Hybrid Shutdown Feature in Windows 8 - For Better or Worse

To overcome from slow startup problems in Windows OS, hybrid shutdown is introduced with Windows 8 (also comes with Windows 8.1) along with various other crucial features like OneDrive Integration, bit locker, tiles interface etc. Hybrid shutdown is slightly different from hibernation and sleep mode we use previously in Windows XP or Windows 7, so don’t get confused with it.

What happens when you perform hybrid shutdown?
Whenever the user shutdown their Windows 8 PC, hybrid shutdown will immediately close user session and save the current state of kernel including drivers and running programs into a single hiberfil.sys file and then hardware session to ultimately shut down the PC. On the next restart, hardware will initialize so fast like never before (due to UEFI system in Windows 8 instead of BIOS system) and the operating system reads the content of the hiberfil.sys file to read kernel and user session and then restore the system exactly in the state you’ve left while hibernation. The whole process occurs so fast, as less as 8 seconds and makes the system ready to let user perform their desired operation. 

What are the benefits?
Hybrid shutdown will provide seamless opportunities for users who always dreamed for super-fast computers. It can provide extremely fast shut down and start for PCs with average configuration as well as frequent loading of heavy applications that nearly took almost double time on its predecessor like XP or Windows 7.

If you are using SSD (solid state drive), can make your PC even faster.

Dark side of the hybrid shutdown
Clearly, everything has its own dark side and so as hybrid shutdown which sometime leaves users in deep trouble. Windows 8 PC may give freezing or random restarts while using it, just because of hybrid shutdown feature. Resuming from hibernation sometime throws multiple difficulties and as results, the system might stuck or completely freezes. This is because the size of the hiberfil.sys file which may contain huge information about multiple applications running or have large amount of data stored when the system went into hibernation. 

Any ongoing file that changes haven’t been saved fully or somehow you forget to save, might lost permanently. Moreover, such problems sometime leads to permanent system inaccessibility and prevent user to access the stored data. Such situations can be addressed well only by using powerful Windows file recovery software that scans the problem media using powerful algorithm and make them ready for recovery as soon as the scanning process completed.

Each time you choose to turn off the computer, Windows 8 initializes hybrid shutdown by default unless and until you haven’t chosen to manually disable it. So if you are facing some difficulties with your Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 PC such as freezing or automatic restarts, consider disabling hybrid shutdown feature and see if the system may start behaving as it normally does.

Below is the detailed steps on how you can disable hybrid shutdown:

1. On your Windows 8 or 8.1 computer, press ‘Window’ button + ‘Q’ to open the search text box. Type Power and hit enter. You’ll get multiple search items related to power options.
2. Click on Settings, located below the App option and then click on Change What the Power Buttons do option from the right side of the screen. In case, you’re using Windows 8.1 computer, this option will be automatically listed at the bottom, just below the search text box. See the image below for reference.
   
   
   
   
3. Power options window will open. Scroll down at the bottom and locate the option Turn on fast startup (recommended) under Shutdown settings option. 
   
   
   
   Please note that if the option to deselect Turn on fast startup (recommend) isn’t clickable or has been grayed out, then click on Change settings that are currently unavailable option located under Power button setting button.
   
4. Uncheck or deselect the option and press save changes.
5. Restart your computer.

Most probably, it’ll fix all your freezing or automatic shutdown problems in Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 computer.

What if you want occasional complete (real) shutdown as you do in previous version of Windows?
In case you just want complete system shutdown and restart your system with everything fresh including the brand new kernel session, simply click on restart. It’ll turn off all the user, kernel and hardware session before restart and helps you in case you are facing some problems every time you choose to fast shutdown your computer.

Alternatively, there is another way to achieve a complete shutdown and a real cold boot the next time your start your computer by performing the command mentioned below:

Shutdown /s /t 0

Hope this article seems helpful and become handy just in case if you’re wondering for solutions of Windows 8 freezing or automatic restart problem which occurs because of hybrid shutdown.

