Outlook Express or MS Outlook email clients are generally used by home users and business users who need reliability, easy access, email, newsgroup, notes, meeting, and journals etc functionalities with their emails.
Most of the users find the email clients easy and reliable to use because of their user friendly usage patterns.

Generally Outlook Express is used by home users and MS Outlook is used by business users. The following article illustrates usage of both the email clients and their advantage perspectives with their respective users.

Outlook Express:

Outlook Express comes embedded with MS IE 4.x, MS IE 5.x, MS Windows 98 operating system, MS Windows Millennium Edition (Me) OS, MS Windows 2000 OS and MS Office 98 for Macintosh. Outlook Express email program proves beneficial for home users who can access their emails by dialing to an Internet service provider (ISP).

Outlook Express works effectively with any Internet standard system – Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), Post Office Protocol 3 (POP3), and Internet Mail Access Protocol (IMAP) and provides full support to e-mail standards and news such as Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension Hypertext Markup Language (MHTML), Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME) and Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP).

Ability of Outlook express to send and receive emails of multiple email accounts proves advantageous and the migration tools enables to import address book, emails from Eudora, Netscape, Microsoft Exchange Server, the Windows Inbox, and Outlook easies the task of managing and organizing email messages.

Outlook express provides full support to html settings with which you can customize your messages with backgrounds and graphics. Built-in stationary designs enable you to compose your mail messages with attractive designs, mainly required for special occasions like birthdays, meetings, parties, announcements etc.

MS Outlook:

MS Outlook is the stand-alone application integrated in MS Office and Exchange Servers. Outlook provides integration and performance with IE 5.5 completely integrated with calendar, contact addresses, drafts, meeting scheduling, and notes etc makes MS Outlook perfect email client for business users.

Organization and filtration of email messages makes it easy to work with MS Office applications, which help in communicating and sharing of emails effectively.

When working with exchange servers, Outlook provides enhanced internet connectivity, workgroup information sharing and workflow communications, public folders, forms, and group scheduling.

Outlook is designed for use with the Internet (SMTP, POP3, and IMAP4), Exchange Server, or any other standards-based communication system that supports Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI), including voice mail. Outlook is based on Internet standards and supports today’s most important e-mail, news, and directory standards, including LDAP, MHTML, NNTP, MIME, and S/MIME, vCalendar, vCard, iCalendar, and provides full support for HTML mails.

MS Outlook provides same migratory options like Outlook express and enables its users to transfer messages from Microsoft Mail, Microsoft Schedule+ 1.0, Microsoft Schedule+ 7.0, Lotus Organizer, NetManage ECCO, Starfish SideKick, Symantec ACT, as well as synchronization with leading Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), such as the 3Com Palm Pilot.

Best email client for you – Outlook Express or MS Outlook

There may be times when you have to decide between MS Outlook and Outlook Express email clients. Which one to choose? Which email client will be good for you with its features and functions?

First of all check need and scope of using a particular email client.

1. What do you expect from your email client?

2. What all features it should have?

3. Purpose of using the email client?

Select Outlook Express, if

• You need a simple email program to send and receive emails.
• You are a home user and do not require to manage meetings, schedules etc.
• You need only Internet e-mail and newsgroup functionality (for versions of Windows later than Microsoft Windows 95, versions of Windows earlier than Microsoft Windows 95, Macintosh, and UNIX platforms)
• You work on Office 98 for Macintosh, and you want to take advantage of the integration of Outlook Express with the version of Office suite.

Select MS Outlook, if

• You need advanced Internet standards-based e-mail and discussion group functionality.
• You need integrated personal calendars, group scheduling, task, and contact management.
• You need integrated e-mail and calendaring, cross-platform clients for versions of Windows later than Microsoft Windows 95, versions of Windows earlier than Microsoft Windows 95, and Macintosh platforms.
• You work on Office 97, Office 2000, Office XP or Exchange Server and want to take advantage of the integration of Outlook with this version of the Office suite, and the integration with Exchange Server.
• You require communication and coordination with your staff.

