So after years and years of collecting and using poser, my computer crashed and i cant seem to get anyone to recover my poser files. I know there are company that do it for like 4 thousand, but who has that kind of cash to shell out, plus they don't guarantee the files can be recovered.

Anyone have any ideas? I am totally lost and extremely bummed about the situation.

=( 

Attached Link: SpinRite Data Recovery

And ... It costs thousands less than $4K.  It's actually less than $100.  What's your data worth?

cheers,
dr geep
;=]

If you still have the original hard drive they make hardware  External Case:-  that you can just plug into the harddrive and then plug the usb into a working pc to see and retrieve the files from the harddrive, you might want to pick one of those up or see if you have a tech friend that has one.  Sharen

I tried that SAM but it didnt work =(

hmmmm, could you see any of your files?  Might be your harddrive has been damaged and those files are unretrievable?  Sharen

SpinRite

well rset your products here and at Daz Cp etc etc ...that will give you back your Items..
For the scene's ...well recovering is costly and trying it your self might do more harm then it will bring you..
So i think you need to count your losses.. and reinstall windows etc etc and then start from fresh HD...
This does show you how importand it is to back up stuff to DVD's etc etc...
Freestuff might be more difficult to trace... but stuf you did buy over time will be no problem..

BTW ..i di the recovering job for years ..there is No guarantee the files recoverd will work at all..
So that why you pay a lot and get no guarantees ...

Good luck with the reinstalling ..

i have a drive that my son inadvertantly formatted...and it still found the files and restored them. Nothing had been written on the drive..it was blank...but the files are still actually there.
Not sure if it would work on a drive that has a mechanical problem , however.

This brings up another point, though...your drive isn't really blank when you delete all your stuff. it still can be recovered, so if you have things you don;t want others to see, you need to do more than delete.

If the drive is still readable you can install it to another system  and copy the data before formatting it and reloading the OS. If its toast then it can be dismantled in a clean room , and the individual platters read . Piecing files together under a FAT file system if the index is damaged is a major job.  Thats where a lot of cost comes in.

Where are you located ?

im in New York.

BAR-CODE that would be awsome. when will they reset so i can go see what i have to salvage.

you'll probably have to show some sort of ID that you actually had them (serial number, etc) but again, it depends on the vendor.

As long as you don't try rewriting over the same drive...you might be able to use a recovery program to get your stuff back.

I burn all my zip files to CD, plus use an 'alzhiemer generational backup ' (I keep forgetting what I've downloaded, so I have several copies of everything...;)

There are two kinds of computer users; those who have lost their hard drive, and those who are going to...

I had a similar situation 2 or 3 years back, the HD burned up big style, nothing was recoverable, had to re-install everything!
Most of the good places will do you a history burn DVD of your purchases to get it all back, I know DAZ does not sure about others.
After my HD failure, luckily I had my complete runtime backed up so it was just a case of re-installin Poser, Vue etc and replacing the runtimes with my back ups and I was good to go.
Since then though I now run a Raid 1 array so if one HD fails the other takes over and gives me time to fix the broken one without loss of anything!
Way  to go IMO!

Quote - im in New York.

BAR-CODE that would be awsome. when will they reset so i can go see what i have to salvage.

Mmm how should i know that haha....
You got to your page here on RO were you initial downloaded your payed products..
And download them again ..or request a reset in the RMP cust. forum..
And at DAZ you go to You downloads and reset the items you want.. or buy a CD burn ..
That way DAZ burns all you bought onto a CD"s" ...

That how you get you payed itmes back .. and on CP same deal you got your stuff page and download them again...

Quote - im in New York.

Also in NY state, I know of a few places that charge for data recovery but it is not cheap. SpinRite is your best bet, if there is mechanical damage you might want to think about getting a backup system in place.

You might also look at "HDD Regenerator." I used it to bring back an old IBM DeskStar aka "DeathStar" that was literally clanking like the heads were slapping the platter. Spinrite is also very good. For me, one has worked better than the other on different drives so I can't tout one over the other. Spinrite is legendary & has been around longer than Windows. Either or both are a lot less expensive than a commercial data recovery shop.

spinrite dident work, my sisterinlaw tried it for me and nothing =(

Was Spinrite even able to bring the drive up and do it's thing? Unless the drive is physically dead, either electircally or mechanically, there is usually a chance to get something back unless it's been overwritten. The gold standard used to be 39 overwrites to FULLY erase data. Recent research seems to indicate that today's drives pack data so tightly that even one overwrite can effectively render data beyond retrieval. 

If here was some kind of power surge, the logic board on the drive may be fried. In theory, it can be replaced but you need the exact same model and revision board.

One old trick is to the put drive in a zip lock bag and stick it in the freezer overnight. The cold might shrink binding parts enough for a very quick attempt at retrieval - definitely a last gasp, just before throwing it in the trash kinda thing.

yes i beleave it was a power surge that did it. does this mean its trash?

"yes i beleave it was a power surge that did it. does this mean its trash?" 

Possibly. Can you hear the drive spinning up or feel it running? If not then you're probably out of luck, probably the board electronics are fried, motor shorted out or whatever. If you've tried it in another system and it's dead then that rules out electrical problem on your system. Your data may well be there, probably is there, but you're probably not getting it back without a data recovery service.

I feel your pain. I lost 4 fried by a surge in one go, years of Poser downloads. Fortunately, I had a copy of my installed runtime and copies of recent downloads. Make your peace, start over. Maybe look at online backup cause perfect backups won't do any good if the house burns down. If you're like me, you realize you would have never used half of that stuff anyway :-)

This May be a good time to address the issue of Digital hoarding in the poser community

Quote - This May be a good time to address the issue of Digital hoarding in the poser community

Digital hoarding ??? :blink: ___ HUH?

When rebuilding, consider RAID.  Raid 5 provides data security without the cost of mirroring.  The space available under this protocol is N-1.  In other words, if you put in three drives of 250GB each, you get 500GB of space with full data redundancy.  4 drives of 100 GB each yields 300 GB.

If one of the drives goes bad, you plug in a new drive (same spec) an the array will rebuild itself without data loss.  Other than constant backup or a home server, this is one of the cheapest and simplest methods of achieving data redundancy.

Being and engineer (and German), I use both plus an external USB HD for off-site backup of critical data.

Klebnor

"This May be a good time to address the issue of Digital hoarding in the poser community" 

Go ahead but start another thread, and you might want to tackle war, famine and pestilence first.