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John Davis

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Dec 14, 2009, 8:40:47 AM12/14/09
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I have a minor computer crash. software issue, and I have backups so I
won't loose anything but the procedure to save off all the new data
files, then restore the hard drive then recover the new data files will
take me on the order of 3 days.. Till then I'm using my backup computer
and since it's only going to be a few days it's not worth re-setting the
newsgroup pointers on it.

See you long about Thursday (if not sooner)

Sandy Tyra

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Dec 23, 2009, 11:40:22 AM12/23/09
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This is basically why I have been offline for a week or so - except mine
was a major crash. My hard drives locked up solid. I got a new computer
and Gerry spent several evenings recovering the data from my hard
drives. This is my first day back at rmf.

Sandy

Lee Gold

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Dec 23, 2009, 12:50:03 PM12/23/09
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Welcome back.

--Lee

Wes Struebing

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Dec 23, 2009, 9:02:44 PM12/23/09
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On Wed, 23 Dec 2009 08:40:22 -0800, Sandy Tyra <sa...@planet-tyra.com>
wrote:

Glad to see your electrons again!
--

Wes Struebing
I pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America,
and to the republic which it established, one nation from many peoples,
promising liberty and justice for all.
Homepage: www.carpedementem.org
linkedin profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/wesstruebing

Sandy Tyra

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Dec 24, 2009, 12:03:35 AM12/24/09
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Thank you, ma'am.

Sandy

Sandy Tyra

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Dec 24, 2009, 12:04:20 AM12/24/09
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Thanks. It's good to be back. I missed you all.

Sandy

Message has been deleted

John from Detroit

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Dec 24, 2009, 8:42:15 AM12/24/09
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Sandy Tyra wrote:

> This is basically why I have been offline for a week or so - except mine
> was a major crash. My hard drives locked up solid. I got a new computer
> and Gerry spent several evenings recovering the data from my hard
> drives. This is my first day back at rmf.
>
> Sandy

I have had a few of those too... Thankfuly, at least in my case. Murphy
took a vacation and the hard drive gave me cause for concern.

Acronis True Image gave me an image of the drive

And when it then crashed (a couple of times it's crashed on the re-boot
post imagining) it was a matter of minutes to install a new drive and...

Well. I think it is up to five hours now via USB-1.1 to restore, about 1
hr on 2.0 but alas I can't find the 2.0 card for this machine.

Still.... Sure makes it easy.

In this case though, since it was a software screw up. I lost a few
months... That's on the negative side.. Which truly is not all that much
data and I may still be able to recover it later

On the positive side I fixed a drive error that had been bothering me
(it only bothered when backing up the drive) which means I"ll make more
frequent backups now, And I resolved some other issues, some of which
were cleared up in normal post restore maintence and adjustment. So
it's a much happier computer now.

Sandy Tyra

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Dec 24, 2009, 11:44:27 AM12/24/09
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That's good. I am basically computer semi-literate, so I don't really
understand how Gerry got the hard-drives-that-wouldn't-boot-up to give
up any information, but I'm grateful that he did. I do have some stuff
backed up on disc, but I would hate to lose the copies on my drive of
the two novels and several short stories that I have written.

Sandy

Kay Shapero

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Dec 25, 2009, 12:23:01 AM12/25/09
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In article <hh05q8$ocu$1...@news.eternal-september.org>, sandy@planet-
tyra.com says...

>
> That's good. I am basically computer semi-literate, so I don't really
> understand how Gerry got the hard-drives-that-wouldn't-boot-up to give
> up any information, but I'm grateful that he did. I do have some stuff
> backed up on disc, but I would hate to lose the copies on my drive of
> the two novels and several short stories that I have written.
>

Then run, do not walk to your computer, take out some sort of recordable
medium that it can record on (ask Gerry if this doesn't make any sense
to you) and copy them all onto it. You will now have two copies, one on
the computer, one on the recordable item. CDs and DVDs are good because
you can make several of them and have *several* copies. Now store these
in different places. Now if you lose the hard drive completely, you can
use these backups to put them onto your new hard drive.

Electrons are flighty things - always back up your data.

--
Kay "waving at all the other folks who have undoubtedly just made this
same comment" Shapero
FAQ: http://www.kayshapero.net/filkfaq.htm
address munged, email me at kay at domain name
http://www.kayshapero.net

John from Detroit

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Dec 25, 2009, 9:28:52 AM12/25/09
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Sandy Tyra wrote:

> That's good. I am basically computer semi-literate, so I don't really
> understand how Gerry got the hard-drives-that-wouldn't-boot-up to give
> up any information, but I'm grateful that he did. I do have some stuff
> backed up on disc, but I would hate to lose the copies on my drive of
> the two novels and several short stories that I have written.

There are a couple of ways to do that. Depending on the nature of the
crash... I have one of my External drives that Windows could not see.
thus, had they been boot drives (They are not) windows would have been
unable to boot from 'em.

Acronis, which uses a totally different operating system, could see them
if it was run in native mode (not in windows mode though)

This gave me a clue and I was able to fix the drive very easily.
(Windows had simply forgotten it's address is all.. I restored an
address (Drive letter) Via computer management utilities, and used the
drive just yesterday)

In a worst case there are programs that do their darndest to read, and
copy, every track and sector... Once you've done this it is possible to
re-build a disc in many cases.. This is not, however, for the faint of
heart, it's a lot of work and very user intensive unless you have a
spare super comptuer lying about. (that last line is a joke)

Note that some of these programs can even read deleted files.

