Windows Vista Overview
May 31, 2007
Windows Vista has been out for some months now and more and more users are contacting us with equal amounts of problems and praise. I personally waited to take the plunge until our Operating System Research and Development Engineer Rich Correa gave me the green light. I have many custom applications in my job as Webmaster and Internet Presence Manager.
For those of you that are still debating the pro’s and con’s of upgrading to Windows Vista, I thought it would be a good idea to do a recap of Rich’s articles about Vista so you will have the best information all in one place.
Windows Vista Version Options
There are more versions of Vista than any other Operating System geared towards consumers that we have ever seen. If you are unsure of which version of the Vista OS you need, or would like, then read:
Which Version of Vista Is Right For You - in this post Rich goes over in plain English what the differences are between the myriad of Vista versions.
Windows Vista Security Issues
How about security? Everyone knows that Microsoft is always creating patches to keep up with the security problems related to the Internet. If you want to get up to speed on the different levels of security within Vista then read:
Windows Vista Security - in this post Rich goes into detail about the security of Vista as well as talking about the pesky User Account Controls or UAC.
Windows Vista Compatibility Issues
This was my main concern, having so many odd-ball SEO and other marketing tools. A lot of my applications run within the Java Runtime Environment and I had concerns about how well they would fare on Vista. I am fortunate that when I have a question all I have to do is pick up the phone and I can get in touch with an OS expert, for the rest of you read this:
Windows Vista Compatibility With Legacy Programs - by far Rich’s most popular post, here he goes over the compatibility issues between older applications and the new Vista. As you can see by the amount of comments, other people have had issues with Vista and legacy programs. There are comments from other tech wizards with insight on compatibility.
Windows Vista Data Recovery
Now that you have Vista, what do you do if something goes wrong? My wife Victoria wrote the actual Windows Vista press release for our website. You can read it and how Vista and data recovery go together:
Windows Vista Data Recovery - a guide on Vista and some steps to take to insure your computer is ready for the upgrade.
I also wrote a post about our data recovery software and how it works on Vista. If you have deleted files or lost data on Vista read:
DART Data Recovery Software For Windows Vista - this post tells you what you need to know about both of our DART products, DART and DART Undelete. These are the most state of The Art data recovery software on the market right now when you consider the professional style capabilities coupled with ease of use. Written by our top Data Recovery Software Engineer Dick Correa, DART and DART Undelete work quite well with Vista.
As always feel free to contact DTI Data Recovery at the numbers below. Visit our main site about Data Recovery, for more information about DTI.
Extended Data Recovery Software Support:
8 AM to 11 PM EST 7days a week!
24 Hour Hard Drive Recovery & Server/RAID Recovery Hotline:
Toll Free 1-866-438-6932 or direct 1-727-345-9665.
Verifying DMI Pool - Computer Hangs On Restart
May 29, 2007
If your computer hangs on restart and you can’t get past the Verifying DMI Pool window, it is possible that you have a virus or some other type of start up problem.
Verifying DMI Pool… and then the computer locks up.
In the past week I have received no less then 10 data recovery support calls about this problem, as well as having 2 machines in our data recovery lab suffer from it. My guess would be some new malware/virus that attacks the MBR. The following is a walk through of how to fix the problem. I want to preface it by saying that I can’t be sure that every time this happens that this is how to fix it, but recently it has been. Also you should be sure to back off the data on the drive you need before you try this fix, you should be able to use software like DART XP or Recover It All in order to see your file structure.
- Get into your bios. This is usually done by hitting F2 or the DEL key.
- Change your boot sequence so that you boot from the CD then the hard drive.
- Insert your Windows XP CD and Reboot the machine.
- Once in the windows install you will be given the option at the bottom to repair your current windows install. You are going to want to hit “R”. You will be dropped to a black screen with white text.
- You will want to choose the Windows install you want to fix. Usually this is going to be “1”
- You will now be prompted for the Administrator password for the machine. Enter the password and you will be given a dos prompt.
- Now type /fixmbr, you will be prompted with a warning and asked if you really want to do this, hit “y” and enter. NOTE: please make sure you have backed off your data before you try this fix it can cause a serious geometry issue.
