The key to understanding how a technician can restore lost data or find deleted files is the fact deleting/formatting a document does not wipe the file’s data from the hard disk or memory straight away.

Each file that you save is stored to the drive as several data clusters around the disk and an index associating your file with the location of the clusters is created in the file allocation table (FAT). When a file is supposedly ‘lost’ all that usually happens is the index in the FAT is altered so that your file is invisible in Windows Explorer (i.e. it has no directory attribute). However the data cluster are kept intact and it is these files that data recovery services are able to clone and recover for you.

Most recovery services follow a fairly standard process. An initial analysis is done of the computer to see if there is software corruption, in which case computer maintenance programs can be used to restore the computer. If there is component damage to the hard drive then the costs can escalate as specialist disk reading hardware is necessary to read good data sectors from the disk.

The majority of file recovery cases are able to use data recovery tools (e.g. freeware like Recuva) to find deleted files and restore lost data. This software simply reads the hard drive looking for data clusters that can be formed into documents. The FAT is also used as a reference for associating clusters, but in the event of disk corruption or a formatted drive the FAT will have inaccurate indexes (corrupted) or be devoid of file references (formatted drive).

I certainly don’t claim to be a programming guru, but I have worked extensively with a dozen or so computer languages, and probably more like thirty, if you count infrequent uses of some of those on the periphery of my skill set.  But, when it comes to the internet, I feel like a babe in the woods.  Sure, I’m pretty good with PHP and HTML, but my CSS, Javascript, Ruby, and Ajax skills leave much to be desired.  I pretty good at supporting web hosting servers in a general sense, but get into Coldfusion hosting, or something a little more niche specific, and I’m just a little lost.

Not that there’s much need to do your own web hosting these days.  There so much cheap web hosting readily available, you’d have to be a little crazy not to devote your time to the core areas of your business.  I did my dabbling with that stuff years ago, and now outsource it as much as possible.  That’s not to suggest, that I’m not intrigued by the latest developments in the area though.  I do believe, that I will always be working in technology or the internet in some fashion or another.  What I do know for sure, is that how I’m doing, and what I’m doing now in my web based businesses will most certainly be different a few years from now.  That may sound scary to some, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.  I love change for the sake of change.  Of course if I can find a suitable business model to support that change and make a few bucks along the way, then I’m even happier.

The benefits of being able to recognize points of contact on a screen and render that as a command are phenomenal to say the least. A keyboard and mouse input system is far from intuitive compared to using our fingers or a stylus. A display that recognizes touch commands allows for users to interact more closely with their computers and in a much more effective manner. It does not require translation from the user to assert commands to the computer. Instead, the computer is designed to be more in tune with the user’s human nature to grab, flick and point with their fingers on a screen.

With a touch screen laptop and the supporting version of Microsoft Outlook, it is easy for the user to compose and send handwritten emails. And unlike the usual word processor that restrict note taking to line items, a touch recognition display will allow the computer to digitize points of contact on the screen which will draw lines and diagrams as the user pleases. It is a great tool for students who need to take notes more like a pen on paper and for business professional making presentations. In the middle of a slideshow it is very easy to draw and underline points during the presentation. A very nifty feature to impress the boss.