Hard Drive Crashed...what Now??

[ms_twana]

Okay, my hard drive crashed yesterday? Dell is sending me a new one and I'm hoping that I am able to recover all of my files. It's been a LONG time since I did a backup (I'll start doing them monthly) and I was in TEARS when I could no longer boot the computer up.

Anyway, what happens to all of my info if I can't recover my files? Thank goodness I'm a newbie and there's not much in there. But I'm curious to know if my orders could be downloaded from online or something?

 

[pcsharon1]

No, there is no where online that you can download that information from. I know there are a lot of people who backup every few days and they back up their backups. Once it's gone, it gone unfortunately. Hopefully if you have been doing a newsletter or have a PWS, then you have all of your contacts in there.

Hope you can recover what you lost.

 

[wadesgirl]

Sharon is correct, one of my recruits had this happen. Luckily she backed up a couple months ago and doesn't do that many shows but she lost 4-6 shows. What you want to make sure you do is to put those shows in there even if it's just the show information so that show #6 is still Suzie Host and not put in a new show #6 under someone else.

 

[colegrovet]

I take my backups weekly.. I put them on a memory stick..

 

[Sheila]

Sorry!!!

I do a back up on a jump drive each time I close a show. If for some reason my hard drive crashes, I'd only have to data entry the current open shows again. All the closed shows are saved.

I've lost my laptop hard drive TWICE since starting PC. The price I pay for having toddlers in the house who are attracted to the computer. This last time, they knocked it off the couch. The backups have saved me BOTH times!

Hopefully you won't ever need it again, but definitely back up the data JUST IN CASE or buy a Solid State Drive this time around to alleviate those issues.

 

[ShelbyMichalek]

As per suggested on here (Marghi I think???) I'm using dropbox.com's program.
I've always been one to back up every week and on the 14th and 29th(or 30th) after I put in shows. (It always seems that I'm closing at least two shows at mid and end month deadlines.)

 

[pkd09]

Learn from this bad experience and take it from me who it also happened to....hit save after every show! My computer got a virus two months ago and I lost the past YEAR! Nothing I can do....I actually felt nauseous sitting in front of my computer screen. Unfortunately we always seem to learn the hard way.

 

[Zsu]

There is a softwer that can recover data on a crashed hard drive, that a really good computer geek might have. With that software the data can be read and saved as long as the drive spins around.
(i know this because my husband uses this software all the time on clients computers who has been turned down by everyone else, including BB)

 

[akrebecca]

Give the tech guys a call at PC/HO. They will not be able to give you your contacts BUT they can fix the shows so any reports you run will be accurate as well as giving you the host's names, customer's names, what they ordered etc... Call them and ask what you need to do.

I have run into this situation twice. Both times they have saved my bacon with my shows.

 

[Jules711]

If you have the hard drive still, bring it to someone that works on computers. Not necessarily a big company. Word of mouth is a good thing. My dad has a computer business and recovers things most of the time EVEN if a restore has been done on it. It's not always true, but worth a shot! Dell will NOT help you do that. It's much easier just to restore. If they are sending a new hard drive though, maybe it's completely dead?

 

[ms_twana]

Okay, so after a long weekend of running this program on my hard drive, the tech guy couldn't recover anything. He even sat it in the freezer overnight....NOTHING!! I'm not that worried about my shows because I only had two entered. I'm mad about all of my PC documents. I had a ton that I tweaked for me, etc. UGH!!! I need to invest in an online backup program.

As for the two shows, do I just re-enter everything without submitting it??

 

[akrebecca]

Okay, so after a long weekend of running this program on my hard drive, the tech guy couldn't recover anything. He even sat it in the freezer overnight....NOTHING!! I'm not that worried about my shows because I only had two entered. I'm mad about all of my PC documents. I had a ton that I tweaked for me, etc. UGH!!! I need to invest in an online backup program.

As for the two shows, do I just re-enter everything without submitting it??

Totally hear you on losing the PC documents. I was kinda ticked when I lost my hard drive the first time. Only had it a week at that point. The second time I was so upset, my DH swore I had a blue streak around my head. :blushing: He said I made him blush. I was more upset at myself because I had just started looking at various back up methods.

When it comes to P3, call the Tech Guys at Home Office. They will want you to have the latest update. You will also need to have your order forms from your two shows. The tech guys will walk you thru the update then have you enter your guest info including what they ordered. Then, when you update again, a patch will be sent that 'magically' fixes your shows.

Call the Tech Guys at Home Office. They can help you with P3.

 

[ms_twana]

Sweet. Thanks!!

 

[Chef Bobby]

It's too late for the person that this happened to, but for future hard drive crashing problems, there is a device that reads crashed hard drives. Our IT guy at work has used it on my hard drive and my daughter's also. Any computer repair shop should also have one. Usually a lot of data can be saved.