Tag Archives: information
When Software Cant Help: SSD, Cloud and Online Services
In the first part of the article, we took a look at programs for recovering data from traditional hard drives. In this second part of the series “When Software Cant Help” well talk about flash-based (solid-state) storage, cloud storage systems and online storage services.
Solid-State Drives (SSD)
Solid-state drives are often used in place of traditional hard disks. SSD drives offer smaller capacities but much higher speed, especially when random access speed is concerned. With no moving parts, SSD drives are more robust mechanically. They can withstand higher shocks, which makes them particularly great for portable applications. Another laptop-friendly feature is a much lower power consumption compared to magnetic hard drives.
SSD drives do come with their share of issues affecting data loss and data recovery situations. These issues are highly dependent on the ways SSD drives record information. With SSD drives, recovering a file deleted a few minutes ago is far from a given. Same goes for formatted disks; however surprisingly, corrupted SSDs may be recovered just as well as traditional hard drives. But lets elaborate.
Why Recovering Deleted Files from SSD Drives May Not Work
All fairly recent SSD drives implement a special set of procedures allowing them to optimize their writing performance. These procedures include background garbage collection and TRIM.
Why do SSD drives need garbage collections and magnetic hard disks dont? Because flash chips have much faster clear writes compared to erase-then-write times. In other words, flash cells that contain information need to be erased (emptied) before new information can be written in, and that erase process is very slow compared to plain write operation. In order to speed up the writes, solid-state disks erase flash cells occupied with deleted information in background. When the system needs to write anything on the disk, the write operation then has enough empty cells to complete quickly.
How does the disk know a particular sector becomes available? The operating system tells the drive via the TRIM command. The TRIM command is issued every time the system deletes a file or formats a volume. The drive will then add released sectors into the garbage collection queue, wiping their content with zeroes slowly but inevitably.
Remember why data recovery works? Windows itself does not wipe or erase the content of a file being deleted, but simply marks its disk space available. Well, this is not the case with SSD drives anymore: SSD drives will wipe available disk sectors in just a few minutes after a file is deleted.
When SSDs Can Be Recovered
SSD recovery may still work if the TRIM command was not issued. This could be the case if any one (or more) of the following is true:
Old version of Windows. Windows versions before Vista did not support TRIM, so SSDs behave pretty much like magnetic hard drives, and can be recovered.
Corrupted data. In a case of corrupted data, damaged file system and similar things, the TRIM command is not issued, and the files remain recoverable.
External SSD drive. SSD drives connected via a USB, FireWire or Ethernet port do not support the TRIM command, and can be recovered with data recovery software.
RAID arrays. TRIM is not supported in RAID configurations.
File system other than NTFS. At this time, Windows only supports TRIM on NTFS-formatted SSD drives. If your SSD drive uses a different file system, the TRIM command is not issued, and the drive remains recoverable.
Tools for Recovering Data from SSD Drives
In order to recover information from an SSD drive, you can use data recovery tools such as Hetman Uneraser, Hetman Partition Recovery, or Hetman Photo Recovery depending on your exact needs. Try Hetman Uneraser if youre recovering from a healthy drive that has not been formatted or repartitioned. If you did format or repartition your SSD drive, or if you have an inaccessible device with corrupted file system, use Hetman Partition Recovery.
Cloud Storage and Online Services
Cloud storage systems are gaining popularity among all kinds of users. Online backups, online photo albums (Flickr, Picasa), online file sharing and online document processing (Google Docs) are all over the place.
They are great as “Desktop”, “Mobile phone” or “My Documents” backups, perfect as redundant storage, and absolutely irreplaceable for sharing information and socializing. However, cloud storage systems are not exactly great as your primary storage. In other words, if you want to replace a big hard drive with an Amazon cloud storage account take a second look.
Granted, cloud storage systems are not susceptible (or much less susceptible than single-hard-drive solutions) to hardware faults and virus attacks. They are usually quite redundant and have excellent self-backup facilities. Your data may be safe there for a while.
Relying exclusively onto a cloud-based storage means giving up complete control over your information. Your data will be subject to someone elses policies (which may change without notice). The amount of storage space available may be limited, while plans allowing larger than a single hard drives worth storage space may cost you more than the cost of a similarly sized hard drive, per month.
Finally, if you delete a file, or if your entire account is compromised and wiped by a hacker, there is no recourse. No data recovery tool can restore deleted information from the cloud. This is a classical case where data recovery tools do not help.
When Software Cant Help: SSD, Cloud and Online Services
In the first part of the article, we took a look at programs for recovering data from traditional hard drives. In this second part of the series “When Software Cant Help” well talk about flash-based (solid-state) storage, cloud storage systems and online storage services.
Solid-State Drives (SSD)
Solid-state drives are often used in place of traditional hard disks. SSD drives offer smaller capacities but much higher speed, especially when random access speed is concerned. With no moving parts, SSD drives are more robust mechanically. They can withstand higher shocks, which makes them particularly great for portable applications. Another laptop-friendly feature is a much lower power consumption compared to magnetic hard drives.
SSD drives do come with their share of issues affecting data loss and data recovery situations. These issues are highly dependent on the ways SSD drives record information. With SSD drives, recovering a file deleted a few minutes ago is far from a given. Same goes for formatted disks; however surprisingly, corrupted SSDs may be recovered just as well as traditional hard drives. But lets elaborate.
