bbb Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 I stupidly had all the spreadsheets I need for my business on an old computer, and it's networked to my newer computer, as well as my secretaries. She would make all the updates to them through the network. The other night, I was on the old computer and got the blue screen of death. I've got that before, and it was getting worse. More and more boot attempts before it would actually finally boot...............This time it won't. My computer guy came today and tried getting the hard drive to read on the new computer thru a USB port and then tried to put it in the new computer. Neither worked............So, he went to Carbonite - and we came to the horrible realization that all the important stuff had stopped being backed up a year or so ago. Carbonite hadn't been working and he told me to reinstall it. I did, but I must not have got it to back up all the important stuff. He took it to Best Buy, who saved the day two years ago with the same situation. They couldn't do it this time. I'm really screwed without the spreadsheets............Anybody have an idea of how we might be able to get that data out of the hard drive? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
/dev/null Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 There are commercial recovery companies that may be able to recover your data. They are not cheap. That said, what you described above sounds like the drive has failed physically. If your critical data is on a bad sector you are SoL Two questions, actually one question and an admonition. First, and if you go cross eyed reading it, the answer is probably no. Is the hard drive encrypted? If your IT guy or Best Buy connected it via USB or as a secondary drive in another system without the encryption software to read it, the other computer will not recognize the file system. Second, if you kept getting BSoD why didn't you back up your stuff when you still had a chance? My suggestion moving forward is to buy three new hard drives. Two large drives of the same capacity and a smaller drive for the operating system. Re-install your OS on the smaller drive. Add the two large drives of the same capacity and create a mirrored partition. This will cut the available space in half, for example if you buy two 2TB drives a mirror will result in a single 2TB partition. But all data written to the mirrored partition is written to both drives. If one drive in the mirror fails the other will keep running and you won't lose your data. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mead107 Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 Never printed any up? May want to do that in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gray Beard Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 1 minute ago, /dev/null said: There are commercial recovery companies that may be able to recover your data. They are not cheap. That said, what you described above sounds like the drive has failed physically. If your critical data is on a bad sector you are SoL Two questions, actually one question and an admonition. First, and if you go cross eyed reading it, the answer is probably no. Is the hard drive encrypted? If your IT guy or Best Buy connected it via USB or as a secondary drive in another system without the encryption software to read it, the other computer will not recognize the file system. Second, if you kept getting BSoD why didn't you back up your stuff when you still had a chance? My suggestion moving forward is to buy three new hard drives. Two large drives of the same capacity and a smaller drive for the operating system. Re-install your OS on the smaller drive. Add the two large drives of the same capacity and create a mirrored partition. This will cut the available space in half, for example if you buy two 2TB drives a mirror will result in a single 2TB partition. But all data written to the mirrored partition is written to both drives. If one drive in the mirror fails the other will keep running and you won't lose your data. My wife buys two-disk external RAIDs all set up for her as a standard catalog item (Newegg, I think). If she doesn’t want to take it with her or have it hooked up, she will backup her stuff in the evening. She also uses cloud storage. A belt-and-suspenders mentality. She had a bad experience once and now she will only trust RAIDs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhoTom Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 31 minutes ago, /dev/null said: My suggestion moving forward is to buy three new hard drives. Two large drives of the same capacity and a smaller drive for the operating system. Re-install your OS on the smaller drive. Add the two large drives of the same capacity and create a mirrored partition. This will cut the available space in half, for example if you buy two 2TB drives a mirror will result in a single 2TB partition. But all data written to the mirrored partition is written to both drives. If one drive in the mirror fails the other will keep running and you won't lose your data. I agree with all of that. In addition, keep doing backups. Mirrored drives don't protect your data from viruses or OS issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pine Barrens Mafia Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 (edited) My company does data recovery, if the drive is physically capable. Where are you located? Edit: and while /dev/null is correct in his assessment, there's a number of cloud-based backup systems you can use as well to have complete surety. Edited July 20, 2018 by joesixpack 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlimShady'sSpaceForce Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 did you happen to email anyone any of the spreadsheets? if you did you have a copy at least. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fr. Jerk Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 Kick the computer and swear at it. Its science. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ridgewaycynic2013 Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 24 minutes ago, joesixpack said: My company does data recovery, if the drive is physically capable. Where are you located? Your company does data recovery, and your avatar is 'Baghdad Bob'? ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pine Barrens Mafia Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 1 minute ago, Ridgewaycynic2013 said: Your company does data recovery, and your avatar is 'Baghdad Bob'? ? Yes. That's the long and short of it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
row_33 Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 you burn............... you learn................... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pine Barrens Mafia Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 5 minutes ago, row_33 said: you burn............... you learn................... Ok Alanis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
