Repartition Linux Hard Drive Using “sfdisk” Command-line Utility
By btmunz | September 4, 2010
Is your current Linux drive partition structure not fulfilling storage requirements? Do you need to repartition your Linux disk? Linux enables you to do this using ’sfdisk’ command-line utility. This tool has four uses: list hard drive partitions, size of particular partition, check partitions on hard disk, and repartition the drive. Before you proceed for the Linux hard drive repartitioning, you must create an absolute backup of your significant data on the hard drive. A minor mistake while repartitioning the Linux cdisk can lead to severe data loss. At this point, you must go for Linux data recovery if you do not have an updated backup.
You must keep in mind that sfdisk utility does not understand GPT (GUID Partition Table). It is not developed for the large Linux partitions. This Linux hard drive repartition utility has the following four invocations:
· sfdisk -s: It provides the size information for all the hard disk partitions in blocks. This option is helpful in connection with other programs.
· sfdisk -l: This is the second invocation of sfdisk utility. It lists all the partitions on your Linux hard disk. If you omit the device argument, partition on all Linux hard drives are listed.
· sfdisk -V: This is the third invocation that applies various types of consistency checks to partition table on Linux hard drive. The option prints either complaints or ‘OK’. You can use this option together with -l.
· sfdisk: This is the fourth and final type of invocation that reads specification for desired partitioning of Linux hard disk from standard input and changes partition table on the drive. When the sfdisk tool determines that standard input is terminal, it becomes conversational, else it aborts with an error.
Before you apply the fourth invocation of sfdisk command on your Linux hard disk, you must create a complete backup of all your significant data on an external hard drive or other removable storage media. Backup helps you to prevent need of data recovery Linux solutions in case any failure occurs.
If the disk repartitioning process is interrupted due to power failure or system crash, entire hard drive becomes inaccessible and severe data loss situations occur. At this point, you need to use Linux recovery applications to ensure easy and safe recovery. The Linux drive recovery tools effectively handle all data loss situations.
Stellar Phoenix Linux Data Recovery is the most efficient and advanced utility to offer absolute recovery of all your valuable data. The software recovers data from all Ext4, Ext3, Ext2, FAT32, FAT16, and FAT12 file system volumes. It works well with all major distributions of Linux operating system including Red Hat, SUSE, Debian, and Mandriva.
Maria Peter a student of Mass Communication doing research on Data recovery Linux, Linux Data Recovery software And Ext3 Recovery.she is also a freelancer for http://www.data-recovery-linux.com/
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Data Loss from External Mac Hard Drive After Superblock Corruption
By btmunz | September 3, 2010
Mac OS X supports external USB and FireWire hard drives to store your data, create backup, or even install an operating system. You can access data from external hard drives by simply attaching them and mounting them. However, in some situations, an external hard drive is mysteriously un-mounted by Mac OS X computer, while storing data to or accessing data from the drive. This sudden behavior of Macintosh operating systems makes your hard drive inaccessible and cause critical data loss situations. In order to get your valuable data recovered in such cases, you need to go for Mac data recovery solutions, if there is no updated backup in place.
When a Mac OS X external hard drive is un-mounted automatically, you do not hear any sort of strange noises. It means the hard drive is physically intact and in working state. When you attach your external hard drive to Mac OS X computer, you come across either of the below error messages:
“Mount: wrong FS type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/hdb1,
Missing codepage or other error
In some cases useful info is found in syslog- try dmesg tail or so”
Or
“Unknown device”
It provides you two choices, either to ‘Initialize’ your Mac OS X hard drive or to ‘Cancel’ the process. It renders all your data inaccessible. To retrieve data from the hard drive in such cases, you need to identify the cause of this behavior and fix it through data Mac Disk Recovery .
Grounds of the problem
As stated in the above error message, the problem is generally caused due to corruption to the file system, missing or damaged system files, or superblock corruption. Corruption can be caused by various reasons, such as virus infection, operating system malfunction, and improper system shutdown.
Solution
In order to sort out this behavior of Mac OS X operating system, you need to replace the damaged data structures. It is possible by formatting the hard drive and reinstalling operating system. However, it removes all the data from hard drive and create needs of Mac recovery.
Mac recovery software are powerful enough to methodically scan entire hard drive and extract all lost data from it. They offer easy and safe recovery in all data loss situations, with interactive graphical user interface and read-only conduct.
Stellar Phoenix Macintosh Data Recovery is the most advanced and comprehensive utility to ensure absolute recovery of your valuable data. The software works well with Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, 10.5 Leopard, 10.4 Tiger, and 10.3.9 Panther. It supports recovery from HFS, HFS+, HFSX, HFS Wrapper, and FAT file system volumes.
Madison walker is working in IT industry.Before this, he has B.Tech degree in computer science & technology,doing research on how to perform Data Recovery Mac , mac disk recovery And Mac file Recovery operations.He is passionate Blogger, SEO, web/graphics developer and designer, net surfer and also a freelancer for http://www.mac-disk-recovery.com/
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How to Retrieve Data from a Dead Hard Drive
By btmunz | September 3, 2010
One of the major and most asked questions, apart from is it potential to retrieve data, is how much it would cost. Every data loss victim first needs to know how expensive it is to salvage lost data. There are no specified packages for recovery. The cost of Data Recovery depends upon the cause, type and extent of damage. When it comes to retrieve your critical and sensitive data, you should not think of the cost as nothing could be more precious than your data. Data is the most important asset of any organization and thus the recover and security of data should be relative to its significance and how vital this is required when disaster recoveyr plan comes into play.
