# My Computer Imploded...Arrrggghhh!!! (But Saved)



## SimonWood (Nov 13, 2009)

Thanksgiving took a nasty turn this year when my computer hard drive blew its own brains out!!  It's my main computer with all my manuscripts on it.  I'm in limbo for the next couple of weeks while a data recovery place repairs the damage and HP supplies a replacement hard drive.  the computer isn't even a year old.  

Some days, I just hate computers...


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## luvmy4brats (Nov 9, 2008)

I totally feel your pain. About 3 weeks ago, my hard drive crashed. Last week my iphone died. <sigh> I must have done something to upset the technology gods. I had a lot backed up, but not everything.


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## SimonWood (Nov 13, 2009)

So you feel my pain.  

Why is it computers, phones, etc always melt down at the slightest thing.  Why did this problem never hit the Terminator


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## Carol Hanrahan (Mar 31, 2009)

Simon - I sure hope they can recover your data.  What an awful story.  Go eat chocolate.....


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

You do back up all your important files to another device and/or an off-site storage provider, right? _Right?_

(If not, I'll be you will be soon.  )

PS: External USB disk drives are getting really cheap now. I bought this one a few months ago for my notebook, and it's come down in price several dollars since then ($69.88 at this writing):


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## SimonWood (Nov 13, 2009)

I'm eating chocolate monring, noon and night.

Sadly, I haven't been backing my stuff up lately, because I'd switched to a new computer and got lazy.  Lesson learned...


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

SimonWood said:


> I'm eating chocolate monring, noon and night.
> 
> Sadly, I haven't been backing my stuff up lately, because I'd switched to a new computer and got lazy. Lesson learned...


Last time I had a 'puter die, I'd gotten pretty lax about it, too. My latest backup was about 2 months old. Fortunately the only relatively important things I lost were some email messages and addresses. Now I have regularly scheduled nightly backups.


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## 911jason (Aug 17, 2009)

Wow, that's horrible Simon, so sorry to hear about that. You should try Carbonite or another online backup. There's a whole thread discussing the various options and benefits. They only cost about $5/month and don't require you to do anything after initial setup, i.e. excellent for lazy people!


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## Anju  (Nov 8, 2008)

So sorry Simon - and it always always happens on a holiday or Friday or Saturday night, just like any other problem, when there is no help, affordable or not.  My computer died last night, but sometime in the middle of the night I had a flash of brillance - new bats in my mouse - worked like a charm.  I am seriously thinking of Mozy myself even though I have a time machine for my Mac, I am lazy like the rest of y'all.


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## SimonWood (Nov 13, 2009)

911jason said:


> Wow, that's horrible Simon, so sorry to hear about that. You should try Carbonite or another online backup. There's a whole thread discussing the various options and benefits. They only cost about $5/month and don't require you to do anything after initial setup, i.e. excellent for lazy people!


I'll check it out. Sod's Law was that I was talking about Carbonite last week. I wish I'd done something now. Hindsight and all that...


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Chances of having a computer meltdown increase inversely proportional to the frequency of your backups.  It's a law of something.

Betsy


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## 911jason (Aug 17, 2009)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> Chances of having a computer meltdown increase inversely proportional to the frequency of your backups. It's a law of something.
> 
> Betsy


...I think it's a law by some big-wig named Murphy, but not sure.


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## geko29 (Dec 23, 2008)

As cheap as hard drives are now, everybody should have both a local AND remote backup of their data at all times. That way, if your primary drive dies, you don't miss a beat--everything is still safe and accessible directly on the machine. And if your power supply kills everything in the PC or your house burns down, you've still got a safe copy somewhere. Here's my backup scheme, for those who care:

1. My OS is on a different (physical) drive than my data is stored on.
2. The data drive is mirrored (RAID 1) inside my PC--I'm notified of hard drive failure by an info bubble in the system tray, rather than the loss of all my data .
3. Important documents are updated continuously between my PC, home laptop, Mac, work laptop, and the cloud via Dropbox, which is free. As soon as I save anything on any of those machines, it automatically appears in all other locations within a few seconds. Dropbox also stores my modification history for 30 days, in case *I* screw something up and need to get a previous version of a file.
4. Larger stuff like pictures and music are copied to a portable hard drive and physically moved to a different location.

