DISASTER! HELP ME!!!!!

[playgeneration]

My computers hard drive doesnt work anymore!
I have lots of important stuff on there, which i really need to get back. The computer doesnt seem to see the drive at all, ive put another hard drive in there but now im stuck. Is there any good free disk repair software i can use?. I am completely fuked if i cant recover some of my files
Its a windows 2000 ntfs formatted drive if that makes any difference.

Somebody help me!!!!

[rupert]

theres places you can send it that recover data and post it back on a disc but I have no idea how much it costs. We somtimes have to do this at work with corupt hard drives. I could find out tomorro (but i'm guessing you could google somthing up yourself).

[Tonto]

I had this happen to me at work. My hard drive broke, scratched the spinning disk or whatever the fook is inside the thing, and I lost everything. It's not always as bad as what happened to me, but from what I heard it can cost big money to get it back. Needless to say, a good 75-80% of my stuff is now backed up.

[rupert]

Ive asked a friend of mine who is knowlegable about this stuff and he reckons it can cost about £300 to recover data. eak! Hope it wasnt too important?

[playgeneration]

Looks like ive lost months of work then
I cant afford to blow £300 on getting it back, and still have to buy another hard drive
I hope at least ChaoticJelly has kept copies of all the repoduction inserts i finished.
I cant believe this has happened, i am so pissed off. Its a heart breaking prospect thinking about all the work im going to have to do all over again.

[Tonto]

Really sorry to hear that. Maybe save up 'till you can get it fixed, or make friends with someone who can help.

[Bock]

I've successfully used R-Studio 3.0 for recovery.

[chaoticjelly]

This happened to me some time ago, I have two hard drives and they were combined as one in a striped Raid0 array. I accidentally f*ed it up and overwrote the master boot sector (MBR) dont ask why. Then I proceeded to mess it up even more, using a (GOOD) company to get data back will cost a few hundred. When I was looking at quotes it was about £900 due to me having 400 gigs.

I have copies of all the inserts etc dont worry, I will back them up soon as well, I back up quite a bit now.

When I lost my stuff it was especially bad, I lost all my uni work for 2 years, all my college work, my CV, everything, hopefully wont be took f**ked when I go back to uni next month !

Good luck with your recovery dude, if I can lend a hand let me know.. all I can say is DONT use the drive in question, dont attempt, you might overwrite something.

Install some recovery software, turn pc off, attach dodgy drive, and try and recover. There is a number of good programs out there, I dont know of any good free ones, but im sure you know how to find another program, if you dont let me know.

[TransButtah]

Stop, think, and then spit on Windows' ashes!

BUTTAH TO THE RESCUE!

What I'd do, to recover my files, is go to www.ubuntu.com/ and request one of their free LINUX Operating System CDs through the mail. When it comes, boot up Windows, and put the LIVE CD in the CD drive, make sure your computer boots from the CD drive, and restart it. This should use Linux to view all your files and then you can copy them to a CD or something. But be aware, Windows software does not work with Linux, so don't try running Wordperfect or anything. This Linux solution should work, but I've never tried it, so I'm not sure. I'm assuming it's one of Microsoft's many errors that go unfixed.

BUT YOU MUST USE THE LIVE CD ONLY! If you use the Install CD, your hard drive will be erased. After all this, I'd just buy a new computer. But on the plus side, you have all your files, including your naked pictures of Gilbert Gotfried!

[kungfukid]

As a matter of interest, how old was the computer? This happened to me about 5 years ago with what was a very expensive computer at the time £2,500 or so - it was around 3 years old. THEN someone I know who works for IBM and previously for Compaq told me that the computers are only built with around a 3 year lifecycle expected!! He said it was pretty common to start experiencing problems after 18 months or even less!!! So since then, I've refused to give the big companies my money, every 18 months or so I buy a computer with a relatively high spec but lowish memory. I use it for 18 months then save everything I've done in that time on to Data Discs (Usually only uses around 15 - 20 discs) so that I can readily use it on the next computer when I need it - generally find that most stuff just sits there anyway - can any of you really say you use most of the stuff you have sitting on your hard drive? I know I don't! So then I buy a new computer of a similar standard and start over!

Basically, I'm spending maybe £200 - £300 on a computer once every 18 months or so, but ensuring I have a new hard drive so it's less likely to crash, the old one I wipe and sell for around the £100 mark, so I'm not really spending that much! Plus, by doing it this way I'm not getting my hard drive clogged up by years and years of crap I'm never going to use, keeping the likelihood of having multiple viruses down, and ensuring I have most of my stuff backed up in the process! I'd recommend anyone else to do the same!

[playgeneration]

The best solution is to have two hard drives in your computer, one for regular use, the other to back up important files on to. Saves having to constantly burn stuff onto cd's. This is the strategy i used with my Amiga, but i never did it with my PC. When i have my PC working again i will ditch the dvd drive and put a second hard drive in for backup. Ive got a broken xbox which i can rob the hard drive from.

[kungfukid]

Yeah, the problem then is if you get a system based virus as opposed to a file based one - in which case it will wipe BOTH drives if they're active at the time - this includes f you have an external drive that happens to be hooked up at the time! A pain in the backside that happened to my brother a couple of years back - rendered his whole system useless. That's the main reason I back up onto discs.

[playgeneration]

Well i have very good antivirus and firewall software installed to prevent that. I always meant to make cd backups, but never got around to buying any disks. And i could always disconnect the second hard drives ide and power cables after making backups to prevent virus attack, only takes about 20 seconds to unplug.

[kungfukid]

cool, I know so many people who have anti-virus and firewall software and just don't use it - or use too much of it! lol! They don't realise that people DO actually get viruses in their system, and how much of a pain it is! Likewise, a lot of them don't realise that by using MORE than one program, ie McAfee & Norton, Norton & Windows firewall etc. that it can cause conflicts in your system and either slow it right down or even cause the whole thing to not work! I only prefer to back up onto disc cause there's so many files that used to clog up my hard drive and never get used - although one day I may need them for something - once in a blue moon!

[comicalgames]

Here's a tip that helped me with a dud drive - it would barely detect and read over IDE, but when I plugged it into a USB IDE adaptor I managed to recover absolutely everything off the disk perfectly.