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Erh... Computer weirdness....
Warmaster Nice
 Post subject: Erh... Computer weirdness....
PostPosted: Wed Jul 27, 2005 10:32 am 
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Hi guys.
I'm afraid I have some horrible news. Last night when I was working on Incoming! my computer suddenly crashed. Right now it looks as though the hard disk which contains all the files for the mag has had some sort of a hardware failure.

I cannot access the disk trough Windows though it is connected to the system.

Asus PC Probe can find the drive but when I try to get more info the program freezes. Also my conputer takes ages to boot when the drive is connected.

Last night Windows the ran Chckdsk (I think it is called) and found a lot of unreadable sectors on about 58% of the drive. Took all night and the machine was unable to repair the damaged files.

The disk is a Seagate Baracuda so I tried using their "Disc Wizard" but it cannot find the drive anywhere (and is also ages to load)

Finally I tried looking in the Control Panel but it refuses to load when the HD is connected.

Any ideas besides trying a format? Obviously I'm very anxious to try and salvage the data on the drive so we can finish the mag.

Cheers! ?:)

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the_fifth_horseman
 Post subject: Erh... Computer weirdness....
PostPosted: Wed Jul 27, 2005 12:42 pm 
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Ow, that sucks - and big time.

So many badsectors doesn't just pop up from nowhere. You sure there was nothing wrong with your HDD before?

I have two suggestions. First: www.ultimatebootcd.com This is a bootable CD with a bucketload of diagnostic, repair and data recovery utilities. Didn't use it myself yet - but I think I shortly will.

Second, Maxtor has some diagnostic tools on their site.

Hope you manage to solve that problem.

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Dwarf Supreme
 Post subject: Erh... Computer weirdness....
PostPosted: Wed Jul 27, 2005 3:05 pm 
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Horrohs! I don't suppose you saved any backups externally?

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the_fifth_horseman
 Post subject: Erh... Computer weirdness....
PostPosted: Wed Jul 27, 2005 3:17 pm 
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People tend to learn on their errors - AFTER they make them.

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Dwarf Supreme
 Post subject: Erh... Computer weirdness....
PostPosted: Wed Jul 27, 2005 3:21 pm 
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Quote (the_fifth_horseman @ 27 2005 July,15:17)
People tend to learn on their errors - AFTER they make them.

You are so right. I learned the hard way and now anything I want to make sure that I don't lose is saved on a floppy, CD, etc.

WN, is it possible for you to teke out your hard drive and put it into another PC?




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Warmaster Nice
 Post subject: Erh... Computer weirdness....
PostPosted: Wed Jul 27, 2005 3:50 pm 
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Thanks 5th. I'll definitely try the Boot Cd!

Luckily I have pdf versions of most of the articles saved on my desktop. However the files for the program we use to make the mag (InDesign) are all lost which means that I won't be able to edit much of it. I think it should be possible to stitch together a readable mag from the bitz and pieces but these things are still annoying. There'll probably be places where we haven't had time to run spell checks, page numbers etc. but of course these things are relatively minor details.

I did get a warning about a week ago. There the machine did a few "coughs" but then continue to run smoothly. I suppose I should have listened to the warning signals and backed up everything. Luckily the affected drive is only acting as storage space. The OS + all my programs are on a seperate disk and are unaffected (knocks under the table)

I'll let you know what happens after I try the boot cd.

Cheers! :)

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iblisdrax
 Post subject: Erh... Computer weirdness....
PostPosted: Wed Jul 27, 2005 3:51 pm 
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One word - Linux.  Get you a copy of Knoppix (version of linux) on a cd, boot directly to the cd, and you should be about to recover most of your data unless the drive is physically damaged.  Works wonderfully.  

Good luck.

my 2cents,

iblisdrax

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primarch
 Post subject: Erh... Computer weirdness....
PostPosted: Wed Jul 27, 2005 4:07 pm 
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Hi!

Damn. Thats horrible indeed. Dont think I have ever had that particular problem before. You could do a search on the net for data retreival and see what pops up.

Primarch

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the_fifth_horseman
 Post subject: Erh... Computer weirdness....
PostPosted: Wed Jul 27, 2005 4:38 pm 
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You are so right. I learned the hard way

So did I.
Plugging AT power cables backwards aint too healthy for the motherboard, you know... :p I fried about three that way...

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Dwarf Supreme
 Post subject: Erh... Computer weirdness....
PostPosted: Wed Jul 27, 2005 4:41 pm 
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Quote (primarch @ 27 2005 July,16:07)
Hi!

Damn. Thats horrible indeed. Dont think I have ever had that particular problem before. You could do a search on the net for data retreival and see what pops up.

Primarch

Or make an appropriate sacrifice to the Machine God!

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Dwarf Supreme
 Post subject: Erh... Computer weirdness....
PostPosted: Wed Jul 27, 2005 4:43 pm 
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Quote (the_fifth_horseman @ 27 2005 July,16:38)
You are so right. I learned the hard way

So did I.
Plugging AT power cables backwards aint too healthy for the motherboard, you know... :p I fried about three that way...

Oops!  :laugh:

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Magnus
 Post subject: Erh... Computer weirdness....
PostPosted: Wed Jul 27, 2005 5:12 pm 
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It could be a firmware failure, though it doesn't really sound like that...
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darkone26
 Post subject: Erh... Computer weirdness....
PostPosted: Wed Jul 27, 2005 6:18 pm 
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Hey WN,

I didnt realise that you were missing files from the indesign program itself. I thought it was the mag articles, sorry, I misunderstood.  I have the Indesign CS2 version I managed to get from Amazon..... if you let me know what files you are missing then maybe I could send them.

Sorry had I noticed what files you were missing I could have mentioned this before, just send me an email ok?

Doug
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Warmaster Nice
 Post subject: Erh... Computer weirdness....
PostPosted: Wed Jul 27, 2005 11:06 pm 
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Thanks Doug. It isn't the program files for InDesign as such but all the loose images, text and graphics which is used in the finished PDF. Unless CS2 can disassemble a pdf of course (Ah wouldn't that be class! ...actually I'm not sure if maybe Adobe Acrobat can do that? ) :;):

I think I can do a few tricks to stitch something useable together. However the two main issues at the moment is file size and picture resolution.
Most of the day has been spent working on the HDs though so I haven't really been experimenting with Indesign yet.
Don't worry: We will have an issue 22 of Incoming in a few days regardless. :;):

I was wondering if anybody has had any experience with the UltimateBootCD thingy? Reading through their forum it looks as though there might be a trojan somewhere in the bundle. ??? I'm a bit nervous about using it if there's a risk of compromizing the computer's security...

Cheers! :)

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CyberShadow
 Post subject: Erh... Computer weirdness....
PostPosted: Thu Jul 28, 2005 4:03 am 
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There are software solutions out there that will convert PDF to (for example) HTML. It is a bit of a last resort, but they do exist.

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