Java Help Needed Computer Geniuses- again need help 7-20

[artist]

I know there are several here - off hand I remember x-y-no is - hope you and others see this.

My question to you (seeing what a dummy I was by not backing up my computer) I hve a Dell that the hard drive is fried. We took it to CompUSA and they can't help as when it went it went. They gave us the card for a guy that might be able to help but they said it would be from $400 - $1200 to get the data off of it. I have all our birthday, holiday pics, photos of sky, beach, family, etc., address book, designs by me, and on and on on this thing. Do you know if there is a cheaper route to getting the data off of it? What makes me madder than anything is a few months ago I thought it was going, but Dell, said- no- or the guys supervisor said it wasn't, and I didn't find a way to back it up then. If you ever hear your hard drive sound like a record player where you press the needle down on or hear it spinning extremely fast - be sure to back up while you can. Fortunately ( the only fortunate) it is in warrantee for another month. TIA for any advice you can give me.
Also when they came to replace it yesterday that drive would not work - the tech thought maybe the board is having a problem as well, but Dell said they are going to send another drive, so will be interested to find out if both went at the same time. By the way - I have already purchased a back up drive with a 5 yr. warranty on it so this will never happen again, hopefully.

[gtalum]

You may try freezing your hard drive for 24 hours. It should give you another 20 minutes or so of use, which you can use to transfer everything to another hard drive.

[mf_dolphin]

Unfortunately I think you're going to be out of luck. Using a data recovery service is iffy at best. It can cost a lot of money to find out they can't recover anything. Most services will offer a evaluation service for a low upfront cost so you have a better idea if there's data that can be recovered before comitting blindly.

[artist]

thanks guys - looks like
I am probably just out of luck - what a very expensive lesson learned- not monetarily either.

[x-y-no]

You may try freezing your hard drive for 24 hours. It should give you another 20 minutes or so of use, which you can use to transfer everything to another hard drive.

Huh ... that's one I hadn't heard of before. Worth a try, I guess.

Wish I could help, but basically there's no cheap easy way I know of.

[sweetpea]

This is probably a stupid question. But lately it seems like alot of people I talk to has had the same thing happen. Since I haven't backed up my computer in at least 2 years I have been trying to do that with no luck. I can't figure out how to do it. I have windows xp. Does anyone know what I am doing wrong? I used to be able to do it on my old one but can't get it on this one.
Debbie

[artist]

sweetpea-if you are trying to back it up on the same hard drive then that would not help if the hard drive ends up being completely fried. I got an external drive for doing that now. IF you have a cdrw drive or dvdrw drive then you can back documents, pictures, etc. to those, depending on how much info you have. I had 15 gig on mine (document, pics, etc.-not programs) so it would have taken at least 2 dvd's to back mine up that way and countless cd's.

[coriolis]

That happened to me once too. The freezer did not work on that one. The next step was to drop it on a hard floor. That didn't work either. The next step is to put it in a vice and try to squeeze the information out of it. If that doesn't work you get a hammer and pound the crap out of it. It won't get your information back, but you might feel better.

[artist]

hey - coriolis - that might just be the answer!

Another question for you guys - I have my new hard drive and now have to reload everything. I remember way back when that supposedly sun java was safer than plain ole java. Is that still the case and if so - which sun java to download. Thanks again for your answers.

http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp

[artist]

does anyone have any idea what I am talking about, please?

[GhostRider]

I have never tried this myself, but I know a couple of people who have recovered some drives that were thought to be hopeless using Spinrite. They say as long as the drive is not physically damaged (gouged platter for example) this will do the job. Unfortunately its not free, but it is cheaper than a data recovery service and just might save your files...

http://www.grc.com/spinrite.htm

Good luck.

Jim

[O Town]

I just read somewhere when trying to fix a Java problem recently that they don't have the Java Sun for new versions of Java, they have Java Virtual Machine. Java Sun was an add on to Java I believe. Someone correct me if I am wrong, I may try to dig that up where I read it, but I am almost sure Java Sun is no longer.

[sweetpea]

sweetpea-if you are trying to back it up on the same hard drive then that would not help if the hard drive ends up being completely fried. I got an external drive for doing that now. IF you have a cdrw drive or dvdrw drive then you can back documents, pictures, etc. to those, depending on how much info you have. I had 15 gig on mine (document, pics, etc.-not programs) so it would have taken at least 2 dvd's to back mine up that way and countless cd's.

Thanks artist, I will try that.

[Aquawind]

Java code was created by Sun Microsystems and Microsoft got sued for taking the code and making it there own. They got sued by Sun and now microsoft has Java Virtual Machine. Sun has the real deal at java.com and if your having java loading issues most people need to download the latest from java.com directly.

[artist]

ghost rider - thanks for that - unfortunately my drive is deader than a door nail! I am going to look into that for the new drive though.


aquawind - thank you thank you thank you!

[Aslkahuna]

Do try the data recovery service and get an appraisal and estimate of what can be saved and how it will cost to retrieve it. If they can't retrieve anything then it will just cost you the appraisal fee. If data can be retrieved then it may be worth the cost to avoid the hassle of having to track everything down and putting it on a new drive.

Steve