I LOST MY HARD DRIVE....HELP???!!!

[jtval 0]

I dont think its possible to recover much of it but I lost my hard drive; the important one. no, not the one with porn on it but my skydiving edits and raw footage and projects.

I lost hundreds of hours of editing. anyone know if I may be able to get it back?

I tunred on the computer today and it showed up as Drive "D". I named it VIDEO EDITS. so I was worried to say the least.
then I clicked on it and tit says the drive is not formatted. I figured all was lost so I tried to format it but it wont format. ( i know it means its dead and I need a new one and all is lost, but surely if I shake it out I can get some videos out of it, no???)




at least I have soem of my stuff on dvd and on other drives. but my most current stuff is vapor

My photos

My Videos

[Girlfalldown 0]

At least you didn't lose your hard on.

--------------

(Do not, I repeat DO NOT, take my posts seriously.)

[vdschoor 0]

DON'T FORMAT IT!!

There's recovery software out there, it might just be that the FAT table got corrupted or something..

Iwan

[mdrejhon 8]

Computer geek here.

First thing.. Immediately STOP using the computer and start your research on recovery solutions on a different computer.

You shouldn't have started reformatting. That makes it harder to recover the data.

Recommendations:

(1) Use a data recovery service if you can afford it. A professional data recovery service, possibly costing about a thousand dollars.

(2) If not, research on a good file recovery utility and purchase it online from another computer. Find one that runs off a bootable CDR without needing Windows. Burn it to a bootable CDR. Insert the CDR to your computer containing the bad hard disk and let it scan your defective hard disk for remnants of video files. Copy them off the hard disk to another media, such as a USB drive or another CDR or a different hard disk.

Don't make any further modifications to your hard disk anymore (no format, no edit, no create/delete), until you've copied the important files off it. Unless you want to weaken the chances of data recovery.

I successfully recovered a friend's crashed hard disk that was exactly like yours. It took me 6 to 7 hours to recover everything, but I succeeded. Unfortunately, your attempt to format may have diminished the chances and you may need to pay for a professional data recovery service.

[highfly 0]

Youre a help

Well I lost 250gb last yr of my h/d. I lost 7 music vids that I was working on, 80 gb of tunes oh and my wedding and honeymoon video.

You can go to a specialist to have the data recoverd, but it could cost $1000
Depends how precious the data is.
You still got all the original footage?

www.myspace.com/durtymac

[jtval 0]

hmmm wow?

never knew about that stuff. I guess I just kicked it a little further into the gutter by trying to reformat it.

do you know the names of such software?

My photos

My Videos

[jtval 0]

Quote

You can go to a specialist to have the data recoverd, but it could cost $1000
Depends how precious the data is.
You still got all the original footage?

yea I may just have to re edit the stuff. its not worth $1000 to me.

although my brother may actually pay me to finish editing his wedding footage for him LOL
this is the third timeI lost it

My photos

My Videos

[mdrejhon 8]

Before I can make recommendations...

What are the specs of your computer?
Windows XP? Windows Me? Windows 98? Mac?
One or two hard disks? (Are drive C and D simply two partitions on the same hard disk? Or separate hard disks?)
Do you have a CDR/DVR in that computer?
Describe as much as possible.

In the meantime, to maximize the chances of recovery, leave that computer turned off until further notice. (Unless you want to write off the videos). Just in case a virus/trojan was responsible.

There's dozens of file recovery software out there. Only a few of them are appropriate to your situation, since the best way to recover from this kind of problem is the bootable CD method. (Not all file recovery software has a bootable CD option)

I paid about $50 for my recovery software, I used an online download and then burned it to a CDR on my laptop computer, and then I inserted the disc into the computer with the sick hard drive...

[kelpdiver 2]

hmm...if it's the third time, it's time to talk about backups or RAID.

Many motherboards support simple mirroring. Costs you an extra $130 to have two 250g drives instead of one, but you can survive the rare hard drive failure. Unfortunately, it won't protect you from yourself (deleting, etc).

[bob.dino 0]

RTT have some software you might be able to use.

[highfly 0]

3rd time.
Mmm
Maybe you should have a go at backing up once in a while.
It's not much fun but it does make times like this easier.

I certainly learnt my lesson.
I back up at least once a week.
The best and easiest way is to get an external 100gb (or bigger) drive and dump all the stuff you want onto it and keep it safe.
I also have a bootable start disk on my external in case my op system crashes.

