Data Recovery Software Help For Windows, Mac , Linux Systems

Whenever a user starts his/her Windows 7 based system, the boot loader starts loading all the required system and boot drivers. After these drivers are loaded, the system thread (kernel) initiates the SMSS.EXE (System Manager Subsystem) that is responsible for loading the user profile. Corruption or damage in either of the components – required for booting process – can result in unbootability of your Windows based system, which renders to inaccessibility of all the data saved in the hard drive. In most of these situations, the user encounters an error message that explains the real cause for stopping the boot process. To overcome such situations, an ideal approach is to reinstall Windows 7 and restore the data from an updated backup. However, if in case of backup file corruption or unavailability, the user will need to recover the data from a powerful third-party

data recovery software.

To deeply analyze the above scenario, consider a real-time scenario where you are working on your Windows 7 system. You install some audio and video files from the Internet and the next time you boot your system, it does not boot completely. The system boots till the loading screen and then automatically restarts. After the system restarts, the user encounters a BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death). Since, the system becomes unbootable post BSOD, the data saved in the hard drive also becomes inaccessible.

Note: The same error message appears every time even if you try to boot your system in safe mode, repair mode, or boot from the installation disc.

Cause:

The above error message (BSOD) appears when the boot loader get corrupted due to a fatal virus attack.

Resolution:

To get past the above BSOD, you will need to follow the below steps:

1. Reinstall Windows 7 operating system.

2. Restore all the files and folders from a complete and valid backup.

3. However, if in case of inaccessibility of a valid backup, you will need to use a safe data recovery utility that can perform comprehensive formatted data recovery. These tools are built with intensive recovery techniques that makes them perform recovery after any logical crash.

One of the most widely used data recovery Software is Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery. This software recovers and restores all formatted data at user-specified location. Compatible with NTFS, NTFS5, FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, and VFAT file systems, the recovery application supports almost all Windows operating systems, including 7, Vista, XP, 2003, and 2000.

Is your Windows hard drive refusing to boot up when you start your computer? Can you boot your system using a floppy disk without any problem? The problem may occur due to missing or damaged boot files on your Windows hard drive. Corruption may occur due to numerous reasons such as virus infection and improper system shutdown. In such cases, all your hard drive data may become inaccessible and you may face critical data loss. You need to restore valuable data from a complete backup. However, if the backup is not available, hard drive recovery becomes need of hour.

When a hard drive refuses to boot in such cases, you can boot the system using a bootable floppy disk and can access the disk using third-party disk utility software. After booting the system, you can run disk repair utility, like ChkDsk tool, to detect and fix hard drive errors.

Cause

Generally, when Windows hard drive can not be detected in BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) but accessed normally after booting the system using floppy, it implies a problem with logical components of the drive. The most common cause of this problem is a damaged boot sector or a boot sector virus.

Resolution

Try the below methods to fix the problem and perform hard drive data recovery:

• Reboot the hard drive

• Scan your hard drive using an updated anti-virus software. If the problem is due to a boot sector, it can help you to sort the issue.

• Set the system or boot partition as ‘active’, if you are changing the hard drive partitions. Else, you can not boot from primary partition.

• Boot your system in Recovery Console and fix a damaged boot sector, if it has been corrupted by a virus or some other reason.

• Put your DOS partition as the first partition, if you are configuring your system as dual-boot.

If none of the above methods work, you need to format the hard drive and reinstall operating system to fix damaged boot sector. However, formatting removes all the data from hard drive and creates need of hard drive recovery.

You can successfully recover lost hard drive data using third-party hard drive data recovery software. The applications use efficient scanning methods to ensure absolute recovery in all cases of data loss.

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery is the most excellent solution for all kinds of data loss. The software is compatible with Microsoft Windows 7, Vista, 2003, XP, and 2000. It supports recovery from NTFS5, NTFS, FAT32, VFAT, and FAT16 file system partitions.

Image via Wikipedia

Windows Home Server is an advanced way of connecting multiple computers together and building a network at home. This enables remote accessing and sharing of files and taking automated backups amongst multiple connected computers. It is most beneficial for home based businesses and companies. But, an advanced medium like Windows Home Server is also vulnerable to failure due to many issues like hard disk damage, human errors, presence of corrupt drivers, and more. If Windows Home Server fails due to any of these factors, then you may have to suffer from data loss. To get your data back, you must have a valid backup file. But, if you have not created any backup, then you need to opt for a powerful Hard Disk Recovery application.

Suppose, on a Windows Home Server based computer, when you see that the system fails to boot or one or more data disks are damaged, or encounter any system crash/disk failure issues, then all these may indicate failure of Windows home server.

