How to Recover your Data from your Digital Camera

You also think that one picture says more than a thousand words? Then you should consider this reading this blog entry. In the good old days you have a ‘normal” camera where you were not supposed to hold the film into the light if you would ever see your pictures again. Nowadays most camera’s are digital and you can buy them from a 150 Euro onwards. Maybe you are using the new digital card from 1 or 2 GB and you have stored more than thousand of high definition photos. With some digital camera’s you can buy a so called digital wallet where you can store on a 6 Gigabyte hard drive all your photos. Still the risk of loosing your valuable photos is still there.

Data Loss Prevention

What not to do

To prevent a data loss from happening is always a better option than getting the data recovered. There are some things that are just as simple as using common sense but in practice often they are overlooked. For example you can have a data loss situation if you are pulling out your memory card from of the camera before it has finished writing. Or when you are low on battery the camera could not complete the auto shut down and you have a corruption in the file system of the digital card itself (FAT12/16). Almost the result is that the card is not recognized in the camera as well in any computer (PC- card Reader). If that is the case you should sent the card in to a data recovery provider.

What to Do:

So always make sure that your batteries are fully charged or that you have it connect to an external power source even when you are downloading the files directly into the computer. There might always occur read/ write problems from the digital camera to the Operating System and backwards. With the Microsoft® Windows® XP operating system you have the option to use the Safely Remove Hardware icon to the notification area anytime you insert a memory card or connect a digital camera to your computer. You should double-click this icon and click the Stop button before physically ejecting your card or disconnecting your camera. Also make sure you handle the digital memory card with care. The chip inside is electromagnetic charged so with a magnet you can easily corrupt the chip inside. In practice this can produce problems if you a near an electromagnetic area or you are electromagnetic charged.

Data Lost and now What? How to Recover..

For any hardware problems with the Digital Memory card (the chip, interface or controller) you always will need a data recovery company in order to get your data back. If the card is recognized by Windows you would be able to use data recovery software to recovery your data. For example if you have erased you photos per accident you still would be able to retrieve your data with data recovery software very easily. The only thing that matters is if you have erased the card with the PC or with the digital camera itself. Some digital camera finishes the deletion process with writing zero across the board. In this case you will find that you can not recover you data.

Because normally when a file is deleted from a digital media card, the bits that store the information aren't actually removed. Instead, the entry for that file is removed from the "table of contents" (file allocation table, or FAT) on the card, and the space that the file occupied is marked as being available. As long as a new file isn't written over the same location on the card, you will most likely be able to recover at least some files from the card.

When the digital card is not being read, it usually involves corruption in the FAT. For example, if you remove a card from your camera before the data has been completely written, the FAT isn't updated with the latest file information. With a corrupted FAT, the roadmap to the files on the card is destroyed. Even though the data is still there, it can't be accessed correctly. While most of the images may remain intact, your camera or computer won't be able to make sense of the data on the card. In this case you will be able to recover you data by using a piece of data recovery software.

Here are some use full links to download Photo Recovery software:

www.software-recovery.com
www.mediarecover.com/
www.photosrecovery.com
www.imagerecall.com/

An example of a head transplant in a data recovery lab

A real live data recovery

How to Develop a Backup Strategy to Prevent a Data Loss

Backup Problems

Preventing a data loss in practice turn outs to be quite difficult task because what happens when suddenly the PC does not start up any more? Or even worse: there is smoke coming out of your PC and you do not have a clue what has happened. This is when you realise that you have made a backup and you are one of those luckily persons who can restore his data.

Research has shown that backups are made ones or twice a year (on a consumer level). This really means that at the time your back up is a half year old the chances are that you have lost a considerable amount of data. Keeping your back up, up to date is one of the key elements in reassuring your data is safe guarded.

How to backup your files offline

It’s often in the way we use backup storage media and the significance of the meaning of the word back up that is the mean problem of selecting the right backup strategy. Using only one backup storage media limits the way you can backup your data and increases the change of losing that data while it’s stored on only 1 media. Having your data stored in 2 places gives you the change of restoring the second copy of the data when you lost you data. Now this comes with the challenge of keeping that second copy up to date. By developing the right backup strategy you will be able to that.

Setting up your offline Backup Strategy

The trick is to stick with one backup storage media that has a specific purpose within your back up strategy. In order to do this you can divide Backup storage Media in 2 main groups:

Active Data storage Media: This backup media is used for all data you use on a regular basis which needs updated frequently

Passive Data storage Media: This backup media is a copy of all your active data

Examples of usable Backup storage media:

Active Data Storage: cd-rw /dvd-rw blue ray/USB Sticks/ Ext Hard drives.
Passive Data Storage: Ext hard drives/Servers, Raid 1/5/ systems

Search for your suitable back up storage media that you can use as a passive or active back up method. Nowadays you can store your data on various storage devices, such as USB Memory sticks that can store data up to 16 GB. Also the modern MP3 players have built in space to store data files up to 80 GB. USB Memory sticks and MP3 players are easy to use and adaptable to all kind of PCs. The main advantage is that you can take it with you and download the files to your passive backup system directly. Also a CD/DVD RW can be an also a good method to back up your active data temporarily. When you use it as an active back up media it enables you to write and delete files or use it as a passive back up media only. After choosing your active / non active backup media you can implement your own way of back up your valuable data.