(Much to the displeasure of several residents of the state's retirement
home for criminals.... a Computer Detecteive read the files they deleted)

John from Detroit

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Dec 25, 2009, 9:36:05 AM12/25/09
to
Kay Shapero wrote:

> Electrons are flighty things - always back up your data.

Excelent advice... Of course most folks think of backups at some point..

Get new computer.. Load it with software and date,,, CRASH.. "Oh Why Did
I Not Make backup?"

IN my case: I lost a few months on my last crash and there is still hope
of recovery.

My last back-up however... 3:30 this morning in fact. Right after I
logged the contact on the Before breakfast Club.. By the time I checked
into the Breakfast club net (4 hours later) The back up was complete
(While I slept) and by the time I checked out the verification run was
finished so I know it's a good backup.

I still have to do the #2 backup but I'll do that Saturday evening since
it takes... A long time (USB-1.x) and I don't need the computer till
Noon on Sunday.

Lee Gold

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Dec 25, 2009, 11:29:11 AM12/25/09
to
John from Detroit wrote:
> Sandy Tyra wrote:
>
>> That's good. I am basically computer semi-literate, so I don't really
>> understand how Gerry got the hard-drives-that-wouldn't-boot-up to give
>> up any information, but I'm grateful that he did. I do have some
>> stuff backed up on disc, but I would hate to lose the copies on my
>> drive of the two novels and several short stories that I have written.
>
> There are a couple of ways to do that. Depending on the nature of the
> crash... I have one of my External drives that Windows could not see.
> thus, had they been boot drives (They are not) windows would have been
> unable to boot from 'em.

I did an external backup for a few novels by sending copies to Joshua
Kronengold (and emailed Sandy that I would be delighted to store copies
of her fiction on my computer).

I've also got two hard disks on my computer, with one only used for
storage -- plus an external hard drive and plus Barry's computer, though
I don't always remember to back stuff up.

So far over the years I've lost a motherboard, a power center, and some
other stuff, but never a hard disk, though I did have my file of VIKINGS
(being written for Iron Crown Enterprises) get munged by a hard disk
crash and have to retype it in, which took me a couple of days.

--Lee

Sandy Tyra

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Dec 25, 2009, 8:29:14 PM12/25/09
to
On 12/24/2009 9:23 PM, Kay Shapero wrote:
> In article<hh05q8$ocu$1...@news.eternal-september.org>, sandy@planet-
> tyra.com says...
>
>>
>> That's good. I am basically computer semi-literate, so I don't really
>> understand how Gerry got the hard-drives-that-wouldn't-boot-up to give
>> up any information, but I'm grateful that he did. I do have some stuff
>> backed up on disc, but I would hate to lose the copies on my drive of
>> the two novels and several short stories that I have written.
>>
>
> Then run, do not walk to your computer, take out some sort of recordable
> medium that it can record on (ask Gerry if this doesn't make any sense
> to you) and copy them all onto it. You will now have two copies, one on
> the computer, one on the recordable item. CDs and DVDs are good because
> you can make several of them and have *several* copies. Now store these
> in different places. Now if you lose the hard drive completely, you can
> use these backups to put them onto your new hard drive.
>
> Electrons are flighty things - always back up your data.
>

Yes, ma'am. As I said, I do have a back up disc - but the date on it is
2000, so I realllllllllly need to make another one.

Sandy

Joe Kesselman

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Dec 25, 2009, 9:56:33 PM12/25/09
to
Sandy Tyra wrote:
> Yes, ma'am. As I said, I do have a back up disc - but the date on it is
> 2000, so I realllllllllly need to make another one.

Good advice for all of us. Something else to try to get to this weekend,
maybe.


--
Joe Kesselman,
http://www.love-song-productions.com/people/keshlam/index.html

{} ASCII Ribbon Campaign | "may'ron DaroQbe'chugh vaj bIrIQbej" --
/\ Stamp out HTML mail! | "Put down the squeezebox & nobody gets hurt."

Kay Shapero

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Dec 26, 2009, 12:30:04 AM12/26/09
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In article <hh2il2$mpn$1...@news.eternal-september.org>,
wa8...@arrl.invalid says...

> Kay Shapero wrote:
>
> > Electrons are flighty things - always back up your data.
>
> Excelent advice... Of course most folks think of backups at some point..
>
> Get new computer.. Load it with software and date,,, CRASH.. "Oh Why Did
> I Not Make backup?"
>
I got my lesson the easy way - way back when minicomputers the size of
refrigerators roamed the Earth, I kept all of the files I needed for a
project at work on a single disc cartridge the size of something you'd
put a turkey on. I spent most of a day formatting a new cartridge and
filling it with all the things I'd need, then made a tape backup last
thing before departing.

I came in the next day to find that before I had arrived, the cartridge
had been damaged, and someone had formatted a new one and loaded my tape
onto it for me. I was able to go directly to work.

--
Kay Shapero

Message has been deleted

John from Detroit

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Dec 27, 2009, 1:53:27 PM12/27/09
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Gary McGath wrote:

> Offsite backup is always a good idea. We don't like to think about
> things like the house burning down, but the possibility is the reason we
> take out insurance -- of all kinds.

Back when my mother's title was "Head of accounting" she had a back up
program which I really respect

Daily.. Desk drawer

Weekly,,, Office vault

Monthly.. Her own data safe at the house, some 30 miles from the office.

Theory....

Thief might get computer.. Might even get daily back up

Fire would get computer and daily but likely not damage the contents of
the vault, which had a fairly serious fire rating.

A major disaster (IE: Explosion) might take out office and vault... but
30 miles away should be safe

A bomb big enough to take out the office, and the house.... They won't
care about the data loss any more.

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