Davway RETURNS!!

[Kryton]

well its been a few very trying days down here in the 'Bool. amongst other things that have been happening, my computer decided that it didnt like 36c heat and said 'GOODBYE'. now, here i am with NO previous info, persona digi pics (irreplaceable), email, infact NOTHING AT ALL but a freshly reinstalled version of XP on a brandnew hard drive.
lets just say im not a happy camper.
the thing that shits me the most is all the photos we took are now gone and can never be seen again. things like my dads trip over here from the States, his wedding pics, our old cars we no longer have, the cat growing up, places we've been and things we've done.
that is the hardest part.
with time though we can get back all our links, programs and music and things like that but it really SUCKS big time having to start fresh AGAIN.
hell i cant even remember my password to the server so i cant even do any mail to monday at the earliest.
anyway its good to be back here so feel free to drop some links and things of interest.
dave.

[SileNceR]

davway what happened to the old drive?

[seano14]

i feel your pain mate. this has happened to me twice, so now i run a second crappy computer on the network and copy any important stuff to it every week or so, i dont wanna lose everything again really! another option is have a few cdrw's

[BlueRaven]

I've got an even better idea...

Go to your local computer shop. Spend about 150 bucks. Return with a DVD+R DVD-Burner.

Then, when you get at least 4gb of stuff you want to burn, go down to your local supermarket/pc shop, spend 30 bucks, return with 25 - 30 DVD+R discs. That'l keep you busy for a looooooooooooong time.

Edit: Check out the DVD Burner thread. I'd recommend that Panasonic for $105 (I added on the extra 45 dollars because I figured you could get something for that price if they didn't have that particular drive model)

[lv619]

I'd reccomend upgrading your cooling/heatsinks inside your computer. If its happened once, their is a good chance that it will happen again.

[rodderz]

Know how you feel davway...tis really a royal pain in the bum, happened to me last year when I got Windows XP Service pack 2, and just crashed with a flashing cursor. Managed to get some things retained by putting the hard drive in someone elses PC and getting some of it saved, but alot of it was lost

[rob_o]

Yesterday it started getting really hot so i took the side panel off my computer and put a small desk fan blowing air into it, just in case. I do have 3 extra ball bearing fans in the tower but u can never be sure when things go kaboom. And it would suck losing everything you have, especially photos.

Ive got all my stuff on my C drive but I back it up onto E drive every week or so just in case one dies. I think I might look at other cooling things. I think a mini air-conditioner in one of the bays would be cool

[Kryton]

ok well after installng the new drive, all isnt as bad as it seems. i hooked up the old drive and can still access it even though it has lost 10gig of files on it.
GOOD NEWS.....85/90% of our photos are still there, so thats a relief!!
BAD NEWS.... the drive is that slow that if you click something and dont wait (upto 2 mins) for it to load it will get confused and just deny the drive is even there.
so copying back our photos is going to be a SLOW process but at least they arent gone forever.
as for the DVD burner, Yes i was thinking the same and seen a BRAND NEW one (non-dual) 16x for $50 from where i got my HDD from. will be getting next week.
also someone said heat sink....your on the money. whoever set up the comp originally with the last settings disabled ALL warning signs of over heating. now we usually leave the comp on ALL DAY EVERY DAY (except bed time) so all this time its been over heating BIG TIME.
a warning came up before that it was too hot and i should check the heat sink after only 2 hours of use.....then it turned itself off.
so a heat sink and a DVD burner and all should be sweet!!!
oh also the old HDD is that slow you could race an inanimate object and IT would still beat you to the finish line!!

[Paris Hilton]

Even with all the warnings turned off it will still turn off if it gets over 80C (75 for Intel, 80 for AMD). I'd get a temperature monitor off the internet (I recommend MBM5) and see what temps your case/cpu are at. If they are fine (~50C for an Athlon, 40 for a Intel) then no point in getting a CPU Cooler, If it's the HDD that's suffering from heat problems. You can get 5 1/4" Bay HDD coolers, it'd be worth getting one. As for the desktop fan and open case, this may actually worsen the heat problem - Most cases are designed to cool through airflow, and having the side off stops the airflow, and in turn increases temperatures.

[XRated]

If you really need those photos etc there are dedicated data recovery companies out there who could probably get it for you no worries. It just might be expensive.

Alternatively, there are programs floating around the 'net that restore/search lost image files. I used one a month or so ago and it found all my lost digi cam pics, and pics I don't even remember having... The only problem was that it is shareware, and I need to spend $75 to restore them all :P

[Toolman]

Davway don't sweat it, it's only "stuff".

I um... lost everything I had about 3 years ago... I was thinking it was a huge loss... but in reality, all the memories are in my head, no one or no hard drive can take that away.

Life's too short to worry about stuff you can't control.

Just my view of it....

[Kryton]

well even with the drive being a slave now i cant even get into it. infact when its plugged in (slave) the PC wont even boot. been looking around the net and found a few programs that 'may' recover the files but they are only if you can get into the PC in the first stage.
funny thing is that the IDE picks up the drive but then it says that the drive has failed and thats the end of that.
hmm ill figure it out sooner or later.