Hard Drive Data Loss At A Glance

Hard drive manufacturers from around the world are continued to make larger size of hard disks, which brings new obstacles for users and modern businesses. Recent report indicates that, higher capacity disks are more prone to failure than lower size disks. Moreover, low size disks will suppose to perform exceptionally well and have merely 13.11% of failure rate where large capacity disks. Probably, hard drive space is the deciding factors for you but you should consider this metrics before really opting for large size hard disks.

[Read Also: Undetected Hard Drive Data Recovery Using Parted Magic]

Weather it could happen due to manufacturer's fault, human error, or hard drive overage, probably you will pay thousands of dollars to data recovery firms for recovering your valuable stuff. Moreover, 100% data recovery isn't possible in all cases of failure or probably you'd get nothing even after paying such huge amount.

Data Loss Cases
Hard drive failure cases are continued to rise as the amount of data stored within server or home PC is increased. Experts say; disk failure rates are 15 times as compared to past and every single data loss incident to business could cost up to $2900.  In 2012, 1461 cases of data loss has been recorded so far according to datalossdb stastics , though it combines all types of incidents like data being theft, hacking or stolen.

                     

Alternatives
Besides recovery, user's can take few measures to better protect their hard drive data from being permanently lost due to various data loss incidents. One should make sure that they have successfully backed up their data so that it can be restored when something goes wrong. For further safety, you can distribute the backup copy to various data storing channels as you can't trust on single data source.

[Read Also: Windows 8 is less shining then Even Windows Vista]

How to Repair your Computer from Ukash Virus

Unlike Trojan or adware,Windows Ukash virus may have severe impact over your PC such as complete locking or freezing, system inaccessibility and more. More than millions of PC attacks have been recorded only in US after which user had either lost their valuable data or looted by scammers. Ukash falls under ransom ware category and infected PC with various versions such as 'Metropolitan Police Ukash Virus', 'FBI Money pack Virus' or similar.

Whenever any machine gets attacked by Ukash, user will see nasty warning messages and found their computer completely locked. Warnings messages states that you have violated legal laws or may be the victim of piracy Act or similar and asks to pay hundred or even thousands of dolor’s as a penalty for being involved in any malicious activities or so. Believing it and paying your money yield no results and your computer will remain locked until you find and fix it using a proper solution.

The virus named Ukash because it uses the private Ukash payment gateway option to pay the mentioned amount in warning messages. You don't worry about it as here are some simple steps to easily identify such attacks and a handy process to manually remove it.

How one can get infected by Ukash Virus

There are various holes and security vulnerabilities that scammers used to seek and attack. Ukash virus can easily infect PC if user surfs malware websites, download, & install hacked applications etc. This virus can trick many people as it’s customized to translate in various other languages and then asks people to pay for the money. It's obvious that user get scared by seeing those horrible error messages with local police department and trademark at top of the warning messages.

You can see example in pictures below taken from ‘METROPOLITAN UKASH Virus’ infected PC, to get an idea about how it actually looks:

For better analysis, below are some common points that you can notice in case of Ukash virus infection:

1. Freezing, Computer speed slows down automatically.
2. Series of popup warnings containing set of threatening message.
3. Permanently inaccessibility to files & folders stored in the drive as warning pop ups has fully locked your computer.
4. Startup failure, unexpected computer errors etc.

Steps for Manually Removing Ukash Virus

Follow the simple steps to manually remove it from infected PCs,

1. Normally, restart your PC
2. Press F8 during startup to go to 'Advanced Startup Options'
3. Select option 'Safe Mode with Networking'
4. Start 'Task Manger' and locate to ‘Processes’ tab to find out all unknown or unexpected processes running on your computer. Kill them immediately. Enter administrator password whenever required.
5. Restart the system and see if you have successfully removed the virus.

If Ukash virus still exists on your PC, simply download SpyHunter from here. After installation, this will automatically traces all print of Ukash and will easily remove it.

How to Deal With "WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM" Error

Your computer contains set of registries and system files for smooth and uninterrupted PC running. When any of the system files get deleted or registries got corrupted, you may face bunch of error messages or sometime complete system failure. One such error is “windows\system32\config\system” which may occurs due to of deleted system files, windows corruption, or hard drive failure etc. and will make your system unbootable. As results, you won't be able to access your stuff inside the system till you fix the error. See the below image to know how it looks like:

“Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM”

If you are suffering from the same and desperately hunting for it's solution then you are at the right place as I'll describe here the most prominent causes behind this error and the easy steps to solve it on your own.

Why This Error?

As I described in above paragraph, your registries are the most sensitive parts inside the system and can be easily malfunctioned or damaged. Once your registries got corrupted, it makes their corresponding file (which is at the location Windows\System32\Config\system/software), unreadable. This system file can also be corrupted or deleted by viruses, human or the file itself got unstable by any unauthorized system operation and needs to be updated. Therefore, once the file is corrupted and next time you started the system, it won't boot up and gives an error as described in the image above.

What you can do to get it fixed?

The simplest solution is to replace the same file with an updated and non corrupted file from your Windows media disc or from the registry backup (if you had taken a backup of your system registries?

Here are the detailed steps on how you can do it manually:

1. Insert your Windows installation CD into CD ROM and restart your PC.
2. Follow the same steps as in the case of installing fresh Window except the screen appears after pressing 'F8' key, where you have to select 'R' key (to go the recovery console) instead of pressing 'Enter'.
3. Select the targeted windows if you have dual booting operating system.
4. Type the administrator password whenever asked. Leave it blank if you don't have any.
5. Once you reached at the command prompt, type the following commands and press enter each time after typing a line:
   md tmp
   copy c:\windows\system32\config\system c:\windows\tmp\system.bak
   copy c:\windows\system32\config\software c:\windows\tmp\software.bak
   copy c:\windows\system32\config\sam c:\windows\tmp\sam.bak
   copy c:\windows\system32\config\security c:\windows\tmp\security.bak
   copy c:\windows\system32\config\default c:\windows\tmp\default.bak
   delete c:\windows\system32\config\system
   delete c:\windows\system32\config\software
   delete c:\windows\system32\config\sam
   delete c:\windows\system32\config\security
   delete c:\windows\system32\config\default
   copy c:\windows\repair\system c:\windows\system32\config\system
   copy c:\windows\repair\software c:\windows\system32\config\software
   copy c:\windows\repair\sam c:\windows\system32\config\sam
   copy c:\windows\repair\security c:\windows\system32\config\security
   copy c:\windows\repair\default c:\windows\system32\config\default
   
6. Type ‘exist’ to navigate away from the black screen and restart your system. See if your system starts normally, but if not follow the next steps.
7. Remove and connect your hard drive to another computer to take backup of your important data. Once you done with this again plug it back to your old computer and install a fresh copy of Windows to get back to your system normally and recover your data.