is my data GONE?

iluvcats · December 2006

I now have a brand new computer which I'm typing on. We have two old computers downstairs, a 2000 Dell with Windows ME and a 1995 Dell with Windows 95. Don't laugh at the 95, it still worked. My husband only used it b/c it had CADD software with the layout of our house on it. We are going to do an addition.

My old 2000 Dell was moved downstairs and stupidly I had not copied the files yet; it's hooked up and still worked (til this happened) and I was procrastinating copying files.

While I was asleep last night, my husband took our 95 hard drive and stuck it inside the 2000 computer, he wanted to copy the large CADD file. It said that it detected new hardware, do you want to install and he answered yes.

He took the 95 drive out of the 2000 computer and when he turned the 2000 on, he now sees Windows 95. :( If he wiped out my hard drive, I'm upset. That would mean I lost family photos and everything. I do have some of the photos from the hard drive on old cd's. But no backups of ones that were emailed to me.

Ahnimus · December 2006

It sounds like he took out the wrong hard-drive when he was finished.

Did he actually erase anything?

Edit: It's also possible he opened an image file that re-wrote the existing hard-disk image, but that seems a bit unlikely.

iluvcats · December 2006

thanks everyone

jlew24asu · December 2006

sounds like you have the wrong drive. I dont believe anything is lost.

you can take the drives and put them into your newest, best PC. try it one at a time and move all data.

I really dont believe anything is lost, good luck.

turnedmyworldtoblack · December 2006

I second the wrong drive. Just take the one out that is in there now and simply replace it with the other one and back your stuff up, you never know if he could mishandle one during the switch, which would be your really only threat to losing all of your data. I'd just say back it up before you mess anything up

jlew24asu · December 2006

actually after thinking about it and a better explanation from luv. they had the jumper in the wrong spot.

jumper should be in a PC and set moved to slave.

damn jumpers. I went crazy the first time not knowing what a jumper is.

norm · December 2006

jlew24asu wrote:

actually after thinking about it and a better explanation from luv. they had the jumper in the wrong spot.

jumper should be in a PC and set moved to slave.

damn jumpers. I went crazy the first time not knowing what a jumper is.

No kidding. First time I saw Master/Slave I laughed. And don't get me started on Cable Select.

Cats, it sounds like the 95 drive became the boot drive when he installed it in the 2000 machine. The data should still be there. Change the jumper settings on the 95 drive (there is usually a diagram on the drive showing the proper settings) to slave and reinstall in the 2000. If you (or your husband) feel a little squeamish about doing this, call a pro. You don't want to lose those pics.

iluvcats · December 2006

jlew24asu wrote:

actually after thinking about it and a better explanation from luv. they had the jumper in the wrong spot.

jumper should be in a PC and set moved to slave.

damn jumpers. I went crazy the first time not knowing what a jumper is.

i called him and read this to him

thanks everyone for your help here and the pm's. i'm showing him this when he gets home. he asked around at work too so he should be fine. i was ready to cry when he told me this happened around 1 a.m. today. but at least i still have my home, right? people usually lose their pics when their house is swept away in a flood or tornado, so i need to count my blessings

you should have seen our 2000 computer last year when he opened it up and vaccummed it out. pretty gross. it did not work for about a day then too.

jlew24asu · December 2006

I would recommend buying an external hard drive that plugs into your PC.

you also should know that if your PC crashes (windows) that doesnt mean you will loose whats on the Hard drive. win 95 and even 2000 will crash on you at some point. but if that happens the data will still be on the drive.

the only way to really loose the data is if the hard drive stops spinning or you reformat.

aNiMaL · December 2006

I would have something to add if jlew24asu hadn't already said everything i would have said.

iluvcats · December 2006

jlew24asu wrote:

I would recommend buying an external hard drive that plugs into your PC.

you also should know that if your PC crashes (windows) that doesnt mean you will loose whats on the Hard drive. win 95 and even 2000 will crash on you at some point. but if that happens the data will still be on the drive.

the only way to really loose the data is if the hard drive stops spinning or you reformat.

not trying to be picky here or correct you, but our 2000 PC has shitty Windows ME, not windows 2000.

I blame everything on the windows ME, which crashed 5x/week :( but otherwise the computer worked very well, esp. when we got adelphia high speed internet. And if that computer ever works again, we're still keeping it on a network. how will we ever get rid of that 1995 thing, lol?

