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Categories: Uncategorized
Blog 2
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Categories: Uncategorized
Blog 1
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod.
Categories: Uncategorized
Overwritten file data recovery
A lost novel and an overwritten file
We recently had a query from an author about a half-written novel which had been lost from their computer. Their daughter had accidentally edited the file containing the novel, and replaced the entire contents with a school project of almost the same size.
The writer had already sent the hard disk drive to another data recovery company but they were unable to recover any of the novel from the hard drive. After this the writer contacted us at Cambridge Data Recovery to provide a second opinion.
Locating the missing text
Because the file still existed, but just contained the wrong data (an overwritten file), we had to search the hard drive at a low level to locate text from the missing novel. Within 2-3 days we were able to recover the first 21 chapters of the missing work completely. This was around 85% of the total, and it turned out to be the most important part of the novel because the more recent chapters could more easily be re-written from memory.
This could have seemed like a lost cause as the file had not simply been accidentally deleted, but had actually had its contents replaced. But it was ultimately successful because a copy of most of the data was still present and we have tools to locate this data. We are always happy to have a look at hard drives to see whether the data can be recovered, even if the hard drive has previously been to another data recovery company.
Summary
Overwritten files cannot generally be recovered, but in this case parts of the overwritten file were found in other places on the hard drive – this is often the case with Microsoft Word documents, so it is worth attempting recovery even if it seems unlikely to be successful.
Dr Dominic Wilson
Categories: Data Recovery, Hard Drives
Moving to a larger hard drive
There are various reasons you might wish to replace your hard drive with a larger one. You might be running out of space on your drive, and in the case of a laptop you almost certainly don’t have the ability to add a second drive. Or you might be getting signs that your old drive is about to fail, and wish to move your data across before it does so. In fact, with laptops of more than a couple of years old which have seen heavy use, moving to a new hard drive may be a very good idea because the newer hard drive will be less likely to fail, and you will be left with a snapshot of the current state on your old drive, as well as the opportunity to increase the available space.
The way to copy the data to the new drive while retaining a working system is to use backup software such as Acronis TrueImage (other software is available, including free software, but we found Acronis is reasonably efficient). You should make a backup of the entire hard drive (which probably contains multiple partitions) onto an external hard drive. Your backup software will probably create a single large file containing all the data, so probably needs to be formatted as NTFS (or HFS/HFS+ in the case of Apple systems) rather than FAT.
Once you have the file you can use your backup software’s Restore function to restore the data onto your new, blank hard drive. The easiest way to do this if you just have the one computer is to obtain a SATA USB caddy which enables the drive to be connected as another external drive. Once you have completed this step then the new drive should be able to function as a replacement internal drive in the computer.
However, in many cases (including Acronis) the new drive will appear as the same size in your system, because even if the drive itself is larger, the partitions on the original drive will be exactly replicated. If you are happy to have an additional partition on the drive, appearing as a different drive letter, then you use the Windows Control Panel (or Mac equivalent) to create a new partition. However, if you wish to have a single large partition, then you need a way to enlarge the existing partition to occupy all the free space on the drive.
We have had trouble finding reliable Windows tools for this step. However, GPartEd, a free tool which comes with Linux installations such as Ubuntu, can be used to re-size the partition very easily and quickly. NB This is a potentially dangerous step which risks Total Data Loss and it is important to ensure you have a good working backup before undertaking this step. In this case, we have the old laptop drive to fall back on.
So, if you connect the new drive as an external drive to a Linux system (which could in fact be your usual Windows system with Ubuntu or Knoppix running from a USB key or DVD, available for free online), run GPartEd, and resize the partition to occupy the free space, please ensure that you select the “Align None” option to ensure compatibility with Windows.
Another issue is that if any bad sectors are located on the hard drive being resized then GPartEd will not be able to resize the partition, but will not do any harm to it either. There are ways to force the resize in these cases but it is beyond the scope of this article, and we hope that your brand new drive will not contain bad sectors.
Once the re-size has completed, you should now be able to simply insert the drive into your computer as its new main internal drive, with the system unchanged except for the new free space on the drive.
Categories: Backing up, Hard Drives
Dropbox for critical documents
We recommend keeping at least 3 copies of critical documents, at least one of which should be physically removed from the others. One way to achieve this is via an online backup service such as Dropbox.
I personally use Dropbox, because it performs two important tasks. Firstly, it automatically synchronises files between multiple PCs, while also keeping a copy in the cloud. This means that with 2 computers on dropbox, you automatically have 3 copies of the information.
Secondly, for vital files and folders, this enables the current versions to be accessed from multiple locations, including via your smartphone, so it is easy to pick up from home where you left off in the office.
The beauty of Dropbox is that it happens automatically so that even if you are behind with your backups, then at least your critical files will be backed up.
The free version of Dropbox provides 2Gb of storage, but this can be increased to 2.5Gb by signing up via this referral link: Dropbox. There are also other ways to further increase the amount of storage. This is typically not enough for a photo collection, but may well suffice for all your accounting documents, family history files, or other irreplaceable information.
Categories: Backing up
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Tags: backup, Dropbox
Floppy disks on the rise
Recently we have received more enquiries regarding transferring data from floppy disks onto modern media. Many people still have important data stored on floppies, and often find that they have no means of accessing the data.
Most of the floppy disks we see are 10 to 20 years old, and often exhibit problems such as particular files being unreadable, or the floppy disk apparently being unformatted. We can transfer the floppies onto CD or other media, but we recommend that if you have any floppy disks, it is better to attempt the transfer sooner rather than later. Currently the vast majority of floppy disks we receive can be safely transferred, but the older the disks become, the more likely it is that problems will arise.
For more information we have a page on floppy disk transfer.
Categories: Uncategorized
Fake SSD drives
There’s an interesting story on reghardware about a fake 500Gb SSD drive purchased in China. It turns out that the drive just contained a 128Mb USB key and some clever software to enable data written to the drive to be recorded in a loop. Sadly no chance of recovery of the lost data with a drive like this.
Categories: Data Recovery, Hard Drives
SMS Backup on Android Phones
There is an issue with all the stored SMS messages spontaneously disappearing on some Android phones such as the HTC Desire. I recommend SMS Backup+ available for free on Android Marketplace, for automatically backing up your SMS messages up to GMail. It creates a label “SMS” which contains all your messages, including MMS, and allows restore of SMS messages back to the phone in the event of your messages disappearing.
Categories: Backing up