operation, your system may start behaving strangely and may not start properly. This behavior renders all of your valuable files on the hard drive inaccessible and cause critical file loss situations. At this point, File Recovery solutions are required to get your missing, lost or inaccessible files back.

When you do it Windows XP computer, you need to create a folder 1386 and copy all Windows installation files from this folder to Windows CD. Then overwrite all the files with XP Service Pack 2 files. After that, make a new disk and Install Microsoft Windows. You delete the old Windows folder and then rename Program Files folder before installing the Windows. It is actually a nice clean installation of Microsoft Windows.

But after you perform this operation, you get several problems when you try to install a new hardware on your system. When you attempt to install the hardware drivers, installation wizard will give you the following error message:

“Invalid Data”

After this error message, installation process gets halted and you can not properly use the newly installed hardware.

Cause

This problem occurs due to the protection issues in Microsoft Windows registry and could take place with almost all types of drivers (specifically SCSI drivers and sound cards are reported).

Solution

In order to sort out this problem and perform Data Recovery, follow underwritten steps:

Click Start button.
Go to Run and type Regedit and press Enter key. It will open Windows registry editor.
Locate below registry sub key in registry editor
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\ENUM\PCI
Open every folder and find “DeviceDesc” that matches the hardware which you are installing.
Right click “VEN_xxxx” for the device and select permissions and select Allow for complete control. Close registry editor and continue with the installation process.

Although, this method works in most of the cases, but improper editing of registry might lead to severe problems that require hard drive formatting and file recovery software to resolve the issue. These data recovery software work in most of the data loss situations and perform easy and quick recovery.

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery is the most advanced and efficient tool for absolute recovery of all types of lost files. It recovers files from FAT32, VFAT, NTFS and NTFS5 file system partitions. The application is compatible with Microsoft Windows 7, Vista, 2003, XP and 2000.

Damaged Hard Drive Partition Resulting in Data Loss

jacobluis — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:52:06 -0700

Partitioning of the hard drive is done to divide the storage space of the hard disk into separate areas. This enables you to store the files and the operating system separately in different partitions. But, unfortunately hard drive partitions are prone to corruption or damage. Few factors responsible for their damage are virus infection, power outage, new software updates, unexpected system shutdown, etc. When a hard drive partition gets damaged, you can no more access the data stored in it. Thus, it is always recommended to backup your data regularly. But, if you have not backed up your data, or the backup falls short, then you need to use professional Hard Drive Recovery services to restore the data.

Sometimes, you may encounter an error message similar to the following while accessing a hard drive partition:

“Drive Not Formatted.
Do you want to format now?”

This error message indicates that either certain parts of the hard drive partition are not ready for use with the operating system or the partition is damaged or corrupted. Also, the problem still persists even if you restart the system or do not click on the 'yes' option. This error message is most prevalent in Windows and Macintosh operating systems

Resolution:
To resolve the issue, you are left with no other option but to format your hard drive. In case you are using a new hard drive in which no data is stored, then you can format the hard drive without any fear. But, if the hard drive you are using contains loads of data, then formatting the hard drive would not be much beneficial as you will eventually lose all your hard drive data. In such situations, you need to opt for Hard Drive Data Recovery. According to the scenario in this article, data loss has occurred due to logical reasons, so you need to use a powerful data recovery software to recover your data. These application employ high-end scanning mechanisms to offer quick and accurate Hard Drive Recovery from the formatted hard drive. These software are provided by data recovery companies. The only thing you need to know is the nature of your problem and the best suitable software for the same.

Stellar Information Systems Limited is a well-known organization that provides high quality data recovery services and software in both logical and physical data loss scenarios. This is an ISO 9001:2000 certified company that provides complete hard drive recovery from most of the storage medium like RAID, SATA, PATA, NAS, SAN, etc. The company also provides comprehensive data recovery from many operating systems like, Windows, Novell, Linux, etc.

Shadow Copies Deleted After Defragmenting Windows Server 2003 Volume

jacobluis — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:32:42 -0700

Windows Server 2003 includes a new feature of Volume Shadow Copy Service, which allows recovering lost or inadvertently deleted shared files and folders. The feature remedies the problem of permanent file deletion in Windows Server 2000, due to which a file deleted from across the network is not placed in Recycle Bin but is permanently gone. On the other hand, it does not prove a complete alternative to backups. This is because that shadowed data resides on the same volume on which the original data has been stored. Thus, if this volume becomes corrupt or is formatted, there would be no other way to restore from traditional backup or use a powerful Windows Data Recovery product.

For example, consider a situation when you try to run Disk Defragmenter utility on a shadow copies activated volume in Windows Server 2003-based computer. You notice that some or all of shadow copies of data are deleted or lost. You observe a definite pattern that the oldest shadow copies of data are deleted first. When you view the System log, you come across errors suggesting disk space issues.

