The Essential Data Recovery Report

Written by Greg Duffield


Your worst nightmare just became a horrifying reality. You keep hearing that little voice in your head mockingly shout “you should have backed that stuff up” The voice keeps echoing throughout your head as you perform a quick inventory all ofrepparttar important information that you just lost…..your client database, a years worth of e-mail, your entire inventory database, even your family photos. Even worse, you’ve got a deposition in two-weeks and key information needed to help winrepparttar 107727 case were also lost. You quickly call a service technician and have them come over to checkrepparttar 107728 computer out, only to hearrepparttar 107729 worst news of all….your data has been lost. When a hard drive crashes, it’s too late to worry about what you “should have done.”

Today data recovery is a multi-million dollar industry. The number of data recovery firms out there seems to exceedrepparttar 107730 number of fast food restaurants forrepparttar 107731 entire planet. These companies specialize in helping their clients retrieve data on anything from hard drives to flash-roms. Inrepparttar 107732 following report, we will discuss what data recovery really is;repparttar 107733 different types,repparttar 107734 costs, and what you can realistically expect when it comes to getting your data recovered.

What To Do In The Event Of Data Loss? Around 44% of all data loss is caused by hardware failure. It’s important to make sure that you immediately shut your system down if you suspect that hard drive has crashed. Don’t even try to go throughrepparttar 107735 shutdown procedure, just pullrepparttar 107736 plug fromrepparttar 107737 wall. Do not try to run offrepparttar 107738 shelf data recovery software or drive utilities. Many times these applications will assumerepparttar 107739 drive is functioning properly and will increaserepparttar 107740 risk of permanent data loss.

Types Of Hard Drive Failure

When we discuss data recovery in this report, we will primarily focus on issues surrounding hard drive failures; since these types of failures are most common. There are really two primary forms of failure in a hard drive, logical and physical. Logical failures are usually a result of file-system corruption. This can occur due to a virus, accidental deletion of key files or registry components, and in some cases even electro-static discharge. In most cases where a logical failure has occurred,repparttar 107741 drive is still recognized byrepparttar 107742 system BIOS, but it will not boot. In most cases, your data should still be intact onrepparttar 107743 drive, even though it may appear to be inaccessible. Ifrepparttar 107744 system BIOS does not detectrepparttar 107745 presence ofrepparttar 107746 hard drive, then chances are a physical failure has occurred. Physical failures can result from a wide variety of causes. There are really two sub-categories for physical hard drive failures; mechanical and electronic. Mechanical failures usually result from a failure ofrepparttar 107747 spindle motor. Spindle motor failure can result from excessive heat due to a bearing failure. The increased heat resulting fromrepparttar 107748 bearing failure will expandrepparttar 107749 drive shaft and therefore seizerepparttar 107750 spindle motor. Suddenly, your drive will become inoperative. Occasionally, you will get a warning that something bad is about to happen. You may hear a loud whining, a grinding noise, even high-pitched screeches. If anything like this starts to occur, BACK UP YOUR DATA IMMEDIATELY. Another physical issue that sometimes rears its ugly head is an electronic failure. If you look at a hard drive you will notice a circuit board onrepparttar 107751 bottom. This board is basicallyrepparttar 107752 brains ofrepparttar 107753 drive, and it is whererepparttar 107754 computer interfaces torepparttar 107755 hard drive. An electrical failure can occur unexpectedly at any time. Even brand new hard drives are not totally immune to having electrical failures. Sometimes it’s just a faulty component, sometimes it’s improper installation (i.e. electro-static discharge, grounding outrepparttar 107756 board, damaging circuitry during installation). It’s important to also keep your system clean and well ventilated, since excessive heat can damagerepparttar 107757 electrical components onrepparttar 107758 drive. If you have a system that is in a somewhat contained area, you may look at adding an additional 80mm fan to coolrepparttar 107759 internal components ofrepparttar 107760 system, especiallyrepparttar 107761 hard drive. No other component of a computer works as much asrepparttar 107762 hard drive, and therefore it is vitally important not to overlook it when cooling issues arise.

How Is My Data Recovered?

One ofrepparttar 107763 most often asked questions that customers ask is, “how do you get my data back?” Well, it’s really not black magic or rocket science. It’s just a matter of havingrepparttar 107764 right tools andrepparttar 107765 knowledge necessary to know what to do, much like a surgeon performing heart by-pass surgery. Many prominent data recovery facilities have a large array of hardware, software and tools for recovering data.

Generally speaking when a hard drive is received by a data recovery firm,repparttar 107766 first thing they do is evaluate it, and determine what recovery solution will be necessary. Ifrepparttar 107767 drive failure is a logical issue as mentioned earlier, then a scan ofrepparttar 107768 drive will be performed to try and repairrepparttar 107769 file system corruption. Sometimes a partition can be repaired andrepparttar 107770 drive restored torepparttar 107771 status that it was beforerepparttar 107772 failure. If this is not possible, then a very low-level scan will be performed that essentially searches every sector ofrepparttar 107773 hard drive for files. Oncerepparttar 107774 files are located, they can then be copied torepparttar 107775 media of choice, i.e. a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM or another hard drive. Logical recoveries can take up an enormous amount of time, especially ifrepparttar 107776 drive is onrepparttar 107777 verge of physical failure. It’s not uncommon to allow for one day of scanning and a day for recoveringrepparttar 107778 found files.