Thus you can select any of the email clients which suit your need and requirements. If in case Outlook Express or MS Outlook emails get corrupt or become inaccessible, you can always try the outlook express recovery software and pst repair software – the best email recovery software offered by Chily Softech, an imminent data recovery software and file repair solution provider.

Spyware elimination software is designed to detect and eliminate spyware. A large number of spyware elimination software products are available. Some of them are available as freeware and some as shareware. Shareware can be used for a specified period, usually 30 days.

One must evaluate and compare the features of different spyware elimination software products before selecting one. Some of the features of an effective spyware elimination software product are:

* It should give a list of detected spyware, to enable users to allow them to decide, about which ones they want to delete.

* Auto update ensures that the software automatically downloads the latest spyware definition file.

* Auto scheduling means that the system is scanned for spyware at defined intervals automatically.

* The "undo" facility allows the user to remedy accidental deletion of useful files.

* The product should provide real-time protection. It should prevent installation of spyware, instead of just deleting it when it is detected.

* The software should be effective in detecting and deleting, the different types of spyware.

* The product should be easy to download, install, navigate and use.

* Product support ensures that there is someone you can call or e-mail, whenever you have a problem.

* The right spyware elimination software will ensure your privacy and keep your computer free of advertisements.

Some of the most popular spyware elimination software products are: Spyware Eliminator, Spyware Doctor, MS AntiSpyware, McAfee, Pest Patrol, Spy Sweeper, Counterspy, Ad-Aware, Spybot Search & Destroy etc.

The most popular personal firewalls include McAfee Firewall, Norman Firewall, Windows Firewall, Surf Secret, Sygate Firewall, Zone Alarm, Outpost Pro, and Norton Firewall etc.

Spyware Eliminator

Spyware Eliminator is one of the most popular spyware elimination software products. It also provides you with anti-virus and anti-Spam capability and prevents malicious software from entering your PC.

It gives users specific threat recommendations and its consumer ware facility identifies legitimate ad ware companies and their software. The user then has the option to delete this software or to keep it. Spyware Eliminator is particularly effective in dealing with cleverly concealed, self re-generating spyware and adware.

Click to find a daily updated blog of articles and news about spyware ! Get advice and information about how to protect your computer from attack, and disinfect it.. Click http://www.spyware-101.com/

It’s important to understand that any time an Access client disconnects unexpectedly, it may set a "corruption flag" in the .mdb file indicating that the database is in a corrupt state (regardless of whether any data has actually been corrupted or not). Any user who attempts to open the database while this flag is set will receive a message, and the database will have to be repaired before it can be used. If the users don’t have permission to perform the repair, or don’t know how to perform the repair, there may be significant downtime before the database is available again. This can result in a loss of productivity as well as extreme frustration for the users. Following the 5 tips below will minimize your odds of data loss from corruption in your Access databases.

1) Split your database.

The single most important thing you can do to prevent corruption in MS Access databases is to split the database into a "front-end" and a "back-end". The front-end contains all of the forms, queries, and reports, while the back-end contains only the data tables. A copy of the front-end is placed on each user’s computer, and the back-end with the table data is stored in a shared folder on the network. How does this prevent corruption? Well, consider the amount of information that must make it across your network to your computer each time you open a form or report. If one bit of that information doesn’t make it intact, you risk corrupting your database. Alternatively, if the forms, queries and reports are all stored on your local computer, then the only bit of information that needs to traverse the network is the actual table data. By reducing the amount of data you need to move back and forth across the network, you significantly reduce the chances of corrupting your database. If you’re having corruption problems with an Access database on a network drive, splitting the database is the single most important thing you can do to stop it.

2) Don’t hold connections open.

