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There are several common file system or drives errors. They might happen during system boot up, log in or when you try to access a drive. You will normally get the following error messages:

• Missing Operating System
• No ROM Basic – System Halted
• Boot Error Press F1 to Retry
• Invalid Drive Specification
• Invalid Media Type
• Hark Disk Controller Failure

Missing Operating System

This error indicates problems in the master boot record or partition table entries. You get this error as the partition table entries are pointing to a sector which is not the actual beginning of a partition. This can also be attributed to invalid BIOS settings, in some cases resulting from a dead or dying battery. Another cause can be virus damage to the MBR. This error can also occur if no active partition is defined in the partition table.

The normal solution is to correct the invalid BIOS settings. The LBA translation and the BIOS settings for drive parameters must be set to the same values as when the drive was partitioned and formatted to read the drive correctly. If the MBR on a FAT drive is damaged or virus infected, you can try FDISK/MBR to repair it. Use FIXMBR with a NTFS drive. Other types of damage require more sophisticated use of a disk editor utility or repartitioning and reformatting the drive to start over.

No ROM Basic – System Halted

For an AMI BIOS, when the boot sector or master boot record of the boot drive is damaged or missing, you will get this error. This error also can occur if the boot device has been improperly configured or is not configured at all in the BIOS. In this case, although bootable partition does not exist the data in the partition may still be valid and undamaged.

IBM systems in this situation used to drop into a built-in BIOS version of BASIC, but most non-IBM BIOS manufacturers did not license this code from Microsoft. So, instead of dropping into BASIC, they displayed this cryptic massage. Because the most common cause of this type of error is a failure to set at least one partition as active (bootable), the typical solution is to run FDISK and set the primary partition as active. If this is not the problem, the solution is to repair the damaged MBR or correct the improper BIOS settings.

Boot Error Press F1 to Retry

This error is generated by the Phoenix BIOS when the hard disk is missing a master boot record or boot sector or when there is a problem accessing the boot drive. It is a problem similar to NO ROM Basic does on an AMI BIOS. The most common cause of this message is having no partitions defined as active (bootable).

Invalid Drive Specification

When you attempt to log in to a drive that has not been partitioned or for which the partition table entry has been damaged or is incorrect, you could get this type of error. Use FDISK to partition the drive or to check out the existing partitions. If they are damaged, you probably should use a data recovery tool including REMO to correct the problem.

REMO is a Mac Recover Software that may also be used for Mac file Recovery. It will recover data on a failed hard drive and recover formatted memory card. It could also be used on Windows.

You can solve the problem by repartition the drive from scratch. However this could overwrite existing data on the drive.

Invalid Media Type

This indicates the partition table is valid, but the volume boot sector, directory, or file allocation tables are corrupt, damaged, or not yet initialized. For example, if you try to access a drive that has been partitioned but not yet formatted, you would normal receive this error. The volume boot record (VBR), file allocation tables, and directories on the disk are created by the format command.

The repair typically involves using a data recover utility or redoing the high-level format on the drive. Because high-level formatting does not actually destroy the data, one technique to recover is to high-level format (OS Format) the volume and then immediately unformat it using the unformat utility.

Hard disk controller Failure

This message indicates the hard disk controller has failed, the hard disk controller is not set up properly in the BIOS, or the controller can not communicate with the attached drives (such as cable problems).

The solution is to check out the drive installation and make sure that the cables to the drive are properly installed, the drive is getting power, it is spinning, and the BIOS setup definitions are correct. If all these are correct, the drive, cable, or controller might be physically damaged. Change them with know-good spares one at a time until the problem is solved.

Recovery data from flash memory devices such as USB keychain drives and card used in the digital cameras and digital music players come be a challenging task. From an user standpoint these devices emulate conventional disk drives. They have file allocation tables similar to those found on floppy disks and can usually be formatted through the Windows Explorer. Many data recovery programs are not able to recover data from these drives, especially when the devices have been formatted, even though these programs work well with conventional drives.

Data loss can happen with a flash memory devices under several circumstances. Some of them, such as formatting of the media or deletion of one or more photos or files, can occur when the device is connected to the computer through a card reader or whether flash memory device is inserted into a digital camera. When photos are deleted, the file locations and name listings in the file allocation tables are changed in the same way as when file are deleted from magnetic media: The first character of the filename is changed to a lowercase sigma, indicating the file has been erased. Just as with magnetic media, undelete programs that support removable devices can be used to retrieve deleted files on flash memory devices in the same way that they retrieve deleted files from magnetic media.

