# Restore Computer



## Doxie-Doglover-Too (Jan 25, 2007)

so I knew my hard drive was getting full, I have a brand new external to back up to that I want to keep on the desktop just for pictures. I backed up last month to a different external and put in the safe. I also back up to CARBONITE for $50 a year.

So this morning I did back up to Carbonite. Next step was to transfer pics from my desktop to new external hard drive. But first, I thought I'd quickly install the software to new Blackberry Phone. BIG MISTAKE. Blue screen of death and much time on phone with Dell and I have to do complete restore. D**n. So, I am about to find out how easy or hard it will be to restore stuff from Carbonite. Wish me luck!

Chocolate, I need chocolate


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## Oregon_Camper (Sep 13, 2004)

Doxie-Doglover-Too said:


> so I knew my hard drive was getting full, I have a brand new external to back up to that I want to keep on the desktop just for pictures. I backed up last month to a different external and put in the safe. I also back up to CARBONITE for $50 a year.
> 
> So this morning I did back up to Carbonite. Next step was to transfer pics from my desktop to new external hard drive. But first, I thought I'd quickly install the software to new Blackberry Phone. BIG MISTAKE. Blue screen of death and much time on phone with Dell and I have to do complete restore. D**n. So, I am about to find out how easy or hard it will be to restore stuff from Carbonite. Wish me luck!
> 
> Chocolate, I need chocolate


Restore is easy...just Restore to a day or two ago. Should take about 5 minutes.


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## SoCalOutback (Dec 18, 2005)

Should have bought a mac.

Sorry couldn't resist.


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## LarryTheOutback (Jun 15, 2005)

SoCalOutback said:


> Should have bought a mac.
> 
> Sorry couldn't resist.


First Apple brought us the Bomb (early Mac) then the Sad Mac. Staring with OS X we got the "kernel panic". And now with the iPod/iPhone we can get the Sad iPod or the Pink Screen of Death or the White Screen of Death and even worse the White Screen of Death without any descriptive text.

Those in glass houses ...









Ed


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## SoCalOutback (Dec 18, 2005)

LarryTheOutback said:


> Should have bought a mac.
> 
> Sorry couldn't resist.


First Apple brought us the Bomb (early Mac) then the Sad Mac. Staring with OS X we got the "kernel panic". And now with the iPod/iPhone we can get the Sad iPod or the Pink Screen of Death or the White Screen of Death and even worse the White Screen of Death without any descriptive text.

Those in glass houses ...









Ed
[/quote]

Ed,

Yep, unfortunately all man made devices of any type break. After spending 20 years dealing with every type of computer and every type of OS I have never found a perfect one. I will say that the UNIX based operating systems are the most reliable and most secure. On my laptop I run linux and the computers I choose for the kids and wife are OS X Mac's, both of which are unix based. After spending a long day fixing broken systems at work I don't want to come home and fix more.

-Todd


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## Doxie-Doglover-Too (Jan 25, 2007)

Oregon_Camper said:


> so I knew my hard drive was getting full, I have a brand new external to back up to that I want to keep on the desktop just for pictures. I backed up last month to a different external and put in the safe. I also back up to CARBONITE for $50 a year.
> 
> So this morning I did back up to Carbonite. Next step was to transfer pics from my desktop to new external hard drive. But first, I thought I'd quickly install the software to new Blackberry Phone. BIG MISTAKE. Blue screen of death and much time on phone with Dell and I have to do complete restore. D**n. So, I am about to find out how easy or hard it will be to restore stuff from Carbonite. Wish me luck!
> 
> Chocolate, I need chocolate


Restore is easy...just Restore to a day or two ago. Should take about 5 minutes.
[/quote]
it wouldn't do it, we tried everything. I even called back a while later and had a different tech at Dell help me and it wouldn't work. Sooo...sadly...I did full operating system restore. I can'tfind one of the cd's with the drivers I need so will get them online and download to cd and install into computer. I have medical appt tonite at 6:00 and will be groggy afterwards so dell is calling me tomorrow to help with installing the driverss ( I am sure I can do it without their help but they are calling), so tomorrow starts the real fun of downloading 2.5 years of Windows updates then going to Carbonite and reinstalling what I have there, I'll do Outlook to the comuputer and the pictures to the external hard drive. My computer hard drive was almost full and I had put off transferring stuff to external







but had just done my backup to Carbonite







when I got the wild idea of quickly installing my Blackberry cd. Supposedly that is what pushed it over the edge and and according to Dell there is was no hard drive space left to operate anything. They tried everything. So bad news is starting from scratch , good news is I had fresh offsite backup.


