Business down for a couple weeks, lost my hard drive

[MaryB]

Well my 9 year old Dell gave up the ghost, put a cheap $400 computer on a credit card but going to take me awhile to recover files etc... a hit I did not need right now! That credit card was my emergency backup in case of...

So no mats or engraving until I let you know!

[archmaker]

If it just stopped on you it may be easier to recover the files from the Harddrive. I have done this for friends before, and you may find a friend that is technically savvy enough to take the harddrive out of your old computer, pull off the files, and put them on a thumbdrive.

Let me know if I can help.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Sending it to a data recovery specialist can be expensive, and he may end up doing exactly what you can do yourself. You will find a hatch on the underside of most laptops, secured by a screw, to take out the hard drive. If you still have the instruction manual it will probably illustrate it, and distinguish it from those for memory, air filters etc. Then you need an enclosure or case which plugs into a USB drive on your computer.

eBay is full of them (enclosure is a better search than case, to distinguish it from a mobile device case.) But a big local computer shop is likely to have them. The kind you want is probably for a SATA drive, and should be cheap. You still need a recovery specialist if the drive itself has malfunctioned badly. But if the fault is in other hardware or the operating system, the data files should be there to be copied.

Mail files on something like Windows Live Mail are the tricky bit, but the first thing is to try the import messages utility in the program, and see if it will recognize your storage folders. If not, you can probably open the folder files anywhere you have them, and open and copy the messages in large batches.

If you are really lucky and only the monitor in the old computer has failed, you may be able to transfer data, settings etc. with an easy transfer cable, which is just a USB to USB cable with a lump in the middle, and also fairly cheap.

[nagantguy]

Mary hang in there I've had a lot of setbacks as of late, know you've had your share, no words can make ya feel better but it'll pass if your in need of anything don't hesitate to ask Lord knows you be been more than helpful to folks; like when you threw in a mat on the GoodOlBoy auction!!! Dig your heels in grit your teeth andin come out smiling on the other side

[MrWolf]

Hoping everything works. As mentioned, the SATA setup can work depending on what went wrong. I went that route myself awhile back.

[ohland]

9 year old Dell gave up the ghost... So no mats or engraving until I let you know!

First point is "Dude, you're getting a Dell!" is not a positive feeling.

Second point looks like control issues. Yes, ma'am...

Technology has advanced, right now I use an Asus laptop with external LCD monitor, a USB keyboard, and a wireless mouse. Power draw is pretty small compared to the older systems...

When I lost my Sony Vaio to a cracked MB (knocked off table with USB stick in it, cracked board, heat buildup fried video chip...), I got an external enclosure for my SATA drive... BUT... Asus at the time had poor support for the USB 3.0 port... the enclosure was USB 3.0, and it was dicey getting everything to stay recognized and accessible.

USB 3.0 is great, but the drivers make a difference... It's been four years since I got it, so USB 3.0 chipsets and enclosures probably have improved. You might want to get your enclosure through an actual company, not just off fleabay.

What ports does your speed machine have? USB 2.0, I assume. 3.0 ports should have a BLUE orienting bar across the opening, while 2.0 uses BLACK....

[MBTcustom]

Your files are your livelihood.
Take my advice and buy an external hard drive, or find a way to upload your files to a cloud.
I recomend the external hard drive. Back up everything regularly.
View your machine as just a temporary place to work on things. Keeping all your files on a desk top is like storing your valuables on a picnic table.

[FISH4BUGS]

Agreed on the external drive. I have a 1 terabyte drive via USB and back up all my data and document files regularly. Just a simple copy from one to the other does the trick. I back up my data files to a folder in the My Documents so all I have to do copy the My Documents folder and everyting I need is backed up.

[doc1876]

The boys that worked on mine, took the old hard drive, & made an external drive out of it. I have not used it yet, but it is an idea.

[scarry scarney]

Once a month, I use the program Acronis, and make an entire backup of my laptop, and put that on a 2TB drive. Why 2TB? My Laptop is a 1TB, this allows me to have last months and this months backup on external hard drive. Once the back up is made, it goes into the fireproof safe. This protects me from theft and fire.

On my important files, I backup weekly onto a 64GB thumb drive.

Why? My old laptop died, and I lost a lot of data. Took me a while to recover. Now, I only loose at the most 1 months of data, the best less than one week.

[2wheelDuke]

Thanks for the reminder to do some data backup. I hope you're back up and running soon.

[Pb2au]

2 terabyte external hard drive. Cheap for the amount of storage.
open a Dropbox account. It is free. Viloa, now you have a cloud account to put your files as well. Share a few folders on Dropbox with some friends and they give you even more storage for free!
Save as usual on your PC/laptop.
Always save in three places.
I travel for my work. I use cad software, cam software, as well as the usual office stuff, excell, word, blah blah. PDFs files for prints, quotes and contracts, about two zillion dxf/dwg/sat files to boot, along with a lot of customers compiled programs. At any one time I might have around 250k$ of info in my laptop. So yeah, back up in three places.
also, I agree, just yank the hard drive out of the dell, go get a portable dock thingy for it and just plug it into your new laptop. All your files should be there.
good luck!

[MaryB]

Pulled drive and put it in my observatory computer(both are desktop versions). Used some data recovery software to get the main files. Still trying to recover a few graphics files but they might be on the bad spot. Drive is toast, boot sector area fails every test.

And I am a computer tech, been working on and building these things since 1981! Just a massive pain in the butt when I was going to back the entire drive up the beginning of the month with an external drive so I could go dual drive raid... new computer will have 2 drives in raid mirror mode so if one fails I can run off the other.

