Recovery - what is it? Windows Recovery. Android Recovery

All the recent years have been marked by the fact that in our life more and more importance was acquired by "smart" technology. Computers and laptops, tablets and smartphones - all these gadgets not only have practically everyone, they actually determine the rhythm of the life of modern man.

The more offensive is the situation in which your device behaves somewhat inadequately. Viruses or some hardware and software failures can sometimes spoil your mood for a long time. Sometimes an operation called Recovery is helpful . What is it, in which cases is it recommended to use this technique?

This article is devoted to the answers to these questions.

General concepts

Honestly, the definition of "recovery" does not exist as such. Generally speaking, this term can be deciphered as "restoration". For example, they often operate programs to save data from flash drives and hard drives.

Thus, if we talk about Windows Recovery, we can rightfully mean either the restoration of the system itself, or the operation to return some of its functions to a working state.

With regard to the mobile operating system Android, devices under control of which becomes more and more every day, Recovery Mode means the mode in which you can install a new firmware. In addition, it is possible to remove or install applications that are hardwired into the software shell, and therefore their change in the normal mode is impossible.

It is these operations that are designated by the term Recovery. What is this, if we talk about more particular cases? We have already said that this concept is often used by those who restore data from hard disks. Among other things, you can restore not only information as such, but also logical partitions of the hard drive lost as a result of system failures or voltage drops in the network.

To begin with, we will deal with this, since the loss of information is an uncommon occurrence.

Flash Drives

When they appeared, many experienced a surge of unearthly happiness. When the first disk drives went on sale for 512 MB or 1 GB, in many universities diskettes on 1.44 MB were still actively used. Can you imagine how much easier it is for an average student to have with him all his written work?

However, pretty quickly it turned out that with them, not everything is so simple: if a standard CD could lie for ten years and completely save all the information written on it, then a regular flash drive could be empty in six months. Accordingly, the Data Recovery service has very quickly become extremely popular.

So, what are the main ways of data recovery from flash drives exist? Most often, specialized programs are used for this: R-Studio, Recuva or the like. If they are powerless, then utilities come from the manufacturers of a particular drive to the rescue.

With their help, sometimes it is possible to pull files from the disk that would otherwise have been lost. But very often it happens that Data Recovery is possible only under the condition of complete mechanical disassembly of the flash drive with subsequent connection of the memory module to a special reader.

Since the data on it lie in the form of unordered arrays, it is necessary to use special programs from manufacturers of a particular model of a flash drive, as well as a HEX-editor. This work takes more than an hour, and at home it is virtually impossible to fulfill.

When should you ask for help?

As a rule, flash drives insidiously fail, and there are no warning signs. But there are distinctive signs that unambiguously hint at the need for File Recovery in the very near future.

Here are the most important of them:

• It is worthwhile to be alerted if the flash drive is detected, but when you try to open it constantly there are messages about the need to search for errors. Even worse, when the system claims the need for formatting media;
• Of course, you get an extremely clear signal in the event that a removable disk in the system is not detected at all, no indicators are lit on it;
• A very unpleasant "bell" - the data starts to disappear from the memory card, even if there are no viruses in the system;
• A variation of the previous situation are cases of data corruption, when the file itself remains in place, but it can not be opened;
• It's worth starting to worry after a power surge, a bump or a wet flash drive. Even if after all that has happened it works fine, there is no guarantee that it will work in the future.

By the way, what about SSD disks? The situation with them is no different from that for flash drives.

HDD

How is data recovery from standard spindle disks? It's still more difficult with them. When the information from the hard drive is no longer read, in the sealed chamber the protective shell is removed, the head blocks are extracted, and the "pancakes" data are taken with the help of donor read heads.

Of course, in simple cases, programs for data recovery, which we will discuss below, can help.

Data recovery at home

Of course, we already said that it's better not to deal with File Recovery at home. But if you just mistakenly deleted the data from the flash drive, then they can be completely restored without recourse to specialists.

Let's look at this process using the example of the R-Studio program. This powerful application has long been known to all experienced users. It is developed by a Canadian company, which does not advertise the release of new versions. Simply put, it does not hurt to go to their site and learn about new releases, which could include a new data recovery functionality.

Suppose that you need to return a .doc file from a memory card from nonexistence. To do this, you need to follow these steps:

• launch the application;
• In the left part of the working window, select your disk;
• Click on it with the right mouse button, and in the drop-down menu select the item "Restore all data".

A small dialog box opens, in which there are two tabs: "Home" and "Advanced." We are interested in "Home", as well as the "Define the file mask" button. Click on it, then the working window opens. There there is a drop-down list in which it is necessary to choose item "File Extension". In the field on the right, enter ".doc". Click on "Yes", fixing the changes in the settings of the program.

Again, go back to the original dialog box, and then click on the "Yes" button. The application immediately asks you to specify which folder the files will be restored to. Attention! Do not choose to save the same flash drive, because in case of failure you will almost certainly lose your file! However, this is a common requirement for File-Recovery (what is it, you already understood).

After that, the media scan starts, during which the program will find and restore all the doc-files that were once deleted, but still available for recovery. Note that the names of the documents do not remain, and therefore to find the file you need, you need to go through all the contents of the folder that you marked as a "drive".

Important!

If you try to make a recovery torrent file, then with a high degree of probability you will succeed. But to restore a document that was deleted by mistake by half-uploaded document does not work out exactly. It is not only "smeared" with an even layer throughout the hard drive, but it also has a very non-trivial structure.

