Bummed out

[WigglesMom]

We had some computer difficulties this week. Our beloved computer was totalled by a thunderstorm and possibly lightning. So I had to bring the dinasaur in here from the kids room. It literally is older than my oldest child. I had to install a network card to even use the internet (needed ethernet) and upgraded it to Windows 2000. It still was not what we needed for a main computer. It isn't bad for a kid's computer.So after a week of that, we got a brand new computer! Yeah!
So what am I bummed about. All of my reading lists, schedules for the kids, independent work assignment list form, all of my home school extras...gone I had recently backed up my pictures to cd so I do have the last 4 years of my kid's life in pictures . Thank God that I decided on a whim (or maybe divine intervention?) to free up space on the old computer by putting the pictures to CD. Who would have thought just weeks later the computer would go bust (helped along by lightning and power surges) and never turn back on? Just basically all the HOD forms, lists, and such that I had made to help with trips to library and such are gone forever...or at least until I get up the willpower to make them again. I had sat and researched all the books that the libraries around here carried and had them all neatly typed out by unit, library, and child.
On the plus side, the kids are excited that they will be getting internet ran to their computer and that it is upgraded some and running a little faster than before. Now if I could just convince my dd8 that she wants to make excel spreadsheets for the library and type out the daily schedules and independent assignment forms for me... Maybe I can bribe her with ice cream?
Val

[kayben]

There are no smilies to relay how I feel for you. We did lose all of our pictues a few years ago when we got the blue screen of death. But the lists and books and organization tools you lost.. I am so sorry. I don't even know how to do it, and I can't imagine the time that went into it all. I am sorry for your loss

[momofabcd]

Can you take the hard drive to a computer specialist? I bet there is a way to retrieve your information. It might be worth the cost to not have to do all that research all over again. My dad's computer crashed a couple years ago, and he was able to retrieve almost everything. It's something to think about at least
Deena

[WigglesMom]

My neighbor that lives behind us goes to school for computers at the technincal college here and said that she could take it to the school and see if they could either salvage some of it or maybe dare I hope fix it. It is free. The only catch is it is totally within reason that something worse could happen to it because it is students working on it under the supervision of a professor. It doesn't work now so I am not worried about the actual computer part getting messed up worse. If they can fix it, then great. If not, then I we haven't lost anything b/c it doesn't work now. We may try and get the hard drive transferred to the dinasaur if the computer is a loss. I am going to talk to hubby and see what he thinks and whether he wants to try it and let her take it to school Monday.
I'm pretty sure the motherboard or processor got fried during the storm. Both of which wouldn't be worth bothering with if we were paying for it to be fixed, but if the school will fix it for free and us just buy parts then that wouldn't be too bad at all.
Maybe I won't have to sit and research library books and type everything all over again.
Val

[zookeeperof3monkeys]

I feel for you. Someone sent me the "Merry Christmas" virus this last Christmas Eve. It ate everything! My husband was able to re boot it in the last known safe mode??? something like that and retrieve my files but the pc was so slow after that. It took me two HOURS to print 10 math pages. So, when we got our tax refund my nice hubby bought me my very own brand new pc! I just love that guy! He even transferred my files over for me. I now back up my files for free on www.storegate.com If you do have to re write all of your files I would suggest backing them up somewhere. Good luck with the students working on your old pc. We have a surge protector built into our power strip. Hope it all works out for you.
Kim

[spidermansmum]

Our computer died last october.It was windows 95- upgraded to windows 98 and then 2000.It couldnt cope with broadband- so it was dial up and it even struggled to cope with that.Sadly alot of the kids pictures are on it.I am still hoping we can find a way of getting the pictures from it-The CD drive was the first thing to die -so we couldnt copy them to disc.

[Mom2Monkeys]

My FIL had the same thing happen to his computer. He took in the hard drive to have them recover what they could. They were able to recover everything from it and transfer it to a new hard drive (or maybe a new computer). So, don't fear! You don't have to redo it all! I think they charged him $100 but it sounds like it would be worth it!