Cause

The described behavior results because of file system cluster size issues. The System Shadow Copy provider uses a cluster size independent mechanism, called copy-on-write, which typically functions at 16-KB block level. This problem occurs when cluster size is smaller than 16 KB. In this situation, the System Shadow Copy provider fails to correctly distinguish between defragmentation I/O and typical I/O operations. As a result, it carries on with cop-on-write operation, which increases the storage area of Shadow Copy. It starts deleting the data copies once the storage area comes to its defined limit.

Solution

To solve the above issue, you are suggested to reformat the volume using 16-KB or larger cluster allocation unit size.

Since the reformatting process causes the entire volume data to delete, you will need to restore it from a traditional backup. If this fails or is unavailable, windows partition recovery solutions come to rescue. Windows Data Recovery products are high-end tools with unique and safe technology to recover lost data and partitions.

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Software is an unmatched recovery solution to restore damaged, lost, deleted or formatted disk partitions. It is a non-destructive windows partition recovery product with rich set of features, such as Disk Cloning, Disk Imaging, S.M.A.R.T features, RAW File Recovery and more. The tool supports Windows 7, Vista, XP, 2003 and 2000 based systems.

Data Recovery Solutions for Common Computer User

jacobluis — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:31:20 -0700

In today's technology and hi-tech world, data helps you to power your decisions. A huge amount of data is generated every day and organizations depend upon the data gathered to move on and make profits. That is the reason why small and big organizations should be ready not only to collect and organize information, but also to keep it safe to avoid disasters and being prepared for Data Recovery if any data loss situation occurs.

Concepts like data storage, backup, data security and recovery are quite common in all types of organizations as well as for general home computer users. There are several pre-defined procedures to make sure that your data is complete safe and always in hand. Organizations do not have any problem in assigning a small amount of budget in this area.

A number of organizations are there in the market that provide effective storage management solutions, which are easy to use and technically advance for your business-critical data. They also offer disaster recovery, data privacy, data migration, backup and restore and other storage solutions.

Although, backup is the best solution to prevent data loss, but online backup is not affordable by common users. Thus, if any disaster or data loss situation occurs, you need to go for Data Recovery solutions to retrieve lost data from your affected, failed or damaged storage media.

The recovery applications are the best option for common users to recover all of your lost data. Whenever a data loss occurs, the files are never deleted from the hard drive permanently. The files remain physically intact until they are being overwritten. Operating system use a memory address pointer to point the file on hard drive. This pointer is stored in file system table. Deletion of the file removes this pointer and thus operating system can not locate your file and it seems that file has lost forever.

In such critical circumstances, Data Recovery Software come for your help. They are advanced and effective third party applications, which methodically scan whole hard drive and extract all of your lost data out of it. The data recovery software have simple and interactive graphical user interface and do not demand sound and prior technical skills. With read-only and non-destructive conduct, the tools are safe to use.

Stellar Information Systems Limited is the leading provider of superior data recovery applications. They are able to effectively handle all of the logical data loss situations. The software are available for Windows, Mac OS X, UNIX, Linux and Novel operating Systems.

Black Startup Screen and File Loss in Microsoft Windows Vista

jacobluis — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 22:57:21 -0700

Startup issues are very common in Microsoft Windows operating system, including Windows Vista. Such issues prevent your system from booting and does not allow you to get into your system and access data. The problem renders all of your critical files inaccessible and lead to Windows file loss. At this point, to retrieve your inaccessible Windows files, you need to carry out Windows File Recovery using appropriate tools.

As a practical instance, when you boot up your Windows Vista computer, it might hang (stop responding) with a black screen at startup. Furthermore, you might come across below symptoms when you attempt to overcome this issue:

When you restart your computer and press F8 key before Vista progress indicator appears and select Safe Mode option, same problem reoccurs.
When you start WinRE (Windows Recovery Environment) for restoring Windows Vista, the WinRE stops responding.

If you attempt to use MS Windows Vista installation disk to repair the installation, your computer hangs.

At this point, you can not access your files from Windows hard drive and experience file loss situations. You need to find out the cause of this problem and go for corrective action through File Recovery to retrieve lost files.

Root of the issue

This issue generally takes place due to file system corruption in the $Txf directory. The corruption causes the deadlock situation between the Autocheck and the Txf (Transactional NTFS) process. This behavior of Microsoft Windows may also damage the file system and results into severe file loss.

Solution

In order to sort out this problem, you need to replace damaged file system with new one. This process needs hard drive formatting and reinstallation of Microsoft Windows Vista.

Warning: Hard drive formatting is able to fix all such issues but it also removes all of the existing files from hard drive. The files include system files as well as data files.

