New HP hard drive crashed AGAIN!!

[SammyeGail]

I got a HP Pavilion netbook in Dec., gift for myself I guess. The hard drive just died in March, it took over a month to get it repaired and sent back.

I lost everything on it. Thankfully my pics were still on my camera then.

Today it died again. I was so pissed. I have lost everything. I don't care about other stuff, but pics of my kids!?! It just makes me sick, I had just ordered some stick drives Fri. to save them on, a bit too late.

I talked with some manager overseas, I don't want the computer repaired, I want a new one, and not a Pavilion. Not to mention the one I ordered was supposed to have a DVD drive and it didn't, things were so hectic I didn't get back on that, our other laptop had one. DS broke it about 2+ months ago.

I hate that I have to wait until Tue or Wed for someone to call me back, evidently I will be talking to someone in the US. The manager was very understanding that I've lost my pics, I don't want to hear BS from whoever calls me about 'getting a new hard drive'.

I have just been nausously sick all day about it....I deserve a $1500 laptop for this, the loss of all the pics :crying:

I had some on facebook but when my sister friended my ex-boyfriends I deleted them all. I have a handful of Christmas ones I sent MIL thru Wal-Mart, they are at least in their system. What beach pics I have are the 10 Walgreens has I made a collage and sent to my Dad.

All my fun candid ones, gone. I hate you HP.

[eyedoc_01]

Sorry to hear. I've wasted about 20 hours of my life so far trying to get my backup hard drive working (the warranty replacement, that is:mad:)

I like using DVD-Rs for backup, so I hope your new laptop has one. Windows 7 has some way that you can re-use a regular DVD-R.

I'm a little neurotic (and DW would be less than pleased if I lost our pictures) about backing up, so I keep copies of everything at work (on DVD) and also try to download to shutterfly.

I think shutterfly will let you order your pictures on CD too.

I know it doesn't help now to talk about backup. I hate hard drives. They all fail, it's just whether it happens sooner or later. I guess they used to run them for 40 hours (or 100, or something) in the factory to weed out the lemons, until they figured out it was cheaper to ship them out and make us deal with the lemons :banghead:

[larig]

there are services that can help recover lost data. if you're willing to pay, there's usually something they can do.

[♥ms.pacman♥]

aw that sucks. i KNOW that nauseous feeling of "oh-@#$%, did my HD just die and i lose everything??" in my lifetime, i think i've had 4 or 5 hard drives die on me which resulted in complete loss of data. first time happened to me in college and i lost all my mp3s. i always had a backup after that bc hard drives are just so freaking unreliable (though even when u have all data bakced up, i still get the sick feeling when they crash bc that means i a ton of time in having to get a new drive and reinstall everything).

when i was in grad school, a prof at my univ had his laptop stolen, and thus he lost 100 pages of the textbook he had been writing & working on for months (he had no back up). i felt so bad for th e guy.

do you have any pics of your kids on flickr or picasa or any of those photo sites? whats great about flickr is they store the original size of the pics as well, so at least u have those. i sort of use flickr as a triple backup for my pics (i have a backup drive as primary backup). i make all pics of my ds private though so oonly friends/family can see them.

eta: yeah about recovery of lost data, it can help. out of the 4 or 5 times i had a HD crash, one of the times the data was able to be recovered, but only partially (about 90% of it). so that's worth a shot. in my case it was the IT dept at my univ that helped me with it (for free) but i'm not sure how much it would cost otherwise.

[BabyMine]

Look for data recovery software or take it to someone that knows how to retrieve it. Sometimes it can be done so don't loose faith.

[SammyeGail]

As for Picasa, I use it for editing, when I tried to go in there was nothing saved but random pics, maybe 5 or 6 of them. That was in March, I haven't looked today.

We've actually never had a harddrive crash, DH's stuff is on this one and he backs it up, we keep pics on stick drives in the fire proof safe.

Thats the huge bummer, pics since Dec 09 hadn't been put on one. Its my fault, I did have one 2GB somewhere.

DH has been saying he is going to buy a portable harddrive or something to back everything up on, but he hasn't.

I see stuff on slickdeals.net all the time, but I don't know what they are. I'm not computer savvy at all.

