Backup Files, what you SHOULD remember

[Rosie Knees]

Hi Rose, apologies for the late reply (been busy elsewhere on the site :D )
Presumably you don't have FTM installed on your pc at work? This could be the reason the "read only" status is still there;

(s).

yes, I loaded ftm at work.

Re being elsewhere, don't worry about that! I realise there is a lot going on in the background and appreciate all the work being done.:D

[borobabs]

After spending the last two days in tears yet again, I have to add to this thread with a warning,,,,PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU BACK UP TO DISC AS WELL as the normal routes;;;
Others on here will know that I lost a whole load of work last year, and all because I didnt back up to internet storage properly;;;
Well yes oh boy she's good because problems again;;;only happen to me sure;;;

I have internet storage and have backed up to it BUT I had to do new download of AVG 7.5.0.50 be careful if you get this;;;it eats all your tracking cookies, so now the internet up-grade I got for FTM 1005 to 1006 has gone as my internet storage as nothing recognises me,,,,,,I hadnt backed up latest work 2 weeks of many many hours and maybe have now lost about 500 names;;;

I wont know till next week when I get a brand new comp as its no good going through all the channels till Im using my own comp again (this is daughters) I have cried buckets,,,,but on looking at what was sent to daughters comp by my comp lads they might have saved the day ;;;;
they have sent all my desktop and documents to her comp hehe now have a boys name,,,so went for nosy and ntheres all my pics and geddys;;;ok I carnt open them but fairly convident that they have been saved;;;
So Please make sure to back up and do disc back up also store on another site backed up if possible;;;

[Rosie Knees]

Oh Babs, I do sympathise and understand your tears. There seems to be light at the end of the tunnel this time though. Hope all turns out ok and you can retrieve your 500 names!

chin up!

At last I have sussed out how to save to disc in a format that is editable - I hope to have learned from your situatio .

[borobabs]

Rosie yes everything turned out ok for me this time again, thank god I backed up to internet storage, once I contacted them they sorted it out straight away ;;

[Tralena]

I have just been told by a computer repair shop that I have lost ALL my data, everything has been wiped out from my hard drive and I am devastated. My heart doesn't want to except it. All those years of work, not just my family tree, but holiday, birthdays, special occasions photo's, letters, poems......everything gone.

I turned off my computer and when I switched it back on in the morning I was greeted with a black screen. The repair shop said my graphic's card was damaged. Could someone give me suggestions what I can do to try other avenues. I didn't realise backing up my FTM on my computer wasn't enough and I would need to have some sort of external back up too. Does the FTM company have their own system I could get a cope from?

If only I'd read this page before now.

Please if there is anything anyone can think of, no matter how small, might just be the advise I need to get my PC life back

Thank you.

[TrevorFranklin]

If your graphic card has failed, it has NOTHING at all to do with the harddrive that stores your files!
If this is the information you were given by the repair shop, it's a load of rubbish.

If you are saying that they have sorted the graphics problem and now that say you have no files. The ONLY way you can loose everything on your hard drive is if it were wiped of information by them.

PM me with the exact information on what your problem was and what they have done, as I do not want to discuss this on an open forum, but there are ways of retrieving data on harddrives.

Trev

I have just been told by a computer repair shop that I have lost ALL my data, everything has been wiped out from my hard drive and I am devastated. My heart doesn't want to except it. All those years of work, not just my family tree, but holiday, birthdays, special occasions photo's, letters, poems......everything gone.

I turned off my computer and when I switched it back on in the morning I was greeted with a black screen. The repair shop said my graphic's card was damaged. Could someone give me suggestions what I can do to try other avenues. I didn't realise backing up my FTM on my computer wasn't enough and I would need to have some sort of external back up too. Does the FTM company have their own system I could get a cope from?

If only I'd read this page before now.

Please if there is anything anyone can think of, no matter how small, might just be the advise I need to get my PC life back

Thank you.

[Tralena]

Thank you so much for your quick response Trevor. I'll PM you what I've been told.