RAID: Levels, functions & RAID in OS X Mac

Introduction:

RAID expands to Reduntant Array of Independent Disk, is a data storage technology which coalesces the disk drives into a single logical unit for the purpose of enhancing the performance and data redundancy. Basically RAID is the policy to spread the data across multiple disk in a reliable manner. This technology comprises of certain levels which makes the task of data storage easier.

RAID levels:

The popular levels of RAID are RAID 0, RAID 1,  RAID 5, RAID 6 and RAID 10. RAID 0 is mainly used for striping, that is to read and write the data pararellely across the disk to achieve performance.

The main function of another level RAID 1 is mirroring, which helps to maintain the mirrored sets of the hard drive. In this case, if the hard drive get fails or data is deleted accidently then there is another mirrored drive which consist of the identical data. Although this feature require double storage capacity but it ensures high data protection and performance.

Now comes the RAID 4 which has the splendid characteristic of parity, which is used to detect the fault tolerence. It is used to recover the lost data in case of disk drive failure. RAID 4 consist of 3 hard disk drives in which 1 is for checking parity. One of the most prominent feature of RAID 4 is hot sparing that is it has the power of replacing the failed disk automatically. Inspite of all these features this level is not so commonly used.

The reason is RAID 6 which has 2 parity disk means it has the capacity to replace 2 hard drive failures automatically. Most widely used out of all levels of RAID is RAID 10. However, in this level, order of the required task is maintained. First mirroring is done and then the data is striped across the disk drives. Its is commonly called as the “stripes of mirrors” the fruitful combination of RAID 0 and RAID 1.

RAID in OS X Disk Utility:

Most commonly OS support RAID technology software for managing the volumes such as Mac OS X Disk Utility. Data is distributed across multiple disk either by hardware RAID or software RAID. Software RAID is implemented as a single virtual device which consist of a standard drive controller chip inbuilt into it with the drivers in it as well. Now if we compare this with the hardware RAID then this software RAID involves less number of CPU cycles and power to run.

RAID in Disk Utility is a built in software which support few levels of RAID. Mac OS X disk utility supports RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 10. Software RAID is reliable and flexible for the overall functioning of the system as it maintains the storage effectively without any loss of data. The two efficient feature of the Mac OS X Disk Utility is striping and mirroring. Striping stores the files in segments across the disk which is beneficial in when we have to deal with large sets of data whereas mirroring helps to duplicate the content of the data on to the another drive. After clicking on the RAID option in Disk Utility, just choose RAID type and format according to the data requirement and create sets. These sets will helps us to manage the data enthusiastically.

So, the above content describes the introduction and overall view of RAID to utilize the best service in an efficient manner.  

Windows, Mac & Linux recovery software bundled at heavy discount

Stellar Data Recovery have been developing data recovery software for Single & Technician users from a long time. This time, Stellar Phoenix has decided to bundle 3 powerful data recovery applications & release them with Technician licenses. This Data Recovery toolkit will include below dedicated OS recovery software from Stellar Phoenix.

The bundle will facilitate hassle free recovery of lost, formatted & deleted files from hard drive or multiple drives, lost & deleted partitions & through various file systems. Let’s walk though the mighty features of Data Recovery toolkit bundle for each OS.

1) Stellar Phoenix Windows data recovery:

Stellar Phoenix for Windows data recovery is well-suited application to recover data from any NTFS formatted hard drive. It supports recovery on Windows XP, 7, 8 and 8.1. S.P.W.D.R. flawlessly recovers data from an unmounted hard drive, bad-sectors and even scans & recovers a deleted partition. The support for RAID recovery is also provided in this software which would help user get back data from RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, & upto RAID 6. Presence of ‘RAW Recovery’ feature for corrupted hard drives & ‘Remote data recovery’ makes the software more preferable for advanced/expert users.

To recover data from inaccessible Window computers, a bootable CD/DVD is also provided.

