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In late 2003 I bought my very first in life PC. I’d never been on PC before that. I taught myself to use it, at times it was frustrating, but overall my PC became my friend. It was a blessing in so many ways, the most important being the many life lasting genuine friendships I’ve made through my PC. Living islolated in the remote rural country, often imprisoned in my former home…my PC was my only source of communicating with the outside world, sometimes for weeks at a time.
Last night I went to bed, shut off my now 8 yr old PC as always. Today when I turned it on it wouldn’t work. I had a PC tech person come to my house to check it out…they diagnosed it as being dead, motor burned on the hard drive they said. Heck, no signs of trouble last night, but they told me a hard drive is like a lite bulb, eventually they burn out, never know when it will happen.
A friend is letting me use their old laptop until I get a new CPU, gonna shop around tomorrow I guess for a new desktop. I hadn’t backed up data for a while, foolishly…so I lost many priceless photos & graphics collected in the last yr or so. They tried, nothing can be retrieved from the hard drive…it’s lost forever.
If you want to pay there are companies that can retrive the info for you as long as a) the drive did not crash that is the heads land on the platters or b) the hardware did not write grabage when gong bad. But from reading your descreption it sounds like neither of those happened – you turned it off when it was working and it would not spin up when you powered it on.
These companies will take the platers out or will replace the drive board and read as much or as little as you want now they are not cheap but if you have enough photos that are priceless to you that is your call. Just search on “disk data recovery” and you will see a lot of them. I had to use one about 3-4 years ago after I had a disk go bellyup at work with a 1000+ member database on our server and it seems like it was about $150-200. Good luck if I was closer I have an old (about 3-4 years a P4 3.2 GHz) computer I would give you just because of what you do for all of us.The PC tech who came to my house said the motor on the hard drive was totally burned, that nothing could be retrieved. She took it out of the CPU & back to the company she works for, called me later that day with the bad news. She gave me her company business card, it has these degrees behind her name…A+ N+ MCP MCSA whatever those stand for I dunno, haha, but assume she knew what she was doing.
When she turned my PC on she went to Dells inner diagnostics in safe mode, 1 DG DRIVE, it came up as Fail code 7. She said my hard drive was dead, nothing she could do.
N TX Dave;227353 wrote:If you want to pay there are companies that can retrive the info for you as long as a) the drive did not crash that is the heads land on the platters or b) the hardware did not write grabage when gong bad. But from reading your descreption it sounds like neither of those happened – you turned it off when it was working and it would not spin up when you powered it on.
These companies will take the platers out or will replace the drive board and read as much or as little as you want now they are not cheap but if you have enough photos that are priceless to you that is your call. Just search on “disk data recovery” and you will see a lot of them. I had to use one about 3-4 years ago after I had a disk go bellyup at work with a 1000+ member database on our server and it seems like it was about $150-200. Good luck if I was closer I have an old (about 3-4 years a P4 3.2 GHz) computer I would give you just because of what you do for all of us.Oh, thank you Dave, you’re a heart of genuine gold, I appreciate it. I’m hoping my special needs trustee will approve the withdrawal request for me to buy a new CPU. My monitor & printer don’t need replaced.
Here’s some SS facts many Americans may not be aware of: When I sold my house I had a small amount left over after buying & paying cash for this house, paying off my truck, paying 1 yr in advance for homeowners & truck ins., etc.. Well, last October after going thru all of Social Securities medical & Dr.’s testing, I was approved for disability, mostly due to my 75% hearing loss & arthritis in my hands & knees. Problem is with Gov cutbacks & changes in SS… it’s an income restricted disability until I turn 65, which is 10 1/2 yrs away more or less, then it converts to traditional SS, much fewer retrictions on allowed income eligibiliy.
In order for me to remain income eligible with the Federal Gov until I turn 65, & continue to recieve my current monthly SS disability check & medicare/medicaid healthcare…I can’t have any ‘extra’ cash laying around. SS however, does allow me to deposit any money I may recieve over the amount of my SS disability monthly income, into a ‘special needs trust’. The amount I had left from selling my former house was deposited into that trust.
