Mac File Recovery & Mac Performance View RSS

Loosing the important data is always unfortunate no matter it is deleted accidentally or unknowingly! No matter which OS you are using, no matter at what designation you are working, data loss is always worst thing could ever happen to anyone. Surveys says out of the total, maximum cases of data loss is seen due to human mistake but defiantly that does not mean data could not loose by any other way!

Keeping all this in mind Mac developers designed an user friendly operating system and made it so robust that it can handle many of such cases itself. But still, we can not deny the fact that all files are not completely safe in the Mac drive, they are also prone to get lost due to various other reasons. True, data could be lost due to various reasons and worst is they may vary from accidental deletion, file system corruption, bad sector generation, to some physical damage in Mac hard drive. File system corruption is one of the frequently occurred damage that may make mac files inaccessible. Some of the file system errors are:

Due to this simple reason, taking proper backup of all of the important data is always suggested. Mac owners themselves added feature of automatic backup with Mac to give to perfect Mac experience.

But there are situations when even the backup fails and we are left with nothing but to use mac file recovery utility to get those files back. No doubt reliable Mac file recovery software can work the best in case of valuable data loss, but if data is important up to that extend that it can effect your financial or social status then creating replica is always a nice idea. Therefore, all these thoughts make experts to suggest hard disk cloning. A hard disk cloning is the technique of making exact replica of entire hard drive or logical volumes. This process includes transfer of data of one hard drive to another disk. Thus, the cloned copy of the hard drive should be saved at the safer location and can be used at any time to restore the lost data. But, in order to clone a drive we need another drive with same or higher capacity.

Data recovery is one of the most technical and complex activity because it is directly associated with the device i.e. hard drive which itself is so complex. Leave the business men it is enough to increase headache level of even some IT professionals.  That is one of the many reasons that data recovery companies can easily charge smart amount, sometimes even for any small task.  This article will provide you some basic knowledge of data recovery:-

Hard Disk Basics
Computer hard drive is a storage device which stores data into metal oxide platters. It has to perform continuous and very fast rotation (About the rate of 12,000 rpm) while read/write operations. The One, which perform this read/write operation on the Meta oxide platter, in the form of magnetic charge, is called head. A drive can have multiple read and write head and each head to perform operation smoothly and quickly.  But this also arose a problem that each head can crash independently, so probability of head crash always remain higher especially when temperature of  disk started increasing due to kinetic energy produced due to head motions. The main part of drive is controller board which unique for every individual drive located in outer part of the platters and it contains firmware zone, the firmware zone is the area which communicate with the computer directly.

Type of hard disk failure:
Hard disks are always handle with care because they are very sensitive and above all they actually having our precious data.  Worst is they can suffer damage in different ways (described below) and with each type of damage in hard disk there remain possibility of data loss.  Let discuss each type of damage and probability of data loss and its recovery:
Logical Errors:  Logical errors of the are most simple (sometime most complex) type of error. These errors are meant for file system corruption, not affecting the data directly.
     Symptoms: File inaccessible, system response increases and program may     not work properly
     Solution:  Such errors are seems to be simple, nothing is going to happen wrong the data until and using right data recovery software you can get your data back. Here “right” also means that choosing inappropriate data recovery software can make your data beyond recovery. Logical errors are simple but complicated errors you can get your data back by using branded mac file recovery software. Chances of recovery of data are very much high.

Mechanical Failure: Such errors are more serious and it may cause partial or full data loss. These type of errors occur due to head crash at the time it performing read/write operation on platters.
  Symptoms: Hard Drive becomes noisy!! Most probably clicking or grinding noise start flushing out
  Solution: This is most technical part which needs professional training to solve it. Replacement of read/write head is to be done manually. So, you might have to send hard drive to data recovery lab.  Make sure about the privacy policies of the company before sending the hard drive because your hard drive may have your personal data that you would not like to share with anyone. Such errors need both time and money and chances of recovery is totally unpredictable.

