Computer Died! Lost Everything!

Hi Guys,

Woke up at 4AM this morning and heard a grinding noise from my desk. My computer was on, and the hard drive was grinding itself to pieces. I lost everthing. Like an idiot I had not backed up any of my files for a while. I ran to town and bought a new computer and 4, 8GB memory sticks. Now I am trying to replace everything I lost.

Make sure you backup frequently.

Josh

I hope you're not going to rely solely on memory sticks for backups.

If it's important try a data recovery service like drivesavers

If you are using your computer for your business I would strongly recommend that you get an external USB drive and setup a mirror of your critical folders using Memeo Hard Drive Backup | Backup Programs | Hard Disk Backup - Memeo Instant Backup™ or some other form of auto backup. YOu can get a 1 or 2 terrabyte drive for $100-200 these days.

I use this and it is quite a comfort to to see the autobackup utility saving my files when I invoice or do other critical tasks.

I would not trust (or waste money, time, or sanity) with ANY hardware based form of backup. External harddrives, flash drives, cd roms (if anyone still uses them), all are prone to failure. And I wouldn't mirror backup anything; as in - do I need a compressed backup of a 2 GB harddrive when what I need is quick access to a couple hundred various files if/when my computer crashes? I use cloud backup, (dropbox.com). Everything stored is backed-up automatically, the actual files, crossed backup-ed to as many online devices you want. The files are on my desktop, laptop and ipad, and available online as well. Essentially providing triple redundancy. I also have an external drive, with the related mirror software, but really, if the desktop dies, what am I going to do with a hardrive that has a compressed file and I need to access something immediately?


Gary

Here are some additional tips:

(1) Format your drives to FAT32, not NTFS. FAT32 is a much simpler format and much, much easier to recover in case of hard drive crash. You will everywhere see people recommending to use NTFS. Ignore them. NTFS is a highly complex, proprietary Microsoft format and you will only invite grief by using it. The "features" it has, like the ability to put security on individual files is more of a hassle than a benefit to the average user. An NTFS drive is also more likely to scramble itself than a FAT32 drive due its additional complexity.

(2) You can sometimes recover files by using Knoppix. Make a Knoppix CD. Boot from the Knoppix CD and try to read the "broken" hard drive. It may work.

(3) To back up your system use Knoppix. Boot from your Knoppix CD and copy the whole drive to an external hard drive. You can copy ANY file this way using Knoppix. You cannot backup your Windows system by ordinary means from inside of Windows because it has many different locked and hidden files that will not copy.

RedBaron said:

I use cloud backup, (dropbox.com). Everything stored is backed-up automatically, the actual files, crossed backup-ed to as many online devices you want. The files are on my desktop, laptop and ipad, and available online as well. Essentially providing triple redundancy.
Gary

Click to expand...

I have the exact setup. Dropbox on a laptop, pc and work pc with everything sinked between the three. Home pc has a .bat script that copies everything from dropbox to an external drive

$10 a month to know its basically impossible to loose everything, and as a bonus, i can get to everything from anywhere

-Jacob

Good thread and suggestions.
Will be looking into Dropbox !

jvangelder said:

I have the exact setup. Dropbox on a laptop, pc and work pc with everything sinked between the three. Home pc has a .bat script that copies everything from dropbox to an external drive

$10 a month to know its basically impossible to loose everything, and as a bonus, i can get to everything from anywhere

-Jacob

Click to expand...

Yup. I've been using dropbox since it came out and man it is amazing. I can program at work and then drive home and work on the same program without the need for carrying usb drives, etc. I think I paid 100 for the year for 55 gb? Stupid cheap for the utility that it offers.

Don't forget clouds can rain on your parade:

Online Backup Company Carbonite Loses Customers' Data, Blames And Sues Suppliers (Updated) | TechCrunch

Another backup failure: Carbonite | Brent Ozar PLF | Brent Ozar PLF

The cloud is not using ionic refraction to store your bits and bytes of data. Your data ends up in server farms using hardware based forms of backup. Granted the backup systems are RAID which mirrors the stored data to multiple drive banks to lessen the probability of total loss by elliminating single point failures.

Having worked in the data storage arena I can assure you somewhere within the cload there are companies using best practice, including offsite storage, to preserve your data. Something you should consider doing yourself even if you use the cload as, contrary to popular belief, not every cload has a silver lining Amazon Cloud Failure Takes Down Web Sites - NYTimes.com

I for one am not too keen on having my customer information, intellectual property and financial data outside of my firewall. Dropbox Accused Of Misleading Customers On Security - Storage - Security - Informationweek

None of these storage companies are doing anything you can not setup yourself on a smaller scale. The only difference is to you you are a big deal to them you are barely visible.