- You are again at the dos prompt, this time type /fixboot, again you will be prompted with a warning hit “y” and enter.
- Remove the Windows CD, and reboot the machine.
Hopefully this has fixed your problem and the machine boot right up. If not you can give DTI Data Recovery a call or try our data recovery software.
Extended Data Recovery Software Support:
8 AM to 11 PM EST 7days a week!
24 Hour Hard Drive Recovery & Server/RAID Recovery Hotline:
Toll Free 1-866-438-6932 or direct 1-727-345-9665.
The Black Art Of Data Recovery
May 25, 2007
Over the next several weeks we are going to take an in depth look at how data recovery in all of its phases is applied to the Microsoft NTFS file system. You may consider this a class in the data recovery of an NTFS file system as well as a mini course in hard drive design repair.
The knowledge that I will impart over the next several weeks is not for the faint of heart. Although I will use plain language, as well as diagrams where needed, the application of the information is meant for technicians and software engineers. However, everyone I am sure will come away with a better understanding of the NTFS file system.
The following are the topics that will be covered on a week by week basis. Hopefully, I will be able to maintain the weekly schedule, however if life and my work get in the way, some weeks I may have to skip until the following week.
Week 1:
Boot Up Sequence: This will include how the BIOS determines a boot device. Once a boot device is determined how the BIOS hands over the boot sequence to the Master Boot Record. The layout of the Master Boot Record and how the boot code determines the boot partition. What can go wrong during the boot sequence and some ways you can fix those problems.
Week 2:
Continuing the Boot Sequence: This will cover how the Master Boot Record hands over the booting of the operating system to the OS Boot Record. This will include the layout of the BIOS Parameter Block, and how its data elements relate to data storage. A brief explanation of the NTLDR. I will also cover the problems that can arise during the OS boot and how you can possibly repair the problem.
Week 3:
Data Storage Part I: Understanding how data is stored is critical if you want to have even a remote chance of file recovery. Discussion on clusters, why they are used, how they are allocated. How the operating system stores the data on the physical media. Logical and physical sector addressing arithmetic will be explained. Fragmentation, the enemy of data recovery will also be explored.
Week 4:
Data Storage Part II: Once we have covered how the data is stored, we will need to then understand how NTFS handles keeping track of file and folder placement. The Master File Table will be discussed in great detail. Where it is placed, many of the components of the record will be discussed and how they relate to what we see translated into the file explorer.
Week 5:
Data Storage Part III: This week will be totally dedicated to run lists. This component is the key to breaking down how the clusters are stored. The method that Microsoft uses to track clusters is very complicated so I want to give this subject a full week.
Week 6:
Data Storage Part IV: Now that we have all of the theory of the MFT, this week we will cover how to recover data using a damaged MFT.
Week 7:
Hard drive theory: This will be a brief overview of hard drive design from a data recovery specialist’s point of view. Sector mapping, system area design. Permanent Defect tables. Growing Defect tables. Bad sectors, and how that relates to performance. How the operating system reacts to a bad sector. S.M.A.R.T early warning technology.
Week 8:
JPEG File recovery: The JFIF file format and how that relates to raw data recovery. Data mining, file carving and techniques used to extract data from a totally destroyed file system.
Week 9:
MP3 File recovery: The MPEG III file format will be covered and how that relates to file recovery. How data mining and file carving techniques may be used to recover the file. The ID3 data tag format and how that can be used to recover a more complete MP3 file.
Week 10:
Scenario: Hard drive has been fdisked, how do I recover?
Week 11:
Scenario: Hard drive has been formatted, how do I recover?
Week 12:
Scenario: Files have been deleted, how do I recover?
Week 13:
Scenario: I used the restore function from the manufacturer, how do I recover?
Week 14:
Scenario: Multiple partitioned drive made into single partition, how do I recover second partition?
Week 15:
Scenario: USB hard drive cannot be addressed, how do I recover?
Week 16:
Scenario: I lost all of my Canon CR2 Raw format pictures, how do I Recover from the flash chip?
Week 17:
Scenario: Hard Drive has reached maximum capacity and file system as well as the operating system have become inoperable. How do I recover?
