ISO to Backup and Restore Your Hard Drive

Do you ever calculate the times you have performed operating systems installations? Well, personally, I cannot remember the actual times I have installed Windows for both work and personal. Let me give some rough figures.

Windows 3.11 - 5 times

Windows 95 - 5 times

ISO to Backup and Restore Your Hard Drive

Windows 98 - 50 times

Windows Me - 5 times

Windows 2000 - 5 times

Linux Red Hat - 3 times

Windows XP Pro - 100 times

Windows Server 2003 - 3 times

Windows Vista - 8 times

Honestly, I never enjoy going through the process of installing any of the operating systems. For those who know me, I will most probably be looking at the progress bar during the installation as if I am very interested. However, I am actually very frustrated and hoping that the progress bar could go as fast as it could be.

Attended Installation

Well, some of you may know that the normal installation through the OS CD or DVD (such as looking at the progress bar and clicking several next buttons) is called attended installation and it is possible that you create your own unattended installation using deployment tools. However, I will not be covering the Windows unattended installation.

Unattended Installation

Most companies use Imaging (ISO) to create a duplicate copy of installed operating system so that they can easily install the exact copy of operating system with their corporate settings to every new machine by extracting the ISO.

ISO Images

- ISO is an archive or a duplicate or backup copy of whatever files that you wish to store

In other words, I create ISO images to backup my entire operating system hard drive data.

Hiren BooCD and Norton Ghost to create ISOs

I use Hiren BootCD, the all in one Dos Bootable CD. One of the software included is Norton Ghost, which can be used to create hard disk images known as ISOs.

ImgBurn

ImgBurn is a Windows program and it's free. You can install it and create ISO images or burn the images into CDs and DVDs.

ImgBurn VS Hiren BootCD

The difference between the two is that ImgBurn needs to be installed as a Windows program and undeniably, a good and easy tool to create ISO images. However, if your hard disk is corrupted, you won't be able to use ImgBurn unless you have dual booting. Thus, you need to use HirenBootCD and Norton Ghost to extract your ISO images to the corrupted hard disk.

The Idea

Simple:

1. Complete an attended installation or manual installation from CD or DVD on one machine

2. Install all the necessary programs that you need such as Microsoft Office, Adobe Acrobat Reader and the likes

3. Perform operating system updates

After performing the steps above, boot your computer from Hiren BootCD and you will come to a screen for you to select the types of software that are bundled. Choose Norton Ghost from the list and from there, you can create an image out of your partition drive.

The ISO file can be stored in your hard disk for easy access but not in the same drive where you install your operating system. If your computer fails to load or startup properly, you can then pop in Hiren BootCD, boot from the CD and restore the ISO file.

The Practice

My own practice is to have at least two partitions, namely C and D.

- C drive will be the drive where I install my operating system and programs

- D drive will be my document drive

- A copy of ISO created from the C drive will be kept in D drive

Benefit

When operating system is corrupted, none of my document files will be affected when I extract ISO into the C drive. Extracting ISO to C drive will overwrite every data in C drive without any warning. However, after extracting the ISO, you will get the same settings and operating system as of the time when you create the ISO.

What's more? You do not have to go through the process of keying the product key, selecting the time zone, installing the drivers and commonly used programs.

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Restore Data From Damaged Hard Drive - A Quick Way to Recover Files From Crashed Hard Drive

Yikes, your hard drive crashed! Now I know the first thing running through your head. Is there anyway to restore data from damaged hard drive? I remember this happened to me once before. I ended losing about 20 GB's worth of information. Music files, multimedia, word documents, priceless photos of my family and I - all erased forever. What I didn't understand at the time was you can restore lost data from a damaged or corrupted hard drive quite easily. What you need is the proper file recovery software to do it!

There are numerous ways a hard drive can be damaged. You could have suffered a serious system error. A terrible virus can take over your computer and corrupt your hard drive. Problems in the Windows registry can cause severe hard drive failure. Or perhaps it was due to human error or some kind of physical damage. Whatever the reason, you will need to recover lost files quickly before it is too late.