row_33 Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 37 minutes ago, joesixpack said: Ok Alanis at least this is the users fault for failing to back up, like we have been told since day one of any computer instruction when word or wordperfect or word* changed from version 3 to 4 it didn't allow for any conversion of documents, now THAT was a B-word with a capital B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbb Posted July 20, 2018 Author Share Posted July 20, 2018 35 minutes ago, row_33 said: at least this is the users fault for failing to back up, like we have been told since day one of any computer instruction when word or wordperfect or word* changed from version 3 to 4 it didn't allow for any conversion of documents, now THAT was a B-word with a capital B I wrote this. We didn't no it was no longer backing up the important stuff. I would get monthly emails from Carbonite saying that my two computers were being backed up successfully (when the one wasn't, I got an email to that effect, and then was told to reinstall it. Something must have went wrong with that and we didn't know it): So, he went to Carbonite - and we came to the horrible realization that all the important stuff had stopped being backed up a year or so ago. Carbonite hadn't been working and he told me to reinstall it. I did, but I must not have got it to back up all the important stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Tom Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 Never trust computers. They suck. Nothing good has ever come of them. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pine Barrens Mafia Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 Just now, DC Tom said: Never trust computers. They suck. Nothing good has ever come of them. I think someone once said: "To err is human. To really foul something up, use a computer." 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sherpa Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 (edited) 5 minutes ago, DC Tom said: Never trust computers. They suck. Nothing good has ever come of them. 49 years ago today we made it through four 1202 alarms and one 1201 alarm. They're trouble for sure. Edited July 20, 2018 by sherpa 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Tom Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 4 minutes ago, joesixpack said: I think someone once said: "To err is human. To really foul something up, use a computer." Someone also once said: "The most likely way for the world to be destroyed, most experts agree, is by accident. That's where we come in; we're computer professionals. We cause accidents." Though some pros are more accident-prone than others. Like sysadmins...one of whom just deleted the routing tables from my application server. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pine Barrens Mafia Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 Just now, DC Tom said: Though some pros are more accident-prone than others. Like sysadmins...one of whom just deleted the routing tables from my application server. I'm the guy that will sit there and stare at the screen and/or documentation for 30 minutes before being 100% assured that to press a button is the right thing. I'm also the guy who measures a piece of wood to be cut 10 times before cutting. Because the LAST thing you wanna be is the OTHER guy. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Tom Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 Just now, joesixpack said: I'm the guy that will sit there and stare at the screen and/or documentation for 30 minutes before being 100% assured that to press a button is the right thing. I'm also the guy who measures a piece of wood to be cut 10 times before cutting. Because the LAST thing you wanna be is the OTHER guy. You're also the guy that would exclaim "!@#$! How is this piece of wood too short!" ? Rule #3 for my developers is: "You'll make mistakes. You can't avoid them all. Put your effort into avoiding the big ones that are hard to fix, and only make mistakes that are easy to fix." We deliver good software. In fact, it's humming along fine right now...not our fault no one can use it because the routing info was deleted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pine Barrens Mafia Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 22 minutes ago, DC Tom said: You're also the guy that would exclaim "!@#$! How is this piece of wood too short!" ? That actually happened the other night as I was installing some pergo. Needless to say, I hurled all kinds of expletives at myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Tom Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 2 minutes ago, joesixpack said: That actually happened the other night as I was installing some pergo. Needless to say, I hurled all kinds of expletives at myself. You should have hired someone to do that. Hurl expletives at you, that is. I charge reasonable rates, !@#$head. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pine Barrens Mafia Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 Just now, DC Tom said: You should have hired someone to do that. Hurl expletives at you, that is. I charge reasonable rates, !@#$head. SUCK IT TREBEK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Tom Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 Just now, joesixpack said: SUCK IT TREBEK You, I wouldn't even charge. I'll pay you to be the target for my insults, you sniveling little rat-faced git. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExiledInIllinois Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 1 hour ago, sherpa said: 49 years ago today we made it through four 1202 alarms and one 1201 alarm. They're trouble for sure. And a bladder infection... Oh wait, that was Apollo 13 I think... ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Jack Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 Did you hire Rosen as your IT guy? He's really good at keeping systems up and running from what I've heard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExiledInIllinois Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 Oh wait... Wrong thread: Sorry... That's all I got... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
row_33 Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 one old accountant i had to work for forgot his laptop at a cottage and a hotel over 3 years, had to re-input schedules and stuff for weeks on end... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
