Data Preservation And Recovery

Over many years of computer use I've learned quite a bit through trials and tribulations. I remember in the early years having to cope with the loss of data quite often. Once I lost an original copy of an unpublished novel that I was working on, OUCH! That entire 24 chapter document was recovered ... more on that later. Protecting data is quite simple. There are a few things that you can do in advance in setting up your system to accomplish this. These things do not have to be done for a new setup (as in a fresh out of the box purchased computer), they can be done at any time.

How To Protect Your Data

There are a couple of sure fire ways to protect your data. Firstly, and intuitively simple is to not save any data on your boot drive in the first place. This is the drive that contains your operating system and it's associated files, system files. Why? Because it is here where viruses attack and should you need to do a fresh re-installation of your operating system, if not automatically done, you will need to wipe this hard drive clean. The only thing that should be on your boot drive is your operating system and program files. This drive is usually your C:\ drive and the programs might consist of: The Microsoft Office Suite, Adobe Photoshop, Windows Media Player, etc...

There are two ways to avoid saving data on your boot drive. The simplest is to purchase an external hard drive. Get the largest one that you can afford without breaking the bank. Prices have come down dramatically and you can easily find an external terabyte hard drive for less than $100 today. There are even hard drive boxes called arrays which can hold several hard drives and they can perform independently or as one huge drive. (The technical aspects of arrays are beyond the scope of this article but may be visited in a future post)  Most external hard drives are plug-n-play, meaning that there is little if any setup required. Just plug the darn thing in, Windows will acknowledge that it is present, and you're ready to go ... HA! Transfer all of your data and direct all future downloads to this drive. If you must save data to your boot drive, to scan for viruses for example, do so only temporarily and transfer the data to the external hard drive ASAP. In this way, you could say that the external hard drive is used more like an archive.

The second approach is just as good but not as simple. Just as good because it accomplishes the very same thing via different means, and it doesn't cost you anything but a little time. In this option you would setup what's called a partition on your hard drive. The partition creates what's called a new "virtual" hard drive. If no other hard drives are present, Windows will automatically label it D:\ drive but you can label it whatever you like (you can give it a name instead of a letter for example). This virtual hard drive will perform exactly as if it were an external hard drive. The only difference is ... there is no plug ... lol. At some time you may have to reformat, erase, or wipe your C:\ boot drive clean to re-install Windows for example. If this is the case, the virtual D:\ drive will stay intact and untouched as if there was a plug and it was unplugged during the reformat or erasure even though technically it is the same physical hard drive. You can Google "How to set up a partition" to learn how to do this.

The third approach can be costly, is not simple, and is certainly not for the meek or faint of heart but by far provides the ultimate security. This approach requires utilization of a server (my choice). The reason a server provides the best means to secure data is because the data is "usually" not stored on your computer. Your computer functions as a terminal to remotely (at a distance) control the server (as administrator) or access data/services (as user) in most configurations. Good virus protection is required because most servers stay online 24/7 and are more prone to virus attacks. I purchased a couple of Dell monitors on craigslist from an IT guy. I saw that he was running 3 separate executions of Windows simultaneously. He said, "Operating a server was easier than using Adobe Photoshop." He was right. It takes at least a year to become "somewhat" proficient at using Photoshop. When I got my first server, I was up and running, and had become quite proficient within a couple of weeks. Servers are dedicated machines that are designed to do specific tasks namely, push and pull data to and from attached devices such as printers, hard drives, and terminals. Servers also can control those attached devices turning them on or off at predetermined times as well as itself. Servers also allow sharing of installed software (referenced as services) to all attached terminals independently or simultaneously. In other words, if you have 5 terminals (users) and you have Adobe Photoshop as a service ... all users can access and use Photoshop at the same time as with any other installed services.

Data And System Recovery

Data and system recovery can actually be two separate "elaborate" topics. I will do my best to to combine them and be terse at the same time. Just like in the outline of my home network system ... this post is turning into a book ... LMAO. Just as in securing your data, to recover data and a system can be done quite easily with a little advance preparation.