Also, in December a judge issued a court order forcing my x husband to deposit $600 monthly into my special needs trust fund for 10 yrs.. It’s to pay me back money & investments he dishonestly took from me the last 2 yrs of marriage & the yr following while waiting for the divorce to be finalized, 2007-2010. The judge & state atty’s involved wanted to award me all the equity in the house as compenation. Well, my x husband pleaded with me via emails & thru our daughter, asking me to let him pay $600 monthly instead for 10 yrs…saying he needed his share of the house equity to rebuild his life & small business his self destruction over 3 yrs all but destroyed.
Judge respected my request to issue a court order allowing my x to make me monthly payments, let him keep his share of house equity when we sold it the end of December. Judge told him if he doesn’t obey, he’ll risk going to jail (again). So far he’s obeyed, only time will tell for how long. Anyway, so, I have funds to buy a new CPU, but my ‘special needs’ trustee must approve any withdrawals from my trust as being necessary to the quality of my life based upon SS laws/guidelines. I called my trustee yesterday, but so far haven’t heard back from her if a new CPU is considered ‘necessary’.
Connie Jo;227338 wrote:In late 2003 I bought my very first in life PC. I’d never been on PC before that. I taught myself to use it, at times it was frustrating, but overall my PC became my friend. It was a blessing in so many ways, the most important being the many life lasting genuine friendships I’ve made through my PC. Living islolated in the remote rural country, often imprisoned in my former home…my PC was my only source of communicating with the outside world, sometimes for weeks at a time.Last night I went to bed, shut off my now 8 yr old PC as always. Today when I turned it on it wouldn’t work. I had a PC tech person come to my house to check it out…they diagnosed it as being dead, motor burned on the hard drive they said. Heck, no signs of trouble last night, but they told me a hard drive is like a lite bulb, eventually they burn out, never know when it will happen.
A friend is letting me use their old laptop until I get a new CPU, gonna shop around tomorrow I guess for a new desktop. I hadn’t backed up data for a while, foolishly…so I lost many priceless photos & graphics collected in the last yr or so. They tried, nothing can be retrieved from the hard drive…it’s lost forever.
Sorry to here about the computer issue.
Went through a huge computer issue last month myself. I found a really good 3.2 ghz computer off ebay for $109.99 total and I love this computer more then my last one. I would say try out ebay and stuff you can find some cheaper computers and better deals then alot of stores would give you.
Connie Jo;227378 wrote:The PC tech who came to my house said the motor on the hard drive was totally burned, that nothing could be retrieved. She took it out of the CPU & back to the company she works for, called me later that day with the bad news. She gave me her company business card, it has these degrees behind her name…A+ N+ MCP MCSA whatever those stand for I dunno, haha, but assume she knew what she was doing.When she turned my PC on she went to Dells inner diagnostics in safe mode, 1 DG DRIVE, it came up as Fail code 7. She said my hard drive was dead, nothing she could do.
The data recovery companies can get the data off even with the motor bad. It takes expensive special equipment that no computer repair company has on hand I have worked for a few and my son in law who lives with me has worked for computer geeks and he said they did not even have it, so I hope you got your disk back data can be gotten off with the correct equipment however it may costs $150.
Dave, I’m suppose to pick up my hard drive disc from the company. When she called me with the bad news, I told her I wanted back, sentimental reasons I guess. She told me then if I wanted to spend between $700-$1,000 she could send it off to some lab, try to let them retrieve info, but said there was no guarantee, & I’d be charged the fee whether they were successful or not. I told her no of course, but did want to pick up my hard drive.
In the meantime, my trustee called a bit ago, & she did approve my request to use trust funds for a new CPU. I’m gonna email her the info needed to order it thru Dell. My PC was a Dell, & I’m familiar with Dell as such, plus it lasted 8 yrs with few issues, so am comfortable going with Dell again. Hopefully the new one will last 8 yrs, haha. Likely take a week or so for it to arrive, but I can use Brandons old laptop till then.
matthewschiefs;227385 wrote:Sorry to here about the computer issue.Went through a huge computer issue last month myself. I found a really good 3.2 ghz computer off ebay for $109.99 total and I love this computer more then my last one. I would say try out ebay and stuff you can find some cheaper computers and better deals then alot of stores would give you.
