Oh, I really didn't need this. I really didn't. We had a one second power outage this morning that wiped out my files. All of my files and pictures. Including my website software. I am freaking out. I have an external hard drive, but not everything seems to be saved in it. Nothing from 2012. So I have an emergency call into Matt, the computer guy, and am praying he can restore my computer life. In the meantime, the home page cannot be updated. It could, from the software on my laptop, but I can't get the Alzheimer Spouse current website to appear on that.
If it's not one thing, it's something else. It's always something.
Goodness!!! I can just imagine how stressed you must be. I am hoping Matt is able to recover everything for you. Thinking positive thoughts and sending you lots of cyber ((hugs))
It's the pictures I am most worried about and my personal files. All the website stuff will be recovered one way or another by Matt, I am sure. It's the pictures. I thought the external hard drive was backing them up. Apparently not. I should have listened to my sister, who keeps all of the digital camera cards AND backs up the pictures on disk. 12 years of pictures. OMG!
I got the website software back to working by myself. I just checked again. All of my data files are backed up on the external drive, but no pictures. Empty.
worst case your File Allocation Table got messed up, they call it FAT file. It knows the location of everything, but can not find them. It will have to be rebuilt, but the files are still on your hard drive.
I have heard the ads for Carboninte and the other is Mozy I think..maybe with the odd weather everywhere these days..it might be a good idea to look into one of the off site backup sites..anyone have any experience with any of these sites and what do you suggest?
Bluedaze is right. I have used Carbonite for years and the four times I've had failures, it works as advertised, 200GB all restored in several hours. I handle all the IT for our Condo Assoc. we've had no problems. Just one of joys of living in Fl, better to back up off-site you never know what will happen.
Yes, Nelsons, I will do that. Right now it's set to back up once a week. Not good enough. And I will look into Carbonite. We went out to dinner tonight with a guy who is a computer guru. When I described another problem - not going to go into it at length here - he said that my hard drive is on the verge of crashing and not to use the computer until Matt can get to it. I'm on my laptop now. And will be until Matt fixes the mess.
Going to go to bed now and try to forget about the whole thing.
For Comcast users They offer a free service offering free backup up and retrieval Google "comcast vault" for the details. I use it as a backup to my Carbonite account. I had an executive search firm for 30 yrsj. Backing up securely the firms "inventory" (our data base and resume files) still has me thinking much the same in retirement
It's very likely you will get the pictures retrieved.
It's possible that some of the sectors on your hard drive may have become corrupted that involve either the platform itself or a critical operating system.
The vast majority of the image files at the least would still be there and there are ways to slave the HD and access them in all likelihood.
It's good advice to not touch it until an expert can get their hands on it.
I'll check in as much as I can, and I will read my mail, but things are a mess here. Matt hasn't returned my calls -I sure hope he's not out of town - he travels in his new job. Anyway, the laptop won't log onto Internet Explorer, so I am using AOL, which doesn't have the features of IE that I need to negotiate my way around really fast, and my web software isn't working properly on the laptop. Sooooo.................it's going to be a longer haul than I expected.
I just want to keep everyone updated because I know some of you are waiting for solutions to some problems that I promised in e-mails I would get to. We have bad news, good news, and bad news.
The bad news is that the company Matt was working for from home, wants him on their team in Chicago. So he's moving to the windy city on Friday. That's also the good news, because he is a very hard working guy, has worked to put himself through school, and helps support his family. The bad news is that now I won't have a resident computer expert. He is coming tomorrow night to get the laptop up to speed, so I can post on the home page and use Internet Explorer. Unfortunately, the big computer has to make the trip to the Computer ER. All this mess from one quick power surge.
Joan, please consider getting an APC battery to protect your computer from surges. I think it's especially necessary here in Florida with our stormy weather which causes brief outages on a fairly regular basis.
I'm such a computer illiterate that I hesitated to mention the "power-surge' gadget that I've had on my computer for the last umpteen years. Very inexpensive, a "must-have."
I actually thought I had a power surge gadget. It's supposed to be part of the power strip I have everything plugged into. You know, in the old days, when my electronic gadget husband knew everything and could hook up everything, my life was a lot easier. We used to be a team - he knew the hardware; I knew the software.
Well, Matt is supposed to come over tonight to adjust the laptop - I'll ask him about the power surge gadget.
Joang.. I have a great HW/SW guru that I use whenever I get in over my head. He's retired lives in Delray and is always looking for an excuse to go for a ride on his Harley. He was formerly Dir of IT for a Global Retail chain. Works cheap and has never failed me. My Email is on here if Matt's relo dictates you find a new computer guy.
Hopefully all is well and your files have been recovered. If there has been no success yet in recovering material from your hard disk I strongly recommend running it through a program call SpinRite from GRC.com. It is a wonderful tool that tries, usually successfully, to recover damaged sectors from hard disks. This is different from a file recovery tool, it works at a much lower level. Sometimes it performs miracles, other times it fixes stuff enough that you can then use other recovery tools to salvage files. Depends on the damage to the drive. Running SpinRite can take a long time, especially if it encounters damage. I have a computer at my office that is used only for disk drive repair since a run of SpinRite will often take a full day, but can last days or weeks in bad situations. Many drive data recovery services use SpinRite.
