Hi, Well, Windows Me, died, I tried to reinstall 98, and it destroyed my partiton table, "Microsoft has just wiped your harddisk, scream now? [Y/N]" Arrrgh! So does anyone know anything other than Nortons utils, that will get my data back? any suggestions? Also, does anyone know if Daz will allow you to re-download the stuff you've bought in the past? I've got most of the install files backed up, but not all of them, I think. later jb

try cnet.com data recovery under utilities

I think DAZ will let you download again the stuff you purchased only if you have your Invoice numbers. Something similar happened to me 10 days ago and even if I had a back up of my purchased items, I lost all my e-mails and the Invoice numbers. In the last few months I have been so distracted or stupid not to print all of them when I received the mail and now I can't get an update of my purchased items if I need it... I sent them a couple e-mails to explain my situation and asked them if they could send me a report of my past purchase based on my account, but I did not get an answer... sigh! So I think if you did not save your Invoice numbers it is like you never bought their stuff. I hope somebody read this post and proves me wrong...

Been where you are and have deep sympathy. Was "there" twice. Learned my lesson. Backup became like a second religion and is practiced more devoutly than the first I must say. Three words of advice, something my mother told me to never give: "Back up everything!" Can't say it enough but don't want to repeat myself. Best of luck to you. Larry F

Attached Link: http://www.r-tt.com/index.html

I had a similar problem lately. Accidently I deleted the whole Poser directory. I found a tool from R-tools that got me back in business in about 15 minutes. They have different versions, FAT 32 and NTFS. See the attached link. In a kind of explorer window you can see the deleted files and recover them. Especially for NTFS this is one of the few utilities.

Just remember that CD Writers are cheap these days, as are blank CD's. You can easily backup all your stuff. Don't even worry if it's a full 600MB worth...CD's are that cheap. You can zip and backup your runtime folder, and you'll have all your Poser installed stuff in case of emergency. This advice doesn't help your current situation. I hate to say it but once you've tried to install a different operating system, I think you've truly lost your stuff.

Hmm. Seems DAZ ought to have a record of what you have purchased. If they are unwilling to replace an item that is lost due to hardware failure that would definately put me off buying from them. The risk of loss is just to high. One of the reasons I tend not to buy virtual products at all. I like having a CD, in case I need to reintall. DAZ will burn your purchase to CD by the way. I seem to recall seeing that on their site. Costs a bit more, of course. jon

and for goodness sakes don't back it up on a CD-RW. There are a lot of utilities for recovering data from CD-RW media that give cyclic redundancy errors.

After a recent system upgrade I found that I had backed up all of my DAZ purchases on CD except for one. And of course I could find all of the invoices except that one. DAZ was helpful and quickly provided me a link where I could re-download the lost file. Just contact DAZ by phone or e-mail and they should be able to help you. JH

Thank you jhostick, it is good to know that the problem can be fixed! I hope that the dalay was due to the celebration (Thanksgiving Day), but I waited almost a week before sending a new e-mail... I hope they contact me next week. Thanks again

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I assume you saw this post, but just in case you missed it... Maybe they have been trying to e-mail you back? Seems to depend on your ISP. Be sure to include your phone number when you e-mail them back, just in case they are having trouble reaching you. jon

Yes I just read tat post, thank you!

Hi, Well, in a bit of rare foresight, I found most of my stuff that I thought I'd lost backed up to a zip I didn't know I'd written :) I've also got a prog that will recover most of my stuff, though I'll check the link to the others, they're always welcome. I think the only thing I may have "lost" is Mike's wedgecut, I can't seem to locate that anywhere, but I'm not done looking yet. I think I'm going to have to recover in stages, as I've got far more data that's recoverable than than I have zip disks, (about 9Gb :) which is fairly good going considering that the partiton map got deleted, numerous times and it been converted to NTFS and back in the mean time :) Thanks for all the help! later jb

OK, folks, things are this easy: 1.) When you make a purchase at DAZ, it goes into your order history. 2.) Go back to DAZ and see your order history. 3.) Get the item description, invoice number, etc. 4.) Get ahold of DAZ to arrange some help. Of course I must say there is no true substitute for planning ahead. Print out your invoices, save the emails, backup all your important files. CD's are incredibly cheap, and the only really viable backup media for most of us because of that reason. When it comes right down to it DAZ and other companies have one real job: to sell merchandise. It is not their job to organize your affairs or protect you from disasters or to help you recover from them. Of course, DAZ and other companies can earn good "customer service points" by assisting you in such matters. However they must be assured that someone isn't trying to rip them off. That's why they ask for Invoice numbers etc. They make it easy for you by providing such information... It is your job to save this stuff for later use. DAZ keeps records for your easy access... but some day their computers might crash.. So you'd better count on protecting yourself. I hope you know things look a lot brighter than you thought. You may need to call DAZ if the emails don't work. What did we ever do before the Internet? We made phone calls, wrote "snail mail letters," used postage stamps, etc.

I had a couple Zip drives once. They were great when there was no cheaper alternative for mass backup storage. The last time I checked the price of 100MB Zip disks, you could get 1GB of storage for about $100. Lately I bought a 50 pack of colored blank CD's and a free CD wallet for $30 or less. One blank CD holds 650MB or more, and costs well under $1.00. CD Writers are easily under $200, and routinely come with many new computers. I hadn't used either of my Zip drives since I got my CD Burner 2 years ago. My original external Zip drive developed the "Infamous Click of Death," which meant it had died. My wife's computer had the newer internal Zip drive, but she never used it. When I got a new hard drive, I gave my wife one of my older hard drives... and decided it was time to retire that internal zip drive. I suggest that it's time to retire your zip drive... you will save money in the long run, and you will love the fact that you can store so much more for so much less money. I like the fact that DAZ will burn a CD of your purchases for you. But look at the econimics here: 1.) a blank CD costs well under $1.00 2.) I can burn a CD in my older CD Burner in about 1/2 hour. 3.) I can use that $20 to buy more blank CD's or something more from DAZ, etc.

Hi, My Zip drive is one of the spangly new USB ones, (It's a laptop, and you can't get a parallel one for love nor money :) I also own a newly purchased CD-Writer 20x write, (but I can only squeeze 12x due to the bandwith restrictions over USB) I've got plenty of CD's, I even backed up a chunk of stuff, but I was in the process of collating the info prior to burning it off when it died, (rather essential when your Poser4 dir is around 5Gb :) not to mention my expanding sims dir too... So, all in all a bit of a bugger! :) Though I think I may have to fire up the writer tonight, and burn the contents of my Zips to CD, then I can use the Zips to recover my drive piece meal. It'll take a while, (90 mins for each scan, prior to recovery) then the laborious task for transfering it all to disk, thence to CD. Then I think it's time to bite the bullet and install either Xp or win2K. Anyone got any opionions as to which is better for poser? later jb

Praxis, if youre looking for a parallel, let me know. I inherited one from a client, and it hasnt done much but gather dust. Its the third one I own, but the other two usualyl get quite a workout. I also archive onto zips and then burn the CD when theres enough materials to do a decent session.

Hi, Thanks for the offer, but a mate has one I could borrow, (which was fortunte because the guest software doesn't scan the USB bus :) so I was able to get my recovery software to dump to zip. So tonight I'm going to have to archive a few CD's worth, then go back in for more tomorrow. I'd do it tonight, but it take 90 mins to scan the disk before I even begin, and I don't fancy finishing at 2:30am again tonight :) later jb