Make sure to backup your HDD!

Good advice, thank you. It might also not be a bad idea to try reading from the external drive with another computer periodically, just to make sure. And if the files are really important, storing the external drive in a safe location separate from where the computer is.

Yeah, this almost happened to my wife. Could have lost thousands of precious photos! Fortunately we were able to recover everythin but now I'm all about the backup. We currently use an external hard drive but I'm also considering an online option as well, never hurts to protect against a fire in the home too.

Definitely a good post to keep this very important topic on all of our minds.

Jon.

That seriously sucks mate... Thanks for the heads-up.

I always prefer to repair my PC issues from straight to the store from where I have bought my PC. Because they are not going to repair it by themselves. They will repair the device from the manufacturers straight away.
I do not want to loose my data like you. I will create backup for all of my data soon.

Il send you a PM tommorow and i expect a reply! Just want to make sure you have not jumped off a cliff lol.

I ussually do all my writing into my google drive. Its easy to sort into folders and such, and dont run the risk of losing it all.

How old was the harddrive/computer?

It happens to me as well few weeks a go. What a pain.
The irony is when you actually promoting pc backup offer yet
backup your own.

Sigh.

- Primary Sources (Build-in HDDs) + Secondary Sources (External HDDs) Tertiary Sources (Cloud Storages) = Less Future Issue

I agree to send the HDD to the specialist first before anything else!

Crashplan is highly recommended. It does automatic offsite backup and is really "set and forget it" option.

You can use it for free with an external drive or your friend's computer or pay to backup to their servers which is not that expensive.

At the very worst just get a free dropbox account. That way your important files will be on the cloud as you work on them and save them.

Plus you can access them anywhere.

It is extremely important and a lot of people just don't do it. I do two types of backups. First I have LiveDrive (I bought it from someone here for like $20 a year I think), it uploads all of my files automatically as long as my computer is on. Then I have a physical backup hard drive that I backup everything every couple of weeks.

I figure if one service fails I always have an alternative backup.

For backing up my hard drive to the backup drive I use EaseUS ToDo Backup Free. It's very easy to use and I've actually had to restore from backup before and I was pleased with the results.

Edit: I actually pay $25 per year for LiveDrive for unlimited storage.

I have got two kind of back up of my all HDD data

Portable HDD and Online

Yes, totally agree with all of the above; I learnt from experience you need to back important data - external HHD is probably best as it's secure and private; online is pretty good too though there will sometimes might be quota issues, data privacy etc though it's all down to personal preference - I use a combination of both. :-)

I everyday back up all my data into an external Hard Disk also Important files back up over Online.

Easy tip, just use a cloud-service like Dropbox or Mega. When your computer crashes you know your files are safe and another advantage is that you can access your files everywhere, even on your smartphone or tablet. Cloudsaving is the future my friend!

i love to use clouds , dorpbox, box, so that my imp files are safe and i can use them on any pc

I backup my files to a USB stick.

With SSD solid state hard drives now on many modern computers, are they incredibly robust compared to standard drives so they should last decades?

I started a thread myself on this very subject a few weeks back, when my HD died.

You can find some more useful input here.

http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...-reminder.html

I remember one of my professors asked me what Murphys law was.

I told him "The worst thing will happen".

Then he corrected me..

"At the worst time".

The best way to do backups is an IMAGE backup to a USB drive and also to swap that USB drive off-premises with a 2nd USB drive quite often.

An IMAGE backup is a snapshot of your whole hard drive. It means you don't have to re-install your operating system if your drive fails. You simply start your computer from the ERD (Emergency Recovery Disk) CD which you made when you installed your image backup program. On the ERD is your backup software. From that ERD you can restore your latest backup image from your USB drive.

In other words, the ERD lets you recover, even if the operating system won't start.

In this way you can get EVERYTHING back, even onto a new computer, if your old one was destroyed. You can add cloud backup as a 2nd method, but your image backup can also restore individual files and folders, not just your whole drive. The only trick is that you have to go into your computer's BIOS and set the "Boot Priority" so that your computer starts from the CD drive first.

In my recent Amazon Kindle book on backup, I recommend Acronis "True Image" backup and Storage Craft's "Shadow Protect Desktop" edition. The Acronis product costs less, is easier to use, more user friendly and also does cloud backup.

I've been a professional computer consultant for over 2 decades and have recovered computers from office fires with the methods above.

Man, that SUCKS!
I would be completely discouraged if something like that (at your level of loss) happened to me.
I keep all of my important files on my Dropbox which is linked to several computers so that I can access them straight on the hard drive if anything happens to the online dropbox file.

Good luck with getting everything done again! Your passion for the project will really shine through!

Have a nice day,

-Luke

I'm so sorry for you.

Wow: 120,000 + words?

Is there any way to recover it?

Great advice. I have a cloud backup service that is reasonably priced. The protection I get is priceless!

Valuable lessons shared. Thanks for the headsup for the future.

I always do an online backup, usually on my Drive. It's the safe thing to do, considering computers can crash at any time, at least online you can access your stuff anytime!

I would probably turn into the Hulk if I was in your shoes.. I truly feel for you man!

In a HDD, there are two part. 1. HDD Circuit 2. HDD DRUM, It is really easy to replace the CIRCUIT, if the Circuit is damages. On the other hand if the HDD DRUM is damages, it is too hard to resolve it. sometimes it may logically damages, in this case some software, can make run it. such as RANISH, QDM, POWERMAX or, something like this. then you can use the DATA recovery softwarte to get your lost data. But if the DRUM physically damages, no one can recovery the data. Thanks.

Two year old thread boys and girls.

Oh, very sad. Everything need to have back up. Because we should not trust one thing. If your HDD damage logically, you can use some software to get this data. Such as data Ranish, qdm. On the otherhand if you HDD damaged physically, it may need to be repaired. In a HDD, there are 2 part. Circute & Drum. You can easily repair to change the Circuit. But if the Dum damage physically, there is none to repaid except the HDD manufacturer. you should remember these things.

Hey, friend! After experiencing troublesome data loss problems several times, I also understand how important it is to back up all important data on different storage devices, like memory cards, hard drives or flash drives.
It is really necessary to avoid any unexpected data loss troubles in the future, no matter what happens again.
So, you guys also should get a habit to always save crucial data on different drives or locations and also update these data backups well regularly.
Of course, if you also get such data loss troubles in the future, my found data recovery software many also helps you and give you some useful clues, like:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_recovery
Or Memory Card Photo Recovery|Recover Deleted Photo Video off Memory Stick Drive

Thanks for sharing