Why Recovering Deleted Files from SSD Drives May Not Work
All fairly recent SSD drives implement a special set of procedures allowing them to optimize their writing performance. These procedures include background garbage collection and TRIM.
Why do SSD drives need garbage collections and magnetic hard disks dont? Because flash chips have much faster clear writes compared to erase-then-write times. In other words, flash cells that contain information need to be erased (emptied) before new information can be written in, and that erase process is very slow compared to plain write operation. In order to speed up the writes, solid-state disks erase flash cells occupied with deleted information in background. When the system needs to write anything on the disk, the write operation then has enough empty cells to complete quickly.
How does the disk know a particular sector becomes available? The operating system tells the drive via the TRIM command. The TRIM command is issued every time the system deletes a file or formats a volume. The drive will then add released sectors into the garbage collection queue, wiping their content with zeroes slowly but inevitably.
Remember why data recovery works? Windows itself does not wipe or erase the content of a file being deleted, but simply marks its disk space available. Well, this is not the case with SSD drives anymore: SSD drives will wipe available disk sectors in just a few minutes after a file is deleted.
When SSDs Can Be Recovered
SSD recovery may still work if the TRIM command was not issued. This could be the case if any one (or more) of the following is true:
Old version of Windows. Windows versions before Vista did not support TRIM, so SSDs behave pretty much like magnetic hard drives, and can be recovered.
Corrupted data. In a case of corrupted data, damaged file system and similar things, the TRIM command is not issued, and the files remain recoverable.
External SSD drive. SSD drives connected via a USB, FireWire or Ethernet port do not support the TRIM command, and can be recovered with data recovery software.
RAID arrays. TRIM is not supported in RAID configurations.
File system other than NTFS. At this time, Windows only supports TRIM on NTFS-formatted SSD drives. If your SSD drive uses a different file system, the TRIM command is not issued, and the drive remains recoverable.
Tools for Recovering Data from SSD Drives
In order to recover information from an SSD drive, you can use data recovery tools such as Hetman Uneraser, Hetman Partition Recovery, or Hetman Photo Recovery depending on your exact needs. Try Hetman Uneraser if youre recovering from a healthy drive that has not been formatted or repartitioned. If you did format or repartition your SSD drive, or if you have an inaccessible device with corrupted file system, use Hetman Partition Recovery.
Cloud Storage and Online Services
Cloud storage systems are gaining popularity among all kinds of users. Online backups, online photo albums (Flickr, Picasa), online file sharing and online document processing (Google Docs) are all over the place.
They are great as “Desktop”, “Mobile phone” or “My Documents” backups, perfect as redundant storage, and absolutely irreplaceable for sharing information and socializing. However, cloud storage systems are not exactly great as your primary storage. In other words, if you want to replace a big hard drive with an Amazon cloud storage account take a second look.
Granted, cloud storage systems are not susceptible (or much less susceptible than single-hard-drive solutions) to hardware faults and virus attacks. They are usually quite redundant and have excellent self-backup facilities. Your data may be safe there for a while.
Relying exclusively onto a cloud-based storage means giving up complete control over your information. Your data will be subject to someone elses policies (which may change without notice). The amount of storage space available may be limited, while plans allowing larger than a single hard drives worth storage space may cost you more than the cost of a similarly sized hard drive, per month.
Finally, if you delete a file, or if your entire account is compromised and wiped by a hacker, there is no recourse. No data recovery tool can restore deleted information from the cloud. This is a classical case where data recovery tools do not help.
Internet Marketing for your business
The internet has captured the imagination of many people when it comes to what it is, and what it can provide. Internet marketing is only one aspect of the internet, but it is a very important aspect at that. When people search for items on the internet they are normally looking for information, this information can come in a variety of ways and it can either be free, or purchased. For those that are looking, that is one area of the internet. For those that are providing, this is an area where broad and local internet marketing come into play.
As stated before, internet marketing is only one aspect of the internet, and it basically consists of marketing a product or service online. But there is much more to this phenomenon than one may think, and in this article you will discover what they actually are.
* Internet Marketing Consultants
When private individuals and business owners decide to take their ideas for business online, they will be better served if they use the services provided by internet marketing consultants. The reason for this is – on today’s internet it’s much more than simply purchasing a domain name, securing a bit of hosting, and launching a web presence. You will need to know a little more about the marketing side of things in order to be successful obtaining the type of targeted traffic you are looking for.
* Internet Marketing Consulting
Consulting will come in many different forms, and the type that will work for you will be determined by your specific needs. Allowing a professional internet marketer to consult you will allow you to avoid the pitfalls in which other less experienced marketers fall prey to. You will discover that because you’ve taken the time to invest in internet marketing consulting, your chances of surviving your first year on the internet can almost be guaranteed.
* Website Search Engine Optimization
As stated before, having a web presence is much more than obtaining a domain name and hosting. You will need to properly setup your website in order for search engines to find you, and to ultimately provide informational and educational content for the people that visit. The other important factor will be the visitors. You don’t just want any visitor coming to your site. You’ll want relevant targeted traffic because these will be the most likely visitors that are interested in your products and services.
* Search Engine Optimization Companies
There is a wide range of companies available that can provide SEO services for you or your business. One of the most important steps will be to find a company that can provide everything you need, and explain exactly why you need it. There are companies available that provide outstanding service and it will be up to you to find one that is a perfect fit.
The internet and internet marketing isn’t going away, and in fact it is growing at a very rapid pace. If you’ve been contemplating bringing your business to the online community, you may find the information provided in this article extremely helpful.