Why does it happen?

Windows Home Server may fail due to any of the following reasons:

Presence of faulty network cards.

Overload on Windows Home Server.

NTFS corruption.

Ways to resolve the issue:

To resolve the issue follow the measures below:

To detect and identify boot problems related to Windows Home Server, check the server event log.

If the system stops the booting process, try attaching the disks to Windows operating system. By doing this, you can copy your data to a secure location.

Try using the CHKDSK command to resolve NTFS corruption issues.

In case of a physically damaged hard drive, you need to replace your hard disk.

But, if these measures fail to help, then it is advised to re-install the operating system. But, re-installing the system can prove disastrous as you lose all the data from the formatted hard drive. But, data recovery is possible using a powerful Hard Drive Recovery application. These applications use highly advanced procedures to provide absolute hard disk recovery.

Stellar Phoenix Windows data recovery is a fully featured Hard Disk Recovery software that recovers all your lost, missing or inaccessible data comprehensively. The software provides various added features like Disk Cloning, Disk Imaging, etc. It supports FAT 12, FAT 16, FAT 32, VFAT, NTFS, and NTFS5 based file systems. This software is compatible with Windows 7, Vista, XP, 2003, and 2000.

When your system boots up, BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) setup performs POST (Power On Self Test) for checking the system and ensuring that everything is functioning properly. If BIOS is able to start your system and gain access to video subsystem, it displays information about system as it starts up. However, sometimes you may come across boot error messages, which prevent your system from booting. It renders all your critical data inaccessible and leads to data loss situations. At this point, you need to perform data recovery through appropriate solutions.

The error may be caused by several different components of your computer, depending upon how far into boot process the operating system gets before the error is produced. Majority of the errors are caused by your system BIOS because it handles most of the system booting functions. Other error messages can be the operating system specific.

There are several individual error messages and some are very common as there are a few different BIOS manufacturers, which are used by most of the systems today. But, since the actual wording of error may be changed by manufacturer of every motherboard or system, there are many variations. One common example of boot time error message is as follows:

“Disk Drive failure”

After above error message, your system can not boot up and you can not log into the system. All your data business-critical becomes inaccessible. In order to gain access of your significant data in such cases, you need to find out the cause of this issue and perform Data Recovery through fixing it.

Root of the problem

As stated in above error message, boot errors generally occur due to hard drive failure. The failure can be either logical or physical:

• Logical Failure- Such type of disk failure occurs due to virus infection, file system corruption, operating system malfunction, and disk metadata structure corruption. In these cases, operating system can not read files from the drive and data loss occurs. You can recover lost data using Data Recovery Software. The applications are pretty easy to use and work in most of the logical failure situations.

• Physical Failure- This type of failure is caused by read/write head crash, spindle motor damage, actuator arm damage, power surges, and natural disasters. Data Recovery Services professionals help you to get your data recovered in such circumstances.

Image by Kilian Arjona via Flickr

The hard disk of a computer stores all the information of the system. This data is not only vital for us, but some of it is critical for the system itself. The information stored in the file system, refers to the working of the operating system and other such applications stored on the system. However, the proper functioning of the system can be disrupted when it encounters malware infection. A computer malware is one of the most common reasons behind data loss in computers. These are the programs that are specially developed to damage the system. Removing a virus from a system often causes the data on it to get wiped out. After this, if a backup is available, you can use it to recover the data. In case the backup is not available, use a powerful hard drive recovery software to recover your data.

For example – One day you observe that your system is running slow. After a while random programs start on their own and your CD ROM opens and closes randomly. The system starts after a while, but all your programs on it are gone. 

No doubt, this is a catastrophic situation as all your important programs might have been affected due to malware or virus infection. At this point of time, you need to find a quick solution for the problem before it gets worse. But, let us first find out the cause of the problem.
The prime cause for this is virus or malware infection. It can come through various sources like If you have an anti-virus, it may not be up-to-date. This is why the virus on your system went undetected by it. It is also possible that the virus scan did show it, but you ignored the warnings.

Whatever may be the reason of the problem, damage has been done. However, the following measures may help you prevent your system from virus.

• Use and up-to-date anti-virus and remove the virus.

• Always keep your firewall on.

• Computer virus can also come through files downloaded from Internet. Therefore, it is important to scan the files before downloading.
  

These measures ensure total safety of the system as well as the data. In case, you fail to apply these measures and the system gets affected by virus or malware, then your data can either be lost or corrupted. In such situations, you can recover your data using a Disk Recovery software. These tools employ quick scanning algorithms to recover your data accurately. Also, these Hard Drive Recovery applications are equipped with intuitive graphical user interface that makes them easy to use and understand.

