I had all my email and contacts on there, my Bryce creations and Poser creations, The Bryce installation (with all my collection over the years of free stuff). Posers install with models I have purchased! Home video and images I created. I had only 1/8 off it backed up. Who knows how long it is going to take to recover from this one. I don't feel well now...

Message edited on: 11/11/2004 13:17

Man, that really sucks! :( Let me know if i can help you restoring some of the stuff. (mats, textures etc)

Rudolf Herczog
Digital Artist
www.rochr.com

Go into Cmos and see if you can detect the harddrive again...Set to auto and then it should work if it is not Damaged...Good luck...

I can't even imagine your sorrow. There should be a charity that helps people who lost their stuff in a drive malfunction.

If all else fails put in another Machine and see if you can detect as a SLAVE and see if you can GHOST the Harddrive to another...

True, but configuring master/slave drives wiped a drive on me once in the past somehow so be careful if it comes to that.

omg, i feel your pain....this is truly sad :o( CZ

Are you sure it is your hard drive.... is the IDE/SATA cable ok?... Is the IDE/SATA on the mainboard working properly... Had a drive go bad at work on my inkjet and it actually wasn't the hard drive but the Primary IDE on the board is what went bad. The hard drive was ok. Make sure you check everything before you give up on your hard drive. Also like Folypro said... check your CMOS and see if your BIOS is detecting the drive or not.

There are 10 kinds of people: Those who know binary, and those who don't. 

A whiner is about as useful as a one-legged man at an arse kicking contest.

Feel for you, mate. Had the same thing happen a few months ago, only just got it back to something like it was. One bright spot, you do get rid of a load of junk that you were never going to use this way. Hope the ideas from the techy types work. You may be able to save it.

Attached Link: http://www.quetek.com/prod02.htm

It's always wise to check your IDE and power cables first, even if they are securely attached, they may not be conducting well. Sometimes I take them off and put them back on and it miraculously works again. I'd go with foleypro's idea if that doesn't work. Does it go through POST? Is there a system beep when it starts?

I had a similar problem recently. I used this product "File Scavanger" and I got practically all my files back even after format, I even got some files I deleted (this of course depends on the size your disk space. Of course I ran the software from a separate hard drive. Anyway, I hope you get all your files back.

Message edited on: 11/11/2004 15:11

Thanks you guys for the support! But trust me it is the hard drive. I am a HelpDesk Technician and if I couldn't figure that out I need to change careers lol. I have another computer I tried it on and CLICK CLICK ZZZZZ CLICK CLICK ZZZZZ. Thought about some impact calibration at this point! It makes a whine and a repetitive click. In my 7+ years working with computers I have never heard this sound or at least not one so loud. I have it out side the case and man it is bad. It doesn't even show in the BIOS now so it might be more then gone. Going to try it on a computer at work tomorrow. I will let you guys know how it goes with MAXTOR and replacing the drive (not even a year old yet HURRY for that). And now I am digging through all my paper work to see if I have printed reciepts for my Daz purchases which was a couple $100 because all my email is GONE. I am sure they will have my info but what a pain in butt! Thanks again for the support. I knew better is the worst thing!

Been there, done that! One reason I spent $129.00 at Walmart for a Seagate external 120 gig hard drive for storage...plug it in and you're good to go, mine backs up the regular hd every night, so if my regular hd goes ballistic, at least I haven't lost everything....I also copy and save email on it

Message edited on: 11/11/2004 18:59

Message edited on: 11/11/2004 19:01

Bryce Forum Coordinator....

Vision is the Art of seeing things invisible...

vile see if you can set it up as a slave and see if it can be picked up, i thought i had lost my harddrive not so long ago until my stepson came around and put the new one in and set my old one up as a slave. i was able to transfer things from the old harddrive onto the new one with no problems. Yes the harddrive was buggered but at least i was able to save everything onto the new one.

I feel your pain, Vile. We bought a Maxtor a year and a half ago and it went out on me 3 weeks ago. It was still under warranty so hubby sent it back for a replacement. The replacement came a couple of days ago and he installed it.
My Maxtor runs my C:drive exclusively and I have another HD by Western Digital that is partitioned in two representing my D: and E:drives. I also run some programs from them. The Western Digital has been running on my computer for many years now without a hitch.

I'm just damn glad that I backed up everything important to me before the Maxtor went out.

Other good HD's that I really like are Seagate and IBM

Message edited on: 11/11/2004 19:27

I use two HDs and all my models and crucial data are duplicated on both. Some stuff is also backed up onto CD. Had this happen to me before so I understand your pain.

Pass no temptation lightly by, for one never knows when it may pass again!

Ardiva, strangely enough the HD i had problems with was Maxtor.

I hear ya, LT. Seems there are some other folks I know that are having a bad time with their Maxtors now. Hubby looked on the Maxtor HD and it said: "Made in Singapore". Now don't know if that has anything to do with it perse..but food for thought.

Oh no? Can't anything be done? How long will it take u to reset up again? that's hard to deal with..

put it in a plastic baggie suck all the air out then put in the freezer over night hook it up real quick and tranfer away if you can.

"Reinstall Windows" is NOT a troubleshooting step.

That is strange wildman but I might actually try that if I could prevent any moisture. Maybe one of those RonCo pressure sucker things. lol Oh and all of my contacts are gone too soo Rose email me so I have your email again.

Vile is there any way you can swap the controller card on the HDD (a bit of solder unsolder needed and an identical HDD thats willing to give you its controller card)? It might be just the controller card thats gone and not the actual platters.

Dreams are just nightmares on prozac...
Digital WasteLanD

Something is hung up like the actuator arm keeps reseting. I have not solder anything in years lol.

sent you the email.. and now I know why me spending today backing up all my hard drive, defragmenting my disc, etc....

Ewwww. I feel your pain. If it's the mechanics, it's gone. You can only save it in a specialised service. BTW, I've had a Maxtor for several years without problems so I bought another, 160GB. And I everybody manufactures their components somewhere like that - Singapore, Taiwan, China, Hungary...

-- erlik

OMG!! I'm with you pal! I had a maxtor, by the way, and it worked for 3 years than suddendly began to do a rythmic "tic" and after a couples of week it was not working more... I had to install on another PC with win 2000 who regognized it, and repaired the damaged cluster. My old HD had 2 partitions one for OS + programs and one for all the stuff. Fortunately the damaged cluster was in the OS partition so data were saved. After the cluster correction by win 2000 i reformatted the partition and than, after a couples of months, I changed the HD. hope it helps. vasq (feeling you pain)

yup..hey Vile, we're in the same business..I been at it about 14 years..the 4 clicks are usually a seek problem/motor problem, etc. Usually indicates that the hard drive's a gonner..depending on how much you have to spend, there are drive recovery places (only one that springs to mind is Ontrack, in Oregon somewhere).
I regularly back everything up to CDR's, and out of 105, only one's gone south on me..;) I have a (ahem) short list of about 1,600 sites of freestuff for Bryce, Poser, Wings, Fonts, etc., that you might be able to re-download, if you're interested, I can email 'em to you at some point.
good luck.

I wish I'd said that.. The Staircase Wit

anahl nathrak uth vas betude doth yel dyenvey..;)

That sucks big-time Vile! I guess I'd better buy an external drive for back-ups, just in case. Hope you're able to retrieve your data.