Tag Archives: Hardware

11 Tips to Increase Your Chances of Recovering Lost Data

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We store a lot of important data on our computer hard drives. And the loss of data may cause a lot of financial loss, especially if the data consists of business reports. Fortunately, it’s easy to recover lost data but you have only one chance at it. In this article, we have shared some tips that will help you improve the chances of recovery and prevent accidental damage. Read on to find out more.

1. Physical Damage

If you hear odd noises from the disk, disconnect the power right away. You should take the same action if you find slow system performance, jumbled file names, or missing files. Not disconnecting the power will physically damage the spindle, platters, or read/write heads.

2. Logical Damage

Disconnect the power supply if you have accidentally deleted important files or formatted a drive. If you perform a proper shutdown process, it will help overwrite some data and prevent further damage.

3. Hardware/Software Installation

If you are unable to access your data after the installation of new hardware or software, all you need to do is undo the new installation. Some examples of new hardware include USB-powered accessories, sound cards, and PCI cards, to name a few.

4. Electronic Failures

Take out the drive and install it on another computer. If it doesn’t show in the BIOS or make any noise, take it to a professional for repair.

5. Firmware Damage

If the drive doesn’t load the OS, shut down the PC right away. You should do the same if the drive shows incorrect information, such as incorrect file names, unreadable files, wrong model number or wrong size.

6. Remove the Drive

If you want to remove the drive from your PC, unplug your computer before detaching the cables. Also, it’s important that you ground yourself so that the components don’t suffer any static damage.

7. DIY Data Recovery

If your HD has not sustained physical damage, you can install it on another PC to verify the file system integrity. But if you come to know that the OS is corrupt or the host PC has hardware issues, you may recover your data without a problem.

8. RAID

Turn off the server and get help from a professional if the data is really important to you.

9. SQL Server

Copy your data on another drive before you try any repairs. Also, you can open a support ticket to get help from Microsoft or take the drive to a data recovery service. Don’t forget to provide the professional with priority list tables and database structure.

10. MS Exchange

Before trying any repairs, make sure you copy your important files including.LOG,.STM and.EDB.

11. Call a Professional

If none of these tricks work for you, we suggest that you get in touch with a professional. They will help you recover your data in a professional fashion.

In short, we suggest that you follow these tips if you want to improve your chance of recovering your lost data. Hope this helps.

3 Causes of PC Crash and How to Fix Them

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PC Crashes are caused mainly of the following:

  1. Inappropriate Software drivers for a new hardware or inappropriate hardware
  2. Virus attacking the Windows operating system
  3. Corrupted Windows Registry

If you have recently installed a new device, for example, a new TV PCI adapter, check to see if the software drivers you have installed are appropriate to your particular hardware configuration. You will be able to tell if it is the one causing the crash if after you remove the new hardware physically, your computer stops crashing. To resolve this, you have to check with the hardware vendor what appropriate software driver for your PC is. They could have an updated driver for you to download to fix a bug to the software driver.

A virus, spyware, or trojan attack can also be the cause of a computer crash. These viruses commonly attack the Windows Operating System core files like the ntdll.dll and ntoskrnl.exe files. Viruses come from clicking on an unknown link or opening an attachment from an e-mail. Always keep your anti-virus definition files updated to be able to detect and clean the latest PC virus infections.

Windows Registry corruption is also a common cause of PC crash. Frequent installation and un-installation of programs and corrupted software drivers lead to corrupted Windows Registry. The Windows registry, stored on your PC in several files, records the relationships or links between hardware, memory space, and addressing. If these links are broken, your PC will malfunction, hang or crash. A good Registry Cleaner tool is needed to automatically restore these links.

Manual registry cleaning using regedit is not recommended since setting those data type and values manually is also one of the main causes of invalid links in the registry.

Recommendations to fix and prevent computer crashes:

  • Install new hardware with the latest software drivers from the hardware vendor. Check hardware compatibility with your existing PC.
  • Always keep updated on Microsoft Patches to prevent security vulnerability attacks on the Windows core operating system.
  • Run Registry Cleaner tool regularly, at least once a week, to clean any errors on the registry.
  • Always keep your Spyware removal tool and anti-virus software updated of latest spyware and virus definitions. Regularly scan your PC and remove spywares and viruses.