Week 18:
Scenario: Malware virus attack on the Master Boot Record, or the operating system boot record. How do I get my operating system online?
Week 19:
Scenario: Drive has been formatted, and the operating reloaded. How do I recover data from the drive?
Week 20:
Scenario: Deleted email from my Outlook Express mail handler. How do I recover the deleted emails?
Week 21:
Scenario: Outlook PST file has exceeded the two gigabyte limit. How do I recover my email file without damaging all of my data?
Week 22:
Scenario: Reloaded Windows over the top of an existing Windows setup and lost my access Documents and Settings folder. How do I gain access to the folder?
Week 23:
Scenario: Hard drive has exhibited symptoms of possible bad sectors. How do I safely recover my data without compromising the physical attributes of the hard drive?
Week 24:
The future of data storage and what is needed in order to safeguard the data on your system. I am going to cover a great deal of material in the next six months. As I reveal each secret hopefully that information will help you recover and safe guard your data. If you have any questions please feel free to call or drop me an email.
Dick Correa
dickc AT dtidata.com
(727)345-9665 Ext 203
Data Recovery Software Overview
May 23, 2007
DTI Data Recovery creates all of it’s data recovery software right here in our labs in West Florida. Since 1992 our engineers have been creating cutting edge state of the art data recovery software.
Data Recovery Software Explained
There are many different types of data recovery software. The most common types can do the following:
- Recover lost files that have been deleted by accident.
- Undelete files from the recycle bin.
- Restore damaged partitions.
- Recreate boot sectors
- Rewrite partitions
- Recover deleted emails
- Recover lost digital pictures. There is a difference between data file recovery software and utilities. Most data recovery utilities are advanced programs that can clone hard drives or even erase hard disks and wipe all their data.
Advanced Data Recovery With Recover It All
Jacqui Best, our chief data recovery software support engineer, has been kind enough to write several articles about how to do advanced data recovery with DTI’s flagship program Recover It All.
Here is an overview of the data recovery software topics she has covered:
- How To Tell If Your Hard Drive Has A Physical Problem - a guide that tells you how to diagnose physical hard disk drive problems.
- Building The Partition Record - this tutorial explains how to re-create, build, or re-build partition record that was damaged, altered by a virus, deleted, etc.
- Building A Boot Sector - another great guide on how to use Recover It All Data Recovery Software to do advanced recovery.
- Multiple Partition Data Recovery - a tutorial on how to recover data from multiple partitions.
DTI’s Data Recovery Software Products shows you your data before you buy it! All of our demo software is fully functional and allows you to save your scan so you won’t have to run the scan over again with the full version.
Extended Data Recovery Software Support:
8 AM to 11 PM EST 7days a week!
24 Hour Hard Drive Recovery & Server/RAID Recovery Hotline:
Toll Free 1-866-438-6932 or direct 1-727-345-9665.
SNAP Data Recovery Through The OS Inode
May 21, 2007
This week is the final offering of our topic Recovering a single file from a SNAP Server Operating System. We have learned what a Super Block is, a cylinder group, and some of the important data elements in those data structures. We have learned how to find these data structures by using the data elements of other structures. Finally, we have learned that the file system is broken into blocks and that these blocks are the storage cornerstone of SNAP OS. Putting all of these facts together we come down to the final data structure the inode. At the bottom of this article there are links to my other posts so you can read or print them all in order.
Recovering a single file from a SNAP OS Part 3
The inode is the final link in the chain of data storage. It holds the map of the blocks where all of the data of each file and directory is stored. Let us dissect the inode and find its most important elements.
The SNAP OS Inode
Figure 1 is a raw hex representation of an inode. There are several data elements within the inode that define the date the file or directory was created, the last time it was updated, and the size of the file. For our purposes however, we are only concerned with one area of data elements and those are the direct and indirect block definitions.
Fig 1
The direct block definitions are defined in the shaded green area, and there are a maximum of twelve direct data blocks. The term direct means that each one of the four byte numbers in the shaded green area point to an actual data storage block. In other words, if we take the first value of 0×14A80E (1353742 decimal) and go view that data block, we will find the first values for our file 2003STEP.PDF. In figure 2 we can see the first few bytes of data from block 0×14A80E.