In such file loss circumstances, file recovery software are required to Recovery Lost Files. These are powerful and advanced third-party applications, which carry out in-depth scan of your hard drive to extract all lost files out of it. The recovery tools come equipped with simple and self-descriptive rich graphical user interface and thus let you carry out recovery on your own. They maintain the integrity of your data as they have read-only conduct.

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery is the most excellent tool for perfect and quick recovery. It recovers all types of lost files from FAT32, VFAT, NTFS and nTFS5 file system partitions. The software is compatible with Microsoft Windows 7 RC1, Vista, 2003, XP and 2000.

When you Should Not Try Data Recovery On your Own

jacobluis — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:56:59 -0700

The hard disk drive, which stores all of your professional, personal and intimate data is a pretty fragile component of your computer system. While the hard disk might see like an uncompromising piece of equipment, but it may fail any point of time and result into critical data loss circumstances. In such cases, you need to restore lost data from an updated backup. If backup is not available, Data Recovery solutions are there to retrieve lost data from your damaged hard drive.

Recovery is possible in majority of data loss situations, but one false move cause permanent data loss. All of your critical files, documents, backup, songs, music files and other data may become irretrievable. Thus, you should not attempt recovery processes until you know the exact cause of issue and possible solution for the same.

The very first thing that most of the computer users go for after losing their data is disk repair tool. The disk repair utilities would write information on hard drive, essentially creating new drive with old data simply removed away or has been covered with deep layer of data, which has to be through to find lost files. Rebooting your system from scratch by formatting the hard drive and reinstalling operating system is another huge mistake.

Disk formatting may help you to sort out hard drive related problems, but it also removes all of your valuable data from hard drive and cause severe data loss. In these cases, you need to use Data Recovery Software to quick, safe and complete recovery. The applications are also capable of handling all other logical data loss issues.

Opening the hard drive in general environment is also a common mistake that most users make that are unaware of recovery procedures. When you open the drive, its sensitive platters might come in contact with dirt, human fingerprints and dust that can damage them further and lead to irretrievable data.

For safe and absolute recovery in such circumstances, data recovery professionals' help is required. This assistance is known as data recovery service. Such type of recovery is performed in safe environment of Clean Rooms using cutting-edge technologies. The experts know all ins and outs of the hard drives and perform quick, absolute and secure recovery in most of the cases of physical damage.

Stellar Information Systems Limited is foremost provider of superior data recovery software with highest success rate. Recovery is carried out in safe and sterile environment of Class 100 Clean Rooms using cutting-edge technologies. The software are available for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, UNIX and Novell.

Survival Guide For Hard Drive Data Recovery

jacobluis — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:32:27 -0700

The procedure of hard disk recovery has risen to the prominence over recent few years, as a huge amount of valuable data is stored on your storage devices. When you perform any action on your computer system, it means some data and information is written on your drive. Even when the stored data is removed from the drive, it remains there only. Data just become inaccessible through normal methods. In such cases, Data Recovery Software help you out to retrieve lost, missing or inaccessible data.

When you suspect that you are experiencing data loss, you should immediately stop using your computer. If you continue running your computer and store data on the hard drive, it is quite possible that data may get overwritten with new one and you come across permanent data loss. Installing a new software or running a disk repair utility may also overwrite the lost data.

Some information may be of high importance and loss of that information could be quite costly indeed. This is thus significant to take action as soon as possible and retrieve lost data. If you have an updated and complete backup in place, recovery becomes very easy. You can restore all of your lost data directly from the backup media.

Data loss situations can be divided into two major categories- physical and logical. Both these conditions are caused by different reasons and the available recovery solutions are also vary.
The physical data loss situations occur due to mechanical or electrical data to your hard drive. It is caused by read/write head crash, power surges, damage circuit board, controller failure, actuator arm damage and other such reasons. Data Recovery in these cases is possible through the help of recovery professionals. They are familiar with all the disk internals and can easily sort out the problem in most of the cases.

However, logical damage occurs due to file system corruption, virus infection, hard drive formatting, accidental deletion, operating system malfunction and other such reasons. In case of logical damage, the hard drive internal remain intact but the stored data become inaccessible. You can recover data in these cases through data recovery software. The Data Recovery Software methodically scan entire hard drive and extract all of the lost, missing or inaccessible data from it.

Stellar Information Systems Limited is the leading provider of data recovery solutions, developed according to highest standards of recovery industry. Software are offered for all computer operating systems including Windows, Mac OS X, UNIX, Linux and Novell. Recovery service is delivered through Class 100 Clean Rooms using cutting-edge technologies.