You must retrieve your lost data and information as soon as possible to save your business and organization. Obviously, the quick recovery is just a plain convenient, if lost or missing data is required soon. Whenever you store data or download and install a software of damaged computer hard drive, there are strong chances that data is being overwritten and you may come across permanent data loss. The same thing applies on all other storage media like USB drive, CD, DVD, external hard drive and so forth. The best way out to handle such cases is to opt for data recovery solutions through reliable applications.

In order to learn why and how the system failure and data loss occurs, it is essential to have grasp on how the operating system stores and deletes data on hard drive. Every time when you store data on the hard drive, a file icon is created by which you can identify the file and access it. In background, the file is converted into digital form and stored using binary digits (0 and 1).

Operating system creates a unique entry for every file in the file system table. The entry includes, file name, file size, starting sector address of the file, ending sector address of the file, creation date and time and so forth.

Whenever you delete any file from your computer hard drive, the file icon and file system table entry are deleted. The file remains physically intact, but operating system can not locate the file due to missing file memory reference pointer in the file system table. Operating system shows the disk space, that was used by lost file, as free and can be allocated to new file. Until the space is overwritten, data recovery is possible.

When the memory reference pointer is deleted, operating system can not locate the files on hard drive and thus it seems that file is lost permanently. In such cases, Data Recovery Software come for your rescue.

The partition recovery software are powerful and advanced third-party applications that methodically scan the whole hard drive and extract all of the lost data from it. The applications do not demand prior and sound technical skills as they come equipped with simple and interactive graphical user interface.

LSASS (Local Security Authority Subsystem Service) is a Microsoft Windows process that serves as the Local Security Authentication Server. The file performs tasks, like enforcing system security policy, handling password changes, verifying users logging onto Windows system or server, creating access tokens, and writing to the Windows Security Log. When you try to access the computer, the file checks the provided identity information for validity. If you forcibly terminate lsass.exe process, you lose all accounts. At times, a lsass.exe system or application error makes the computer unusable to operate. You computer might enter a reboot loop without permitting you to access the stored data. If all the recommended solutions fail, you might need to perform a clean reinstall of Windows. Since it deletes all the data, you need to use to restore it using an updated backup or a powerful Data Recovery utility.

For instance, you might come across the below symtoms with your Windows based computer:

• Error “The system process ‘C:\WINDOWS\system32\lsass.exe’ terminated unexpectedly with status code -<status_code>. The system will now shut down and restart.”

• An lsass.exe error causing system to reboot continuously

• You try to change the password but fails with an lsass.exe error

Cause

A Windows computer exhibits the above behavior in any of the below conditions:

• Authenticated user group doesn’t have required Apply Policy and Read Permission in order to access GPO applied on domain system.

• Your computer cannot get user authentication token from server.

• Your computer is infected from Sasser worm, , corrupt or missing configuration file or registry entry

Solution

You need to apply the following measures to isolate the described system behavior:

• In case of permission issues, you should grant the required permissions to the default domain policy

• As your computer starts after reboot, immediately click Start → Run and then type shutdown -a to prevent it from restarting

• Start the computer in Safe mode and scan it using an up-to-date antivirus program

• Install all the Windows updates available

• If the problem persists, repair Windows installation or perform a clean Windows reinstall

Clean Windows reinstall causes data loss, thereby compelling you to restore from backup. If no suitable backup is present, use a data recovery software to restore it. Data recovery applications serve as advanced and safe utilities using high-end scanning algorithms to locate and restore missing data. These tools are perfect partition recovery software.

Most of the computer users must have experienced the data loss at one or the other time. Data loss is generally indicated by some symptoms by your computer which range from scrapping noises coming from your hard drive to the inaccessibility of stored data and some sort of error messages. It can also be identified by the situations where your hard drive can no longer be recognized by your computer. The result of data loss is always devastating to end user, whether the use is an individual with personal data or a business with no proper backup of its critical data. Most of the users believe when the data is lost, its gone everlastingly. However, it is wrong as data recovery is possible in most of the cases using proper solutions.

The very first thing that you should always do in case of data loss is to stop using the damaged or affected storage media as further use of failed media could make the recovery process difficult or may cause permanent data loss. Several users try things like repartitioning or reformatting the hard drive in attempt to make it accessible. But by continuing to use the failed media, the lost data may get overwritten and it may irretrievable.

