sata hd crash and file recovery

[liki]

One more important point is to not just have one backup media and overwrite it every time you take a backup. Have multiple copies, and for higher protection store some off-site.

Every now and then one needs to reference an old backup eg. to find a file deleted long ago and removed already from more fresh backups also.

[yipster]

you all know, a well used drive completely gone =$^*@#
a first to everything, what a loss and thanks for the comfort guy's
havent try'd the freezer yet, but still might, could work..
just downloaded delftship again..

even bought a new drawing pen, good deal this week by lidl

mapping 64bit maps in a complaining 32bit brightnes and contrast filter
might have done it, i dont know but will go on with x64 and 8gig mem

yes live goes on and still planty to install, configere etc, but DO BACK YOUR DATA UP

here the render i was working on and had mailed back to see where i was
and the new setup i'm doing, now raid first, not done..

[brian eiland]

I must admit to being almost computer illiterate. I just seem to not be able to understand much of the lingo.

About a two years ago I bought an external hard drive in order to 'automatically' back up my laptop and desktop. i had real problems understanding the software (I believe to this day that some software is written by people whose mind is just 'wired' different than mine, or they use language in a different manner than I learned). I must admit to being a bit older (close to 67).

I ended up giving that first external hard drive to a friend.

Then I bought a .5T external hard drive from a different manufacturer. i have not tried to make this operate 'automatically', but rather periodically simply ask it to copy my desktop and laptop hard drives. I believed I was effectively 'backing up my two computers' with this method. But as I read portions of this thread, I'm wondering if i am truly protecting myself in case of a hard drive failure in either of my 2 computers??

[alidesigner]

Backing up data files is not enough. I just had a total HD failure and although my data was backed up I had to re-install everything and then re-configure everything. Some of my templates were in different directories to my data and were lost. Also for those using Outlook, you could lose all your email history.

My IT guru has suggested Windows Home Server as it backs up everything including system info and can be used for many computers. Looks quite well priced too.

[CDK]

My solution is to use just one small drive for the Microsoft stuff, a large one for programs and data and a 3rd for backups. Before my retirement that 3rd drive was a removable which I took home every evening.

If the C drive crashes, the email history is lost, so that part must be copied to the backup drive regularly, but you first have to find it because the path is very long and totally uncomprehensible. Searching for *.dbx or inbox is an easy way to find the directory.

May I join the club?

My notebook (software) crashed over a week ago. Win XP pro. could´nt start anymore. I had to reinstall win xp on the second partition to get access to most of the data (still there on the first partition).
But I lost my program installations, bookmarks and some data.
Could not take the hdd out and get it externally read out. The hardware stuff is now over 5 years old and they have nothing compatible here in Turkey!
Usually I make a synchro when I am back home, but last time I did not go home with the notebook, so there was almost one year no sync. made!
Bad luck for me, but **** happens.......

[CDK]

Does XP report the 1th partition as empty space or an unknown partition?
It may be fixable with "Partition Magic" if the FAT is undamaged.

I'd do it for you if there wasn't so much water between us.

[lewisboats]

More often the fault is in the controller board rather than in the mechanical parts or disk surfaces, the controller board can be replaced by a skilled person if you can find a similar disk

I had a problem with two drives once...both the same thing Seagate 500 gig PATAs of the same model...on one the board fried and on the other the motor went. Swapped the boards and made a fully functioning drive that still works...retained all the data too. I don't know if it would work on an SATA drive but it might be worth at try. See if one of the smaller repair shops around you might not have a matching drive and if they might be willing to try swapping the boards to try and recover your data. It is usually simply removing a couple of screws and pulling the board off the connector.

Originally Posted by CDK

Does XP report the 1th partition as empty space or an unknown partition?
It may be fixable with "Partition Magic" if the FAT is undamaged.

I'd do it for you if there wasn't so much water between us.

Thank you Cornelis!
I have PMagic on the notebook, and managed to get the data on the first one saved! But the D partition (which always is my active one) was lost. Windoof did not like to be repaired!
My fault, why was´nt my notebook in Germany for more than a year?

[MikeJohns]

It’s a real pain to lose data.

I had a failed hard drive and as lewisboats post above and it was recovered by swapping controller boards. I’ve had two disks fail in the last 3 years and I now have a replacement drive with OS and software installed. I have it in an external case that I backup my user files and email onto.
A terabyte external USB/SATA drive costs around 100 dollars and has a standard SATA drive inside it.

When the OS falls over, a useful tool is to make a boot disk on a USB thumb drive. Then you can often access and re-name that folder before re-installing the OS. There are also linux bootable cd’s that can be useful for this.

In the paper age the enemies were spilled drinks, and small children. Now it’s dodgy hardware dodgy software and bored geeks who think it’s cool to write malicious code.

[Ad Hoc]

I hesitate to wade in this, as I'm a complete computer dumby...but touch wood, I've never had such problems with my own PCs. I did once at my previous employers, reason, dodgy PC....a Fujitsu!

The PCs and Laptops i personally use are IBM. About the only decent thing the US makes these days. These have never fallen over, never!

After boxing up and packing and shipping by surface container all my things to Japan, the PC was in storage for 3 years, as i didn't have room for it until we moved to our new house. Subjected to the very hot summers 35C and very cold winters -10c, no protection. I dusted it off the PC, literally, and the monitor, plugged in and hey presto.

I will always buy an IBM (also Lenovo) computer.

[CDK]

But the times are changing Ad Hoc!

My company constructed computers for use in harsh environments, like on offshore ribs used by dredging companies to map their work. They withstood all kinds of abuse, but the price tag was approx. $20.000, without monitor.

Now you have a good laptop for less than $1000. If you're lucky it behaves like yours, but you can hardly complain if it doesn't.

[KnottyBuoyz]

I've had pretty good luck restoring some SATA laptop drives with a tool called "SpinRite". The other tool I've used to recover data from damaged drives is "BadCopy Pro". Google both. Not very expensive and decent utilities. They do what they say they can do.

Having lost numerous hard drives over the years I've tried almost everything to back up the home computers. What we've ended up with is a 1TB external drive. We back up both laptops to the external with Norton Ghost. I think the total cost for this solution was about $200.

[starcad]

Sorry for bringing this back up but. I was int one of the local Nerd shops just before Christmas and saw one of these on the discount table for $5. I couldn't pass it up. I had a drive go south four years ago in a Toshiba laptop and though I'd give it a try. Low and behold up came the contents of the drive. Not just the data but everything including the operating system. A quick disk de-frag and I inserted it back into the Toshiba and pressed the power switch. I was presently surprised to see my old screen saver and all the programs I had on that computer come back to life. What I thought was lost for ever is now back in my control.