Problem: System crashing, or not working as expected
This typically happens when you've added or changed something and, suddenly, the system fails in an unexpected way. The first thing to try is removing the driver or hardware component you've just added. (You may need to get an updated driver or software version for your operating system.)
If the problem persists, you may have to resort to more drastic measures. If you have Windows Me or Windows XP (Home or Pro), you should try the System Restore feature, found under Start Menu>Programs>Accessories>System Tools. Use it to restore to a date or time before the problem appeared. (Windows 9x or Windows 2000 users running Roxio's GoBack software can use that program's "Go Back" function to achieve similar results.)
Windows 9x/2000 users will have to reconstruct a working system manually. Because each system has its own way of approaching such such problems, we'll discuss them separately.
Windows 95 or 98: Start the system in Safe mode. (Press F8 at startup.) Then, disable the appropriate drivers using the MSCONFIG program. If you don't know which drivers to disable, call in an expert, or get out your Windows CD and reinstall Windows.
Windows 2000: Start up in Safe Mode. (Press F8 at startup.) Try the "Last known good configuration" option. If that doesn't work, boot from the system disk and reinstall Windows.
Problem: Drive Crash
Uh-oh. This shouldn't be happening. Why won't the system boot? Oh, no!!
If you've lost data, suffered a virus attack or hard drive crash, or accidentally reformatted your hard drive, there is hope. A new breed of PC disk recovery tools go far beyond the capabilities of DOS' undelete or Windows' ScanDisk. Here are some of the best tools we've found:
1: PowerQuest Lost & Found (www.powerquest.com)
Rather than spending thousands of dollars to send your hard drive to a data recovery center, Lost & Found lets you automatically recover and restore data after accidental (or even intentional) data loss, or from corrupted media caused by a disk crash or logical system failure. PowerQuest's patent-pending technology will even recover data if the partition has been reformatted or if the FAT tables have been destroyed! In fact, as long as your disk is still spinning, Lost & Found can locate and recover almost any file, anywhere on your disk.
PC Buyers Guide tested Lost & Found 1.01 on a floppy disk that had somehow become corrupted in such a way that its data could no longer be read by any of the floppy drives in our test systems. Lost & Found not only recovered all of the files, but it did so in an easy-to-use fashion that earned it our Editor's Choice award for products in this category.
With that said, it is worth mentioning that if a disk is truly unreadable, files recovered by this or any other tool may not be fully intact. In some cases, you may have to open a file as text (say, in WordPad or your word processor) and manually copy-and-paste the recovered data into a new file. Still, it beats creating the whole file from scratch. The lesson here is: back your data up in more than one location if it's important.
2: TIRAMISU for FAT32 V3.03 Sophisticated Data Recovery Software for DOS and WINDOWS from Ontrack Data International
DETAILED INFO >>>
3: If all Else Fails, or if you don't have time to fool around....
Having data recovery software problems? Need answers?
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4: Hewlett-Packard's Disaster Recovery tools are bundled with the company’s premium-priced CDRW drives. The 8100i (1MB buffer), 8200i (2 MB buffer) and other, more recent models, such as the 8200e and 9200e drives, include a hard-disk backup feature not included with lower-priced models. With this HP Disaster Recovery software, HP drive owners can back up an entire hard disk to multiple CDs. We also found that this software worked with the older drives, including the external parallel 7100e and 7200e models, if a file called EPATCD.SYS is manually copied onto the boot floppy the system makes as part of the backup process. This EPATCD file can be downloaded from a number of sources on the Internet. You may, however, have to throw away a file on your floppy disk (say, Scandisk.exe) to make room for it. Although there is room for improvement with this software (it cannot, for example, back up only a portion of your hard drive, or inded, anything less than all of your data, on all drives, but hey, if a complete backup's what you want, this will do it. We liked the program's recovery test feature, too -- allowing you to test your backup to make sure that it was successful. It's about as easy as backup gets: one floppy reboots the system and, by typing "recover" (after reformatting your hard drive, if necessary), it puts everything back into place, even if your hard disk was completely trashed. Recommended.
5: Other Tools:
TapeDisk: Disaster Recovery and Hard Disk Cloning
CodeBlue-2 & CodeBlue-2 Remote (free eval version available for download)
New version 3.0.3 supports FAT16/32 and Windows 98! Any FAT16 or FAT32 disk can be copied to any other FAT16 or FAT32 disk.
CodeBlue/2 is a DOS solution to a Windows 95/98 problem. It eliminates the need to re-install Windows 95/98 or any other applications after a system failure. It is the only solution that does not require you to re-install Windows (or other backup software) before you can restore your backup. It does not use LFN BACK (LFNBK). It is not an image backup, but a file-by-file copy of your system. This means it is disk size independent. You can backup and restore to any size drive that looks like a FAT16/32 disk to DOS - and CodeBlue/2 will span media if the backup target is not large enough. It does not require any rebuilding of the desktop.
Complete Backup
CodeBlue/2 handles all hidden files, registry files, application files, data files including LFN's.
It does not convert LFN's to an alias, so there is no risk of losing or confusing your long file names. Instead, it preserves them as originally created. The CodeBlue/2 Wizard is an easy-to-use Windows front end. It simplifies the backup and restore process by building backup and restore scripts that allow you to:
CodeBlue/2 also backs up the MBR (master boot record).
1-2-3-4 Easy Steps
To restore your system after a crash is very easy.
Assume you have made the backup:
Yes! Your system is completely restored to the state it was in when you made the backup.
Typical Uses
Besides disaster recovery, CodeBlue/2 can be used to solve other problems.
Use any FAT16/32 Storage Device.
If the media is too small for a complete disk backup, CodeBlue/2 will span media. You can even use your old smaller internal hard disk for the backup target.
CodeBlue/2 can backup and restore to:
Problem: Where's that File?
Uh-oh. You just deleted an important file. Oh, no!!
PC Diagnostics Australia- Repo 2000 - File Recovery and Undelete Software
Whatever Happened to UNDELETE?
When Microsoft created Win95, they removed the UNDELETE program. In doing so, they made life miserable for people who either delete files from the Windows Recycle Bin or Quick-format their drives. You see, the smart guys at Microsoft figured it didn't matter if you deleted files from the recycle bin because the recycle bin protects you from accidentally deleted files.
But what happens when you delete the files from the recycle bin, and then want to get them back?
And then what happens if you Quick-format your drive under DOS or Windows? THAT causes the file names in the directories to appear erased, just as if had deleted them, but the data for those files is still on the drive. A FULL erase will actually write formatting information to all the file areas and totally wipe them off the disk, but a quick format leaves them there except for changing the directory entries. So what do you do about that?
Repo 2000 can solve these problems.
How Repo 2000 Recovers Your Files
Other Undelete Tools
For Further Reading
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