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I'm homicidal - all FS planes lost!

Their "revenge" was sweet... One of the girls picked up a couple of pine cones from the blacksmith's tinder box and commented...

'You see how all the leaves on the pinecones run one way?' :icon_lol:

'They'll be sittin' down careful for months, they will - and squatting cautious-like at the jakes.' :ernae:

Urgh! Nasty... :isadizzy:
 
Toast,

I've great empathy for you since at this time my system has just informed me that my "K" drive, an external drive I back up to, is no longer readable. (Okay, so it's my backup, and maybe the impact isn't that great -- haven't quite figured it out yet).

My daughter also just informed me that she just dropped her laptop down the stairs, and of course her whole college world is on that system. Won't this be fun?

However, at the risk of lecturing and offending folks, yourself included, I need to point out that whenever you bring a system into someone to fix, you need to understand what you're asking them to do. The bottom line is your guys FIXED your system. That was their mandate.

Your loss of data is not necessarily their concern unless you made it their priority. That is an object lesson for us all.

Most of us are now in the position where the data on our systems is more valuable than the systems themselves. Everyone reading this needs to think that through, because not too long ago that would not have been the case. This idea surely needs to be expressed whenever dealing with a 3rd partly because they are going to assume that the system itself is the priority. Why did you bring it to them after all? I run a pretty expensive system, but would sacrifice it in a heartbeat to maintain the data moving across it. I suspect that most of the popular support folks do not have that kind of thing written into their contracts. Note to everyone, make this clear when you take your system in! I've no doubt that Toast did this, which is why he's so irritated.

I have some experience with it dealing with such occurances every day. I run a fairly large DOD network and this is a common occurrence. Unlike you however, my guys have the advantage of mulitple network drives where all their data can be stored, is backed up locally, and backed up off site at a COOP location out of state....yet they still persist in keeping their most beloved data on the local hard drive...the one most likely to fail. When my folks fix these drives....they do not address the data. They fix the systems. That is their job.

I wish you well and certainly hope your buddy at the FLETC can assist. I've also had this occur to me so I know the pain (as I expect most of us do).
 
Oh, I understand and agree with your point. In this case, I was very clear about the number of drives and their importance when I explained what the original problem was. The shop owner, who built this system to my specs specifically for simulations and extra storage, was well aware of the data value to me and was present when I dropped it off.

While they did what I asked of them (re-install XP), an incompetent technician failed to protect the drive for no good procedural reason, prior to overwriting the drive. This is the proximal cause of the loss of the data and independant of the original request for service.

It's as if you went in for an operation on your spleen and while there, the doctor removes your left leg because you had a boil on your foot !!

As I mentioned before - I will not live another day without an external drive for copies of all critical files -
 
For what it's worth Toast, I think my external back-up drive is "toast". (Sorry, couldn't resist)

I am giving online back up serious consideration. Perhaps some of the other forum members have some experience with this?
 
For what it's worth Toast, I think my external back-up drive is "toast". (Sorry, couldn't resist)

I am giving online back up serious consideration. Perhaps some of the other forum members have some experience with this?

often times when an external drive goes bad, it's the "external" part of the drive. if it stops working you can usually bust the case open, remove the actual hard drive, and install it as an internal storage drive and it will work just fine. even if you don't have the room for it, you could still do it temporarily in order to copy the files to something/somewhere else.
 
Well, hope springs eternal ! I've got it with a tech at the forensic computer lab at the FLETC here about 10 miles from my house (Federal Law Enforcement Training Center). Referred to me by a friend -

He says that it is entirely possible to retrieve files even if the drive has been overwritten. I may get back 50 to 70% of my stuff ! File names will be gone and each file will have to be opened and re-named but that's just expending time !

It's good to have capable friends. . . I should know something by tomorrow.