Ifrepparttar 107779 drive has suffered a physical failure, thenrepparttar 107780 recovery procedure is quite a bit more challenging. As mentioned above, there are really two sub-categories of physical failure; mechanical and electronic. An important element in recovering data from a physical failure is havingrepparttar 107781 necessary parts to getrepparttar 107782 drive functioning again. Unfortunately with hard drives if you have a 20GB Maxtor Hard Drive for example, then you will need another identical 20GB Maxtor Hard Drive for salvaging parts. In cases whererepparttar 107783 electronic circuit board has failed onrepparttar 107784 hard drive, then you have to haverepparttar 107785 exact same circuit board on hand in order to retrieverepparttar 107786 necessary circuit components for replacement. Many times you cannot even exchange circuit board for circuit board. These repairs generally require soldering skills and a thorough knowledge of electronics to be successfully completed. You will most likely hear “Class100 Clean Room” thrown around a lot when talking to data recovery professionals. Simply stated, a Class100 Clean Room maintains exceptional air purity, and contains less than 100 airborne particles larger than 0.5 microns in each cubic foot of air. This is vital in protecting sensitive internal components of hard drives. Anytime a hard drive is having an invasive procedure performed on it, a Class100 clean room or better is needed.

Memory Bandwidth vs. Latency Timings

Written by Ron Merts


Memory Bandwidth vs. Latency Timings All memory is not created equal, nowadays you need to know which 'flavor' is best for an Intel or AMD PC if you expectrepparttar best performance back from your investment.

When Intel releasedrepparttar 107726 i865PE/i875P dual channel core logic alongsiderepparttar 107727 Intel Pentium 4C processors,repparttar 107728 memory game changed forever. With a DDR memory controller now capable of running dual channel,repparttar 107729 Pentium 4 was no longer to be bandwidth limited as it had been withrepparttar 107730 i845 series. Those single channel DDR chipsets, likerepparttar 107731 i845PE for instance, could only provide halfrepparttar 107732 bandwidth required byrepparttar 107733 Pentium 4 processor due to its single channel memory controller.

Asrepparttar 107734 new 800 MHz FSB Pentium 4 processors allowed users to hit never before seen highs in terms of bus speed, many memory manufacturers were trying to capitalize onrepparttar 107735 situation by releasing every increasing degrees of "high speed" memory.

Unfortunately, to runrepparttar 107736 memory frequency atrepparttar 107737 same speed asrepparttar 107738 FSB (or a 1:1 ratio) almost allrepparttar 107739 high speed DIMMs (Dual Inline Memory Module) have to have very lax timings. Often, these times are as low as 3-4-4-8!

Think about it this way, a car built for drag racing can go dead straight super fast, but cannot maneuver as well as an F1 race car. Likewise,repparttar 107740 F1 racer is good inrepparttar 107741 corners but will be left inrepparttar 107742 dust onrepparttar 107743 drag strip. In other words, today's high speed memory modules are built for one thing only, and that's top speed, where timings really aren't considered all that much.

Memory timings play a key role in terms of overall system performance. More so in 3D based applications which do not need a great deal of bandwidth, but rather quick access betweenrepparttar 107744 various pieces of hardware withinrepparttar 107745 computer.

Confused about memory timings?

When one talks about memory timings they're basically talking about how longrepparttar 107746 system has to wait forrepparttar 107747 memory to be in a ready state before data is fetched or delivered.

You could think about memory timings as people working at a drive through restaurant; you place your order then wait forrepparttar 107748 food to be ready. The lowerrepparttar 107749 timings are,repparttar 107750 fasterrepparttar 107751 computer (and quicker your order comes) is able to get data fromrepparttar 107752 memory, andrepparttar 107753 fasterrepparttar 107754 rest ofrepparttar 107755 PC will ultimately be. This rule of thumb applies whether you're on an Intel or AMD based system. As for why there aren't lower timings then 2-2-2-5, JEDEC (the memory governing body) does not think it's possible for current dynamic memory technology to run at 0 or 1.

When we refer to timings it is common to quote a four digit number separated by dashes (ie. 2-2-2-5). The first number always represents CAS (Column Address Strobe) Latency as it's usuallyrepparttar 107756 most important.

Next in line is RAS-to-CAS Delay (Row Address Strobe), RAS Precharge and Act-to-Precharge Delay (which is alwaysrepparttar 107757 final, and largest number).

CAS latency isrepparttar 107758 delay betweenrepparttar 107759 registration of a read command andrepparttar 107760 availability ofrepparttar 107761 first piece of output data. CAS latency is measured in clock cycles.

With all things equal, a stick of DDR memory capable of running 2-2-2-5 will makerepparttar 107762 computer operating experience seem faster than a DIMM which may only run at 3-4-4-8. This is becauserepparttar 107763 delay from whenrepparttar 107764 memory receives an instruction, retrievesrepparttar 107765 data, and sends it back out is less.

Where it starts to get confusing is when you hasrepparttar 107766 choice of buying high speed memory with slow timings. Just about every PC3700+ rated memory module we've seen uses conservative timings after all. If your answer would be to buy fast memory with tight timings, I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed as there are no such modules available yet. So, why are we still interested in fast memory with slow timings then? Well,repparttar 107767 answer goes something like this....

Why release fast memory with slow timings?

In highly competitive markets, once a major manufacturer releases a new and innovative product,repparttar 107768 rest will surely follow close behind. If one manufacturer doesn't follow suit, their products are considered 'old tech'.

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