e-purgatory
My laptop was dropped and broken on Friday night and I’m looking for a hard drive guru (or suggestions) to get all my information back.
Until I can scrounge another laptop from somewhere I’m offline. I can read emails and posts on my phone, but it’s a little slow so bear with me.
Fingers crossed I’ll be up and running again soon.
Dianne Gray author 
Wow that sucks Dianne!! I hope you can find a drive and also get your stuff back. 😦
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Thanks, John. I’m back online now and have most of my information back. Luckily I send a lot of things by email! 😀
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Ouch! Losing a hard drive is like losing your brain. I’ll keep you in my thoughts.
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Thanks Barb – it WAS like losing my brain (LOL). So much stuff was on there.
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Oh no! Hope you get it back soon. Dare I ask if you had backups?
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I had back-ups of all my novels and most of the information. It was only the work from the past few months I couldn’t get back. I’m now doing a back-up every day! 😉
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Oh Dianne…I am soooo sorry to hear this. I’m hoping you’ve got a thumb drive with all of your wonderful stories backed up. Hang in there.
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They are on thumb drive, Jill (thank goodness!) 😀
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Good luck with getting all your info back.
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I got all my pics back, but the work I’d done in the last few months was lost. It taught me a valuable lesson to back-up daily 😉
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If the drive isn’t trashed, you can get an external drive tray to connect it via usb to your next machine.
Also, we recently bought a 3TB external network drive – 4 1 TB drives with a redundant design, and if one fails we can replace it with no data loss.
I lost a ton of music when my last pc crashed, and I never want to go through that again.
If you want to try the tray, drop me a line and I can tell you what you should be looking for.
There are also data recovery services, but they can be very expensive.
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Thanks so much, Guap! You’re a life-saver 😀
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😦 Bummer. If you can’t find someone right away to transfer the info from the old drive to a new one, hang on to it. Ya never know when a tech guru will appear.
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I bought a drive to transfer all the info and it worked for the data drive (that had all my pics on it) but not the OS drive. All my stories are on disk so I didn’t lose those – only the edits I’d done on the latest ones. Back to the drawing board!
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Oh my. To quote Judith Viorst, that had to have been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. I hope you recover everything swiftly!
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It was a bad day! Judith Viorst is right 😉
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Fingers are crossed.
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Thank you so much my dear 🙂
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Bugger 😦 I’ve only ever, thankfully, had a phone killed by seawater, laptops fingers crossed have been unscathed. Theo’s advice is good, even if you don’t have much luck for now, hang onto the laptop. I still have the salty phone in the hope of recovering the unbacked up pics.
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I have transferred as much as I can, but all the updates on my latest stories are gone. I’m holding onto that hard drive just in case a tech guru comes to visit one day 😉
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I won’t ask if you backed it up. Oh yikes… If the hard drive isn’t damaged, you’ll get all of the data back. Someone like Geek Squad will simply plug it in and copy it to another hard drive. Hopefully, the breaks are more cosmetic than internal.
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Part of the hard drive was damaged, but I managed to get all my pics back. My stories are all backed-up and the only thing I lost was the edits I’d been working on. So I know what I’ll be doing for the next few months! Maybe it’s a good thing and I need to look at those stories with fresh eyes 😉
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Good luck, Dianne. Hope that you’ll be back up and running with all your data intact soon.
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Back up and running now, Nancy 😀
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Augh! I can’t imagine. I break into a sweat, just thinking about it.
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Nightmare! But I’m getting things together now 🙂
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I hope you get your information back! I feel your pain… my computer is still not working, but thankfully, I have a really old laptop that is working in the meantime.
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Thanks, Janna. What a nightmare it is. I hope you get fully back online soon as well 🙂
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Hard drives are often a lot more durable than we think. Fingers crossed for you, Dianne! (And you definitely need a backup for your next computer!)
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I’m backing-up daily now, Janna. Lesson learned! 😉
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Hi Dianne, you can recover all the data from your old computer and transfer it to the new quite easily. All you need is a USB-to-SATA adapter for ~ $25.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2036718/why-its-a-good-idea-to-own-a-usb-to-sata-adapter.html
Recovery is as simple as plug-n-play. Easy peasy 🙂
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I did that – thank you so much for the suggestion 😀 I got most things back, but a lot of files were corrupted. That;s okay because I had back-ups of those. Basically, I didn’t back up my latest edits so it’s back to the drawing board xxx
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Ouch! I hope you get sorted soon Dianne.
xxx Gigantic Hugs xxx
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Hugs taken with gratitude, David xxxx
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That’s the pits, Dianne! I hope you get your data back and find a way back really soon. Fingers crossed for you.
