Data recovery over network is a very useful feature of R-Studio. It helps you to recover files when you do not have direct access to the hard drive with the lost data—say, when you are dealing with a laptop that is hard to disassemble, a sealed brand desktop, or a corporate network server with an advanced RAID controller. Quite often the hardware works normally and the problem lies with data loss on that device. Network data recovery is an excellent solution for such cases.
The concept of data recovery over network is quite simple: R-Studio Agent runs on the victim computer, whereas R-Studio is installed and runs on another computer, a system administrator workstation, or a workstation specially dedicated to data recovery.
Quite important! R-Studio and R-Studio Agent do not pump gigabytes of data over the network to analyze them! R-Studio Agent does the actual data analysis on the computer where it runs and sends only the information on the data to its mother R-Studio.
There may be three typical scenarios for data recovery over network:
(Please note that some license restrictions may apply. Read your license agreement carefully.)
 |
Case 1 A laptop you do not want to disassemble. Or a sealed device of another type. Both its hardware and operating system work normally, only there are several deleted files that require recovery. No problem. Connect the laptop to the workstation where R-Studio is running over a network or directly through a network cable. Copy R-Studio Agent to a flash memory device, connect the device to the affected laptop, and run the R-Studio Agent program on the laptop. Then connect R-Studio over the network to R-Studio Agent running on the laptop and recover files on it as if R-Studio was installed on this laptop. No program setup or extra data written on the laptop's hard drive-which minimizes the chances that the needed files will be overwritten and optimizes the chances for successful file recovery. |
 |
Case 2 A laptop you do not want to disassemble. Or a sealed device of another type. Its hardware works normally, but you cannot start it because data on the system disk has been corrupted. You need to recover files from this notebook before reinstalling the operating system. Again, no problem. Connect the laptop to the workstation where R-Studio is running over a network or directly through a network cable. Start the notebook with R-Studio Agent Emergency. Then connect R-Studio over the network to R-Studio Agent running on the notebook and recover files on it as if R-Studio was installed on this notebook. See more informaiton in our article "Emergency Data Recovery over Network". (You may also use R-Studio Emergency to recover data in this case. See Emergency File Recovery Using R-Studio Emergency for more details.) |
 |
Case 3 A corporate network with pre-installed R-Studio Agents on its data-critical computers. R-Studio Network Edition is installed on a system administrator's workstation. A data crash has occurred on one of these computers, but its operating system works normally. And, again, no problem. Immediately connect R-Studio over the network to R-Studio Agent running on that computer and recover files on it as if R-Studio was installed on that computer. Instant access to the data on the victim computer. No program setup, no extra data written on the computer's hard drive, no computer restart-which minimizes the chances that the needed files will be overwritten and optimizes the chances that the files will be recovered successfully. |
The R-Studio Technician package can even perform data recovery over the Internet. See R-Studio Technician: Data Recovery over the Internet for more details.
So, data recovery over network entails three steps:
Data Recovery over Network
Let's examine how this process actually works.
1. Start and configure R-Studio Agent on the remote computer.
Start R-Studio Agent
Depending on the case, you need to:
Case 1. Copy R-Studio Agent Portable to a flash memory device, and run it on the remote computer. You must have administrator privileges to start it on Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista/Windows 7. If you don't have them, R-Studio Agent will ask you to enter an administrator's login and password.
When R-Studio Agent starts, it first asks you to enter its Registration number. You may enter it or click the Demo button. If you select the Demo mode, you may enter the Registration number later from the computer that has R-Studio installed on it.
Then R-Studio Agent displays its main panel:
Click image to enlarge
Case 2. Create an R-Studio Agent startup disk. (See R-Studio Help.) Start your computer with R-Studio Agent Emergency. (See R-Studio Help).
Case 3. Install R-Studio Agent on the network computers. Run the setup file and follow the on-screen instructions. You need to have administrator privileges to install it on Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista/Windows 7.
When R-Studio Agent starts, its icon appears in the system tray:
Configure R-Studio Agent
R-Studio Agent Emergency:
If you use DHCP on your network, R-Studio Agent Emergency receives its IP address automatically. You will need this address to connect R-Studio to R-Studio Agent Emergency. If there is no DHCP, you must enter the IP address and network mask manually.
R-Studio Agent pre-installed and portable:
Right-click the R-Studio Agent system tray icon and select Configure. Enter the password for this R-Studio Agent and IP address of the computer on which R-Studio is installed:
Click image to enlarge
2. Establish a connection between R-Studio and R-Studio Agent over the network.
On the R-Studio main panel, click the Connect to Remote button. Select the computer on the network where R-Studio Agent is running:
Click image to enlarge
If you are connecting to R-Studio Agent Emergency, you must enter the IP address of that computer into the Computer field, leaving the Password field blank.
If R-Studio Agent on the remote computer runs in the Demo mode, a dialog box will appear asking you to enter the registration code for R-Studio Agent. You may enter the registration code to access full data recovery, or click the Demo button to continue running R-Studio Agent in the Demo mode. In this mode, R-Studio can perform any action (file enumeration and preview, disk scanning, and so forth) except actual data recovery.
When R-Studio and R-Studio Agent are connected, the drives and disks of the remote computer appear on the R-Studio Drives panel:
Click image to enlarge
Note: If you are connecting R-Studio to R-Studio Agent Emergency, the Drives panel will have a different look:
Click image to enlarge
3. Recover data from the remote computer as if R-Studio was installed on that computer.
You may perform all hard disk recovery operations, such as file enumeration and file recovery:
Click image to enlarge
When the Recover dialog box appears, you may select whether you want to save recovered files on the local or remote computer. Saving recovered files on the remote computer may be useful when the remote computer has a healthy disk because you do not have to transfer files over network. It may be an external USB hard drive, for example.
Click image to enlarge
In addition, saving data to the disks on the remote computer provides personal information protection, as no user's data leaves the user's computer.
You can even save recovered files on another remote computer if R-Studio Agent runs on that machine.
Preview files to estimate file recovery chances:
Click image to enlarge
Scan disks on the remote computer:
Click image to enlarge
View/edit objects, in case of disaster recovery, for example:
Click image to enlarge
And even clone a disk.
Click image to enlarge
What's more, you can perform the following trick: Use R-Studio Network Demo to create a disk image of the remote computer and save it on your local machine. Then use the lower-priced R-Studio license, which has no network capabilities, to do the actual
data restore from that image.
To disconnect from the remote computer, select the remote computer on the Drives panel and click the Delete button.
You may read more about R-Studio online:
On-line Help
Downloadable Manual
Discussion Forum
English
Русский