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This is a difficult post for me to write. I'm going to tell you something that might sound silly or bizarre to some of you, but please bear with me.
Back in mid-2002 (probably July) my hard drive on my second computer (which I got in May of 2001, I believe) crashed. While my computer had a CD burner, I wasn't in the regular habit of backing up my files (the latest back-up was in January), and I certainly didn't expect the drive to go that early.
Among the things that I lost were conversations with friends (I saved my chats to look back on them later), an archive that I'd made of an Enterprise fanfic Yahoo! Group that I'd belonged to, and a number of Sailor Moon fanfics, some of which I'd re-found since then, others of which I'd hadn't).
I kept the old drive - as I had various other drives that had crashed - in the hope of one day recovering the data.
I've been able to use various "crashed" drives as external drives, thanks to a SATA-to-USB hard drive enclosure that I'd gotten a few years ago. The drive in question, however, was an IDE drive. I finally went ahead and ordered an IDE-to-USB enclosure, and I got it yesterday.
First, I tried a drive which I wasn't sure what it was (it turned out to be my mom's drive from 2012). I recovered and backed up everything just fine.
Then I tried my drive from my second computer. I had no way of knowing if this drive would work or not. If it didn't, I'd simply accept the loss and move on.
However, it did work. The windows (one for each of the drive's two partitions) opened, and I was joyful to see my long-lost files before me.
Then I screwed it up.
I wasted time by trying to determine the total data size on each partition, which didn't matter, because I had 1 TV external drive ready for stuff to be copied onto. Then I decided to copy the secondary partition first while also trying to unhide all files on the primary partition (the old C drive), assuming there were any hidden files on there (I didn't want to miss anything). Big mistake. The files stopped copying after a while. I unplugged the USB cable and plugged it back in. The windows didn't re-open. I shut off the power to the enclosure and turned it back on. Nothing.
I managed to recover around 6 GB worth of lost files, but I haven't gotten the drive to start up again since then. I hadn't gotten around to copying my Sailor Moon directory, my Star Trek directory, or anything else. This has been very devastating to me, and I'm beating myself up over wasting time instead of immediately copying over what I was hoping to save. I had insomnia last night, and I feel angry at myself and apathetic about pretty much everything. I had the perfect chance to save what are possibly the only remaining copies of old fanfics and reintroduce them to their respective fandoms, and I blew it!
Is there ANY way to get this hard drive working again? Or at least retrieve the data off it? Are there companies that specialize in this sort of thing? I'll gladly pay to have this data retrieved.
This has taken an emotional toll on me. It's like suffering the same loss from fourteen years ago all over again, but there's less hope this time. I've been switching the enclosure on every so often, hoping the drive has one last use left in it (after all, I couldn't get it started fourteen years ago), but it's not looking good.
So what does this have to do with anything? I don't know what to do with myself. I have no interest in doing pretty much anything. So I'm cancelling my "Target: Sarah Connor" edit. I hadn't really thought about it beyond melding the Tech-Noir scene with the Priss concert, so I'm just ending it.
As for my Highlander edit, that's been on hold, because I haven't bought the other season sets with the required flashback footage. It's postponed indefinitely, because I'm behind on buying Sailor Moon Blu-rays. Those take priority.
I am going to start up a new Sailor Moon-related edit. The loss, near-regain, and second loss of one Sailor Moon fanfic in particular has been unbearable for me (I remember really liking it back in the day, even though it was just a vignette), so it seems fitting that I work through my grief by working on a Sailor Moon edit.
Back in mid-2002 (probably July) my hard drive on my second computer (which I got in May of 2001, I believe) crashed. While my computer had a CD burner, I wasn't in the regular habit of backing up my files (the latest back-up was in January), and I certainly didn't expect the drive to go that early.
Among the things that I lost were conversations with friends (I saved my chats to look back on them later), an archive that I'd made of an Enterprise fanfic Yahoo! Group that I'd belonged to, and a number of Sailor Moon fanfics, some of which I'd re-found since then, others of which I'd hadn't).
I kept the old drive - as I had various other drives that had crashed - in the hope of one day recovering the data.
I've been able to use various "crashed" drives as external drives, thanks to a SATA-to-USB hard drive enclosure that I'd gotten a few years ago. The drive in question, however, was an IDE drive. I finally went ahead and ordered an IDE-to-USB enclosure, and I got it yesterday.
First, I tried a drive which I wasn't sure what it was (it turned out to be my mom's drive from 2012). I recovered and backed up everything just fine.
Then I tried my drive from my second computer. I had no way of knowing if this drive would work or not. If it didn't, I'd simply accept the loss and move on.
However, it did work. The windows (one for each of the drive's two partitions) opened, and I was joyful to see my long-lost files before me.
Then I screwed it up.
I wasted time by trying to determine the total data size on each partition, which didn't matter, because I had 1 TV external drive ready for stuff to be copied onto. Then I decided to copy the secondary partition first while also trying to unhide all files on the primary partition (the old C drive), assuming there were any hidden files on there (I didn't want to miss anything). Big mistake. The files stopped copying after a while. I unplugged the USB cable and plugged it back in. The windows didn't re-open. I shut off the power to the enclosure and turned it back on. Nothing.
I managed to recover around 6 GB worth of lost files, but I haven't gotten the drive to start up again since then. I hadn't gotten around to copying my Sailor Moon directory, my Star Trek directory, or anything else. This has been very devastating to me, and I'm beating myself up over wasting time instead of immediately copying over what I was hoping to save. I had insomnia last night, and I feel angry at myself and apathetic about pretty much everything. I had the perfect chance to save what are possibly the only remaining copies of old fanfics and reintroduce them to their respective fandoms, and I blew it!
Is there ANY way to get this hard drive working again? Or at least retrieve the data off it? Are there companies that specialize in this sort of thing? I'll gladly pay to have this data retrieved.
This has taken an emotional toll on me. It's like suffering the same loss from fourteen years ago all over again, but there's less hope this time. I've been switching the enclosure on every so often, hoping the drive has one last use left in it (after all, I couldn't get it started fourteen years ago), but it's not looking good.
So what does this have to do with anything? I don't know what to do with myself. I have no interest in doing pretty much anything. So I'm cancelling my "Target: Sarah Connor" edit. I hadn't really thought about it beyond melding the Tech-Noir scene with the Priss concert, so I'm just ending it.
As for my Highlander edit, that's been on hold, because I haven't bought the other season sets with the required flashback footage. It's postponed indefinitely, because I'm behind on buying Sailor Moon Blu-rays. Those take priority.
I am going to start up a new Sailor Moon-related edit. The loss, near-regain, and second loss of one Sailor Moon fanfic in particular has been unbearable for me (I remember really liking it back in the day, even though it was just a vignette), so it seems fitting that I work through my grief by working on a Sailor Moon edit.