This one applies to both programmers and users. If you’re a programmer, make sure you close your connections as soon as possible after using them. Leaving the connections open will allow more opportunities for an "unexpected" dropped connection. The only time you may want to leave a connection open longer than required would when it’s used inside a loop. For such a case, open the connection at the beginning of the loop, and then close it after the loop is completed. Just make sure it gets closed for all cases (including exceptions).

If you’re using a Microsoft Access database or application, be sure to close it when you’re finished. Again, leaving the application open provides the opportunity for corruption if a network connection is lost. Remind users to always close the application before going home, as nightly backup jobs may fail or cause corruption in the shared file if there are open connections.

3) Exit the database correctly.

Always close the database or application correctly. Ctrl-Alt-Delete/End Task can wreak havoc on Access databases. Whenever possible, complete your tasks, then close the application using the File - Exit menu option or alternative Exit option provided by the application.

4) Don’t skimp on hardware.

Remember that the corruption flag can be set from the slightest packet loss between your computer and the database file. MS Access has sometimes been called "the canary in the coal mine". It has gained this reputation from being the first application to "die" when there’s the slightest hint of trouble on your network. Just like the slightest presence of gas caused the canary to die, the slightest presence of network problems and packet loss can kill your Access applications. Make sure you’re not using the cheap built-in NICs that come with some PCs. Instead, use brand name network cards. The same goes for cheap hubs. Whenever possible, match good brands of equipment throughout your network.

5) Compact and repair regularly.

Performing the built-in compact and repair function regularly is recommended to prevent corruption and improve performance. Consider automating this function with a utility to compact and repair all of your databases nightly or during the weekend.

Error messages to look out for - the following error messages may signal database corruption:

"The database ‘databasename.mdb’ needs to be repaired or isn’t a Microsoft Access database file."

"Record(s) can’t be read, no read permissions on ‘databasename.mdb’"

"Unexpected Error 35012"

"Unrecognized database format ‘databasename.mdb’."

"‘databasename.mdb’ isn’t an index in this table. Look in the Indexes collection of the TableDef object to determine the valid index names."

"The Microsoft Jet database engine could not find the object ‘databases’. Make sure the object exists and that you spell its name and path name correctly."

"The database has been placed in a state by user ‘’ on machine ‘’ that prevents it from being opened or locked"

"Disk Error — Reserved error (-1601)"

"The database has been placed in an unexpected state."

"Record(s) cannot be read; no read permission on ‘MSysObjects’"

"Record(s) cannot be read; no read permission on ‘MSysACEs’."

"The Microsoft Jet database engine cannot find the input table or query ‘MSysAccessObjects’. Make sure it exists and that its name is spelled correctly."

Conclusion:

While you may never be able to prevent all Microsoft Access database corruption, you should be able to stop 98% of the problems before they occur by following these 5 simple tips. Follow these tips and implement a prudent automated backup schedule to minimize your odds of significant data loss.

Kevin Sparks is a technical writer for Kaizen Software Solutions, the producer of Digital DBA, an automated MS Access monitoring, backup, and compact/repair utility. For more information, visit their website at http://www.kzsoftware.com/products/digitaldba

How often do people loose their email data? Is this important to backup your email client before loosing important emails? Are you thinking it won’t happen to you?

Well, for those who use an email client and loosing their emails is one of the worst nightmares. Unfortunately this situation is quite probable.

There are several causes for this:
- Hard disk failure
- Viruses and Trojans
- Windows crashes
- Some time un-expected things

Hard Disk can fail from several reasons: logical problems like bad partitions, hardware problems caused by dropping them or something on them, or, sometimes they just stop functioning. You can use several data recovery tools like GetDataBack or Acronis, which might save your day. But you might not be able to get back any byte.

Viruses are increasing their numbers day by day. It’s hard to keep up even for the big players like Symantec or Kaspersky. They reduced the response time for a new virus, but if you are unlucky, the virus crashes your computer before you can apply the antivirus.