How to Solve 'Boot Record Signature AA55 Not Found' Error Starting Windows?

jacobluis — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 04:47:43 -0700

The disk MBR is consisted of startup code that system BIOS uses to determine the partition table. MBR uses this information to know the active boot partition and its starting sector. Each sector containing the partiton table must end with a boot record signature 55AA as its last two bytes, otherwise, the BIOS or MBR will give an error message and will stop the Windows bootstrapping process. If the issue lies only with boot record signature, a disk editor can help. But if its due to partition table or MBR corruption, you must recover the data using Windows Data Recovery Software tools in case if no valid backup is available.

For example, after you install Windows, when you try to start the computer, you might get a boot failure error message suggesting that it cannot load because of a computer disk configuration problem. You might alternatively receive one of the below error message:

“Boot Record Signature AA55 Not Found, xxxx Found Setup is inspecting your computer's hardware configuration... NTDETECT failed”

Or

“Boot Signature AA55 Not Found Error”

You cannot boot into the computer after if these errors occur.

Cause

The error occurs because Windows could not find the 55AA boot signature, which is supposed to be located in MBR or boot sector at the end of sector. This particularly occurs because of any of the below reasons:

You computer system is infected from virus
The system hardware is malfunctioning

Such problem usually indicate that the partition table or MBR is corrupted.

Solution

You should use a disk editor program to check for healthy partition table and presence of boot record signature (55AA). If boot record signature is missing, you can use this disk editor to enter the correct values at the end of sector 0.

However, if the partition table or MBR is corrupted, the trick above will solve not your issue. To solve it, you need to execute fdisk /mbr command while making sure that the boot record signature is present at the appropriate location.

If the problem continues, repartition your hard drive and restore from the last online or offline backup. At times, when you cannot restore from backup, there are Windows Partition Recovery utilities available that can be used to recover the lost and damaged partitions. However, it is suggested to use these data recovery software products prior to repartition or reformat the drive for better and safe results.

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery is a professional and reliable data recovery tool with advanced options and features. It is a safe windows partition recovery tool that supports Windows 7 RC1, Vista, XP, 2003 and 2000 based systems. The tool provides you advanced features like Append Header, RAW File Recovery, Save Scan and more.

“Disk Killer” (Boot Sector Virus) Infection and Data Recovery

jacobluis — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 03:06:27 -0700

Disk Killer virus, also known as Ogre is a destructive virus that severely infects the Master Boot Record/ Boot Sector of the system. It spreads in the system by writing copies of itself to 3 blocks on a floppy diskette or hard drive. Furthermore, these blocks are marked bad in the File Allocation Table (FAT), so that they cannot be overwritten. Being so destructive in nature, Disk Killer virus completely destroys the information or data present on the hard disk. After the virus has encrypted the entire disk, the only way way to get rid of this virus is to re-format the system. But, formatting removes all the data from the hard drive, which ultimately results in data loss In such situations, it is recommended to go for professional hard disk recovery services to recover your data completely.

Disk Killer virus spreads in the system when the system attempts to boot. Generally, you may fail to startup or to find the hard drive and receive the below mentioned error message at the startup:
"Bad or missing command interpreter. Enter name of command interpreter."

Basically, Disk Killer virus infects the hard disk by writing its code in place of the MBR code, the boot sector code of the boot disk , or modifies the address of the active books sector in the Disk Partition Table in the hard disk MBR. When the Disk Killer virus gets activated, you encounter the below mentioned viral code:

"Disk Killer -- Version 1.00 by COMPUTER OGRE 04/01/89
Warning!!
Don't turn off the power or remove the diskette while Disk Killer is Processing!

PROCESSING

Now you can turn off the power. I wish you Luck!"
And all the data on the disk or the diskette that was last booted from gets scrambled. However, if you immediately shutdown the system, then data-scrambling will not occur.

Resolution:

To prevent your system from Disk Killer virus, always make sure to install an updated or latest anti-virus in your system. An anti-virus software scans the system for viruses and remove them, if found. But, in case your system gets infected by Disk Killer virus, it may destroy all the information stored on the hard disk. In these situations, you need to use hard disk recovery services to effectively recover your data. These services are provided by disk recovery technicians and are carried out in the safe environment of Clean Rooms, both in cases of logical and physical data loss scenarios.

Stellar Information Systems Limited is an ISO 9001:2000 certified organization that provides comprehensive solutions for all data recovery needs in all cases of data loss. It provides technology driven services and software to recover your lost data efficiently. Having more than 1,000,000 satisfied customers worldwide, the company offers complete disk recovery from RAID, NAS, SAN based hard drives.