2) Stellar Phoenix Mac data recovery & (3) Stellar Phoenix Linux Data recovery

OS X hard drive recovery & Linux recovery is supported by individual software that is bundled within the Data Recovery toolkit. Both the software will regain lost, deleted or formatted data on their respective operating systems. Formatted or deleted partition recovery is well supported through both the software. For OS X Mac, the file formats supported are the HFS, HFS+, FAT32, FAT16, and FAT12 volumes. For the Linux OS, Ext1, Ext2, Ext3, Ext4 are supported for data recovery.

Cost of Bundle:

Stellar Data Recovery has always been offering cost effective software that can be easily purchased & used by all. For this Data Recovery Toolkit, user has to pay $500 to acquire lifetime technician license of all 3 software. Once a user purchases the bundle, he/she will receive 24X5 dedicated technical support to rectify any technical issue(s).

Buy this bundle through secure payment gateway – Buy Now

5 Important Benefits of Drive Cloning and Imaging for Effective Data Recovery

Drive cloning and imaging are the two easiest and possibly free way of backing up your hard drive data including files, MBR (master boot record), partition table, boot record and more. Both process are slightly different from one another and provides separate advantages over one another. However, the purpose are same and both is used for the safety of your data.

Before diving in, let’s clarify what these methods are and which option you should choose, either clone the drive or image the drive. Drive cloning or ghosting is a process of creating exact copy of an internal or external storage device to a different drive of same size. While cloning the drive, you are backing up each and everything to the new drive so could you boot and run another computer system using the cloned hard drive.  Cloning will help in easily replacing failing or dying hard drive and move all your data as well as the operating system to a new SSD or traditional hard drives. Thus, cloning will helps you against tragic data loss situations which often compromises business or valuable document loss that you are not going to take back ever.Though, its always a chances of data loss being arisen these days due to some unavoidable facts and it's strongly recommended to use powerful hard drive recovery software to stay away from such circumstances.

Disk imaging works more likely taking a regular backup of entire hard drive. This option will also copy all your data in one large file though you’ll need a decompression tool to restore everything back from the created image. If you want, can create multiple copies of same image and distribute it to various external hard drive which ensures that if one drive fails or unwillingly gone corrupt, you still have another copy left and can restore data from using the functional drive.

Benefits of Cloning Vs Imaging

#1. Top level of safety to your crucial data. Cloning will help users in migrating from HDD to HDD or HDD to SSD or vice versa. Whereas, Imaging simply puts everything to new drive like one large zip file. Though, you can’t use the same created backup file to access data. The same tool (imaging program) is used to unzip all the data on to the same or different drive.

#2. Cloning never lets you lose your PC customizations and settings or even the registry changes. It puts everything from old to new storage device ranging from files to folders, operating system to file system, registry changes to device manager settings etc. Imaging is used for backup purpose only so could you never lose data if the source drive fails or become inaccessible. You can use any fresh or used drive to restore data back from the created image.

#3. Same size of hard drive is needed for cloning purpose. However, you can store multiple copies of create image in relatively one large hard drive. Later, you can use the created images for distribution across local workgroups or family members and let them access your data (if that isn’t a matter of concern).

#4. Cloned drives is ready immediately for use on different computer, you don’t even need the source drive to start the system. Cloned drive will have each and everything to boot your system and access installed applications or stored files. Imaging only lets you see the stored content, the drive itself isn’t bootable or can make you able to start the system using the created image.

#5. Any damaged or bad sectors and blocks will be copied too in the cloned copy which keeps giving system into freezes or hangs. Though, the bad sectors will not going to harm the new computer, you’ll only not able to access the data stored on that particular area. Imaging runs smoothly on the drive even with bad sectors and blocks and will skip them for healthy backup creation process. The only drawback it’ll have is you can’t control on how much data or which area of your hard drive will be missed by imaging.

Debate over hard drive cloning and imaging is popular since long ago and expert recommend to use either options, depend on the kind of problem you’re facing or activities you would want to perform. However, if used properly, both options are of great use and provides large set of benefits for users from various domain. Do you like any particular feature of drive cloning or imaging?? Go ahead and post it in comments.