Bad Sectors: These are the areas which OS usually ignore while performing reading and writing operations. These are like big holes in the road which need to be avoided by drivers.
  Symptoms: As such no indication will be shown for bad sectors
Solution: It could happen anytime with hard drive and the data present in that section would become inaccessible. So best solution is just to avoid loss that may happen due to bad sector. So prepare cloning or imaging of the hard drive can be a good preparation against bad sector.

Researchers say that most of the time data loss happens due to the human mistakes. Follow the points below to reduce the chances of data loss:
•       Do not avoid any uncertainty of the system
•       Do not trash out the things which you are not sure about.
•       Always keep backup of your important data
•       Keep trusted mac data recovery software handy

Remember the days of windows, when you decided to leave the virus infected world for glamorous Mac world! After having lots of fun with Mac in its honeymoon period are you feeling something missing from your dearest Mac? With the passing time, is your Mac getting slow day by day? If yes! Nothing to worry about, just you need to clean up your Mac hard drive. Some of you may be started feeling delay in booting of the system, isn't you?

Lets start with cleaning Boot Volume:
First of all try to find out what process Mac loads when it booted up. Go to system preference and then user accounts at “login item” tab.

All the process will be listed in front of you which your Mac have to load while booting.  Make sure all the process listed here are well known by you. Most of the process which you will find here will be “*Helper” where * is any string. As for example  shown in image “iTuneHelper”. If in case you find anything for which you are not sure about just click “-” after selecting it.

Find Number of Process Running:

If your Mac is late responsive that is you have to wait for process to start after initiating the same. You might have to check this total number of process running at the time time. Quit unimportant process that may immediate solution of processing speed. To see the same go to Application->Utility->Activity Monitor

Make a list of all such softwares and un-install them safely for permanent cure of all such issues. But problem here is Apple has not shipped any un installer though just drag and drop may install that application but thats not proper un-install some of the files will remain untouched there. So it is better idea to use any uni-nstaller for installing the Apps.12

Speedup Mac Software
The task which you have done so far is to find out the unwanted apps in the Mac and still need to do much more to speedup your Mac. To make above process simple here is one software named Speedup Mac by Stellar. That software can clean your Mac and also un-install the unwanted applications, widgets safely.

Basically software is divided into two parts:
1. Speedup Mac
2. Un-installer

So, first part of the software will automatically search and find unwanted files such as language binaries, duplicated files and large files etc in your Mac or in particular volume and other section make proper un-installing very easy.

                   .Continue reading about how Stellar Speedup Mac works & its feature in next post

Have your Mac ever shown warning message starting from “Error 36”. Periodically, this warning message flashes while trying to copy or move files to the finder.

Error 36 Means: Apple described Error 36 under “File System Errors” section as “I/O error (bummers)”. It means you do not have “read and write” permissions for that particular files.

Perhaps this the most generic error message which almost all Mac users face! While dragging and dropping the file sometime before starting copy or sometime in between copying it stops with warning message starting with“Error 36:...”

What if you get this message:

   1. Check the file permissions: Go to that file first and check for the permissions for user name, the file group and all. Check whether your account has read access of that file or not.

   2. Delete the extended attributes: Try to remove the extended attributes ( name:value pairs associated permanently with files and directories, similar to the environment strings associated with a process ). Actually they are good for OS X, but for other os, file systems, & transfer protocols they may conflict. To remove the extended attributes of the file: Goto Terminal window and type "xattr-d" followed by single space. Drag the target file in terminal window as the full path then press ENTER

   3. Remount external volumes: If you are using external drive this error may occur due to error in external media or connection is not stable. Try ejecting the drive and connecting again in another port, if available. For networked drive try alternate methods of connection such as wi-fi.