I now have Windows XP on this computer, a breath of fresh air.

thanks again.

pj fans rule!

markymark550 · December 2006

iluvcats wrote:

We have two old computers downstairs, a 2000 Dell with Windows ME and a 1995 Dell with Windows 95. Don't laugh at the 95, it still worked. My husband only used it b/c it had CADD software with the layout of our house on it. We are going to do an addition.

Actually, I'm laughing at the Windows ME. ME is the shittiest OS that has ever been created. Microsoft should have fined a lot of money for that piece of crap. I had ME on my computer for about 6 months before I was able to change the OS. It's even funnier looking at ME if you take an Operating Systems class for a computer science degree like I had to.

aNiMaL · December 2006

iluvcats wrote:

not trying to be picky here or correct you, but our 2000 PC has shitty Windows ME, not windows 2000.

I blame everything on the windows ME, which crashed 5x/week :( but otherwise the computer worked very well, esp. when we got adelphia high speed internet. And if that computer ever works again, we're still keeping it on a network. how will we ever get rid of that 1995 thing, lol?

I now have Windows XP on this computer, a breath of fresh air.

thanks again.

pj fans rule!

What's funny to me is that you are now getting cozy with XP on the eve of Vista being released to the masses.

Vista is badass!!! I have been playing with a few different releases here at work for the last 6+ months. I really like it.

jlew24asu · December 2006

aNiMaL wrote:

What's funny to me is that you are now getting cozy with XP on the eve of Vista being released to the masses.

Vista is badass!!! I have been playing with a few different releases here at work for the last 6+ months. I really like it.

thats true. and my company still is only lincenced for office 2000. office 07 is right around the corner with vista.

I like vista too. but I notice one thing. so many features are EXACT copies of MAC OS X. pretty funny.

norm · December 2006

jlew24asu wrote:

I like vista too. but I notice one thing. so many features are EXACT copies of MAC OS X. pretty funny.

Really? Microsoft copying others software? I don't believe it!

:D

wedge · December 2006

aNiMaL wrote:

Vista is badass!!!

if you have some serious hardware, plan on migrating to 64-bit architecture and are willing to invest in a while new slew of software applications and utilities given the new stack structure & legal ramifications surrounding the kernel of the new OS. MS is taking over duties and processes that have historically been handled by companies such as Symantec. While this may end up being a good thing it will take some ironing out.

Approach with caution. This OS has not done any real time in the "wild." Even the TCP/IP stack hasnt undergone significant field testing.

When the Zune was released it was not compatible with Vista. I'd imagine there are a few more "surprises" like that waiting in the hidden wings.

That being said, its all a step in the right direction from the looks of it.

jlew24asu · December 2006

wedge wrote:

if you have some serious hardware, plan on migrating to 64-bit architecture and are willing to invest in a while new slew of software applications and utilities given the new stack structure & legal ramifications surrounding the kernel of the new OS. MS is taking over duties and processes that have historically been handled by companies such as Symantec. While this may end up being a good thing it will take some ironing out.

Approach with caution. This OS has not done any real time in the "wild." Even the TCP/IP stack hasnt undergone significant field testing.

When the Zune was released it was not compatible with Vista. I'd imagine there are a few more "surprises" like that waiting in the hidden wings.

That being said, its all a step in the right direction from the looks of it.

I heard that about the Zune. talk about the biggest bonehead move of all time. make no sense whatsoever

iluvcats · December 2006

i'm not a geek, how would i know that? i did not see that offered on dell's site when i bought my new pc. i don't sit around reading "pc world" in my spare time.

besides, it could have kinks in it, kind of like a new model of a car can suck til they work out the kinks.

aNiMaL wrote:

What's funny to me is that you are now getting cozy with XP on the eve of Vista being released to the masses.

Vista is badass!!! I have been playing with a few different releases here at work for the last 6+ months. I really like it.

Jamal · December 2006

iluvcats wrote:

i'm not a geek, how would i know that? i did not see that offered on dell's site when i bought my new pc. i don't sit around reading "pc world" in my spare time.

Wow, so it IS true, some people DO have social lives

norm · December 2006

iluvcats wrote:

i'm not a geek, how would i know that? i did not see that offered on dell's site when i bought my new pc. i don't sit around reading "pc world" in my spare time.

besides, it could have kinks in it, kind of like a new model of a car can suck til they work out the kinks.

Don't worry about Vista. I wait at least a year before I even consider upgrading to Microsoft's next great thing. That's why I never had to experience ME.

iluvcats · December 2006

Jamal wrote:

Wow, so it IS true, some people DO have social lives

lol yes

ok so i'm a hundred years old....back in the eighties, i did have a junior computer geek job and i was pretty good. we did sit around reading nerdy magazines and testing software. i switched careers in 1990 and dropped out of computer nerd school

want a good laugh? I got an "A" in DOS in college. I can barely remember it now. I think I took it in 1988.

now i suck!