[TXGunNut]

9 year old Dell? Just updated my firearms inventory on a 14 year old Gateway, remember them? I've updated and upgraded over the years but even maxed out it hasn't been capable of a safe or effective internet connection in years. It has some very good software but quite frankly this $200 netbook outperforms it in many ways. Hope the data recovery/move goes well, Mary.

[9w1911]

You can buy an adapter cord off Amazon for 15.00 that will transfer all non corrupted files from that old hard drive, you take the old drive and plug it in to a computer via USB and it converts your old drive to an external drive and you can pull the files from there.

Data recovery guys use the same cord and charge 300.00 trust me

something like this:
http://www.neweggbusiness.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9B-12-196-455&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleBiz-PC&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleBiz-PC-_-pla-_-USB+Converters-_-9B-12-196-455&gclid=Cj0KEQjwv6WrBRD4gbngqe7mosYBEiQAIB5oTLMoOes1 jTuKtdWlb28J4b-OXJfEuI35wNX3f9VdUjcaAna88P8HAQ

[9w1911]

I suggest a Drop Box account and an external. but I use my externals less and less since I use Drop Box. If the files are on Drop Box I basically am bringing my whole drive with me every where and I can login to it on other computers.

[GoodOlBoy]

always remember external hard drives are just like internal drives but in a separate case. They are every bit as likely to corrupt and go out as the internals are.

FYI

GoodOlBoy

[jonp]

I suggest a Drop Box account and an external. but I use my externals less and less since I use Drop Box. If the files are on Drop Box I basically am bringing my whole drive with me every where and I can login to it on other computers.
I use drop box. Works well

[MaryB]

Where do you think drop box stores files? On a hard drive array! I will trust a weekly backup hard drive more than my files up on the cloud for someone to copy!

Looks like I recovered the important stuff, reinstalling software when the new computer gets here mid next week will take a couple days then I can copy files over. Then try to get my software to run under win 7 instead of XP...

[9w1911]

Where do you think drop box stores files? On a hard drive array! I will trust a weekly backup hard drive more than my files up on the cloud for someone to copy!

Looks like I recovered the important stuff, reinstalling software when the new computer gets here mid next week will take a couple days then I can copy files over. Then try to get my software to run under win 7 instead of XP...

Um, is this not a thread about how you lost all your data?
,,and if you had a cloud you would have your data, sorry, that is a fact.

[MaryB]

If I had the backup drive I was ordering next month I would have a clone of the drive to drop in... went down before. Stuff happens!

Bad part is I used some of the cash I had set aside for a new press to pay for the new computer... just bad timing is all. I operate on a very limited budget and can't run out and buy new toys when I want. And no way am I putting my files up on the internet to be copied by a hacker. I have to much work in doing all the graphics.

[9w1911]

OK I get it. I've used Drop Box for a few years now and no issues.
I am an web developer/graphic designer by trade.
Anyway good luck.

[MaryB]

Boot sector failed, not uncommon on drives past 5 years old either. Why I was ordering a backup drive. Plans were to migrate to a new computer this summer some time. I was pushing that old Dell past its limits on really large graphics files(18x12 inch canvas at 1,000dpi...). It was getting slower and slower processing things.

[TXGunNut]

I know you know what you're doing, Mary. What can we do to help?

[waksupi]

If you are running a business, and are not on the cloud, or printing everything hard copy, you are doing customers a dis-service.

[PB234]

I use this and the one time it was needed it was needed. Apparently the data is encrypted removing concern about it being stolen.

http://www.sosonlinebackup.com/#top

[ohland]

not on the cloud

The cloud. All hail the cloud.

The cloud is over the net. Any net disruption and it's not either available, or you can't back it up. Let us assume this "cloud" is a larger service provider... For other, smaller providers, they can be hacked and the files are "held for ransom" or the provider goes out of business, your stuff is... gone. Unless you have your own backup. So if you are getting your own backup, cut out the middle man.

Heck, if the cloud is so good, then let's all get Chromebooks. Ditch internal hard drives.

[MaryB]

I do a lot of custom 1 off gun engravings that the customers do not want made public so no, the files will stay on my own drives! This is one he said I could share but I cannot engrave it for anyone else... yes he paid extra to own the graphics design.

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd248/maryalanab/Gun%20engraving/pacmanleft_zps6169a44a.jpg

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd248/maryalanab/Gun%20engraving/Pacmanright_zps79f5e656.jpg



If you are running a business, and are not on the cloud, or printing everything hard copy, you are doing customers a dis-service.

[Bad Water Bill]

Truly a work of art young lady.

Hoping to see that someone can recover all of your files.

[MaryB]

I have recovery software and am going folder by folder recovering what I need. Only lost the boot sector so the data is there. Just a major PITA! New computer gets here Wednesday so I can start getting everything back to normal. And put the other computer back into the observatory so I can use the telescope camera!

[Cmm_3940]

I keep a bootable Linux LiveUSB on my keychain. If the BIOS allows booting from a USB device, I can boot the machine regardless of the condition (or presence) of the installed OS. The corrupted HDD can then usually be mounted on a temporary mount point and stuff copied. I know it won't help you much at this point, but it's a good tool to keep around for if you ever have OS boot issues in the future.

If you ever have a machine so old it won't boot from USB, there are bootable linux images small enough to fit on a floppy. (Remember floppies?)

[MaryB]

That was next step if the recovery software didn't work. I have a version of linux loaded on dual boot on the observatory computer.