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## Oregon_Camper (Sep 13, 2004)

Doxie-Doglover-Too said:


> So bad news is starting from scratch , good news is I had fresh offsite backup.


I just can't believe you're not able to complete a System Restore.

Have you tried booting in Safe Mode? In "Last Know Good Config" mode?


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## Doxie-Doglover-Too (Jan 25, 2007)

Oregon_Camper said:


> So bad news is starting from scratch , good news is I had fresh offsite backup.


I just can't believe you're not able to complete a System Restore.

Have you tried booting in Safe Mode? In "Last Know Good Config" mode?
[/quote]

yeppers, it woudn't go into safe mode. Fun huh? it refused to do anything and I feel confident Dell tried everything,we were on the phone for a long time trying to avoid complete restore


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## ALASKA PFLOCK (Jun 24, 2007)

C3PO-"Ahh, they have encased him in Carbonite, he should be quite fine."


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## Oregon_Camper (Sep 13, 2004)

Doxie-Doglover-Too said:


> yeppers, it woudn't go into safe mode. Fun huh? it refused to do anything and I feel confident Dell tried everything,we were on the phone for a long time trying to avoid complete restore


Will it boot at all?

If so...delete your pictures (you just backed up!!!). That will give you the room you need to complete the System Restore.


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## SoCalOutback (Dec 18, 2005)

Doxie-Doglover-Too said:


> so I knew my hard drive was getting full, I have a brand new external to back up to that I want to keep on the desktop just for pictures. I backed up last month to a different external and put in the safe. I also back up to CARBONITE for $50 a year.
> 
> So this morning I did back up to Carbonite. Next step was to transfer pics from my desktop to new external hard drive. But first, I thought I'd quickly install the software to new Blackberry Phone. BIG MISTAKE. Blue screen of death and much time on phone with Dell and I have to do complete restore. D**n. So, I am about to find out how easy or hard it will be to restore stuff from Carbonite. Wish me luck!
> 
> Chocolate, I need chocolate


XP or Vista? Do you have a true install disk or the Dell "system recovery" disk?


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## Doxie-Doglover-Too (Jan 25, 2007)

Oregon_Camper said:


> yeppers, it woudn't go into safe mode. Fun huh? it refused to do anything and I feel confident Dell tried everything,we were on the phone for a long time trying to avoid complete restore


Will it boot at all?

If so...delete your pictures (you just backed up!!!). That will give you the room you need to complete the System Restore.
[/quote]

nope, couldn't get it to get to where we could do anything, not even safe mode


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## Doxie-Doglover-Too (Jan 25, 2007)

SoCalOutback said:


> so I knew my hard drive was getting full, I have a brand new external to back up to that I want to keep on the desktop just for pictures. I backed up last month to a different external and put in the safe. I also back up to CARBONITE for $50 a year.
> 
> So this morning I did back up to Carbonite. Next step was to transfer pics from my desktop to new external hard drive. But first, I thought I'd quickly install the software to new Blackberry Phone. BIG MISTAKE. Blue screen of death and much time on phone with Dell and I have to do complete restore. D**n. So, I am about to find out how easy or hard it will be to restore stuff from Carbonite. Wish me luck!
> 
> Chocolate, I need chocolate


XP or Vista? Do you have a true install disk or the Dell "system recovery" disk?
[/quote]

XP Media
Disc says reinstallation dvd


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## SoCalOutback (Dec 18, 2005)

Doxie-Doglover-Too said:


> XP Media
> Disc says reinstallation dvd


# Insert the Windows XP DVD into your DVD drive and restart your computer. If you are prompted, select any options required to start (boot) from the CD.
# When the text-based part of Setup begins, follow the prompts. Select the repair or recover option by pressing R.
# When you are prompted, type the Administrator password.

