My Hard Drive Crashed. Boo Hoo.

jackedwardmorris95 · May 16th, 2009, 10:00

Just to let you all know,
My hard drive crashed yesterday, its kind of ironic because I went out a few hours before to get dvd's to back up my files. I lost all of My 8th Airforce project aircraft, missions and splashes. Absolutely everything. I was so annoyed I ran around the house in a rage and hit the window, Not knowing my own strength I smashed it. Oops. I am writing this from the local library. I don't know how long it will be before I am up and running again. I'm Considering moving into the outhouse, any vacancies?(lol). You guys here are among the frendliest simmers I have ever met, Just look at the IL2 guys. You might as well know about my CFS2 8th AF project, Individual Campaigns for each BG/FG. Oh Well, it wasn't very far down the line.
God Bless you all,

Jack

**PomBee** · May 16th, 2009, 10:18

I know how you feel. I've had at least 3 major system meltdowns, which caused me to have to rebuild 9 seperate CFS2 installations from scratch!! Much swearing involved.

Good luck,

PomBee.

***OBIO*** · May 16th, 2009, 12:20

Jack

Sorry to hear that you had a HD crash and lost your work. I have been there so many times. The first time I had a HD go, I lost 6 complete installs of CFS2, hundreds and hundreds of hours worth of work (repaint templates, panel tweaks, DP tweaks, sound packs). I now have an external 120 gig HD and a good supply of CDs and DVDs that I make regular archives/back ups of my files on. Invest in some permanent storage of some sort to minimize future losses...because it will happen again just as sure as the sun will come up.

OBIO

**dvslats** · May 16th, 2009, 14:00

Wel,l that stinks jackedwardmorris95. But like OBIO said it will happen again. I find myself hating to do the back-ups (where's the fun in that

) so I set a day of the week just for doing so. Kind of make it a scheduled habit. Hope ya get back up and running soon.
Dv

**bobhegf** · May 16th, 2009, 15:17

What is the cost of a good 120 gig hard drive thies days.Next ? is I am still running win98se and getting ready to go to XP. If I do can I still retrive what I put on the harddrive after I switch with out a problem?I am running an 80 gig hard drive now and I have used up 39 gigs with info and scenery and other CFS2 stuff.

**dvslats** · May 16th, 2009, 15:49

Hey bobhegf, you can get a Western Digital, Blue Caviar for about 38.00 to 45.00 dollars US. If you pull the hards drive from your old system you could make it an external HDD. Just purchase a external hard drive case that has the power supply interface along with a USB cable to plug into your box. Then one could use it similar to a Flash Memory Stick. The folders could be accesed for copying and pasting to the new system, and you could also use it to back-up files to.

**sc7500** · May 16th, 2009, 16:52

I hafta agree, kids - yeah, I know that $$$'s tight... but offset the cost of a decent backup HD against YOUR time and effort... makes the price insignificant by comparison.

I keep a lookout for 500gb Western Digital drives [Caviars are the most popular] - very low down time, excellent reviews, AND THEY ALWAYS GO ON SALE !

I found some 2.5" [laptop-style] drives for less than $50.00 each with some patient searching... installing them as external drives [the housings cost as litle as $20.00 complete] makes it super-easy to do backups [plenty of freeware out there for automated backups, guys] and provide enough room for extreme expansion.

I can't stress this enough, and Lord knows it's been said here time and again - BACKUPS SAVE TIME AND EMOTIONAL MELTDOWNS !

If anyone needs a good place to start for on sale drives, start here:

http://www.partspc.com/

http://www.techonweb.com/

http://www.mydigitaldiscount.com

And Good Hunting !

Best To All
SC

***Rami*** · May 16th, 2009, 17:13

Jack,

Sorry to hear of your loss. I hope you are up and running very soon.

***TARPSBird*** · May 16th, 2009, 19:32

Jack, I feel your pain (the hard drive part, not the window part). My external HD just died a week or so ago and my CFS2 and FS2002 installs were on it.

