.... my 6 year old laptop died on me suddenly, which is why no one has seen me in awhile. I lost EVERYTHING I was working on. I had been putting off buying an external hard drive to backup my runtime. Now I regret not getting  that done. I tried doing a system restore; the whole nine. Nothing worked. I had to reinstall the OS, and I am putting away some nickels and dimes to get a new laptop. I already decided that I was going to also get WIN 7 64bit, since I hate WIN 8...

But anyway, if anyone was curious where I went, there you go. Just got everything back up and running. One thing that baffles me: I had installed DSON, removed it and had that popup saying it couldn't find it. When I reinstalled Poser again, that popup went away... until I installed SR3.... Anyone know why that would happen? Why would it come back when my drive had been re-imaged after the OS install... weird.

It's good to be back up and running, but I will have to download my own freestuff to get those back. And I lost all the work I had done on my Ghost Rider for Tyler...

Welcome back - sorry you had such a big problem. :(

     I was wondering, actually.  Hadn't seen anything in the Wings forum.  I thought that storm which passed by the Philippines might have hammered your house.

     I still have your Ghostrider bike and suit in my Rokket project folder.  I can extract all of that and get it packed for you.  :D

     My laptop Valkyrie is also not long for this world, cousin.  I recognize the signs of impending OS hard drive death.  A machine limited to 8GB with a simple dual core processor isn't worth much to me, so I'll abandon it or sell it (with a new hard drive installed).  I used to use it for building models here in my old 30's deco diner booth in the kitchen.  But I already have a replacement waiting;  Urania has dual H/T hex Xeons and 48GB RAM.  She'll be able to not only model, UV map, apply materials, and rig, but she also has the muscle to do her own test renders.

Glad you are back but sorry to hear about the laptop problems but, although some last longer, six years is still good going for a laptop, most hard drives fail in that time frame.

It is really upsetting to hear anyone loose so much work but unfortunately, it is something I used to hear on a near daily basis when I worked in computer repair. I really do hope you get everything back although I suspect it is going to take a while.

Hopefully one good outcome of this thread is that others putting off backing up their data will have a re-think. 

For next time, when you have an external drive, you can boot from a live Linux CD or DVD and copy the surviving files to the external drive.  I have used Mepis Linux, although development seems to have stopped, it still works:

mepis.org

That was the other issue I was having: the DVD ROM quit working. I had to take it in and let the geek squad do their $$$$ magic...

@ seachnasaigh: I got your email. Thank you so much! That is going to save me a ton of rework!

     Got your back, Bro'. :)

6 years !!!
2014-1998 = 16 years I've been PCing
and 4 towers,3 monitors,5 tablets currently using a small intuos till I get $$$ for a pro med intuos.
countless key boards.
 

for current projects flash drives are cheap.
I have back ups scattered on external drives ,CD's ,floppys ,Flash.
too me 3 days to get the last new PC up and running.
would be useful if ya backups are organized also.

Hope ya don't lose to much & wecome back.

Well welcome back, Rokket.  Life's little lessons are a bitch.

That is AWFUL!  I had a similar problem when I found that one file was corrupted.  A folder named Runtime.  It's taken me weeks to put together the old runtime that had so many products dating back to 2006.

I feel your pain.

Still, welcome back.  Rokket, you have been missed.

Thanks for the kind words, all of you. I am on my work pc right now. I have to wait until I can get ashore with my laptop and see what happens. The plans are in the works for a new machine, but I am waiting to see what goes on sale for Christmas. I know how much RAM I want, the processor, and screen size. I don't really care which brand I get, but it will be a Windows machine. And I bought a new external and backed up my runtime. I will download my old freebies when I get ashore, as well as the files seachnasaigh sent me.

     I'd get a second HD, and store all your scene files, modeling builds, downloaded content zips, and your own runtime on the secondary drive, because it's usually the OS drive (C drive) which croaks.  If the laptop has an ExpressCard slot on the side, get one of these flash memory cards (ExpressCard) to insert in the slot, and you'll have a third hard drive (SSD).

That looks good. I am going to look for a laptop with that express card feature. I am also going to make sure I have at least 3 USB 3.0 slots in it. If I can get one custom built, I may go for one with a smaller hard drive (just enough for the OS) and use externals for all my files. I am doing that now, but I can only plug in one external at a time (my young son did the other USB ports in a few years ago; but he was only 3) because one of the two working USB ports I have on this laptop is being used to power my wireless optical mouse.

In other news, I have just downloaded a demo version of ZBrush. I will be trying to figure that out for the foreseeable future.

     A full-size laptop chassis should have a hard drive cage with two bays.  I would get a good sized conventional C drive for OS and programs, and a second internal hard drive (maybe SSD) for your project files and runtime.  The ExpressCard would be a third "internal" HD since it inserts completely into the slot and does not protrude.

     It would also be a good idea to get an external HD big enough to backup everything on the laptop.

Laptops are great but you might get bang for your buck with a desktop solution. 

Since you are going to buy rather than do it yourself, always make sure to get the extended warranty.  Sure it's squeeze, but it also eases the way for any returns.

"Laptops are great but you might get bang for your buck with a desktop solution. 

Since you are going to buy rather than do it yourself, always make sure to get the extended warranty.  Sure it's squeeze, but it also eases the way for any returns."

It has to be a laptop. I am a mariner and am away from home 10 months out of the year.

     Rokket, keep an eye out for anything listed as a mobile workstation;  that's essentially a thick and heavy laptop, but the extra thickness allows for cooling gear to support a fast i7, etc.

