I Just Lost All My Computer Stuff!!!!!!!!!!

[ewenlin]

I know how you feel Sarah. Lost all my data before though not from a Harddisk failure but rather a theft of my laptop!

Right now I use Apple's Timecapsule that saves an image of my whole laptop updated every hour. In any event of a laptop crash or theft (God forbid), I can run out to the store get a brand new laptop and have Mac clone everything over.

But boy was I bummed out that time. Cheer up!

 

[wallingj]

The online storage plus backups system I use requires 2 usb external drives, and 1 Network Attached Storage box (NAS)box. I take a ton of pictures, since that is my hobby, so I have a lot of large graphic files laying around. Several years ago I thought I might have lost my primary NAS box and all of my pictures. I was able to recover that box, but after that, I have at least three copies of all important files. First storage would be the hard drive of my desktop, those files are copied to the NAS box attached to the home network. Also a copy of the files are copied to an external usb drive. There is another USB drive that needs to be held in a safe deposit box. You should about once a month swap out those drives, make a finally copy of those images to the 2nd USB drive, then you can remove the files from the desktop. The primary file is now on the NAS box. I use MS Sync toy to keep all the three drives in sync with each other.

 

[PointingToChrist]

I'll pray for you, Sarah.

And I will say - not in any effort to say I told you so, since I didn't - but in the hopes that others will jump on the backup bandwagon after seeing this thread:

• You should always back up your data
• Get an external hard drive and make sure you do periodic system image backups (I do it once a week) so in the event you have a system problem (I had a video driver meltdown recently) you can restore the whole computer back with no problem. $100 for a 1TB drive is cheap.
• Back up your data (documents, pictures, music) periodically. I tend to rely on the system image for music (since I have so much) with every other day backups of documents/pictures on my external hard drive.
• If you have multiple PCs/laptops (like many families) I encourage the use of "somewhat backup" by having copies of the picture files across multiple computers. I do this, and in order to lose all our pictures, we would have to have four PCs fail simultaneously, along with the external hard drive.
• Use an online backup service for the most important documents/pictures. There is Mozy/Carbonite, or there is also an excellent service called Dropbox. A free account is 2GB, it syncs files across computers if you want, keeps a backup copy on their webserver, and even keeps 30 day old revision copies. You can get 50 GB for $99/year or 100GB for $199.

If you are interested in Dropbox, you can sign up using this referral link and get an extra 250MB over 2GB. I use it for our church "server" to kee all church documents synced on my computer, our associate's and our secretary's.

https://www.getdropbox.com/referrals/NTEwMzE4ODE5

My back up external hard drive is what I messed up when I hooked it up to my mac. Everything was backed up!! I have always backed up my stuff and now that external hard drive (Maxtor 500GB) no longer works. Like I said....Beth came over and we backed up everything on my computer onto my external hard drive and then she cleaned out my computer. So now I don't have any of my stuff anywhere.

Thanks everyone for all your suggestions. If it costs too much to retrieve my info, I'll just have to lose my writings and get software which will transfer all my music, sermons, and books from my ipod back onto my computer. And since my external hard drive doesn't seem to work anymore I'll have to buy another one of those too. This is unexpected expense I don't really need!

Did you ever get your problem fixed?

By the way, I don't think your hard drive is broken, as you say it no longer works. As others have said, Mac likes to reformat the drive so it can be used with its file system. You'd have to format it again to use the PC type system (don't do this unless you are sure you can go without the data you lost!)

 

[OPC'n]

I'll pray for you, Sarah.

And I will say - not in any effort to say I told you so, since I didn't - but in the hopes that others will jump on the backup bandwagon after seeing this thread:

• You should always back up your data
• Get an external hard drive and make sure you do periodic system image backups (I do it once a week) so in the event you have a system problem (I had a video driver meltdown recently) you can restore the whole computer back with no problem. $100 for a 1TB drive is cheap.
• Back up your data (documents, pictures, music) periodically. I tend to rely on the system image for music (since I have so much) with every other day backups of documents/pictures on my external hard drive.
• If you have multiple PCs/laptops (like many families) I encourage the use of "somewhat backup" by having copies of the picture files across multiple computers. I do this, and in order to lose all our pictures, we would have to have four PCs fail simultaneously, along with the external hard drive.
• Use an online backup service for the most important documents/pictures. There is Mozy/Carbonite, or there is also an excellent service called Dropbox. A free account is 2GB, it syncs files across computers if you want, keeps a backup copy on their webserver, and even keeps 30 day old revision copies. You can get 50 GB for $99/year or 100GB for $199.

If you are interested in Dropbox, you can sign up using this referral link and get an extra 250MB over 2GB. I use it for our church "server" to kee all church documents synced on my computer, our associate's and our secretary's.

https://www.getdropbox.com/referrals/NTEwMzE4ODE5

My back up external hard drive is what I messed up when I hooked it up to my mac. Everything was backed up!! I have always backed up my stuff and now that external hard drive (Maxtor 500GB) no longer works. Like I said....Beth came over and we backed up everything on my computer onto my external hard drive and then she cleaned out my computer. So now I don't have any of my stuff anywhere.

Thanks everyone for all your suggestions. If it costs too much to retrieve my info, I'll just have to lose my writings and get software which will transfer all my music, sermons, and books from my ipod back onto my computer. And since my external hard drive doesn't seem to work anymore I'll have to buy another one of those too. This is unexpected expense I don't really need!

Did you ever get your problem fixed?

By the way, I don't think your hard drive is broken, as you say it no longer works. As others have said, Mac likes to reformat the drive so it can be used with its file system. You'd have to format it again to use the PC type system (don't do this unless you are sure you can go without the data you lost!)

No, I don't know how to fix it.

 

[Quickened]

Did you try using Recuva that i linked to eariler?

 

[OPC'n]

oops! No, I went to Canada and have been working 12h shifts since I got back and well have a boat load of other excuses as to why I forgot your suggestion. I'm sort of the "out of sight out of mind" type of person. If ever I don't see a friend for awhile, I forget their name. However, since I'm somewhat embarrassed that you caught me in my blond year I'll probably remember.

 

[Quickened]

Well its rather easy to use I am happy to inform. Its just a matter of selecting an option or two and then pressing a button and waiting. I've used it before. Rather good. So hopefully you find success with it!

 

[ReformedTarheel]

I'm sorry to hear about that. I wish I could offer you some advice on how to get it back, but I know how frustrating that must be.

 

[Hippo]

USB flash drives are now quite cheap for a 16gb or even 32gb stick, it is always worth backing up key data to one of these as well as a backup to a hard drive as it is much more practical to physically seperate a USB drive from your computers.

Backing up to a second drive is great but a backup should ideally be held in a seperate location (the benefit of online backups) due to fire, flood and theft risks.

 

[Skyler]

Point #1: Find a professional data recovery service as recommended above.

Point #2: Never, ever, ever click a dialog box without reading it and understanding it!