Posts Tagged ‘extensible firmware interface’
June 5th, 2009 | 
Author: When Apple moved to Intel processors from PowerPC, a number of changes have been made to the way in which Macintosh works. The changes included the move from PowerPC RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computers) chip to Intel Core Duo
CISC (Complex Instruction Set Computer).
At the same time, Apple allowed its users to change their partition table from APM (Apple Partition Map) to GUID Partition Table (GPT). But sometimes, after changing the partition table, your Mac OS system may not start and you may come across data inaccessibility and data loss problems. To overcome these issues, Mac Data Recovery is required.
GPT is an advanced partitioning scheme that works on both Intel and PowerPC based computers. For this reason, you can use it for both Mac OS X and Windows operating system. It provides you a greater flexibility of resizing hard drive partitions and to easily and effectively manage your mission critical data.
è APM (Apple Partition Map) is an extremely simple and robust partition structure to partition a hard drive, which can be formatted as either HFS+ or HFS file system. APM partitions do not contain boot code. The Open Firmware of computer has the code for reading this structure. APM is read by the Open Firmware and then HFS+ file system read and finally operating system is booted. Open Firmware is capable of booting the system only from HFS file system volumes and thus it is not compatible with Windows operating system.
è GPT (GUID Partition Table) is a partitioning scheme that is included in EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface) of Intel. It is defined by the formal standard as a part of EFI. GPT encompasses entire hard drive with a secondary partition table to the end of drive. It works as a backup copy of primary data.
Due to advanced functionalities, stability and other features, several Mac users are changing their partition tables from APM to GPT. But sometimes after converting the partition table, your may not see your hard drive partitions and can not access data from them.
Such situations might occur due to incomplete or interrupted conversion of partition table. In such case, you need to perform Data Recovery Mac to retrieve your lost or missing data. It is best possible with the help of powerful and advanced third party Mac Recovery software.
These software are very easy to use and perform complete scanning of the affected hard drive using proficient scanning methods. These software are very easy to use and allow you to have Do It Yourself Mac Data Recovery.
Stellar Phoenix Macintosh Data Recovery is a robust tool to recover all your lost data in most of the data loss situations. It can recover data from HFS, HFS+, HFSX, HFS Wrapper and FAT file system volumes. This software is compatible with Mac OS X 10.5, 10.4 and 10.3.9.
Allen a student of Mass Communication doing research on mac data recovery and mac data recovery software software. He is also a freelancer for http://www.stellarinfo.com
Article Source: Mac Data Loss While Changing Partition Table From APM To GPT
Automated System Recovery (ASR) is a Windows tool used to simplify recovery of a server’s system or boot volumes. ASR consists of two parts: an automated backup and an automated restore. The backup portion can be accessed in the Backup utility under System Tools.
Users can access it through the Automated System Recovery Preparation Wizard located in Backup. The ASR Preparation Wizard backs up the System State data, system services, and all disks associated with the operating system components. It also creates a floppy disk, which contains information about the backup, the disk configurations, and how to accomplish a restore.
Latest efforts from the software giants
Microsoft
Windows Vista SP1 Automated System Recovery was released in February last year.
The ASR is one of the aspects in Windows Vista that has been evolved with the introduction of Vista Service Pack-1. A Windows application programming interface, ASR is designed to keep track of and record the configuration of disks and volumes on a system. It will also manage disks in accordance with Critical and non-Critical labels, depending on whether they do or do not contain system state or operating system components.
With Windows Vista SP1, Microsoft has introduced supports for the Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI). As such the ASR in both Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008 was tweaked in order to be capable of recovering EFI system partitions in a bare metal recovery.
IBM
IBM-Tivoli is ASR in static IP environments using Tivoli Storage Manager was introduced in November last year.
The IBM Tivoli Storage Manager Automated System Recovery Process supports Networks that are DHCP enabled. In networks that do not support DHCP and uses Static IP’s, the local backup sets are used to recover these systems in case of a crash or total failure.
ASR is used to recover Microsoft Windows Server system in the event of a catastrophic system or hardware failure. The goal of ASR process is to return the operating system to the point of last backup. It is a two-phase process.
* Microsoft Windows installs a temporary operating system image using the original operating system media.
* Windows invokes TSM to restore the system volume and system state information.
IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) interfaces with Microsoft Windows to provide system recovery.
Hewlett Packard
HP Blade PC Automated System Recovery Utility 2.00 Rev. E description was introduced earlier this year.
This package contains the Automated System Recovery (ASR-2) Service for the supported desktop models and operating systems. The ASR-2 service causes an HP Blade PC that has stopped responding (locked up), or that has experienced a “blue-screen” error, to restart (reboot), bringing it back online and making it available for network users.
Development includes the modification of the installation script to add support for 64-bit Microsoft Windows Operating Systems (Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Windows Vista).
Conclusion
ASR does not backup user’s files or other data, it should be used only as a last resort because in preparation for a restore ASR will format the system and boot volumes of the hard-drive, making other, less drastic recovery methods impossible.
http://www.itvoir.com/portal/
http://www.itvoir.com/portal/boxx/knowledgebase.asp?iid=1429&Cat=23
Article Source: Simplified approach for Data Recovery : ASR
The EFI or Extensible Firmware Interface is the specification, defining the software interface between Mac operating system and platform firmware. EFI boot process involves a boot manager which is built into the firmware. But with few of the Mac systems, the boot drive options are found to be changed to include EFI boot.
When the user desires to choose from the available boot volumes, the boot menu starts displaying the options which have never been expected. The EFI boot option
starts displaying and you have no clue of the bootable volume which has lots of important data within. Also the booting process may not be as usual, but the drive name appears as normal in Finder.
The condition is threatening as the data stored can’t be lost in this way. The possible culprit behind the scene could be the some modifications, done to volume structure of the drive. This is also feasible that the user has restored a clone of the hard drive after upgrading or any other case.
In such conditions, the user is recommended to stop doing anything with the system and follow the given steps:
· If you are cloning the hard drive, try using some alternative method. It should be a bit-for-bit transfer as small differences could create problems. You can try cloning a temporary external disk and then replacing the internal one and then cloning back.
· Try using the disk repair utility
· Reset PRAM as this might contain some boot information
· Attempt changing the startup disk in System Preference as this could be the result of some firmware settings
· Erase all the partitions of the drive as the last resort by using the Disk Utility
Erasing or formatting the hard drive partitions mean that all your data has gone and this is the time to have Mac recovery. Data worth when this is significant from business point of view. So Mac data recovery needs productive source to happen.
Data recovery industry has benefited the users with data recovery Mac software which have the high scanning ability for the lost data. These Mac recovery utilities are easy to use and well in results.
Stellar Phoenix Macintosh Data Recovery software is the advanced Mac data recovery help, offered to scan the affected drive. This data recovery Mac application is found to be compatible with HFS, HFS+, HFSX and HFS Wrapper file systems. Through its read-only conduct, the software is viable to get safe Mac recovery.
Williamz Jack work as a freelancer and researcher of Data Recovery & File Recovery Software.
Article Source: Boot Options Change To ‘EFI Boot’ in Mac