Bachii'

[Gregg]

After posting my reply what was it, Friday night?, about Jeff Sauber's experience with hackers, PC's and puter problems, I got hit by something I can't explain.

No, Mr. Geary, it was not a Mac hacker who finally "got through", it was simply an act of nature that hit me

We have been having major wind, thunder, and rain storms for the past few weeks, and I thought I was all good and protected, with two small UPS APC backup power supplies.

Well, Friday night I was doing some "legitment" online reseach, and there was a zap, lights went out, something popped, and everything came back on.

I thought I was protected, what with the two UPS (Uninterupted Power Supply, Not THE UPS), but the damage was done

You see, I run about twelve or fifteen programs AT ONCE, and due to the surge, certain portions of those programs got zapped because they were running.

I never noticed it at first, and it wasn't until Saturday night that found out what happened.

I tried to do some work, and I go a strange reaction, or lack of one

After doing some tests, it comes to light that the volume structures of the hard drive in about 12 or 15 places where overwritten twice, which in laymen's terms means I'm Scooby Dooed!

I have been running utilities and restore programs since Saturday night.

The problem is this:

I have backups, but since I have doing back-to-back issues since October, I never had the chance to do full backups since then

Everything I have new from October to now is gone

Emails, files, pics, links, stories, edits, final's proofs, etc, is bahbye

I have to do everything all over again if this final utility does not work

So, if you have sent me an email, pic, link, or question, and I have not responded, you now know why

I may have to ask a lot of you to resend stuff, but I hope this last utility works, and I can resurect at least two of the basic directories I need

I still love Mac's, but I have bought a new battery backup system that weighs a ton, is about as big as the Mac G5 Tower, and will protect me through the next tsunami.

I am running on the old PowerBook right now, using the web email programs of my server and Yahoo

I can get email, but I have no access to anything from before.

This sucks

[Hollywood Jim]

Wow, that's major bad karma.....

Sounds like you need to set up a weekly automatic backup system.

When I'm not hating computers, I love computers.

[MrObsessive]

YIKES!!

Gregg, I'm sorry that happened!

I use Carbonite for all my backups. It works silently in the background so you can't tell it's working.................I'm kinda paranoid about the hard drive taking a dump. I had a 'puter gets it's modem and hard drive fried by lightning a few years ago.

At home backup systems are nice, but if there's a severe power surge or heaven forbid a fire, all is lost.

For 50 bucks a year it's well worth it, and they're even working on a system for Mac users.

[Guest Davkin]

I use an external USB hard drive for backups and just keep it disconnected when not in use. However, if I was making my living off the data I stored on my computer I'd seriously consider the Carbonite or similar online backup route.

David

[Gregg]

I have two 250GB firewire 800 externals

The files to backup are not small, and take a while to do, and when you work 16 hours a day, or more, on the puter, there is little or no time to do the backups

I know, lame excuse...

The "Current Issue" folder is about 50GB, and that's just what's in the hopper

Online backup would be of no use to me, due to the time

I should have had my settings backed up daily, something I will do once I recover from this.

I will also set up my second hard drive internally as a RAID, and pick up a new 1TB external for everything else.

Live and learn....

[Steven Zimmerman]

I guess this means you won't be sending me any of that modelling stuff you promised me,and that hand written 6 page illustrated article I sent you won't get published?...(grin)..............Steven Zimmerman aka the'Z'man

[MrObsessive]

Gregg, the great thing about Carbonite is that it backs up all your files automatically. They also have an unlimited limit, so no matter how much stuff you've got on your system, it'll back it up.

There's nothing special you have to do................everytime you add a new file, it goes into Carbonite's server. Your files are safe with encryption so there's no chance a hacker can break in and "steal" something.

The initial backup would take a while (You've got a LOT of stuff! ) but once backed up, it's simple and safe.

Just my 2¢ worth!

[lordairgtar]

That AV is creepin' me out, Paul. I stared at it for minutes.

[Harry P.]

Don't worry about it...this whole "computer" thing is just a passing fad...

[parki]

Really sorry to hear your bad news Gregg. I had my computer take a dump on me about two and a half years ago in a storm. A power surge hit and trashed my computer. I lost everything. I foolishly didn't have any surge protection at all on my computer, and no backup. I had to go out and buy a new tower unit and bought some mains protection as well, and I thought that all would be OK. Then just as my warranty had run out on my new tower, disaster struck again and my power supply just blew for no apparent reason, and took out my mother board. I was very lucky in that a friend managed to salvage my hard drive contents and replaced my mother board and put a beefier power supply in. I now keep everything important backed up on an external USB hard drive. Computers are great when there working. but when something goes wrong it can have a real sting in the tail!! I hope you manage to get it sorted Gregg and you manage to recover the files you need. Best regards, Adam.

Edited December 22, 2007 by parki

[Jairus]

That AV is creepin' me out, Paul. I stared at it for minutes.

Agreed, maybe we should take a poll....