If the stupid netbook (it was supposed to be a laptop!) had came with a DVD drive like it said it did I would have saved pics easily.

Maybe I have somethings saved in photobucket. Someone here suggested to never put pics of your kids up if you have a link to things your're selling and sending to a yahoo group, etc. You never know who is out there, they can get into your acct. Don't remember who, understood their advice and I took it with a grain of salt...but it did later prevent me from backing up my pics on any online website.

I have felt terrible all day and haven't looked for the camera, H put it up somewhere because Noah thinks he's a little photographer, I don't know where it is. There may still be alot on it, I don't know.

Its just that you don't expect a harddrive to die in a 3 month old PC, then die again 3 months later. Jeez, our 8.5 yr old desktop has never had a problem, even when it sat in the attic boxed up for 2 years. Yeah, it slow as can be, but the boys can play their disk games on it.

I better save what pics I have on it!!

The whole thing is the principal of the matter, kwim?

Excuse all my mis-spelling, I was educated in Alabama county schools :bag. I miss my little red lines telling me what I need to fix. :(.

[Penny's Pappa]

How do you know your hard drive died and not just some other portion of your computer? I only ask because I have never had a HDD physically fail (not saying they can't). I've had Windows crashes, virus infections, and other hardware issues, but I have never once had to replace a HDD because of a physical failure. In fact, I have one downstairs that's been running for nearly 10 years now.

So I'm just wondering what your exact symptoms are. Maybe not all is lost?

[SammyeGail]

How do you know your hard drive died and not just some other portion of your computer? I only ask because I have never had a HDD physically fail (not saying they can't). I've had Windows crashes, virus infections, and other hardware issues, but I have never once had to replace a HDD because of a physical failure. In fact, I have one downstairs that's been running for nearly 10 years now.

So I'm just wondering what your exact symptoms are. Maybe not all is lost?

Because the netbook went to a black screen and said I had a harddrive failure. After calling HP support and following their directions to restart, it said HARDDRIVE DOES NOT EXIST.

So its a gonner. Thanks alot for checking about it, I appreicate it :). No one wants to hear 'all is lost'. I've never had a HDD fail either, be replaced and fail again!

When HP got the first failed HD they said there was no data they could retrieve on it. I know someone to call and look at this one, but I think its futile.

[Penny's Pappa]

Because the netbook went to a black screen and said I had a harddrive failure. After calling HP support and following their directions to restart, it said HARDDRIVE DOES NOT EXIST.

Oh...

Well I guess that settles it then! Sorry to hear about your pictures.

Although, they can do miraculous things with data recovery nowadays. I've heard claims of data recovered from hard drives that have been destroyed in fires and floods and the like. It just depends on how much money you want to spend. Good luck.

[tmahanes]

I just tried Cabonite.... it is $50 a year and it is an encrypted website that backs up your computer.... it runs in the background and backs up every time you add something new. You can do a trial. I liked it and think I am going to order it. You have an account and then can restore to any computer I think!! You also have unlimited amounts of storage.

[nov04]

I just tried Cabonite.... it is $50 a year and it is an encrypted website that backs up your computer.... it runs in the background and backs up every time you add something new. You can do a trial. I liked it and think I am going to order it. You have an account and then can restore to any computer I think!! You also have unlimited amounts of storage.

Just got this a few days ago. I'm liking it so far. A big weight off my shoulders.

[jal]

BACKUPS! BACKUPS! BACKUPS! BACKUPS!...

When ever I down load data from by camera, the media card doesn't get erased until I have a 2nd copy on our other computer. You just never know when the HD in your laptop is going to go bye-bye... either from simple failure, your your own stupidity (like leaving a laptop where a toddler can get to it and drop it on the floor).


As someone else mentioned, if the data is super important, data can be retrieved from it, even when the computer can't see the hard drive. Granted, the cost might not be worth it, because it might require the physical disk to be removed and inserted into new hardward... something that would cost $$$ for someone to do... but these types of services are available.


I'll also toss out the suggestion that you follow the instructions on proper removal of media from your computer as well. I recently didn't go through the motions and removed a piece of media without telling the computer. When I inserted the NEXT piece, I corruppted it. Fortunately I was lucky. Because I'm a programmer and have a few resources, I was able to access most the data on the card, retrieved my images, and only lost one... but even then it took over an hour of work.

