Computers and Technology Articles

Getting Windows to show the hidden files on the PC is pretty straight forward; here are the sequences of Windows clicks and options you need to follow to get up the hidden files:

1. In Windows Explorer, (for this select “Start”=>”All Programs”=>”Windows Explorer”)

2. Select “Tools” and go to “Folder Options”

3. Click on the “View” tab

4. On the “Hidden files and folders” tab, click on “Show hidden files and folders”

It’s as simple as that!

Windows hides some files because it doesn’t want the occasional user interacting with them or indeed accidentally deleting them and causing a system crash or an application not to run. This makes a lot of sense from a personal and business users point of view.

There are also some circumstances when you will purposely hide files because they contain confidential information such as financial details or personal data that you do not want made public.

The question is though, what happens when you forget where you’ve put them?

After all, these files are hidden precisely so they cannot be easily found, and what do you do if they are password protected?

First of all let’s deal with cracking passwords that protect files and applications. You may be surprised to learn that there are a large number of software tools that are freely available from the internet that will crack any Windows based password that is applied to an application, folder or file. These common shareware or freeware utilitiy programs include Protected Storage Viewer (just put those three words in your search engine and you’ll find the download) and this utility will open and acquire the characters that a Windows based application or file will usually represent as the asterisks when the password input field is being used (when you type “password” it is shown as “********”). This is a pretty neat tool for when you’ve mislaid or lost your password and it doesn’t need any external installation or complicated setup routine to get it working on password recovery. Even better is that this utility will work on Windows applications such as Outlook, Internet Explorer and MSN, basically if you are

dealing with a Windows environment it will do the business for you.

Another good free utility for recovering passwords is Password Recovery Pro, and this is really simple to use. All you need to do is hold your cursor over the asterisk password field and the password will be revealed. It works on most Windows files but is no use for Internet Explorer or other web browsers and a patch for Windows Vista is not yet available but that should be along any time now.

If you are looking for hidden files protected with a password on your machine, you may find that simply enabling the Windows “show hidden files” does not pick up every hidden file. Just as there are password recovery utilities easily available, there are utilities that will seriously hide a file so that even Windows does not register its presence. This may be something you’ve done yourself but what if someone else has put a file or application on your machine ?

There are specialist utilities that you can use that will perform a security scan of your hard drive and perform various cross checks to see if there are any hidden files and if so, where they are and if they are authorized by you. You can imagine the issues that can be raised if someone has planted a key logging application on your computer that you cannot see but which is recording every key stroke you make, including when you are inputting your passwords for personal banking, online credit card transactions as well as snooping on what you are doing on your PC. Find Protected is not free, but you can download a fully functional evaluation version and this is an easy to use tool and again is very good at finding these files.

Backing up files is important because well you don’t want to lose them. There are multiple ways of doing this and I will go through some of them with you. Depending on how much you want to spend, how much time you have, how much you have to back up, or how much you know, each will come into play.

Solution #1: Flash Drive

Use: For smaller backups

Price: Inexpensive ($10+)

Ease of use: 3 (1-10, 1 being easy, 10 being hard)

Description: Flash drives are small, portable devices that plug right into your USB port. Great for traveling. If you don’t have a lot of files to backup then these are great and inexpensive. You can get a 1GB for around $12 or so and they go up to 8GB for around $90. I guess there is also a 16GB one out but who knows the price. Anyway, to install it’s as easy as plugging it into your USB port and waiting for Windows to recognize it. It will show up as a new “Removable Drive” under My Computer. Double click it and it will open the folder. Drag and drop any files you want to backup to here. Unplug it when your done. That’s it! All your files are now on your small USB drive, share with a friend or keep in a safe place.

Solution #2: Burning DVD/CD

Use: For smaller backups

Price: Really Inexpensive ($12+ for 50pk of DVD-R, $9+ for 50pk CD-R)

Ease of use: 6 (1-10, 1 being easy, 10 being hard)

Description: DVDs hold 4.7GB of data, CDs hold 700MB of data. Depending on how much data, choose the right one you need. Most computers will come with a burning software. I recommend using Nero. Make sure you have a DVD/CD burner installed. Put in your blank CD or DVD. Nero has a “Smart Start” feature that opens and you choose which type of burn you would like to do. Usually for backing up data, you make a data disc. Go to the next step and it will bring up a window, click add files and start adding what you want backed up. Click next when finished, name your CD under Title, and let it burn! When it’s done, eject it and store it somewhere safe. That’s the basics.

Solution #3: External Hard Drive

Use: Larger Backups

Price: Reasonable (250GB under $100, 500GB around $120, they make other sizes as well)

Ease of use: 3 (1-10, 1 being easy, 10 being hard)

Description: This works the same as way as the USB drive. The external hard drive is hooked up with a USB cable and usually a power cable. So plug both in. It will automatically recognize this in Windows and once again show up in My Computer. Open the folder, drag and drop. This is a great way to store lots of files, full backups, videos, music, games, etc. Easily fits in a bag and you can carry it when you travel. Awesome!

