1. Subscribersonhouse
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    04 May '19 21:45
    It seems to be totally corrupted. I have data on a backup drive but my computer dude said if you turn off the computer by just pushing the off button, it can crash the HD.
    That may have happened, my son seems to want to turn off my comp by doing just that. So I was wondering if there was any kind of software or battery backup system that takes the off button in front of the comp as not to turn off all power instantly but to get the drive in safe before shutting down the hard way. If I want to turn off the comp, I do it with the software shutdown icon but can't control what happens if I am not home. I was thinking some kind of short life rechargeable battery hooked into the HD power line such that when the off button is pushed or if we have a power failure or someone just pulls the power plug, the system makes DAM sure the read head doesn't slam into the HD material before it gets to go home and safe. Anyone hear of such a device? Seems it would stop a lot of HD failures resulting from inadvertent total shutdowns.
  2. Subscribermoonbus
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    05 May '19 21:00
    @sonhouse

    I do not know of any software solution which would prevent an ungraceful shutdown. Teach all other users to follow the graceful shutdown procedure, or prevent them from using your computer.

    There are forensic tools to recover corrupted files. Does your computer still boot properly?
  3. Subscribersonhouse
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    06 May '19 12:171 edit
    @moonbus said
    @sonhouse

    I do not know of any software solution which would prevent an ungraceful shutdown. Teach all other users to follow the graceful shutdown procedure, or prevent them from using your computer.

    There are forensic tools to recover corrupted files. Does your computer still boot properly?
    Sure, $175 later, new HD, new windows, and at least he found the main fan was dead, the comp had always been noisy and now I know why, the smaller CPU fan was taking over the cooling duties and there was a temperature sensor that regulated the little fan and so with no big fan going, the little fan revved up to max all the time, very noisy. When he installed the new fan, it is now as quiet as a mouse. I should have figured that one out for myself but it was like that the day I got it (used) and just thought that was how it ran normally. He also found because of the excess heat, the heat sink compound on the main CPU heat sink was almost gone, so he replaced that as well so the computer is certainly in much better shape now. That is the second HD to fail. That is why I was wondering about a fail safe way to shut off the machine if you did it accidentally from the main power switch. The same thing could happen if there was a power failure which would be out of anyone's control unless you have a UPS. I actually HAVE a UPS but the dam thing ALSO died, so right now it is not protected against a power outage. Even THAT would not work if the power was off for say 2 hours or so, there is a limit as to how long a UPS can keep a computer powered up in a power fail situation.
    So if you are actually home when it happens, you would know right away to shut off the comp with software so if power DOES stay off for hours you can get the comp safely turned off before that happens. So nothing is totally secure but we can do SOME remedies for that situation.
    So if nobody has addressed the issue with hardware, I wonder if that is an idea worth pursuing? The issue is mute if you have an SSD drive of course but most comps, even laptops, still have the old HD's. I guess tablets only have some kind of memory, flash, or otherwise, maybe even SSD's so it wouldn't matter but for laptops and desktops, it is still an issue. It may be however, with the desktop quickly becoming dinosaurs and even laptops maybe, there would not be a huge market for such a device. It doesn't seem like rocket science to design such a beast, since all you need is a small backup battery that has circuitry that will detect loss of main power and just keep the HD lit up for a few seconds while it issues the turnoff command directly to the HD instead of you doing it with a mouse click. I guess for now, the best I can do is replace my dead UPS, so at least a short power outage won't kill the HD.
    My computer dude said the partitions were corrupted. Is there anything out there that can rebuild partitions and then access the original data on the drive?
    Apparently if you lose partition data, that is that for that HD. True?
  4. Subscribersonhouse
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    06 May '19 14:00
    @sonhouse said
    Sure, $175 later, new HD, new windows, and at least he found the main fan was dead, the comp had always been noisy and now I know why, the smaller CPU fan was taking over the cooling duties and there was a temperature sensor that regulated the little fan and so with no big fan going, the little fan revved up to max all the time, very noisy. When he installed the new fan, it ...[text shortened]... original data on the drive?
    Apparently if you lose partition data, that is that for that HD. True?
    So, an update. I called a data recovery company and it sounds like I didn't have a power failure problem. It seems most HD companies now have safeguards built in so head crashes are a thing of the past. They also have a much cheaper way of getting data out and onto another HD, if they find a chip bad, they have a stock of chips to use for these drives they install temporarily just to get the drive up and running and then clone the drive to a new drive and give me the new drive, for around $160 or so, about 1/4th the price I see quoted by other companies who take the disk out in a clean room and install just the magnetic disk itself to a working HD and work from there. So I guess replacing the right chip is easier than dealing with the disk itself. At any rate, I am going to try an online recovery program first, see if that works. My wife has hundreds of graphics projects and I have near 100 music tracks I wrote and recorded, I put both WAV file version and MP3's of each track on that HD, so would lo recover those files. Learning the hard way to back up files BEFORE the HD crashes......
  5. Subscribermoonbus
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    10 May '19 22:06
    @sonhouse