I'm not saying do not embrace new technologies and services I'm just saying use it with a total understanding of what it is and what it isn't and it's potential impact to your business. Best practice dictates design for failure.

These are very good ideas.

What I had been doing is just copying all my files once a month to a CD, since I have tons of them. The past month was crazy, and there was a lot more stuff than usual. I was planning on copying it all today, but the HD beat me too it. I am going to start looking for someone who might be able to disect my HD and get them files back.

Technology, can't live with it and can't shoot it!

Josh

I think it best to back up locally and take the backup off site. Make 2 copies, and only bring one to work, IF you need to use it. Make them differential back ups, on a DVD that has been formatted to allow copy/paste, alter the saved data.

If a DVD is not sufficient, 500 Gig portable HD, take it home with you. Under 100 bucks, AND, when you get home, you don't have to access the "cloud", nor will you have paid for it. Just plug in the USB drive.

Topper,

If worse comes to worst, you cannot get your data back, I MAY be able to recover it. My program is professional, but I bought it probably 7 or 8 years ago. I don't know if it will work with new systems, haven't had to use it, recently.

jspcm,

Have tried retrieving files with Linux. It CAN read some files, but definitely NOT a recovery system.

I do play with Linux, it is not NEARLY advanced enough to allow the average computer user to play with it, I don't care what skin they put on it, today.

It is still for Computer nerds, and I ain't one.

Cheers,

George

Windows data can get corrupted or damaged due to accidental partition deletion, improper formatting of hard disk and virus infection. The user may also permanently delete valuable data from the hard disk which prove to be fatal later. To recover inaccessible data from formatted hard drive and intentionally or accidentally deleted data from the hard disk, Windows recovery is applied that brings all the lost data to working state. You can use Kernel for windows data recovery software for the same purpose.

If you decide to go with a cloud service, avoid MyPCBackup and its affiliates like a plaque. Apparently, they bought "independent" reviewers who spread lies about how great the company and its services are. I was stupid to subscribe and now have a pleasure dealing with their non-working software and non-existent tech support with constant run arounds.

This is the place that contains some real reviews of this company you can trust: MyPCBackup.com Reviews - Legit or Scam? Unfortunately, I found it after the fact.

I'm giving them the last chance, and if they don't fix anything, I'll call my CC company.

your best bet for backup is to not use a big box computer. you should have someone who knows how to build and setup computers build you one. tell them that you have to make sure that you dont loose anything. they should set you up with a raid 1 (at least) type of hard drives. This will make 2 exact copies of everything you save on that drive. the one problem (if you can call it that) is you have to buy 2 HD's but the computer will only show 1 HD worth of space. ex 2 500Gb hd's will show as 1 500 Gb HD rather than 2. the advantage though is if one drive has a failure then you can just switch over to the other with no loss of data. you would then have to replace the broken one but you have lost nothing. The major advantage is this is not like a scheduled backup it is live as in every time you write something to disk it makes a copy on 2 different hard drives at the same time.

the best way to do this would be have 1 hd for your operating sys and any installed programs this would be your C drive. if you want a performance upgrade get a 10,000 or 15,000 rpm drive you will boot faster and load programs so much faster you will not know how you waited so long before. anyhow then you should get 2 identical hard drives from a reputable manufacturer, I like Western Digital. then go into the bios and set the two drives to work as raid 1 devices. now if windows crashes out you can just format c with no worries of loosing files, you would have to reinstall everything but its much easier to reinstall if you dont loose everything else in the process, and if one of your raid drives fails you can just remove the defective drive replace it and sync it back up to the other drive and boom you have a pretty much right back to the way it was.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_RAID_levels

Pipes said:

Don't forget clouds can rain on your parade:

Click to expand...

+1 to that.

You people can go ahead and enjoy your "cloud" backups and storage.
Where is it stored? ----------------------- Servers (or server farms if you will)
What are website files stored? ---------- Servers
Do websites get hacked? ---------------- yes
Can your "cloud" storage get hacked? -- Yes

If you can access data, so can others. And, let's consider one important thing about that.... If hackers know the servers where this storage is held, that adds to the risk. Entire servers CAN be hacked. The severs are always "online". Your computer is not. Your internet browsing is what adds risk to your computer. The storage cluster on servers is what makes them of more interest to hackers.

You guys can pay your $10/month for your service. I'd rather buy another jump drive(flash drive) every month for that price. Yeah, it ain't real expensive, but what could you do with that $ otherwise? Are you people storing transaction info from sales on these? Hell, I have over 20,000 emails stored in one folder and just over 500MB. Not a lot of data size there.

Why can't you use a jump drive? back up every week, use a new, different one for each year.