Well, we all know how reliable Windows is. There is no person that can say he never saw a “blue screen”. Because most of the email clients store email, account and settings data in My documents, Program files or in Windows registry. When you reinstall the operating system you loose them all. Even Microsoft CEO Bill Gates acknowledged that they counted 5 percent of total Windows based computers to crash twice every day. Here’s a small report: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/25/technology/25SOFT.html - September 1, 2005.

The best way to count those situations is to backup emails on a CD or another hard disk. People who know a little about Windows and computers can do it by hand. Outlook Express is still the most used email client.

If you want to backup Outlook Express by hand, you have to save registry keys and DBX files. Saving messages, signatures and the address book can be done within the email client, but for settings you have to search through Windows registry. It can be pretty difficult to do it for a beginner.

After a long search now I found a tool that can do this job automatically. Adolix Outlook Express Backup. You can use this software to backup Outlook Express, IncrediMail and some other email clients. It’s an email saver program that can backup and restore emails, addresses, folders, signatures and options.

What it cannot do is backing up Outlook Express and restoring to Pegasus Mail for instance. Synchronization can take place between different instances of the same email client.

It can be used to move emails from one computer to another. For instance if you own a laptop and a PC, you can transfer emails between them. Furthermore, you can backup Outlook Express from Windows98 and restore it to Windows XP.

Adolix Outlook Express Backup has a wizard mode for beginners, but the most experienced users can use Standard mode for more speed. It costs only $24.95 and I think worth for too much.

It’s pretty clear that anyone can loose emails. So backing up your email client is essential, but you have to decide whether to do it by hand or to purchase a tool like Adolix Outlook Express Backup.

Ted Peterson writes for Adolix Software. Adolix Software is a young company specialized in tools and utilities like Adolix Outlook Express Backup (http://www.adolix.com/outlook-express-backup/ ), Adolix PDF Converter or eCover Engineer.

Earlier we warned you about a serious security flaw, so-called "WMF flow." Several days later nearly one hundred different instances of exploitation of this newly discovered vulnerability had been found.

"Desktop users that suffered the effects of the IMF exploit describe it as a devastating experience to find their desktop computers completely taken over by an attacker.

“When it hit, the screen suddenly said, ‘Congratulations, you’re infected!’” said Brad Dinerman, vice president of information technology at MIS Alliance, a professional services outsourcing firm in Newton, Mass. It was clear that the computer running XP was no longer in his control.

“It had root access, it wouldn’t let me log off or do anything,” Dinerman said. He said he ended up having to re-build the machine from scratch. He noted that his machine had been up-to-date in terms of software patches, anti-virus and anti-spyware software. "

"…exploit has so many variants that anti-virus firms are having a difficult time keeping up with the exploit’s changes in attack code."

http://www.networkingsmallbusiness.com/news/2006/010306-sans-microsoft-patch.html

"It enables clueless newcomers to easily craft highly variable and hard-to-detect variations of image files. Images that take over computers when viewed. And do this on all common Windows platforms. Meaning that there are hundreds of millions of vulnerable computers in the net right now."

http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/archive-012006.html

Current news on the situation, by BlogAutoPublisher support expert:

1. An official WMF Vulnerability update from Microsoft is now available. See more info and patches for various flavors of Windows at:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/MS06-001.mspx

Or just go to http://update.microsoft.com/ to pick up the right update automatically.

The patch requires that the PC be rebooted.

2. Microsoft is not fixing Windows 98/ME.

Microsoft has now "reclassified" the WMF vulnerability in Windows 95, 98, and ME as non-critical (instead of just fixing it!). This means that it will probably NOT be updated and patched to eliminate the WMF handling vulnerability that those older versions of Windows apparently still have. "Per the support life cycle of these versions, only vulnerabilities of critical severity would receive security updates," the company said.

We urge you to upgrade, if possible, to WinXP which is much more secure and stable Windows version.