Advice: Always keep your important back up data in one place with one purpose. Use the right back up storage media and stick to the procedure on how to use that storage back media in the right way.

Implementing your offline backup strategy

After choosing you back up media that fits your requirements you have to set up your own procedure. In general active backups are made at least once a week or on a daily basis when need be and Passive backups are made in, for example, every 6 months.

Making a time frame of when you going to back up your files and administer them. Make a back up only when you need to or make a weekly back up from all your files. There are various decisions to make:

• What do we need to back up?(Files/ Programs)
• What kind of backup software do I want use?
• What amount of Data do we need to back up ( 1- 200 GB)
• What timeframe do we choose the back the data up?
• What kind of method is effective to back up my data?(USB, external hard disk, server)

When answering these questions you will find that you are developing your own back up strategy using the right media appropriate for you data storage needs.

Selecting the right Data Recovery Provider

No matter what happens, when it comes to select a Data Recovery Provider you sometimes do not know what to believe anymore. Everyone Data Recovery company has the latest technology, their own cleanroom and you always see man in masks taking care of your data. When you ask some real questions and you are looking for more than a only fancy website sometimes the truth is hard to find.

Keep always in mind that real Data Recovery companies have nothing to hide. They have clear processes in place, which tells you exactly what has happened to your storage media and will definitely not make abuse of the situation you are in. Depending on how valuable your data is you might send your media to the “cheaper” data recovery companies but if your data is really important you always are better off with the companies that have earned their position in the data recovery market.

To help you make a better choice I have come up a list of questions you might be able to ask any data recovery company: ·

• How long is the company doing business?
• What kind of diagnostic report are they providing?·
• Do they use a third party for their physical recoveries? ·
• What kind of guarantees are they willing to give you? ·
• Do they have certified processes in place? ·
• Can they do all platforms, different OS? ·
• Are there any hidden costs like for example transports, spare parts?

With these questions you should be able to do a quick background check and see if the company is a consistent long term data recovery company that really cares about getting your data back. Investigate and take nothing for granted

How to handle a Data Loss Situation with Servers/ Raid systems

A data loss situation is usually characterized by the sudden inability to access data involving a previously functioning computer system or backup or the accidental erasure of data or overwriting of data control structures.With this blog I will try to shed light on data loss within servers and raid environments and give recommendations what to do.

Server/Raid Data Loss situations

The symptoms related to physical or logical issues can be many. You can have a sudden server crash during operation or power up. Also it is possible that one or two hard drives are offline without any warning in advance.In another situation, you can have a Raid controller failure that makes the hard drive(s) inaccessible. Depending on the kind of (raid) server that you are running it can make definitely things more complex to find the right solution.

From a simple looking Windows 2003 server (with one hard drive) to complete server racks (Raid 1, 5, 1+0) it all depends on what kind of system you are running that reveals how serious you data loss can be. Every different server systems comes with their own diagnostic programs and there are several ways possible of communicating with the hard drives. Also there are various settings that can be used to analyze the hard drives and raid controllers. Some diagnostic programs can read/write on the hard drives, others have options to only read from the hard drives.

Find out together with the provider of the server/raid what you can do and cannot do when analyzing your raid system. The last thing to take into consideration is to think about the logical structure of your data. A UNIX system manages the data differently than a Window System. Especially when you are reconstructing or rebuilding a Raid/Server this might be the difference if the data can be recover or not be recovered by a data recovery company.

Recommendations: what you can do!

Always remain calm and see if you have a contingency plan in place, if not follow a step by step procedure where you do not alter anything on the server without first having talked to a specialized engineer(s).

• Try to access any log files that exists on the Raid server ·
• Try to determine the scope of the damage ·
• Try not to restart the Raid server too many times ·
• Try not to restore any back up. ·
• Try to get a 360 view of your possibilities (solutions overview) ·
• Try not to go for a quick fix because of time purposes/ pressure ·
• Try not to directly the implement /recommendations solutions given.(never on the damaged live system).
• Try not to rebuild the raid configuration if there are any doubts (this must be a last resort)

Before implementing a solution

Think if the solution you about to implement can be made undone afterwards. Once the solution is being implemented you do not often have a second chance to try something else. Let experts guide you through the whole process and you can bring down the risk of never be able to access your data again. In a worst case scenario start making images from all other drives that you think they work and try any solution with those hard drives. In that case you are not working with a live system and you always can return to the original situation.

Recommended people you should have around you in a time of crisis:

1. Local provider of the server (technical engineer)
2. Provider of the Raid Controller
3. A data recovery provider

With this blog info I hope you always can reduce the risk of having a data loss witin your server environment. Be calm and try to be as analytical as you can be. Take calculated risks and be careful because sometimes the tiniest thing can be overlooked and can have a huge impact in the whole data recovery process