Well it offical, all my stuff is gone. Have to start from scratch. Over 3000 itunes and way more pics,all gone. :unsure:

Sorry u lost everything. But we'll be here to gladly look at all the new pics... :bonerfied: :niceones:

Damn!!!!! :ph34r: Sorry for your loss. :(

:( All those boobs gone....... but not necessarily. The drive can possibly be restored.

The drive could possibly be restored, or files could be salvaged if the sectors where the pics were saved have not been overwritten. There are programs out there to read hard drives and list salvageable files.

The issue as I understand, is finding someone they would be comfortable with doing the work. All that would have to be done is connect the old HDD to a working computer and then use the software to search files. BUT, whoever does the work is gonna eventually SEE the files.

It's not hard, and might be able to save alot of files. But if JD's hubby isn't savy enough, it's not something you wanna take to the local Geek Squad at Best Buy.
:P

Let's admit it. Pay and Cman want to take a trip to Califoriania to save JD's hard drive and get to meet the lady herself! :P :P :lol:

Sorry guys actually paid to try and save it at a geek squad type place and they couldn't. So it back to 0. Ill just have to take all new ones.

I would have loved to see the look on the geek squad's face if they had been able to fix it and saw what was on the hard drive. There would be a lot of guys calling off with carpal tunnel the next day...

Oh boy if you only knew, all kinds of videos on there and pics of me and gal pals

awwww I KNEW there was vid!!!! And you never shared WAAAAAA :(

Partition Recovery Pro..... Might help ya with the saving.

:(

Ill try but the geek squad guy said he had to reformat the drive so he said everything was wiped. I don't know shine all about computers so I'm lost. Hubby is good with cars bikes and big stuff, with computers, fax machines, and cell phones he is lost,lol. Our son had to set up out wireless router. And yes there was video, really good video, but its all gone now.

That's a shame. It sucks sometimes that there isnt anyone close by enough to look into stuff like this. That's my thing with "Geek Squad" etc. Those guys are taught only so much, and if they cant fix it quick they go right to the wipe the hard drive and rebuild option, cause they get the most money out of the least amount of work time. Unless it was a "catastrophic" drive failure: drive head crash; physical disk failure. But if he was able to reformat it, that tells you the drive itself didnt fail physically.

What should have been done is: connect to another computer and browse the drive either within comp B's operating system or using a 3rd Party app (like the one mentioned by C-Man) to try to save as much User Data as possible.

Just cause the drive wouldn not boot up into the operating system DOES NOT mean that you couldn't salvage the files there or even browse through the directories.

Sorry JD. I know I couldn't actually look at the drive and see the problems, but just from what you were describing, in my opinion and experience, at least some of those files could have been saved.

I know the files were sensitive, but did the Geeks even give you the option of them trying to salvage data files from the drive before going for the hammer and just wiping it?

Well I had guessed hubby was good with Big stuff as he has your :niceones:

:flashMelons: computers fixed, so have to start all over, heres picture #2

Sweet... 2 down, 398 more to go. Tonight. Lol. :drama: :flashboobs:

Gorgeous, JD.... :niceones: :niceones: :niceones: :niceones:

what a way to make a come back . :niceones: :P :bonerfied:

may this be the start of a new 3000 collection :cheers:

I just lost my 2nd computer to Lightning and yes i have surge protector , the tech i use suggested a battery backup . I have a back up generator that automatically kciks in after the power being off for 3 minutes so i just want tht backup for that reason did i waste my money ?

Well depends. Be more specific about the lightening strike. DO you have - i dont know the specific term - one of those "house" lightening rods? The kinds that runs through the house into the ground designed to funnel a strike to earth avoiding as much of the home circuitry as possible?

If not, I'm not sure a surge protector can protect against THAT much juice. I suspect the tech meant pick up a reasonable but not too cheap UPS (uninterruptible battery supply). It's designed to allow for a graceful shutdown of a pc in the event of a power failure. My guess is, he thinks if you run your pc on the UPS and happen to be hit with another lightening strike, the UPS will take the hit from the power surge and not the pc.

The backup genny kicking in after 3 minutes doesnt save any work on your pc if the power gets cut off.

We live at the end of power Grid , which mean if the Lighning hits anywere close we are usually the first to lose power .. And no we dont have the rods anymore we have tall grain bins within 100 Ft of the hosue and they usually take the hits direct and they are grounded . Thanks for the advice Pay