COMPUTER GURUS

[Sunshine1528]

HELP ! ! ! ! !

DH turned on the computer this AM and found nothing but green vertical lines. Tried to power down with the on/off button and it didn't work so he turned off the power switch on the power strip. (Apparently this has happened a couple times previous?)

Turned the computer back on and it showed the DOS screen - he said he chose Recovery.

So now we have our desktop showing all the icons as they were before, the My Documents file - with no files showing, no software programs to open, etc.

I am currently Reloading MS Office on it hoping I still have documents?

Anyone know if there is anyway to recover what has been lost? Turbo Tax files, documents, Quicken (yep, 10 yrs of data), etc?


TIA !

 

[melimcn]

If he did a full system recovery (sounds like he did), you're out of luck. You might be able to bring it to a service to have those files/programs pulled off of the hard drive, if they're still there.
Someone more techinical might be able to tell you if that's the case, and I'd love to know personally, as I have data on an old hard drive that I'd love to recover.
But, ultimately, it's a service that you'd have to pay for.

 

[Sunshine1528]

Ugh ! I saw some peeps on google who said you could find files after a recover so we will see.

Melimcn - I will be checking with IT when I get to work and will let you know if I find anything out that may help you.

 

[fitfamily2009]

Hi~

What melimcn said sounds correct. There may be some data still left on the hard drive, but from what I have seen it is usually quite expensive to recover if he did a full system recovery, so it usually depends on the cost/benefit of the files that were lost.

 

[Pearlstrand]

Not a tech guru....

But could it be your monitor and not your computer?

[Getting on soapbox]

Be sure to back up your files regularly. I don't like having to do manual back-ups, and many companies offer affordable, automatic online back-up (I use Carbonite).

[Getting off soapbox]

Good luck!

 

[janie1234]

[Getting on soapbox]

Be sure to back up your files regularly. I don't like having to do manual back-ups, and many companies offer affordable, automatic online back-up (I use Carbonite).

[Getting off soapbox]

Good luck!

Yes, . . what Kathryn said! Unfortunately I had to learn this the hard way too. I back up clickfree.
Kathryn don't ever get off your soapbox, . .cause I'll always listen!

 

[hawgwild]

Don't give up on it yet. It may very well just be your monitor. Also, there is a small chip that sometimes wears out (from being heated up) inside the computer. You may just need to replace that. Not expensive. Don't assume all your data is lost.
I have lost my computer once before. I now do weekly remote backups to mozy.com
You can get a certain amount of free space, but I am now a paying customer

 

[Sunshine1528]

Well it was not the monitor as we can see what is there (left) - can do searches but just no files or software that we had loaded ourselves. What we do have is the original software that came with it.

Except I did see that my Cardio Coach mp3 files seem to be there, just cannot open them.

I checked with IT and he said if it was a system recovery where it was more than the OS that we are most likely out of luck.

And I SHOULD KNOW BETTER as DH is constantly getting viruses, having problems, etc. I think somewhere I have some stuff saved, just never seem to take the time. Totally my fault. I work on the computer at work all day so know what I should do (although it is automatic there), I have had to recreate files that were caused by the backup not working.

Just don't want to mess with it at home too.

Thanks for your input ladies - I guess my life is a "clean slate" where one computer is concerned at least. Think I'll find a way to back up my files on this second one soon.