All computers and their components are subject to failure. In fact, sooner or later, every business will be confronted with some sort of system failure. The largest threat to businesses during a failure is data loss or data corruption. While the causes of data loss and data corruption vary, a lot of data loss situations can be retrieved by using appropriate data recovery tools.

Recovery Techniques

Two popular ways of recovering logically damaged data are 'Consistency Checking' and 'Data Carving'. Consistency checking involves scanning the disk to ensure that it meets consistency parameters. In an excessively damaged file system, the consistency check will fail and the consistency check/repair program itself may crash in attempting a recovery. Data carving involves identifying file clusters containing file signatures, so that the beginning clusters of files may be identified. However, this technique requires files to be stored sequentially, something that is rarely possible. While the above mentioned techniques are sometimes effective, no technique can guarantee complete recovery. For instance, in a FAT file system, when two files claim to share the same allocation unit ("cross-linked"), data loss for one of the files is guaranteed.

No matter what strategy is followed, it is much safer to have a preventive methodology, such as data safety software in place. Companies must invest in efficient disk monitoring software that work as an early warning systems for computer hardware. A number of third-party vendors offer such software systems that monitor the health of the disk array, and warn well in advance in case of an impending failure.

For disk monitoring software, a good product is Stellar Smart. It is an application which acts as an “Early Warning System” for hard drive problems in the future and provides current statistics of several hard drive parameters like hard drive temperature, spin-up time, head flying height, etc. It determines the current values of hard drive parameters. compares these values to a standard threshold value, and informs you about any impending hardware issue. It works on the basis of Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T) and constantly runs in the background to provide current information of hard drive status. It issues a warning in any of the following cases:

a) Decreased performance of the hard drive.
b) When current value exceeds the threshold value.
c) Temperature fluctuation.
d) Slow degradation of various mechanical and electronic components.
e) File system data structure corruption or overwriting.