recovery interview questions
Top recovery frequently asked interview questions
I've recently sent my computer to be repaired and I am almost certain that I set a password to my account - the only account on the system.
After the repair has been completed I've found out that my account had no password set.
So please tell me - did I forget to set it, or are there some tools to remove user's password?
I am using Windows 7 64-bit
Source: (StackOverflow)
I have deleted something but I had copied before. Ctrl+v shows only the last copied text. I tried to install diodon and cliplt. As I understand they start to archive some history of the clipboard. But how can I go to some history of the clipboard within Ubuntu 14.04? Leaving my PC turned on while waiting for answers.
Source: (StackOverflow)
By accident, I used rm on a file I didn't want to delete. Is there a way that I can get it back under Linux?
Source: (StackOverflow)
I lost a folder with important data, and would like to know what's the best way to procede in order to recover the files.
this is what happened:
- after booting up windows (vista), i received the message that the TrashBin on K:/ (the disk in question) is corrupt and needs to be emptied, so i clicked ok.
- then i tried to access one project folder on this disk. I couldn't open the folder and got some other message regarding some corruption (forgot the exact message), and after that, the thumbnail of the folder changed from being filled with files, to empty, and no files were found in this folder anymore (other folders on this disk open fine and still contain their files).
- so the first thing i did was rebooting the computer into clone-zilla and creating a byte-by-byte copy of the whole disk onto an external harddisk.
That's where i'm standing now. when I reboot the computer with the harddisk connected, windows wants to repair the filesystem. I didn't let it do it so far.
What's the best way to progress in order to get my folders content back?
Source: (StackOverflow)
I was under the impression that when a computer has crashed, something went wrong and it can't perform anymore.
I was wondering how is the computer able to save things before it crashes?
Is the computer really capable of knowing when it's going to crash (and thus inform all processes: "Save ASAP because I'm about to crash") ?
If not, how is it possible that programs like Chrome and Microsoft Word can offer "restoring" services after the computer has crashed?
Source: (StackOverflow)
I have a USB Thumb Drive that I was going to use to install Windows 7 with. While formatting the drive with the Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool it failed leaving my USB drive in an unusable state.
I can see the drive with the Windows Disk Manager, but it shows that it has a RAW file system, and any time I try to reformat it a second time, it simply says that It can't find the file or partition. Using DiskPart I've also not had very much luck as trying to use the FORMAT command results in an error. These are the commands I'm using and their output.
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
C:\Windows\system32>diskpart
Microsoft DiskPart version 6.1.7601
Copyright (C) 1999-2008 Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: DYGEAR-PC
DISKPART> list disk
Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
-------- ------------- ------- ------- --- ---
Disk 0 Online 14 GB 0 B
Disk 1 Online 74 GB 0 B
Disk 2 Online 698 GB 0 B *
Disk 3 Online 15 GB 0 B
DISKPART> select disk 3
Disk 3 is now the selected disk.
DISKPART> detail disk
Corsair Voyager Mini USB Device
Disk ID: 00000000
Type : USB
Status : Online
Path : 0
Target : 0
LUN ID : 0
Location Path : UNAVAILABLE
Current Read-only State : No
Read-only : No
Boot Disk : No
Pagefile Disk : No
Hibernation File Disk : No
Crashdump Disk : No
Clustered Disk : No
Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 4 Removable 15 GB Healthy
DISKPART> select volume 4
Volume 4 is the selected volume.
DISKPART> FORMAT RECOMMENDED OVERRIDE
DiskPart has encountered an error: The system cannot find the file specified.
See the System Event Log for more information.
DISKPART> FORMAT FS=NTFS LABEL="Windows7" QUICK COMPRESS
DiskPart has encountered an error: The system cannot find the file specified.
See the System Event Log for more information.
DISKPART>
DISKPART> list disk
Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
-------- ------------- ------- ------- --- ---
Disk 0 Online 14 GB 0 B
Disk 1 Online 74 GB 0 B
Disk 2 Online 698 GB 0 B *
Disk 3 Online 15 GB 0 B
DISKPART> select disk 3
Disk 3 is now the selected disk.
DISKPART> clean all
DiskPart has encountered an error: Incorrect function.
See the System Event Log for more information.
DISKPART> list partition
There are no partitions on this disk to show.
DISKPART> online disk
Virtual Disk Service error:
This disk is already online.
DISKPART> attributes disk clear readonly
Disk attributes cleared successfully.
DISKPART> clean
DiskPart has encountered an error: Incorrect function.
See the System Event Log for more information.
DISKPART> convert mbr
DiskPart successfully converted the selected disk to MBR format.
DISKPART> create partition primary
DiskPart succeeded in creating the specified partition.
DISKPART> select part 1
Partition 1 is now the selected partition.
DISKPART> active
DiskPart marked the current partition as active.
DISKPART> format fs=NTFS label=USB quick
DiskPart has encountered an error: The system cannot find the file specified.
See the System Event Log for more information.
DISKPART> format quick
DiskPart has encountered an error: The system cannot find the file specified.
See the System Event Log for more information.