First of all ... I don't know of any retail data recovery program that will recover 100% of your data and get it 100% correct. There may be professional service businesses that do a hell of a lot better but, who can afford them? If you are a bit anal retentive like myself (all of my music and movies have separate folders, titles, dates, cover art, and some have additional info such as liner notes, subtitle files, or biographies). I've used about a dozen data recovery programs and not one of them got it right. Some recovery programs only recover image files for example. Those programs that do recover various types of files "do not" recover "all" types of files. They may not recover database data files for example. If they do, they won't get it quite right (they may appear to be recovered but unreadable by the database program ... sighs). I could go on but I'm sure you get the picture. Several options are available to overcome these dilemmas.

The wonderful thing about today's operating systems, Windows 7 and beyond, is that they automatically create system restore partitions that will wipe your hard drive clean (reformat), re-install Windows, and literally put your computer back to the state it was in fresh out of the box when it was purchased. If you took the above advice and stored your data externally ... problem solved. But what about my programs and desktop Mr. NYSlim you ask? This is where a little advance planning comes into play. Here's what I do. I create a folder called "Desktop Restoration". In that folder I save all of my installation execution files. I have also taken a couple snapshots of my desktop (one with the all programs menu within the start menu open) with my camera program. A copy of this folder is stored in a safe place like an external hard drive and constantly updated as my desktop changes (wink). Now to restore my desktop is a snap. I have to do it manually and it does require some time but, there is no guess work or memorization ... just straight forward installations one after another until the job is done. I suppose this could be automated via batch file programming (a script type programming language that looks like broken English and predates Windows) but you have to have knowledge of such things. Not all of us have the old school computer savvy from back before Windows, eMail, and the internet like myself (toot toot).

One process that can be automated is the backup process. Make no mistake about it, it is true what they say, backup and backup frequently. You do not have to be a computer wizard to understand that backups preserve data for literally instant recovery if lost, damaged, or corrupted. Google "Automated Data Backup (Software)" and you will find many programs specifically designed to keep all of your data backed up. Most work in the background without you knowing it and creates the backup at timed intervals or each time data is saved. Some retail programs specifically designed for graphics and other similar design work have this function built in.

Now folks here's how I recovered a 24 chapter book from a crashed hard drive without backups. First of all, I've fancied myself as a writer since the age of 10. One of the hardest things for me to do was to make the transition to doing work on the computer. I was so accustomed to working the old fashioned way, with pen and paper. I finally got the hang of it and belonged to an online chat group that allowed you to store/save stories on their site (the cloud before the cloud ... lol). Then as we all know is probably bound to happen, the cyber world powers that be shut that bad boy down ... POOF! My hard drives were getting full but I thought I was safe because I'd spread a lot of files out and shuffle them around to different drives from time to time to free up space. Then the worst thing in the world happened ... so I thought. I thought 2 hard drives had crashed/failed. I could see that they had data on them but when I opened folders on the drives nothing was there ... sighs. I had two copies of the book and both copies were on those drives ... DAMN! I didn't know what to do. I researched a few things, couldn't find any answers and proceeded to do "what I thought" was best. I began running those stupid data recovery programs on the drive that had the most data first, big mistake. One program only recovered a bunch of image files (cover art). Another program only recovered some music files. It did not recover the high bit rate music files such as Flac and Ogg or any text files. These stupid recovery programs (I ran about 4) had by now screwed what was left of the original data up.  I think my guardian angel was looking out for me because something incredible happened. Before touching the other drive I decided to do more research. This time I got very specific in my searches describing "exactly" what was going on with my folders and such. Low and behold I ran across a simple answer that proves even those who think they are pretty bright, don't know everything and most certainly can't think of everything all the time Turns out that  there was simple answer to that. If you see that data is present on a drive (via space available) or in a folder but cannot view it ... If you dig a bit there's a button that say's "View All Files" and BAM! they all reappeared like magic ... lol. After going through all that I had gone through, I felt like such a putz. That still does not answer the question: What happened to the files on the drive the recovery programs screwed up does it? Well my guardian gave me a twofer (two for one). While surveying the page one day I found that Firefox allowed me to view the page in it's original state prior to being shut down. I abandoned Internet Explorer as my primary browser long ago due to it's lack of security and allowing several viruses into my machine via web page popups. I use Firefox now. Blocks almost all popups and scans all downloads too. Almost all of the links were still intact and active. I proceeded to re-download all of the chapters I had saved there. It took some time but I got everything back ...WHEW!