Windows Startup Files Corruption on Intel x86-based Computer

jacobluis — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:27:26 -0700

When you install Windows on a computer system that uses Intel x86-based processor, the chances that its key boot files become corrupted. Windows uses four basic boot files on an Intel x86-based system. These are NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM, BOOT.INI, and NTOSKRNL.EXE. After the boot sector has been located, system loads NTLDR. This NT Loader switches the x86-based processor to 32-bit flat memory mode and examines the BOOT.INI to display the operating system choices. It then loads NTDETECT.COM that builds the hardware list and NTOSKRNL.EXE to start the operating system. Any interrupt while this sequence can render the system unbootable and data inaccessible. However, if Windows utilities fail to correct the system problems, you can install it as new and restore data from the last backup. But if backup fails too, you should opt for commercial Windows Data Recovery Software products.

For example, consider you use an Intel x86-based computer installed with Windows. You try to boot the computer, but fail in your attempts with symptoms, such as a blank screen with a blinking cursor, blue screen error messages etc.

Cause

One of the prime reasons for this behavior could be corruption of required boot file(s) or startup boot record for active partition.

Solution

To solve such problems, you need to have a Windows startup disk. This disk contains the files that are required to start Windows, while the remaining files are installed on the hard drive itself. Follow these steps to fix the given problem:

Insert the boot the disk and boot the computer from it
Follow the steps as prompted
Copy the NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM, BOOT.INI, and NTOSKRNL.EXE files from the disk to replace them at the root folder of active system partition on your hard drive (ususally C:\)
Exit the prompt and eject the disk. Your computer should boot normally from hard disk if the process ends successfully

If these steps cannot solve your issue, it is suggested to reinstall Windows or directly use a Windows Partition Recovery Utility to recover data from the hard drive. However, windows data recovery products can also be used after reformatting the drive, but give better results prior to this operation.

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery is a reliable and advanced recovery utility that is known for achieving best data recovery results. It is a comprehensive Windows Partition Recovery tool with graphically rich user interface. The application is compatible with Windows 7 RC1, Vista, XP, 2003 and 2000.

Partitions Inaccessibile after Server Exception Error in Windows 2000

jacobluis — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 04:59:05 -0700

After the mini-port drivers, class drivers and SCSI disk are initialized during Windows boot process, the system queries the BIOS for drive translation. The general value returned by most of the SCSI devices is 255 heads and 63 sectors for each track. Windows 2000 uses this value as default when the SCSI adapter BIOS is turned off. Windows NT also performs similar kind of computation while such situations, but uses smaller values. For this reason, you might encounter several issues after you upgrade your system to Windows 2000, when the drive translation feature is turned off. The partition table might get corrupt if you try to alter it anyway, for example when attempting to create or delete a disk partition. However, to restore such partitions, it is suggested to apply a valid data backup or use Partition Recovery Software to extract them.

To exemplify, consider an instance when you try to use Disk Management to delete or create a new logical drive in extended partition of your Windows 2000 based computer. The operation might fail with the below error message:

“The Server Threw an Exception”

You cannot access the logical drives of the extended partition after this error message occurs. The drives are either lost or damaged.

Cause

The error primarily occurs when you use a Windows 2000 system that has been upgraded from Windows NT 4.0. If the drive translation feature is turned off or the drive has been moved to a controller position where no drive translation is performed, the differences in ways Windows 2000 and NT handle drive translation can cause the drives to render inaccessible. This happens because Disk Management needs to perform few modifications in disk partition table.

Solution

To prevent such situations from occurring, it is suggested that you install all the latest updates available for your operating system.
For already lost and damaged logical drives, you should check your backup to achieve recovery. If no suitable backup is present or its proves invalid for any reason, you need to opt for a Partition Recovery utility. Partition Recovery Software come with advanced scanning algorithms, graphically rich user interface and powerful features that allow for complete recovery results.

Data Recovery Software is a professional and reliable Partition Recovery tool with advanced options and features. It is a safe utility that supports Windows 7 RC1, Vista, XP, 2003 and 2000 based systems. The tool provides you advanced features like Append Header, RAW File Recovery, Save Scan and more.

Damage to Hard Drive Structure Doesn't allow you to Delete Files in Windows

jacobluis — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:11:44 -0700

In some situations, you may need to delete some unwanted files from your Windows hard drive to free up disk space. The situations occur when your drive becomes full and you need to store more files to it. But, when you try to delete the files, you get some error message that indicate damage on the drive and files could not be deleted. Such damage may make the existing files inaccessible and cause serious file loss circumstances. At this point, you need to opt for File Recovery solutions to retrieve lost files from Windows hard drive.

In a practical scenario, when you attempt to delete a file on NTFS file system partition, you might come across below error message:

“Cannot delete file name: The file or directory is corrupt and unreadable.”

When you check the system log, you will see any of the following Event entries:

“Event ID: 41
Source: Diskperf
Description: The file system structure on disk is corrupt and unreadable. Please run the chkdsk utility on the device with label "Volume_name"
Or
“Event ID: 55
Source: NTFS
Description: The file system structure on disk is corrupt and unusable. Please run the chkdsk utility on the volume <Drive_letter:>”

When you run ChkDsk tool against the affected Windows hard drive partition, the utility might or might not make some repairs, but afterwards you still could not delete the files from drive. Such corruption scenarios need windows file recovery to be sorted out.

