In accordance with its functional description, IBM Notes (earlier Lotus Notes) is a database system, which also incorporates the Email technology. You cannot compare Notes to Oracle, SQL, or a like DBMS, as it is more likely a flattened data structure.
IBM Notes and IBM Domino
IBM Notes and IBM Domino both run as client and server, respectively, when collaborated on a Windows machine. The Notes client incorporates emails, calendar, contacts, discussion forums, instant messaging (IM), to do list, file sharing, and some other traits as well. All these integrated items together create a massive amount of data that store in a data file of NSF file format. In other words, the Notes’ data file has .nsf extension.
NSF Data Files
The NSF files (*.nsf files) are the data files created by IBM Notes and IBM Domino running in collaboration. Such data files store all the information, such as email messages, contacts, calendar, and all other items mentioned earlier. Since the Domino software is compatible with an array of platform (such as Windows, Mac, Linux, and more), the entire database is stored on the server computer. Each Domino server has around tens of thousands of users, each with a specific mailbox. Any issue in one mailbox causing corruption or inaccessibility may lead to corruption in the entire database server.
NSF Data File Corruption
As mentioned earlier, the NSF files are the data files created by IBM Notes when collaborated with IBM Domino. When it comes to the data files or databases, the storage medium must be extremely secure since even minor issues may lead to corruption in the entire database server. The causes of NSF files’ corruption are virus/malware infections, disk corruption, file system failure/corruption, and the likes.
Notes Data Recovery
The corruption in the Notes database (*.nsf file) may cause massive data loss, which is not at all acceptable. Moreover, Notes data recovery is possible using Stellar Phoenix Lotus Notes Recovery software. The software is compatible with an array of Windows operating systems, including the most recent one, i.e. Windows 8.
In fact, this Notes recovery software is a complete suite for fixing corruption in the NSF files. Using this tool, you have to scan the corrupt NSF file, and then the software itself saves the repaired data in a new NSF file, after the repair process is finished successfully. In this regard, the following are the steps you need to put into practice:
1 Install and run the Stellar Phoenix Lotus Notes Recovery software on a Windows-based computer.
(The software interface appears with a pop-up dialog box displaying two options, i.e. ‘Select NSF File’ and ‘Find NSF File’ to open the corrupt Notes file.)
2 Click the ‘Select NSF File’ button to select the corrupt Notes data file from your PC.
OR
Click the ‘Find NSF File’ button and go on to the following:
- In the Look in drop down list, select the drive in which you want to search for the NSF file.
- Check the ‘Search Subfolders’ check box.
- Click the ‘Start’ button.
- In the ‘Search Results’ window, select the corrupt NSF file.
- Click OK.
Note: If you do not see the corrupt file in the search results, click Cancel and search in a different drive.
3 With the corrupt NSF file selected, click the ‘Change Destination’ button to select a different destination for the new NSF File, as the default location of the new NSF file is the folder containing the corrupt NSF file.
4 Click the Start button to scan and repair it.
(The software may take a while in repairing the corrupt NSF file, while the time elapsed in the repair process is subject to the size as well as the extent of corruption in it.)
5 Once the software has repaired the corrupt NSF file, a pop-up box flashes with the “Filename.nsf has been recovered successfully” messages on it. Click the “Click here” link to open the folder containing the newly saved NSF file.
Note: You can see the preview of all these items individually in the preview pane. Just select a folder in the tree view in the left pane, and then select an item in the top right pane.
With the aforementioned steps to perform NSF recovery, you have successfully recovered all your Notes data from the corrupt NSF file to a new NSF file. Well, the following are the key features of Stellar Phoenix Lotus Notes Recovery software:
- Compatible with an array of Windows OSes, including Windows 8.
- Compatible with Notes 6.x and 7.x versions.
- Repairs the emails, contacts, Java Applets, attachments, and OLE objects.
- Generates the preview of all the repaired and recovered items.
- Enables saving the new NSF file on a network drive as well.
Stellar Phoenix Lotus Notes Recovery software is the best tool for repairing your Notes files and is available at an affordable price for single user, while it is also available in the Administrator and Technician copies of the license.