[AT] OT: Computer crash and data loss

[Ken Knierim]

make sure it's not actually a virus killing things... get/download a
recovery CD (several exist) that will allow the system to boot on CD and
allow you to go check the drive itself. If it was trying to come up, the
drive may be good but something may be corrupted in the boot sector and
it'll only make things worse.  We've used:
http://www.avg.com/us-en/avg-rescue-cd

and were able to bring the system up enough to grab the critical data off
it. Since you're not relying on everything on the disk to be in working
order, you might be able to get most of it (unless the directory structure
is busted, and then it's a bit dicey). We had a virus AND a drive going bad
on one here and were able to salvage the data. We then installed a new
hybrid drive (part solid state, part rotating platter) and really bumped
the speed up on that machine and it was a complete, fresh install. PITA,
but worked.

Good Luck!

Ken in AZ


On Thu, Jan 2, 2014 at 11:31 PM, Chuck Bealke <bealke at airmail.net> wrote:

> Dean,
>
> The freezer trick worked for me a few years ago.
> I had an external drive ready to use to copy from the ailing C drive and
> did save a bunch of files when the drive gave its final performance as I
> plugged
> it frozen into the system the next morning.  You can find YouTube and other
> info about it with a simple search.
> What you forget is how long it takes to copy a big volume of files if you
> have not done it in a while - and how you end up wanting to save most
> everything, even when you can't remember using some of it in a while
> (or in some cases what it is.)  Darn, sounds like my closets and garage.
> Good Luck!
>
> Chuck Bealke
> Plano, TX
>
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