Root of the problem

This problem generally occurs due to damage the MFT (Master File Table) of NTFS file system. The long and short files name pairs, which are stored in directory index record and associated FRS (File Record Segment) contain case-sensitive names that don't match.

Resolution

In order to sort out this issue, you are required to format Windows hard drive. It resolves all of the disk related problems. But it also has a disadvantage that it removes all the files from hard drive and results into complete file loss. In such cases, Partition Recovery Software come for your help.

The applications are specifically designed to methodically scan entire hard drive and extract all of the lost files from it. The partition recovery tools come equipped with interactive, simple and self-descriptive graphical user interface and thus allow you to have Do-It-Yourself recovery.

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery is the best solution to recover all types of lost Windows files. It recovers files from FAT32, VFAT, NTFS and NTFS5 file system partitions. The software is designed for Microsoft Windows 7 RC1, Vista, 2003, XP and 2000.

Best Practice to Effectively Handle Logically Crashed Storage Media

jacobluis — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 04:30:43 -0700

Data and information stored on your computer hard drive or any other storage media may get lost due to mistake, accident or damage. There is a number of recovery applications available in the market by which you can easily handle most of the logical data loss situations and carry out quick and absolute recovery. If you handle significant and business-critical data on your system, you should have such Data Recovery Software readily available to you.

Nevertheless the cause of hard drive failure and data loss, a good recovery software could help you to retrieve your lost data in majority of the cases. They work in data loss situations like file system corruption, accidental deletion, hard drive formatting, virus infection, system metadata structure corruption, operating system malfunction and many alike. They help you to recover all sorts of files including application files, images, songs, library files, zip files, documents and so forth.

The recovery of your lost data is possible due to the fact that files never gets deleted from your hard drive, until they are overwritten. When you format your hard drive or deleted a file permanently from your system, only the file pointer from file system table is deleted. This pointer is used by operating system to locate and access the file. When it gets deleted, operating system can not locate the file and thus you seem that file is lost.

Data is always at stake of loss and thus you should keep several updated copies of your critical data. These copies are known as backup. The backup is the most handy and easiest way to safeguard your data against failures. But in case of unavailability of backup, Data Recovery Software help you to retrieve all of the lost data.

For successful and assured recovery, you should always go for a powerful and reliable data recovery application. The software must have a easy graphical interface to provide you easy recovery. For safe retrieval of missing information, tool should have read-only and non-destructive conduct. Before finalizing a recovery software for yourself, you should make sure that it is compatible with your file system and operating system version.

The data recovery software use high-end scanning techniques for in-depth scanning of damaged drive and absolute recovery. They are able to recover lost files, folders and hard drive partitions, even in worst case scenarios like file system corruption or RAW hard drive.

Stellar Information Systems Limited is the foremost provider of high-quality recovery applications for secure and perfect recovery. The software are available for Windows, Mac OS X, UNIX, Linux and Novell operating systems. They support all underlying file systems, supported by these operating systems.

Windows Vista Boot Fails and Startup Repair Reports BCD Corrupt Error

jacobluis — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:36:54 -0700

Windows Vista boot process is different from what has been used in earlier versions of Windows. After the BIOS is loaded, MBR and then boot sector are accessed. The boot sector further loads the boot blocks and Windows Boot Manager. After this, BCD store is loaded to reach to the final stage of starting the operating system. If the process halts in anyway, Windows Vista will not boot. This leads to data inaccessibility and to restore it, you might need to use your backup. If this too fails, you should use a Partition Recovery Utility to recover and restore it.

For example, consider a scenario when you try to boot a Windows Vista based computer system, but the operations fails. Consequently, you run Startup Repair using installation disc, but this too fails and reports the following error:

Root cause found:
Boot configuration is corrupt.
Repair action: Partition table repair
Result: Failed. Error code = 0x490

The above error might occur accompanied with other errors also.

Cause

Windows Vista boot code or Winload.exe is severely corrupted beyond startup repair.

Solution

Since Startup Repair of recovery disc is unable to fix the errors, you need to follow suggestions like:

You can use Bootsect.exe command in order to restore the boot code and MBR information. It transfers the control to BOOTMGR (Windows Boot Manager). To do this, you should boot the computer using Windows Vista installation DVD and access its command prompt to run the following command:

Drive:\boot\Bootsect.exe /NT60

If the above step fails, try running commands through WinRE like:

bcdedit /set {default} device partition= Drive:
bcdedit /set {default} osdevice partition=Drive:
bcdedit /set {bootmgr} device partition=Drive:
BOOTREC /FIXMBR
BOOTREC /FIXBOOT
BOOTREC /REBUILDBCD
BOOTREC /SCANOS

In both the steps above, Drive should be replaced with the drive letter of your primary partition.

