Check Your Backup system,, & forum down.

[jimtoo]

I guess Jim B forgot to pay the electric bill... forum went down about 8;45pm cst and just came back up at 12 midnight. Happens to the best of systems.

My HD crashed last Thursday, also thought it was the best you could buy,, thought I had a backup working.. but was only working on my checking account for the bank... lost 3 years of pictures and communications, emails, everything... I did not check it like I should have and I evidently had a setting wrong and it was only doing the one thing after the initial install... So, if you have a backup system,, check it out to make sure it is working correctly. I have lost pictures of our 50th anniversary, my 99 year old FIL and his funeral and me making his casket and a lot pictures of friends and rallies and just of rv'ing memories. Never to be replaced... so please check out your systems

Jim M

 

[ziggy]

Jim,
I really feel for you. Those things are important and can never be replaced unless someone else in the family has copies they can send you.

A lot of backup software is hard to configure. Its like they want you to take a class in how to set it up. Every hard drive will fail. Its not IF its WHEN.

I've had it happen a couple of times but was able to retrieve some data from them. There are companies that specialize in doing that. Contact me if you want some sources and I'll see if I can track them down for you. I'm sure LinixxKid can help you out too.

Good luck,
Kristy

 

[62cwil]

I use Paragon and have had several failures on different drives over the last two years and completely restored very easy.

 

[TXBobcat]

Hi Jim
Sorry to hear about your loss of data. You are very correct about backups.

For those that are intrested:
When I worked for the electric company as computer support, one of the things I tried to teach everyone about their own computers is, if you do three things I can get your computer running again just like it was new.

1st
Save your data in a directory on your computer other than "My Documents". I make a directory named Data. Keep all your data if possible in one directory. It is easier to back up one folder than look around your drive for everything. I save everything in there in separate directories. Some applications will only save data in their application directory or in "My Documents". Find all of these and make a note to back them up as well. The folder called “My Documents” is in a Profile setup by the operating system. If the profile fails, the data is gone, the rest of the hard drive may be still good. Copy your data to an external hard drive or use some other method, but get it off your computer. C: drive and D: drive are really a partition on the same physical hard drive, so you loose all the data on both C: partition and D: partition if your drive crashes. I do not use an application to back up my data. You never are sure it is getting everything and if you can’t install the application you can’t retrieve the data. I make a folder on an external 1 terra byte hard drive using the date as the folder name. Such as 2009-11-24. In that directory I copy all the data. Then do it again about every month or so. I like to use 2.5” notebook hard drives which use the USB for power and data transfer. My 1 terra byte hard drive is a 3.5” and needs AC.

2nd
Have a good up-to-date antivirus. At the company they used Norton. I now use Trend Micro, which I find to be very good. It manages not only viruses but does better than most for Spyware and Adware. Update the antivirus definitions every week and purchase an updated application every couple or three years. Setup a scan of the hard drive at least every week. Most Antivirus companies update their definitions every week and normally on Thursday.

3rd
Keep all the software stored in a good place so it can be reinstalled. Keep your Product Keys, serial numbers, any thing that is necessary to reinstall your applications. If you purchase software on the internet, do not install it from the internet. Download it and save it on your hard drive then burn a copy of the application and all information about the purchase of the application, then install it on your computer. If someone wants to install their software on your computer for you to use, always make a copy of the application because if your hard drive crashes you will not have the application to reinstall and use the data you have developed using it. Don’t forget the operating system product key they stick on the bottom or back of your computer. If you have a laptop the product key can and will in many cases be worn off. Also get the serial number and model number of your computer and store it some place in case of an emergency.

Something else, if your computer quits working do not always consider your hard drive has died and go buy a new computer, get a new hard drive or format the old one. Many times the only problem is with the operating system and you can have the hard drive removed, placed in an external case and copy the data to a different drive, then reformat the hard drive and copy the data back to the computer. If the hard drive is squealing or knocking your drive most likely is damaged and nothing on it is recoverable. You can go get a new hard drive, install it in the computer, install the operating system, install your applications and then copy your data that you saved or backed up.

I know this is a long post but I hope it is helpful to someone.
This is my way.
BC

 

[skyguy]

Jim - sorry to hear about your hard drive. Was it a hardware problem? Or operating system? Did the technician look to see if the data was available?

My background includes 30 years of running my own personal computer business - having started before IBM PC's were even an idea! With that information, I will offer the following to our Heartland forum:

First and foremost: Almost all hard drives built since day one are mechanical devices and we all know mechanical devices can fail. Hard drives can fail without any warning whatsoever. I have had it happen to me - I used a system in the morning, went back to it after lunch, and it was locked up. Reboot - nuthin. The hard drive just died - no warning.

