Computers... Darn!

[james kent]

Or words to that effect!
The furnace guy was here this morning and while trying to find the right fuse crashed the computer. Have had to do a complete startup and a complete re-config. Lost all my pictures and there is a bunch of stuff that I don't remember how to re-do. Hopefully my backup discs can bring back the photos. Will have to reinstall my printer, scanner, logitec camera, sound and other stuff as I find not what's not working. What a pain.

[fusedlight]

Are you sure he totally fried the disk or just the operating system? A lot of times you can connect the drive to a second computer (lots of ways to do this) and strip the stuff off the old drive. Even with a physically damaged disk you can sometimes work around things. If you are VERY desperate to get things back you can pay a recovery service to get stuff back. That MAY be covered by your home insurance. If you've already re-formatted, though, you are probably out of luck. Is this a Mac or PC? Good luck...and if you have any questions give a yell...I've done this kind of recovery more than once.

And...to all the rest of you out there...

BACKUP YOUR COMPUTER!!!!!

It's not a matter IF you are going to need that backup, it's just a matter of when.

[Frederick L. Simson]

Originally Posted by james kent

The furnace guy was here this morning and while trying to find the right fuse crashed the computer.

Maybe you ought to add labeling your fuse panel to the list?

[lauramoncur]

IN the future, we'll all store our important data on servers on the Internet (the cloud), but we'll have to wait until data speeds get faster before that's entirely feasible.

[papas34]

I lost everything twice before I ordered Carbonite......now I've renewed my subscription twice and never needed it....lol

I was told it does not save everything....anyone know anything about that?

[fusedlight]

@Papas - I've never used Carbonite, but with most of those backup services you need to tell it what folders you want it to keep its eye one. In any case, always keep a LOCAL backup! There have been some well-publicized cases where "the cloud" has lost data when a data center had "issues". I always tell my customers to do network-based backups, but to always keep a burned CD or whatever "just in case".

[honda03842]

James, on our trip to Alaska our laptop jumped off the dash desk on a particularly rough road. It never worked again however we were able to remove the disk drive and install it in another computer and retrieve all the pictures. I'm certain a professional may be able to save your data.

[David Tilston]

20 years ago, I was a CAD draftsman. My work computer had a hard drive failure one day. The person responsible for backups was the president of the company, (small company). It turned out that a successful back-up hadn't happened for two and a half months.

It cost $2700 to recover the data. Back then, that was allot of money.

[Ed Harris]

Something is not right here,power loss should not make this happen in general?
I would have it looked at by someone in the know before resorting to spending any big money.
I also would be highly skeptical of someone who tells you it will be big money to recover your data or OS?

I have been supporting PCs since the start and can not tell of 5 times this has happened really.

[rgrugg]

I keep all photos and documents on an external hard drive that I plug into the computer ONLY when I want to send to or retrieve from it.

[fusedlight]

@Ed - about the only time I've seen a catastrophic disk failure is when there was a pulsing on and off of power OR a lightning / high-voltage arc into the computer. I agree... a simple blown breaker shouldn't have fried stuff UNLESS the disk was in the middle of a write to, say, the registry. In that case the disk data should be easily recoverable.

[mcbrew]

Mac computers come with a fantastic backup utility. It is pretty much completely hands off... Just plug in an external drive and it will ask if you want it to be your backup drive. After that, it backs everything up and keeps it all up to date. If you accidentally delete a file, you can go "back in time" until the file reappears. You can also do a complete restore to a new computer. It works better than any PC backup system that I've worked with.

Also, consider getting a decent UPS (uninterrupted power supply). If the power goes out, for whatever reason, it just runs your computer from its internal battery. I don't know about PCs, but my Mac "talks" to the UPS and if it goes to backup power and the battery gets low, it will shut down the computer properly before power is completely lost.

[Mike Magee]

+1 for uninterruptible power supplies (UPS's). Absolutely essential equipment IMO! After all, power blinks and power surges are a fact of life on today's electric grid.

[Ed Harris]

Originally Posted by Mike Magee

+1 for uninterruptible power supplies (UPS's). Absolutely essential equipment IMO! After all, power blinks and power surges are a fact of life on today's electric grid.

Another reason a Laptop is ideal in my experience.

[james kent]

Yes the panel was labled. No the guy didn't look at the lables. Yes, I reinstalled windows. Yes, I have back up discs. No, i'm not totally computer literate. As an old guy I do have some ability but depend a lot on my local PC guru as it's outside my expertise and will have to have him do a thorough servicing of the machine to get things back to normal. His labour costs have always been reasonable in the past. Never thought about recovering the cost from my home insurance. Something to think about. Will have to check my deductable. Hmmm!
I sometimes think that it's more than my pension will bear.

[fusedlight]

Heh... Having an on-call geek is nice. I am a geek, but I raised my son to be an uber-geek. It does come in handy.

[Roger C H]

Satan and Jesus had a competition as to who could program a computer the best in one hour.

They were going at it full force when about 10 minutes before the deadline, both computers crashed.

Jesus won the competition. See next post to find out why.

[Roger C H]

Because Jesus saves.

[Ed Harris]

Originally Posted by james kent

Yes the panel was labled. No the guy didn't look at the lables. Yes, I reinstalled windows. Yes, I have back up discs. No, i'm not totally computer literate. As an old guy I do have some ability but depend a lot on my local PC guru as it's outside my expertise and will have to have him do a thorough servicing of the machine to get things back to normal. His labour costs have always been reasonable in the past. Never thought about recovering the cost from my home insurance. Something to think about. Will have to check my deductable. Hmmm!
I sometimes think that it's more than my pension will bear.

So can you tell us Exactly what the problem was?
Again this just does not add up to me and I am trying to understand how this could have the effects you describe?
Thanks
Ed

[fusedlight]

@Roger - Ah yes! And oldie, but a goodie!