Solution #4: Ghost software

Use: Duplicating a full drive

Price: Reasonable around $60

Ease of use: 6 (1-10, 1 being easy, 10 being hard)

Description: Ghosting software such as Norton Ghost can duplicate a full hard drive onto another, backup files and folders, etc. It is a lot easier to use now than it was before. Built in wizards to help people backup their files easily. If you want to spend the money and don’t know how to copy files onto a drive or burn CDs I guess this would work for you.

Floppy’s and Zips: I won’t talk about these because they are pretty much not used anymore except for some older PCs and restore sessions.

That’s about it for the general backup solutions.

When you move file to the NFS Gateway volume from the NetWare 4 Server, you may encounter data loss problems. The sections of data might be missing from the files copied to NFS Gateway volume. The NFS Gateway volume is generally a UNIX volume that can be accessed through Netware clients as a NetWare volume. When you move files to NFS Gateway they actually get saved to the remote file system. A large amount of data segments go missing if NFS Packet Transfer Size is reduced. You may lose a number of data segments if ‘Write-Through’ is enabled in Gateway volume configuration.

Grounds of this issue

NTF Service uses UDP (User Datagram Protocol) packets and RPCs (Remote Procedure Call) for NFS communication. The traces of NFS communication which gets its route through the current IO engine of Server pair reveal that RPC header generally contains duplicate RPC Transaction IDs. The duplicate IDs could cause the packet receiving system to consider that the data in new packets is retransmitted and the packets might be dropped.

Solution

To ensure that this problem should not occur in future, you need to apply any of the following fixes:

1  Set NFS Packet Transfer Size of upper limit that is 8192.

2  Set ‘Enable Write-Through’ as No. It is the default setting.

3 Use Novell NCOPY command. It would reduce the occurrence of this situation.

These solutions are not applicable on the current problem of data loss. To resolve it, you need to go for Novell Data Recovery Software. The easy and quick Novell Data Recovery can be carried out using NetWare Recovery Software.

You should always apply Novell Partition Recovery software to the source volume. For assured results, opting for powerful and advanced Novell Recovery software is always the best bet.

Stellar Phoenix Novell Data Recovery is the most commanding and highly developed Novell Partition Recovery tool that is able to handle each and every data loss situation. It supports Novell Recovery from NWFS and NSS file system based volumes. Phoenix Novell Partition Recovery is compatible with Novell NetWare 3.1, 4, 5, 6 and 6.5.

You know what it’s like when your hard drive fails, your system crashes or you do a format….you have to reinstall all the drivers from countless CD’s. With this program, they are all stored in one neat little package, either in a folder or zip file.

This program helps you backup all the drivers installed on your Windows computer. When needed you will be able to reinstall all of them or just the ones you choose in a single step that takes less than a minute; a very handy tool especially after reinstalling Windows or when the hardware driver CDs which came with your computer are no longer available.

It also helps you check if you have the latest versions of drivers and displays detailed information about all drivers. No more searching on disks or having to track them down on the Internet or inserting one installation CD after the other.

Simply export all of them (or just the ones that you want) to a folder or a compressed file. After reinstalling Windows you will have everything in one place.

Version 3 is a completely new release which features Windows Vista rating tools, hardware identification tools and the background of a powerful hardware information database.

Behind a smooth interface, this program backs up what you need in case you mess up something. From registration to implementation, this program works fast, runs smooth, and does more than simply backing up.

When you run the application, it asks you if you’d like to run the trial version or apply for a registration key. The key is free, requiring only an e-mail address and your name.

Once you’ve entered the key, the program interface appears, with simple button navigation: Driver Operations, Updates and Identification, and Popular Hardware. Mousing over one reveals more options.

Free PC Security

Remember that no matter what system you use, backed up data must be stored on a data storage medium somewhere. Here are the most common types of storage media.

Magnetic tape has been one of the most popular methods of bulk data storage over the years. The primary differences between tape and hard disk are that tape is a sequential access medium. Access times may not seem as fast as hard drives but continuous writing or reading can actually be much faster than the typical hard drive. Floppy disks are quickly becoming obsolete but are still used for emergency situations on some home computers.

The hard disk is the preferred storage medium of today. The advantages in using hard disks are in low access times, constant availability, renewable capacity and convenience in use. The optical disk backup system, commonly referred to as CDs and DVDs, is similarly preferred because of its ease of use and cost efficiency. The biggest advantage is that data can be saved and restored on practically any machine with a standard CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive. HD-DVDs and Blu-ray backup disks are similar mediums.

