HOME | POLITICS | SPORTS | LIFE | SCI/TECH | OPEDS | HELPFUL TIPS
|
 By Argile Stox Feb. 1, 2006 So, I decided to install a new hard drive / CD-DVD burner and the Geek Squad (Best Buy) in Rapid City, South Dakota completed the task. All was going well; until the computer crashed and XP had to be reinstalled. SOB! I lost - not just one program, all the programs and documents that was stored on the new hard drive. I almost lost my mind! I could not even do a “system restore”! Re-installing XP reformatted the C Drive and D Drive. At least I had the presence of mind to spend the extra bucks and had program disks sent to me by mail. For an entire day and night, I sweated to install every back-up disk in my program inventory. The thing that really pissed me off – all saved e-mail addresses and saved e-mails (which contained documents) in Incredimail was erased when the “blue screen of death” appeared, as the computer crashed. I did burn a CD with the most important documents prior to the crash. I still have e-mail addresses stored in Hotmail – However, I have not updated the “Contact List” in a long time. Why did the system crash in the first place? I don’t know! GRRRR… Once the computer was completely restored to a working state, I began the process of grieving for all the erased programs, documents and digital pictures. Well, that did not last long! I began a search on Google to find a reasonably priced “Data Recovery” program. I must have spent about a half day reading and comparing programs that promised to retrieve data – even if the hard drive was reformatted, and had the free space “bleached” by a Window Washer program. I finally settled on a “FAT & NTFS” data recovery program. There were a few bugs to be worked out (talking to the software company by phone) – as usual. Within twenty minutes, I fired up the data recovery program, and…. It took at least two hours for the program to restore many of the documents and programs (that I did not have a back-up disk for). When I retrieved many of the digital pictures that were thought to be history, I let out a “WHOOP” that echoed throughout the house. I was truly amazed! The program was unable to retrieve a collection of scanned-in documents – however, I was pleased that very important documents and digital pictures were restored. This brings up a very important aspect of data stored on hard drives. If you – Dear Reader, think, if you do the maximum number of over-writes of 1’s and 0’s, bleach the hard drive, and reformat – THE DATA CAN BE RESTORED! The only way to be assured that the disk drive is completely empty of data…. TAKE A HAMMER TO THE DRIVE AND COMPLETELY DISTROY IT! I’m not kidding! If you have an old computer hanging around, that you plan to donate or discard – REMOVE THE HARD DRIVE and PHYSICALLY DISTROY IT! Period – End of Story. If you have been a regular reader of my U-K columns, the thing that must be running through your mind is: “What other programs did you buy and install?” Well, no one single program cures every problem that may lurk in your computer. I installed an additional computer system check program – which alerted me to the fact that there were TWO HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-FIVE “problems” that needed to be fixed. A few clicks, and the problems were solved. As of this writing (6:47am), the computer is humming along and problem free – I hope! The guys at the Geek Squad did a great job of installing a new hard drive and CD/DVD burner. I do not believe that they caused the computer to crash. Prior to the crash, one of the installed programs was about to expire and was acting strange (not responding to commands and quitting). The new drive was labeled “F” – the old drive was labeled “C” and “D”. After the crash, the new drive was labeled “C” – the old drive was labeled “D” and “E”. How and why did that happen? Only the computer Gods know for sure. Well, that is all I know for now. I hope that you will take my advice concerning disposing of hard drives. In addition, I plan to purchase a stand alone back-up hard drive (costs about $150) in the near future (I keep saying that – Maybe I will start a spare change jar and throw a few dollars in it, to save for that purchase…). May the Digital Powers That Be, Smile On You! ------------ Email Argile Stox: argilestox@gmail.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
||||||
|
|
|||||||
|
