Jayzus H. Crisco (Update)

[filkertom]

Fifty-five gigs of data.

About six gigs of gaming files. Several more major downloads. And about forty gigs of arrangements, vocal tracks, sound effects, commissioned songs, and everything from The Last Hero On Earth.

And, as I am wont to do now and again, I took a chance and paid a hundred bucks for a program that said it could save my data.













It did.

Every last damn file.

When you Windows people need something when everything else refuses to even read the freakin' drive, Stellar Phoenix does the job.

Thanks to all of you who tried to help. I really appreciate it. But I admit I'm staggered. This program was easy, and it did the job completely. There might've been a free way to do it, but this did it in a way that was worth a hundred bucks, y'know? I would've been angry and bitter if it hadn't worked, and it would've renewed my cynicism about companies that claim to know what they're doing (really spurred by Paragon's alleged back-up software). Instead, I got everything I could've needed, and saved myself weeks of frustration.

So, what's your suprising-but-excellent-and-relieved-outcome take-a-chance tech story?

Comments

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Still working on it. My drive died recently in a way that has had me searching for assistance recovering it. I've been in correspondence with someone I found on Craigslist, who claims he can recover the disk for $175 if I provide him with another hard drive to put the data onto. I'm likely to do it, if he tells me (in writing) that he won't be voiding the warranty on both drives.

Glad to hear your adventure worked out well, and I've added the software to a list of highly recommended packages.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Good luck. I noticed that several of the programs make a point of saying they're non-destructive, read-only. It made me leery of programs that didn't mention that, because I've had nasty experiences (and subsequent data loss) in the past from programs that seemed to be able to read the file, but were determined to try and fix the fucking disk first, and ended up trashing everything.

[dragonscholar.livejournal.com]

Not tech support, but you do need to see this:

A filk of "Edmund Fitzgerald" over the shipper-fan reactions to the latest Harry Potter.
The Lyrics (http://www.livejournal.com/users/scifantasy/156288.html)
The MP3 (http://www.stwing.upenn.edu/~wmfrank/music/Wank.mp3)

It's sick and twisted. I figure'd you'd approve ;)

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I did see that yesterday. Tee hee! I'll probably go off on HBP in a day or three -- I'm still assimilating. Short form: Wow, but Aiee and Hah?

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

Thank you, thank you.

Oh, and--*whew* on the data recovery.

[kayshapero]

ROFL!!!!

[eibii.livejournal.com]

Yowww. Congratulations, I'm so glad things worked out okay - hard drive failure can really wreak havoc on a person. :/

M'afraid I have few *successful* tech stories, just really stupid mishaps - like the time my computer was flipping out constantly, the mouse wouldn't work and kept flipping from left to right, and I was worried for days - only to realise I'd forgotten to put my tablet away properly after a drawing, and left the pen sitting right on it. Yay, USB tug-o-war! *facedesk*

System Restore actually *did* heal my poor spazzing computer that was having upsetting seizures and blackouts - but in return, it munched a few programs and bits of data as burnt offerings. Nothing I hadn't backed up, but it was very 'grr' for a little while.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Heh. Can't think of how many times I had some weird flake-out thing happen, only to realize that a key was stuck, or a pen was leaning on it, or something.

And I wanted to get to the System Restore the other night, but now I'm not sure it would've worked -- it's supposed to restore files, but I don't know if it rebuilds the boot track. So, ultimately, this has all worked out way better than any hard drive crash I've had before, and my system will be stronger for it.

[twfarlan.livejournal.com]

Well, how about Beginning Unix by Wrox? Really does a good job introducing Unix to the beginner. Organizes topics together by usability and by similar needs. Good stuff.

On an unrelated note, Tom, if you have a chance to answer, I have a question regarding one of your songs. I apologize if you've answered this before, but I was wondering about the background for "Falling Free." It's beautiful, and the lyrics suggest that there's a story behind it. Was it written about or from a story or series?

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Inspired by the novel Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold.

[twfarlan.livejournal.com]

Just another one I'll have to read. Thanks.

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

Sure, just try ONE book by Lois. You can quit anytime. Bwahahaha.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Word. My bathroom library has eight Lois novels right now, along with several Phil Foglio comics and the novelization of Kingdom Come.

Actually, I think that's a meme. :)

[twfarlan.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know. I've read half of the Vorkosigan novels, and that was with the intent of just reading the first one or two, as well. Heh.

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

I envy you, twfarlan. Because you're gonna have a ball!

If I ever get alzheimers, I will smile at the thought of being able to read Bujold for the first time, every day.

[barbarakitten-t.livejournal.com]

it's not miles, perszactly, but it is a lovely book and we but the verse from tom's song on our wedding invitations when lady cheron married into the borg....

[denali1.livejournal.com]

Holy grep, Batman! Trav does Unix! :D

[twfarlan.livejournal.com]

Yeah, man. New job related, but it's something I'd wanted to learn for a while now.

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

By the way, THANK THE GODS for that Stellar Phoenix program! I am mightily gratified that all your latest musical work has been rescued. You didn't just save yourself all those weeks of anger and frustration, but your fans as well.

So. When can the rest of us expect to hear THE LAST HERO ON EARTH?

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I'm going to get back to the arrangements on that by the weekend. Last few songs. I'm hoping by late next week to set up rehearsals and recording with Anne and Karen. In one form or another, it will be done for Dragon*Con.

[tropism.livejournal.com]

Now that you've recovered it, what're your plans to maintain your data's integrity in the future?

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

By the end of the week, I will have all the music files on two external USB hard drives, to only be connected when I'm actually working with music. I'm gonna save everything to both, and any songs that I work on will also be dragged to a CD-R after a major session. I'll look into automatic backup software.

[partiallyclips.livejournal.com]

When I lost my motherboard last year, I got a replacement that the 1337 h4xx0r geek who sold it to me swore would not allow my old drive to boot and run. My MCSE friend who installed it told me the same thing. We figured on starting with a fresh install of Win2000 on a new drive, slave the old one, and meticulously copy all files to it.

Wrong, both of them. That new board booted my drive perfectly and I have been running on it ever since. :)

[poltr1]

Glad to hear that everything was rescued. And doubleglad to hear that you have a strategy to ensure that it doesn't happen again.

I should give Stellar Phoenix a quick look.