A dear friend of mine who shall remain nameless (and I sincerely hope you read this) brought me his hard drive yesterday. Now, this is the fourth time in two months that someone has brought me their dead computer and said, "since you're an IT person, I know you can fix this."
In short, I am not God, nor do I have a magic wand. Depending on the damage, it may or may not be an easy fix. By the way, if your hard drive is hopelessly corrupted and was already losing data six weeks ago, it is dead. Please don't bring me your really bad, virus laden disk and say that it has the only copy of your dissertation, novel, research, etc.
If you're paying me for my help, I will keep my face bland while cringing on the inside and sending a silent prayer up to the computer gods (who regardless of what the folks in Redmond say really don't exist) that I can recover some of your data.
If you're not paying me, well... I'll start of the conversation by calling you an idiot and cursing in three languages. If I really value our relationship (and by the way, you'd better pray I do), I will make every effort to retrieve your data. If I don't, I'll give you NewEgg's web address and a screw driver.
Here are some hints...
1) Windows does not come installed on new hard drives. If you like your Windows installation and all those fancy programs you paid for, make a bootable clone of your disk! By the way, a new Windows license will cost at least $150 and that copy of XP you love may not be available for purchase in another year.
2) Backup your files in a readable format. Do everyone including yourself a favor and don't backup your Windows or Mac system with the default backup software that was installed on the computer. Unless you like hacking your backups and searching for the one utility that will open them, have them be readable files on any machine! (No .sparseimage or .bks (Mac and Windows defaults.)
Keep multiple copies of your backups on hard drives and internet servers. Under no circumstances should the only copy of anything be stored on a flash drive, CD, or DVD. The CDs and DVDs have very high failure rates.
One other thing, I'm sick of excuses. I don't care if backing up your computer takes five minutes out of your busy schedule. If I can make time to do my backups, so can you. If you are still firmly convinved that that five minutes isn't worth the effort, data recovery can easily run upwards of $800. If you have $800 to throw away, go for it. My bank account is waiting.
In short, I am not God, nor do I have a magic wand. Depending on the damage, it may or may not be an easy fix. By the way, if your hard drive is hopelessly corrupted and was already losing data six weeks ago, it is dead. Please don't bring me your really bad, virus laden disk and say that it has the only copy of your dissertation, novel, research, etc.
If you're paying me for my help, I will keep my face bland while cringing on the inside and sending a silent prayer up to the computer gods (who regardless of what the folks in Redmond say really don't exist) that I can recover some of your data.
If you're not paying me, well... I'll start of the conversation by calling you an idiot and cursing in three languages. If I really value our relationship (and by the way, you'd better pray I do), I will make every effort to retrieve your data. If I don't, I'll give you NewEgg's web address and a screw driver.
Here are some hints...
1) Windows does not come installed on new hard drives. If you like your Windows installation and all those fancy programs you paid for, make a bootable clone of your disk! By the way, a new Windows license will cost at least $150 and that copy of XP you love may not be available for purchase in another year.
2) Backup your files in a readable format. Do everyone including yourself a favor and don't backup your Windows or Mac system with the default backup software that was installed on the computer. Unless you like hacking your backups and searching for the one utility that will open them, have them be readable files on any machine! (No .sparseimage or .bks (Mac and Windows defaults.)
Keep multiple copies of your backups on hard drives and internet servers. Under no circumstances should the only copy of anything be stored on a flash drive, CD, or DVD. The CDs and DVDs have very high failure rates.
One other thing, I'm sick of excuses. I don't care if backing up your computer takes five minutes out of your busy schedule. If I can make time to do my backups, so can you. If you are still firmly convinved that that five minutes isn't worth the effort, data recovery can easily run upwards of $800. If you have $800 to throw away, go for it. My bank account is waiting.