Fig 2
There are only twelve direct data blocks so if your file exceeds 96 k, then the file system will use a method defined as indirect blocks. There are three data elements of these blocks, they are:
- Indirect Block: Points to a block that has a list of data blocks.
- Double Indirect Block: List of blocks that point to an Indirect block.
- Triple Indirect Block: List of blocks the point to Double Indirect blocks.
From the above explanation you can see how deciphering a very large file can be extremely complicated. Once understood, this method works well and is very fast. Along with those facts, it is also very easy to program using recursion and a set of flags to let the recursive function know what is being processed.
Figure three is a listing of the 2003STEP.PDF direct blocks from its only indirect block.
Fig 3
Well, that’s it! By using the formulas and techniques I have outlined in my last three articles you can easily retrieve any file. I hope this helps those of you that have lost data due to hardware and or software failures on your SNAP Server.
If you have any questions, or if I can be of any help, please feel free to call me, or drop me an email.
(727)345-9665 Ext 203
dickc AT dtidata.com
SNAP Server Data Recovery of a Single File
Here are all the articles about SNAP Server Recovery of a single file:
- SNAP Data Recovery - the first post about the SNAP OS.
- SNAP Server Data Recovery of a Single File - A detailed post about recovering a lost file on the SNAP OS.
- SNAP Server Data Recovery Using The Super Block - the next article about SNAP file recovery.
Our main page for SNAP Server Data Recovery.
DTI Data Recovery Hard Drive Manufacturer Warranty
May 16, 2007
Believe it or not hard drives can fail even a few months after you purchase them. No matter how diligent hard drive manufacturers work to create quality products, they are often fighting a losing battle. Read my post Why Hard Drives Fail for more information.
DTI Data Recovery Doesn’t Void Hard Drive Warranties
If you visit our Western Digital Hard Drive Recovery Page for more info check out this post on Western Digital Hard Drive Profile that has links to their website that shows our company on it. Most of the other hard drive manufacturers don’t have approved partners pages, but we have our label that we put on the recovered drive as well as the authorization forms required to not void your warranty.
It is important that you do your due diligence on the data recovery company that you choose to send in your hard drive for repair.
If you are here you need data recovery, more than likely, internal hard disk repair. Call Toll Free: 1-866-438-6932 or fill out an online quote form if you need hard drive recovery.
Click here for more information about hard drive recovery packaging and shipping.
Hard Drive Data Recovery Support Resources
Below is a list of information about just some of the manufacturer specific hard drive repair resources that we provide. If you have any specific questions about a type of hard disk please leave a comment below.
Hard Drive Recovery Information
- Maxtor Hard Drive Data Recovery - this article focuses on Maxtor’s most popular hard disk the Diamondmax.
- Samsung Hard Drive Data Recovery - an article about Samsung hard drives including laptop and full size hard disks.
- Gateway Laptop Hard Disk Data Recovery and Repair - while Gateway doesn’t manufacture their own hard drives, this article is very informative about their laptops.
- Hitachi Travelstar Laptop Hard Drive Data Recovery - this article is focused on Hitachi notebook hard disks. We will shortly be posting about their desktop drives such as the Deskstar and their high capacity hard disks. In the meantime click here for more information on High Capacity TB Hard Drives.
- Dell Laptop Hard Drive Data Recovery - Like Gateway, Dell doesn’t manufacture hard drives. but there is plenty of great information in this article.
- Fujitsu Laptop Hard Drive Recovery - Another company that makes both notebook and desktop drives, this post is focused on the Fujitsu laptop hard disk. Click here fo more info on Fujitsu Desktop Hard Drive Data Recovery.
- Toshiba Laptop Hard Drive Data Recovery - one of our best articles about hard drive manufacturers, this post goes into great detail about the issues that plague Toshiba hard disk bearings.
I hope these articles are helpful for you to find what you need. Always feel free to contact us if you have any questions about data recovery.
24 Hour Hard Drive Recovery & Server/RAID Recovery Hotline:
Toll Free 1-866-438-6932 or direct 1-727-345-9665.
Extended Software Support:
8 AM to 11 PM EST 7days a week!
How To Tell If Hard Drive Has Physical Damage
May 15, 2007
Does my drive have Physical Damage?