MichaelP said:

I hope you're not going to rely solely on memory sticks for backups.

Click to expand...

RedBaron said:

I would not trust (or waste money, time, or sanity) with ANY hardware based form of backup. External harddrives, flash drives, cd roms (if anyone still uses them), all are prone to failure.

Click to expand...

Why? Jump drives do not have anything mechanical. Are you using them to read and write constantly? Have you ever seen one fail? I've never had one fail. I do not know of anyone have one fail. I have an old 256Meg unit that still hasn't failed, guess how old that is. and they are small and all, soooo...:

dstryr said:

Yup. I've been using dropbox since it came out and man it is amazing. I can program at work and then drive home and work on the same program without the need for carrying usb drives, etc........

Click to expand...

Huh??? Are you meaning jump drives(flash drives)?? Are they too much hassle to carry? really? I've seen 4Gig units as small as about .5 x .5 x .2"(estimate) counting the plug. Oh, that is so tough to handle that. Are you people "left handed". WTH?!?!?! If that is too big, what about SD cards? Micro SD? many computers these days at least take the SD cards, right? I hope they are small enough for you to handle.....

Thing is, you guys can pay for your extra service... I'll sit here and laugh. But do know that you are putting your info out there to be more easily hacked. Which brings to question..... Do you guys store personal and confidiential customer info on these "cloud" servers?? Are YOU in violation of any LAWS/POLICIES???? while doing that? You may want to check. At least info on a computer is only available WHILE you are connected to the NET. The biggest risk on a PC is visiting bad websites or opening bad emails. Otherwise, your PC isn't as much of a target as a server with lots of possibilities. My PC which sees confidential info only sees a few KNOWN and CONTROLLED sites on the NET. therefore, I greatly reduce the chances of compromising any confidential info. Do you take that precaution?? Sites like facebook and such have tons of spyware and such and unknowns add HUGE risk. I was told upfront by a web developer that I should use a seperate PC to access my site and make use of confidential info. A PC that is used for that only and NOT for browsing the web.

If any of you guys have stored someone else's complete credit card or account numbers on this "cloud" backup, I will garan-F%^&ing-tee that you are in violation of laws and policies and you had better remove them.

I have heard of this "cloud" storage before. A friend claimed that there has been a small bit of push to use that rather than having an actual harddrive on a PC. That is something that should NEVER happen. Besides, did you guys know that the US Gobment can probably access your info stored there? I would put money on that, whether you ever know or not. Or care or not. Don't put any increminating evidence on there. Maybe if you store new ideas and inventions on there, these US gobment asses will sell your ideas to the Chinese. I would laugh at you then. HA

Now... I think I'm gonna dream up some unnecessary service to CON you people to pay for. Seems to be the norm. And I can get rich from your foolishness. I'll be laughing twice as hard then. HA HA

----------------
Sent from the wife's PC which NEVER FORNEVER EVER sees anyone else's confidential info.

Dropbox stores info online on their servers and then syncs it between computers that you have setup...USB disks are great until you forget them...

FWIW:

My boy has an external HD for his laptop.

He was werking on a project for skewl (He takes 'Putors) and is making a program to mimik "MineSweeper", but as a PLC control as opposed to PC. (Near as I could decifer from the conversation) Anyway - it is a much bigger program and such per him.

Then his external HD died.
He even dissassembled the drive and tried to recover by inserting the disk(s) into the HD on one of the skewl 'putors, but no-go.

He lost 30 hrs of werk he said.

He's said he's going to 16G mem sticks.


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I am Ox and I approve this h'yah post!

About clouds. My cousin has been taking network security classes (for Seimens) his advice to me was if you want your data secure write it down and put it in a vault because their is no such thing as secure when your connected to a network and the clouds are easier to hack than anything else since their key is they need to be open to multiple devices. and more openings = easy target. second best way to keep your stuff secure is to have it on a computer that is NOT physically connected to ANY network so if you wanted to access something like procedures or something else highly proprietary you would physically have to go to the computer to access it.

annoying said:

Why? Jump drives do not have anything mechanical. Are you using them to read and write constantly? Have you ever seen one fail? .

Click to expand...

Yes. Many times .They fail a way more often than hard drives. And I use them on everyday basis since they appeared on the market and tried many different brands that had the highest ratings.

If you never seen one failed, it tells me your experience with them is very limited.

P.S. I really don't understand why you're so agitated. Nobody tells that cloud services are secure in terms of protection against hackers. Of course they cannot considered to be more secure than a local storage in this respect. It's just one more way to protect your data against loss. Not the only one or the best, but just one more. And it's convenient in terms of access. Just don't keep very sensitive info there or use additional encryption if you wish.