Oh yeah and dont forget to back up your backup

www.myspace.com/durtymac

[mdrejhon 8]

The software I used was http://www.uneraser.com ....
"It can even restore files from deleted and reformatted partitions."

You can download it for free trial. The trial won't unerase the files, but this free version can "detect" recoverable files.

If the scan detects the orphaned video files, then you can just purchase the software, re-burn the software onto CDR. Then start over again but actually recovering/undeleting the files.

Make sure you remember the file extensions of your video files, so that this software can search through the unallocated areas of the hard disk for files matching the filename. For example *.mpg *.mpeg *.vob *.avi *.wmv etc.

It's not the only software out there, but this is one of them that might be able to help -- since it's a free trial download (trial version will only SCAN though, won't actually recover until you pay)

[jtval 0]

Quote

3rd time.
Mmm
Maybe you should have a go at backing up once in a while.
It's not much fun but it does make times like this easier.

I certainly learnt my lesson.
I back up at least once a week.
The best and easiest way is to get an external 100gb (or bigger) drive and dump all the stuff you want onto it and keep it safe.
I also have a bootable start disk on my external in case my op system crashes.

Oh yeah and dont forget to back up your backup

its not so much the back up..I do. but you cant back up the project. I was in the middle of editing his wedding video for the 3rd time when i lost this. the first two times were just crashes in the program this time the whole drive shit on me




I am runing a virus scan now to see if theres something eating my pc.

My photos

My Videos

[mdrejhon 8]

In a pinch, if it's your drive D and not C, you can run the www.UNERASER.com software directly from drive C and scan without using a bootable CDR.

I don't recommend this method, but this method works if you are running on a perfectly good C drive.

[PhreeZone 15]

JT, if you can send me the drive I'll take a look at it and see what I can do to help you out. I've got just about every recovery tool that I've been able to get my hands on in the last 5 years.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[highfly 0]

Hey Phreezsone can I send you mine too?
Its been opened up and the disks are seized up.
Reckon you can sort that?

www.myspace.com/durtymac

[Guest]

Dude, that's very fn cool of you.

Blue Skyes

You can have it good, fast, or cheap: pick two.

[PhreeZone 15]

Wait a second... is this the same wedding I was at last year? You Still have'nt got that done?

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[highfly 0]

Come on he has tried 3 times already

If it keeps crashing when you edit that vid, there must be some virus on the dv tape which you will of transfered when you loaded it on to your pc

www.myspace.com/durtymac

[leroydb 0]

i have a programm called HD recover. I used it to recover most of a HD I lost.

email me, It is only 1mb program... I can send it to you if you like

Leroy


..I knew I was an unwanted baby when I saw my bath toys were a toaster and a radio...

[Kris 0]

Erk, if you need it, I have OnTrack's recovery software. It's saved my ass more than once, even after a partial format.

It's 3MB in size....In fact, I think I may have already sent it to you last year.

Sky, Muff Bro, Rodriguez Bro, and
Bastion of Purity and Innocence!™

[jtval 0]

Quote

Wait a second... is this the same wedding I was at last year? You Still have'nt got that done?

yup..I mean nope.

I got most of it done...well I DID!

I had to wait for me brother to get me the pictures form the pro photog. that took forever. I had to fly to NY to scan them in myself then resize them all then edit them in to a slide show then I had to do the video protion....


I think I am about fukn done with it all.

My photos

My Videos

[leroydb 0]

Quote

I think I am about fukn done with it all.

i felt that way when my old video editing prog took a dump and I lost all the editing for my skydiving video. Didnt lose the vid jsut the editing inside the prog.. was a pain.......

learned that I needed to edit in small segments....

Leroy


..I knew I was an unwanted baby when I saw my bath toys were a toaster and a radio...

[wingnut 0]

sorry to hear that your hard drive crashed... mine did that lastyear, luckly i had everyting mostly saved on another hard drive...if it makes ya feel betteri canjack aroundwith your internet at work.... maybe delete you acount if you like... or randomly reset you modem......... hehehehe... just think it could be worse!!!!!

p.s. no i wouldn't really do that, but i di think about it the other day.....

______________________________________
"i have no reader's digest version"

[Travman 6]

I've used a programme called Getdataback many times with great success (I am a Network Engineer), I would highly recommend it.
The potential to get your data back depends on many things. If its just a corrupt partition table then the data should all still be there, I have had this happen a few times (with the same symptons you have said)
If its a hardware fault then every spin of the drive you are probably using more and more data.

But as other ppl have said, if this is important data then TURN OFF YOUR COMPUTER NOW, use another computer to recover the contents of your hard drive.