A more modern trend would be solid state storage or a flash memory disk backup system. These include all types of flash memory such as USB drives, thumb drives, CompactFlash, SmartMedia, Memory Stick and others. High cost is the biggest disadvantage though they remain portable and easy to use. Finally there is the option of remote backup service, which is very convenient but also much slower since it relies on the Internet. Security may also be an issue.

In today’s day and age, even with all the advancements in computers and technologies, hard drive crashes are still all too common. There are a few reasons for this, which will be looked at below. Knowing the causes of hard drives crashing can help you prevent it happening to you, and causing you to lose all your data if you don’t have a backup.

You may have heard a lot of ideas on why computers fail - from you put too much information on the drive (not likely) to you deleted files too often (also not likely to cause a drive crash.) The biggest reasons disks fail is a physical problem with the media - in the case of a hard drive, the media that holds all the information. It’s not that companies make hard drives cheap, but they’re complex and have a tendency to break down over time, especially if they’re used frequently.   You might think paying the most you can for the best computer out there is the solution, but it’s not. Even the best hardware crashes sometimes. If your disk drive is about to go bad, there are certain things you can watch for so you know when it’s a good idea to get a fresh backup or purchase a new one.  

Hard Drive Failure Symptoms - If you hear a loud clicking or whirring noises from your hard drive, it could be a sign it’s about to go out. - If you suffer from frequent blue screen error messages in Windows, it could be a sign that your disk is about to go out. - If you get a message that your drive isn’t formatted, it could be that it has gone bad, especially if you know the drive is formatted already.  All is not lost, though. A lot of great technologies exist to recover your data. It’s a sad fact of life, but drive crashes are all too common, even with modern technology. With that in mind, it’s good to have a backup plan in place and be aware of the signs that a hard drive is going bad before it actually goes bad on you and you lose your data.

Firewalls are security programs for computers that work same as that of physical firewalls protecting them from external hazards things.

If an organization is using a network based environment then there is more chance of getting harm then a stand alone computer. So it is strictly recommended that there should be some security measures that will allow only the permitted things to get in and push unwanted stuff outwards. Even if the home computers uses internet surfing then intruders can easily make home in your computer files.

To avoid such harms and security problems, firewall concept is eve loved. This phenomenon works as just like of barrier to keep damaging forces away. Firewall works just near to the router program scanning out each packet coming to the destination whether it has to forward or not. Usually firewall programs are placed in the separate systems to avoid taking direct request at private network connections.

A lot of firewall products are available in the market that are providing some interesting and useful features like

-Record keeping facility

-Generating reports on regular intervals

-Alarming facility on any attack

-GUI based system

Working of Firewall:

Firewall works on three principles which data is permitted to come in and which not.

-Sorting out Packets

Data on the network is sent in the form packets from one computer to the other computer. So firewall is aiming at packets first, it starts filtering them and then send to the demanding computer and cast off all other packets.

-Proxy

Some proxy settings are done on the network computers by firewall programs. All the information coming from the internet resource is first checked by firewall then transmitted to the requested system.

-Assessment of Packets Content

Not whole of the content is checked by firewall programs but certain keywords are matched to the defined database information in the firewall. If keyword match found they packets are allowed inside the network otherwise they are discarded.

If you were to name to only one thing which is casting at the background of your company existence, that would be certainly data. Now, name one thing that can vigor you out of your work in terms of its absence that would be again data. This implies that you need to fulfill all the basic needs which this most significant thing requires for its survival. The first vote goes to hard drive, which shelters it. If in any case hard drive fails, your data say no for being accessed.

But hard drive recovery says that these words are totally wrong, if you have the technique and determined procedures, data can be accessed and can be tagged for use. You use hard drives, just because they have high capacity and immunity for some of the harsh incidents, but failure cases may shock you with their consequences.

The hard drive components are totally mechanical in nature, which are high in chances of failure. Read/write head which accesses the data, platters which retain the data on their surfaces, motor shaft which spins the platters connected to motor, any of them can show the knotty nature. The final result of the problem is that data can’t be accessed now.

Hard drive recovery sees all these problems and assures that your data can be recovered. Actually through hard disk recovery services, data recovery companies offer you expert care plus clean environment of hard drive recovery labs called Clean Rooms.

The platters spinning inside have high sensitivity towards dust and other environmental contaminants. So as you open it, these pollutants see a way to enter in, to damage the platters, but Clean Rooms assure its cure. These lessen the effect of these particles by restricting their entrance up to great level.

Now, in these apt surroundings, hard disk recovery experts move on from dissecting the media, replacing the damaged parts to the according data recovery procedures. However, the results may not be complete depending on how you treated your hard drive after mishap. Did you slap it hoping hard drive recovery? Did you freeze it or run hard disk recovery software? If you answer to yes, probably the damage is unrecoverable. So don’t do this if you really understand data worth.

