DeaBrok Posted February 23, 2008 Share Posted February 23, 2008 Have any of you ever used a hard drive data recovery service? I am completely desperate. On Sunday night I moved a bunch of photos (15 gigs) from my laptop to my desktop computer so that I could back them up. I have an external USB on the desktop and had just purchased a spindle of DVDs. I was not feeling well on Sunday so I didn’t do the backup then. On Monday morning my desktop computer wouldn’t boot up. The lights came on and it made most of the normal noises and then nothing. I tried several times but the computer would not boot up. I ran the Dell diagnostics on the computer – twice – and no problems were found. I borrowed an empty hard drive from a friend but my computer went into a continuous reboot cycle with that drive and I took it out. Today I borrowed another hard drive and installed Windows XP. Worked like a charm. I then took my old C drive (the one that wouldn’t boot) and made it a secondary drive. Windows said the old C drive was corrupted. I took my Data drive and made it the secondary drive. Windows said that it wasn’t formatted. I plugged in my USB backup drive – the computer didn’t recognize it at all. I took the USB backup drive to my laptop and plugged it in there – the laptop didn’t recognize it at all. I have very little backed-up on DVD. As you can guess – by this time I am a little hysterical. I had photos and data on three different drives and I somehow lost all three of them at the same time in less than 12 hours. I haven’t the slightest idea of what to do other than cry and that is not going to solve anything. At this point I am willing to go to the expense of a data recovery service – 10 years of digital photos, a lifetime of genealogy. I am just hoping that someone has used such a service and can make a recommendation. Any suggestions are more than welcome. Dea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scrappinchar Posted February 23, 2008 Share Posted February 23, 2008 Oh man. I am sooooo sorry you're going through this! I don't know what to tell you since I barely know anything about computers. I took my crashed computer into a place and asked them if they could retrieve my pics for me....they came back out and said, "No." I now back up quickly. Hopefully someone will have some encouraging info for you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canela Posted February 23, 2008 Share Posted February 23, 2008 Dea, I am so sorry to hear about your hard drive. You should be able to take it to any computer service center and have them retrieve all the information. I did it once at best buy and they retrieved everything I really needed. Good Luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angdrumm Posted February 23, 2008 Share Posted February 23, 2008 I have used O & O recovery program on my EHD when it crashed & it got 99% of my stuff back - over 1000 photos of my boys. Its quite expensive, but in my case it was WELL WORTH it. Here is the page: http://www.oo-software.com/home/en/products/oodiskrecovery/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeaBrok Posted February 23, 2008 Author Share Posted February 23, 2008 Thanks for the encouragement. I feel a little less crazed this morning. I purchased a new USB drive and backed up the laptop last night. Carbonite is running on the laptop right now. It will take a while until that is done. I did a lot of reading on hard drive recovery services and software. It could be that all hope is not lost. The "O & O recovery program" looks promising - thanks, Angela. Right now I have to figure out what to do next. Something is VERY wrong with a computer if three hard drives can go in a flash. I had the computer on two UPS battery backups. Everything was fine when I turned it off - 12 hours later total disaster. I am afraid to purchase another hard drive, reload the OS, and then try to recover any data. I am afraid to put any drive with data I care about back in that case. I am thinking that I might need to purchase a new desktop computer. It isn't what I had planned to do right now but I can't see making all of this effort to recover everything and then put it back in a case with some sort of electrical/power problem. I will talk to the Techs at work on Monday and see what they think. Dea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scrappinchar Posted February 23, 2008 Share Posted February 23, 2008 I sure hope they get the info all back for you! Looks like the other ladies had success in this area. There seems to be hope. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
needadietcoke Posted February 23, 2008 Share Posted February 23, 2008 Oh dear. I am so sorry that you are having this problem. I would definitely try to have the pros retieve the lost info, but your point about your computer is good, too. They are great when they are working, but once there is an issue they never seem to be the same again. Hang in there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alg35536 Posted February 23, 2008 Share Posted February 23, 2008 How awful. My computer came with a free year of backup with Dell, I just haven't uploaded anything to it yet. I do however need to back up the things that I have now on my ehd. I have some of the files done, but not all of them. I do have it on my list of things to do today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angdrumm Posted February 23, 2008 Share Posted February 23, 2008 Dea, I think you may have a point about putting everything back in the same case, we had a similar problem with DH's PC & it turned out to be the Power supply. Lets hope the Techies can come up with some help for you. If it is any consolation I sat down & cried too I couldn't believe I had lost all those Photos (no where near as many as you though!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