In order to recover data from crashed hard drive, the first thing you need to do is protect the integrity of the drive. The files are there but can be lost forever if you do not take the proper steps. Do not mess around with it or make any alterations whatsoever. A crashed hard drive is hypertensive to any kind of changes and it can be very hard to troubleshoot.

Restore Data From Damaged Hard Drive - A Quick Way to Recover Files From Crashed Hard Drive

To restore lost data you need to use file recovery software. After my own incident I smartened up and selected the best data recovery software I could find. I found an excellent program that makes the process so easy all you need to do is click the mouse a few times and you can rescue your data. Download the software for free and see what files it can recover.

Restore Data From Damaged Hard Drive - A Quick Way to Recover Files From Crashed Hard Drive
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Did you accidentally delete or lose data that you actually needed? Want an easy way to get it back? Learn how to go about recovering deleted files the easy way. Simply scan your computer and choose which files you want to restore. It costs absolutely nothing to try!

Jim Marshall is a computer technician expert with over 15 years in the industry. He has worked on restoring hundreds of hard drives, storage devices, iPods, partitioned drives,and much more. He has compiled reviews of some of the top data recovery programs based on his experiences. After extensive testing see what he considers the best.

http://www.recovering-deleted-files.net/

Is it Possible to Retrieve Deleted Text Messages? - How to Go About Retrieving Deleted Text Messages

Are wondering whether you can retrieve deleted SMS? Need to know is It possible to retrieve deleted text messages? If so then you're in the right place as in this article I will show exactly how to go about retrieving deleted text messages. So keep reading to learn how to get your lost SMS's and other Sim Card Data back.

Firstly let me explain how it is possible to retrieve deleted text messages. You see a Sim card doesn't immediately erase a file once you delete it. Instead it just frees up the space that was occupied by that file (massage) and lists its space as available re-usable space. However until that space is overwritten by new data, in your case new messages, phone numbers etc., your old deleted file is still there and can be recovered.

Now in order to get the deleted messages back you are going to need two tools. One of them is a USB Sim card reader and the other is a decent Sim Card recovery program.

Is it Possible to Retrieve Deleted Text Messages? - How to Go About Retrieving Deleted Text Messages

Sim card recovery programs are very similar to Data recovery software but they are designed specifically for recovering data from Sim Cards. They are able to recover deleted text messages, deleted phone numbers, call logs and plenty of other deleted data from your SIM, and they can do it all at the click of a few buttons.

The good news is that most of these programs offer a free trial version for download, so you can check to see what messages are retrievable right now.

Therefore if you were wondering is it possible to retrieve deleted text messages then wonder no more as it can easily be done with the right tools. If you have a USB SIM card reader and a good SIM Recovery Program then Retrieving Deleted Text Messages should be a walk I the park. Visit the link below to learn more about recovering deleted text messages and to download some Free Software...

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Did you delete and important text message or number from your Mobile Phone? If so DON'T Panic! With the right SIM Card Recovery Tool you should recover your deleted messages in no time.

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How to Recover iPod Music Files Accidentally Deleted Or Lost From Corrupt Or Formatted iPod

iPods have become an integral part of many people's lives , they are an extremely valued and cherished possession for most people. We store most of our media on our iPod device including all of our songs, videos or photos that we consider as meaningful, and it is a collection that we amass over an extended period of time. So what the hell are we supposed to do when all that data disappears before your very eyes because it gets accidentally deleted or lost? Is there any way to recover iPod music files if they have been lost due to a corrupt or formatted iPod or have been accidentally deleted/lost?

Well if you somehow managed to delete or lose all of your favorite songs, videos or photos of your iPod I think you will be pretty happy to know that they haven't been permanently deleted or lost and can still be recovered. Even if your iPod is frozen, corrupted, been formatted or you accidentally hit the iTunes restore button, you can still recover all of your music and other files. With the aid of good iPod recovery software it is possible to restore all of your music files very easily these days, however success depends more or less on how quickly you act!

