Help...emergency!

closed

You can put your music anywhere, but if you only have one copy, it's not backed up.

A pen drive costs far more than a 10p 4.7GB DVD-R, and is far less resilient to corruption, loss, viruses.

mintymoneysaver

Thanks, it was just with what Humphrey said about not being able to synch it. Most music we actually still have on CD, and then I suppose it is stored on the actual ipods as well. it's not heartbreaking if the music is lost, just really annoying!
Have managed to find most photos but I've done everything I can with recuva and can't get some back, lesson learnt....

closed

A couple of other programs you could try. Scan the internal hard disk first, and if you don't find the photo's, scan the usb hard disk too

http://diskdigger.org/download
http://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-software.htm

free disk imaging/backup software for future use, (after you've scanned the usb drive for photo's)

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=MaxBlast_5&vgnextoid=7add8b9c4a8ff010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD

mintymoneysaver

Unfortunately I can't get into the USB hard disk at all, the computer just won't recognise it. Says there's an external drive there, but then nothing. Am now up to the stage of redeleting all the stuff I put back on in case I needed it, but will try those other links too. Thankyou so much for all your help.

mintymoneysaver

UPDATE!!!!
Borrowed my mum's laptop and tried the external drive on there and......it's all there!!! So for some reason my pc has just decided it doesn't lihe the USB hard drive for some reason. Have now spent hours transferring all the stuff off the hard drive, via a pen drive, back to the PC, and will then have to delete all the stuff I probably don't need to put back on. Once I've sone that, I shall attempt the USB IN the PC once more just to see what happens this time, and then it'll be going back to the shop for a refund and we'll be back to square one ( and I've never been so glad to be back there!!!):j

closed

If you take it back, your data will be still on there, unless you wipe it securely.

The problem appears to be your pc, rather than the drive.

mintymoneysaver

I wiped all the data once I'd transferred it back, but I agree about the computer. However, i have now tried the hard drive back in the pc again and lo and behold it all appears to be working absolutely fine! Just as you said though I'm investing in some DVDs tonight as I realised a load of the things on there were webcam videos that my daughter has made. I don't want to lose them, but they don't need to be on the computer so i can copy them over.
I'm going to leave the hard drive plugged in and see if it seems to be fine over the next couple of days and then think about transferring a few things over again. Will be getting all of us though to delete half the rubbish i realise is actually on the pc first though!

One last question, I do plan on moving all the documents over, only keeping 'live and vital' ones in both places, and will probably as you suggested put the photos on dvd before moving them over, but would you leave the music where it is on the pc to make it easier to use with the ipods ( and possibly make a copy on the hard drive too)? I'll bow to your superior knowledge?

closed

How much space is free on your c drive and d (if you have one)?

Deleting or formatting is not the same as wiping, the data area needs to be overwritten to make data unrecoverable.

I'm a little lost with what is moving where. The moving word is worrying, you should be copying not moving.

My advice is to leave everything on the c: drive - this is your master copy.

Use DVD's to backup things you do not want to lose, things that aren't replaceable. This would be backup no 1 (make multiple copies for safety, store in dark place)

Use the external hard disk for a second or third backup, using disk imaging software + copying files in explorer