Hard disk crash and data recovery and SpinRite

[BigSpud]

Well it happened. I got most of the data back, but what really irks me is the loss of the "structure". I had hundreds of programs and things set up the way I liked them for easy access.

I was reading about GRC's SpinRite (www.grc.com) and was wondering if anyone out there had any experience with it?

[arsby]

Looks expensive.

I have a backup plan that worked really well the one time I suffered a catastrophic hard drive failure. (To be fair, the HD was showing signs of trouble, so I anticipated the failure.)

I got myself a 40GB USB hard drive, and used plain old Windows Backup to back up the registry, the Windows directory, My Documents, and my Program Files directory. (Well, maybe a porn directory or two.)

When the disk failed completely, it took me an afternoon to restore all the programs onto a new drive, and they worked just like before. The only "gotcha" was that when I reinstalled Windows, Windows Restore was not reinstalled by default, so I had to go back to the setup disk to install it.

[Quartz]

I was reading about GRC's SpinRite (www.grc.com) and was wondering if anyone out there had any experience with it?

I have SpinRite 6.0, and I have used it for Windows and FreeBSD PCs. It's not very spectacular (DOS-like interface, just like the defragmenters of 10 years ago). You boot with a SpinRite CD (which you have to burn first), it checks your drive(s), which can take a long time (I think it took 8 hours to check 120 GB, and you can't use the PC during that time), and it reports/fixes/neutralises any errors. I haven't had any disk troubles anyway, so I can't say a lot about its abilities to restore partially destroyed data or to work around surface errors (yet). The reports about it are extremely favourable, though.

So, if you don't feel like backing up everything and really need your disk to be ultra safe and error-free, SpinRite can be a useful tool, provided you use it very regularly, like once a week or month.

[BigSpud]

Thanks Quartz, I knew the interface was DOS. I don't mind that at all. I was mainly wondering about the recovery part. If I had had it and used it I wouldn't be in the spot I am in now.

[skinny]

I use Norton Ghost 9.0 to make images of my system. It works well if you are using Windows XP. You need to install .NET framework (installer will go out on the internet and do it for you). Norton Ghost's older versions used to suck because it ran under DOS mode, and now it is pretty good. The thing that annoys me is that you can't disable it from loading in your system tray. Ghost is kinda expensive, but worth it.

Now I am thinking to use Acronis True Image. I read that it is better than Ghost in reviews. Someone told me Nero does imaging, but I haven't checked into that yet.

Anyways I belong to the Church of Reality, and we ask the question: Are you Saved?

• Are you Saved? - Is the data on your computer backed up on another computer or tape? the Church of Reality reminds you to always back up your data because if you lose it - its gone!
• Hell - The moment you realize that you lost everything on your computer after your hard disk crashes and your data isn't saved. If you are not saved - you might end up in Hell.
• Salvation - Restoring your computer data from your data backups after a computer crash .
• Born Again - Starting over from scratch after losing everything on your computer and having no data backups. (Being Born Again is not a good thing in the Church of Reality)

skinny

[BigSpud]

I use Norton Ghost 9.0 to make images of my system. It works well if you are using Windows XP. You need to install .NET framework (installer will go out on the internet and do it for you). Norton Ghost's older versions used to suck because it ran under DOS mode, and now it is pretty good. The thing that annoys me is that you can't disable it from loading in your system tray. Ghost is kinda expensive, but worth it....

Hi Skinny, I used Ghost to make a copy and told it to ignore errors. It copied, but it wasn't usable. I finally killed Ghost because I couldn't disable it at will.

I had the critical data backed up. What bothers me is the loss of the structure I used to have with over 100 programs installed. I tried for weeks before the failure to copy the disk, but everytime I put another disk on the motherboard it locked up the system in one way or another. I finally put in a new motherboard (after the crash).

[skinny]

Hi Skinny, I used Ghost to make a copy and told it to ignore errors. It copied, but it wasn't usable. I finally killed Ghost because I couldn't disable it at will.

You can verify your image in Ghost, but that takes a longer to do after you create your image. Ghost has a thing called Ghost Explorer where you can see the file structure in your images, but that just restores individual files not the whole system. This saved me once when my Eudora mailbox index got corrupted.

I think backing data is very important. The thing is that we hear about backing up your data, but there isn't a very good idiot's guide how to do it. The average computer user finds back up solutions very complicated. Spyware and viruses are becoming a common problem, and that is when imaging could save your system. I've been thinking a lot about it and here is how I see it:

I use Windows XP as my operating system:

Your hard drive should have more than one partition. If not, then you should get software like Partition Magic to split it or use the fdisk command (complicated) in Windows or get an external hard drive (USB 2.0/Firewire)

1. Boot partition: Windows XP (operating system, program files, user profile (browser settings, bookmarks). Keep this as small as possible. Don't save movies, music, or porn on this partition.
2. Second partition: Your data should be put here. Music etc.
3. Third partition: Your porn stash goes here.
4. Nth partition: Your system images go here.

Creating a system image:

Clean up your system. Run anti-virus, anti-spyware, and clean your temporary directories. Uninstall any worthless programs.

Get Norton Ghost 9.0 or Acronis True Image 8.0 and install them. I recommend Acronis since it has a 30 day free trial period and a good user forum support.

Make a system image and dump it to another partition or back up directly to a CD-R/RW, DVD-R(+/-)W, or external HD.

In case of hard drive failure or theft having your system backed up to a disc is a good idea. 'Cause you never know if your HD will go bad or someone steals your laptop stored with precious data. That would suck if someone got their jollies out of your porn.

I'm ready to start over and rebuild my system. The first thing I'm going to do is fresh install Windows XP with Service Pack 2. Make an image - name it fresh install. Install all my programs and rebuild all the settings and data from my old system to my new. Make an image - name it fresh install with programs.

After that I'll probably do bi-weekly system images. But I haven't figured that out yet. Ideally I'd like to have a daily backup system. Maybe I'll just backup important files on a daily basis and image my system bi-weekly.

I had the critical data backed up. What bothers me is the loss of the structure I used to have with over 100 programs installed. I tried for weeks before the failure to copy the disk, but everytime I put another disk on the motherboard it locked up the system in one way or another. I finally put in a new motherboard (after the crash).

Sounds like you experienced Hell.

skinny