Last week Sat, we had a thunderstorm that knocked out my main computer with all of my contacts and information and music but I also lost all of my photos of my children...
I have not been around the Zone since.....however I am trying to get back up
and running again by the weekend, don't fight and be nice to each other.....
Tony Rome

If you have no copies of the photos anywhere, the hard drive... sometimes the data can be recovered. There are companies specializing in this.

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Me Bill
Yamaha PSR2000

Sorry to hear that Tony.
I believe that the cost to retrieve the data will be staggering. It used to be at least.
Hope it turns out ok, sometimes you can simply install the hard disk and retrieve the data.

Tony, are you sure you can not get access to your hard drive..Usually a surge [lightning] will burn out your power supply and possibly your motherboard..

Use an external case with your hard drive and see if the hard drive shows with another computer[or install the drive in another bay of the new computer]..

What happened was the computer was doing a
virus scan when the lights went out so the tech saiud that because it was in use at the time, it crashed the boot dirc so it won't oot up...we tried to install the drive in a different computer to boot it to read the files to copy but it won't read anything and won't boot up in any mode...I was told that in Mexico city we maybe could save the information but it would cost about $1,000 us with no gaurantes...I'm still trying to recover the data, I will not install a new OS and formatthe disc over, I'll get a new disc and go from there.
Someone had told me about a program called GHOST that can retrive the data....anyone ever hear of it or know about it....thanks for all the support, I'll keep trying.....
Tony Rome

Hi Tony
sorry to hear about your lost files.
If you have ever looked at my website, you will have noticed that I unashamedly advertise a company called File-Saver.
This is because a year ago , I also had a loss of data on my HD (which also 'deleted' 4 years of my family photographs!)
I came across this company by chance,used the software and regained most of my data. I say 'most ' because if you have defragged or overwritten any of the files, they are unfortunately lost for ever.
The cost of the software is minimal and if you take it carefully you may well be able to regain some of your files if not most, as I did.It seems that even when you accidentally delete any files, they are still there on your HD!!!
I have had friends thank me for this link, so it has worked for them.
Give it a try.
You can either go to my webpage and at the bottom you will see the banner or you can go now direct to www.file-saver.com
Let me know if it works for you.
cheers
Eddie


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Eddie from Rotherham
Skype:eddiefromrotherham
www.yamahakeyboards.info

I would also try what Fran suggested; "Use an external case with your hard drive and see if the hard drive shows with another computer[or install the drive in another bay of the new computer]..

I think you may possibly be OK, even if the boot sector is not. So far as ghost is concerned it's a great tool, but in this case it is not what you need.

Steve....I did that, tried two different computers, they don't reconize the H/D...I will check out the link on Eddie's site in the meantime...I thank you all for the ideas
and I will continue to try others..keep them coming please...Eddie I'll check it out
Tony Rome

hi tony, i have come upon this thread just now...you can try a pretty good freeware recovery program called PC Inspector File Recovery available from www.pcinspector.de click the box at the top right to change to english and proceed from there, make sure you select "file recovery" from the pane on the left, the others are for flash drives usb sticks etc etc..i would send it to you via email but its 8mb..so maybe try that and you may save some money as well as files...

dennis

peace, out

Hi Dennis
Thanks for the link to the recovery site.
I have downloaded the file-recovery and hope I don't have to use it! but it's probably good insurance.
I noted on the same site that they also have a smart card data recovery software, which I also downloaded. My son lost all his holiday photos on his last trip because he removed the card while it was still active. I shall talk to him later today with this news.
Thanks again.
Eddie

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Eddie from Rotherham
Skype:eddiefromrotherham
www.yamahakeyboards.info

I dont see that the fault you have had should have caused irretrievable damage to your hard disc to the extent that the "normal suspect" disc repair tools would be useless; so I'd get hold of Norton Utilities (part of Symantec Systemworks) or suchlike, load that onto a host machine and then install your hard disc as a secondary drive on the host machine and see what NU can find and retrieve.

The specialist agencies charge lots because if the internal hard disc driver card has gone a.w.o.l. they could be "mix and matching" hard disc internal components in a clean room in order to create a drive unit that can then be analysed.

Tony,
Your files are probably still there - it's just that you can't access them. There is a good possibility that your Master Boot Record has been mangled (MBR). Don't do anything foolish like reformatting, ETC because you then lose everything for sure.
go to www.langa.com/newsletters/2000/2000-07-17.htm
and follow the directions to rebuild the MBR.
Since your computer wont boot, you will have to get someone else with a working computer to make a DOS boot disk for you.
Good luck,
Walt

[This message has been edited by Walt Meyer (edited 06-24-2005).]

I was told by a tech that the drive was reading at the time of the power outage and that the reader head must have touched the disc surface and destroyed the boot section
because it can't be read by any of the tools that we have tried including the Maxtor recover disc from the manufactuer... I have pulled the disc and installed it into
other computers as a main and as a slave and
iy can't be read by any means so far...in order to use the file recovery prograns mentioned above, they must first be downloaded into the hard drive and the drive can't be read..not as a slave drive or a main drive.....I am open to all ideas
and will try anything.....thank you to all..
Tony Rome

Walt...thank you for the link, that is what they say the MBR isd destroyed...NOW, where
do I find or download the FDISK program so I can try it..thanks again....
Tony Rome

Tony, check your Email.
Walt

Thanks Walt....I tried it all and so far nothing works...still open for new ideas...
Tony Rome

Tony, for Fdisk /MBR to work, it has to be a DOS boot and the system files and the Fdisk version all have to be compatible, preferably DOS 6.22 Also, only one hard drive can be present (the one with the problem).
Check your Email - I've sent a file that will create a DOS 6.22 boot floppy when it is run.
This is very easy so give it another try - you have nothing to lose.
Walt

I have used a Live Linux CD to access and recover a number of HDD's data in the last few months. Mepis and Slax are good, they run from the CD. You place the CD in your CD drive and reboot. If all the hardware is found, 9 times out of 10 it will see the files on the hard drive (NTFS or Fat32). XP/2000 is a little bit of a pain, but it is still possible to recover data. Since you have a 2nd HDD all you would have to do is copy the files you want to the 2nd drive, then nuke in pave the original HDD. The Linux interface is a GUI, so if you can use Win. you can use these versions of Linux.

Can you here the drive spinning up? And when you plug the drive in what is the error, i.e.. "No OS Found", "Invalid System Disk",etc, or does the system just try to start then reboot?

My niece had some kind of hatred for Linux, didn't want it around her system, yada yada......until she trashed her system and didn't have any backups....I saved around 89% of her files, so now I don't get yelled at to much any more! This is just a thought..............

Tony, sorry to hear about your recent computer woes. Unfortunately I don't have anything to offer in solving the problem, but trust that you'll have it resolved (with the help of the resident computer experts here) soon. - Scott

Hi, Tony!

Sorry to hear about your HDD trouble. Well, if so many help here didn't work for you then my little idea won't help you anyway, I'm afraid.

If the MBR is defect then you'll have to recover it with fdisk /mbr in DOS mode (like Walt told you). It could work for you to re-install Windows again because the Windows installer will try to repair your resident Windows without formatting the HDD or overwriting any datas.

You've mentioned a very good way - installing a new HDD with Windows and then connect your defect drive as a second drive. If the partition information is still there then it should be possible to read and copy your whole datas. Don't get panic as long as it's nothing lost!

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Greetings from Frankfurt (Germany),
Sheriff ;-)