With in the recovery console you can navigate to the location your stored your files using the 'cd' command. Then use the 'del' command to delete some files to free up space. PLEASE BE SURE THAT YOU HAVE A BACKUP COPY OF ANY FILES YOU DELETE.

After removing files reboot and try to do a system recover again.

Here is a detailed article on the procedure:

Microsoft KnowledgeBase article on using recovery console.


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## ohiobmwbiker (Aug 23, 2008)

I know it too late now - but XP and Vista have repair facilities built into the installation disks that work pretty good. I rebuilt a client's PC with a new motherboard, power supply, etc. etc. and of course XP would not boot up because none of the hardware was the same. The repair option reinstalled the XP basic drivers and kept all the user installed software and files. Maybe this will help others in the similar situations - here's just one link I found just now by googling 'XP Repair Install'

I really, really dislike the off-shore phone support. Even US-based phone support can be awlful at times but at least I can understand them. It seems like all the troubleshooting scripts end with 'reinstall the OS'!

I just went through a similar scenerio with Dell over a recurring blue screen of death on my new i7 with Vista Home Premium. The girl kept insisting on reinstalling Vista, I held my ground that it was a hardware problem due to some of the info in the bsod. Finally she tranferred me to her manager and we figured out the IEEE 1394 (camcorder) interface was causing the issues. After they sent a tech to replace the motherboard the problem was fixed.

Sorry for ranting on and on ...

John


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## Doxie-Doglover-Too (Jan 25, 2007)

SoCalOutback said:


> XP Media
> Disc says reinstallation dvd


# Insert the Windows XP DVD into your DVD drive and restart your computer. If you are prompted, select any options required to start (boot) from the CD.
# When the text-based part of Setup begins, follow the prompts. Select the repair or recover option by pressing R.
# When you are prompted, type the Administrator password.

With in the recovery console you can navigate to the location your stored your files using the 'cd' command. Then use the 'del' command to delete some files to free up space. PLEASE BE SURE THAT YOU HAVE A BACKUP COPY OF ANY FILES YOU DELETE.

After removing files reboot and try to do a system recover again.

Here is a detailed article on the procedure:

Microsoft KnowledgeBase article on using recovery console.

[/quote]
yep, Dell Tech Support tried that also.We tried 3 times


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## Doxie-Doglover-Too (Jan 25, 2007)

I really, really dislike the off-shore phone support. Even US-based phone support can be awlful at times but at least I can understand them. It seems like all the troubleshooting scripts end with 'reinstall the OS'!

John
[/quote]

Ha Ha! my tech help was in some country Iam sure is not even on a map. HOWEVER...are you ready for this?.....
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.They said I could have NOrth American based tech help for $179 year and I would have my very own tech person each time I called.
YOu say what? I paid for extended warranty with tech support for 3 years when I bought my Dell and now I can pay $179 more to 
have someone who I can understand?


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

Buy a NEW BIGGER hard drive and a external hard drive case for the old non booting 2.5" drive in the laptop.

Do a fresh install on the new drive, get all the OS updates (will take a few down loads and reboots to get it fully updated). Then connect the old hard drive in the external case.

Then do a restore from Carbonite or just cherry pick what you want on the computer for software and you should be able to read the old drive (assuming it is not failed and the cause of your Blue screen) to get files you want from it..


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## john7349 (Jan 13, 2008)

CamperAndy said:


> Buy a NEW BIGGER hard drive and a external hard drive case for the old non booting 2.5" drive in the laptop.
> 
> Do a fresh install on the new drive, get all the OS updates (will take a few down loads and reboots to get it fully updated). Then connect the old hard drive in the external case.
> 
> Then do a restore from Carbonite or just cherry pick what you want on the computer for software and you should be able to read the old drive (assuming it is not failed and the cause of your Blue screen) to get files you want from it..


I did pretty much what Andy said just last week. I kept getting the BSOD, so I replaced my faulty 60 gig HD with a new 250 gig HD, a fresh XP Home install with the updates, drivers, and cherry picked with my backup system. My laptop has never been so fast! No BSOD either...