I know of others too who have had success off Ebay buying PC’s, electronics, but some have had horrors too. I’d be leary mostly of buying a PC on Ebay because I’d have to cover shipping charges if it needed returned, etc.. Also, battling some sellers to replace it honorably. Anyway, looks like I’ll be ordering one from Dell tomorrow…they have some good deals right now.
Thanks Matthew, do appreciate your suggestion though.
Connie Jo;227388 wrote:Dave, I’m suppose to pick up my hard drive disc from the company. When she called me with the bad news, I told her I wanted back, sentimental reasons I guess. She told me then if I wanted to spend between $700-$1,000 she could send it off to some lab, try to let them retrieve info, but said there was no guarantee, & I’d be charged the fee whether they were successful or not. I told her no of course, but did want to pick up my hard drive.In the meantime, my trustee called a bit ago, & she did approve my request to use trust funds for a new CPU. I’m gonna email her the info needed to order it thru Dell. My PC was a Dell, & I’m familiar with Dell as such, plus it lasted 8 yrs with few issues, so am comfortable going with Dell again. Hopefully the new one will last 8 yrs, haha. Likely take a week or so for it to arrive, but I can use Brandons old laptop till then.
Well you got 8 years out of that computer, that is more than I ever get out of mine, I replace them every couple of years.
It does cost a lot of money to recover data from a fried drive. They usually have good success, however it is not cheap. The work to do this is painfully tedious and hard to do.
Likely, you can pick up another hard drive for around $50.00, that old of a computer, you may have some issues with size as some of the older ones only recognized a certain size of drive.
With that old of a computer though, I just don’t see it being worth it. You can buy a much better machine for less than $400 these days. I would try http://www.newegg.com and see what I could find.
For the future though, buy yourself an external harddrive system that has two hard drives in it that are mirrored. If you do this, and put all your data on that system, then you at least not lose anything important if one of those drives were to die on you. If both drives die, then that is another problem of course.
Hayvern;227400 wrote:Well you got 8 years out of that computer, that is more than I ever get out of mine, I replace them every couple of years.It does cost a lot of money to recover data from a fried drive. They usually have good success, however it is not cheap. The work to do this is painfully tedious and hard to do.
Likely, you can pick up another hard drive for around $50.00, that old of a computer, you may have some issues with size as some of the older ones only recognized a certain size of drive.
With that old of a computer though, I just don’t see it being worth it. You can buy a much better machine for less than $400 these days. I would try http://www.newegg.com and see what I could find.
For the future though, buy yourself an external harddrive system that has two hard drives in it that are mirrored. If you do this, and put all your data on that system, then you at least not lose anything important if one of those drives were to die on you. If both drives die, then that is another problem of course.
More info on this please. This might be something I want to look into.
Unfortunately, Connie, the PC Tech is right: all hard drives have a certain limited life span; the fact that you got eight years out of your PC is actually a bit remarkable. The bad thing is that you have lost all that data you had stored on it. Sorry you are experiencing this kind of hardship. Take it from someone who has been there and done that: I know how you’re feeling.
Connie Jo;227390 wrote:I know of others too who have had success off Ebay buying PC’s, electronics, but some have had horrors too. I’d be leary mostly of buying a PC on Ebay because I’d have to cover shipping charges if it needed returned, etc.. Also, battling some sellers to replace it honorably. Anyway, looks like I’ll be ordering one from Dell tomorrow…they have some good deals right now.
Thanks Matthew, do appreciate your suggestion though.
Yeah I have been ripped off through ebay before. I went to the local computer shop and the same computer there was about 350$ so I took the gamble and it just turned out well for me this time but I can understand not wanting to spend a lot of money on something online. I don’t do it often but I was in a gambleing mood I guess since I have not been able to put all my arrowhead cash on the chiefs in a while:lol:
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