Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Mac Data Loss Causes and Recovery Solutions


Data loss “a horrible reality”, everyone faces at many stages, is the most unexpected thing that happens usually at the worst possible moment. Sometimes our Mac goes unbootable, data go lost and many more. Here we are discussing some frequently occurring data lost problems, causes and possible solution.

Problems we usually face

  • Corrupted Preferences File
  • Data Corruption
  • Damaged File
  • Missing Volume
  • Files suddenly go missing

These are the most common problems that you all must have faced sometime. Now what are the major causes of their occurrence?

Major Causes and Recommended solutions

  • Is Your Hard Drive Detectable?
If your system is not detecting hard drive, don't pull your hair, problem may be in your power cable or data cable. It’s not necessary that every time there is problem in your hard drive. Just check your power cable and data cable again and try to connect your cables with your hard drive.

  • Power Issues
Power outages (power cut, blackout or power failure) and other power related issues can also be the cause of severe problems. So its recommended to check your power supply time to time, to take proper backup in UPS, you can also use auto save option if you are working in MS Word.

  • File System Corruption
File system is one of the most important structures of your Mac to locate data stored on hard drive and to retrieve it. What if your file system got corrupt? Data is inaccessible. To fix this problem go to Disk Utility, it is an inbuilt utility of Mac OSX operating system to help you check integrity of file system and fix minor problems. To reach Disk Utility follow this path:

Go to 'GO' in Menu Bar -> Applications -> Utility -> Select Disk Utility

Select Macintosh HD and click “verify”, it will show all the details and make you sure if your file system is corrupted or not. Then click on “repair”, to repair your files. Most probably it will work, still if it doesn’t work, then there is problem in your hard drive and go for a good Data Recovery Software like Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery to retrieve your inaccessible data and files.

  • Accidental Loss
Its human nature to take some things very lightly like deleting some file without properly checking if it’s useful or not and afterwards we realise its importance but now it’s too late. So it’s always recommended to take proper backup which is the best way to recovers your lost data.

  • Bad Programming
Bad Programming, particularly when your system hangs-up and forces you to hard restart. This eventually results data loss of your last unsaved files. Though, one cannot completely avoid problems caused by Bad Programming still its always advised that your main drive should be having 15-20% of free space and increase your RAM.

Conclusion: Nothing and no one can give you 100% assurance that your data is safe. But for your sake its always recommended to take proper backup of important data.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Is Time Machine a Safest Option For Backup???

Are you using a Mac and sure about your data backup security?? IF Yes. Are u sure because of Time Machine utility. Then think again, IS YOUR DATA REALLY SECURE!

Now let me explain some noteworthy flaws about Time Machine Backup.

  • NEEDS MANUAL STARTUP : Time Machine needs to be started manually and anyhow if you forgot to do so, no one can help you from the feeling of despair. I personally faced it, last week while going out i forgot to start time machine in hurry and that dumped all the happiness of vacations in a bin after knowing that there was no backup updated.


  • SOURCE AND DESTINATION DRIVE : If you have selected destination drive on the same system as that of source drive and your system got corrupt then the destination drive as well. Now ARE YOU SAFE? NO. Here what you need to do is to always prefer an external drive as your destination drive.  
  • STARTUP DRIVE : There are two problems related to Start-up Drive:
    •  Firstly you can't backup to the Start-up drive.
    • Secondly, though time machine backup everything on an external drive, still you can't boot your system from time machine backup means you need to spend hours restoring your data if your internal drive got corrupt.
  • USER CONTROL: Sometimes you might want to backup some files at one drive and others at different one but this is not possible in case of time machine, it is not flexible enough and you have to take backup at one location only. In addition, you can't exclude file based on certain criteria like files with a particular extension.

  • MARSHALLING NOT ALLOWED: If you are working with confidential file then you need to think again before using time machine as marshalling is not allowed in time machine and anyone can access your data. Time machine doesn’t read marshalled data as well as it doesn’t allow marshalling on time machine backup.
  • DOES NOT INCLUDE OFF-SITE PROTECTION : If you are really concerned about security of your data then you should better go for off-site protection like taking online backup, as time machine is providing you a false sense of security. After all someone can steal your hard drive from your table, likewise disasters like fire and flood won't spare your backup drive.

You might get the impression that the Time Machine is the worst scenario in backup industry. But did you know that some of the top names in Backup Industry use Time Machine? Everything have some pros & cons and this article was just to put a light on the cons of time machine, that doesn’t mean you will stop using this utility. It’s just to make you quite aware before using it.



Friday, November 18, 2011

Recover Deleted Data from Mac Hard Drive

Today i switched on my Mac and got shocked my hard drive did not boot. I tried so many times to startup my Mac but it would not start. I was having an important presentation on my Mac and there was no backup updated. I won’t be having any other backup as this was the worst situation i have ever faced. My boss was calling me for presentation and file was not there.

I shut down my system immediately as i was aware of the fact that if i will continue to work then chances of recovering data will reduce. So as soon as you come to know that your data has been lost from your Mac , just stop working and shut down your system because as long as you will use that system the chances of recovering your data is reducing. YOU KNOW!!! Data is still there on hard disk, its just not visible. If you continue to work then the newer data will overrite the older one and possibilities of recovering data will reduce.

The situation has become haphazardious and then the idea of searching over Internet struck my mind and i got to know that there are possibilities of recovering data and i breathed a sign of relief.

These possibilities were all because of Stellar Phoenix
Mac Data Recovery software; it is very useful and user-friendly software that helps in recovering our lost data, photos, videos etc. Without wasting any time i just downloaded the trial version of software in order to check if it will be able to recover my data or not.

The software gives me a detail list of all the items that can be recovered but unluckily I was not been able to save the data as i was using the trial version. In order to save my files i need to download the full version and it was worth buying this software to get my lost files back.

Thank God to
Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery software it helped me in recovering my files and reaching for presentation on time.