The most important step towards Hard Drive Recovery is to find out the cause of data loss. The recovery solution depends upon the factor, which has lead to data loss. There are two major causes of data loss:

    Physical Failure

    Logical Failure

The physical failure generally occurs due to damage to the hardware components or hard drive such as electrical board, controllers, read/write head, platters, spindle motor and so forth. It could take place because of accidental dropdown, power surges, natural disasters and more. In such cases, the recovery is possible through Data Recovery service.

On the other hand, logical failure is resulted by the damage to system data structure or other logical components. In this case, the physical components remain intact but the data becomes inaccessible due to missing file pointers and references. It is caused by file system corruption, hard drive formatting, accidental deletion, operating system malfunction, virus infection, improper system shutdown and other similar reasons. Recovery in such case is possible in an easy and quick way using third party hard drive recovery software.

STOP error messages in Windows NT based operating system (Vista, 2003, XP and 2000) primarily occur due to software or hardware corruption. Some software issues that might result in STOP error message are installation of a corrupted device driver, internal security issues, file system corruption and software bugs. After a STOP error message appears, the system becomes unbootable making all the data saved in the hard drive inaccessible. In such situations, a perfect solution is to restore the data from an up-to-date backup. However, in case of no backup availability or backup falling short of restoring the required data, an advanced data recovery application comes to rescue.

As a practical case, you encounter the below error message when you attempt to start your Windows based system:

“STOP: 0x00000029 (parameter 1, parameter 2, parameter 3, parameter 4)

SECURITY_SYSTEM”

The four parameters in the above error message differ due to system’s configuration.

Once the above error message appears, the data saved in the hard drive becomes inaccessible. Furthermore, you encounter the same STOP error message each time you attempt to boot your system.

Cause:

The above error message primarily occurs under any of the below two situations:

1      Some problem in internal security system of your computer

2      Device driver is corrupted

To avoid the occurrence of the above error message, you should always install the latest hardware drivers in your system.

Resolution:

To resolve the above STOP error message and access the data, you will need to take these actions:

1    Remove the new hardware (especially the chipset and video drivers) and reboot your system

2      Increase the RAM (Random Access Memory) and disk space of your system

3      Confirm the compatibility of the hardware and drivers by using Microsoft Hardware Compatibility List (HCL)

4      Select Last Known Good Configuration option while rebooting your system

However, if all the above measures fail to resolve the issue and the data still remains inaccessible, then you need to use advanced data recovery software. These data recovery applications employ advanced scanning methods to recover lost data from a formatted hard drive. Built with intuitive user-interface, automated recovery procedure and powerful features, these applications are as easy-to-understand and implement.

Windows XP is considered as a reliable and secure operating system. But at times, you experience certain difficulties while trying to shutdown Windows XP based computer. One of the reasons behind such behavior of Windows XP is hard disk damage or file system corruption. In such circumstances, it becomes essential for you to reformat or reparation the hard disk and to restore lost information from backup. However, if data backup appears to be corrupt or invalid, Data Recovery Tools can recover the lost or inaccessible files.

Consider a situation, where you click to shut down your Windows XP system and it shows one of the following symptoms:

• You receive an error message related to a file or service
• Your computer system stops responding

Cause

A Windows XP computer shows above behavior due to the following causes:

• Faulty file or service
• Device driver issues
• System or program file problems
• Incorrect CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor)/BIOS (Basic Input Output System) settings
• Hard disk or file system damage

Solution

To solve this problem, you need to take these steps:

• If you receive an error message pertaining to a file or service, you need to follow these methods:

1     Check the specific file or service listed under one of the tabs of msconfig.exe (Start > Run > msconfig). You need to turn off this file or service by unchecking it.

2      If you can’t find the file or service listed under msconfig.exe tabs, then it might be the case of improper removal of a program or Windows component. To solve this, you require reinstalling it and then removing it properly using Add or Remove programs tool.

• If you observe that your computer stops responding whenever you try to shut it down, follow these steps:

1     Try to shut down after booting the system using the Safe Mode option

2     If the problem persists, it can be a device driver issue. You can use Device Manager to examine and solve the same.

3     Next, you can use System Restore or Last Known Good Configuration option functionality.

4      If the same problem keeps coming back, try to perform an in-place upgrade of Windows XP that is repair the corrupted Windows installation.

5      Check for one or more improper CMOS/BIOS settings.

6      If you still experience that Windows is getting stuck while shutting down, run chkdsk utility through Recovery Console to determine and correct file system issues. If it fails to fix them, you need to reformat or repartition the hard disk and use your recent data backup to restore the lost data. In case of backup problems, you can use Disk Recovery applications.

7     If chkdsk can’t access the hard disk, contact a Data Recovery company for help as your hard disk might be damaged.