Laptop disaster

[Jamiroking]

I'll echo what everyone else has been saying. I've saved quite a few things by setting my drive as an external. I didn't even buy an adapter, just ripped open another external i had laying around. That usually requires access to another computer to hook the external up to though.
A linux live boot disc should work without the extra computer though.

Even if the hard drive is totally wiped, there are a few programs out there that can recover stuff. It's easier for it to work if you don't write anything else to the disc which is usually the exact opposite of what we do as we frantically try everything to fix it. The one I used was called Stellar phoenix recover I think.

From being around computer science people, I always hear "You're not truly safe until you have a backup of your backup" Cloud storage is sounding better and better though since they handle the redundancies for you and I barely remember to backup once let alone twice.

Good luck Brian! I've been in your shoes many times and I know how shit it is.

[TNblueshawk]

Damn Bean what did you do to piss off The Gods? You are due for some good luck and soon and here's hopong you get it.

[madbean]

Yeah it's been kind of a shitty few days. I recovered all the lost files but they Eagle files seem to be corrupted. Oh well.

[add4]

I don't know how fucked up your hard drive is, but some people actually manage to retrieve data from erased/broken HD.
maybe you could try giving a phone call to a local guy who does that and see if that's actually really lost.

[Scruffie]

Well what do you know, I just had something simmilar myself!

Bought a Hard Drive Caddy to get all the stuff off my old desktop as the computer had died and I didn't really want it anymore so I just retrieved the hard drive.

Plugged it in... nothing happened... 1 minute later, the power supply they supplied makes a pop and it's gone.

Any of you tech savvy people know if the drive is gunna have been destroyed? Or any idea why it wouldn't detect... either way... bloody ebay return to do now... although after return postage it's probably not gunna gain me much.

[jubal81]

Brian, did you ever get a chance to make any sense out of the Nautilus after the meltdown?

[JakeFuzz]

I have had several computer meltdowns in my life (some due to viruses). I have almost always been able to get the data I need by doing a few things (though my MBR has never been screwed with). Boot up with a linux live CD and offload all of your data to removable storage; sometimes i've done it to separate hard drives in the computer. Many of the linux CDs have a utility to modify or restore the master boot sector. Then I just do a clean format of everything on the main drive (windows will do this for you when you install or some linux os have partition utilities). Reinstall the operating system of your choice.

This has almost always worked for me. If the computer won't post though there is probably something wrong with your motherboard. I would also re-flash with the latest firmware when everything is working properly.