View It Now Software Tool

I am a pretty visual guy and because of that my problem solving skills are based on viewing.  When trying to recover data from a corrupt file system I like to use a hex editor and view the system areas of the drive to make sure that everything is intact. ... 

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View It Now NTFS File System Viewer

I have worked with Microsoft file systems since DOS 3.3.  From FAT12, to the current NTFS 5.0 Microsoft has always strived to make their file systems fast and reliable.  However, there has always been one major drawback.  Their file systems have always... 

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Hard Drive Recovery and Remote Diagnostics… Old School gone retro…

When I first started writing hard drive recovery software, many, many, years ago Microsoft file systems were pretty straight forward.  It was a simple FAT, with some file entry tables scattered throughout the drive with a few key system components.  ... 

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View It Now for SNAP OS 4.X

The original SNAP NAS devices were developed by SNAP Appliance.  The operating system that was used was a flavor of BSD in concert with the file system UFS.  Although the file system looks very similar to the original UFS there were some subtle changes... 

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Recovering Folder Relationships Using DOS Clustering Design

    In my last installment I described what a file entry record would look like if it were in fact a cluster holding file entry data. I went over the fact that the first two entries of the folder cluster would be a period followed by ten spaces, and... 

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Using FAT32 File Entry Record For Recovering Folders Using Software Logic

  In my last installment I described the file entry record and its on-disk format.  I used a ‘C’ structure to denote the different fields of the record and defined which five are most important to us when trying to recover a FAT32 file... 

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FAT32 Recover File Entry Table On-Disk Layout Using a C Structure

In my last installment Recovering FAT 32 With File System Markers, I offered a brief outline of a case that destroyed a FAT32 file systems major components. This was done by formatting the drive using an operating system that is not native to the file... 

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Recovering FAT32 With File System Markers

In my last installment, Recovering FAT 32 with File Entry Records, I talked about USB and Fire Wire devices and how they are susceptible to damage. In addition I spoke about the file system used to store data on these devices as being FAT32 in order... 

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How platter swelling affects a hard drive

  Okay, I know this is not about how to read bad parity in a drive in order to find a the stale drive in an RAID five.  This is an important subject, however, I also think it is important to know why heat and a swelling platter can cause hard drive... 

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Recovering from Accidental FDISK using Free Software

Like many of us I have accidentally used ‘fdisk’ to partition a drive that I had never intended to. Whether it be adding a new drive, repartitioning and formatting a USB device, or just trying to reload the operating system there has been... 

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