debilou Posted February 23, 2008 Share Posted February 23, 2008 So sorry, you are going through this. I started using Carbonite a while back, and I love it, as soon as I start downloading something from the Boutique, I see the little dots on my files turn yellow - which means Carbonite found them - and slowly one by one they turn green which means they are now safely backed up. I know this is too little too late for you. But, if you scan the MB, you will find SG after SG with a HD crash, and they had just loaded everything to Carbonite and it had saved the day for them. Something to consider for the future... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CRS Posted February 23, 2008 Share Posted February 23, 2008 I hope you recover your stuff. I hate that feeling, thinking everything is lost. Good Luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lorac Posted February 24, 2008 Share Posted February 24, 2008 I too use Carbonite. I saw it mentioned in one of the newsletters that Ro uses it and that was good enough for me. With all of my photos and scrapbooking stuff, I certainly don't want to lose any of it. Carbonite is great. It works in the background and everytime a new file is added to my pc, Carbonite finds it and backs it up. Wonderful invention and thanks to Ro for putting me on to it. Wish you luck in getting your stuff back. I'll send up a prayer to St. Jude for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeaBrok Posted February 24, 2008 Author Share Posted February 24, 2008 The saga continues.... I have Carbonite running on the laptop - it has been running since Friday night. It looks like it might take forever. I have spoken with two Techs about what happened. When I explained that I lost both internal hard drives and the attached USB drive at the same time they both responded with "that doesn't sound right". Both of the Techs have told me to not put any drives back in that case as they suspect something is very wrong with it. I started looking for a new computer to order - looking at Dell - and discovered something surprising. All of the new desktops are completely SATA. None of them even have IDE controllers and none of them even have the possibility of purchasing an IDE controller. (I didn't realize how long it had been since I purchased a desktop computer.) As my damaged drives are IDE drives I am going to have to borrow a computer from someone in order to attempt a recovery. This is all too much stress. I really appreciate the support/encouragement. Dea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angdrumm Posted February 24, 2008 Share Posted February 24, 2008 I started looking for a new computer to order - looking at Dell - and discovered something surprising. All of the new desktops are completely SATA. None of them even have IDE controllers and none of them even have the possibility of purchasing an IDE controller. (I didn't realize how long it had been since I purchased a desktop computer.) As my damaged drives are IDE drives I am going to have to borrow a computer from someone in order to attempt a recovery. This is all too much stress. I really appreciate the support/encouragement. Dea Dea, Have you thought about buying an EHD case to take your IDE hard drives? I have one of these that I bought for much the same reason, I had a drive that wouldn't go into my pc. It plugs in using the USB port. Just a thought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
April Showers Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 I started looking for a new computer to order - looking at Dell - and discovered something surprising. All of the new desktops are completely SATA. None of them even have IDE controllers and none of them even have the possibility of purchasing an IDE controller. (I didn't realize how long it had been since I purchased a desktop computer.) As my damaged drives are IDE drives I am going to have to borrow a computer from someone in order to attempt a recovery. This is all too much stress. I really appreciate the support/encouragement. Dea Dea, Have you thought about buying an EHD case to take your IDE hard drives? I have one of these that I bought for much the same reason, I had a drive that wouldn't go into my pc. It plugs in using the USB port. Just a thought. My husband does the same thing. All the new boards take SATA drives. He buys other drives on sale and turns them into EHDs, that would be why we have so many. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeaBrok Posted February 25, 2008 Author Share Posted February 25, 2008 The new Dell desktop has been ordered. Not nearly what I would have purchased if I could have waited until December as I had planned. But, it will do... If the IDE hard drives out of the "dead" computer turn out to be okay after I run diagnostics on them I do plan to turn them into external hard drives. My next step is to try and recover the data. Extremely big sigh here..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.