Yesterday, my laptop’s removable hard drive failed!
I have no idea how or why this happened, but without any warning my laptop was suddenly denied access to the hard drive. I tried all the recommended methods of repairing this … but none of them worked.
This could have been a massive disaster, but luckily I’d done a backup before Christmas and I’d only lost about a month’s work … which made it somewhat less of a disaster!
However, I’m so long in the tooth that I dredged my memory and remembered that I could get access to the files on the hard drive by using command lines, and that once I had done that, I should be able to copy the missing files onto a new hard drive or USB memory stick. The only problem is that this is not the quickest method of copying files and it looks as if I have a couple of days of laborious work ahead of me.
I suppose that I could have avoided this by putting everything in my cloud memory, but every time that I’ve tried to do this, I’ve failed. I have now learned a very valuable lesson, and once I have salvaged what I can from this mess, I will try again, hopefully with greater success!
Thank you for sharing this experience. It is a reminder to us all just how fragile our seemingly secure computer memories are. I backup to a hard drive every few months, but even losing three or four months does not bear thinking about.
ReplyDeleteI don't use cloud backup either, but perhaps I will reconsider now. No idea how much it costs, but well worth it to avoid losing all that work and memories
regards
Paul
Oh no, Bob. Happened to me a few times over the years. Now everything but everything is backed up on the cloud. I honestly do nothing now without it on the cloud. Most highly recommended!!
ReplyDeleteHi Bob
ReplyDeleteDid you try putting the hard drive into a sealed plastic bag, pop it in the fridge for 30 mins, and try it again, might work for long enough to transfer some files. Jim
At least it's still salvageable. One of the trials and tribulations of the modern age.
ReplyDeleteAwful news. It serves as a prompt for me to do my annual big back up (which I generally do at the New Year). So it doesn't help you much, but at least some good may come of your troubles since it will get me to take care of this precaution myself, which I've been putting off. The cloud is not for me (for many reasons). I back up on a physical USB drive.
ReplyDelete