[Guy]

AS long as no one has messed with you hard drive removing the graphics card and installing a new one will cure the problem.
If the graphics card is on the motherboard it is still possible to add a new one using a free slot.

If the computer is US, remove the hard drive and slot it into an external usb case.
You will then be able to access your data, images etc on a replacement computer

Cheers

Guy

[Tralena]

I've sent the PM Trevor.

Thank you for your post Guy. So far 3 people have looked at my computer.
1st person was a 'friend' of my husband, he had the computer for about 3 weeks. He said the computer was very dirty and the fan wasn't working as it should, he also said the graphic's card was damaged and he wasn't about to repair it.

2nd was a computer shop, they too said the graphic card wasn't working, that my data was shared between two hard drives and that my computer should have had 4 Ram but there was only a two Ram and some one had been messing about with it. The recommended I take it to a shop in Canterbury as they were unable to extract any data.

3rd Shop in Canterbury. They had it for a few hours, said there was no data on the hard drives. They didn't replace the hard drives back into the computer but told me to keep them safe in case something can be done in the future.

Thats how I've been left. To say I feel like my heart has been ripped out is an understatement, I am devastated. I hope my stupidity of not backing my work up externally is a warning to others as I was hate the thought of this ever happening to some one else. I thought backing it up on my computer was all I had to do.

My computer is (well, was) a Dell XPS

[TrevorFranklin]

It sounds like friend 1 or shop 1 have mucked about with the hard drive.
If it were a graphics card problem, there is no reason at all to even look at the hard drive.

As Guy says, the only way to check is for someone who actualy knows what they are doing, connects your drives to an existing computer as 'secondary' drives and looks at them.
Shame is I live up in Hertfordshire, as I would do it for free.

The moral of the story is 'eggs and baskets', back up important files to removable storage (DVD writer, Externl hard drive) you can use 'cloud storage', but again, you don't physically have the files and if they had a probem, they are again lost to you.

Trev

[Tralena]

I don't like to point fingers, but I strongly feel 'friend' 1 has had a hand in it. I dont know this person and didn't feel comfortable about letting a stranger take my computer, I should have listened to my gut feeling Trevor

I'm coming to terms that I've lost everything and over the weekend I've been sorting through my notes (over 15 years worth and they are a mass of mess, I laughed at it all, but its really not that funny) to start again.

Thank you all so much for your time and advice, I hope I am a lesson to everyone.

[Anne in Carlisle]

Poor you, I really feel for you. If you look on the bright side though i have found a fresh start can invigorate your research. There's so much more available these days to enable your searches and you have all the years of experience behind you, which you didn't have when you started. At least you have the paper records to kick start you.
When you get a new computer, get a stand alone hard disc storage AND a memory stick or two as well. Also look at the free online storage options. Belt and braces!
Good luck
Anne

[Guest]

Tralena just an idea you could search for your posts on research and see what comes up, would give you some ideas of where to start .
I just put your user name in the search box and a few threads came up.

[PhotoFamily]

There are companies that specialize in recovering data from failed hard drives. I'm not suggesting this one (I know nothing about them, it was just a google result), but it's an example of what I'm talking about:

http://www.securedatarecovery.com/services/hard-drive-recovery?referrer=adwords&campaign=raid&keyword=Hard%20Drive%20Recovery&gclid=CLe5-YWYgMYCFQiUfgod1rwAfg

These guys say they don't charge unless they recover...

[WendyPusey]

My son has recovered several drives for people and he doesn't charge if there is nothing to recover. Shame you don't live nearer to the Isle of Wight.

[Tralena]

Thank you everyone for your tip and idea's which I will certainly be trying out. While going through my family treasure chest, I came a cross a print out of my tree. It doesn't contain all my relatives, but its a starting point and a lovely surprise as I'd forgotten all about it.

Thank you again everyone, hopefully I'm a lesson to those that forget to back up as its the most awful thing to lose so much. xxx