If you still cannot boot into Windows Vista, reformat and reinstall the system using WinRE.

To restore the missing data, use your current data backup. In any case of backup issues, you are suggested to use Partition Recovery utilities. However, using Partition Recovery Software before actually formatting the disk partition proves more beneficial in prospects considering to recover all data safely.

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Software is a reliable and full-fledged recovery utility designed for Windows 7 RC1, Vista, XP, 2003 and 2000 based systems. It is a non-destructive Partition Recovery application providing advanced and impressive set of features. The tool supports complete recovery of data for FAT32, VFAT, NTFS and NTFS5 file system drives.

Unable to Select Partition when Installing Windows Vista or Windows 7

jacobluis — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 23:38:27 -0700

Windows Vista and Windows 7 are Microsoft releases, which remove several bugs and incompatibilities issues that existed in their earlier members. These operating systems are available with major security and performance improvements. But, at times, when you try to install any of them, odds are that you might fail to select or format the target hard disk partition. Among other reasons, one possible cause is hard disk file system corruption. You might need to remove all the disk partitions, to restore which an updated data backup is required. In case, you cannot restore from backup, you are suggested to use a Partition Recovery Software to recover them.

For example, when trying to install Windows Vista or Windows 7, you might encounter the below error message:

“Windows is unable to find a system volume that meets its criteria for installation”

You may experience this error message with/without any of the these symptoms:

You try to install Windows Vista or Windows 7 on the hard disk, but it is not listed
To install the operating system, the formatting of target partition is required, but you fail to do so
You cannot select the target partition
Attempts of setting the hard disk partition for correct size fail

Cause

There can be several reasons for this problem to occur:

Outdated or incompatible mass storage driver or mass storage controller
Hardware issues, like loose data cable
You are trying to install on a dynamic disk
Damaged file system
Incompatible hard disk partition is being tried to select, for example FAT32 that is incompatible with Windows Vista and Windows 7

Solution

Following solutions can help you recovering from the existing issue:

Update the hard disk controller drivers when trying to upgrade to Windows Vista or Windows 7. You can select 'Load Driver' option of Setup when trying to perform clean Windows installation. This will provide the correct hard disk controller drivers.
Make sure you have installed all latest firmware and BIOS updates
Check if BIOS correctly detects the hard drive
Run chkdsk to correct the disk for errors
Use Convert.exe command to convert incompatible FAT partition to NTFS file system partition
If all the above measures fail, you should use Diskpart.exe to remove all the existing partitions and data to run the Windows setup again

If you opt for applying last step, you will need to restore data from backup. However, if no valid data backup exists, a powerful partition recovery utility will be required. Partition Recovery Software are specific applications designed to perform thorough disk scan in order to locate and restore all the data safely.

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Software is a comprehensive recovery utility that salvages lost disk partitions for Windows 7 RC1, Vista, XP, 2003 and 2000 based systems. It is a reliable partition recovery tool that provides advanced options, like Disk Cloning, Append Header, RAW File Recovery and others. It supports FAT32, VFAT, NTFS and NTFS5 file systems.

What You May Not Know About Data Recovery Solutions

jacobluis — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 23:06:02 -0700

The Data Recovery Software solutions have been valuable in retrieving lost data in the majority of data loss situations. Everyone, who owns and uses a computer system would have to go through the hard drive failures and data loss situations. The computer hard drives are very fragile and eventually fail, causing critical data loss. The hard drive failure generally occurs when you least expect it and could damage your whole hard drive. Along with several other hard drive failure factors, malware and viruses also play a major role.To recover lost files from windows you can use file recovery software.

You may not know it but the hard disks could be retrieved for their data and information. For example, when a hard drive starts making strange ticking, scrapping and clicking sounds, recovery professionals can help you out to repair the damaged drive and retrieve lost data from it. When the hard drive becomes old, its internal parts may fail. Unluckily, you can not access data from the hard drive and need recovery solutions for quick and absolute recovery.

The Data Recovery is an useful option for all sized of computer hard drive and other data storage media. You could have a computer hard drive, which is in the size of a thumb drive or it is over one TB, it can still be required easily and quickly. One thing that you should always remember to immediately switch off your computer when a physical damage to the hard drive occurs.

The recovery process in most of the cases is as easy as you can not even think. If you are experiencing data loss situations due to any logical failure such as file system corruption, hard drive formatting, operating system malfunction, virus infection and many alike, the recovery is possible in just few simple steps. Data Recovery Software are always there for your help to perform successful recovery.