3. After applying the Microsoft’s patch, go to Start > Run, paste there the following line:

regsvr32 shimgvw.dll

and press OK. You should see the following message: "DllRegisterServer in shimgvw.dll succeeded."

All your Windows "picture viewing" capabilities are back to normal now.

Wishing you productive and secure 2006, BlogAutoPublisher Team.

Copyright 2006 Olga Farber Becker

Olga specializes in internet marketing, blogs, RSS feeds. Find out 55 ways to use the Marketer’s Blogging Software Olga and her partner recently released: http://blogautopublisher.com.

Introduction

Designing a disaster recovery system requires planning and consideration of the available options that will best fit your company’s needs, SLA and budget.

With SANRAD DR Solution there is no need to use Log shipping (which requires extra recovery steps) or Microsoft SQL’s built in replication mechanism (which requires the configuration of a publisher and a subscriber). SANRAD DR makes the data and transaction log available to the SQL server on the remote site for immediate use. Even if there is no SQL server on the remote site, once built after a disaster, it will be able to access the data immediately with minimum recover time. SANRAD DR solution is a “hot standby solution” when there is a server on the remote site and a “warm standby solution” when there is no SQL server on the remote site (which will be built after a disaster).

This guide will help you design Disaster Recovery plan for Microsoft SQL 2000 in conjunction with . The guide assumes that you have basic knowledge of SANRAD V-Switch and MSSQL 2000 Administration.

Disaster Recovery Planning For Microsoft SQL 2000 This section discusses both general and MSSQL specific considerations that need to be addressed when designing a disaster recovery solution combining and Microsoft SQL 2000.

General Considerations

solution allows for flexibility with Microsoft SQL 2000 disaster recovery design. The most influential factors affecting design consideration are:
• Budget limitations
• Recovery Time Objective (RTO) requirements (the time until the data is back online)
• Recovery Point Objective (RPO) requirements (the amount of data that can be lost)
• Network bandwidth between the local site and remote site
• Replication method: Synchronous versus Asynchronous
• Replication frequency (only for Asynchronous replication)
• Initial volume synchronization

RTO (Recovery Time Objective)
• With high level RTO, duplicate hardware is required to allow quick recovery making the solution more costly.

RPO (Recovery Point Objective)
RPO requirements are best defined by the amount of data that the company is willing to lose.
• High level RPO requires more bandwidth for both Synchronous and Asynchronous replication.
• Low level RPO requires less frequent replication and smaller bandwidth.

Network Bandwidth between the Local and Remote sites
Bandwidth between the sites is generally the most crucial factor affecting the replication component of a solution.
• T1 (1.5Mb) links impose less frequent data replication and the use of asynchronous replication methods.
• T3 (45Mb) links or a 1Gb links allow frequent replication and the flexibility to choose between synchronous replication or asynchronous replication methods.

Replication method
When considering which replication method to choose it is important to remember:
• In Synchronous Replication the I/O commands are written to the local disk and to the remote volume at the same time. Every IO command requires an acknowledgment from both the local and remote sites before the next command. Consequently, synchronous replication is best deployed with a high bandwidth connection in order to allow the remote acknowledgment to arrive back to the local site as fast as possible and the replication can run faster.
• In Asynchronous Replication the I/O commands are written to the local volume and local journal volume which in turn is replicated periodically to the remote volume as periodically defined by the user. Consequently asynchronous replication can work well with lower bandwidth (minimum recommended for Microsoft SQL 2000 replication is 1.5 Mb).
• For Asynchronous replication, you must decide the data replication frequency. There are three factors that must be considered:
1. The size of the network bandwidth between the sites.
2. The amount of data changes that need to replicate each time. For example, large amounts of data changes take longer to replicate using T1 links.
3. The RPO requirements.

