[bomber101581]

and I may have lost all my pictures and home videos!

stupid computers. its possible that all my data is still there, but I don't know how to get at it and now I gotta pay someone to try to get it off there. on top of that, I gotta get a new computer. It was time for one anyway, this HP is about 5 years old. I can't tell if this was a virus or if it was a hardware failure, but the tower has been making a lot of noise lately and so I am thinking hardware. stupid computers.

 

[SamStafford]

I feel ya man, this is #6 computer for me in the last 10 years.

 

[Strangerous]

PICNIC!
ID-10:T error!
Computers don't have problems... People have problems.

But seriously, noise could have been an indicator to do some cleaning of the computer's internals... mainly the heatsink fans on the CPU, Power Supply, and all those dust bunnies that live around the expansion slots. You may have been able to avoid such a disaster, but without being there to actually go through the troubleshooting process... I'm not going to go further on what your issue is/was or how it can be fixed/repaired.

 

[47_MasoN_47]

Ship me your hard drive and I'll see if I can pull your data off. No charge

 

[PrimalSeal]

Would that go for me too Mason? I have an old hard drive that got a virus so I did a low level format just to get rid of it so I could get the computer to come back up. There were about a thousand old pictures that my wife had scanned, every picture we had in our photo albums. I still have the hard drive, but I was going to try to get the software I needed to recover the data. I really don't have the time right now.

I did format it, so if it's gone, it's gone. Just let me know if you think you can do anything with it.

 

[47_MasoN_47]

Sure Primal I'll give it a shot. Most of the time formatting won't hurt it, but if you altered the partition table it's possible that some of it could be lost.

 

[ajole]

If Primal really DID do a low level....its gone.

And +1 to the noise being a cue to check things out; or at least copy some stuff off to another Hdd, or burn a few disks.... Noise in a computer is sort of like an idiot light, without the light...it tells you something is wrong, but you still have to find out what.

 

[47_MasoN_47]

Low level or not...I have some "special" software that does some amazing things One of the advantages of being an admin at a hacker forum

 

[bomber101581]

Ship me your hard drive and I'll see if I can pull your data off. No charge

Thanks for the offer man. I'll talk to my wife about it.

 

[bomber101581]

PICNIC!
ID-10:T error!
Computers don't have problems... People have problems.

But seriously, noise could have been an indicator to do some cleaning of the computer's internals... mainly the heatsink fans on the CPU, Power Supply, and all those dust bunnies that live around the expansion slots. You may have been able to avoid such a disaster, but without being there to actually go through the troubleshooting process... I'm not going to go further on what your issue is/was or how it can be fixed/repaired.

I think you are 100% correct on that

 

[Silicon Wolverine]

Low level or not...I have some "special" software that does some amazing things One of the advantages of being an admin at a hacker forum

i heard that brother. its AMAZING what is out there for the picking if you know where to look.

SW

 

[theqbn]

allmydata.com

 

[ajole]

Ok...so maybe I am confused; I often am. :-[
But isn't a "low level" format on an IDE drive a full-on overwriting of ones and zeroes to the entire hard drive?
Which would make any data that was there...not there?

 

[AGuyNamedMike]

True low level formatting hasn't been a common user activity for many many years, pretty much since the industry changeover from the old MFM to the new RLL type hard drives, and even so, low level formatting wouldn't include a full overwrite anyway.

Hope springs eternal.

 

[Dane]

Ship me your hard drive and I'll see if I can pull your data off. No charge

Is that an offer to others too? My WD drive failed recently too. Getting a 'insert boot disk' message. Having to access the internet via old laptop now. :cry2:

 

[PrimalSeal]

LOL! Mason, you might just have to start charging for the data recovery. Might be a good side line money maker for you dude.