You must act quickly due to the fact that when you delete or lose a file from your iPod it isn't actually permanently erased from the hard drive. What actually happens is that the space that was occupied by that particular file is now available as free and re-useable space. So until that space is re-used and overwritten by a new file (songs, videos, photos etc.) your music and videos are still there and can be easily retrieved. Therefore you must act fast and try not to upload any new songs or videos onto the iPod, because any new data you put on the iPod could possibly overwrite your previous collection.

How to Recover iPod Music Files Accidentally Deleted Or Lost From Corrupt Or Formatted iPod

Here are some common situations that many iPod users face who wish to recover Songs from their iPod:

- You plugged your iPod into a computer, iTunes started up and you watched all the music and files on your iPod suddenly disappear.

- Or you re-installed windows plugged your iPod in, let iTunes start up and all the songs were gone.

- Or another classic case is you connected your iPod to a friend's computer, iTunes started up and all your songs were gone and you were updated with your friend's tunes.

All these problems occur due to the iTunes auto sync feature, which is an option in the iTunes software. What happens when auto sync is enabled is that when you plug in your iPod to the computer it automatically updates the files on your iPod with whatever is in the iTunes library on the connected computer. It is a stupid feature if you ask me, and it has caused much grief for many iPod users around the world.

- Other common situations are if you accidentally hit the restore button in tunes and formatted the iPod. Or if the iPod is frozen and displays an Exclamation Mark and Folder Icon or it simply doesn't start at all.

So if you are stuck in some of the above predicaments then don't worry, you can still recover your lost songs, videos, and pictures from your iPod if you act quick enough. The files are recoverable due to the fact that your iPod doesn't overwrite the songs and videos straight away, so until you upload the iPod with any new files all of your old music, video and photo collection can still be recovered.

Therefore if you wish to recover iPod music files that have been lost because your iPod is corrupt or formatted then you must obtain a good iPod recovery software, and you should have all your favorite songs back in no time. The good news is that most of these software's offer a free download so you can test them out and see if your files are recoverable at absolutely no cost.

How to Recover iPod Music Files Accidentally Deleted Or Lost From Corrupt Or Formatted iPod
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If you have lost or accidentally deleted music of your iPod, then don't Panic! With the right iPod Recovery Tool You should have all your favorite songs back within minutes. Personally I have used this particular Program to recover some of my lost music and video files, it has worked wonders for me and I'm sure it can do the same for you. Not only can you retrieve files that have been accidentally lost or deleted but also recover music from formatted or corrupt iPods. Check It Out!

Can Data Be Recovered From an Erased Hard Disk Drive?

With each incident of sensitive personal data being found on computer hard disks, whether it be celebrity bank details or Government records, the debate about hard disk erasure heats up.

The removal of data from computer systems is an area where scare stories frequently emerge. Statements such as "you cannot remove all of the data from a hard disk" have been made about by renowned figures in the world of data recovery and computer forensics.

Is it true that you cannot clean data from a hard disk drive? Can forensic experts and Government spooks get the data back, regardless of what data erasure technique has been used?

Can Data Be Recovered From an Erased Hard Disk Drive?

What is Hard Drive Erasure?

True data erasure is where a dedicated degaussing mechanism is used to flip all of the bits on a magnetic material so that no trace of data remains. Data erasure software does not actually erase, it replaces data with other data, so removing the information that you no longer want to be stored.

Why Erase Data?

Deletion of a file from a hard disk drive does not, in most instances, do anything to the data it simply removes an entry that tells the operating system where the data is, and in some instances it leaves all of the information about the data storage in place and just records that the file has been deleted.

The data itself is still present until such time that the space it occupied is re-used.

In addition, data from files is often stored in transient memory. Most operating systems use caches, areas where data being accessed is temporarily stored, the Windows swap-file being a good example of this.

Data erasure software is designed to perform an orderly and thorough replacement of the information stored.

Is Degaussing the Best Approach?

Degaussing involves the placing of a hard drive into a moving magnetic field that is strong enough to realign the molecules and eradicate any data.

On the face of it this seems like the method that gives the greatest certainty that the data has gone.