As a computer professional I recommend the following as good practices (yes, the horse is well out of the barn and we now shopping for the best doors). - Get a high quality uninterruptible power supply. It should protect the computer and what is attached to it from surges and provide battery backup. The battery either protects the computer from very short power losses or gives you enough time to shut it down safely during a major power loss. I like the Back-UPS Pro 1000. You want a UPS with very quick response time. Cheap stuff is, ummm, cheap. I also use a unit with my media center, got to protect that expensive TV.
- Unplug the computer during a storm. Disconnect it from network wires, etc. A lightning strike can travel through any wire, and a UPS or surge supressor will not protect you against a direct strike. I am sure this advice is very inconvenient in Florida various times of the year.
- Back up all data to 2 separate backup media, one should be outside of the house. A service such as Carbonite is a good choice for one. If you backup everything to a hard disk in your home, if you have a fire or theft you are likely to lose both your computer and your backup drive. I have 2 backup hard disks and I rotate them between home and office. They are also encrypted to if one is stolen the thief will not be able to steal the data from it. I use a drive bay that allows me to easily swap drives.
- Do not delete files on your computer assuming that they are on your backup drive. If you copy your photos to your backup drive and then delete it from your computer, you still have only one copy of it. This might sound obvious but there are many people who have relied on their backups, not thinking it was their only copy and that loss of their backup means loss of everything.
Best of luck. I think there is a good chance of recovery of your photos.
Thanks to everyone for all the good advice. Matt was able to recover the pictures and everything else before he set off on the Great Chicago Adventure. Everything is working except for the web design software on the desktop. It's working fine on the laptop. My son in California can probably fix the web software. Now I just have to find a local Matt #2.
I can only imagine how nerve wracked you have been over this issue. I am so happy to hear things are better. I have no advice to give but want you to know I am praying for peace and rest for you joang,,,,,,,,,
Wow Joan, I am so glad you got your pics back. Twelve years of pics is like a lifetime .... it would devastate me. I have backed up my pics on flash drives but like paul said if you then delete them from your computer you still only have one copy. Funny the way the mind works, I felt all good when I finished backing up but did delete most from my computer. Sheesh!
You're most welcome Paul :) When you feel ready, we would love to hear more about you and your situation. I am a hugger in real life and it has carried over to my cyber world as well lol. So, here's a welcome to the family ((hug))
Oh yikes Paul! Flash drives not reliable! All my winter project copying for naught. So the story of my life continues, most things I seemed doomed to repeat over and over.... Do you consider an external hard drive reliable?
A USB flash drive and a CD/DVD drive are no different in their function as external connections to data. Backup is a technical term as we all know which is not the same thing as storing data externally and file compression and format enter into this as well.
If we are having trouble with our USB ports or our DVD drive, it is almost certainly one of two things. A problem with the physical port connection or with the DVD drive itself (eg: optical reader misallignment) or a problem with the data stored on the external storage device (eg: file cannot be retrieved from CD even though computer can read the CD).
A good virus program like Norton 360 always scans files in a protected mode first and if our external data is declared 'infected' there's a high degree of probablility that certainly Norton can clean it. For one thing any virus or malware on a floppy drive would be so old that all virus programs would include it's solution. Then that data can be accessed safely.
There is an alternative to those that don't get a lot of this. The first is store copies of your treasured stuff onto uncompressed CD's as data files. It's the most shareable between reading devices anyways one example of that being looking at your pictures on the TV through that DVD. The second and easiest is to send copies of your most important files to trusted friends.
What most people back up and keep is pretty much everything. Some files are actually very important and those you want to store externally from your physical location - not just on some external storage media. There in a variety of networks with different friends, we send copies of those files as KFM emails. Keep For Me. Sometimes they are winzip or RAR compressed and some of those are password protected. My tax records and stock transactions histories are sitting on dozens of computers as small files attached to email. If I have a fire I can always reconstruct the data I consider essential.
If I were Joan, I would group my pictures broadly into 700MB directories and then burn them onto CD's as data files. I can do that for two dozen CD's in under an hour.
Ideally all data should be backed up to 2 different kinds of media and you should always have 3 copies of any file (the original and 2 backups). So backing up both to another hard disk and DVDs is OK. Or a hard disk and an online service.
Years ago I used to backup to floppies. Even if I still had those floppies I would have no way of restoring them without a lot of additional effort, including buying an old Mac and finding a copy of the backup software.
CDs and DVDs have the advantage of being Write-Once media (I am not including rewritable versions of this media). This is important because you don't have to worry about a backed up file becoming infected (of course it could have been infected prior to the backup).
As to flash drives reliability. I do not know if they tend to go bad just from aging or from repeated use. I suspect if you rarely use them (e.g. just copy files to them for backup purposes) they are more trustworthy.
And if you backup to CDs or DVDs, be sure to get archival quality media. Standard recordable CDs and DVD can have very limited lifespans and are very different from the CDs and DVDs you purchase when you buy music and movies.
I used to fret but in the analog world we have the same sort of problems. Many kodak color photos lost their color over time due to a defect, they were supposed to last forever.