Ducati Sporting Club UK > Model Specific - Discussion, Technical Problems and Help > General Motorcycles only > PC Problems - Help and a warning !!!

[Iconic944ss]

I was always told, backup - backup and backup again but now the roosters have come home to poo on me as I ignored this well known addage !!!

I guess its about a year since I did a complete backup of all the files on this PC and I only recently did a good tidy to get the HD down to around 2/3rd full.

Last thursday I did two things before horror struck and I'm not sure which (if any caused a problem). My daughter wanted to play a net game that asked for a newer version of Java that I had installed so, since it was a site I trusted (Miniclip) I allowed it to go ahead but it asked for a restart......so I though I would also remove some used programs / games at the same time - there are some demo expired games from MSN etc that have mounted recently.

On restart - Windows did not load - the dreaded message "We apologise Windows did not load on the last attempt...blah blah" appeared BUT...it would NOT boot into any mode at all...Safe mode simply ran though a list of drivers - stalled and then did an auto reboot.

'Last known config' - simple did an auto reboot straight away as did all the others except Recovery Console, which at least mounted the drive so that I knew the was nothing physically wrong with the drive or the PC.

I've never used Recovery console before but years of DOS computing stood me in good stead. Only a few basic commands can be used and apart from seeing that all the drives were present and the boot sector 'appeared' to be ok - I could do no more.

No the dodgy bit - the PC originally came with a ligit version of XP Home but was (Ahem) 'upgraded' to XP pro - I had the restore discs for XP home but the XP pro disc WOULD NOT boot the machine, so my plan of using the repair program failed straight away.

To cut a long story - I ended up taking the PC to shop recommended but a friend who had a virus problem that they had sorted ok. He said he would try to clone my entire drive and then reinstall XP home (using the s/ware key on the PC case) and then copy all my files back over.

Three days later I collected the PC even though they did not appear to know WHY the problem occurred (but simply blamed having Internet Automatic Updates turned on ??? - I must admit however, I do remember 2 auto restarts having taken place a few days before the problems began). I fired her up for the first time - XP home with no accounts as I expected. When I went looking for the backup files. my wifes and daughters documents and folders all appear intact but mine (which was the admin account as well) are TOTALLY missing......mail, documents, music and video's etc etc etc - all gone.

A few frantic calls to the shop revealed that the backup they had taken was over written already - My hard drive had been reformatted, so no chance of getting anything back there!

The only chance they thought was that my files might be hidden as they were Admin classified - as they suggested - I booted into safe mode OK - as admin - but could not find any files of mine anywhere.

At £30 its not the most expensive lesson I've ever learned but I reckon all my files that I've lost were about 10Gb in total, including email addresses - photos - favourite music and bike videos - pdf manuals and saved web pages.

I still find it hard to believe that everything was fine EXCEPT my directory!!! But only have myself to blame really for not having a backup.

I've now bought and fitted a DVD writer so at least I can start a proper backup strategy.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED !!!

Frumpy Frank

[Iconic944ss]

LOL - DONT....the SCSI problems I remember from old.....no thanks!

[Redsps]

frank, no data is ever totally lost unless you detroy the disk platters themselves. the pathways to the data is lost or damaged, sometimes data is jumbled up and not accessible, but it's still there. their are numerous causes for the lost data.
I do data recovery for a living, if you need to get files back, good chance they can be recovered from the disk, and restored to their original format.
If you need help let me know.


cheers robin

[Mr_S]

I use a data recovery tool from these guys,

http://www.r-tt.com/

worth every penny it cost me.

[Iconic944ss]

Cheers Robin, I'm starting to get suspicious of the 'recovery experts' I used, as I've just started a deep scan of my drive using a program called 'RecoverMyFiles' and it is starting to show some of the files from my directory.

I'm beginning to doubt their competence already - sadly, it sounds like they have over written my data on the backup they took - before we had even got the PC out of the shop, not good practise I'd of thought.

Thanks - Frank

[Iconic944ss]

The plot thickens - using the program 'Recover My Files' I was able to see my complete directory that I was looking for. The program is a demo and it even allowed me to recover a few of my photo's as well so at least I had hope that all was not lost. I phone the "Recovery experts" for their advise and they said for me to bring it back in and they would have another try.
Yesterday they phoned to say they have been totally unable to recover anything. So, I guess I'm on my own and starting to think they are even more incompetant - (unless they have been nasty and deliberately overwritten the data to try and cover their original mistake !!!).

I'll U2U this to Robin for advise - but any help is welcome.

[Redsps]

frank have sent you a u2 message.

[chicken]

Sorry to hear of your troubles Frank.

Although you've got a DVD writer now, might still be worth investing in one of these, or something similar.

http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product=4004987

All of my home PC documents are stored in one folder so all I have to do is
drag the folder over once a week. It's big enough to store all of my music and my work files and small enough to carry around in my man purse.

As well so as long as there's a PC/laptop around with usb/firewire and an Internet connection, I can work pretty much anywhere (unlike Dubbya!)

[TP]

Originally posted by chicken
... gay talk ... in my man purse. ... gay talk ....

In your f****** what?

Just because they use the word man doesn't mean it's ok!

[chicken]

alright then - professional-grade courier bag...

http://www.pacdesigns.com/ultimate.htm

sheeshh.....looks like you've reinforced the stereotype of the homophobic aussie. And remember that it's always the ones that shout the loudest - I don't care that you have 37 kids and a lovely wife!