My hard drive died!!
 

Well, last night my hard drive took a crap and died. Of course as luck would have it, I hadn't backed up any of my stuff. 7 years worth of work is on that bastard! Hopefully the hubby can get the repair guy to fix it ASAP! If not, I'm screwed. |cry|

Just a heads up, I can't review any sites for Click 4Sex Fun right now and I'm already about 2 weeks behind on reviews. I don't even have e-mail right now. I'm using the husbands computer to post this and I CAN review links for Sexy Smut Links so go ahead and keep those submissions coming in!

A valuable lesson has been learned; back up your hard drive no matter what!! |banghead|

there is a epidemic going around here it seems. Wonder if there is a vaccine for HD crashes. |angry|

Good luck in your recovery efforts!! Horrible thing to happen.

Oh damn...another one :(

Hope you're able to recover the data!

I hope I can recover the data also! If not, I really feel like throwing in the towel after all these years....

Damn it sucks...

If people tell you that it can't be repaired, take it and hit it kind of hard on the floor. And then when it start's working again, get it backed up quick.

I know it sounds stupid but, a lot of times it does work. It has worked for me 3 times so far. It most recently worked with my wife's ipod :)

One thing to consider, even if the HD is fried and nothing you do from your end can get it working enough to recover the data, is that there are several data recovery companies out there.
They are not cheap, especially if it's so bad they have to physically remove the platters to recover data off them.
Basically using those companies becomes a question of balance as to how much that data is worth to you. And even then there is a possibility they may not be able to recover it all.

One person that fried his drive a few years ago was my accountant...and though it cost 2 grand to recover his data it was well worth it to him.

We had discussed several times here on the boards about the necessity of having constant backups. I hope with your problems and the ones Red Cherry just had others will see this and get some kind of back up in place. Especially with how cheap and easy to implement all the methods are today.


I wish you the best of luck ladydesigner in getting your data back, you must be going through hell right now :(

All things made by Apple work better if you hit them a few times

It really does work. I had a pc when I had all the data from ultracash. That meant that I had a few thousand SSNs on the drive. The Dell repair guy came out with a nice new HD but wanted mine in replace of it. I called a data recovery place and was quoted over $5k for the job. I ended up taking the HD and slammed it on my carpet covered concrete floor and it worked long enough to transfer the data from that drive to the new one. I then let the dell guy have the empty drive.

Oh my God! Are you serious?! I'll try this for sure if it "can't" be repaired. Thanks Jim! |thumb

As a matter of fact, this is a Dell computer. I've had other problems in the past with it but nothing like this. Data recovery sounds very expensive. I won't be spending thousands of dollars to recover my e-mail, free sites and html/graphics for my link lists. However, I do mainstream design work for many small businesses in my community. That might be a problem if I can't recover my graphics for their sites. Oh well....

What is the best/fastes way to back up your data on a daily basis?

I just use windows backup every evening when I leave at 5:00. It takes me about an hour or so. I keep 2 days worth of backups and delete the 3rd daily.

Oh yeah, my backups are about 20 Gigs.

Yes he is serious, it worked for me once too. But it is not guaranteed to work, and it can cause even more damage, so only use it as a last resort. And if you do try this, install the backup drive FIRST because you may only get it to start once, it may not run for long, and it may die if the drive "parks" (which they do if the drive is not accessed in a set time- usually 15 minutes) so you have to make a copy immediately the drive boots up.

Also remember that you have to drop it hard enough to joggle the motor but not so hard as to break the platters (most are glass or ceramic). And obviously do not drop it on a nylon carpet or the static may fry your data.

This is what I use for a server
http://www.pcconnection.com/ProductDetail?Sku=5725449
The one I bought is just 1 terabyte and I see it on sale for about $850 now.

Crap
There it is for $739
http://www.pcconnection.com/ProductDetail?Sku=5634782

I use an external HD for backup .. but nothing as big as Jims ;-)

Maxtor has some "onetouch" external back up drives that are excellent for their simplicity, both in usb 2.0 and firewire models, including a terrabyte solution in their onetouch 3 turbo version that supports raid
http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/Ma...rnal%20Storage
Their personal versions may be all you need with capacities up to 250 gig, or the more robust series 2 or 3

Thanks MeatPounder. I'll check it out. I'm just so totally pissed at myself for not taking the proper steps in the first place to prevent something like this from wiping out my entire online business. |pcwins|

BTW, I don't even have a spell checker on this computer and can't get the one on the board to install. :-(

The personal version of the Maxtor is exactly what I have.. connects via a USB port .. so simple.. and cheap !!

All these hard drive crashes and system failures of late has gotten my attention.

I just ordered a 200GB Maxtor One-Touch External to back up my work station daily. I have twin drives installed in it, and ghost the master to the slave periodically, but if both drives got fried I'd be SOL.

Damn sorry to hear that ladydesigner that really sucks. But it's a Dell so not real surprised. I have three Dells here two pc's and one laptop. Nothing but problems with them except for the laptop (knock on wood)
Good luck and hope it all works out for you!

Something like 90% of hard drive crashes are caused by the bearings that the drives spin on siezing up. A good shock can often get a siezed bearing (in any application) to free up and spin again for just a little while.

Excellent tip :)

I recently had to replace a hard drive as well... it was getting more and more noisy and taking longer to seek and stuff. So I just slapped in a new (and larger) drive, and ran ghost. Clones it perfectly, I pull out the old drive, put the new drive in it's place, and no bother.

Listen to your system carefully. If you start to hear noises, if the system is slowing down, or if you are getting random reboots and errors, PAY ATTENTION and get it fixed.

It truly is hell if you lose stuff.

Alex

Yep, I know there are cheaper solutions than Ghost...but as Alex notes, Ghost makes it very easy to completely recover everything...operating system...settings...everything in one easy pass. It doesn't just backup your data...it creates an exact image of your drive |thumb

For me, this is one of those situations like hosting (recently learned that one...lol)...where cost is not as much a factor as ease and speed of a full recovery. Actually, my WD external drive also has a one step backup button. I bought and use Ghost instead for the quick seemless recovery it provides.