I'm completely lazy, and as you can see, nearly all of my data protection is automatic, because like most people, it wouldn't get done otherwise. Only the last step requires some proactive "work" on an occasional basis, but even that can be made blindingly simple by using a tool such as Microsoft's Sync Toy to make sure that the most recent version of everything is always on the portable hard drive.


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## JeanneB (Aug 31, 2009)

I have always heard about harddrives crashing....I never had it happen and wondered what they were talking about.  I thought maybe the computer just shut off and they lost what they were doing at the time.  

Then one morning last summer I was sitting here and the laptop started to making clicking noises and then it shut off... Tried booting it up and nothing..white screen.  It died!!  

I sat here in total shock... I felt like my friend died.  (of course, in reality, no comparison..I do realize its only technology).  

Got a new MacBook Pro....I love it...but I back it up all the time now!!  Life goes on


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## geoffthomas (Feb 27, 2009)

Simon,
Is this a laptop or a desktop?

In either case you can remove the hard drive (assuming that it is not what is "fried") and install it as a data disk (non-bootable) in another computer.  Then you can retrieve all your data files.  It is easier with a desktop.  But both are doable.


Just sayin.....


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## SimonWood (Nov 13, 2009)

geoffthomas said:


> Simon,
> Is this a laptop or a desktop?
> 
> In either case you can remove the hard drive (assuming that it is not what is "fried") and install it as a data disk (non-bootable) in another computer. Then you can retrieve all your data files. It is easier with a desktop. But both are doable.
> ...


It's a desktop and tried this and it didn't work because the hard drives weren't compatible...


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## SimonWood (Nov 13, 2009)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> Chances of having a computer meltdown increase inversely proportional to the frequency of your backups. It's a law of something.
> 
> Betsy


I know...


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

For non-photo stuff, I back up "critical" files on a pocket USB flash drive that is left at work except when I am actually using it to back up.  That way I have a physical copy in a completely different place, in case of a massive fire or other disaster that destroys home.  Photos are too [email protected] bulky for this to work in a way convenient enough for me to keep up with, alas.  But for word processing files, an 8 GB flash drive ought to keep you covered.  If you don't have a separate workplace, the home of a trusted friend or relative would be a good alternate storage location.


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## David Derrico (Nov 18, 2009)

Anju No. 469 said:


> So sorry Simon - and it always always happens on a holiday or Friday or Saturday night, just like any other problem, when there is no help, affordable or not. My computer died last night, but sometime in the middle of the night I had a flash of brillance - new bats in my mouse - worked like a charm. I am seriously thinking of Mozy myself even though I have a time machine for my Mac, I am lazy like the rest of y'all.


The great thing about Time Machine is that it should make the backups for you automatically - you just have to attach an external hard drive (you can get them for $50-$60 now) and turn Time Machine on, and you shouldn't even notice it doing its thing every hour. Having your backups be automatic is key.

You can also use a program like Carbon Copy Cloner (free), which you can set to mirror your entire hard drive at any interval you want (every day, week, month, etc.). The benefit of CCC is that you create a bootable hard drive... if your internal hard drive goes bad, you reboot from the external and you are back up and running in literally 60 seconds. The downside is that you don't get the "look back" functionality to retrieve a file you accidentally deleted or an older version of a file, like you do with Time Machine.

For extra safety, some sort of off-site backup would also protect your data if your house burned down or something. You can use an online service, or burn a DVD of your important stuff every couple of months (and keep it in a safety deposit box or parents' house or wherever).

Think about how devastating it would be to lose all your writing, emails, pictures, documents, records, etc.... for only $50, I recommend that anyone with a computer should have an external HD. I bought one for my parents last year, and just bought one for my in-laws for Xmas this year.