I get asked this question a ton. The answer is not always as easy to answer as you would think. In many cases identification is easy. For example, if the drive is clicking, or smoke is coming out of it, there are pretty definitive signs of physical damage.
On the other side of the obvious we run in to drives that are still booting and functioning almost the way it always have. Maybe it is a little slow, something you might over look. Maybe the machine just reboots on its own sometimes, or shuts off completely. In these situations it is very likely that this drive may have bad sectors. Now how exactly these bad sectors occur is a plethora of reasons. One of the reasons would be a highly fragmented hard drive, since the heads need to move back and forth across the platters a lot more there is a lot more chance for them to come closer then they are supposed to. Anther big reason hard drives get bad sectors is heat, as I have discussed before, hard drives a extremely heat sensitive and even the most minor warping of a platter could cause bad sectors.
What you must understand is when you have a bad sector, is that these things tend to propagate themselves. The reason for this is that when Windows comes across a bad sector it is going to continue to retry that sector, and by retry that means the head resetting every time for another go at the sector. As this abuse to the hard drive continues, there is a high likelihood of more bad sectors in that area.
So I am sure you are thinking, how do I know if it is bad sectors? There is a really easy way to tell, download the Recover It All Professional DEMO. Set the software up to do a “slow logical scan” and then wait to see if you get any RD ERR, you will then know you have bad sectors on the hard drive.
My recommendation at that point is you back off the data you can and get yourself a new hard drive. If this is not feasible then formatting the hard drive should write out the bad areas, but it is highly likely the problem will continue.
24 Hour Hard Drive Recovery & Server/RAID Recovery Hotline:
Toll Free 1-866-438-6932 or direct 1-727-345-9665.
Extended Software Support:
8 AM to 11 PM EST 7days a week!
Data Recovery Hard Disk Drive Repair
May 14, 2007
DTI Data Recovery is a full service hard disk drive repair company. We operate a class 100 clean room for all hard disk repair services. DTI also offers undelete file recovery software that can restore partitions, or recover lost data. All of our data recovery software and services are no data no charge. If we don’t recover your hard drive or our software doesn’t undelete your data, you don’t pay us anything!
Hard Drive Data Recovery
The recovery of a damaged hard drive is a specialty of DTI Data. We have all the tools and experience to open and repair your hard disk drive.
Follow the links below for more information:
- Hard Drive Recovery - the physical restoration of data off of a damaged hard disk drive.
- Why Hard Drives Fail- why hard drive need repair and recovery. This is the first step of data recovery from a broken hard drive.
- RAID Data Recovery - the repair or restoration of damaged hard drives that were part of a RAID array.
- Nationwide Data Recovery - information about data recovery services across the United States.
- Data Recovery Training- information about DTI Data Recovery Training Courses.
Call Toll Free: 1-866-438-6932 or fill out an online quote form if you need hard drive recovery.
If you need data recovery don’t hesitate to contact DTI. We take your recovery needs as our top priority!
Exchange Server Tools: Use ExMerge To Import PST Files
May 11, 2007
Exmerge is a very usefull tool that can import PST files back into your Exchange Server Information Stores. Here is a tutorial from our Exchange Engineer John Best on how to use ExMerge.
Using ExMerge to import PST files
1. Place all of the PST files that you want imported into a single Folder
2. Make sure the Exchange Information Service is started
3. You need to make sure the account you are logged in with is an administrative account and you need to grant this account the appropriate permissions to read the Exchange Mailboxes. (By default, all administrative accounts are denied permission.) You can assign the correct permissions by following the steps below:
a. Create a Windows Security Group, and name it something such as “Exchange Recovery Administrators”.
b. Add the Windows account you are using to run ExMerge to this group. This account should already be an Exchange administrator account and have local administrator permissions on the Exchange server(s) involved in the mailbox merge process.
c. In Exchange System Manager, locate the target database and open its Properties dialog box. On the Security tab, add the Exchange Recovery Administrators group and grant this group Full Control permissions on the database.
d. It may be necessary to wait up to 15 minutes for the permissions granted to take effect. Alternatively, you can reset cached permissions by stopping and restarting all Exchange services, the IIS Admin Service, and the Windows Management services. Because of this latency, you should grant necessary permissions as soon as you know you will need them, not just before you need to use them.