Initial Volume Synchronization solution can be used to protect existing production Microsoft SQL 2000 data. solution supports both online and offline synchronization. When using with existing Microsoft SQL 2000 data, an Initial synchronization of the Microsoft SQL 2000 volumes on the local site to the remote site must be performed.

The initial volume sync method depends on:
• The size of the volumes needed to be synchronized.
• The network bandwidth between the sites. For example, the bigger the volume size, the longer it will take to synchronize over a T1 link.
Online synchronization starts immediately when replication is started and uses the same network link that will be used during the replication.
Offline synchronization is a manual process where prepares the volumes on the primary site and the user must copy the data to the remote site. It is the user’s responsibility to make sure the volumes on the remote site are synchronized.

Microsoft SQL 2000 Considerations
Any Microsoft SQL 2000 Disaster Recovery planning should (at the very least) consider the following requirements:
• Quick access to the most recent copy of the Microsoft SQL 2000 database and the transaction logs. In a disaster situation provides fast access to the most recent replicated data on the remote site.
• The Microsoft SQL 2000 database and its related transaction logs must be replicated together to the remote site. uses consistency groups to ensure simultaneous replication of all volumes assigned to a consistency group.

SANRAD is a leader in IP Storage Networks enabling organizations to effectively Access, Share & Manage Stored Data across Standard Ethernet Environments.

SANRAD delivers simplified networked storage with excellent price/performance by coupling open IP storage connectivity with comprehensive network-based data management using IP Storage Area Networks (IP-SANs).

With SANRAD, organizations of all sizes can leverage the benefits of networked storage to link employees and clients with stored data for full storage availability, flexible and scalable storage using an economical Ethernet (IP/SCSI) network.

for further reading: http://www.sanrad.com/objects/support/Library

Why bother with backup? Can you imagine what would happen if all of a sudden *poof* everything is wiped off your computer. You had not installed any pc backup software. You could not get into files, retrieve pictures or music downloads and all programs and saved documents were lost. Permanently. Most people dread the thought and yet system crashes, file corruption and emergency disasters do happen to computers on a daily basis. So what can be done about it?

Saving the day

There are numerous commercially available software programs designed to backup your computer. Installing a pc backup software is critical to maintaining your computer and avoiding any unnecessary reinstalls or lost material. Pc backup software will store and save:

* Data entry files
* Emails
* Music
* Photographs
* Financial records
* Billing and invoicing records
* Programs and downloads
* Operating systems

Pc backup software works by protecting, preserving and archiving the data on your computer at regularly scheduled times. Programs can then be restored through the pc backup software program. By using pc backup software you do not have to go through the trouble of reinstalling operating systems and other programs. Wizards and easy to follow step-by-step instructions make pc backup software easy to use for beginner and advanced computer users, whether you are backing up just a few files or the whole system.

What is on the market?

There are multitudes of pc backup software items on the market. As with any program, knowing what you need is essential to determine which pc backup software program will most closely match your needs. A very brief list of pc backup software can be found below:

* Backup MyPC - is available for personal, small business computers as well as small networks. This pc backup software has won awards from PC World Magazine for three years in a row. It offers provides easy to follow wizards to help you automatically set-up your pc for regularly scheduled backups. This pc backup software uses password protection to ensure continued safety and security for your data.

* NovaBACKUP - allows backup to any number of devices such as tape, CD-RW, DVD or disk. In addition to the features mentioned above it also is network friendly and all computers on a network can be backed up from one pc. This pc backup software also scans for viruses while performing the backup and uses open file backup to allow files that are opened to be saved even as data is being entered.

* Norton Ghost - is also an award winning pc backup software. It has been editor’s choice for two year in PC Magazine and in 2004 for Bityard. This program works only with Windows XP Home Edition/Professional or Windows 2000 Professional. There is a version, Norton Ghost 2003, that will work with Windows 98 and Me. This pc backup software offers fully automatic backup for everything on your computer.

On http://www.build-computerz.com/ you will find articles on build your custom computers and make your own computers.

