I dropped my laptop and saw half my life disappear...

Charli

cool little "title"
Before anyone says - get an external drive - I have one, a fellow dvxuser has it on loan.

So, today, it happened, I accidentally dropped my laptop while relocating myself to the bedroom. BOOM!

Fell on the corner and PLOP!

*no operating systems found*

Now mind you, I've had this message pop up many times before, all I had to do
was restart and it worked fine - not this time.

Went into the F10 saw that at start up for hard drive it shows "NONE" - ugh.

So, tell me tech geeks, are my files lost forever? Yes, I was smart enough to always
have a brand new hard drive ready to go in storage. I can reinstall my
voice-activated software, my scripts (except for 20 pages) are all on a free-base
email file - safe.

What did I lose?

My studio logo file that I paid a dvxuser to make for me two years ago.

Some files gone forever other files I sent to friends I can recover.

I feel like half my efforts dropped with a machine!!!!

I really want to go back to paper and pen, it's so permanent!

I feel so sad 'bout now, boo hoo.
 
Must be something in the air. See this post Charli,

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=190390

I posted about a company that can help you recover the disk information from some kind of damage. That said, if it's broken, this software probably wont do the trick.

That's a sick feeling I know all too well so I empathize with you.

I hope it works out.

PS-The FW is for Filmworks, because my company use to be Insanity Filmworks. Not Fort Worth...and I'm sorry that I still haven't had time to watch anybody's movies. Still need to download them. NOw, I'm highjacking, so I'll go

I hope you get your files back.

Best,

Jason
 
Must be something in the air.



Today, my raid 5 array got corrupted, making my workstation un-usable and my data disappear. good thing I had external back-ups - I wasn't worried about general data loss. I did have a bunch of temp data that would of been a pain to lose, and rebuilding my workstation and all the presets and scripts, horrible. after 3 hours, I was able to get the array fixed. close call.
 
charli, it's a long shot, but maybe the cable on the hard drive got knocked loose. Have someone you know that knows laptops crack it open.

Now mind you, I've had this message pop up many times before, all I had to do
was restart and it worked fine - not this time.

Drop your computer a lot????
 
I'm really sorry about this Charli. If something like that happens to me, it would be a nightmare probably. I don't know much of the technical aspects. I hope things work out well for you.
 
Seek DataRecovery - they may be able to reset the heads
Unfortunately, most of these guys are f-ing expensive. I have a drive here with hundreds of hours of recording (field and foley) and the i/o board on the HD fried. I called around to see what it would cost to recover the data.........least amount was over 1,000 bucks. Couldn't afford it, but still kept the drive hoping eventually prices go down. Not yet at last check.
 
Pop the drive out and put it in an exterior case. If that doesn't ork, you can try googling on a few tricks that may revive it long enough to get the data off. Most laptop drives have some sort of shock resistance. Freezing the drive is the next step if all else fails, then sending it to be scraped. The data is there, but it may be expensive to recover. Check for bent pins.
 
Keep in mind exactly what it takes to do these services. An extremely well maintained clean room is pretty expensive, as are the suits, training, replacement drives and liability costs. It's a big deal. One that I've also been through, having had my external drive fall to the ground and probably break the seek arm in a drive. Which I can't get to because Western Digital uses an odd sized screw type that I haven't been able to find a screwdriver for. It's probably an easy fix, but I can't pay to send it in.

Check for all the mentioned issues first. Test it in an independent system, known to be working, and check the connectors. You can always try fixing it yourself if you're brave enough.
 
Before anyone says - get an external drive - I have one, a fellow dvxuser has it on loan.

So, today, it happened, I accidentally dropped my laptop while relocating myself to the bedroom. BOOM!

Fell on the corner and PLOP!

*no operating systems found*

Now mind you, I've had this message pop up many times before, all I had to do
was restart and it worked fine - not this time.

Went into the F10 saw that at start up for hard drive it shows "NONE" - ugh.

So, tell me tech geeks, are my files lost forever? Yes, I was smart enough to always
have a brand new hard drive ready to go in storage. I can reinstall my
voice-activated software, my scripts (except for 20 pages) are all on a free-base
email file - safe.

What did I lose?

My studio logo file that I paid a dvxuser to make for me two years ago.

Some files gone forever other files I sent to friends I can recover.

I feel like half my efforts dropped with a machine!!!!

I really want to go back to paper and pen, it's so permanent!

I feel so sad 'bout now, boo hoo.

Thats horrible :(

although I don't know exactly what state your hard drive is currently, laptops are actually designed to take such a hit, its known as a 'drop test', usually from a standard height of 1.5M, the electronics in most modern laptops detect when a laptop is about to be hit and 'Park' the hard drive head *before* the hit, this reduces the chances of data loss or hard drive damage.


The drives can still be damaged, but the data *should* be recoverable (*read expensive specialist guys who need to probably take the HD apart and then take an image of it then rebuild and file structures to make it readable.) <-- worst case scenario.

Also like the others have mentioned, it could be a lose connection due to the fall.

Anhar
 
I think it's the drive itself. I am on the same laptop with a new hard drive that
I'm currently uploaded everything under the sun.

No whriling noise, just blank.

I'll try it again later today when there is daylight.

I found my missing 20 pages so I was smart enough to send it to cyberspace.
Sweet.

It's like I just started over again - sigh.
 
Hey Charli.

First piece of advice - DO NOTHING.

Don't "try it again later today" until you've had a professional look at it.

I had this same issue last year when dropped my portable drive. I kept
turning it on to try it "one more time" before bringing it in for repair.
When I finally did, the technician told me it was unrecoverable. That the
act of powering it up when it was broken, permanently damaged it.

Take my advice and just bring it in for an assessment. An assessment
usually costs nothing. Yes a true data recovery is very expensive, but
90% of the time it's just taking the hard disk out and replacing the
external case, then copying everything to a new hard drive. Total
cost, maybe $200 plus the cost of a new hard drive.

In my case I lost two years worth of archived video, 2 years worth
of proposals and letters gone. As you might expect. I felt sick for a week.
But then I turned it around and thought of it as a cleansing, a fresh start.

It helped a lot.
 
I'm taking everyone's advice and just "sucking it up" cuz sometimes that what
you have to do.

I found my studio logo jpeg:

1258472087.jpeg



I lost 11 seconds of animation, but what you gonna do?

Spent last night uploading even the most basic stuff: quicktime, adobe,
msword, paintshoppro, movie magic, yahoo messenger,
firefox, chrome, adaware, norton, ... basic, basic, stuff.

Today got to upload my printer which always takes a bit.

This BITES!
 
Want to know what just happened? I was able to download all my disc software
like paint shop, movie magic, etc, but I left my voice activated software for last.

HUGE MISTAKE.

Now my dvd drive makes a whirling sound and when I go to see my system,
it's not even reading a dvd drive. Did a Sony Vaio diagnostics check so I now
need to ask a dumb geek question:

It's asking me to put in a CD/DVD rom data disc, is that just something that's not
an executable file?

Why oh why would I wait to put the most important file on my puter last? why?
 
I unistalled the driver, rebooted the puter, windows still can't read it.

I think I lost a hard drive AND a dvd/cd drive - someone swear out loud for me!
 
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