Data recovery from the Field PC

19 Jan 2012

Note: This information is provided as a reference and does not imply that Juniper Systems will provide full support for the use of any specific third-party software with a Juniper Systems product.

Data integrity has always been a high priority with our rugged handheld computer products. Each generation of our products has been designed with the best computer technology available at the time which affords the most data integrity. But on rare occasions a product may still suffer data integrity issues due to things such as app / OS write event errors, bad sector or lost clusters of bits on a storage device, or some other problem that may also possibly lead to operation problems as described at the following web pages.

In such cases, data recovery options may be limited. There is no guarantee as to whether data can be recovered. The following options may or may not succeed at fully recovering data.

Undelete or Recycle Bin

Some ideas and utilities for possibly recovering (undeleting) data from the Microsoft Windows Mobile operating system are provided at the following web pages.

The Microsoft Windows CE operating system on our older Allegro Field PC model products provides a Recycle Bin for possible recovery of deleted data. Though this feature can only recover data from normally volatile locations outside of our custom "C_Drive" or an inserted card. If you performed a Start > Programs > Utilities > Save System or Registry after collecting the data and before it was lost, then you may be able to perform a Restore System from the same menu to recover such data.

The legacy DOS operating system on the original Allegro provides an "undelete" command. The Norton DOS Utilities also may provide some recovery tools.

GetDataBack

If the storage device that contained the data can be removed from the handheld computer (such as at a repair center if it is an internal drive like the "C_Drive" on older Allegro models) and attached directly to a desktop computer, then data may be recoverable using a utility such as is described at the following web page.

http://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-software.htm

The Microsoft Windows CE 5.0 USB Client Mass Storage drivers that are included in the Microsoft Windows Mobile operating system on our products could theoretically be used to connect to a desktop PC (instead of using ActiveSync / Windows Mobile Device Center) for possibly recovering data from an internal drive using a utility such as described above. The utility described at the following web page may provide similar functionality. But both may be limited to only being able to view and recover data from removable cards in our products, so may not provide the desired outcome.

http://www.softick.com/pocket-pc/cardexport2/

Scan Disk and Formatting

Performing a scan disk and/or re-formatting a storage device is recommended for cases of data integrity issues. A scan disk may be able to recover lost clusters and mark bad sectors on a storage device. But the small chunks of data that are offered for potential recovery most often do not provide the desired information. Prevention of future problems is the main benefit of such scans and/or formatting. For additional information, please visit the following web pages.

Repair Center

Our certified repair centers may be able to provide additional data recovery services. They can also format or replace storage devices to ensure future data integrity. Our general repair centers are listed at the following web page.

Locate a Repair Center

To submit a repair order to our Utah repair center, follow the instructions at and fill out the form linked from the following web page.

Repair Policies