However it is much more difficult to recover data from a formatted flash memory device, whether it has been formatted by a digital camera or through Windows. Traditional unformat programs can not be used because the flash memory devices are accessible only from within the Windows GUI and command-line programs are designed to work with BIOS-compatible devices such hard and floppy drives.

Formatted Data Recovery

To recover data from a formatted flash memory card, you can use can make use of data recovery tools such as REMO Recover. REMO Recover (Windows) is an integrated utility suit that can be used to retrieve data from hard drive and flash memory card.. Additionally , it come with features such as email backup. It can be used to fix corrupt pst as well.

If a file is deleted, the subsequent changes happen to the disk where the file is located:

• The initial character of the filename would be replaced with a lowercase sigma character.
• The file allocation table will now show two types of entries in ID column for this file and its associated long file name (LFN):
• Erased. An erased file
• Del LFN. An LFN belonging to an erased file.

The operating system will indicate the clusters in which the file is stored are accessible for reuse. Therefore, if an undelete action is not executed promptly, some or all of these clusters may be overwritten by new data. Based on the file type, the loss of even one cluster could destroy the file.

File Undelete:

The file undelete process consists of four steps:

• Restoring the original filename
• Finding the clusters used by the file
• Recreating the FAT entries for the file
• Relinking the LFN enteries for the file to the file

Locating the clusters used by the file and recreating the FAT entries for the file are the most import steps. However restoring a deleted program file to its original name is essential. Or else the program would not function properly. Restoring the LFN entries enables a Windows users accustomed to long filenames to more easily use the file.

How to Recover Data

If you want to undelete the file, you may use data recovery tools such as REMO Recover. REMO Recover (Windows) is an integrated utility suit which can be used to retrieve deleted files. In addition , it has email recovery feature that will be used to recover outlook emails.

Recovering lost data can be as simple as opening the Window’s Recycle bin, or it may require spending a lot of money on specialized data recovery software or services. In the worst case scenario, you might have to send your hard drive to data recovery center. The factors that affect the degree of difficulty of data recovery are the following:

• How and when the data is deleted.
• Which file system was used by the drive on which the data was stored?
• Whether the drive uses magnetic, optical, magneto-optical, or flash memory to store data.
• Which operating system is used?
• Whether you have data protection software installed on your system.
• Whether the drive has suffered from physical damage to heads, platters, or its circuit board.

The Windows Recycle Bin

When you delete a file in the Windows, it is deleted from its normal location and it is sent to Recycle bin. The size of Recycle bin is about 1% of hard drive space. All files stored in Recycle bin are actually protected from being overwritten by the system. However, when deleted file exceeds the capacity of Recycle bin, windows will overwrite the older files in Recycle bin. As a result, you are more likely to retrieve the file if you discover it has been sent to Recycle bin accidentally. To retrieve a file from Recycle bin, open the Recycle bin, select the file, right click it and select Restore. Window will move the file from Recycle bin to its original location. The Recycle bin would be bypassed if a file is deleted when the shift key is hold down. In this case, the data recovery software is need to retrieve the lost data.

Recover Files that Are Not in the Recycle Bin

The Recycle is a good first line of defense when it comes to data recovery. However it can be bypassed and it does not keep the deleted files forever. You have to use data recovery software, such as REMO Recover, if you want to retrieve files that are not in the Recycle bin. REMO Recover (Windows) is an integrated utility suit for windows and Mac that offers many features which include deleted partition recovery and laptop hard drive recovery. It is also en email recovery software which would recover the lost e-mails.

Recovering Data from Partitioned and Formatted Drives

When a hard disk, floppy disk, or removable-media drive has been formatted, its file allocation table, which is used to determine the location of the files, is lost. The original file system and partition information is lost if a hard drive has been repartitioned with FDISK or another partitioning program. In such cases, more powerful data recovery tools much be used to retrieve data. To retrieve data from an accidentally formatted drive, you have two options:

• use an application that could unformat the drive
• use a program that can bypass the newly created FAT and browse disk sectors directly to discover and retrieve data.

To retrieve data from a drive that has been partitioned, you have to use a program that can read disk sector directly.