    Try Partition Magic, for starters. It may be able to recover some damaged files. Generally, the files are still there, physically, on the drive, but fragmented. If the file allocation table, or FAT, gets corrupted, then the CPU can no longer find and reassemble the fragments. Partition Magic tries to find and reassemble them.
  6. Subscribersonhouse
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    14 May '19 01:34
    @moonbus said
    @sonhouse

    Try Partition Magic, for starters. It may be able to recover some damaged files. Generally, the files are still there, physically, on the drive, but fragmented. If the file allocation table, or FAT, gets corrupted, then the CPU can no longer find and reassemble the fragments. Partition Magic tries to find and reassemble them.
    I sent the HD to a recovery house, they tried the normal stuff and nothing worked. They said they could take it to cleanroom and take the disc out and put it in a working drive but want near 700 bucks for that, we can't afford that much.
    So it is a dead drive, deader than a doornail.

    One issue I have with the new copy of windows with new HD, I upload files to Soundcloud, my acoustic compositions and they go fine. The problem is with the desktop as seen when I hit upload image from soundcloud.
    I used it before and it worked fine but with this new win 7, when I hit upload image it gives a desktop page that only has some of the desktop in it. I tried to copy and past from the real desktop to that one, another small screen but it refuses to copy, and am stuck. This image was important, I wrote a tune for our daughter Darchelle who died in a motorcycle accident, beautiful girl. But can't figure out why I get that truncated desktop. I tried putting it in dropbox, and it did that but when I try to access DB from that truncated DT, nothing happens. Really frustrating. I may have to send the image to my buddy at work and use his comp to upload the image. Don't know how to fix THIS desktop. The weird thing is the audio files are on my desktop and they upload fine, because it has a drag and drop function and that works. But the upload image pulls up a desktop window but not much of anything is there. For instance, I have more than a dozen audio files, MP3 and WAV but they don't show up in that truncated DT either.
    Am flummoxed here. Any idea why that isn't working?
  7. Subscribermoonbus
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    14 May '19 04:52
    @sonhouse

    No, sorry.
  8. Subscribersonhouse
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    15 May '19 15:39
    @moonbus said
    @sonhouse

    No, sorry.
    Update on that situation. I had trouble getting a photo in my soundcloud track. So I sent the image to my buddy's comp at work and tried it on his desktop. I got it to work but didn't know my email had turned the image into a PDF file which SC didn't like. But doing the same thing from his DT, the desktop view was still truncated so it looks like there is something going on at Soundcloud. Not totally sure yet but that is the indication. I did get the image in after I converted from PDF to normal photo file.
  9. Subscribermoonbus
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    18 May '19 22:14
    @sonhouse

    Curiouser and curiourser. I can't image why an email server should convert file formats. May I suggest you use a separate uploader, and not send the files as emails attachments.


    wetransfer.com


    for example
  10. Subscribermoonbus
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    19 May '19 07:16

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  11. Subscribermoonbus
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    19 May '19 07:16
    @moonbus

    @moonbus

    PS, on second thought, I just received a corrupted Excel file from someone by email. Resending the same file worked, it arrived uncorrupted. Shirt happens.
  12. Subscribersonhouse
    Fast and Curious
    slatington, pa, usa
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    07 Jul '19 15:491 edit
    @moonbus said
    @moonbus

    @moonbus

    PS, on second thought, I just received a corrupted Excel file from someone by email. Resending the same file worked, it arrived uncorrupted. Shirt happens.
    One thing that bugs me, when I want to download an image from a supposedly free downloadable site, I hit download and then try the 'copy' function and wanting to paste that image to the desktop, the paste function is not highlighted so inevitable cannot do it that way but have to futz around trying different ways till finally I get the dam thing to my desktop.

    My usual way is to use some image, usually from my own store of photos I took myself, say of grandids, where I write a tune and put it on Soundcloud dedicated to some family member with their photo uploaded to SC but some tunes I write are not for family members but for some other idea which requires a photo not of my own making and that is where I inevitably get into difficulties actually getting these free photos to my desktop and some of them have a window popping up saying THANK YOU to the person who actually took the photo when there is no sub window going 'say thanks here' button but instead takes you to yet a third site where you are supposed to sign up and give your email and such just to say thanks.

    To me that is a convoluted way to say thanks but anyway it takes me a bunch of intermediate steps just to get these supposedly free downloadable to my desktop. I would think if something is touted as a free download, you hit download and BOING there is is on your desktop but no such luck.
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