George thought it would be a good idea to set up this section, in light of what happened to me yesterday. I totally agreed that this would be a very useful topic for discussion.
The dreaded computer crash occurred as I switched on my desktop computer yesterday morning.
Up until this time I had no warning that anything was amiss as everything had been going smoothly.
My Operating System is Windows XP Home Edition with Service Pack 2.
I just couldn't get Windows to load. After a few seconds I got a screen saying that a problem had occurred and gave me options to
go into 'Safe Mode', 'Safe Mode with Networking', 'Safe Mode with Command Prompt', 'Last Known Good Configuration', etc.
I tried every one of these options but nothing worked. I knew that I had a serious problem when I couldn't even get into 'Safe Mode'.
Fortunately, I'd done recent backups of my most critical files on CD's, so I knew if I had to re-install Windows I could do so. I also knew that by doing this I would still lose some files I hadn't backed up, plus the agony of having to re-install all the other software - all the software and drivers to get the hardware equipment to work, not to mention my own programs.
I was really glad at this point that I had been on College courses for Computer Configuration and Maintenance, for diagnosing computer problems and steps to fix them. Therefore, I remained calm and thought everything through.
I had already done as much as possible to get Windows going, but the denial of Safe Mode spelled disaster.
I had one last trick up my sleeve. About a year ago I had purchased a program called
"Spinrite", which is a hard drive diagnosis and data recovery program. I had never used it before, having made the purchase as insurance should the worst ever happen.
Thank goodness that I did.
I had purchased and downloaded the program and with a separate DOS file that was suggested I copied them both to a CD. The computer would then boot up from this.
I started the process off at 9am and it took just over 7 hours for "Spinrite" to thoroughly examine every sector of my hard drive.
During the process you get a graphical display of what it is doing, and I saw numerous sectors where data had been recovered and moved onto good sectors, and those that could not be recovered, labelling these as unusable.
At the end of the process I removed the "Spinrite" CD and rebooted my PC. SUCCESS!!!!!!!!
Windows loaded normally and all my programs are functioning correctly. It was defintely well worth the 7 hours of waiting to get this problem sorted out.
I don't know whether the problem was mechanical or software related that had caused the bad sectors on the Hard Drive.
Had this not worked, I think I would have been looking at contacting an independent data recovery firm, which would not have been cheap, or biting the bullet and re-installing Windows. This second option would have been the financially better choice but the most hassle.
I think the moral of the story is; BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP. Hard drives can fail at any time, even new ones, so if you cherish those beautiful photos you've got stored on your PC, or other important files that would be difficult or impossible to replace, then take the time to back them up. Either onto CD', DVD's or USB Flash Drives.
Although my PC is now working correctly again (it's about 6 years old now) I'll just monitor how things go, before replacing the hard drive. It may not have another problem for a few more years yet.
If anyone is interested in checking out this piece of software, visit
www.grc.com. The site is run by a guy called Steve Gibson, who is regarded as a computer whizz. I have visited his site regularly for several years and I trust his knowledge implicitly.
Laurie.