I heard they (Federal Law Enforcement) can retrieve deleted files even if the drive has been overwritten or deleted.... I watched that on CSI... :icon_lol:

I pray you get back at least 70% .... :engel016:
 
Well, here's what happened; he recovered about 60% of the FILES from the drive but they are not recoverable intact within their FOLDERS. . .

Yes, that's right . . . I've got thousands of recovered files randomly listed without file names (only random numbers) and it will be impossible to reconstruct aircraft folders in order to reinstall in FS9's Aircraft directory !

As I open each file, many are damaged or corrupted. Some are intact but it looks like I'm just going to have to start over on this manuscript (if I can generate the will to do so) and start downloading anew the planes I flew frequently in FS9 -

*sigh*

Chacha - what you saw on CSI is a fraction of what is really capable!

Thanks for all the concern and suggestions - You're a remarkably kind and caring group of people.
 
Sorry about that Toast. Sounds like what happened to one of my drives.. I cried.. it was a dark day..


Apple 'Me' has online file storage. They 'suggest' it so you can retrieve files when ever you need them. Say you are at a convention in a far away country and your laptop HD goes out. Get a new one, install, set it up, download your important files, done..

Your files, waiting, online..



On HD scrubbing or cleaning, the military have 'standard' cleaning procedures programs that do this. They write 1's and 0's to the drive, over and over, I think six or 8 times. This insures you have 'nothing' on the HD. Several software manufacturers make software that have 'Air Force' level cleaners, etc. (There are many).


Bill
 
often times when an external drive goes bad, it's the "external" part of the drive. if it stops working you can usually bust the case open, remove the actual hard drive, and install it as an internal storage drive and it will work just fine. even if you don't have the room for it, you could still do it temporarily in order to copy the files to something/somewhere else.


I'm going to take a look at that cheezy....at this point, I don't think I've lost anything since it was a backup after all, but still , it's the principle of the thing.
 
Poor Toast, I am sorry that this happened to you. My external drive (E: = 2nd backup) just failed. After I have replaced that one, I will copy everything from my internal backup, the D: drive, to the new E: drive. After having gone through a lot of misery similar to yours about two years ago I decided to run a primary and a secondary backup. Something for you to consider.
 
I'm going to take a look at that cheezy....at this point, I don't think I've lost anything since it was a backup after all, but still , it's the principle of the thing.

my storage drive began life as an external drive. i just moved the jumper on the "C" drive, and then the jumper on the newly internal "E" drive, mounted it in the bay where they extra disc drive would go, and hooked up a new ribbon. it was that easy.
 
You're dead right, Kofschip - I'm going to be a backup fool, one internal and one external.

And if I start anew on the writing - I'm going to print the damn thing as I go, regardless of how many progress edits I do. I don't feel that I'm going to have the inertia for that, though. Maybe next year -

:kilroy:
 
Toast, you need to start writing again, while your memory (if you have one :bump:) is till fresh. You owe it to us to publish your efforts.:ernae:
 
You're dead right, Kofschip - I'm going to be a backup fool, one internal and one external.

And if I start anew on the writing - I'm going to print the damn thing as I go, regardless of how many progress edits I do. I don't feel that I'm going to have the inertia for that, though. Maybe next year -

:kilroy:

I hope that you do and that your FS system will be up and running better than before! :ernae:
 
Well, it took the cost of a retrieval program but I got all my data off my back up, which was good since there was stuff there I had forgotten about.

I think this was a self inflicted wound....I place the drive in an area that did not get adequate ventilation, and I think it overheated. When it gets real super hot to the touch it's probably not a good sign.

The reason I'm updating this is because I found myself walking down the path I myself had cautioned against (say it isn't so!)...."oh, I'll just reformat this drive and get it up and running again...."

Nope, don't think so. I'm getting new drive. They're super cheap for the amount of storage --- the same cost as the recovery program.
 
By the way Cheezy, because of my concern for damage to the drive I'm not going to throw it in the bay of my Dell.

Although I may go to that rather than an external. Not sure yet.
 
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