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## Geemont (Nov 18, 2008)

Depending on what is wrong with the hard drive, you can boot Ubuntu Linux from a CD rom, then copy the files over to a USB thumb drive. It sounds kind of geeky, but not really that hard, and you can get to your files right away.


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## carlobee (Jul 21, 2009)

ohh. i'm sorry this had to happen .. 

happened to me years ago and i swear i almost lost my mind. lol


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## SimonWood (Nov 13, 2009)

Thanks for all the help, peeps.  I wish there wasn't the need...


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## angelad (Jun 19, 2009)

Happened to me too a few times.  Last time by some miracle a friend of mine managed to get the data off a failed hard drive.  Too many pictures that I would have been very sad to lose.


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## Thumper (Feb 26, 2009)

I, too, feel your pain. My less than 6 month old laptop croaked night before last. Should be under warranty but Gateway has no record of me buying it (lesson learned: keep receipts, and register the product.) Looks like the motherboard fried...fortunately there was only one start of a manuscript on it, the rest was stupid stuff, like LOL cat pictures... (and someone in another thread gave me a link to a cheap thingy I might be able to use to get the data off that drive and onto my desktop HD.)

Still...stuff should last longer!


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## mlewis78 (Apr 19, 2009)

Thumper said:


> I, too, feel your pain. My less than 6 month old laptop croaked night before last. Should be under warranty but Gateway has no record of me buying it (lesson learned: keep receipts, and register the product.) Looks like the motherboard fried...fortunately there was only one start of a manuscript on it, the rest was stupid stuff, like LOL cat pictures... (and someone in another thread gave me a link to a cheap thingy I might be able to use to get the data off that drive and onto my desktop HD.)
> 
> Still...stuff should last longer!


Ouch. Six months!


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Thumper said:


> I, too, feel your pain. My less than 6 month old laptop croaked night before last. Should be under warranty but Gateway has no record of me buying it (lesson learned: keep receipts, and register the product.) Looks like the motherboard fried...fortunately there was only one start of a manuscript on it, the rest was stupid stuff, like LOL cat pictures... (and someone in another thread gave me a link to a cheap thingy I might be able to use to get the data off that drive and onto my desktop HD.)
> 
> Still...stuff should last longer!


Oh, Thumper, that bites! Did you try contacting your credit card company to see if they have a receipt/proof of purchase? (Assuming you bought with a credit card.) 6 mos, they might still have a retrievable record.

Betsy


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Excellent suggestion Betsy.  In fact, if you do anything on line with your CC, you may be able to pull down statements yourself up to a year ago.  . . . .  worth a try!  

(Though new toys are always nice.   )


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## kevindorsey (Mar 4, 2009)

Ann in Arlington said:


> Excellent suggestion Betsy. In fact, if you do anything on line with your CC, you may be able to pull down statements yourself up to a year ago. . . . . worth a try!
> 
> (Though new toys are always nice.  )


Yea, that should be possible, definitely.


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## Thumper (Feb 26, 2009)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> Oh, Thumper, that bites! Did you try contacting your credit card company to see if they have a receipt/proof of purchase? (Assuming you bought with a credit card.) 6 mos, they might still have a retrievable record.
> 
> Betsy


I paid cash, a nasty habit I got into a few years ago...and have already replaced the computer anyway. Lots of lessons learned with that last one


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## SimonWood (Nov 13, 2009)

The word is that all my data was recovered.  It's all winging its way back to me.

I just have to pay the bill now...


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

That's good news, Simon!!!

Betsy


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## SimonWood (Nov 13, 2009)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> That's good news, Simon!!!
> 
> Betsy


you're telling me.


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## geko29 (Dec 23, 2008)

SimonWood said:


> The word is that all my data was recovered. It's all winging its way back to me.
> 
> I just have to pay the bill now...


If you don't mind sharing, how much did they charge? The last time I had to use a data recovery service was for a 10-drive RAID 5 that no one realized needed to be backed up, and it cost $18k. But I did get a free mousepad and penlight out of the deal.


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## SimonWood (Nov 13, 2009)

They had to replace part of the electronics of the drive and it cost me $500 and that was with a 50% discount...


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