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## SoCalOutback (Dec 18, 2005)

Sometimes when you get BSOD there is a system file that is on a bad portion of the hard drive. The problem is that even when you do the system recover processes it writes the file to the same area of the disk in many cases. Over the years I have fixed many BSOD and other hard drive related problems with this a product called SpinRite.

http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm

There is not a better hard drive repair and recovery tool on the market.

-Todd


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## john7349 (Jan 13, 2008)

Thanks for the advise SoCalOutback. I think that's what happened to me. (now back to the original thread...).


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## Doxie-Doglover-Too (Jan 25, 2007)

so, I restored last night to out of the box state and Dell is calling me today at noon. I shut computer down last night and today it's doing exactly what it did last night. It says

NO BOOT DEVICE AVAILABLE.

ARRGGGGGHHHHH!


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

Doxie-Doglover-Too said:


> so, I restored last night to out of the box state and Dell is calling me today at noon. I shut computer down last night and today it's doing exactly what it did last night. It says
> 
> NO BOOT DEVICE AVAILABLE.
> 
> ARRGGGGGHHHHH!


You have a bad sector on the hard drive. Time for a new one.


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## Compulynx (Oct 15, 2008)

Doxie-Doglover-Too said:


> so, I restored last night to out of the box state and Dell is calling me today at noon. I shut computer down last night and today it's doing exactly what it did last night. It says
> 
> NO BOOT DEVICE AVAILABLE.
> 
> ARRGGGGGHHHHH!


Found this. Might try it.

---

Just for KICKS...... unplug the power from the computer... Let it sit for a minute. While the power is disconnected, press the power button on the front of the PC to drain all power... After you have done this, plug the power back in and turn on the computer...

We have had this happen with many DELL computers
---

If not, get a new drive, reload and be happy









C


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## Doxie-Doglover-Too (Jan 25, 2007)

Compulynx said:


> so, I restored last night to out of the box state and Dell is calling me today at noon. I shut computer down last night and today it's doing exactly what it did last night. It says
> 
> NO BOOT DEVICE AVAILABLE.
> 
> ARRGGGGGHHHHH!


Found this. Might try it.

---

Just for KICKS...... unplug the power from the computer... Let it sit for a minute. While the power is disconnected, press the power button on the front of the PC to drain all power... After you have done this, plug the power back in and turn on the computer...

We have had this happen with many DELL computers
---

If not, get a new drive, reload and be happy









C
[/quote]
wow,that is also one of the steps that we did yesterday. So, buy a new hard drive?does it have to be from Dell?


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## Compulynx (Oct 15, 2008)

Doxie-Doglover-Too said:


> so, I restored last night to out of the box state and Dell is calling me today at noon. I shut computer down last night and today it's doing exactly what it did last night. It says
> 
> NO BOOT DEVICE AVAILABLE.
> 
> ARRGGGGGHHHHH!


Found this. Might try it.

---

Just for KICKS...... unplug the power from the computer... Let it sit for a minute. While the power is disconnected, press the power button on the front of the PC to drain all power... After you have done this, plug the power back in and turn on the computer...

We have had this happen with many DELL computers
---

If not, get a new drive, reload and be happy









C
[/quote]
wow,that is also one of the steps that we did yesterday. So, buy a new hard drive?does it have to be from Dell?
[/quote]

Nope. Office Depot will have them. Just be sure and get the same type. IDE,IEDE,SATA and so on. The old drive will have the model # on it, and will say what type it is.

What is your service Tag # and I will tell you what it came with.

C


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## Doxie-Doglover-Too (Jan 25, 2007)

Compulynx said:


> so, I restored last night to out of the box state and Dell is calling me today at noon. I shut computer down last night and today it's doing exactly what it did last night. It says
> 
> NO BOOT DEVICE AVAILABLE.
> 
> ARRGGGGGHHHHH!


Found this. Might try it.

---

Just for KICKS...... unplug the power from the computer... Let it sit for a minute. While the power is disconnected, press the power button on the front of the PC to drain all power... After you have done this, plug the power back in and turn on the computer...

We have had this happen with many DELL computers
---

If not, get a new drive, reload and be happy









C
[/quote]
wow,that is also one of the steps that we did yesterday. So, buy a new hard drive?does it have to be from Dell?
[/quote]

Nope. Office Depot will have them. Just be sure and get the same type. IDE,IEDE,SATA and so on. The old drive will have the model # on it, and will say what type it is.

