Hdd's Crash

[Bagwan]

After a power outage I recently lost the use of my 2 external disc drives. Thankfully the internal one survived. After trying everything I that I could think of, and failing to resurrect them, I took them to P-Care Computer on the 4th floor at Pantip Plaza. They managed to recover all 1400 of my files to my total relief but now will be kept busy for a week or three renaming and sorting them into categories. I was charged 1800 baht to recover my 250 Gb and 1200 baht for the 120 Gb one. As a former mainframe computer operations manager I should have known better and backed everything up although in this instance it wouldn't have helped. since both were connected. When I have finished re-organising my drives I intend copying them onto yet another drive and then disconnecting it, connecting only when doing periodic backups.

[JetsetBkk]

And don't forget to put a copy in the fire safe and keep off-site backups too.

[stolidfeline]

What, no UPS ????

[samuijimmy]

Do you use a UPS surge protector?, well worth the investment...

I actually have three sources of power protecters, leading into my computers. Over kill perhaps, but after "one computer going south", that was enough! The motherboard was burned out, not the hard drive... luckily, I suppose.

First, I have a Power regulator, then the UPS, connected into power bars, therefore everything has better protection against the power surges & sudden outages.

It is a bit of a pain turning off & on in sequence, but better than losing everything!

Most good computer shops or electrical stores sell these devises. Don't necessarily buy the cheapest models either!

[Spoonman]

+1 for the UPS, everything of value should be using one, dont buy a cheapie, buy one that will shutdown your PC in the event of a power outage.

Good to hear you got your Data back, i would have pulled the externals apart first though to determine if the HDD had shit or was it the electrics of the caddy.

[Bagwan]

And don't forget to put a copy in the fire safe and keep off-site backups too.

In another country I presume.

UPS purchased today at the same time as the security HDD.

A friend tells me that he uses uses a program called Ghost which makes a copy of his C drive. I do not understand the logic of this since if the C drive crunches he's up the creek without a paddle since I doubt that he has the knowledge or facilities to initiate a new HDD and copy back to it. I rely on Comodo to keep my system clean and advised him to do likewise, but he puts his trust in McFee. I wouldn't.

[sleepyjohn]

Do you use a UPS surge protector?, well worth the investment...

Actually errr......no.

I'm here 6 years now and no surge protector. I hear the batteries need replacing too.

So using a laptop which is always with me......ie not leaving the laptop on 24 hours a day at home......do I really need a UPS?

[Crossy]

So using a laptop which is always with me......ie not leaving the laptop on 24 hours a day at home......do I really need a UPS?

No need for a UPS provided your laptop batteries are in reasonable condition and you have time to shut down if the mains goes off, but a surge arrester would be a wise investment to protect your PSU. I've had several laptop PSUs killed by surges, not just in Thailand mind.

[JetsetBkk]

Do you use a UPS surge protector?, well worth the investment...

Actually errr......no.

I'm here 6 years now and no surge protector. I hear the batteries need replacing too.

So using a laptop which is always with me......ie not leaving the laptop on 24 hours a day at home......do I really need a UPS?

Just shutdown and unplug it if there's a thunder storm nearby. I use a UPS that has surge protection, and also protects the telephone line.

[JetsetBkk]

And don't forget to put a copy in the fire safe and keep off-site backups too.

In another country I presume.

I used to take the off-site backups home with me when I worked in the UK. And kept another set in a fire safe.

UPS purchased today at the same time as the security HDD.

A friend tells me that he uses uses a program called Ghost which makes a copy of his C drive. I do not understand the logic of this since if the C drive crunches he's up the creek without a paddle since I doubt that he has the knowledge or facilities to initiate a new HDD and copy back to it. I rely on Comodo to keep my system clean and advised him to do likewise, but he puts his trust in McFee. I wouldn't.

I used to use Norton Ghost, but now use Acronis True Image Home 11. You can make system images and store them on a USB drive, so you could disconnect the USB drive and put it somewhere safe. Off-site. In another country, even.

[Bagwan]

And don't forget to put a copy in the fire safe and keep off-site backups too.

In another country I presume.

I used to take the off-site backups home with me when I worked in the UK. And kept another set in a fire safe.

UPS purchased today at the same time as the security HDD.

A friend tells me that he uses uses a program called Ghost which makes a copy of his C drive. I do not understand the logic of this since if the C drive crunches he's up the creek without a paddle since I doubt that he has the knowledge or facilities to initiate a new HDD and copy back to it. I rely on Comodo to keep my system clean and advised him to do likewise, but he puts his trust in McFee. I wouldn't.

I used to use Norton Ghost, but now use Acronis True Image Home 11. You can make system images and store them on a USB drive, so you could disconnect the USB drive and put it somewhere safe. Off-site. In another country, even.

I still have a mental block over this. If the C drive goes for a Burton, presumably you take the USP device to your dealer and ask him to copy it to a new HDD. Assuming that you partitioned the busted drive, you could then put it on line and copy the D drive before binning the device. Yes/No?

[JetsetBkk]

I still have a mental block over this. If the C drive goes for a Burton, presumably you take the USP device to your dealer and ask him to copy it to a new HDD. Assuming that you partitioned the busted drive, you could then put it on line and copy the D drive before binning the device. Yes/No?

Yes, I think . The system image on the USB drive can be restored to a new C: drive - a new hard disk. You could do it yourself - Acronis lets you restore images as well as create them.

If you can still access the D: partition on the "busted drive", yes you can copy the data across to a new D: partition on your new hard disk. (They won't both be "D:" - Windows will give them appropriate letters).

But I think a power surge or lightning strike will make the whole disk - partitions C: and D: - unreadable. You may be lucky if just the file being written to at the time of the power surge gets damaged.

It's best to backup your data too.

As well as making regular system images of my C: drive, I have a 1.5 TB "working" drive and a 1.0 TB "backup" drive. The backup is normally powered off and disconnected.