[dkemme]

I've heard good things about this program but not had to use...yet...

Home of Gibson Research Corporation

[Jodokast96]

Instead of putting it in another windows machine, get a copy of Knoppix and boot that from your CD drive. That has saved me more than a number of times when a drive crapped out.

[jmdeegan]

i agree with many suggestions here. when i started building pcs, upgrading is an inevitable move-think LBA for PCs. so i ended up with many spare drives, in theory. some would be kept in the new pcs, but others would go in an external drive-20 or 30 bucks, and presto, instant external storage. plus in cases where you dont know what died, this is a nice way of checking. ie, if you have another pc, plug in the usb external drive to it. the secondary pc should be able to see the contents of your drive, at which point you can back up the contents and go from there.

i don't use an off site solution, per se. im a huge believe in multiple copies of everything--on 3 different PCs, in gmail, in my picasa albums, my web sites, etc. i know if one pc gives up the ghost, the data will survive, for the most part, elsewhere.

external drives are crazy cheap too. 130 bucks for 500gb is just so cheap, no reason not to have a couple

[stewart_photo]

My computer just died. (snip)

Before going through all the effort of removing the drive, have you tried other options? First, since you were recently working inside the computer, I agree with what another said about checking the internal connections and reseating the various cards. Of course, to prevent damage to those components from static, make absolutely certain you're well grounded before doing anything inside the computer (and make sure the computer is off and unplugged).

Next, you could try reinstalling the computer's BIOS software. This can often be found on the manufacturer's website. If not, request a copy from the manufacturer. Make sure to follow the installation instructions carefully as a mistake with this could really mess up your computer. Reset the BIOS afterwards and then make sure the various settings in that BIOS are correct. Try the defaults first. If the situation is resolved, you can try the optimized settings later.

Next, you could try the original Windows CD. If the installer on that CD doesn't immediately find a hard drive, it will do a slightly deeper search occasionally finding a drive the computer's software missed. If the Windows CD does find that drive, immediately do a repair installation of Windows. A repair installation is not the same as a normal installation, which will overwrite all data on the drive. As long as the image files are intact on the hard drive, a repair installation will not overwrite them.

Finally, at this point, you can go two different directions. You could accept Marc's offer (a wise decision) or search the internet for more drastic solutions for getting a non-functioning drive to work. There are boot floppies & CD's, for example, which attempt to repair the core routines on a standard hard drive. There are no guarantees any of these will work, and some might even make the situation worse. In other words, proceed in this direction at your own risk.

stewart

[MRRiley]

NY...

You gotten lots of self help advise and offers, but if you value your photos and need them sooner rather than latter, I'd advise you to call Computer Geeks, Geek Squad or some similar company.

They usually have experienced techs who recover data from dead PCs on a regular basis. They can at a minimum determine if its a hard drive problem (bad for you) or some other component (good for you). If its something like a controller, they can replace it and you'll be back in business. If it's the hard drive they can replace it and then try to recover the data from the original. Sometimes this works sometimes it doesnt, but it's better than feeling around in the dark if you are not computer savvy.

My son works for Computer Geeks in DC and they run into situations like yours all the time. Good luck!

[jmdeegan]

I'd actually say don't bother with Geek Squad....most services like that (from the big box stores) are amazingly bad--over priced, no sure thing, and most of their techs are pretty tech-stupid. At least, the ones I've encountered in NYC fit the bill.

If you have a bit of tech skills at all, it's easy enough to walk you through how to pull the drive and check it via another PC. If you lack the hardware, I am in Manhattan by day, Staten Island by night and I do have the hardware and know-how to check (and recover if need be) the data. So worst case, send me a PM, and I'll help you out.

And just as a good FYI, at staples this week, WD 500GB external drives are $130. thats a really good price on the drive, and it will hold a lot of data. I am quite tempted to do that, since a 500gb I got 2 months ago is already half full (mostly movies and music, but now with the k10d pumping out pictures, space is always good to have)