Computer Hacking
Computer Hacking is the practice of modifying computer hardware and software to accomplish a goal outside of the creator’s original purpose. People who engage in computer hacking activities are often called hackers. Since the word “hack” has long been used to describe someone who is incompetent at his/her profession, some hackers claim this term is offensive and fails to give appropriate recognition to their skills.
Computer hacking is most common among teenagers and young adults, although there are many older hackers as well. Many hackers are true technology buffs who enjoy learning more about how computers work and consider computer hacking an “art” form. They often enjoy programming and have expert-level skills in one particular program. For these individuals, computer hacking is a real life application of their problem-solving skills. It’s a chance to demonstrate their abilities, not an opportunity to harm others.
Since a large number of hackers are self-taught prodigies, some corporations actually employ computer hackers as part of their technical support staff. These individuals use their skills to find flaws in the company’s security system so that they can be repaired quickly. In many cases, this type of computer hacking helps prevent identify theft and other serious computer-related crimes.
Computer hacking can also lead to other constructive technological developments, since many of the skills developed from hacking apply to more mainstream pursuits. For example, former hackers Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson went on to create the UNIX operating system in the 1970s. This system had a huge impact on the development of Linux, a free UNIX-like operating system. Shawn Fanning, the creator of Napster, is another hacker well known for his accomplishments outside of computer hacking.
In comparison to those who develop an interest in computer hacking out of simple intellectual curiosity, some hackers have less noble motives. Hackers who are out to steal personal information, change a corporation’s financial data, break security codes to gain unauthorized network access, or conduct other destructive activities are sometimes called “crackers.” This type of computer hacking can earn you a trip to a federal prison for up to 20 years.
If you are interested in protecting your home computer against malicious hackers, investing in a good firewall is highly recommended. It’s also a good idea to check your software programs for updates on a regular basis. For example, Microsoft offers a number of free security patches for its Internet Explorer browser.
Prepare a storage medium, usually a disk, for reading and writing. When you format a disk, the operating system erases all bookkeeping information on the disk, tests the disk to make sure all sectors are reliable, marks bad sectors (that is, those that are scratched), and creates internal address tables that it later uses to locate information. You must format a disk before you can use it.
Note that reformatting a disk does not erase the data on the disk, only the data on the address tables. Do not be panic, however, if you accidentally reformat a disk that has useful data. A computer specialist should be able to recover most, if not all, of the information on the disk. You can also buy programs that enable you to recover a disk yourself.
The previous discussion, however, applies only to high-level formats, the type of formats that most users execute. In addition, hard disks have a low-level format, which sets certain properties of the disk such as the interleave factor. The low-level format also determines what type of disk controller can access the disk (e.g., RLL or MFM).
Almost all hard disks that you purchase have already had a low-level format. It is not necessary, therefore, to perform a low-level format yourself unless you want to change the interleave factor or make the disk accessible by a different type of disk controller. Performing a low-level format erases all data on the disk.
Explanation
The Format commands are typically run to prepare a new logical drives for use after Fdisked hard drive - enabling the installation of an operating system, application programs & eventual user data. The format command has been around for a long time, formerly they were stand alone DOS programs before being integrated into Windows.
Please see: How do I format a hard drive?
Symptoms
Where previously the computer would boot and be usable, systems that have been Formatted often report the following errors: (these errors are frequently displayed on a black screen with white text.)
Or when a partition has been formatted, the all data would disappear.
To recover files from formatted drives, please follow this procedure:
1. Click the "Complete Recovery" button on the main window of Data Recovery Wizard.
2. The first screen on the "Complete Recovery" tool will display a list of volumes found on the drives found in your system. If the volume does not have a drive letter, then the volume will be listed at the hindmost and the drive letter will be instead by "*".
3. You should choose the volume that was formatted and click "NEXT" to start searching on this volume.
4. The Intelligent Searching module will scan on the selected volume, collect and analyze every byte on the volume, then show you a list of volumes which are possible on it.
5. After this scanning is finished, Data Recovery Wizard will permit you choosing 6 volumes at best to recover the data. And then, press "NEXT" button. The Data Recovery Wizard will launch the "Building directory" procedure to searching the files. You will see file/folder tree very soon.
6. Select the file or directory that you want to recover and press the "Next" button.
7. Select a directory and press the "NEXT" button to save the data.
Please see "Complete Recovery" for more details.
NOTE: If the hard disk has mistakenly deleted volumes, hidden volumes, drives with failed operation/file system, you should use "Partition Recovery".
The demo version of Data Recovery Wizard gives you a much fairer idea about chances of data recovery from your hard disk before deciding upon the purchase. You can buy full version to recover data!
Caution: Saving file(s) to the partition or drive from where you are recovering data, for it may result in overwriting of data, and would result in permanent data loss!!!
