Death in the Family...

[Glen]

Well kinda...My laptop is in intensive care as we speak...Got the brother (kinda of a tech guru) trying to bring it back to life...It has all my lifes work (HTR Rubbish) on it. Think I backed up my files last week when Mike D mentioned that his system crashed...Or at least I hope I did. For now, I'm using my old system...Bro says next 14 or so hours is critical for the lap top to be revived...

Well at least the dog hasn't run away...:eek: :confused:

[Donnie]

Glen, you may laugh at this but I swear it is true!

If your hard drive is going through it's final clicks and refuses to spin, put the little sucker in the freezer overnight. Once you plug him in and boot him up, you can get up to an hour or so of "backup" time before he gives up the ghost for good. So if it looks terminal, give it a try before trashing your hard drive.

I always tell my classes, it's not IF your hard drive crashes, it's WHEN!!

Good luck!

[hurrikane]

donnie, I'm laughing. Never heard of the freezer trick. How did you come up with that?

[Donnie]

I have read and heard about it in different trade publications...trick is it freezes up the lubes used in the hard drive for spin...once those thaw back out, your cooked for good, so if you try it, they recommend that you are ready to back up your imparative files as soon as you boot up...cause the clock starts ticking and your back-up time is definitely limited. (ohhh they recommend you freeze JUST the hard drive, not the entire computer!!) Most people report that it is a onetime trick...will not work a second time! Some others report that if you drop the computer from about 3-4 feet, the "jar" also loosens up a stuck drive for a limited amount of time. Hate to think what affect it has on your CD-Rom, or your modem, or anything else!!

So that's why they were in the back room of CompUSA dropping all those computers from atop a ladder!

[hurrikane]

I definately like the dropping idea. wonder if it would work even better if I drop it from the 2nd floor window!!!! :D

[fred4now]

Hope all goes well Glen. After Mike's post I have been backing up more. Hope I don't have to send you flowers.

[Glen]

Thanks for the ice cube idea Donnie. Will give it a run if all else fails...

[Carl]

How did everything turn out Glen? Did backup and/or Freezing work?

later,
Carl

[Glen]

It is dead...No mas...No more..Adios...Go bye bye...gone...toast...game over!

But got bring in a replacement player today...New Sony laptop to get me back in the game...

[Carl]

Did your backup data install O.K. in the new computer? I have been backing up pretty good (monthy) on to C.D.'s, it's just until I try it I am not sure anything will work. Wondered if the backup worked for you (everything works for Mikey, he's SMART about stuff. I always feel like I am two keystrokes away from CPU oblivion.)

later,
Carl

[Glen]

Unfortunately, I didn't back up correctly...

[Carl]

Ouch.

And I think I backed up my system.

I used writable CD's though my CD burner, it goes into the files and I highlighted the access files I want copied, and it said it did.

I know I should trust technology , but I keep having "what if" nightmares. And as you know, I can't handicap at all, my own picks all stink. I think if I lost spot plays and data I would be out of business.

I also backed up 1.1 GB of data ( I THINK ). I do have a hard copy SQL of most of my spots as well.

Anything else I should be doing? Anything I can learn from your mistakes? And if I can be of any help getting you going full bore again e-mail me and I'll do what I can.

later,
Carl

[Donnie]

Carl,
If worse comes to worse, you really should go to Tools to Analyze to Documentor. It is an area where you can print hard copies of everything you have built in Access...so if you have to rebuild manually you know what info you had. But the best would be to right click on each DB name and copy to another drive. One word of caution...I have a CD 'corder that lets you access your CD Rom as if it were a drive letter. If I backed up my system files onto CD Rom I would have to install the proper software first to ensure the system once again reads that drive as just another drive on the computer. It is way cool to be able to drag and drop files onto a cd-rom letter drive and not have to worry about the read/write times!!

Good luck!

[Butch]

Take the hard drive to a data recovery professional. They can access the media disk (the place the data is stored on) and retrieve most, if not all of your data. It won't be cheap, but it will get the job done without worrying about freezing, dropping, or the other fifty wives' tales floating around nowadays. If your data is important to you, it's well worth the cost.

Butch