[sste]

We work with a home computer consultant routinely - - we found him on angies list and he works out of his home and is surprisingly affordable. He has recovered my hard drive from ashes and has also set up an automated back up system for us. And he helps us with buying and has actually saved us a ton of money finding things from online vendors very cheaply.

Also, I think dh saves pictures to picasa (google).

FWIW, I have never had great luck with HP . . . my vote is "just OK." I just bought an imac to replace my lightening-fried HP and I am hoping Applecare is better than my previous experiences with hp and to a lesser extent dell.

Sorry to hear about this!

[SammyeGail]

Well, my call with HP went terrible. The guy was a complete jerk. I'm sorry, but I don't think its anywhere normal for a harddrive to fail after only 3 months. The kids didn't use the HP.

My options were to send it in to be repaired again or just keep it as is. So I asked that I send it back, wait 6 weeks like I did last time, and have the harddrive fail again in 3 months, correct?

He said its MY responsibility to back up my data, I told him I DO! But should I have to have a PC that I should expect the harddrive to fail at any moment? Everytime I download a pic, I should run and get a stickdrive to put the pic on??? He said yes, thats my responsibility. Thats crazy.

I asked him that the HP Pavilion is so unreliable that I have to immediately back everything up? He says yes.

I called the number back later, got someone else, who was actually my origionally rep. (Carlos), the first man said Carlos was on the other line, I said I would call back, he, Adolf, said NO! He would take over my case.

After talking to Carlos, he gave me a # and I talked to a nice man here in the US. He will be assigning me a new case manager, and it would not be a-hole Adolf.

Maybe this one is a fluke, I'll be elated if I could get a new one. Then I'll sell it and buy a better brand.

Yes everyone, I understand backing up data, there were more pics on the camera than I thought thankfully.

I don't really know how to back up 'favorites' you've marked on-line, I lost several I had found about my medical conditions. Now I'll make a draft in my email to save the links and send it to my other email acct too.

Most of my music, etc. was bought thru lala.com. They shut down the end of May and everything was moving to itunes, so I bought alot before they shut down. I have been searching for my MP3 player for the last 2 months (darn little thing). Now I can't get that music because I don't have an ipod. That was 35+ songs & albums! I had gotten a darn good deal on that MP3 on Black Friday, now i have to buy an ipod, because I want those albums and songs back. Maybe in a few months....

[jal]

He said its MY responsibility to back up my data, I told him I DO! But should I have to have a PC that I should expect the harddrive to fail at any moment? Everytime I download a pic, I should run and get a stickdrive to put the pic on??? He said yes, thats my responsibility. Thats crazy.

I hate to say this of any tech support person that's being less than professional, but in this case, I'm afraid the guy is right.

While I'll admit a hard drive should last longer than just 3 months, the simple facts of life is that a PC could die at any moment. And even if a manufacturer makes hardware that's more reliable than what you're experiencing, there's always the possibility of damage at any moment that is outside of the control of any PC manufacturer (such as child or adult knocks the PC of a table or trips and drops it while carrying it).

This is exactly why I have automated taskes that make backup copies of my most important files EVERY SINGLE DAY (that way if something goes wrong, I only lose one day's work worst case). And like I said, when I down load images from my camera, I don't delete the images from the camera until I get a backup made.

So while I can't sympathize too much on data loss... I would be BEYOND PISSED to have a PC that required more than a month to repair to break down again so soon... especially since I doube they provide you with a loaner PC while they take their sweet time fixing yours. Seems rather pathetic that they can build you a brand new PC to your specifications and have it shipped to you in just hours... but it takes weeks to "fix" a defect.

[sste]

Sammegail, I am somewhere between you and Jal on the data issue. I know I should back up but I recognize my own limits - - I am lazy about technology and forgetful. Our computer guy set us up with a (cheap) external hardrive and an automatic back-up program called acronis. Your computer needs to be on during the time you have set for automatic back-up but otherwise it is automated - - and even if you don't have it set/computer on for daily back-up it will still reduce your total loss in the event of a hd failure (and I do agree with jal that hd failure happens . . . it shouldn't happen after a few months but I have lost two computers in the past five years to HD failure).

Hope this helps!