On the other hand, recovery is possible with the help of recovery professionals. This type of Data Recovery Software is quite complex but potential in most of the data loss situations. This is known as recovery service. It is always performed in safe and sterile environment of Clean Rooms using cutting-edge technologies.

The recovery specialists first completely analyze the hard drive to find out actual cause of failure then repair the drive to make it function. After that they drive the image on another drive and perform recovery on image drive to prevent further damage.

Stellar Information Systems Limited is the most experienced and leading provider of reliable recovery solutions. Data Recovery service is performed in Class 100 Clean Rooms for all types of hard drives. The software are offered for Windows, Mac OS X, UNIX, Linux and Novell operating systems.

Missing File Attributes Cause File Loss in Microsoft Windows

jacobluis — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:46:29 -0700

When you try to restore files on your Microsoft Windows hard drive, some files may not restore properly. You get some kind of errors or other problems while restoring those files and they are lost. At this point, the file that are experiencing problems in restoring, needs to be recovered using effective and reliable Windows File Recovery solutions.

When you restart your computer after the restoration completes, ChkDsk check your hard drive for errors and make some general changes that includes the following:

“Deleting corrupt attribute record (128, "")
and
Inserting data attribute into file 36015”

After you boot the system, you may find that some of your significant files (about 10 to 15 MB in size before they lost) are shown as zero byte in size- they have 0 byte of data.

At this point, you need to find out the cause of this problem and go for File Recovery by sorting it out. Recovery is required to gain access of your lost, missing and inaccessible Windows files.

Root of the problem

This problem generally occurs due to corruption to the file attributes on NTFS file system partition. Due to corruption to the file attributes, file system and operating system does not get required information about the file and thus the file become inaccessible.

NTFS (New Technology File System) file system treats every file as a collection of the file attributes. Elements like file name, file security information, stored data, containing volume, Index Allocation Attribute and Index Root Attributes are all the file attributes.

If a file attribute could fit in MFT (Master File Table) file record, they are known as resident attributes and all other attributes are known as nonresident attributes. One or more hard drive clusters are allocated to the nonresident attributes.

Resolution

In such cases, Microsoft Windows automatically runs ChkDsk utility to detect and repair file system errors. But ChkDsk tool is not able to recover lost files or the file attributes. To retrieve files in such situations, File Recovery Software are required.

The Windows File Recovery software recovers lost files from Windows hard drive in most of the cases. The software are completely safe and easy to use. They offer absolute recovery in most of the file loss circumstances.

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Software is the most comprehensive and reliable software that recovers all types of lost files. It supports recovery from FAT32, VFAT, NTFS and NTFS5 file system partitions. The data recovery software is designed for Windows 7 RC1, Vista, 2003, XP and 2000.

NTFS Logical Drive Deleted After Using Fdisk

jacobluis — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 05:04:30 -0700

A hard disk can be divided into at most four primary partitions, one of which can be an extended partition. The extended partition can be further subdivided into multiple logical drives. The following reading describes an issue when you can lose an NTFS formatted logical drive in a dual-boot system using Windows XP. While such problems, you should make sure to have a valid data backup to restore it. But if it is unavailable for any reason, you need to use a powerful Windows Partition Recovery utility.

Consider the following scenario:

You configure to dual-boot between Windows 98 or 95 and Windows XP
One of the primary partitions is FAT formatted
You have two or more logical drives in an extended partition of Windows XP
An NTFS logical drive exists before the FAT logical drive
You use Fdisk to delete the FAT logical drive (occurring after NTFS logical drive), but can see only FAT logical drive labeled with drive letter of NTFS drive. You delete the FAT drive
You restart Windows XP, but the NTFS drive is no longer accessible in Logical Disk Manager

Cause

Such issues are observed because NTFS logical drive is not recognized by Fdisk in an extended partition. So, if an NTFS logical drives comes before FAT drive, it deletes the NTFS drive instead when you try to delete the FAT drive, for which you might not have complete backup.

Solution

To prevent such events from occurring, you should use Windows Logical Disk Manager to change logical drives' information. It is recommended not to use Fdisk when dual-boot configuration between Windows 98 or 95 and Windows XP is being used.

After you accidentally delete the NTFS partition, its entire data is lost. To restore it, you should check the availability and status of backup. If it exists in valid form, you need to apply it. Alternatively, you can use Data Recovery Software products to recover it.

Windows Partition Recovery utilities are exclusively designed tools with powerful technology and interactive design that provide complete recovery of lost, deleted, damaged or missing Windows partitions.

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery is a reliable and globally known tool to recover lost and missing data. The tool uses advanced scanning algorithms, while adhering to data security. It is a comprehensive Windows Data Recovery application that supports Windows 7 RC1, Vista, XP, 2003 and 2000. It provides powerful features, which include RAW File Recovery, Drive Status, Disk Cloning etc.