Remedies and Data Recovery following Operating System Crashes

Then it dawns on you—your PC’s operating system has crashed and taken with it your precious data! Panic rises within you in waves as you despair and are ready to cry. An experienced computer user is well aware that the computer is only a machine and is bound to crash one day. So he or she is prepared for it. But the novice user is totally at sea and has no idea why his or her computer is behaving in such a funny manner! The novice user doesn’t even know what an operating system crash means and why it occurs.
Operating system crashes are quite common in giant organisations where the crash halts everyday life such as the operating system crash of Microsoft caused the air traffic control procedures and systems to go haywire. In Microsoft servers crashed disrupting air traffic control in Southern California. Similarly, the crash of the UNIX operating system put the automobile and financial industry in the UK in jeopardy for a short time. However, since 2001, companies such as Apple and Microsoft have been loudly proclaiming an ability to provide crash-resistant operating systems in computers.
An operating system crash can be described as the inability of the computer to handle and program successfully a hardware problem or inconsistency. In addition, operating system crashes are bound to occur when the computer’s internal validity and reliability test detects that the computer has lost its ability of running programs reliably. Operating system crashes indicate that there is a fault in the design and machanisation of the computer. In other words, the operating system is unable to process any new information and hence is incapable of formatting, writing including reformatting and overwriting. These crashes occur owing to two primary reasons of:

• Size and Reliability: Operating systems designed today are huge and bulky in structure. This makes operating systems insecure and open to crashes e.g. the Linux Operating system has more than 2.5 million lines of code, while Windows XP has 5 million lines. The bulkiness of operating systems ensures that the functioning of operating systems cannot be understood and dealt with as problems arise.
  
  
• Fault Isolation: Another common drawback of the operating systems is its interdependency and internal links. This means the entire operating system runs on many units which are intimately linked to each other. These units are not compartmentalised ensuring that even if one component fails, the other units keep functioning and the system does not crash. One can understand this concept by using the analogy of an aircraft carrier or a train. The compartments of each vehicle are separate, self sufficient but linked with one another. However, a problem in the freight compartment of the train does not lead to a collapse of the entire train machinery. The other train compartments still are able to function ably without any glitches. This is absent in modern operating systems.
  

Remedies/ Solutions
There are some simple but important steps to combat operating system crashes. These include:

• Documenting everything on paper. This includes passwords, important websites, account information and numbers. It is very important to write all sensitive information on a paper and keep it in a safe place.
  
  
• Having a backup of your hard drive and constantly updating it so that no new information is lost. Technicians and data recovery experts suggest the installation of a separate backup device and not audio digital media backups. This, they claim is more stable and secure. The individual is able to save any type of data ranging from photographs to worksheets on the same device.
  

However, it is important to save the folders file of ‘My Documents’ on your backup device as this tends to become lost when the operating system crashes.

• Having the system restoration and data recovery software handy for any type of emergencies. It is also recommended that all ZIP, .EXE files including software install files are saved on different floppies.
  

Operating system crashes can be prevented if people tend to remember that even technology is liable to failure. It is not wise to rely so heavily on technology and not have the common sense to document everything on paper. Your computer will crash and if you are prepared for that eventuality, your life and business will not come to a grinding halt simply because your operating system has crashed.

James Walsh is a freelance writer and copy editor. For more information on Data Recovery see http://www.fields-data-recovery.co.uk

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