Guide to Selecting Data Recovery Software
Selecting data recovery product is as agonizing as data loss
. You are not sure about the kind of result you can expect from the product, and added to that is the fact that some of the products could even damage lost data further. So, it is a complicated situation that you need to tread very carefully. This article will prepare you to deal with data loss without much stress and in an informed manner.
Data loss can happen to any device irrespective of the operating system or the application. The causes of data loss varies widely from that of human errors such as accidental deletion or formatting of drives and partitions, corruption of the file system, hard disk failure, hard ware errors and natural calamities.
Data loss due to any of the above reasons, except hard ware error can be recovered using data recovery software. In the case of natural calamities if there is no damage to the hard drive, then data can be recovered with the help of data recovery software.
Types of data recovery software
There are different types of data recovery software-products that can recover data from specific operating systems such as windows, Mac and Linux- products that can recover data from different file types and- from various data loss scenarios.
Data Recovery from Windows: To recover data from Windows operating system, you need to select a software that is capable of supporting data recovery from windows operating system (including operating system version). Other factor you need to consider is the file system used by the hard drive - FAT or NTFS. The third aspect is the type of data loss- for example, if the lost data include videos, photos and music, the product should be capable of recovering data from different file extensions such as AVI, MP4,MOV, MPEG, MPG (videos), BNP, PNG, JPG, JPEG, TIFF, GIFF (photos) and MP3, MP4, WOV, MIDI (music) using
photo recovery.
Data Recovery from Mac: You need to select the product based on the operating system version, the type of Pc- intel or power PC, and the file system- HFSX or HFSX+ in your Mac machine. To recover photos the product should be capable of recovering files with extensions BMP, PNG, TIF, TIFF, JPEG, JPG, GIF, or PSD. If you are a professional photographer and use raw photos, the product should support recovery from file extensions (CR2, ORF, MRW, 3FR etc) depending on your camera. To recover videos, the product should support recovery from AVI, MP4, MOV, MPEG, MPG, M4V, 3G2, 3GP, RM and MP3, MP4, WAV, MIDI, M4B, M4A, AIFF, AIF, AIFC, RA, or AMR extensions to recover music files.
Data Recovery from Linux: To recover data from Linux operating system, you need to ensure the file system (Ext2 or Ext 3)from which the product can recover data and Linux distribution it supports such as Redhat Linux, Suse Linux, Mandriva Linux, Ubuntu Linux, Caldera Linux, Slackware Linux, Gentoo Linux, Kubuntu Linux or any other.
In addition to the operating system and the type of file, equally important is the capability of the product in recovering data from different data loss scenarios.
Windows- in Windows the scenario for data loss could vary from deletion of data, partitions, hard drive, formatting of partitions, hard drives, hard disk failure corruption to file systems etc.
Mac- in Mac data loss scenarios include inability to boot the system, volume not getting mounted, volume is inaccessible after repartitioning and partition map or Apple catalog is corrupt.
Linux- in Linux this could vary from corruption in root directory, master boot record, super block, inode, block group descriptor (BGD) or deletion of data.
Data recovery software is available as freeware and shareware. Freeware, as the name indicates is free of cost and shareware is the purchase version.
Freeware for recovering data
You can download freeware from the internet for free. Some of the freeware are good and help you recover data efficiently. However, if the freeware you have selected is not efficient in recovering data, then it could lead to permanent loss of your data. So, if the data is very valuable and you do not want to risk data, then it is better not to select freeware. Freeware is mostly available for file recovery and may not support recovery of data from complicated scenarios.
Shareware for recovering data
There are various shareware for recovering data based on the operating systems, file type and to address various data loss scenarios. One of the best way to select a shareware is by evaluating the demo version before buying it. This will give you an idea about the efficiency of the software in recovering data. While evaluating you can see the files restored, but to save the recovered data you will need to buy the version. In addition to the efficiency of the software ensure that the product comes with good customer support either through telephone or live chat. Another aspect that you should consider is the payment processing channel used by the software publisher (eg regnow, Avangate).
Guide to Selecting Data Recovery Software
By: Charlesburton
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