A situation I have created...

[nvictor]

Earlier today I decided to polish my external harddisk, on which I kept every important things from my 3 years of being a computer programmer: all my past programming projects, web designs, mp3, ebooks, videos, writings, games...

Windows screwed up my hard drive; I was deleting files from multiple folders at the same time. Don't do it please. I'm at the starting point again. But why would my intention to polish my "knowledge storage" end up like this, forcing me to start everything again?

Some of these projects/writings/creations would cheer me up when I'm lost...

[UHF]

Perhaps you can recover the files, there are tools around. But essentially it doesn't really matter does it? Otherwise you would have taken comprehensive steps to ensure it could never be deleted. Resign yourself to it and start afresh. But if things are desperately important, hard copy back-ups on CD/DVD or internet based back-ups are the way to go.

[nvictor]

Actually, the files are more important than I thought yesterday. They were basically everything for me
I have tried again this morning and I can hear the plates trying to turn in the hard drive...
It's so sad.

[Zukin]

Can you get professional help? I'm not talking about Best Buy or Circuit City's computer tech departments, but a more specialized data recovery company.

Why not look for reviews of data recovery companies online and possibly send your hard drive to the most reputable one to see if you can get your data recovered.

[write2win]

Good luck, nVictor!
I know it's hard..but stay positive. W/ positive approach, mind remains open to possibilities. Anger, sadness causes mind to 'shut tight'. W/ open frame of mind, I am sure, you would come across some solution to your problem.

Quote: Human mind is like a parachute. It only works when it's open!

[UHF]

Originally Posted by nvictor

I have tried again this morning and I can hear the plates trying to turn in the hard drive...

Your original statement is difficult to understand. What do you mean by 'polished'? I thought this was some figure of speech referring to deleting unwanted files. You didn't actually physically open the disk casing and 'polish' the platters did you (this isn't easy to do anyway)?

Anyhow, this is a message about arranging regular back-ups I think.

[legger]

although this may seem like a terrible thing right now. this may be the universe' way of delivering to you whatever you may be seeking. maybe this was the quickest path to reaching what you desire. an example would be, you recover the data through use of computer forensics tools and you realize maybe that would be a good business to go into. you start the business it becomes a huge success etc... now if you had never lost the files you would have never started the business, you see what i am saying? i'm sure it will all work out for you and i feel your pain i know what it is like to lose a hard drive. Just wanted to add, normally I read the first page of the forum everyday. Today something told me to click on page 2 which is where your thread was.

[nvictor]

"polish" is a french word. By this word I really meant removing what I have finally realized not useful.

I have realized that I was not sharing these data, which is why I could not recover them from other sources. Maybe I could have:
made copies of my favorite music to my friends,
sent my programs to shareware archives,
shared my favorite ebooks and games on a website,
etc...

This was a required experience for me for, now, I'm going to share everything except my personal journal.

thanks all

[Lola]

nvictor - I am the furthest thing from a computer programmer you can imagine so no tech help here. But I am interested in the I-M focus of this event as I, too, am sometimes confused by how some events manifest in my life.

So your intent was to delete unnecessary files and infomation from your hard drive, yes? Can you consider the possiblity that this is exactly what occurred? Perhaps the lost items are not in fact as necessary as you supposed. Perhaps you have been given a cleaner slate than you imagined you needed?

Just a thought...

[Minsc]

So your hard drive crashed? (which isn't Windows' fault and any hard disk activity or shock could cause it, I'm guessing it didn't overheat since you said the disks are in screwy positions)

(If Windows won't detect the hard drive then it crashed; use Logical Disk Manager in Administrative Tools -> Computer Management to check. If it's detected but you can't read from it then it's probably corrupt)

Maybe you could shove the disks into a new hard drive of the same model? (not sure if it'd damage data or anything, and also data recovery will cost a few thousand dollars, I think)

And you could use Amazon S3 for backing up. It'll cost you 15 cents a month per gigabyte of data(rounded up every month) but they also charge a little for upload/download and you could use it for web hosting too if you wanted. So it'd basically cost one cent a month to use it for backing up code unless you also back up binaries or other data(up to 68mb will cost one cent).