Effective UNIX & LINUX Data Recovery Methods:

LINUX and UNIX file-system configurations are distinct and very dissimilar to the Windows OS. Linux, a variant, open implementation source of UNIX, is able to function on various hardware platforms.

Data manipulation and OS interface are entirely different for Linux and Unix posing challenging solutions for data recovery quite unlike the Windows. Unix operating system data can be lost due to the following reasons:

• Corruption of Group Descriptor Block
• Damaged Inode Table or Super Block
• Partition structures that are damaged or deleted
• System data structures not repaired by FSCK
• Damaged OLT table
• System Shutdown that is improper
• Deletion of Files Software that recovers data from Unix’s damaged, deleted or corrupted partitions where HTFS, EAFS, UFS, File System based operating systems, are installed on the hard disk or data storage media.

Fast, simple and easy to use data recovery software for Unix that employs a quick algorithm for searching and restoring lost folders, filed and partitions are available in the market. These help in recovering lost data and files quickly in case of disk crash or data loss disasters. The recovery process requires a scan of the storage component or damaged drive to ascertain and renew the problem files, folders or partitions. In the next step the data seen in the disk that is damaged is shown in a tree like formation from where the recovered files can be copied to a working disk or volume. Data recovery in Linux is different from Windows.

The EXT file system is very different from NTFS or FAT file systems and it takes exceptional technical expertise to affect Data recovery. Linux operating systems presently use ext 2 and its later version ext3 (third extended file system, which is a journalled file system and is the default file system for many popular Linux distributions).

The ext3 file-system adds a journal that is a tree-based directory spanning multiple blocks for directories, and an online file system growth. The advantage here is that well tested and mature file system maintenance utilities for maintaining and repairing and Data recovery from ext2 & ext3 file systems are the same. The standard set of utilities that are same such as e2fsprogs, which includes an fsck tool. Conversion – both forward to ext3 and backward to ext2 file systems, are simple.

The journaling file system is one in which changes are logged to a journal that is usually logged circular in a specially demarcated area before being written on the main file system. In the event of a power failure or system crash, these file-systems have a lesser chance of becoming corrupted. The three levels of journaling available when using ext3 file system in Linux are: Journal – This is slow, but the least risky. Here all data has to be written twice — both metadata and file contents are written to the journal before being written on the main file system. Risks of a file being corrupted during a power fluctuations or kernel panic (messages that are shown by the OS when an irrecoverable internal error occurs in the system) are very low.

Ordered: This is the default on many Linux distributions — a medium speed and medium risk method. Ordered journaling forces file contents to be written before its associated metadata is marked as committed in the journal. Writeback: the fastest and most risky; equivalent to ext2. Here only metadata is journalled the contents of the file are not. For example, during a crash, files being attached may carry over to the next mount. In terms of Data recovery, ext3 systems have a noteworthy advantage over modern file systems such as its unique tree-based data structures and dynamic inode allocation. In case of ext2 and ext3, the file system metadata is all in fixed and it has some redundancy inbuilt in the data structures.

This allows for better Data recovery in cases of data corruption. Data recovery software for Linux distributions starts searching for lost, deleted, or corrupted data from the found partition and displays all the file(s) and folder(s) in a tree like structure. This enables users to easily navigate and access their deleted folders and files. Ext2 & Ext3 Data recovery partially supports LVM (Logical Volume Management) partitions and allows Data recovery from LVM based large servers.

Linux Data recovery Software provides complete solutions for Data recovery, using the following:

• Save-Snapshot option it allows you to save the recovery summary;
• Live-Update feature to update software to the latest version; and
• File Filter option to recover the specific files using File Filter option.

Data recovery is done in three easy steps:

• The whole media is scanned for corruption
• The directory tree is navigated for deleted files and folders
• The files and folders are saved to the safest location Data recovery is best left to professional recovery experts who use effective technology and tools to retrieve your lost files and folders.

These recovery engineers can reclaim data from Unix and Linux operating systems used in all systems including Suns, Macintoshes, and even IBM mainframes.