     You'd still have a folding laptop, but it's more powerful than the common models.  That's what I carried to the firehouse.  Valkyrie has dual GeForce 8700M video cards and 8GB;  Pixie has a 3700M Quadro video card and 8GB.  Nowadays you can get them with 12-16GB RAM and an i7 processor with an effective internal cooler apparatus (important for CGI rendering).

Hey Rocket, don't know if you still have the drive, but if you've tried everything here is something that has worked for me in the past (more than once).

I used to have some Samsung drives.  To be fair they lasted well and were always super-quiet when running, but being mechanical they were always going to fail sooner or later.  The death of both those drivers were that they eventually refused to spin-up, and beileve it or not I was able to repair both of those drives and recover may data by dropping them carefully against a hard-flat surface using a certain technique.

Basically, I removed the drive, stood it 'on end' on a table, then knocked it over so that it landed 'right way up' against the surface with a nice even slap.  That's all I did, stuck it back in the computer and it was fine.  Did exactly the same when the second one eventually failed, and again, it worked.  I recovered the data from both drives and those drives are still working to this day although I just use them for messing around with Linux stuff these days.

I'm not recommending anyone do this, but it worked for me where the failure was the drives not spinning up, they just appeared to be dead.

Hey Rocket, don't know if you still have the drive, but if you've tried everything here is something that has worked for me in the past (more than once).

I used to have some Samsung drives.  To be fair they lasted well and were always super-quiet when running, but being mechanical they were always going to fail sooner or later.  The death of both those drivers were that they eventually refused to spin-up, and beileve it or not I was able to repair both of those drives and recover may data by dropping them carefully against a hard-flat surface using a certain technique.

Basically, I removed the drive, stood it 'on end' on a table, then knocked it over so that it landed 'right way up' against the surface with a nice even slap.  That's all I did, stuck it back in the computer and it was fine.  Did exactly the same when the second one eventually failed, and again, it worked.  I recovered the data from both drives and those drives are still working to this day although I just use them for messing around with Linux stuff these days.

I'm not recommending anyone do this, but it worked for me where the failure was the drives not spinning up, they just appeared to be dead.

I use Samsung drives as I have found them to be both quiet and reliable, but as you say anything mechanical will fail eventually especially if spinning at high speed for most it's life.

I would not normally encourage being rough with any hard drive but it strikes me that, if it is refusing to spin up, there is very little to loose.  I would certainly give it a go - thanks for the tip. 

"Hey Rocket, don't know if you still have the drive, but if you've tried everything here is something that has worked for me in the past (more than once).

I used to have some Samsung drives.  To be fair they lasted well and were always super-quiet when running, but being mechanical they were always going to fail sooner or later.  The death of both those drivers were that they eventually refused to spin-up, and beileve it or not I was able to repair both of those drives and recover may data by dropping them carefully against a hard-flat surface using a certain technique.

Basically, I removed the drive, stood it 'on end' on a table, then knocked it over so that it landed 'right way up' against the surface with a nice even slap.  That's all I did, stuck it back in the computer and it was fine.  Did exactly the same when the second one eventually failed, and again, it worked.  I recovered the data from both drives and those drives are still working to this day although I just use them for messing around with Linux stuff these days.

I'm not recommending anyone do this, but it worked for me where the failure was the drives not spinning up, they just appeared to be dead."

 

I use Samsung drives as I have found them to be both quiet and reliable, but as you say anything mechanical will fail eventually especially if spinning at high speed for most it's life.

I would not normally encourage being rough with any hard drive but it strikes me that, if it is refusing to spin up, there is very little to loose.  I would certainly give it a go - thanks for the tip. 

Yup, great hard disks those Samsung Spinpoints, they never gave a surface error in their entire life, and even after doing what I did to them, they still don't have any!

I like them that much I actually feel bad about having a WD drive in my current machine.  It's a newer model than the Samsungs yet you can hear it seeking and in performs like crap compared to the Samsungs.  The only reason I have a WD now (but never again) is because they were out of stock of the Samsungs when I built my current machine, I got fed-up of waiting for stock to arrive.

I can't wait until Solid State catches up with Mechanical drives in terms of storage capacity.  I've learned my lesson and Manage backups.  My crash occurred in September so I feel your pain.  Runtimes and installs take up a huge amount of storage space.

Still, thanks to the kindness of the content creators I was able to get just about everything back.  I hope you didn't lose anything precious on that system.

Slapping your hard drive? You know, I've always wanted payback...

For me, the drive didn't stop spinning, it started up and then I got the blue screen of death. It's an old laptop and I was going to get a new one anyhow. I didn't lose anything precious because of a good friend on here, but it was the fact that I was without my main communications with my family that was killing me.

I am going to get myself a smart phone that I can use globally after the new laptop...

a mouse is worthless.

intuos is ah ok.

but  Ya need a Wacom intuos pro or better to use all the zBrush tools.

intuos pro medium is recommended or better but small is better then nothing. 

never tried touch n fingers so can't say but zBrush forums could. 

@Quietrob
Yup, nothing like a friendly slap in the right place to bring her back to life :-P

@Rokket
Glad you got it sorted, and to be honest I was forgetting you were talking about a laptop drive.  I doubt the impact shock would have been hard enough anyway on such a light drive, but if it had been a laptop drive I'd have dropped it on it's end instead, say, 6 inches above the deskdop to make up for the lack of weight.