Thursday, March 16, 2006

Preventing And Reversing Data Loss

Preventing And Reversing Data Loss by Trevor Marshall

One of the most stressful times that a simple student or employee may encounter is a loss of an important file on the computer. It can be a day of doom if you are due to submit your paper or make a presentation and at the worst possible moment your file is deleted. Thus, data recovery may be the answer you are looking for. Data recovery is technology that will help you to salvage lost data. First things first, you may want to take out your rolodex and try calling your tech-savvy friends to help you out. In case you have no more choice, you just might have to spend a little bit to get yourself a data recovery software or a specialist to help you out.



1. Determine What's Wrong:



- your computer will not start at all

- blue screen of death

- your computer boots up, but files are missing or are corrupted

- your computer opens up but you cannot seem to find some of your other drives



2. Weird Sounds



Before doing anything, try to hear if there are any sounds coming from your hard drive like a weird scratching, scraping or ticking. If you do hear something like it, then it is enough to conclude that your hardware may be physically damaged. The only possibility for you is to take your computer to a data recovery service where experts might be able to get your data off for you. Of course, this would entail a lot of time and money, so you may want to weigh the value of the data you lost before going a step further.



3. Do-It-Yourself Data Recovery Tips:



- Acquire and download software to help you out

- Not all software is free

- Attach your hard drive to another computer if your computer has only a single drive. This is to provide enough space to store all your data

- If your computer has a rollback safety feature, try and roll back to a previous saved state to restore damage



4. Possible Causes Of Damage:



- Lightning strike

- Virus

- Hard drive failure

- Accidental deletion of data

- Water/fire damage

- Improper software installation overwriting important data



5. Be Prepared - Make Backups



Having back-ups is the only solution to your data loss problems. They come in various forms:



- Virus protection software

- Personal firewall

- CD backup

- DVD backup

- RAID hard drive



6. Back-Up Tips



- Try investing in backup software of good quality and performance. Products that leave you secured from data loss disaster or further computer file crashes are always a good investment.

- Double check the restore capability. The software should have features that guarantee that while the product is performing your back up it checks all the data down to the level of bits and bytes.

- Double check the capability of your back up medium. Invest on the best back up software you can get and at the same time, for the purposes of prevention, start manually and diligently backing up your data regularly.

- Do an inspection of your hard drives from time to time. Always be on guard of viruses and spywares that can possibly crash your hardware. Defrag your computer regularly to correct errors and check bad sectors as soon as they are detected.

- Be sure you conduct a proper documentation of what transpired during the data loss disaster, what you have observed, as it progresses and the things you attempted doing to give your files the first aid. This will help the data recovery expert to track the problem and recommend the best solution for your problem.



For more great data loss related articles and resources check out
http://datarecovery.infotechinsider.com



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Boost Your Career And Benefit From A Microsoft Certification Or Two Or Three

Boost Your Career And Benefit From A Microsoft Certification Or Two Or Three! by James Croydon

You went to college and thought you were prepared for the job market. If you are going for entry-level work, yeah, you are prepared. However, to really get ahead, you need Microsoft certification, whether it is an MCP, MCSA, MCSE or any other string of letters. Quite a few people will go for multiple certifications to broaden their experience and scope of possible job opportunities.



Some of the Microsoft certifications require you have to have at least one year of practical experience in order to pursue a certification, namely an MCSE or Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer. It is important to have that experience that these certain certifications require because the training, like the MCSE training and the MCSE exams that follow, are very intense. In fact, some people will not only partake of the standard MCSE training, but also MCSE boot camps for more in-depth studies into their certification.



One standard benefit to having a Microsoft certification is that it is a great basic means of analyzing the aptitude of an employee. If you are a manager or owner in a business, you want some way to evaluate that employee’s skills. And if you are the employee, you know that your boss recognizes your abilities.



If you are on the hunt for a new job, then potential hiring managers and employers have a basis in which to assess your qualifications. Without that Microsoft certification on your resume, these employers would have no idea about your skills and most likely would consider someone else, someone with a certification, for the position you were aiming for.



If you do not have much hands-on experience in your field, but you do have the Microsoft certification to prove that you know the material, you would also have a leg up on anyone else applying for the same position that may have more hands-on experience, but no certification. For some reason, that certification, those little string of letters like MCP or MCSE, hold a lot of power.



Yet another benefit to holding a Microsoft certification or two is the money aspect of it all. Sure, you shelled out some major bucks to fund your education in those MCP courses or that MCSE training, but consider it an investment in yourself. With certification, you can bargain a higher salary and even reimbursement for your training!



Many professionals in the IT field or in a company in which you work in an IT department could benefit from Microsoft certification. Do you work as an Administrator for a network, mail or web server? Are you involved in the security of networks and the internet? Any of those positions and much more benefit with additional training and certification. Just think money! It is the biggest motivator. The more you know and can bring to a position, the more money you stand to make.



So think about going for your MCSE or MCP certification or any number of others available. More training; more knowledge; more money ... sounds like a no-brainer! Go nuts and get certified today!



James Croydon, Microsoft Certified Professional and
MCSE Certification Courses advisor - focusing on MCSE Certification


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