Data recovery is a highly specialized and complicated procedure. Care must be taken to prevent the disturbance of the fragile components that reside in a hard drive or other media. For this reason, data recovery can be expensive. Many people receive a price quote from a data recovery company and in an effort to save costs, they decide to take matters into their own hands. This can be a fatal mistake for your data. By taking matters into your own hands, you could cause damage that can make the data irretrievable even by a data recovery company. Listed below are some common techniques that can cause permanent data loss:

Do Not Run Partitioning Software on the Failed Media

Using disk repair software can cause irreversible data loss. Most of these utilities write to the disk which can cause your data to be overwritten. The steps taken by most of these utilities are very complex. It only takes one incorrect option chosen, and you could damage the file structure of your disk beyond repair. By using these utilities, you are taking a significant risk with your data.

Do Not Reformat the Failed Media

This is crucial as reformatted disks make data recovery very difficult. A reformat allows the master boot record to be overwritten. It is important not change partition information or initialize the disk if prompted.

Do Not Open a Failed Hard Drive to Attempt Recovery

Many people do not understand the delicacy of the internal components of a hard drive. A hard drive should never be opened unless in a clean room environment. Inside the drive, there are platters which hold the data. These platters are made of either light aluminum alloy, glass or ceramic and are coated with a magnetizable substance. There can be one or multiple platters depending on the disk capacity. The disk platters are very fragile and sensitive to dust, debris and fingerprints.

It is also very easy to scratch the surface of the platters, which could permanently damage them. The platters are attached to a spindle that turns the platters simultaneously. A motor also exists to ensure the platters are spun at a set speed. The actuator arm houses the read-write heads which are present to access the data on the platters. These heads never actually touch the platters. The spinning of the platters creates air pressure which lifts the read-write heads off the platters, enabling them to access the data. It only takes 0.5 micron of dust on the platter surface to disturb the functionality of the drive. This is why a hard drive should never be opened unless done in a clean room by a data recovery company.

Do Not Freeze or Heat the Failed Hard Drive

Many people have read about freezing a failed hard drive in order to recover the data. Beware of doing this as condensation can cause the drive to be ruined causing permanent data loss. On the flip side, you should also not attempt to heat a hard drive using the oven or microwave oven. This will also cause the drive to be ruined causing your data to be permanently gone. Once again, the internal components of a hard drive are extremely fragile. An extreme change in temperature can cause problems.

Do Not Physically Abuse the Drive

Some people have read about tips others claimed have worked including hitting a hard drive or dropping it on the floor in order to cause the parts to begin functioning properly again. This is not advised as it can break the internal components or scratch the surface of the platters which can destroy the data residing on those platters.

Data recovery is more successful when trusted in the hands of a data recovery company. It is important that you do not take chances with the data you are trying to recover.

This article can be freely published on a website however it must not be modified in any way including the author bylines, and the hyperlink must be made active as shown below.

Andrea Stone is employed with ReWave Hard Drive Recovery, a worldwide data recovery company. Visit the company’s Data Recovery website for more information.

Let’s get to the important part first - if you’ve just lost your data, skip past this introduction and go directly to our first tip, so you can start your rescue operation. If not, a few minutes spent now might help you a lot in the future. Pay special attention to our third tip.

I always thought of myself as a reliable guy with reliable data. I never deleted my files accidentally, I made regular backups and had a power supply for my computer to protect me against surges and outages. However last year I experienced two cases of data loss where I needed to use recovery software. The first was a dead hard drive that’d hardly served a year. Subsequently, I accidentally deleted a large project file that was too big for the Recycle Bin. Happily I’ve got all my data back, thanks to good advice and a little preparation.

These handy tips will help you stay confident in the face of data loss, no matter how it occurs.

Tip #1: Use your system as little as possible until you recover all of your lost files. The more activity taking place on your hard disk, the greater the chance that some of your lost data might be written over.

