Raw hard drive recovery

When you try to access data from your computer hard drive, you may encounter certain error messages and the drive is displayed as RAW. In such situations, your important files and data can not be accessed from the drive.

When your hard drive is shown as RAW, it might show you the following symptoms:

"Invalid media type reading drive." Error message

"Sector not found" error message while accessing any file.

"Disk is not formatted. Do you want to format it now?"

File names contains strange characters.

In such situations, you need to opt for RAW hard drive recovery. You can effectively achieve that with hard drive recovery software that is specifically designed to meet recovery requirements of different users.

These software are capable of extracting your lost, missing or inaccessible hard drive partitions/volumes and complete data. Hard drive recovery software is generally easy to use and enable you to have ‘Do It Yourself’ data recovery.

You should only choose hard drive recovery software that offers RAW hard drive recovery support. RAW data recovery is used on hard drive file system’s logical structure corruption that causes serious issues (even post correction like index correction by chkdsk) or when logical structure gets overwritten. The RAW recovery process is carried out as the typical file system information about each file as name, type, size, number of clusters (for large files), location and more. In case of corrupted directory structures and missing file information it is impossible to recover the original file and folder names as they are not available. So, the regular tools for data recovery do not work in this situation.

The scan method used by RAW data recovery incorporates sequential reading of all sectors on the drive using file signature search algorithm. Almost all file types have unique file header and at times footer signatures. It provides the great option of extracting the confined data that lies within the file header and footer.

Error 0x0000007B while Installing Windows Vista

When we try to install Windows Vista or upgrade it, there might be some errors that may prevent the process. In this situation, one of the typical reasons is that Windows Vista or Windows Vista setup fails to access the hard drive, probably due to hard drive damage. Thus, there must bean immediate replacement of hard drive and restore maximum data possible through backup. In case of any backup issues when you cannot get the required information, Hard Drive Recovery tools are available to recover it.

Following error could be faced, at the time of installing Windows Vista:

“Stop: 0x0000007B”

This error occurs when Windows Vista cannot access the hard drive that contains the startup files for Windows Vista.

Reason

You get 0x0000007B error in any of the possible situations:

• No compatible driver for the disk controller is located by Windows Vista
• Your hard drive cabling is damaged or not connected properly
• Your computer is affected by a boot sector virus
• Incompatible computer BIOS
• MBR (Master Boot Record) is being used by another program
• Hard drive is damaged

Solution

Following are the methods to resolve the problems:

• If you are attempting clean install of Windows Vista or trying to upgrade it, the problem is typically related to absent or incompatible driver, required to be provided. Download Windows Vista drivers and use Load Driver option of Windows Vista setup to install them
• Make sure that your hard drive and interface cables are healthy and properly connected
• Scan the computer for viruses
• If BIOS incompatibility is the issue, replace your motherboard
• Wait till the program using MBR completes its task
• If hard drive is damaged, replace it and restore from backup. Consult Hard Drive Data Recovery service technicians for their manual data recovery help, if you find that your backup cannot give required results or is currently unavailable. Hard Drive Recovery service includes all technical steps to recover data.

Stellar Information Systems Limited provides best and unmatched Hard Drive Recovery service. Its recovery solutions are available for all types of hard disks, involving SCSI, IDE, EIDE and SATA. The company has Class 100 Clean Rooms to offer secure Hard Drive Data Recovery. Stellar has rich experience and proven record in providing leading disk recovery service.

Problems Installing Windows on GPT Hard Drives

Computers with Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) use GUID Partition Table (GPT) as the standard hard disk partitioning system. Intel proposes it as the replacement for the PC BIOS that uses Master Boot Record (MBR).In GPT partitioned disks, data that is important to platform operation is placed in partitions and not in hidden or unpartitioned sectors as done in MBR partitioned disks. Due to this and similar other factors, you sometimes observe issues, especially while installing a Windows operating system. To solve such issues, you might need to delete all hard disk partitions and opt for suitable partitioning scheme. This deletes all data and thus to restore information, you require using your recent data backup that should be complete and valid to restore data. However, if data backup is not updated, is corrupt or absent, you can use hard drive recovery software to scan and recover your data.

As a practical instance, when you attempt to install Windows Server 2003, a x64-based Windows Server 2003 version or Windows XP, you might receive the below error message:

“Setup cannot install to the selected partition.
You can only install to GPT disks on IA-64 machines and MBR disks on X-86 machines.
You can only upgrade installations on GPT disks on IA-64 machines and MBR disks on X-86 machines.
To go back to the previous screen press ENTER”

This error message occurs if these both conditions are true:

Ø An operating system is already installed on hard drive or it had an operating system, which has now been removed.

