Drag racing content is that I had a LOT of files related to our Corvette Challenge Drag racing series across the nation on my machine!!!!


Thursday night as I shut down for the night, my laptop froze and made some ticking noises. I waited for it to stop but it did not so I unplugged and went to the hotel.

I rebooted at the hotel but no dice. Error message was ntoskrnl.exe is corrupt or missing. I thought just a reload of Win XP and I should be fine.

Doctor says..."no can read hard drive".

Cannot recover any of my data.

I am very bummed as I have lost many, many files. Aside from the "real" work files that were lost was the many files I use to generate the Corvette Challenge web pages that don't actually go on the web pages so they cannot be recovered. The web pages are fine as I can download those but so of the state files were originated in Excel and I have lost all the code that goes with them.

Even lost my banquet and 2005 season prep files. Thankfully the banquet file had been sent to Nick for proofreading and he has that file.

The moral of the story is make yourself make backups. On my list of things to do was to formulate a strategy for backing up my files. I never got to it and now I will suffer.

 

Damn that sucks When you said you had an issue with your laptop I had no idea it went brain dead.
Bob

 

Take it in to a 'hard drive recovery' place. They can pull all your data off the hard drive.

Bob

 

I may try that.

I have looked up some firms on with google.

I have someon else trying so if it does not work, I will try someone else

 

Norton has some stuff that might work. We've recovered stuff from disks that were Fdisked. Don't know if it will work with a hardware failure but, Korreck is right, there are firms that can.

 

Bring it over to CARTEK, probably needs more SPRAY !!!!

 

That's horrible news Edgar. Good luck with the attempted 2nd and 3rd party recovery process.

-dave

 

The data can can recovered; unfortunately it can get expensive though.

Edgar, not to rub salt in the wound, but didn't this happen once before?

 

I have an idea to how I can fix the problem

Sorry to hear the bad news. I guess you don't have any backup for your work?

 

Eric yes similar problem but was able to get some data back.

I guess I figured once it has happend to me once it would not happen again.....stupid me.

Farley that is is what got me in trouble the first time



I have seen some site on the internet where companies claim to be able to recover data. Got a price quote from one today depending on what is wrong, if they are successful it could be starting at $1800

I don't know if my company will pay for that. Most of the lost data is personal which is not encouraged to be kept on these machines.

 

a good place for storage would be my trailer>>>>>>

 

Brian, I told Edgar I'd buy his open trailer, if he give me a fair price.

 

:LOL:

 

If you don't want to spend the big bucks to send it out for data recovery you can try a couple of things, first the head may just be stuck, take the drive out of the computer and tap it a few times on the side with something like the handle of a screw driver, put the drive back in and try and boot, if it boots immediately try and copy your most wanted files off, do not turn the computer off untill you are absolutely done and ready to replace the drive. If it doesn't boot take the drive out again and tap it harder, if still no go one last thing you can try is to CAREFULLY take the cover off the drive and CAREFULLY move the drive head just slightly, then reinstall the drive and try to boot, if no-go then it's a done deal, cry a little then replace the drive. I've tried these methods in the past on quite a few drive with about a 60 percent success rate.

 

I can feel your pain! Been there.

YOu may be abe to take the drive out and put it into another machine........ just maybe......

 

pcfred, that may be an option, thanks.

Glenn, drive has been tried on multiple machinces both as primary and slave

 

Edgar - This will sound strange, but it has worked for some people ...

One other thing you can try is to remove the drive and double-bag it with Zip-lock bags to keep the moisture out and put it in your freezer for 24 hours. Then remove it, install it back in computer. This has been done before and the drive would start up and operate long enough to extract critical files. Whether or not this works, as well as the amount of time that it runs may vary, depending on what your specific drive problem is, but it is worth a try. You may find some more details of this on the web computer sites.

One of the girls here at work had her laptop drive crash this week as well, and may be trying this within the next few days.

-dave

 

I'm just stating the obvious (or perhaps not), don't resort to the "tapping", "opening" or "freezing" methods UNTIL you are absolutly sure you're not going to send the drive out to be recovered. While these and other methods have a chance of helping, there's also a good chance of physically damaging the disk surfaces to the point that even a recovery shop will fail.

Since you can install the drive as a slave in another system, you should first see if you can use some software recovery on the disk. And I agree with the others when they say, if you get it running, don't shut down until you're done backing it up. So have a good game plan for when it comes to life. Good luck, call me if you need anything.

 

software efforts were tried by my it folks.

sending it out for $800 plus (I got two quotes) is not an option as most of the work lost is personal and my I will not be reimbursed.

 

Good luck buddy & may the disk doctor be with you