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Thanks, Amy. It’s been a roller-coaster ride, but I’m almost back to normal now 😀
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Thats gotta suck Dianne, I hope you get it all sorted soon.
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Thanks, Kath. 99% there! 😀
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All the best and fingers and toes crossed for you.
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It took a while – I hope you didn’t get a cramp in those fingers and toes! Thank you so much for the kind thoughts xxxx
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You’re back? 🙂 Hooray.
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I’m sorry I’m not a guru. Good luck sweet, how we rely on our mod cons. Deep breaths xxx
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Many deep breathes, Jen! Almost back to normal now 😀
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❤
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That’s terrible, Dianne! I hope you are rescued soon from purgatory. And taken to a good place after that 😉
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I’m almost there. Purgatory wasn’t a good place to be 😉
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I feel your pain–so sorry!
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It’s amazing how much we rely on the tech side of things. Even this morning I thought, ‘where are my plane tickets?’ – oh, that’s right I saved the info on my desktop of the old computer – Do’h!
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I rely on it and am afraid of it at the same time–I am always afraid stuff will disappear into the ether
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Fingers and toes crossed!
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Thanks so much, Billy Ray – I’m almost there! 😀
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Oh no! I can hardly “like” this post now, can I?! I’m sure it can all be retrieved…I’m just not techy enough to know how.
I’m so sorry this happened! Come back soon…
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I wasn’t at all techy until this happened – how quickly we learn when we have to (LOL) 😉
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Holy crap, that blows!!! Sending healing thoughts to your lappy and all of the info housed inside its computer brain. : (
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Thanks so much, Britt. It’s amazing how much info we amass in that computer brain! I didn’t even know half my passwords! Oh dear xxxxx
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I,m sorry to hear that Dianne. I do hope you can get it restored soon.
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I’m almost there. It was a bit of a nightmare, but I know now to back-up on a daily basis xxx
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Oh dear! Hope you get your work back. All the best…
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I have all my novels backed-up (thankfully) – I just should have backed-up the changes I’d made to the latest ones. Oh dear, lesson learned xxx
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Oh no that is no fun! Hope everything turns out okay!
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It’s heading in the okay direction now – but taken a bit of time 🙂
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Good luck. I hope you can retrieve everything.
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I retrieved most, but not everything. It just goes to show we should be doing daily back-ups. I did get all my photos back so i’m pretty happy about that 😀
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I had the black screen of death once and was able to retrieve the drive content as El Guapo has suggested, using a USB connection.
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El Guapo was fantastic and led me through the whole process. All that’s missing is my latest edits from the novels, but you can’t win ’em all! 😉
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Good luck! I’m a little anxious about my own computer (acting weird) and so completely understand your predicament.
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Back-up daily, Allen. I wish I had 😉
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Been down that path not long ago Dianne and know that sinking feeling. I’m back up running again and am very careful since that scare. Hope all will be ok for you…
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I’m being ultra careful now. Backing-up daily – it’s the only safe way 😉
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I’m of no help technologically, but am sending best wishes for you to be up and running soon.
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Thanks so much for your best wishes, Denise. I’m nearly ‘back to normal’ 😀
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Been there, done that….it’s not amusing! Good Luck
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It’s just awful, Sherry. Almost there, but some information was lost xxx
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Ugh, gee whiz, so sorry I can’t help!
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Thanks, Luanne.
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I “liked” but I no like!! I’m so sorry, and I hope you’ll be up and running again in no time.
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Thanks, Kate 🙂
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Awww. I’m really sorry to hear that, Dianne. 😦 As someone who’s been on the receiving end of broken computers, I can sympathize. I hope you can get everything in order soon!
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Almost in order now, Zen. Broken computers are the pits xxxx
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I’m sorry to hear that. I hope it is rectified quickly!!
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I’m getting there 😀
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I can’t hit “like” on this post! My computer is almost 4 years old, and I know its days are numbered. I hope you’re back up and running soon!
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Back-up daily, JM – you won’t regret it 😉
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Missing you Dianne Xx
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Thank you so much, my dear xxxx 😀
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Oh, shoot! Hope the pc situation is resolved asap! Missing you, Dianne 😦
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I was missing you too! 😉 Back online now 😀
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Wow. Things that suck!
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Absolutely suck! You’ve hit the nail on the head 😉
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Ah! I wondered where you’d got to and imagined you beavering away on the book of the moment. No such luck, huh? Best wishes, hon. 🙂
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Thanks, Jo! I’m nearly there 😀
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Hard to press like on that post! I’m glad you got some help! 🙂
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Thanks so much, Marsha 😀
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