Ø Hard drive is GPT formatted

You fail to install required operating systems on GPT hard drives because of following reasons:

Ø On GPT hard drives, you can only set up Windows Server 2003 on systems that are Itanium-based.

Ø You can’t set up Windows x64 and Windows 32-bit operating systems on GPT based hard drives.

You need to convert your GPT hard drive to a MBR hard drive. You can use Disk Management or Diskpart command for it, if an operating system is already installed. You can also delete all existing hard drive partitions while running Setup program and opting for the option to convert the partitioning scheme. In Windows Server 2003-based systems, it must have Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 installed. After this, you can restore lost information from backup. If backup produces errors or has not been taken, you can use hard drive recovery applications.

Disk Defragmenter Fails to Startup

Disk defragmenter is a Windows utility that allows you to rearrange files in a way that they occupy contiguous storage locations on your hard drive. It helps minimizing head travel time and hence increasing data transfer rate. Also, if you run Disk defragmenter frequently, it helps preventing file system corruption. But at times, you find that the utility fails to start. In such cases, you might need to reformat your hard drive and restore lost data from backup. However, if data backup is absent, not updated or damaged, hard drive recovery software can help restoring lost information.

As a practical instance, when you try to defragment a NTFS (New Technology File System) volume in Windows 2000 using disk defragmenter utility, you might receive the following error message:

“Disk Defragmenter could not initialize”

The same error message might also be received when you try to analyze the NTFS volume. This issue is not observed with other hard drive FAT, FAT32 or NTFS volumes.

The above error occurs when both of the below conditions are true:

* NTFS volume is highly fragmented
* MFT or Master File Table is highly fragmented

Ø MFT is the NTFS metadata structure that holds all information about each file and folder on volume. It is stored as a relational database. To avoid MTF fragmentation, NTFS exclusively reserves 12.5% of volume size to store MFT. But when this space gets occupied, MFT starts fragmenting.

To resolve this issue you are required to reformat the hard drive partition and restore lost data from backup. In order to offer complete data restoration, backup should be complete and free from errors. However, if you observe issues with your backup, you need to opt for hard drive recovery utilities that are the specific tools designed to recover lost data.

Hard drive recovery software incorporates powerful scanning algorithms to offer safe and complete restoration of lost data. With advanced recovery abilities, self-descriptive interface and automated procedures, these applications serve as safe applications for data. In addition, such software offers data recovery in each logical data loss case.

When Hard Drives Go Dead: Best solution for hard drive recovery

Data Compass engineers categorize that hard drive data loss in major two categories:

Logical drive failure – hard drive is in working order but some files or data cannot be accessed for logical reasons such as a lost of partition or accidental reformatting.

Physical drive failure – the hard drive is not functioning. The most common reasons are head crashes and motor failures caused by overwriting, physical damages, natural disasters, and also viruses.

Precaution to be taken

• If feasible, back up your data immediately
• Do not use utility software if the drive makes scraping, tapping, clicking or humming sounds
• Do not power up a device that has obvious physical damage or is making unusual sounds
• Shut down the computer to avoid further damage to the drive and its data
• Do not try recovery yourself on severely traumatized drives. This may cause further damage or permanent data loss
• If you’re lost critical data, Data Compass recovery service is your best and safest option
• Never assume data is unrecoverable

Stellar has successfully improved data from hundreds of thousands of drives with extreme physical and logical damage. Stellar Information provides one of the world’s largest research and development departments for professional data recovery tool. Stellar provides complete recovery solution for all operating system like Windows, Mac, Linux, UNIX and so on. These hard drive recovery software demo version is free in which you can see the preview of your recoverable data. Once you see the preview go for full version to get complete data recovery solution.

Significance of Hard Drive Data Recovery Software Programs

Hard drive data recovery software programs play a major role in recovering hard drive data. You will locate several companies that offer such types of programs. Most will automatically generate backup copies of all your files and folders dropping the worry of potential data loss. A good hard drive data recovery program can recover all the important files or folders which vanish after partition loss, accidental format, file or directory deletion, software malfunction or even a virus attack. Whether you accidentally delete the files or your computer crashes, data recovery software can locate the lost files and recover them from your hard drive.

The main reasons where hard drive data recovery software is found useful include:

1. Missing file or directory
2. Formatted hard drive
3. Deleted file or directory
4. Unbootable hard drive
5. Inaccessible hard drive
6. Recovery of deleted files and folders on FAT and NTFS hard drive or partitions
7. Data recovery on damaged FAT and NTFS partitions
8. Damaged or corrupted partition table

There are lot of hard drive data recovery software programs currently available is easy to install, user friendly and virtually self maintaining. However, it's a good idea to purchase these programs from a trusted software supplier.