[Mamma Joy]

Here is a tidbit for you. The very same thing happened to us last year. I was so upset, everything was gone. But I took it in to the computer repair shop and for $35 I walked out with all of my information on two disks. School on one and personal on the other. It was cheap because he didn't have to fix it, he just had to by pass the system and plug it into his to retrieve the information. Give it a try, there is nothing to lose.
Hope this helps,
Joyanna

[WigglesMom]

I am going to call fix my pc first thing Monday morning and see if they can put all my hard drive's files on a disk. That would be great. I am so glad that I vented on here. When I called the fix my pc place the other day and went through what we had done to check the light on the back of the power supply that was blinking after the storm when the pc no longer had any power and what the code meant (ours turned solid after unplugging everything inside the pc from the power supply and plugging into an outlet), he confirmed that it was the processor or motherboard that had died during the storm, but I never thought to ask how much it would be for them to backup my hard drive to disk. It was most likely the motherboard b/c when we plugged the motherboard back to the power supply, the power supply immediately began blinking its code light rapidly. I wouldn't have known how to check the code or what to do but dh is an electrician and you can look up these codes and troubleshoot them from your computer's web site. Ours was compaq, so all we had to do was go to the compaq site and look up the model number for our old pc and search for power supply light codes. This saved us $40 (what the fix it place charges just to look at the pc). We had done what the fix it place would have done before calling us to tell us it was the motherboard and how much it would be to replace that or advise us to buy another computer and not waste our money.
The computer was 5 years old and the guy was nice. We would have spent too much money to fix it (buy a new motherboard and labor) instead of taking a little bit more money and buying a new one. So we bought a new tower for a good price.
We did have a surge protector, but they don't always work during big storms and when surges happen a lot in a row (even the $100 surge protectors don't always work in such scenarios). The best advise (been told by pc genius's now) is to actually unplug the computer and surge protector during storms like that. I didn't realise that you were supposed to unplug them after power surges or lights go out or other scenarios like that. You don't have to, but it is recommended to prevent things like happened to our pc. The electricity had power surged 3-6 times before going out for hours the other day. Luckily I had unplugged my netbook from the plug in after the power went out. This wasn't some genius on my part...the netbook had a battery and I was on it while kids were watching a battery powered portable dvd player. Otherwise, my netbook might have fried too.
Hubby said we could let the tech school see if they can fix the pc, but we are going to take the hard drive out first. Then, I will call the fix my pc place and see if they can back up the hard drive to disk. We are going to invest in a better surge protector. I don't know if that really helps or not or if the more expensive ones protect better, but it is worth a shot. We get some strange weather sometimes, and I am not always at home to unplug everything.
Thanks for all the advise. I really appreciate it.
Val

[Cynthia828]

Like you all, I have thousands of pictures and tons of information on my computers. Also, I am an indepth bible study teacher and have literally thousands of hours worth of work on there. Anyway, a couple of years ago, my husband purchased an external drive for my computers (called a notebook), for about $60.00. I backup at least once a week onto the external drives. On top of that, we have an issue in my neighborhood that has caused me to take it a step further. I live in a very middle class neighborhood, but crime has been very bad these past couple of months (economy maybe?). Anyway, they are stealing computers, so what I have done at my husband's suggestion is I purchased a 16 gig jump drive, hooked it up to an usb cable and taped it behind my desk. Every time I save something important, I also save it to the jump drive. If someone steals the computers, they are not going to deal with grabbing the wires, they just steal the box, so my hidden jump drive will at least have my important files and pictures. Sounds crazy to even have to say this all, I know, but such is the world we live in. Every time I hear a story like this, I am reminded of how important it is to backup!!!

One last thing. Did you know that for a yearly fee (pretty nominal), you can have your entire drive backup onto an internet host? It takes a mirror image of your computer, so if something ever happens to your computer, all you have to do is plug in your new computer and "download" your computer with all its drivers, programs, information, etc. Just another something to think about.