Windows and Mac computers are not as different as people might think. Of course the hardware itself that being a microprocessor, wiring bus and digital storage are in many ways almost identical. There are slight differences in a few microprocessors used between these two different types of computers but for the most part the hardware is the same dispelling the myth that Mac computers are far superior. In fact now that the Mac OS X operating system is in place, Windows and Mac computers are more similar than ever before. Recently Mac computer’s were upgraded to use the HFS+ directory system for hard drive file structure. This basically increased capacity from 16 bit to 32 bit. The purpose of this was to increase the access speed to hard drive files on par with that of Windows based PCs using the NTFS partition structure.

Of course when we have a problem resulting in a need to recover Mac data we still must use a Mac specific proprietary data recovery program. While in principle these two operating systems may be similar in operation they are not. To recover Mac files you will need a data recovery tool that is designed for exactly that and will support Mac OS X and older operating systems.

For almost two years I had a perfectly good laptop computer sitting in my closet doing nothing. The reason I parked it there was because one morning I would start that laptop PC instead of seeing the familiar Windows Vista welcome screen I found myself staring at a bright blue Windows error screen. The error message told me that I was missing operating system files needed to start my PC. Apparently the only way to install these files would be to reload Windows onto my computer. This didn’t seem like too bad an option until I realized and was prompted that reloading Windows would delete all of my old files from the computer’s internal hard drive. Aside from the usual junk I had saved among those files was a great deal of creative writing that I had no desire to lose.

With that in mind I set the laptop in my closet with no solution at hand. A short while ago I discovered that data recovery tools from Remo Software could rescue my data. This process known as disk recovery allows one to scan a computer onto which Windows has been reinstalled and recover from that computer’s hard drive any files deleted due to reformatting. It is a simple method to solve the problem of crashed hard drive recovery.

In most language usage a partition refers to a divider of areas. When working with computer hardware and software partitions refer to not only dividers but a section of a computer hard disk drive or other digital storage device that has been set aside and labeled. Partitions are usually labeled with a two digit number. The reason we divide our information storage areas into the segments used primarily protect the different contents. The use of partitions within a hard disk drive also allows us to run simultaneous functions independently of one another. An example of this would be a dual boot operating system where we had advantages to using an older OS such as Windows XP at times and found it preferable to use the latest version of Windows at others. A further advantage to using the partition system especially on large hard disk drives is as a quarantine measure against file corruption and virus attack.

Should the operating system files of one partition be corrupted and consequently deny access to the system one can then use the second boot operating system as a backup and from that platform use data recovery tools. We can then reload the operating system on to the damaged partition and use a data recovery tool for formatted data recovery. In the event that a hard disk drive has not been divided into separate partitions one can still recover formatted partitions by removing the hard disk drive and connecting it with cables to a working PC onto which the data recovery software has been installed.

Very often I am asked what is the most difficult task one faces in the field of Windows data recovery? The answer to this is one I refer to as the double delete. The double delete in Windows recovery cases exists when we accidentally delete many files from a computer’s hard disk drive or a solid state digital media storage device connected to that computer, and then we proceed to reformat that same drive. Reformatting acts as a delete process for all stored files.

Recovery of these deleted through reformatting files is a fairly simple process that may be accomplished by using any Windows recovery product from Remo Software. Recovery of files that have been deleted through human error or a software crash and then redeleted drastically reduces the chances of a safe file recovery. The reason for this is that when we initially deleted files the area on the storage media that held those files remains for the most part intact. When we reformatted that same media sector the deleted file content area can be overwritten for the process of reformatting. Once we overwrite files they are almost impossible to undelete.

Programs for PST recovery have certainly evolved over the last five years. Prior to 2007 most of the focus of programs to recover Outlook PST information was based upon repair of a corrupted Microsoft Outlook inbox. This damage usually occured when one exceeded the 2 GB size limit of the Microsoft Outlook inbox PST file. The remedy was simple one just cropped the size of the Outlook PST file to the point where it was less than 2 GB is size and this usually returned the application to operational status. Today the main problem affecting Microsoft Outlook applications is that of attacks by viruses and malware.

These programs can find their way into the Microsoft Outlook PST file and rewrite crucial scripting functions. They can arrange to send a virus infected e-mail to everyone in your Outlook address book. Today’s more powerful programs designed to recover Outlook PST file information do so by reading the file creation tables within the PST file database and comparing those tables to a known not corrupted example. If and when any significant differences are detected the PST recovery program then offers the option of replacing that damaged sector with a “clean” file creation table.

Some Microsoft applications are more susceptible to viruses then others. The premiere of these would be Microsoft Outlook. It has actually been proven that simply scanning an e-mail with an anti-virus program can often corrupt a file in such a way that when it is installed into the Microsoft Outlook database the Outlook inbox is damaged. Other well known problems inherent in Microsoft Outlook are failure of the Outlook inbox when the 2 GB size limit is exceeded.

While this database size limit has been expanded in newer versions of Microsoft Outlook, millions of the earlier applications are still in use and require you to repair 2GB PST file problems once it has become overloaded with messages. PST repair of this kind can be accomplished easily by either cropping the PST file itself or extracting the core data of the file and moving it to a newer version of Microsoft Outlook. Bear in mind that no data recovery program is foolproof and the best way to save any Microsoft Outlook files is to use a quality image cloning or other external file storage tool for Outlook backup. Both PST repair programs and Outlook backup tools are available from Remo Software, the industry leader in data recovery products.