- Don’t copy any files to the disk containing your lost data;
- Avoid browsing the web, because your web browser saves cache files on the disk;
- Don’t launch any unnecessary programs, because they can also use your disk;
- Don’t restart your computer.

Tip #2: Before you go further, take steps to free up some space on the disk containing your lost files. The more free space your system has, the less chance of overwriting any lost files with new ones. You can do one or more of the following things.

- Delete old files that you don’t need anymore (you can also move them to another source, like a USB flash drive, instead of deleting);
- Empty your Recycle Bin - making sure that you haven’t put any important files in there by mistake;
- Empty your browser cache. For Internet Explorer, click on the "Tools" menu, then select "Internet Options". Then, on the "General" tab, click the "Delete Files…" button.

Tip #3: To install any software after data damage increases the risk of your data being overwritten, so if you haven’t had any data problems yet, consider installing a data recovery program just in case. Prevention is always better than cure, and a recovery program is good insurance for your data. However, if you don’t yet have a recovery program, find one and - if possible - avoid installing it to the disk where your lost files are located.

Most recovery programs work fairly similarly. You need to select the disk where the lost files are located, let the program analyze the content of the disk - this can take a while - and then select the file you want to recover. Then, provide a location where you want to save that file. You should try to avoid recovering files to the same disk. You could use another hard drive, a network or removable media like a floppy disk or USB flash drive.

After you recover your files, check that they are correct. If you’ve recovered applications, check that they still run, or if you’ve recovered documents, check that your words are still there. Even the best recovery software can’t guarantee 100% results. If some parts of your files were overwritten - meaning that other data was saved to their location on your disk - after recovery they might contain invalid information. Depending on the type of file involved, partially recovered files like this can be mended by special utilities.

http://www.softwaretalks.com/first-aid/

There are a number of data recovery software programs intended to help you when an emergency calls for data recovery, however it is important to determine when you can do the job by yourself, and when you need to use a professional data recovery service.

Data recovery is a time consuming process that most of the time requires some level of technical knowledge in order to keep the integrity of the destroyed data destroyed no matter what the cause. Hard drive data recovery, when performed the wrong way, can lead to permanent data loss and even damage the surface.

Therefore, when it comes to deciding on data recovery software or professional data recovery service, stop for a while and think about it twice. How much do you know about the recovery processes? Are your computer skills enough to perform the operation by yourself? Is the software comprehensible and easy to use? Are there any warranties of full data recovery?

To all those questions, add the most important: How critical is it for you or your business to recover the data that was lost?

Keep in mind that a professional service can recover all types of files, because they have the full versions of the most advanced data recovery software. Furthermore, they can also preview the files before recovering them so you will be provided with a data recovery from where you can choose which selected files to be retrieved or ask for all of them back.

Even when the hard drive data recovery is exposed to severe recovery situations, professional data recovery services can include additional support for over 300 specific file types and uncommon file types such as FLV and flash files, MIDI music files, digital media files, voice files, and many others.

Another service that professionals can offer and you probably will not be able to implement, except if you are an IT technician, is the emergency boot media, which allows you to recover data from systems that cannot boot Windows due to data loss, hard drive damage or virus attack.

Sometimes you can have the knowledge and skills, the data recovery software, but not the time. Professional services can perform the recovery because of time constraints, offering a solution for almost any hard drive situation or the critical nature of the data recovery.

Such hard drive data recovery solutions may include the most advanced data recovery software, including disk diagnostic and file repair, the best disk diagnostic tools, improved file type searching capabilities, and the confidence that your most important information is in good hands to be rescued.

Natalie Aranda writes about computer and information technology. Data recovery is a time consuming process that most of the time requires some level of technical knowledge in order to keep the integrity of the destroyed data no matter what the cause. Hard drive data recovery, when performed the wrong way, can lead to permanent data loss and even damage the surface.