What is your service Tag # and I will tell you what it came with.

C
[/quote]
96f8dc1


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## Doxie-Doglover-Too (Jan 25, 2007)

I have Dell on the phone right now and she put me thru more steps and in brought us back to the BSOD error 0x0000007b

My hard drive tests passed yesterday, she is now checking what to do next. I bought extended warranty which is good until Feb 2010 so it appears they may have to send someone here to fix it. She has me on hold


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

You have a SATA drive and you can get one from ANY office or electronics store. It does not have to be Dell but does have to have the correct disk size. I thought you were talking before about a laptop but from your service tag I see it is a desk top. So you will want to ask for a 3.5" desk top SATA drive you can get VERY large drives for not too much money. There are other specifications such as built in memory (more is better) and disc speed (faster is batter), so go look and get what your pocket book can afford. Should take about 20 minutes to replace, couple of screws and a couple of cables.


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## SoCalOutback (Dec 18, 2005)

Doxie-Doglover-Too said:


> I have Dell on the phone right now and she put me thru more steps and in brought us back to the BSOD error 0x0000007b
> 
> My hard drive tests passed yesterday, she is now checking what to do next. I bought extended warranty which is good until Feb 2010 so it appears they may have to send someone here to fix it. She has me on hold


If you have any data on the drive you need to recover there is a very good chance SpinRite would recover the entire drive and remap any bad sectors. Make sure you get all your data off of carbonite before you dispose of the bad drive, just in case.

Data, such as pictures and videos, should be backed up to a second drive you keep around the house and to an off site location. I can't tell you how people have lost years of pictures and videos because they relied on a single backup.


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## Lmbevard (Mar 18, 2006)

CamperAndy said:


> You have a SATA drive and you can get one from ANY office or electronics store. It does not have to be Dell but does have to have the correct disk size. I thought you were talking before about a laptop but from your service tag I see it is a desk top. So you will want to ask for a 3.5" desk top SATA drive you can get VERY large drives for not too much money. There are other specifications such as built in memory (more is better) and disc speed (faster is batter), so go look and get what your pocket book can afford. Should take about 20 minutes to replace, couple of screws and a couple of cables.


I have seen 1 TB drives for less than $100 and 1.5 TB for $125. Unbelievable! I remember paying $150 for a 60 Gig.


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## Doxie-Doglover-Too (Jan 25, 2007)

today they had me move hard drive cable on mother board to Sata 3 from Sata 0, but still same problem. They have now determined hard drive failure and are ordering one and sending tech to replace it since it's all covered under exteneded warranty. Let's hope this really is the problem.

They just now said they also replacing the motherboard.

She also is trying to find out if she can send hard drive with Windows already on it.
She will call me back later with the details.


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## SoCalOutback (Dec 18, 2005)

Doxie-Doglover-Too said:


> today they had me move hard drive cable on mother board to Sata 3 from Sata 0, but still same problem. They have now determined hard drive failure and are ordering one and sending tech to replace it since it's all covered under exteneded warranty. Let's hope this really is the problem.
> 
> They just now said they also replacing the motherboard.
> 
> ...


Do not let the tech take the old hard drive until your sure your you have all your data off of carbonite.


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## Doxie-Doglover-Too (Jan 25, 2007)

SoCalOutback said:


> today they had me move hard drive cable on mother board to Sata 3 from Sata 0, but still same problem. They have now determined hard drive failure and are ordering one and sending tech to replace it since it's all covered under exteneded warranty. Let's hope this really is the problem.
> 
> They just now said they also replacing the motherboard.
> 
> ...


Do not let the tech take the old hard drive until your sure your you have all your data off of carbonite.
[/quote]

she said that since I did a complete restore and it was successful, my info was erased....true?


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

Doxie-Doglover-Too said:


> she said that since I did a complete restore and it was successful, my info was erased....true?


Most likely.


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## SoCalOutback (Dec 18, 2005)

CamperAndy said:


> she said that since I did a complete restore and it was successful, my info was erased....true?


