Had to format my computer.

[Mark Wilson]

yep!
lost everything. Awesome.
My computer just stopped working. We tried everything, My dad is a technician and he said I had to format it.

I had 5,000 songs at least. This blows.

 

[fenderhutz]

Yeah, it would have been easy to hook it up to another machine and just copy the files over.

Just because the machine doesn't boot doesn't mean everything is lost.

 

[Mark Wilson]

Yeah, it would have been easy to hook it up to another machine and just copy the files over.

Just because the machine doesn't boot doesn't mean everything is lost.

I tried that.
The problem is is that it wasn't detecting the board.

 

[RandomEvent]

That sucks man.

That almost happened to me, but I was fortunate enough to have separate partitions. Just had to format the partition with Windows.

After that, I made sure all of my HDD's had separate OS partitions, and I have a few Western Digital external HDD's for backups. It's a load off the mind to spend a hundred or so dollars on a MyBook and know you've got backups.

 

[Mark Wilson]

I'm trying to reinstall everything now.
I'm a bit upset about the pictures and everything, cause those can't really be replaced (maybe, but it'll talk a long time)
But, I'm mostly upset about all my CD's I had on the computer.
But, Those are replaceable. Gives me a new reason to keep all my songs organized now.

 

[fenderhutz]

Buy the exact same hard drive on newegg or try and pick one up on Ebay and just switch out the board.

Also you can send it to On-Track in Reston VA and they will charge you roughly 600+ for the recovery.

 

[RandomEvent]

Maybe you should look into getting and external HDD for backups. I know I said it already, but it really is a good investment if you have a lot of media files. And they aren't too pricey nowadays either. I got both of my WD's at BestBuy, 320 GB for like 90 bucks each. And I'd imagine Amazon sells them for cheap.

 

[fenderhutz]

I got a 500 GB Western Digital from a circuit city for about 90 bucks shipped this Holiday.

 

[RandomEvent]

I knew deals were only getting better and better.

I got a 500 GB Western Digital from a circuit city for about 90 bucks shipped this Holiday.

 

[Eric Perry]

I have a few drives in my box. One for the OS, one for my apps, and one solely for all my data.

If my OS drive crashed... I really wouldn't care!

 

[A9X]

I have a few drives in my box. One for the OS, one for my apps, and one solely for all my data.

If my OS drive crashed... I really wouldn't care!

I do the same, and still back all the data files up to an external HDD as well. I learnt the hard way.

 

[Chunk-O-Funk]

Well, that stinks, Mark.

Different drives are a great way to go. You can also achieve the same security by simply partitioning your one drive. If your OS crashes and you have to reformat, everything will still be there on the other partitions.

If you didn't do it when reformatting you can still do it with a partition utility, or if you are using Vista it comes with a partition manager built in.

I Picked up an external HDD a few months ago too. It's really the best way to go as it's not always plugged into your computer.




BTW, Mark.
Like my new hat??

 

[Eric Perry]

...You can also achieve the same security by simply partitioning your one drive. If your OS crashes and you have to reformat, everything will still be there on the other partitions.

But if your drive crashes, you are still potentially SOL!

 

[BassManPatsFan]

Do you have an ipod? You could get all your songs off of that (illegally though I think).

 

[Chunk-O-Funk]

But if your drive crashes, you are still potentially SOL!

True, but any drive can fail. Like the one with all your data or the one with all your media files.

Separate drives are better than one big one, but if all you have is one drive making partitions is a smart way to go. Keeping a backup on an external being the best way to go.

 

[Eric Perry]

True, but any drive can fail. Like the one with all your data or the one with all your media files.

Separate drives are better than one big one, but if all you have is one drive making partitions is a smart way to go. Keeping a backup on an external being the best way to go.

Very true.

I like knowing that most of the time, my data drive just sits quietly, being unused and untaxed though.

 

[Yvon]

it's important to have back of your files, you never know when you can get in trouble and loose everything.

 

[Chunk-O-Funk]

Very true.

I like knowing that most of the time, my data drive just sits quietly, being unused and untaxed though.

Yep, the likelihood of one of those drives failing is pretty low as it doesn't get accessed as much. Besides the extra cost of the drives I think the only downsides are more power consumption and a little more heat into you computer. Not that big of a deal.

I guess we can say, separate drives are better, but more expensive. A single partitioned drive is a good, less expensive alternative if keeping your data intact is important to you.

 

[Alvaro Martín Gómez A.]

Sorry to hear that, Mark. In my case, I always keep my valuable data in different partitions and also have installed a second hard disk which is an exact copy of the first, thanks to this program.

 

[Loose Cannon]

I learned the hard way a few weeks ago about backups, as well. The motherboard went bad with no warning, and it was going to cost nearly as much to fix as it would to buy a new one similar to what I had. On the advice of the computer repair shop, I purchased an external hard drive enclosure, put the drive in there, and was able to transfer all my music, pictures, and documents to the new computer easily. My add-on programs would not work, however, and had to be reinstalled.

Lesson learned: Backups.....good. Computers....evil.