Before you analyze the cost of data loss, it is extremely important to find out the cause of data loss. If you are experiencing some error messages while accessing your data or the hard drive partitions/volumes and data are invisible, it could be due to logical data loss. The logical data loss might occur due to file system corruption, virus infection, operating system malfunction, hard drive formatting, accidental deletion and more.
On the other hand, if you hear some strange noises of scrapping, clicking and tickling, the problem could be due to damage to internal or external hard drive components such as read/write head, disk platter, spindle motor, disk controller, PCB (Printed Circuit Board), actuator arm and many alike.
The Hard Drive Recovery in case of logical damage is not so much expensive. You can do it on your own using recovery applications. The recovery software would cost you around $100 to $150. They can handle most of the logical data loss situations and vary from operating system to operating system.
In order to handle physical data loss, you are required to take assistance from the Data Recovery professionals. They provide specialized and personalized help to repair or replace the damaged drive and retrieve all of the data from it using advanced tools and technologies.
The cost of Hard Drive Recovery service is not fixed. The recovery professionals provide you a quotation depending upon the amount of lost data and type of damaged component. Experts first analyze the drive to find out the type of damage and appropriate solution. Recovery service is carried out in safe and sterile surroundings of Clean Rooms.
Stellar Information Systems Limited is the foremost provider of superior and advanced recovery solutions. The software are available for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, UNIX, Linux and Novell operating systems. Service is delivered through Class 100 Clean Rooms. Stellar has “No Data No Charge” policy for its recovery service.
K madhav is a data recovery expert and doing research on data recovery software and fat data recovery.
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Do Not Toss That Hard Drive!
By btmunz | September 2, 2010
Many of you may have gotten a shiny new computer as a gift, or perhaps from Santa Claus this year (if you have been good!) But before selling or giving away your old computer, you must prepare the hard drive for disposal. That means properly erasing all your files, to ensure that no confidential or sensitive information remains that is easily accessible.
Data is almost always at least partly recoverable. Recently an author bought a hard drive on eBay that had been used by a clinic. It had more than 30,000 credit card numbers on it. Drives purchased this way usually contain confidential data. Deleting your files or even reformatting the hard disk is not sufficient. Why?
Your hard disk has an index like the table of contents of a book. Say you do not want Chapter 6 anymore, and you delete it. Your PC just marks Chapt. 6 in the Table of Contents as empty. In other words, the area on the disk occupied by Chapt. 6 is now marked as available for other files.
But note that nothing else has happened. The actual data forming Chapt. 6 is still there, happy as a clam, in the same place on the disk. Much the same thing happens when you reformat your disk. In short, deleting files or reformatting the disk just removes the references to the data in question, not the data itself.
This is why deleted files can be recovered with specialized software such as this: http://www.theabsolute.net/sware/dskinv.html Data can even be recovered from reformatted disks. So what to do?
Before putting that old computer out with the trash or giving it away, go to one of these sites for a program that will wipe your individual files or entire hard drive. Note that some of these programs will erase Windows as well; in that case, of course, your old computer will be unusable.
There are many other similar programs available. Drop by your favorite search engine, and rummage around. These programs will ensure that your data is beyond recovery, for all practical purposes.
On a related note, you should also take precautions before sending your PC to the repair shop. Even if you trust the technicians with your stuff, your files may be deleted during the repairs. If your machine is working, back up all your important or sensitive files. Use a handy USB thumb drive or external hard drive, or one of many online (and free) storage services.
Personally, I prefer to use my own storage devices. This way, the data never leaves my hands. Whatever backup method you use, check that it successfully copied your files. Then delete those confidential files from your hard drive. You can reinstall them when you get your computer back from the shop.
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Copying A Dvd To Your Hard Drive
By btmunz | September 1, 2010
There are many reasons that you may want to copy information from a DVD to your hard drive. In this article, we will explore those reasons and we will take a look at how you can copy a DVD to your hard drive.
I know a lot of people who collect movies. Nowadays, most of them have their entire collection of movies on DVD. This collection is actually worth quite a lot of money. For example, if you have a collection of 200 DVDs and each DVD cost you about $15, your collection is worth thousands of dollars.
What if something happens to your collection of DVDs? What if your kids decide to use some of your DVDs as little Frisbees? What if you want to watch one of your DVDs on a computer that has no DVD player installed?
All of these question lead to one conclusion—it is a great idea to transfer your DVD collection to your hard drive.
These days the cost of hard drive space has decreased significantly. In fact, the cost of a one terabyte external hard drive now sells for just over $100.
Do you know how much 1 terabyte of data is? It is a whole lot of movies. One terabyte is 1,000 gigabytes. As a means of calculating how many movies that you can fit on a one terabyte disk drive, we can say that most DVD movies take up between 4 and 8 gigabytes of data. Thus, if we take an average of 6 gigabytes for every movie, you can fit well over 100 movies on this drive.
However, if you learn to copy DVDs to your computer, you will learn that you can shrink the size of the movie without causing much of a decrease in quality. In fact, many movies can be compressed to 1GB which will then allow you to store up to 1,000 movies on a one terabyte drive. That is a heck of a lot of movies.
Well, how does it work? How can you copy DVDs to your hard drive and what format will they be in after you have copied them?
You can have a look at the best DVD Copy Software or use one of the many freely available tools on the Internet that will allow you to do everything that you need to copy information from your DVD to your hard drive, then shrink that data so it is no longer so large, and then put that data into a format that is viewable on your computer.
One such program that does this is called Handbrake which can easily be found with a quick search on Google. With Handbrake, you place your DVD into your computer, make the appropriate selection, and very quickly you can be copying information from your DVD to your computer.
For more information on this topic, visit the copy DVD to hard drive page at ThisIsHowYouDoIt.com, your home for how to videos and articles.
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