Because these hard drives can fail without warning, the solution is redundancy - in any form - another hard drive, multiple hard drives, data on optical disks (CDs or DVDs), possibly tape (old technology), or even memory sticks / flash drives.

Do NOT use an external drive just for storage!! (Like pictures, music, etc) It can fail! If you must use an external drive for storage, have a second source for BACKUP of that storage.

Try not to move any hard drive that is ON and RUNNING. The drive is vulnerable to bumps or jostles at that time. This includes laptop computers!

Personally, I rely on two sets of backups, 1 - to an external hard drive at home, and to a workstation off our server at our store. This is the first level of redundancy. 2 - Periodic backups to optical media - CD's at work because it's only a couple hundred megabytes, and DVD's at home for photos and music.

CHECK YOUR BACKUPS!!! Make sure you can see the data on the destination media, and that you can read the media just fine.

Most everything TexasBobcat says makes very good sense, but I do not understand the information regarding "My Documents" and the lost profile in section 1. You can lose a profile in Windows, and or get a corrupted file in the operating system and the system may no longer boot, but your data (in 99% of the cases) is still there... XP is Documents and Settings> {your user name} >My Documents - Vista and Windows 7 is Users> {your user name} >My Documents

Data recovery can be handled by professional recovery specialists, who have clean rooms to disassemble your hard drive, replace bad mechanical components, and then recover your data. It is very expensive - thousands of dollars!!! We do not have that capability, but if there is no physical damage to the drive, we have been able to recover over 95% of our customers information.

GOOD LUCK!

Al Schlafli
Computer Dynamics
www.compdyna.com (free plug)

 

[jbeletti]

Great tips everyone!

For home use, I backup to a NAS (network attached storage) device called Drobo. I have three 1TB HDDs in it and the data is striped RAID) across all 3 drives. Big storage, nice redundancy. Both of our laptops to backup continuously (as a file changes) to Drobo. On super sensitive data, I also backup to a cloud (Internet based storage on either my own web space or a 3rd party).

Jim

Drobo and DroboShare

 

[skyguy]

FYI: RAID
redundant array of inexpensive disks

There's that word "redundancy" again...

Two types of RAID
Mirrored - two drives are used, and information is written to both drives, so that the two drives are always exact copies of each other. Simple and cheap, but slower than just having one drive, because the info needs to be written twice.

Striped
Uses two or more drives for data, and one or more drives for parity. This means if one drive fails, the RAID can be rebuilt by replacing the failed drive. Fancy striped raid systems will have spares drives built in, and the system will switch automatically.

Striped systems have been known to fail, when more than one drive fails in the RAID system.

For more reading.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID

Al

 

[Rmcgrath53]

Hey Jim Sorry about your loss. By posting about it Im sure you have helped others about the importance of Back up. My sister lives in Arizonia and was starting up an internet bussines with her laptop. She always was going to backup but never did. Well someone broke into her house that is in a gated community and stole alot including her laptop that wasnt backed up.A year worth of work down the drain. Right after that happened I bought an 8 gig usb hard drive hp ( memory stick)and copied all the stuff that is priceless for me. Sorry about your loss.
Ron

 

[biggziff]

The only good backup is one that you have actually tested a recovery on.

Sorry that you lost some stuff....it can be recovered. PM me if you're interested.

 

[porthole]

For the PC gurus - which backup software works best?
Easy to use and under a "C" note.

 

[biggziff]

Macrium is wonderful stuff.

 

[Rmcgrath53]

For the PC gurus - which backup software works best?
Easy to use and under a "C" note.

Im just an average Joe on the computer. For me a memory stick is all I need. Pictures and files in my Documents are all I really care about. I have some music software that is important to me but not priceless. I have original music that I can copy in documents. That stuff is what I care about .Now Guys Iike Jim B who have a career online than you need alot more. That is the kinda stuff I know nothing about.

 

[skyguy]

porthole: look at Acronis

Rmcgrath53: I have seen static arcs wipe out memory sticks as folks went to insert them into the USB slots. Try grounding yourself first...

Al S

 

[lwmcguir]

Macrium is wonderful stuff.

http://www.macrium.com/ReflectFree.asp

Have to agree. Use a USB drive for less than $50 and have a complete copy of your hard drive that is easily restored to another drive.

Buy two at Sam's or some discount place and alternate them.

Works for me and has been used to restore a failed drive successfully.