Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[DD_Arthur]

Fuck.

My hard-drive died today.

[Sid]

How critical? Total loss?

[DD_Arthur]

My man informs me it is a total loss.

I'm being...................................'philosophical' about it.

Not the end of the world. However, I've probably lost a years worth of photos which will include days out with my mum, family birthdays, my youngest sons first appearance in school uniform,christmas, Duxford, etc. plus three solid weeks of evenings spent on lesson planning through to the end of summer term.

My man is good but I'm going to get a second opinion.

[Blairgowrie]

I can't believe you didn't have all that backed up on another drive! These things are so cheap nowadays and they only take a minute to back up. Nag. nag, nag.

[Jabo]

Bad juju Arthur - happened to me a year or so back. gutted.

On the positive side there are often ways to get data back from dead drives. The bad news is they're often pricey, although I'd be very wary of the cheapo offerings - they can sometimes make an already bad situation worse.

For example, PC World have a data recovery service which I found to be pretty good although you're looking at about £750. What I liked about it was the fact that if the data wasn't recovered you'd get your money back.

Jabo

[DD_Arthur]

Seven-hundred and fifty squid!!! I was thinking more along the lines of £75. Oh dear.

@ Yes Jim. I realise that now.

[Rattler]

Fuck.

My hard-drive died today.

I'm going to tell your students that you said a bad word.........

Sorry about the loss of a HD though; that sucks.

[Jediteo]

My HDD screwed up yesterday, almost lost all of the C: partion, fortunatly managed to salvage my por... documents and all the important stuff before I formated it. My condelences, losing a HDD is quite horrible, its like having a part of your house burn down.

[Kimosabi]

That's it. Next payday I'm getting an external HDD and copy all my shit. Sorry to hear about your loss, Arthur.

[Blairgowrie]

If it would help Arthur, I would gladly donate $50 towards your cause.

[DD_Arthur]

If it would help Arthur, I would gladly donate $50 towards your cause.

Thankyou BG. I really appreciate that but it won't be necessary. I don't become broke until the middle of April when my teaching hours are cut, lol. Anyway, it would only get spent on a decent plasterer and brickie as I've been banging my head against the wall too much.

Luckily both are pretty thick.

I'm going to have to look into trying somesort of data recovery. The pictures that might have been lost are too important to give up. My youngest son is five. Memories of these years will fade. There are things he needs to be able to look at in the future, to be able to show his kids one day.........................................................................................................

[Blairgowrie]

Strongly suggest you let FT into your computer via remote assistance. He can poke around and see what might be possible.

[T_O_A_D]

So when he grows up you can tell him what a DA you were, (as if he won't already know that on his own by then, they all do you know.) and how a terrible event, changed your thinking, that allowed you to teach him the importance of backing up his HDD correct!

Tell him You had so much to show him, and so sorry you lost it, and your totally gutted over it.

But then tell him be thankful, that it taught you a lesson and one he should never have to learn for himself.

If it would help Arthur, I would gladly donate $50 towards your cause.

Thankyou BG. I really appreciate that but it won't be necessary. I don't become broke until the middle of April when my teaching hours are cut, lol. Anyway, it would only get spent on a decent plasterer and brickie as I've been banging my head against the wall too much.

Luckily both are pretty thick.

I'm going to have to look into trying somesort of data recovery. The pictures that might have been lost are too important to give up. My youngest son is five. Memories of these years will fade. There are things he needs to be able to look at in the future, to be able to show his kids one day.........................................................................................................

[DD_Arthur]

Strongly suggest you let FT into your computer via remote assistance. He can poke around and see what might be possible.

Not sure if that would help. My man is infact my m8 who is the fulltime hardware trouble-shooter for Devon County council. This is what he does all day.

He's had my HD in his drive-reader thingy and pronounced the last-rites!

I bought a new HD at lunchtime, got my box back on the way home and just fitted it. I'm loading XP on it now.

@Toad; yep. I know. DA? I know I'm a DH!!

[Jabo]

£750 gets your drive shipped to Holland (possibly FT's house) where it's stripped in a 'clean room' environment, the platters are removed from the drive housing then mounted in a special machine which spins a read head around each platter (as opposed to the other way round) copying the available data a block at a time onto an external hdd. It's a pretty intensive process, but has a success rate of over 95%.

Jabo

[Kimosabi]

£750 gets your drive shipped to Holland (possibly FT's house) where it's stripped in a 'clean room' environment, the platters are removed from the drive housing then mounted in a special machine which spins a read head around each platter (as opposed to the other way round) copying the available data a block at a time onto an external hdd. It's a pretty intensive process, but has a success rate of over 95%.

Jabo

And it's all done in "silent mode"!

[FoolTrottel]

£750 gets your drive shipped to Holland (possibly FT's house) where it's stripped in a 'clean room' environment, the platters are removed from the drive housing then mounted in a special machine which spins a read head around each platter (as opposed to the other way round) copying the available data a block at a time onto an external hdd. It's a pretty intensive process, but has a success rate of over 95%.

Jabo

Hey, now that's weird.. in Holland, when defective harddisks need recovery, they are being sent to some company in the UK :unsure:

Sorry to hear about all that data getting lost Arthur...

Here's a tip: Save the broken disk, keep it.

You can always tell everyone you did not lose the data, that it's still on the disk.

The fact you can't access it, is just a minor detail ...

[DD_Arthur]

Here's a tip: Save the broken disk, keep it.

I will be until such a time as funds permit a recovery of sorts.

In the meantime, just tried activating my copy of XP on my new HD and the nasty lady from Microsoft has told me to get stuffed! It just gets better. Oh well, I needed an excuse to buy Windows7.

[Blairgowrie]

I have a copy of XP 32 bit I am not using, I could send you the Product code by email.

[DD_Arthur]

I have a copy of XP 32 bit I am not using, I could send you the Product code by email.

I think that would be very, very handy at the moment BG.

[Jabo]

Nah, you'll be OK Arthur, you just need to use the option to talk to a 'representative' (although what they're representative of is open to question). The auto activate will only work if you've not been changing hardware (which you have). The 'human' option takes that into consideration.

Jabo

[Blairgowrie]

Let me know if you need it Arthur. I recommend you stay with XP as long as you can.

[DD_Arthur]

BG, I'll take it. The bloody thing has spent all evening upgrading itself and now won't log on unless activated. As I am still blessed with a full head of hair I have plenty to tear out!

[Blairgowrie]

Check PM's Arthur

[Blairgowrie]

Update?