Best to have an external backing up your internal, with the same stuff on both so if one croaks you haven't lost valuable files. And backing up on DVD's is also a good idea.

jackedwardmorris95 · May 17th, 2009, 04:52

Good News. I took it in to a tecnician early this morning, my files are still there, he extracted them for me, Just programs lost. Too bad I spilled the beans about the 8th AF project. No Worries, Just Re-Installing CFS2, Top of my priorities(lol). No sign of the mustangs yet today...
Thanks All,

Jack

**bearcat241** · May 17th, 2009, 05:19

Originally Posted by jackedwardmorris95

Good News. I took it in to a tecnician early this morning, my files are still there, he extracted them for me,....

Great move...i was going to suggest the same. Just remember, no data is ever "lost" on a dead hard drive, just the programs, because you 'lose' the registry which controls them. And even that can be located and restored in some cases if you know how after a HDD wipeout.

For future reference, in your spare time do a search for "data recovery", learn all you can and even purchase an excellent program or two for the "rainy days". Then you won't need the techies for restoration.

The best programs are gonna be payware. There are a few good freewares too that let you find and restore, but many have annoying restoration limits that only allow you to view "lost" data, forcing you to purchase the "Pro" versions which will let you restore what you view. But keep in mind that even with a so-called "total recovery" you will still be dealing with some scrambled data that cannot be used again because of corruption or a few unrecoverable bytes.

**SPman** · May 17th, 2009, 18:35

I'm so paranoid about this I now have 2 320G external harddrives, plus numerous 4, 8 and 16G memory sticks. If my harddrives crap themselves, I;m going to have at least one left with all my data on it!
Mind you, now I'm worrying about my backups crapping themselves. .........

egypt23spitfire · May 17th, 2009, 22:33

.......after a catastrophic hd failure where i lost a cupla yrs stuff i vowed it would not happen again so i started researching data recovery software and after wading through heaps of excellent proggies came on this suit
........i have now recovered 4 times 3x100% sucesses and one 85 % sucess(nasty corrupt hd)
this POWER SUITE package(7 separate progs) comes on CD and self boots a dead opsys
.......it costs, but having a way to get out of a potentially shattering experience is great
there are others around but i thought for anyone just a little computer savvy this one was a good proggie.:ernae:
..(just checked site and saw its selling at half price)

.....http://www.spotmau.com/products/pack...FYMvpAodcBqNsQ
.

....http://www.spotmau.com/products/products.html

**p14u2nv** · May 18th, 2009, 18:53

If I am not mistaken BestBuy had the 2.5 PassPort 320GB drives on sale for $89.00 and with the $20.00 rebate from the manufacturer that is hard to beat.

I have two (although I paid a lot more than above) and an older WD 120GB 3.5 external.

I always download to the 120 GB and that is where I always scan the file before opening. Then a copy goes to each 320 drive. That keeps my C drive clean and clear. Works well for me.

**oldwheat** · May 19th, 2009, 08:20

What does anyone know about the Western Digital WDH1U10000N 'My book' - 1TB external HD.. That's a LOT of space if they are reliable.....

**merlin2** · May 19th, 2009, 18:21

Great to hear that you have saved your stuff!
merlin2

**p14u2nv** · May 19th, 2009, 18:54

Geez OW, I can only imagine the seek time of one of those monsters...might take a week or longer to defrag...lol!

**SPman** · May 21st, 2009, 17:16

I've had a WD 250Gb go funny on me after 3 months. (thank god for the "stick it in the freezer overnight" suggestion - worked long enough to drag the unbacked data of it)
I've currently got 2 Seagate 320Gbs. I beleive the Seagates are slightly better if you lug them around all the time, which I do with my laptop.

Tango_Romeo · May 21st, 2009, 19:08

...external drives are more reliable than the USB-powered portable ones.
Today at Sam's you can pickup a 500GB WDMyBook Desktop for $79. USB-powered Portables from 160 to 500GB are priced from $59 on up to $119.

***TARPSBird*** · May 21st, 2009, 19:34

I don't recommend Western Digital. I bought a WD 160GB external HD from Newegg in July 2007, I thought it was a good brand. It died a couple weeks ago. Of course it's well out of both WD's and Newegg's warranty periods. I don't expect stuff to last forever but I certainly expect a quality computer component to last more than 21 months.

My kids have had hamsters that lived longer than that.