Software Recovery

Description of Software Recovery

In computing, data recovery is a process of salvaging (retrieving) inaccessible, lost, corrupted, damaged or formatted data from secondary storage, removable media or files, when the data stored in them cannot be accessed in a normal way. The data is most often salvaged from storage media such as internal or external hard disk drives (HDDs), solid-state drives (SSDs), USB flash drives, magnetic tapes, CDs, DVDs, RAID subsystems, and other electronic devices. Recovery may be required due to physical damage to the storage devices or logical damage to the file system that prevents it from being mounted by the host operating system (OS).
The most common data recovery scenario involves an operating system failure, malfunction of a storage device, logical failure of storage devices, accidental damage or deletion, etc. (typically, on a single-drive, single-partition, single-OS system), in which case the ultimate goal is simply to copy all important files from the damaged media to another new drive. This can be easily accomplished using a Live CD, many of which provide a means to mount the system drive and backup drives or removable media, and to move the files from the system drive to the backup media with a file manager or optical disc authoring software. Such cases can often be mitigated by disk partitioning and consistently storing valuable data files (or copies of them) on a different partition from the replaceable OS system files.
Another scenario involves a drive-level failure, such as a compromised file system or drive partition, or a hard disk drive failure. In any of these cases, the data is not easily read from the media devices.
Contents
1 Physical damage
1.1 Recovery techniques
1.1.1 Hardware repair
2 Logical damage
2.1 Corrupt partitions and file systems, media errors
2.2 Overwritten data
2.3 Lost, deleted, and formatted data
2.4 Logical bad sector
3 Remote data recovery
4 Four phases of data recovery
5 Restore disk
6 List of data recovery software
6.1 Bootable
6.2 Consistency checkers
6.3 File recovery
6.4 Forensics
6.5 Imaging tools
6.6 Companies
7 See also
8 References
9 Further reading
Free and open source software
Package License Language Version for Windows Version for Mac OS Version for Linux Graphical user interface Command line interface Last updated
AMANDA BSD C, Perl
Areca Backup GPLv2.0 Java 1.4.x
Attic BSD Python
BackupPC GPLv2.0 Perl
Back In Time GPL Python
Bacula AGPLv3.0 C, C Yes (license required)
BorgBackup BSD-3 Python, Cython, C Partial (with Cygwin)
Box Backup BSD/GPLv2.0 C
Bup LGPLv2.0 Python, Bash, C Partial (with Cygwin)
DAR GPLv2 C
DirSync Pro GPLv3 Java
Duplicati LGPL C#
Acronis True Image Acronis
Argentum Backup Argentum Software
Backup4all Softland
BackupAssist Cortex IT Labs
Backup Exec Veritas Software
Bvckup 2 Pipemetrics SA
Catalogic DPX Catalogic Software
ChronoSync Econ Technologies
CloudBerry Backup[4] CloudBerry Lab
Cobian Backup Luis Cobian
Commvault Commvault
Comodo Backup Comodo Group
Crashplan Code42
Dmailer Backup Dmailer
Double Image Backup Host Interface International
EMC NetWorker EMC Corporation
Genie Backup Manager Genie-Soft
GS RichCopy 360 GuruSquad
HDClone[5] Miray Software
HP Data Protector HP Software & Solutions
IASO Backup IASO Backup
IBM Spectrum Protect (Tivoli Storage Manager)
Image for Windows TeraByte Unlimited
InMage DR-Scout InMage
Iperius Backup Enter Srl
KeepVault KeepVault
Langmeier Backup Langmeier Software
LazySave LazySave
Mac Backup aka MobileMe Apple Inc.
Macrium Reflect Paramount Software UK Ltd
Memopal Memopal
Mozy Mozy / EMC
NetBackup Veritas Software
NetVault Backup QuestSoftware
Norton 360 Symantec
Norton Ghost Symantec
Novabackup NovaStor
NTBackup Microsoft
Retrospect Retrospect Inc
SpiderOak SpiderOak
SyncBack 2BrightSparks
SyncToy Microsoft
System Center Data Protection ManagerNo
Time Machine Apple Inc.
Tonido Backup CodeLathe
TotalRecovery Pro FarStone Technology
UltraBac UltraBac Software
Windows Backup