Recovering Deleted/Lost/Missing Data From Novell Servers

The use of recovery software's decompression utility is illustrated by the following steps, as followed in Stellar Phoenix Novell:

1. Recover the compressed data using the steps followed in sections 3.1 or 3.2 – you now have recovered compressed data on a hard disk different from the affected server disk
   
   
2. Connect the disk with the compressed data to a Novell client machine – this machine now has the compressed data in it
   
   
3. Log on as an Administrator to the Novell client and upload the compressed data to a Novell server disk – the server disk now has the compressed data.
   Note: The compressed data should be uploaded to an NWFS Volume on the server
   
   
   
   
   
4. Shut the server down, disconnect the server disk and connect it as a secondary to the disk with Stellar Phoenix Novell installed in it
   
   
5. Run the software, select the volume with the compressed data and then run the software's decompression utility on the compressed data (Tools -> Mark Compressed Files). The server disk's compressed data is now decompressed
   
   
6. Reconnect the server disk back into the server machine and boot this machine up
   
   
7. The decompressed data can now be transferred from the server to any client machine

This process does require some patience but is safest and yields best results if done systematically.

Data recovery software, as with most other software, come with their own unique additional features to ease the recovery process. Stellar Phoenix Novell comes with utilities such as File Filter, File Mask, Save Scan, Event Log, Find, and so on to streamline and facilitate the recovery process.

4. Conclusion

The data recovery process for Novell server disks can be summarized briefly as:

1. Disconnect the server disk
   
   
2. Install the data recovery software to a healthy working disk and connect the affected server disk to this working disk
   
   
3. Run the software to detect the server disk and display all its partitions/volumes
   
   
4. Select the disk/volume from which to recover data from and begin the disk/volume analysis
   
   
5. After all recoverable files are displayed, select the file(s) to be recovered and then restore them

In conclusion, if the server disk is immediately disconnected after an episode of data loss then the chances of total data recovery is very high. Data is never truly lost unless it is overwritten, and it is users that control writing to the disk – hence, salvaging data, even in the event of a total disk failure, is not difficult at all. All that needs to be followed is a systematic approach.

The best practice in protecting data is regularly taking backups. While most Operating Systems today do have built in backup tools, these are not truly extensive. It is always better to go in for genuine 3rd party software (there are many good applications available today), whose development is dedicated to the task of protecting data. Most backup software today are fully automated and keep taking regular backups on their own without any user intervention – even if the disk completely crashes, the machine can be booted using the software's disc (which contains the necessary boot files) after which the software accesses the backup and restores the system.