Go for the hard drive recovery company, for which data loss victims say good words, which satisfies all the hard disk recovery standards and holds all the tools and techniques to work efficient data recovery for you.

Stellar Information Systems Limited offers you the industry most demanding hard drive recovery services. This help is provided by expert staff which works hard to put in the maximum efforts in Class 100 Clean Rooms. In any of the case, you can send your failed hard drive to Stellar to get the maximum hard disk recovery done.

The loss or corruption of data such as patient records, accounting and financial data, employee records, payroll, and credentialing information could cripple a medical practice. Smaller practices are most vulnerable to data loss since they do not have the resources or technology to manage a best practice data backup solution.

“It is estimated that 60% of companies that lose their data shut down within 6 months.” - John Jackson, Storage Insider.

With today’s ever changing technology, identifying the right data backup solution for your practice can be more difficult than ever. In order to make the most informed decision, it is important to understand the strengths and weaknesses of today’s backup solutions. Below you will find summaries of the most common data backup options as well as things to consider while determining which solution makes the most sense for your environment.

Traditional Tape Backup

Traditional tape backup is manual-intensive, requires significant resources, and can be costly. Tapes need to be changed daily, cataloged, and removed from the premises. Tape backup units must be cleaned a minimum of once per month to ensure proper functionality. Data restores from tape should be performed a minimum of once per quarter. Lastly, tapes should be replaced annually. The cost of a tape backup unit and tapes can add up very quickly. The manual labor involved makes it more likely to forget a process. Traditional tape backup solutions require such maintenance because they have a very high failure rate.

According to Microsoft, 42% of attempted recoveries from tape backups in the past year have failed. In addition, Ben Matheson, group product manager for Microsoft Data Protection Manager, said, “More than 50 percent of customers we’ve surveyed said their current backup solutions do not fill their needs.”

Online Backup

An online backup solution provides a location in cyberspace where you can securely backup your critical data. The benefit of an online backup solution is that it is generally cost-effective, easy to use, and automated. One downside of an online backup solution is that data can only be transferred at the speed of your Internet connection. Another downside is that your Internet connection becomes another point of failure in your backup solution; if you lose your Internet connection, you cannot perform any immediate backup or recovery functions. To put this in perspective, 1 GB of data (about 250 average MP3 songs) would take almost two hours to recover over a standard T1 line provided no other resources were using that Internet connection for any other purpose such as email, web research, online applications, etc.

Disk-to-Disk

With the decreased cost of hard drive space, disk-to-disk backup solutions have become more viable in today’s backup solution space. Disk-to-disk is the most reliable, fastest, and most secure form of data backup. Disk-to-disk solutions are typically automated and are able to restore data faster than any other solution in the market. The downside to disk-to-disk is that your data backup is located on your premises. If there is a disaster, your primary data as well as your backed up data is lost.

What to Think About

As with any business decision, you must weigh the cost of a solution with the benefit you will receive from that solution. Questions to ask while determining which solution makes the most sense for you: How long could you afford to be without your critical data? How much money does your practice lose if you were not able to operate for 1 hour, 4 hours, 1 day, 1 week, etc.? How effective is your current backup strategy? What is your operational backup strategy? What is your financial backup strategy? How would your cash flow be affected if your data were lost or unavailable for a period of time? How long can you operate without a steady cash flow?

In the end, a data backup solution is very much like an insurance policy. It is hard to appreciate or justify it until you actually need it.

Online data storage has become very popular among business organization. Earlier there were only few of data storage option was available, which is possible through uploading and downloading data from the hard disk or the computer memory to the web software. However nowadays, the online data storage has broadened its horizon and with latest technological advancements we have free online storage for the Internet users.

Data Storage Options

The latest invention is of numerous web services like Web 2.0 for the storage of data online. It provides the user with the option of storing data simultaneously with reading and writing of data on the local application. There are various free online data storage software like eSnips, AllMyData, iStorage, Mofile, Xdrive, Streamload, Openomy, Box.net, GoDaddy, Freepository, Omnidrive and Mozy available for the users.

Backup And Sharing Options With Free Online Data Storage

All these services are few of the basic online data storage facilities available to Internet users free of cost. These services are divided into two parts, storage and sharing service. Almost all of them provide both the options to users but there are a few which have only storage options like Mozy. Whereas Web 2.0 has one of the best storage features of online data storage with multiple folders for private, public and group sharing. The subscription of this service also includes RSS enclosures for users.

Data storage is a necessity for every business organization today because of unforeseen consequences, and also because the business conducted by any organization is based on the data it has. In such a scenario, online data storage services are the best option for any person or organization.