Sad news for me....

[Ld3441]

I came home from work early in the week last week to discover my PC had died on me.

It was old and bound to happen I suppose but I lost everything. No, I didn't back up anything. The thing I hate losing the most is all of my DIY notes and spreadsheets. I had a lot on there and now I am brand new again starting all over.

I have spent this weekend trying to figure out Windows 8 and where everything is. Maybe by next weekend I can start to gather my DIY info again. Lesson learned (the hard way of course) this time it will all be accessible online so I can get to it from another device should this one fail me.

Just a reminder to all here.... if you have your notes on your PC, make sure you can get to them if your PC dies or have back up!

 

[dannyv45]

As a person in the computer field I know this all to well. And I religiously back everything up once a month on to a secondary server thats always ready to take over if my PC's fail. I feel your pain and wish you the best of luck in recovering your data. As far as DYI goes at least you now have some experience under your belt and diving back into it shouldn't be that difficult. And look on the bright side, you may just come up with some killer recipes that will blow the old ones away.

 

[SupplyDaddy]

So, you ended up getting a new PC?
You know you can take your old hard drive and make it a usb external drive, right?
Data Saved!

 

[dannyv45]

So, you ended up getting a new PC?
You know you can take your old hard drive and make it a usb external drive, right?
Data Saved!

These are very handy for doing just that. Makes a great recovery tool. Heck you can even do 2.5" laptop drives. It's saved my .... many many times. Of course that depends on if the hard drive is salvagable and just the PC such as the power suppy or motherboard went bad and the hard drive is still good. If not then you'll need hard drive recovery software to go along with that such as active undelete..

Kingwin EZ-Connect USB to SATA/IDE Adapter USI-2535 - Micro Center

 

[DeepSix]

Did your PC die, as in the processor/vid card or did the hard drive die? If the hard drive did not fail, you can still get your notes back as they are not lost. Simply remove the hard drive and connect to your new pc.

If your files are small, and the hard drive seems to have died, try this...place the hard drive in a plastic bag ziplock bag, remove as much air from the bag as possible and place it in the freezer for a few hours. Take the frozen hard drive from the freezer and immediately connect to your pc. If you know where your files are stored, navigate to them and copy them to the new hard drive. You will only have a couple minutes to do this. If you are not computer savvy, get a friend who is to do this for you.

NOTE: if the hard drive is a SATA style hard drive, you do not need to power down and power up your pc to get the drive to be recognized by the operating system. If the hard drive is PATA, then you will have to shut down the PC to get it to be recognized if you are directly connecting it to the EIDE bus.

 

[Ld3441]

So, you ended up getting a new PC?
You know you can take your old hard drive and make it a usb external drive, right?
Data Saved!

Not if the hard drive failed.

 

[Ld3441]

Did your PC die, as in the processor/vid card or did the hard drive die? If the hard drive did not fail, you can still get your notes back as they are not lost. Simply remove the hard drive and connect to your new pc.

If your files are small, and the hard drive seems to have died, try this...place the hard drive in a plastic bag ziplock bag, remove as much air from the bag as possible and place it in the freezer for a few hours. Take the frozen hard drive from the freezer and immediately connect to your pc. If you know where your files are stored, navigate to them and copy them to the new hard drive. You will only have a couple minutes to do this. If you are not computer savvy, get a friend who is to do this for you.

NOTE: if the hard drive is a SATA style hard drive, you do not need to power down and power up your pc to get the drive to be recognized by the operating system. If the hard drive is PATA, then you will have to shut down the PC to get it to be recognized if you are directly connecting it to the EIDE bus.

I wish you were in Florida! LOL It is the hard drive that failed. I have no idea how to do any of that you suggested but wish I did.

 

[DeepSix]

I would hold on to the hard drive until you can find someone that can.

There are other methods of data recovery...but are somewhat technical to someone who does not play with computers. But if your data is that valuable its worth a try...

 

[dannyv45]

I wish you were in Florida! LOL It is the hard drive that failed. I have no idea how to do any of that you suggested but wish I did.

Check your PM I may have a solution for you.

 

[Ld3441]

Thanks for the suggestions! You have given me a bit of hope anyway. I am clueless when it comes to this type of stuff and didn't know it was even possible. I will be happy to pay someone to do this for me so maybe I can find someone that will. I do still have it sitting here.

You guys are awesome!

 

[Wingsfan0310]

Sorry to hear that LD

I'm actually older than dirt and keep a notebook on my recipes (I'm talking actual paper and ink) just in case. I really am old school

Hope you can salvage your notes. At least anything you posted here or elsewhere will still be availabile. Again, I'm sorry to hear that!

Sincerely,
Steve

 

[Ld3441]

Yea Steve, I am old too. I did still have a few paper notes laying around so I have used those to start over again. I am really trying to catch up with technology that left me behind several years ago. LOL Seriously, I am going to have a notebook this time as well. An excel spreadsheet was so nice and neat though.

 

[cramptholomew]

My suggestion, is that your use Google Drive for your spreadsheets and notes. It stays on their servers, you edit everything right in your browser, and it's accessible from any computer anywhere. No more backing up your documents! You don't get enough space to put all your pictures and music, so that stuff would need to be backed up, but it's GREAT for docs and spreadsheets.

 

[Ld3441]

My suggestion, is that your use Google Drive for your spreadsheets and notes. It stays on their servers, you edit everything right in your browser, and it's accessible from any computer anywhere. No more backing up your documents! You don't get enough space to put all your pictures and music, so that stuff would need to be backed up, but it's GREAT for docs and spreadsheets.

That is what I am doing this time. I didn't have that on the old PC. I do love that!

 

[Rickb119]

The same thing happen to me about a year ago. Took it to a local computer guy and he was able to salvage most of my files.

 

[Wingsfan0310]

LD, I'm sure you already know this, but just in case. You can go to the top of the page and click on your name or my profile. Then on the left side of that page under your profile picture, click on find my latest posts. You can read all your posts. That way if you posted recipes you can get them back. Just trying to help. Good luck.

Cheers,
Steve

 

[Ld3441]

Thanks Steve! Yes, I did know that but it hadn't occurred to me to do so.

 

[Wingsfan0310]

Thanks Steve! Yes, I did know that but it hadn't occurred to me to do so.

You're Welcome LD, I hope it helps you recover at least some of your recipes.

Cheers,
Steve

 

[Burnie]

Just remember, Just like PV's, Backups of your backups, of your backups. I won't get into how many backups I do, but sufice it to say, there are many. I could have 3 computers crash and not loose anything, but I am .... about backups of backups. I even backup my work computer to my phone once a week. Many years ago I lost data, decided it would never happen again. I use a program that backs up changed data from one computer to another daily, then weekly backs up to my server in Virginia. Not just data files, what about all the digital pictures we all take now days, I have over 32 GB of pictures, yes I am backup crazy, but all for a good reason. JMHO

vape On
Burnie

 

[cramptholomew]

Just remember, Just like PV's, Backups of your backups, of your backups. I won't get into how many backups I do, but sufice it to say, there are many. I could have 3 computers crash and not loose anything, but I am .... about backups of backups. I even backup my work computer to my phone once a week. Many years ago I lost data, decided it would never happen again. I use a program that backs up changed data from one computer to another daily, then weekly backs up to my server in Virginia. Not just data files, what about all the digital pictures we all take now days, I have over 32 GB of pictures, yes I am backup crazy, but all for a good reason. JMHO

vape On
Burnie

This.........^