MN Digital Mediaworks

It is enormously dangerous to leave sensitive data on a computer for a number of reasons. Doing so can help a criminal steal your identity which can lead to financial loss, massive emotional and mental stress.

Deleting or formatting does not mean permanent deletion

Wiping data from a hard drive is not an easy job. A common assumption is that deleting a file or formatting a hard drive will be enough to remove data permanently but in fact the data still exists on the drive and is recoverable using data recovery tool.

There are a lot of methods to “delete” data from a computer’s hard drive:

• Highlighting a file and pressing Delete Key
• Deleting a file using Shift+Delete key
• Emptying the recycle bin
• Using system utilities to reformat the disk

These methods are not just enough to remove the data; they simply make that space available for the system to use when next required. Until it’s overwritten with new file the data remains on the disk. Readily available data recovery software tools can be used to restore the data. Some data recovery tools are also available for free.

Methods to Wipe drive

1. Using Disk Wiping Utilities: Remo File Shredder is an advanced Disk Wipe tool, which allows various easy to use options to shred files, folders, and unused space from a logical drive. The user-friendly software presents a hierarchical explorer view to select file and folders to shred; to shred files you need to simply add the files to “shredding zone” and select the shredding patterns and the software would start destructing the data beyond recovery.
2. Degaussing: In this process the storage media is subjected to an influential magnetic field to eliminate the data on the media. Degaussing may make the media inoperable; therefore this method is suitable if the media is not required for reuse.
3. Destruction: Destruction is mainly recommended for removable media’s such as CD-ROMS, diskettes, tapes that contain highly sensitive data. They can be destroyed by shredding disk platters, grinding the surfaces off of CD’s, incinerating tapes, or by cracking or cutting the media.

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‘Oh, no…’ situation might have happened with many of us that usually occur when you realize that you have just lost your pictures on your memory card. The best thing is that your pictures have not disappeared and there are a lot of ways to get those pictures back.

Very importantly if you lose data on a memory card take the card out of your camera and do not use it for anything else. Just stop using the card immediately.

What happens when you delete a picture on a memory card?

When you delete a photo, the photo does not get removed from the card, instead that space would be marked as FREE to occupy new photos on it. When you take a new photo your camera saves the photo into one of the free space, on top of the old deleted photo.

Your old photo doesn’t disappear from the memory card until a new photo is put on top of the old one. Even if your card reads ‘empty’, all the old photos are still there, just not easily reachable.

How to recover data from a memory card?

Memory card data recovery can be carried out with some professional data recovery software, in fact this is the method you are going to use to retrieve your data.

The best and powerful software is Disk Doctors Digital Media Recovery Software that can bring back your lost moments in minutes.

Lost or Deleted pictures on a memory card can be easily recovered using Disk Doctors Digital Media Recovery software. This software scans the memory card to locate and recover any image files. To use the software, you will also need a card reader connected to your PC and the memory card connected to the reader.

It is strongly recommended that you try the demo version first. The demo version will usually show you which images could be recovered with the full version of the software.

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Microsoft Outlook might be your favorite email client but the probability of facing problems with your favorite email client is always there. Accidental email deletion, Outlook data corruption are the most commonly faced problems. The solution to these common problems is also very easily available – Email Recovery Software.

For instance if you encounter outlook corruption or have lost your important email data for any reason it may be, it can be easily recovered. Email recovery software – this do it yourself data recovery utility can effectively recover your lost email files within no time. Microsoft offers its users to use the Inbox Repair tool that will repair errors from your corrupt Outlook files. The Outlook Inbox Repair tool repairs a corrupt Outlook data file by cross checking the file structure of a corrupt file with its data. If the situation is very complex then you will require an advanced outlook repair tool like Disk Doctors Outlook Mail Recovery software.

Outlook Mail Recovery (.pst) is an easy choice that would allow repairing a corrupt Outlook data file easily and effectively. This powerful recovery tool has the most advanced algorithms ever designed to recover data from Microsoft Outlook email archive files. Using Outlook Mail Recovery can get instant respite from various errors like oversized PST size problem, missing login information of a file problem, accidental deletion of Outlook files, corruption caused due to compacting of PST file, corruption of .pst files when used over a network and many other.

PST corruption is the worst scenario, which an Outlook user could face. Outlook Mail Recovery is the ultimate cure for all PST corruption issues. With this amazing utility you can easily recover email messages, folders, appointments, meeting requests, contacts, tasks, task requests, journals and notes from damaged/corrupt .pst files. If you encounter a data loss problem and require PST Repair, then Email Recovery software will do it for you.

Lately there has been a great amount of discussion citing Linux as useful data recovery tool. I am a great fan of Linux and I can tell you that it is worth its weight in gold if for noting else than its entertainment value. But as a substitute for data recovery software it is unsuitable. Actually the best use for small live CD Linux applications is for super speedy web browsing. But we will save that discussion for another day. Today’s topic is data recovery programs as opposed to Linux applications. Read the rest of this entry »

The main selling point of those promoting Linux data recovery is that it is free. I must admit this is a drawing card. A DSL Linux application will allow you to enter a hard drive safely and copy files to an external location. If you have every file on your PC memorized this is somewhat viable. But as that is not likely it might be wiser to go behind the scenes of a Blue Screen of Death using a data recovery program that allows you to actually open the files you find. Better yet why not use powerful data recovery tools that support previews of many file types.

If your computer has suffered a logic crash and will need to be reloaded with Windows then you must plan on copying your files to a safe place. But a simple copy function such as that included in Linux will only copy undeleted files. This is not enough. Read the rest of this entry »

Ideally Windows recovery software must operate on the Windows platform. This way programs can be opened as fast as they are recovered to check for further file data loss and to decide whether the information is actually needed or should be discarded. The best data recovery tools access the faulty hard drive via a working “technician” computer. These allow anyone to run a fast very deep scan of an entire hard drive and also have a safe place to recover lost files to.

Using Linux as recover data software is liken to brushing your teeth with sandpaper. There is a result but not the one you want. A quality third party data recovery tool will be able to recover deleted or reformatted files under any circumstance. It should also be capable of creating a drive image as a safe partition back up and to recover files trapped inside a hard drive that is only marginally functional. Better data recovery software includes a preview function and will always be able to restore the files original name.

Another tremendous advantage of a Windows based data recovery program over that of Linux is that these programs are specifically targeted to the file types you are seeking. For example, if you are trying to recover lost camera files you will need to scan for RAW files and only a program designed as photo recovery software from the outset can do this. Read the rest of this entry »