DISKPART> assign letter F
DiskPart has encountered an error: The system cannot find the file specified.
See the System Event Log for more information.
DISKPART> list volume
Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 0 V Video NTFS Simple 698 GB Healthy
Volume 1 D SSD NTFS Partition 14 GB Healthy
Volume 2 System Rese NTFS Partition 100 MB Healthy System
Volume 3 C NTFS Partition 74 GB Healthy Boot
* Volume 4 Removable 15 GB Healthy
DISKPART>
Source: (StackOverflow)
My Windows XP system crashed. Usually about:sessionrestore shows me my previous session. But this time, after I rebooted, the page appeared blank.
I was able to find my sessionsstore files in my profile folder. They have names like sessionstore-1.js through sessionstore-8.js. There is also a sessionstore.bak, which was probably created when the system crashed. I don't trust the sessionstore.bak: it's really small in size.
Can I use sessionstore-8.js instead to get back my old sessions?
Also, how exactly do I go about this? Should I quit Firefox before making any changes under the profile directory?
Source: (StackOverflow)
I'm running Mac OS X 10.6.2 and have been handed a couple of old files that need to be extracted. Old backups or finances or bills I believe. They are RAR files, and password protected. Is there a way to extract the hash from these files so I can feed it into John The Ripper or Cain and Abel?
Edit
I have downloaded cRARk, but unfortunately nothing I have (SimplyRAR, RAR Expander, The Unarchiver) will extract it without a password. Can someone verify that I'm crazy and there is no password on the Mac version?
Source: (StackOverflow)
I just learned about .rev files with WinRAR -- where if you have a 10-part RAR volume, for example, plus one .rev (recovery) volume -- the .rev volume will be able to "fix" any one corrupted .rar volume.
How is this possible? I don't understand how one volume could have all the data to fix any/all of the individually broken volumes.
I'd guess that it's perhaps possible in lieu of the volumes not being broken up "linearly", like I'm imagining, where each RAR volume holds distinct, individual files of the whole packed within; but rather, perhaps .rev repairing is possible when the RAR volumes are viewed as one continuous file of bits and bytes, so to speak, and that perhaps there's some CRC'ish sorcery (ah hem, "repair work") involved to fix corrupted bytes.
But I just don't understand how you can have 9 working volumes with 1 damaged, yet have a recovery volume that can repair any one of the volumes. How is one volume able to hold data of "all" the volumes?
Source: (StackOverflow)
This question relates to questions that are asked often. The procedure is frequently mentioned or linked to offsite, but is not often clearly and correctly stated. In an objective to concentrate useful information in one place, this question seeks to provide a clear, correct reference for this procedure.
What are the proper steps to prepare a chroot environment for a recovery procedure?
In many situations, repairing a broken Linux installation is best done from within the installation. But if the system won't boot, how do you fix it from within?
Let's assume you manage to boot into an alternate system. Once there, you need to access your broken installation in order to fix it. Many recovery How-Tos recommend using chroot in order to run programs as if you are actually booted into the broken installation.
- What is the basic procedure?
- Are there accepted best-practices to follow?
- What variables need to be considered in order to adapt the basic preparation steps to a particular recovery task?
As this is Community Wiki, feel free to edit this question to improve it as well.
Source: (StackOverflow)
While attempting the update the BIOS on an Asus motherboard, i learned the Asus Update Utility for Windows doesn't fully support Windows 64-bit. It was able to erase the BIOS without problems, but failed to write the new BIOS. i knew that when i next rebooted the computer: it would be a brick.
When i rebooted the computer, it was a brick. But before i rebooted i transferred the bios backup, the new bios, and Asus DOS-based flash utility to another computer. Now the problem is how to fix it.
This Asus motherboard has a fail-safe bios recovery called Crash Free BIOS, where you put in a floppy or USB stick containing a file called p5b.rom and it will restore the bios from that file. But that doesn't work.
Is there any way to unbrick the machine?
Source: (StackOverflow)
From a Windows workstation when I delete files over the network (e.g. a file share, server disk, etc) those files are never put into a trash can, either on my Windows workstation or on the server - they're instantly and permanently deleted. This has always sucked IMHO.
Is there a software that, in this scenario, puts the files into a trash can somewhere for easy undelete?
Maybe a Windows policy change, registry setting value, software utility, etc ?
--
Looking for a specific solution instead of general "Hey look into this, or try this". I'm convinced somebody has already solved this and can explain it. Thanks.
Source: (StackOverflow)
I have a file that's downloading (from a source that's hard to re-download from), but accidentally deleted from the filesystem namespace (/tmp/blah), and I'd like to recover this file.
Normally I could just cp /proc/$PID/fd/$FD /tmp/blah, but in this case that would only get me a partial snapshot, since the file is still downloading. Furthermore, once the download completes, the downloading process (e.g. Chrome) will close the FD.
Any way to recover by inode/create a hard link? Any other solutions? If it makes any difference, I'm mainly concerned with ext4.
Source: (StackOverflow)
If I have a flash drive that I think may have a virus on it, but also has some important tax stuff on it, is there a way I can get at the files without endangering my computer?
Source: (StackOverflow)