Crashed a hard disk on the weekend. Don't have a proper systematic back up in place. 
Have been able to get a lot of stuff back from various source, but it's been an absolute PITA.
Just a warning to those who have been procrastinating like me. Do it now!! 
Select to expand quotenebbian said..
For those of us with real computers, it's as easy as clicking a slider:
Are there programmes that can be run on an ordinary home PC, to avoid losing stuff? Like regularly backing up to a (now) cheap Terabyte HD?
Not that I have anything worth saving mind you... LOL.
One of my brother's in law had a crash a few years back, and lost everything from when the digital age began.
There are a number of companies offering online backup services of nominated locations on computers.
Im a bit cheap so I just back up stuff to an external drive.
Dropbox rates are cheap as chips these days for 1TB plus. $10 a month. Made my Nas redundant
Flash drives, no clouds involved, can't be hacked, and always in your possession, just remember where you put them.
Select to expand quoteRockyDude said..
Are there programmes that can be run on an ordinary home PC, to avoid losing stuff?
I made this one as an exercise in coding:
At the end of every day, or when I have the right combination of drives plugged in, I choose the save in the left window and hit 'Scan'. It checks for files that have different modification dates, or new files, and does a backup of those files only. If you turn on the "Full Sync" checkbox it will remove any files in the destination folder that don't exist in the source folder. It's quite agricultural but it works - on Windows 7 and Windows 10 anyway, I haven't tried it on anything else. Seabreezers are welcome to it for the low low price of free, just send me a PM.
There are a few companies that can recover "unrecoverable" data from crashed hard disks, flash drives etc. A friend of mine had all of her files recovered 100% perfect from a buggered flash drive a few years ago. Cost around $600, but she got everything back.
Backing up is better, and this is good reminder Harrow........ but if you are crying about lost files, data recovery is an option.
Clarence
Select to expand quoteRockyDude said..
Are there programmes that can be run on an ordinary home PC, to avoid losing stuff? Like regularly backing up to a (now) cheap Terabyte HD?
Real men use robocopy /mir 
but seriously, I think most desktop HDD come with some kind of backup software. I have been using WD Smartware for a while now, which was included with the drive when I bought it. It is fairly simple but works fine. It automatically saves a copy every time you make change a file so you have instant backup and can go back in versions (probably similar to TimeMachine ?)
I had some issues with native windows 10 backup so switched to WD Smartware about a year ago and had no issues. I recall Seagate drives also have some sort of backup SW on them when you buy them.
And I also run robocopy once in a while to take a snapshot backup to another HDD
Yeah, I had a look at some of those backup solutions but none seemed to be flexible enough to specify a set of folders from all over the place to be backed up, so I built my own. Plus it was a good learning experience.
I would have to agree, the "freebies" are quite simple but probably OK for the average person.
Select to expand quoteGreenPat said..
Yeah, I had a look at some of those backup solutions but none seemed to be flexible enough to specify a set of folders from all over the place to be backed up, so I built my own. Plus it was a good learning experience.Select to expand quoteGreenPat said..RockyDude said..
Are there programmes that can be run on an ordinary home PC, to avoid losing stuff?
I made this one as an exercise in coding:
At the end of every day, or when I have the right combination of drives plugged in, I choose the save in the left window and hit 'Scan'. It checks for files that have different modification dates, or new files, and does a backup of those files only. If you turn on the "Full Sync" checkbox it will remove any files in the destination folder that don't exist in the source folder. It's quite agricultural but it works - on Windows 7 and Windows 10 anyway, I haven't tried it on anything else. Seabreezers are welcome to it for the low low price of free, just send me a PM.
Thanks GreenPAT.
That works a treat. Simple and easy so far
Will report back when I have given it a good work-out. 
Harrow, did you give your disk to the ABS. they seem to be suffering the same thing 
When you said your hard disk crashed, Harrow, do you mean you can't reboot your computer?
I have experienced a few of those nasty cases when my computer simply won't reboot. I did manage to get it back to run. After that, I did a couple of things to fix the troubles that caused the failures in the first place. So may be I can butt in and offer a little help?
Here is a question, please...
Can you reboot your computer at all ?
^^^^
I dropped my laptop from a height while it was running, it hit the ground very hard, and managed to bounce a few times as well. (I always like to do a job properly. ) After that, it has refused to boot giving a "main disk media error" . I got almost everything I needed from other sources. Not worth spending any money on a 4 year old laptop.
But if you have any ideas, I'm open to them. I figure I could put the drive into an external hard case, and try to read data from it using another computer. Just haven't had a moment to try. Can't find a spare minute since I retired in June!
That sounded like what had happened to the ABS's computer systems. Someone must have pushed the bloody thing out of the 10th floor !
Anyway, back to the real world...
When my computer failed to reboot, I did the following to get it fired up back on "Safe Mode". Once in "Safe Mode", I was able to run a hard disk repair utility within the Microsoft OS itself.
So here are the step...
(1). Turn the power off.
(2). Hold down the "F8" keys.
(3). Turn on the power while the "F8" key is held down. You will hear the computer "beeps" a few times.
(4). Release the "F8" key. With luck, the computer will get into "Safe Mode". If so, you may be in luck.
(5). When in "Safe Mode", choose any option with the least baggage, eg. Without Internet connection.
(6). Get into "Explorer". I am referring to the File Explorer.
(7). If you have reached this far, you are doing well. Now click on the "Boot Drive" which is the "C:" drive.
(8). "Right Click" on it, then "Left Click" to select "Properties" which is the last option on the selection box.
(9). Select the 2nd "Tab" titled "Tools" on the pop-up menu.
(10). Select the 1st option titled "Check Now" on the "Tools" panel.
(11). Click to select both options listed on the "Check Disk" box. This "Check Disk" or CHKDSK" utility will scan your disk for problems and fix them as it goes. Most time it will repair and clean out problematic areas. It did to mine.
Please note that it will take a bloody long time to run. Sometimes it may take up to 5-6 hours. It will go through 5 routines. You must NEVER turn off your computer while the utility is doing its dirty work. It does give you the impression that it got stuck as it could just sit there as if nothing is happening.
If you are lucky, the computer will complete the ChkDsk and it will reboot itself.
No, its a total failure to read the disk at all. No safemode boot, nothing. Although a lot of interesting sounds come out of the hard disk as it attempts to read, like nothing I've ever heard from a computer disk before.
Sorry to hear that, Harrow.
The fact that it got dropped may have caused failures of mechanical nature. The disk head may be out of alignment, or twisted. A major repair to its mechanism may be in order. Luckily that you can still recover some essential data via other means.
Select to expand quoteHarrow said..
No, its a total failure to read the disk at all. No safemode boot, nothing. Although a lot of interesting sounds come out of the hard disk as it attempts to read, like nothing I've ever heard from a computer disk before.
this could be worth a shot, even just as a fun little project? You got nothing to loose.
Select to expand quotegs12 said..
this could be worth a shot, even just as a fun little project? You got nothing to loose.
Thanks, definitely worth a try!
