THEY RECOVERED MY HARD DRIVE

We walked through some of the directories to make sure that the information was indeed there... and it was!

The photos.. the documents.. the tax info...

The data is being copied-off to a MyBook external hard drive. I should have it Friday or Monday.

They hold onto the failed hard drive (or "troubled" hard drive, as it was called) for 10 days, after which it goes into a destruction program. I have about 48 hours for the copied data to still be spinning on their servers if there's an issue. After that, they have to go back after the original drive. They also are supplying a stack of DVDs that they're going to pull off selected data onto (just in case the drive has issues during shipping), so they're going to grab as much of the photos as they can.

You know how happy I am? I am dancing in my cubicle!!!! Thank God there is hardly anybody in the office today...

"This message is to inform you that we have received your troubled hard disk..."

I guess that's one way of putting it for a crashed hard disk whose platters may just be dust...

My lack of backup has now officially begun to cost me. Real dollars.

I found a company in Madison, Wisconsin that wouldn't charge me for an attempt to recover, only if they recover data.

I called an talked to a tech... and found out that, because of the clicking noise, my 250Gb Maxtor MaxLine Plus II hard drive was 30%-40% likely to have had it's platters turned to dust and not have anything recoverable, based on the hundreds of that drive model that they have seen recently.

That left 60%-70% likely that SOMETHING could be recovered. It was worth a shot, so my hard drive is now on it's way to Madison Wisconsin, hoping beyond hope that SOMETHING can be pulled off...

... I feel like I lost part of my life when that drive went down... all of those photos, those memories...

When my old computer died, and I got a new one, I transfered the old hard drives to external USB enclosures. this also upset the database I use to catalog the photos. So, I had to go in and tell the software that the image that used to be here on this disk, is now over on this disk and this directory structure. I had been tagging my images so that if I wanted to see something an image of a place or a person, I could just call it up.

I had been working on the database fixes all week. I got them all done.

I had just started to select the photos. I knew of a a few that I needed to include on the wall I was going to select more than the number of frames I was mounting, just so I can see what they look like printed.

I cam home tonight after work, went on my machine to do more photo selection. I thought I had smelled an odd odor in my den. It wasn't strong, but it smelled like ozone.

My machine was locked-up. Frozen. I cold-booted the machine, and logged back in.

And that's when I heard it... a clicking noise.

My one big, critical drive from the old machine is clicking, and not mounting.

It's dead. I lost it.

All 34,000 photos I've taken.

NO BACKUP.

I've lost it. I've lost it all. All my photos, documents, spreadsheet, tax information...

Depression sets in...

Another phone call comes, this time from a human... and it's the local dispatch telling me that my tech is running late.. and won't be available until 6:45.. I proceed to tell her Thank you... I will wait as long as it takes and then I tell her about the screw-up yesterday.. She apologizes profusely. I hang-up the phone ,only to see my voice mail light start to blink - another call from Comcast came in, this time it's a complete automated call, saying that I had to have somebody home over the age of 18.. OK.. not a problem...

5:45 and there's a Comcast tech at my door - a full hour before dispatch said they'd be there! But then I found out that this isn't the guy assigned to the call.. but he got free and came over to "start" the job. OK, I'm OK with this...

I show him were the modem is.. and the lights are all lit and flashng... crap... But.. after a discussion on IBM ThinkPads, I hook up to the modem... and it doesn't pull an IP address...

and then.. at the door, is a second tech... and we start using another laptop to try (the first tech's), and it fails... by now, a third tech is now in my family room... turns out he's the tech that's assigned.

So 15 minutes, three technicians, and a brand new cable modem later, I am back online.. and it's faster, too! (the old modem couldn't handle the faster delivery speed)

NOTHING

Called Comcast. Found out that local dispatch had the tech scheduled from 1-3pm. Sure enough - there's a tag on my door that says "Sorry we missed you..."

This is the SECOND TIME since being with Comcast that this EXACT thing has happened... and no phone call. There is some kind or process break between what Customer Service schedules and what the local dispatch schedules.

So.. new time 4-6pm tomorrow. Another day without internet...

I have a tech coming out between 5-7pm tomorrow.

Withdrawls?... no.. not too bad... so far...

Called Dell when I got home from work... went right to the Bangalore call center (come on.. you KNOW where they are... and THERE IS NO WAY IN HELL you are going to tell me that the people I talked to are REALLY named Marvin and Jorge).

Marvin actually listened to my description of the problem and transfered me to a special team that just handled my type of hardware (I don't know if I should be pleased that they have a team devoted to this computer, or that perhaps they HAD to build a team because of all of the problems they have had).

One hour and I was all up and running. No explanation, but the USB ports in the box went kaflewie. Device Manager thought they were OK, so the OpSys didn't find any issues... but nothing plugged into the USB ports worked.

What was the fix?

1) Turn off the machine. Disconnect the power cord. Hold down the power-on button for at least 5 seconds.

2) Open-up the case, locate the small, disc lithium battery on the mother board and pull it, wait a few seconds and put it back.

Re-attach the power cord, power it up (you'll get boot errors about the clock not being set and the floppy diskette not working - that would be because the machine doesn't have one - easily fixable) wait for the machine to boot into Windows and ... Ta Da... Everything is back to normal.

Other than trying to get the lithium battery out of the holder on the motherboard... painless.

..until NOW.

I was in SecondLife when.. all of a sudden.. my keyboard and mouse stop working. Totally.

I've tried other keyboards/mice.

Nothing.

When I reboot, i get to the welcome screen, but I can't pick an ID... because the machine doesn't recognize the keyboard or mouse.. so I can't choose anything.

I can't press F8 during boot, either, to get into Safe Mode.

NOT HAPPY...

I don't want to lose any data... but I MAY be too late...

woot!!!

Now I've got a ton of reinstalls to do...

So... the 19" LCD monitor is awsome. I am really amazed at the color and clarity... not to mention the "bigness" coming from a 15" panel to a 19" panel. Sweet.

The new machine looks nice, boot fast, but upon opening the case, it's really tight inside. I had forgotten that the old machine was an Optiplex and had the great quick release drive mounts, lots of room. Not so in this case - no quick releases, really tightly packed. I pulled the drives out of the old machine... but I don't have a place for both of them.

I'm thinking about external drive enclosures... I just hope the drives are intact.

Sure enough - I lost my switch. It just sat there and flashed every LED it had on its face plate.

Guess I'm I doing some shopping after work today.

Her machine got infected with a Sasser worm and I struggled all day trying to get rid of it.

Looks like I did it.

Problem is - she no longer has an active antivirus program running any more. I can't get it to install. Or uninstall.

Crap. Friggin' viruses...