: ( I could cry...Computer with EVERYTHING on it crashed, a quick rant

[Ferngully]

I awoke this morning to find that my hard drive on my laptop was dead. No warning, as a matter of fact I checked it the other day and it was fine. DH (a computer guy) tried for hours to try and recover anything from it. A no go.

I lost everything. (I did originally have everything on my thumb drive as back up, but had to remove it to use for something else, like saving all of my fathers things from his fading hard drive).

So irreplaceable pics and videos(babies to weddings), documents, letters from my deceased mother.
My work, legal documents, and school records for the kids.
My ordination information and certification.
All chicken records, addresses and contacts.
My brother's service pics and letters, my oldest son's pics and letters, family geneology with really old pics.
You name it- its gone. I just remember more and more things that were on there and I feel worse.

Basically the last 10+ years and more of our life is wiped-out.

Amazing how much we rely on technology for our lives now.

My heart is just sinking, I know sounds petty in comparison to everything else going on in the world, and problems other people are having and face everyday. It's still a horrible feeling to have everything destroyed or in this case wiped out.

And there is no way to be able to purchase a new one.
This has just been the topper for a really stinky week.

 

[CMV]

I am so sorry. My greatest fear.

 

[rainplace]

I understand completely. It's such a sinking feeling to see everything go poof.

 

[Weewanona]

I'm so sorry

I know exactly what you're going through. Same thing happened to me last year. It is heartbreaking!

Did you by chance e-mail any of the pictures on to family? Maybe they have them still and can return the emails?

 

[Damummis]

Just went thru that last month. Hated it.

 

[Epona142]

I went through this a few times before I learned my lesson..

I NEVER keep anything on a laptop that isn't backed up.

My desktop computers all have a second drive. The first drive (master drive) is for the operating system, and the second drive (slave drive) holds all of my pictures, videos, etc.

If the computer crashes, or dies, its very likely that the secondary drive can be pulled and recovered. Or, if I can reformat the first drive, all my information is still safe on the second drive.

Just had a computer go down few months ago, and thanks to this, I was able to salvage all of my stuff.

I'm sorry this happened to you.

They also make external hard drives for backup, but they're not as reliable as internal.

 

[dlhunicorn]

(((hugs)))
I have an old computer... anything I want to save I copy onto an external hard disk... I have a cheapie one and use it simply as storage for only this purpose (my HD on this computer is due to die I figure sometime soon > it is my third)
Photos and such I always load onto online photohosts (facebook, photobucket, etc.) and in addition to all this I burn all I want to keep onto Cds/DVDs.
I also have a program whereby I can "clone" my HD (instead of using the "back-up" system from windows > if you have a virus etc. often the back-up from windows is affected)
many internet servers as well as secruity (McAfee etc.) also offer a "back-up" service for free or a very small fee > (takes care of the problm above if your windows has to be reinstalled after a crash from a virus etc.)

 

[Ferngully]

I had everything stored externally on a thumb drive, but had removed it from the thumb drive to help save my dad's things.

Strangely, or ironically, it was all done within the last couple of weeks. Lol, who knew when I was rushing to save all of his memories and trying to fix his computer, that my hard drive was the one that was going to die.

Now, the command center of the house "The Beast" has 2 hard drives for just this reason. And because it was built to handle a home automated living system called HAL. Yup, see the spooky in that one? It talks, you choose the voice, me I want it to respond "yes Dave" when I address it.

The kids still don't get it even after watching the movies.

DH is a computer junkie/geek even had his own business building and fixing at one time and I worked right along beside him. We have all kinds of computer "stuff" stored in a walk in closet. You open the doors, and a techie would cry thinking he had gone to heaven. CPUs, processors, motherboards, ram, video cards, fans, power supplies, cords, software, tools, dvd writers, cd writers, and a whole bunch of just cool accessories to add to computer systems. Our own mini Comp USA.

 

[key west chick]

Recommendation just in case it hasn't been tried:

Remove "crashed" drive. Install new drive and load OS. Shut down and install old "crashed" drive as second drive. Unless the platters will not spin at all you should be able to get some data from it. If it wont spin at all, put the "crashed" drive in a zip-lock baggie and put it in the freezer for a minimum of 6 hours. Have the laptop ready to reinstall the "crashed" drive right out of the freezer and try to access it again. You will not have much time because as the drive will warm up quickly and possibly stop again.

Depending on the value of data there are places that can recover it for you. It just depends on how much it is worth $$$$ to you.

 

[ChickenToes]

The same thing happened to me a few years ago. I only had about 1/8 of what was on the hard drive backed up. Now I copy everything to CDs - all my photos, recipes, documents, even music that I bought from iTunes.