Most likely.
[/quote]

Yep, it's gone. I thought you were trying to do the system recovery which just overwrites the OS.


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## Oregon_Camper (Sep 13, 2004)

Doxie-Doglover-Too said:


> today they had me move hard drive cable on mother board to Sata 3 from Sata 0, but still same problem. They have now determined hard drive failure and are ordering one and sending tech to replace it since it's all covered under exteneded warranty. Let's hope this really is the problem.
> 
> They just now said they also replacing the motherboard.
> 
> ...


Do not let the tech take the old hard drive until your sure your you have all your data off of carbonite.
[/quote]

she said that since I did a complete restore and it was successful, my info was erased....true?
[/quote]

sort of..but not all of it.

Here is a basic concept on the drive. Hard drive write data all over the drive and it this job of the File Allocation Table (FAT) to keep track of that stuff.

When you restored the drive, you take away the current FAT table and start a new one. This of this like a library and their books...without a way to locate the book, you would be looking for a LONG time, but the book is there.

Now, when you restored the drive, you started writing new data over the old, but you didn't fill up the new drive, you only overwrote SOME of the files. Go back to the library concept. Library is full of books...and you bring in new ones, with a a decimal system to find them...as you take the old books off the shelf the new systems knows where the NEW books are....however if you only fill 1/2 of the library with book, you still have 1/2 of the library with books, but hard to find what you want.

I have done consulting for a few lawyers on recovering data from criminal's PC and they "thought" they removed the evidence by just deleting...however, someone with the understanding on how to recreate the structure CAN get to the data. This is my new means cheap to do and I love doing it for lawyers...they pay...I make $$$...bad guys go to jail.


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## Doxie-Doglover-Too (Jan 25, 2007)

Ok, so I have downloaded my backed up Outlook files from Carbonite to my laptop. It took about 30 hours but it's done! In the meantime, the Dell guy came and replaced hard drive and motherboard on my desktop, since we are leaving on vacation, I am leaving my transferred Outlook on my Laptop and will put it all on the Desktop when I get back. 
I have ran the Windows updates on Desktop, re installed Norton and Microsoft Office 2007 and all seems well!







Thanks everyone for your input and help


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## rdvholtwood (Sep 18, 2008)

Oregon_Camper said:


> today they had me move hard drive cable on mother board to Sata 3 from Sata 0, but still same problem. They have now determined hard drive failure and are ordering one and sending tech to replace it since it's all covered under exteneded warranty. Let's hope this really is the problem.
> 
> They just now said they also replacing the motherboard.
> 
> ...


Do not let the tech take the old hard drive until your sure your you have all your data off of carbonite.
[/quote]

she said that since I did a complete restore and it was successful, my info was erased....true?
[/quote]

sort of..but not all of it.

Here is a basic concept on the drive. Hard drive write data all over the drive and it this job of the File Allocation Table (FAT) to keep track of that stuff.

When you restored the drive, you take away the current FAT table and start a new one. This of this like a library and their books...without a way to locate the book, you would be looking for a LONG time, but the book is there.

Now, when you restored the drive, you started writing new data over the old, but you didn't fill up the new drive, you only overwrote SOME of the files. Go back to the library concept. Library is full of books...and you bring in new ones, with a a decimal system to find them...as you take the old books off the shelf the new systems knows where the NEW books are....however if you only fill 1/2 of the library with book, you still have 1/2 of the library with books, but hard to find what you want.

I have done consulting for a few lawyers on recovering data from criminal's PC and they "thought" they removed the evidence by just deleting...however, someone with the understanding on how to recreate the structure CAN get to the data. This is my new means cheap to do and I love doing it for lawyers...they pay...I make $$$...bad guys go to jail.
[/quote]

Thats Cool! Can I ask how you go about doing that?


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## Oregon_Camper (Sep 13, 2004)

rdvholtwood said:


> Thats Cool! Can I ask how you go about doing that?


It is a combo of understanding data structure and some very custom software. Again, this isn't easy....it takes a LOT of time to recreate data. Most of the consulting work is recovering pictures and some data files. The pictures are horrible images and I do this LATE at night so there is never a chance my kids could walk in. I rest well knowing I've helped convict BAD people.


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