2007 and Open Office Text Extractor Web Service
|
| Data Recovery Freeware |
| Visit this group |
Corrupt File Deleted File Failing Disk Password Recovery
Home Sitemap Links Help/About/Ratings
Navigation
Boot Disks
One of the most effective way to deal with data recovery issues is with a boot disk. There are many versions of boot disks out on the Internet. They use different media, from the tiny capacity floppy disk, to the CD and USB key. What a boot disk offers, is the ability to boot your computer from the disk into a form of DOS or Linux and to use mostly freeware tools that are on the disk, that run in these operating systems, to recover your data. This is particularly valuable in two of the four cases this site looks at, deleted file recovery and failing disk data retrieval.
For deleted files it's important not to install a deleted file retrieval software on the same disk where the deleted files exist, because it could overwrite your file. Deleted file retrieval works because the files are not really deleted, just an indication is made in the disk index that file is no longer to be accessed and the space on the disk is to be reused - the data is not actually overwritten at first. With a boot disk, you can run one of these file undeleters without installing it on the disk that has the file(s).
For failing disks the issue may be a little different. Running DOS, FreeDOS, or LINUX from a boot disk allows you to run programs that can interact with the main disk in the case that it won't boot at all. If the little file near the beginning of the disk called the Master Boot Record (MBR) is missing or corrupt, you can replace it and get your disk back in bootable shape. Another thing you can do is to much more easily create an image file of your failing disk, so that in the case it does physically fail completely, you will have a complete backup copy accessible on a working disk. A third thing you can do from a Boot disk is to restore partitions you have mistakenly erased, or more easily move and resize partitions. A fourth thing is simply to copy needed files from the non booting or accessible disk, unto the floppy, USB key or CD. There are free DOS and Linux NTFS drivers that can read and copy files from disks formatted with NTFS from a DOS or Linux environment.
This section is split into three sections, with boot disk listed for floppies, CD and USB keys. The most important recent development in boot disk, is the development of Bart'sPE Disk. This disk contains the files that are used in Windows under the preinstall environment and represent the files copied over from Windows 2000 and XP from the installation CD before the GUI shows up in the installation process. This semi- Windows environment has proven to be highly flexible and useful for data recovery and many freeware tools have been written or ported to this environment. Perhaps it can be said that this environment is neither a DOS one, nor a fully Windows one (and is definitely not a Linux one) and kind of represents a whole new operating system of sorts.