There are two issues to consider

First, degaussing removes not only your data but also the information that is written to the disk during manufacture when the drive is formatted. You cannot recreate this information and so the disk will no longer operate and so cannot be re-used.

Second, considering that the disk will no longer operate, you have no means of checking that the data has been completely erased. If the degaussing device was not up to the specification for the job, of the operating procedures were not correctly followed, then perhaps not everything was erased. Even worse, perhaps the process did not work at all and the disk actually was damaged during removal from the computer or at some other time prior to the degaussing process.

It is possible that all or some of the data remains and that a data recovery process could retrieve it.

Is Disk Erasure Software the Answer?

A hard disk stored data in sections named sectors, usually each being 512 bytes long. These are all accessible for reading and writing via the hard drive interface (IDE, SATA, SCSI). It is, therefore, possible to replace the data in every sector and so remove all of the data.

Well, not quite all. To avoid problems caused by sectors that become unusable during normal operation a hard disk maintains a set of spare sectors. Your 160GB disk is actually 160GB and some additional spare ones that you cannot access. If, when attempting to write to the disk there is a failure the hard drive can reallocate by using one of its spare sectors and retiring the failed one from use. This re-allocation is recorded in a table know as the G-List, or Grown Defect List.

It is theoretically possible for a sector to which data could not be written to actually still be read, albeit that an in depth knowledge of hard disk electronics and data recovery techniques would be required. How likely it is that this could happen and, if it did, whether any recovered sectors would actually contain anything of importance, is hard to judge. I consider the likelihood to be very small.

A more prevalent problem, in my experience, is that the data erasure process is not monitored.

If you perform a cursory inspection of a disk where the first few thousand sectors have been overwritten with random gibberish, and one where every sector has been overwritten, you will detect very little difference. Try to start the computer and you will get some kind of error message about the operating system not being found.

An employee erasing disks who has either a lack of diligence, or other priorities, might determine that they can quickly erase the start of a few of the disks in the batch to save a bit of time and no one will notice. I have seen plenty of examples of this when conducting validation tests on erased disks.

You could have disks that appear to be erased but have not been.

Is this a problem with using data erasure software? Not really, it is a problem with process and attention to detail. If the processes are monitored and logged correctly then there should not be a problem. Don't rely on technology at the expense of sound procedures.

Can Data be Recovered from an Erased Hard Disk Drive?

Look on the forums and you will probably find some comments about the Government could probably get that data back, but the reality is that there are no geeky boffins or evil genius types who can defy the laws of physics. Stories about the use of electron microscopes to work out infinitesimal differences between bits of data and so determine what was recorded before are just fiction, not even science fiction.

I was once asked how many layers of recording we could work back through. There are no layers, just a recording, and when it is change then it is still just one recording.

With older disks there was a method that could be used to try an access older data, but this was based upon the mechanisms being a bit imprecise and so some data was not quite completely overwritten. Even if anything could be detected the chances of ever turning it back into something useful were about zero, and with modern high density devices the chances are zero.

So How Should Data Erasure Be Performed?

First, by ensuring that you have a process that can be followed easily and monitored properly.

Second, by using reputable software to perform the erasure.

Third, if sensitivity is a major issue, by getting some third party testing of the process to validate it.

Forget science fiction, put process first.

Can Data Be Recovered From an Erased Hard Disk Drive?
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Mark Sear has been involved in data recovery, data conversion, data migration and computer forensics since the early 1980s working as a data recovery engineer, software developer and up until 2006 as the Technical Director of one of the word's leading data recovery companies with offices in the UK, Germany, US and Norway.

Along with other long standing technical specialists from the industry Mark founded Altirium Ltd in 2006 to provide technically led specialist data services with the emphasis on providing the right advice and services for the customer in an industry that has become increasingly sales led.

Data Recovery services include:
Hard drive data recovery
Tape data recovery
RAID data recovery
NAS data recovery
Exchange data recovery
Data recovery services and advice can also be given for any other type of storage media.

Other specialist data services include Data Migration, Data Conversion, Computer Forensics and E-discovery.