4. Copy the files Exmerge.exe and Exmerge.ini to your Exchange Bin directory. (Default is C:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\Bin for Exchange 2000 and 2003)
5. Run Exmerge.exe
6. Click Next on the Welcome screen
7. At Procedure Selection, choose Extract or Import (Two Step Procedure) and click Next
8. Choose Step 2: Import data and click Next
9. On the Destination Server page, enter the name of your exchange server. You may also enter additional options by clicking on the options button:
a. On the Import Procedure tab, you have your choice of:
1. Copy (will copy even duplicates without checking)
2. Merge (will check for duplicates before copying)
3. Replace (will overwrite duplicates with data from the PST)
b. On the Folders tab you can choose folders to skip (deleted items, etc…)
c. On the Dates tab you can choose messages that meet a date range
10. After entering the server name and any options, click Next
11. Mailbox Selection – here you can choose the mailboxes to import, if you select all, any mailboxes that a PST does not exist for will be skipped.
12. NOTE: ExMerge will look for a PST file that matches a naming convention of “Alias Name”.PST, when a recovery is performed the Alias name is unknown to DTI Data, so the PST files will be named “Display Name”.PST, which may match your organizations Alias or it may not. If it does not match what is listed as the alias for a user, Exmerge will skip that mailbox. You will see in the log files if a mailbox is skipped because of a PST not being found. It may be necessary to rename the PST files prior to running Exmerge. For example, on my server here, my mailbox name is
13. On the Locale Selection, leave the default (English), unless necessary to change it and click Next
14. Target Directory – Browse to the folder containing your PST files and click Next
15. Save Settings – if you choose, you may save the settings into an Exmerge.ini file for use at a latter time
16. After clicking Next, Exmerge will run through the process of importing data, utilizing several threads. After it is finished, click the Finish button
17. Check the logs (from the same directory Exmerge was run from) named Exmerge.log and ExMerge-(Thread[n]).log for any errors encountered during the process.
18. The errors most often encountered are:
a. [14:25:53] (Thread1)Errors encountered. Copy process aborted for mailbox (This is a standard error message that points you to the particular Thread(n).log file to view what actually happened.
b. [14:25:53] Error. File ‘E:\EXTEST\USERNAME.PST’ not found. Cannot merge data into mailbox for user ‘USER NAME’ (’USERNAME‘). – This basically tells us a PST file was not found for the particular mailbox. This can be due to Exmerge looking for ALIAS.pst and the file being named USERNAME.pstc. [14:28:52] Error opening message store (MSEMS). Verify that the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service is running and that you have the correct permissions to log on. (0×8004011d) – This error is normally due to the account not having the appropriate permissions necessary for Exmerge to open the mailbox. Follow the steps from number 3 in this document to assign the correct permissions.
19. Further Information on ExMerge:
a. Download: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=429163ec-dcdf-47dc-96da-1c12d67327d5&DisplayLang=en
b. Documentation:
1. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/174197
2. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/265441
c. ExMerge Strategies and Best Practices: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/51cd78ab-49c4-4d90-9aa4-29dca171cd31.aspx
d. Troubleshooting ExMerge issues: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124178.aspx
e. ExMerge is your Friend: http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2004/07/01/171051.aspx
For Help with Exchange Server Data Recovery call DTI Data 1-866-438-6932
Delete Files In Windows XP
May 11, 2007
If you’ve ever had problems deleting files or are concerned that any secure data you have on your machine could be recovered, then you might want to try a file shredding program. Since we are a data recovery company, we can often recover deleted files, even after they’ve been emptied out of the recycle bin. If you want to guarantee file deletion check out this program:
Shred Agent file shredder utility
Shred Agent is a file shredder utility that makes deletion secure and prevents information leakages. Shred Agent was designed to replace in-secure file deletion with secure file wiping. It works in background and can see all files that are deleted, including temporary and cached files. Follow any of the licks below to visit the home page:
You can also go directly to the File Shred Agent Demo Software page and download the 30 day trial of this awesome software.