Most software companies understand the consumer's need to be assured of value and ease of use, so if the data recovery software you selected has a trail offer, it may be a good idea to give it a test drive before you make a purchase.

Stellar Information System Ltd is one of the best hard drive recovery software company.It provides solution for all operating system like Windows,Mac,Linux,UNIX, Novell and so on.The software demo version is free in which you can see the preview of your recoverable data.

Recover your Hard Drive from an Unbootable System

When you start your Windows XP computer, it may fail to boot with some error message. It makes your valuable business as well as personal data inaccessible and requires Hard Disk Recovery as a fix.

At this point of time, you may encounter the following error message:

"Unmountable Boot Volume"

This error message signifies that Microsoft Windows XP is unable to boot due to file system damage due to which it has become unmountable.

Cause of this problem

Generally this error message occurs due to the following four reasons:

1. The file system is corrupted and operating system can not access boot files from the hard drive.

2. If you have swapped the hard drive and used inappropriate interface cable to connect it.

3. Your computer is using UDMA (Ultra Direct Memory Access) hard drive controllers and use standard 40-wire connector to connect it.

4. Boot.ini file of Windows XP operating system is either corrupt or missing.

To retrieve your lost data, you need to perform Hard Drive Recovery by fixing this problem as soon as possible.

Resolution

To sort out this problem, there are four possible solutions:

1. Properly connect the interface cable.

2. Replace 40-wire connector with 80-wire connector

3. Repair the Windows XP installation.

4. Perform Hard Disk Recovery using efficient recovery applications.

If the first three steps fail, using recovery software is the only option to salvage your data. These are powerful tools which help you in almost all logical (software based) data loss situations and recover all your valuable data in an easy and effective manner.

Such software use effective scanning mechanisms to perform thorough scan of the entire hard drive and extract all lost, missing and inaccessible data from it. With read-only and non-destructive nature, the Hard Drive Data Recovery software are safe tools to use and performs absolute data recovery.

The recovery applications come equipped with interactive and simple user interface with rich graphical support. It makes these software user-friendly and does not require sound technical skills.

These software can recover data from different versions of Windows operating system and storage devices like hard drive, USB drive and so forth. In order to get assured results, you are recommended to go for a time-tested and advanced software.

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery is the foremost Hard Drive Recovery software with exceptional feature-set. It supports recovery from FAT16, FAT32, VFAT, NTFS and NTFS5 file systems based partitions and volumes. The software supports Windows 7 (Currently in RC1), Vista, XP, 2003 and 2000.

How to Recover Data from Damaged Hard Drive?

One of the most critical things that several computer users (professional as well as normal home users) do not know is when their systems are going to crash? When the system crashes, your data may go missing and you have to go for Hard Drive Recovery Software.

If you are one of those computer users and don’t know whether your computer may crash, some common signs are given below:

If you have installed antivirus software, in the event of system malfunction, it would keep notifying you of virus infection.

Your computer system would freeze or hang every now and then.

You might come across several error message pertaining to hard drive problems

Your computer would keep rebooting

A blue/gray screen with error information or a blank screen would keep on appearing constantly

These problems might occur due to some issues with logical part of your computer system. To handle such situations, most of the operating systems provide inbuilt disk repair tools such as chkdsk (in Microsoft Windows), Disk Utility (in Mac OS), VREPAIR (in Novell NetWare), and fsck (in Linux and UNIX).

These utilities can help you in finding and repairing minor file system corruption problems, hard drive bad sector problems and other similar issues with operating system’s metadata structure.

These inbuilt tools are helpful in most of the situations, but can not handle severe file system and hard drive problems. In such situations, you need to go for Hard Drive Recovery solutions.

Hard Disk Recovery software are the best option to handle logical data loss situations. These software are designed to have excellent capabilities so that they can methodically scan the affected hard drives and salvage all data from them.

Recovering data with these software is not a difficult task. They can deliver unanticipated breakthroughs in a matter of minutes without any need of sound technical skills. Such power packed tools come equipped with interactive and graphical user interface.

The Hard Drive Recovery software may vary from operating system to operating system and their file system to file system. You should always go for powerful recovery software that can support recovery from the combination of operating system and file system that you have.

Before finalizing any data recovery software, a systematic analysis is required. The selected software should be powerful and reliable enough to ensure efficient results.

Stellar Information Systems Limited is a premier and trustworthy provider of quality Hard Drive Data Recovery solutions to handle all logical data loss situations. Stellar’s powerful recovery software are available for Windows, Mac OS, Linux, UNIX and Novell Netware. These software support all corresponding file systems.