14 DAY TRIAL // In a variety of contexts, Microsoft is not sparing any effort to bridge the gap that separates its proprietary Windows operating system from the open source Linux platform. From the Linux-Windows interoperability agreements to the extensions introduced to virtualization support, the Redmond company is embracing Linux more and more. And believe it or not, but this hardly stops here. In fact, the latest initiative from Microsoft designed to use Linux in tandem with Windows involves data recovery. Jamie Cannon, OSS/Community Manager at Microsoft pointed to a technical analysis describing in minute detail various techniques that permit the recovery of Windows data via Linux.
"We have all run into cases where Windows fails to load for one reason or another. The problem may be hardware or a software failure, and the problem may seem to be irrecoverable. Yet often Linux can be used to help recover data that otherwise might be lost. Another application of using Linux recovery is in the creation of disk images for post-mortem analysis of security breaches. While such images are not created according to forensics standards (which usually requires special hardware) and would not be likely to be of help in legal cases, they are helpful in internal reviews following such incidents", Cannon stated citing the abstract of the "Recovering Data from Windows Systems by Using Linux" whitepaper.
"Recovering Data from Windows Systems by Using Linux" is available for download via this link, and its title says it all. It is a resource put together by Chris Travers, from Metatron Technology Consulting, and it will enable you to leverage Linux in order to bring Windows back from the dead. "Data recovery is a huge field, and it is impossible to cover it in any significant depth in a short paper. However, I hope that this provides good information about how to use Linux to recover data from minor to moderate failures", Travers concluded.