Restore hard disk partitions

By the way, is it possible to repair partitions of the hard disk Partition Recovery? Yes, because there are specialized utilities for this.

Perhaps, we will tell only about one of them. Acronis Disk Director is a legendary application known to almost all experienced users. It costs literally a penny, so it makes sense to fork out for the full version.

After starting the program, you will see a start-up window full of information, in which you need to select the "Restore partitions" item. After this, the "Wizards" window appears in front of you, in which it is strongly recommended to select the automatic mode of operation.

Click on the "Next" button, after which the program will scan the entire hard drive in order to search for all deleted partitions. When the search is completed, the results will be displayed in the corresponding window, and the program will graphically show the intended disk structure after the partition has been restored.

To accept the scan results and run the repair process itself, you need to click on the button with the flag icon.

Account Recovery

Do not think that under the data that needs to be restored, we mean only the files stored on your hard disk. A vivid example of the reverse is Google Accounts Recovery, when a user can restore access to his account in any of Google's services.

In life there are all kinds of things: you can forget the password trivially, it can be stolen by an attacker or a malicious program. Just note that if you steal your account password, you can try to restore access within 24 hours after it was changed by an attacker.

So. First you need to go to the official page of any Google service, which requires authorization. Then select the option "I do not remember the password". You will be transferred to the page with the form to restore it. Remember, the chances for successful completion of Accounts Recovery are higher the better you remember the secret questions and other data that were entered during the initial registration!

You need to fill in all the fields, specify the backup mailbox that you specified during registration, and then confirm your control over it (by entering the code sent to it by Google). If everything is normal, Google Recovery will not create any special problems. In especially difficult cases, you will have to talk with technical support. If you are the owner of a disputed account, you will surely be returned to it.

Since all the services from Google have moved to the .com domain, Accounts Recovery has become much easier.

Helpful Tips

There are in this business some tricks that will help you quickly and with a guarantee to get back your account. First, it does not hurt to send all recovery requests from the device from which you most often used Google services.

If there is such a possibility, be sure to send to technical support all available logs from all of your devices. As for entering your data in the line of contact data, it is better to use your real details, which you can confirm with certified copies of documents. Of course, if the data on the "sailed" account does not represent a particular value, you can not even shine your real data again.

However, the service Google.com Accounts Recovery has not yet given clear reasons to doubt their disinterest in the dissemination of personal data of customers.

Windows Recovery

If you carefully read the article, then for sure remember what is understood by this definition. In order not to be unfounded, we suggest reading about the simplest way of creating a backup of Windows, as well as restoring the system from it.

It should be noted that before 2001, when XP was released, there were simply no regular backup and recovery tools (Recovery) for users of this operating system. I had to use third-party programs.

So. Push the "Start" button, select "Control Panel" in the menu that opens. In it there is a small and not very noticeable item "Archiving and Restoration". We press, and then a dialog box opens. In the left part of it there is an item "Creating an image of the system". Click on it with the left mouse button, and then we get to the next dialog box.

Here we are offered three variants of placing the finished image at once (you can not use it all at once): on some hard disk, on a CD / DVD disc, on a network server. Choose the appropriate option, then click "Next". The system will automatically perform all operations, so you do not have to worry about anything.

We deploy the system from a backup

It is very easy to do this. Again, go to the "Archiving and Restoration." Select the item "Restore system settings or the computer". A dialog box opens, in which you need to click the "Start System Restore" button.

After that, you will be warned that the rollback process that has already begun will not be canceled, so once again you will have to confirm the seriousness of your intentions. When almost everything is ready, the computer will be rebooted.

Android OS

Finally we got to the adherents of "Android". Strangely enough, but when you request Recovery in any search engine, you will get a huge amount of links to thematic forums of fans of this mobile OS. You could already see that this concept is much more diverse.

However, let's return to Android Recovery. By the way, what exactly is meant by this term? We have already mentioned this in passing, but we will expand on the topic in more detail.

Most mobile software manufacturers claim that "Recovery Mode" is a way to start a mobile device, in which you can change the firmware or replace some important system applications.

How do I boot into it?

As a rule, in this mode the device is started if you press a certain combination of mechanical keys. Each manufacturer has different. For example, the combination of Home + Power + Volume Up will launch Recovery mode for Samsung devices.

If on any gadget Nexus simultaneously press Volume Down + Power, the result will be the same. However, it is better to go to the manufacturer's website and find out everything. The fact that the combination may well change with the release of a new model or firmware.

Speaking quite simply, Android Recovery is a special program that allows you to run the system in a slightly modified form. Native applications of this kind are called Stock Recovery, and third-party utilities are Custom Recovery.

What is Stock used for?

It is a rather limited means of functionality. With it, you can completely delete your user data from the device, as well as run an update firmware, signed by the manufacturer. In general, all the available functions of utilities of this class can be seen below:

• Full technical reset of the device;
• Installing a new firmware directly from the memory card;
• Reset the device to factory settings ("wipe");
• Deletion of the cache;
• Installing the application (official) from the memory card;
• Copying and restoring the system from backup.

Custom Recovery offers a completely different level of capabilities. You can put any applications and firmware. In addition, this mode allows the installation of localization, which was not originally provided for this device (Motorola G, for example).

That's the end of our article dedicated to Recovery. What is it, you already know! Do not forget to copy your important data in time on another medium. This practice will save you from many problems.