   4.  Try moving using other option: Since during the file transfer there are number of checks done lots of extended attributes are tested to ensure successful transfer of the file. And if error occurs in any check finder will through that “Error:36” message. So its worthy to try other option: Open Terminal -> Type “mv” followed by single space. Now Drag the target file in terminal window as the full path then press ENTER. When terminal return to command prompt check the destination that file must be present there. Note that you will no see process bar while using this option for large file wait terminal return till command prompt then check the file.

What if still not find file at destination?

Problem still persists, blame hard drive for errors. Try to verify the hard drive errors. It is good idea to take proper backup of the data using using time machine utility or any third party utility such as Stellar drive clone because we are performing actions on the hard drive directly, any single mistake can result data loss. Now only option remains is none other than drive re-initialization!! Initialize the hard drive in the journalized HFS+ format. Get your data back from backup taken before.

De fragmenting is basically a process to arrange free space in a hard drive , De fragmenting enhances the speed of a hard drive as well as it makes hard drive last long. Stellar data recovery have come up with a Mac drive defrag utility that improves the performance of mac hard drive immensely in the below video the defrag process is clearly explained.

Computer problem are very common and may occur with any operating system, even to the most efficient and stable operating system- Mac OS X. When you boot your Mac OS X operating system based computer, generally it opens a login window where you need to enter your credentials to access the system. However, in some cases, the startup process may fail  with gray screen and you can not access your valuable data from hard drive. It can lead to data loss and put you in need of Mac data recovery solutions.

As a practical instance of this behavior of Mac OS X operating system, you may encounter any of the following problems while booting your system-
Gray blank screen that does not end and show any error message.

• System freezes with Apple logo.

• Spinning wheel of death.

• Flashing question mark or a folder with exclamatory symbol.

After this behavior of Mac OS X operating system, boot process fails and you cannot access your valuable data from the disk.

Root cause

You may run across this behavior of Mac OS X operating system due to any of the following reasons-

A ) Faulty PRAM/NVRAM

B)  Damaged startup volume structure and permissions

C)  Faulty network cables and peripheral devices

D)  Corrupt system files and data structures

E)  File system corruption

How to fix gray screen in Mac?
 To perform data recovery Mac in such situations, use any of the below methods-

1) Disconnect all network cables and peripheral devices and then connect them back one by one. After connecting each device or cable check whether the problem reoccurs or not.

2) Boot your system in safe mode. It is a special troubleshooting mode of Macintosh operating system.

3) Reset PRAM/NVRAM.

4) Repair Mac OS X hard drive and file system using Disk Utility. It is an inbuilt tool of Mac OS X operating system that checks and fixes hard drive and file system inconsistency issues.

5) Remove third-party hardware and RAM.

6) Perform Erase and Install Installation of Mac OS X operating syste. It is the last resort to fix all hard drive related problems.

7) Restore data from the most recent backup.

When all else fails, use third-party Mac file recovery solutions to get your precious data back.

Mac recovery tools are capable of recovering your valuble data. They are capapbel of handling all data loss situations. Such tools are totally safe and easy to use with read-only conduct and simple user interface.

You may ponder at times that the Mac system was just working fine before a hard boot and not responding now. There can be a number of possible reasons behind the same. It can be a virus/malware attack, a corruption to the file system, operating system malfunction or may be some contradiction with any other installed application. But, at the end of it, the only thing that comes into your mind is that the data in the Mac hard drive is completely inaccessible and you need to perform any Mac data recovery operation to retrieve back the data.

Among all this panic of loosing valuable data, one soothing fact is that whatever be the reason behind the data loss, your data from the media is never gets permanently lost. The data is quite safe and lies almost as it is somewhere in the media memory until that is being overwritten by some other data. Hence, if you can guard your data against being overwritten, you have ample chance of recovering the same.

These data recovery Mac software are developed with various innovative algorithms to search through the Mac OS X based media and retrieve the data back. These advanced Mac recovery software are completely read-only in their recovery operations and you need not have to worry a little for any kind of data erasing or modification. Moreover, with rich graphical user interface and well described instructions, any user without having much technical knowledge can also be able to use the software without any other assistance.