Ahnimus · December 2006

Well, my issue with Longhorn when I tried it was the XML bar. XML, I thought, was very easily exploitable. The last thing I need is adware taking over my taskbar. Besides that, I don't know much about Vista.

Microsoft ripping off Mac isn't anything knew. All Windows O/S are ripped off from Mac. Internet Explorer is ripped off from Netscape Navigator. MS Outlook is a rip-off of Eudora. The list goes on for all the software Microsoft has ever made.

"Good artists copy, Great artists steal."
-- Picasso

I personally don't think you should ever vacuum out your computer. I recommend "Dust Remover Spray" at your local Radio Shack(The Source) or Circuit City. It's a lot messier, but there is no chance of frying your computer with EM static.

iluvcats · December 2006

so last night he attempted to boot up and it still did the same thing. not sure what he did next (and he did know which hard drive was which, btw)

it asked to do a scan disc and he said that took forever, it would correct an error and started over 10 times, well then he fell asleep watching tv. we woke up at 3 a.m. and he went downstairs and finished. he had to reinstall windows shitty ME. my desktop pic of pearl jam was gone but otherwise, i looked at a directory of the pics and many old ones are there

as well as my word docs...
now the old email which i stopped using a month ago and he continued to use it, does not work. it stank anyway. i told him we need to get our adelphia account. i've been using hotmail anyway.

he tried copying my pics and he said my memory stick was alot smaller than his memory stick. i will buy a better one today! i think mine is 3 yrs old.

so it seems to be ok, lucky for him, huh?

thanks again everyone for helping to reassure me yesterday that the data was still there

DarkStar · December 2006

iluvcats wrote:

so last night he attempted to boot up and it still did the same thing. not sure what he did next (and he did know which hard drive was which, btw)

it asked to do a scan disc and he said that took forever, it would correct an error and started over 10 times, well then he fell asleep watching tv. we woke up at 3 a.m. and he went downstairs and finished. he had to reinstall windows shitty ME. my desktop pic of pearl jam was gone but otherwise, i looked at a directory of the pics and many old ones are there as well as my word docs...
now the old email which i stopped using a month ago and he continued to use it, does not work. it stank anyway. i told him we need to get our adelphia account. i've been using hotmail anyway.

he tried copying my pics and he said my memory stick was alot smaller than his memory stick. i will buy a better one today! i think mine is 3 yrs old.

so it seems to be ok, lucky for him, huh?

thanks again everyone for helping to reassure me yesterday that the data was still there

didn't you say you had your computers on a network?

iluvcats wrote:

I blame everything on the windows ME, which crashed 5x/week but otherwise the computer worked very well, esp. when we got adelphia high speed internet. And if that computer ever works again, we're still keeping it on a network. how will we ever get rid of that 1995 thing, lol?

anyway...just share the drive that has the files you want to move on your network...you shouldn't need to buy a bigger memory stick.

ds

norm · December 2006

iluvcats wrote:

so last night he attempted to boot up and it still did the same thing. not sure what he did next (and he did know which hard drive was which, btw)

it asked to do a scan disc and he said that took forever, it would correct an error and started over 10 times, well then he fell asleep watching tv. we woke up at 3 a.m. and he went downstairs and finished. he had to reinstall windows shitty ME. my desktop pic of pearl jam was gone but otherwise, i looked at a directory of the pics and many old ones are there as well as my word docs...
now the old email which i stopped using a month ago and he continued to use it, does not work. it stank anyway. i told him we need to get our adelphia account. i've been using hotmail anyway.

he tried copying my pics and he said my memory stick was alot smaller than his memory stick. i will buy a better one today! i think mine is 3 yrs old.

so it seems to be ok, lucky for him, huh?

thanks again everyone for helping to reassure me yesterday that the data was still there

Good news. Now you will understand when I say

BACKUP
BACKUP
BACKUP
BACKUP
BACKUP
BACKUP
BACKUP
BACKUP

:D:D:D

iluvcats · December 2006

well, he's still copying the files and bringing them up here on the stick. he said he's going to replace the hard drive for the 2000 computer.

my pj bootlegs were ok!!!! (i did copy most of them onto cds though)

i know, i know all about backups. i was lazy.

i just asked him about the network and he said it's not networked properly right now, and he preferred to do it with the stick as opposed to screwing it up! God I must be mean.

is my data GONE?

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