Baz Posted March 13, 2006 Share Posted March 13, 2006 I have just suffered a Dead Hard Drive on a computer just 15 months old and when I went to my computer specialists I was amazed at the number Hard Drives they had to replace in just a couple of weeks. Apparently this is not an uncommon problem and my biggest concern was the material I lost even though I had done some back ups. I have learnt an expensive and time consuming lesson and hope that anyone not backing up everything will not fall into the same trap. I have fortunately been able to replicate most things, but one item bugging me is a site that I previously mention and was repeated by another contributer for TV programmes listing for most European stations. If anyone knows the site perhaps they could post the details so I can add to my favorites. Baz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Smith Posted March 13, 2006 Share Posted March 13, 2006 That's bad luck. I don't know the answer but my first reading of the thread made me think you had a drive that was dead hard. Must take some of that sobering stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chenauds Posted March 13, 2006 Share Posted March 13, 2006 You must be extremely unlucky. I have, in the past always bought 2nd hand PCs, I still use one which is 1998 vintage and have just built myself a new one and I'm glad to say that I have never had a hard drive failure. Most of the manufactures publish on the web the MTBF (mean time before failure) of their drives which runs into thousands of hours. My business in the UK had 8 PC's and a file server, the latter ran for more than 4 years non stop when I sold the business, I reckon around 35,000 hours and still going strong. You should get on the the HD manufacturer and complain. It is a good thing that the prices have now dropped from the astronomic levels of 10 years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baz Posted March 13, 2006 Author Share Posted March 13, 2006 Thanks Dick and Chenauds for your comments. Yes, I am glad prices have dropped. As an additional point of interest, the Hard Drive from the first computer I bought in 1998 and ran until November 2004 has been included as an additional Hard Drive in my new computer and this has helped to replace some of the lost data.including photographs of my sons wedding. So if you replace a computer keep your old Hard Drive as you never know when it could be useful or better still have it put into your new machine as an extra drive.Baz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Smith Posted March 13, 2006 Share Posted March 13, 2006 That really is good advice - once I put a second drive in my machine I never had any trouble! Previously I had lost 2 in 2 months, both from the same batch apparently. I suspect that lower prices reflects higher volume sales but also less quality control inspections. And, as you have done, back everything up. Now I have gone over to digital photography completely I have the heebie jeebies sometimes about data loss, so I am putting a dedicated hard drive in my current machine and seriously considering an external hard drive as a backup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard-R Posted March 13, 2006 Share Posted March 13, 2006 I use an external hard drive for back-up and than every Igb I burn up 2 dvd's and than wipe the drive and start again. Funny thing is I've never had a drive failure. You can also partition your hard drive for back-up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PossumGirl Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 I just went through this same thing. My Toshiba was just over a year-old. My last Toshiba lasted five years with no HD problems. My guess is that to keep the prices of things down to make them attractive, they may be scimping on some of the component parts these days.My repair shop was able to recover 95% of my data, I had backups for most of the rest, and therefore only lost a few recent addresses and URLs. However, it made me realize that I was not being as good on backing up as I should.I purchased a software called SyncBack SE, which cost around 19€ and gives you licenses for five computers (so both of us can use it). Once you set up the sets that you want to back up, it can be set to automatically back up daily, or as frequently as you desire. In our case, because we have a webserver with loads of available space, I do an off-site back up each night of all my important files. It only backs up things that have changed, so once the initial set is done, it takes very little time.I have no relationship with this company, but I think their product is inexpensive and easy to use. It's the first back up software I"ve tried in a long time that really seems to work as advertised.PG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin963 Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 Baz - sorry about your tale of woe. Was the TV site by any chance:http://www.tvtv.co.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects/EPGen.woa? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baz Posted March 15, 2006 Author Share Posted March 15, 2006 Martin,Many thanks this is what I was looking for. Just by chance before reading your response I also found it.Baz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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