Twenty years of research, maps, legends, places, trips and photos gone

[BuffaloBob]

Every new computer I had included research and trips I've taken. Twenty years or so. Now possibly gone forever. Computer problems. I'll save the hard drive but I have a feeling it is not worthe the cost to recover. Recently moved to another town. Bought some thumbdrives to backup data but in the move can't find them. So no backups. Maybe it's just as well. I remember the important stuff but had lots of Colorado history I scanned or copied or wrote about. On the other hand only a few friends are interested and I just can't get to the places I'd like. We are newbies at this older age stuff and life style changes are inevitable.

My New MInelab X-Terra 705 Gold setup is great. Tuned it for jewelry and wouldn't you know it first day out found a R/R spike! And a old cap gun. Shoulda seen my blood pressure jump when I incovered the barrel.
BB

 

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[pat-tekker-cat]

Hey BB, I was wondering where you was at the other day.
Sorry to hear about the computer and pics etc..... Maybe them backups will show up. I got an old computer I won't throw away, it will still boot, but it will overheat and go down. Maybe one day I'll get around to wiring and firing her up, just to snatch some info of it. Good luck with yours.
Hope you'll be posting now that you kinda settled.

 

[dieselram94]

Sure sucks to loose your pics. Thumb drives are small so I bet there just misplaced and will show up.

sent from a potato with gravy!!...

 

[Eldo]

OK if you have the physical hard drive removed from the old computer.

Or if you have the cpu still, and nothing happened to the drive itself from damage or heat, you can save most of it all, especially photos and text documents

Here's the DIY guide and it cost something like 40 bucks for the Enclosure for a USB External HardDrive

3 Ways to Recover Data from the Hard Drive of a Dead Laptop

Install a Hard Drive in an External Enclosure

Just ask us nerds anytime.....LOOL !

 

[Loco-Digger]

One of the tricks I heard to get data off a dying hard drive is to remove it, put it in the freezer for a day. Pull it from the freezer and install and try to start the computer. You may have a chance to save some of the data you deem important to a CD or DVD

 

[Randy Bradford]

External drives, big ones (not thumb drives) are relatively cheap and extremely powerful. You can store a terabite of data on a drive no bogger than your hand for a hundred bucks or so.

 

[chirper97]

Carbonite.

Carbonite Cloud Backup Services - Online Backup

 

[Cactus Pete]

Eldo has the right idea. I've salvaged almost all the data from laptop drives that were trashed enough to not start the computer, but still had my personal data on them. Rip it out of the computer, put it in an enclosure, and access it as an external driver. I've even salvaged some of those drives by saving the data to another drive, reformat the trashed drive, and then organize the saved data and write it back to the drive. Reformatting usually maps out any bad sectors and you can continue to use the good parts of the drive (although I wouldn't trust it with my only copy of critical data!!)

 

[Holyground]

I have three Seagate drives. One with massive storage and two smaller. I've been Treasure Hunting for over thirty years, and have lost a lot of hard copy pictures from the early days, in moves and what have ya, but the bulk of my pictures, I think, are safe with the extra storage. I have some amazing photos of things that almost killed me to get to. I can't lose them. My partner and I started when we were in our 20's. It's funny to see us as skinny kids with Weavers Needle in the background. Pictures are valuable.

 

[WVPapaw]

Buffalo Bob, I had a similar experience once and took the hard drive out of the computer and installed it in an external drive case. I plugged it into another computer to find the data was alive and well. Small investment for valuable info if it works.

 

[Tiredman]

We had a storage device that nothing would open. Found a throw out cheap laptop, no battery or power cord bought the cord and of all things it opened the storage device.

 

[A2coins]

Hope you can recover those but the memories will always be with you