/dev/null Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 11 hours ago, Gray Beard said: My wife buys two-disk external RAIDs all set up for her as a standard catalog item (Newegg, I think). If she doesn’t want to take it with her or have it hooked up, she will backup her stuff in the evening. She also uses cloud storage. A belt-and-suspenders mentality. She had a bad experience once and now she will only trust RAIDs. If you go the external route be sure to encrypt the drives in case they walk away 11 hours ago, WhoTom said: I agree with all of that. In addition, keep doing backups. Mirrored drives don't protect your data from viruses or OS issues. 11 hours ago, joesixpack said: My company does data recovery, if the drive is physically capable. Where are you located? Edit: and while /dev/null is correct in his assessment, there's a number of cloud-based backup systems you can use as well to have complete surety. And yes, also stick with the offsite backups. Obviously you want to do backups in case of critical data loss. But you also want the backups stored offsite in case of a physical disaster (fire, flood, theft, etc). Either stick with a cloud based solution or implement a local solution and take the backups (encrypted of course) to a secure offsite location for storage 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Jack Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 3 hours ago, row_33 said: one old accountant i had to work for forgot his laptop at a cottage and a hotel over 3 years, had to re-input schedules and stuff for weeks on end... A company I used to work at, we had sold a new server and backup tape system to a small business. The server failed and when they went to restore the data from the tapes, discovered my coworker that did the install never setup the auto backup to run. So guess who got to sit in that office for two days and reinput their sales from the past year? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbb Posted July 21, 2018 Author Share Posted July 21, 2018 19 hours ago, /dev/null said: There are commercial recovery companies that may be able to recover your data. They are not cheap. That said, what you described above sounds like the drive has failed physically. If your critical data is on a bad sector you are SoL Two questions, actually one question and an admonition. First, and if you go cross eyed reading it, the answer is probably no. Is the hard drive encrypted? If your IT guy or Best Buy connected it via USB or as a secondary drive in another system without the encryption software to read it, the other computer will not recognize the file system. Second, if you kept getting BSoD why didn't you back up your stuff when you still had a chance? My suggestion moving forward is to buy three new hard drives. Two large drives of the same capacity and a smaller drive for the operating system. Re-install your OS on the smaller drive. Add the two large drives of the same capacity and create a mirrored partition. This will cut the available space in half, for example if you buy two 2TB drives a mirror will result in a single 2TB partition. But all data written to the mirrored partition is written to both drives. If one drive in the mirror fails the other will keep running and you won't lose your data. The hard drive is now at who you suggest in your first paragraph, and we're hoping your 2nd paragraph doesn't turn out to be the case. I'm going to ask him about the encryption thing. I thought the backup was working! Your last paragraph is a great suggestion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExiledInIllinois Posted July 21, 2018 Share Posted July 21, 2018 Just become a hoarder... Throw your data all over the place, like leaving bread crumbs. When in doubt... Stash it. Like going to the gun range, firepower trumps accuracy. Like mead said, print it too. I am never having a "digital disaster" again... LoL... [BTW... You never took my advice before, please don't start a new trend and take it now] Best of luck... We are all counting on you! ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foxx Posted July 21, 2018 Share Posted July 21, 2018 (edited) On 7/20/2018 at 2:16 AM, bbb said: I stupidly had all the spreadsheets I need for my business on an old computer, and ... you could always make some sort of terroristic threat and have the FBI do their forensic analysis to dig 'em up for ya. On 7/20/2018 at 12:02 PM, joesixpack said: I'm the guy that will sit there and stare at the screen and/or documentation for 30 minutes before being 100% assured that to press a button is the right thing. I'm also the guy who measures a piece of wood to be cut 10 times before cutting. Because the LAST thing you wanna be is the OTHER guy. they're kind of expensive and i have lost mine but you could always get a board stretcher for those occassions when you ARE the other guy. Edited July 21, 2018 by Foxx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuvian Posted July 21, 2018 Share Posted July 21, 2018 (edited) see if your security/antivirus software package includes back up. Some do would any employees have e-mailed the spreadsheets through gmail by chance? Edited July 21, 2018 by stuvian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExiledInIllinois Posted July 22, 2018 Share Posted July 22, 2018 On 7/20/2018 at 11:02 AM, joesixpack said: I'm the guy that will sit there and stare at the screen and/or documentation for 30 minutes before being 100% assured that to press a button is the right thing. I'm also the guy who measures a piece of wood to be cut 10 times before cutting. Because the LAST thing you wanna be is the OTHER guy. How the hell did I miss this? I like your style. You must get a lot done, quickly! ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pine Barrens Mafia Posted July 22, 2018 Share Posted July 22, 2018 6 hours ago, ExiledInIllinois said: How the hell did I miss this? I like your style. You must get a lot done, quickly! ? Quickness is secondary to correctness. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbb Posted July 22, 2018 Author Share Posted July 22, 2018 21 hours ago, stuvian said: see if your security/antivirus software package includes back up. Some do would any employees have e-mailed the spreadsheets through gmail by chance? I don't think it did. The good news is that a data retrieval expert got to the data................I still want to see it when I have it tomorrow, but it seems that he has pulled it off! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pine Barrens Mafia Posted July 22, 2018 Share Posted July 22, 2018 2 hours ago, bbb said: I don't think it did. The good news is that a data retrieval expert got to the data................I still want to see it when I have it tomorrow, but it seems that he has pulled it off! Let this be a lesson to you all that this organ-i-zation will not tolerate failure 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wnysteel Posted July 23, 2018 Share Posted July 23, 2018 a real answer before you go the expensive data recovery option. stick the hard drive in sealed bag, then the freezer for a bit, then pull it out, stick it in the computer and try to boot it up. if it boots, immediately make a copy of the Excel file. and anything else. N.B.: you could make the situation worse. However, I have seen this work before. And it will only work on older hard drives (think 5+ years). https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/112050/recovering-data-from-a-damaged-hard-drive-the-freezer-trick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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