Computer Shopper 2019-11-01

ISSUE 381|COMPUTERSHOPPER|NOVEMBER 2019 111111

be riskyinthemselves as the Raw
formats are proprietary and maybe
poorly documented,”itadds.
“This is acase where holding
multiple formats is advised. If storage
space is aconsideration, then the issue
of appraisal and selection of what to
keep comes intoplay. At the most
basic level, holding the files in a
couple of formats, on acouple of
media in acouple of locations
(certainly not all at home), is advisable.
Consider documenting your setup
and sharing that information with
another family member to ensure
that your precautions don’t
disappear when you do.”

RECOVERING DATA

It’s the moment we all dread: pressing
the Deletekey to discover,only a
fewmoments later,that instead of
deleting Report212145.docx, you just
destined Report212146 to the history
books. It wouldn’t be toobad on a
Mondaymorning, but if you back up
only at the end of week, and that
slip-up happened on Fridayafternoon,
you could well have abusy weekend
re-creating that lost data.
Of course,ifyou just pressed the
deletekey,the file won’t actually have
been deleted. Instead, it will have just
been put in the Windows Recycle Bin,
as you’re no doubt aware.However,if
you receive apanicked phone call
from afriend who has just deleted
an important file,don’t necessarily
assume that theyknow about the
Recycle Bin or how to restore files that
have been put there.This could be
your chance to achieve hero status.
Much worse than accidentally
sending awanted file to the Recycle Bin
isunintentionallydeletingitpermanently
by holding down Shift when you press
the Deletekey.You might choose to do
this if the file contains sensitive data,
but although it’s more secure in this
respect, it’s also riskier.
Fortunately,all isn’t as it first
appears, because ‘permanent’ doesn’t
really mean permanent. Hard disks
maintain an internal directory that
tells the operating system where on
the disk to find afile with aparticular
name.All that happens when you
permanently deleteafile is that the
file is marked in the table as deleted,
which means that the space it occupied
on the disk is available forreuse.
Nothing is actually deleted but, over
time,the file could become partially
or fully overwritten as new files are
written to the disk. This means that,
although Windows doesn’t provide a
means of doing so,it’s possible,with
third-party undeletesoftware,to
restore permanently deleted files.

However,weneed to give you some

practical guidance.First of all, act as

soon as possible since,the longer you

leave it, the greater the chance your

valuable data will be overwritten. In fact,

Windows will createfiles even as you

browse the web or carry out other

innocuous actions, so the second point

is to avoid doing anything on your PC.

If you have suitable software

on your PC then use it

immediately,but if you don’t,

resist the temptation to install

undeletesoftware because it

could end up overwriting the

file you want to recover.

Instead, use adifferent PC to

find some suitable software

and choose aprogram that

will run from amemory stick

so you don’t have to install it

on the target computer.

More concerning than accidentally

deleting afile is suffering adisk failure,

because that could wipe out each and

every file on the disk. So,ifyour PC

won’t boot, and it tells you there’s a

hard disk problem, what should you do?

The quick answer is not to panic, as

things might be not as bad as they

seem. However,you’ll almost certainly

need to enlist professional assistance.

DAMAGE LIMITATION

While most of us associate

the failure of magnetic hard

disk drives with physical

damage to the disk’s platter,

it’s quitepossible that the fault

lies in the disk drive’s internal

electronic circuitry.This can

be replaced, as Phil Bridge,

president of data recovery

company Ontrack, explains.

OLDER CAN BE BETTER

Older can oftenbebetterwhenitcomesto datapreservation.Ifyouhaveanalbumcontaining

family photos, perhaps with some dating back overahundredyears,thoseimagesof relatives

you never met could well still be in almost pristine condition. Sadly,the same might not be true,

in another century,ofthe photos we’re taking today.

This doesn’tonly applywhen we comparephysicalrecordswithdigital ones.Indeed,there’s

more than an element of truth in the assertion that old digital media might fare betterthanmore

recentmedia.While the expertswe consultednever suggestedareturn to the digitalmediaof

the 1960sand70s, it’s interesting to look athowfuture-proofacouple of early methodsof data

storagereallyare.Themediawe’rereferringto arepunched cardsand punched papertape.

Readersforpunched cardsortapesmightnowbeinshortsupply,butitwouldbe

extremely simple to createaDIYreader;indeed, amateurs in the maker community have

producedpaper-tapereaders withjustafewLEDsandphotosensors,plusahandfulof other

components. And even if the cards or tape were toobrittleto consign to such readers,

scanning them would provide another means of extractingthe data.

your PC. seem. How

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BELOW:Files sent

to the Recycle Bin

can still be restored

Punched paper tape’s inherent simplicity

means that, should it be discovered after

several millennia, future generations

would easily figure out how to read it