Repair Install: Refresh my memory?

LadieStorm

Okay... starting yesterday, I can't remember if it was before the Window's Update, or after, but something's going on with my laptop, and my CC3+. I can't seem to access my file explorer or campaign cartographer. Anything else on my computer I can do: get online, play whatever games I have installed... But every time I try to access my file explorer, it opens, then freezes on me, which means I can't access my external hard drive. Samething with Campaing Cartographer, which runs out of Program Data, but all of my fcws are in my external hard drive.

I did just have an update, and thinking that might be the problem, I went through 5 hours of a system restore, back to before the update... but that didn't fix the problem. I ran a diagnostic on my hard drive, and external hard drive, both seem to be working properly. The best way to describe the issue, is that my laptop recognizes the hard drive, and external hard drive, but can't seem to access them. Any program that requires files from either doesn't work as well.

I want to try to run a repair install on cc3+, just to make sure that it's not part of the problem, but I can't remember how to do that. Can someone refresh my memory?

Monsen

A repair install is done just by running the installer again, repair should be an option. You should reinstall the latest update after doing this.

However, based on the issues you describe with the file explorer, I highly doubt this will fix anything, just providing you with more work. My advice is to make your computer work properly first, then worry about CC3+. CC3 don't mess around with system files or the such, so I highly doubt it is what is causing your issues.

Loopysue

I have two drives on my new machine - C and D (which is a data drive). I've just this moment finished allowing the latest Win update, and I'm not having any problems at all with anything.

It could be that its nothing to do with either CC3 (which Remy has just confirmed) or Win 10.

Just for the record there have been an unusual number of driver updates... unless this is just because I have a new machine. Could it be, then, that a driver for the external drive has been updated when it should not have been, or has been updated in error I wonder?

LadieStorm

I'm not exactly sure what is going on. All I know is that I can't use anything that requires access through File Explorer. I can get online, no problem. Any games I have installed, I can play. For the most part, my laptop is working fine.

But if I want to, say look at the pictures I have installed on my laptop, I can't, because when I open file explorer, it locks up. If I open CC3+, it locks up... but I think that's because there is an fcw WIP that cc3+ is trying to access when it opens. All of my map projects (WIP fcws) are stored on my external hard drive, which is accessed through file explorer. I can open up Microsoft Word, no problem. The minute I try to open up a WIP document, Word locks up. Anything that has to do with File Explorer, or has to access File Explorer, locks up whenever I try to use it.

And this just started, and I have absolutely no clue as to why.

Monsen

Have you tried completely disconnecting the external drive and then turn on your computer? The external drive may have stopped working properly, which could cause things to lock up whenever Windows tried to access it, which will happen whenever a program tries to open files on it, or whenever you open file explorer, because it shows some information about all the drives in the system. Trying to use your computer without that drive connected should quickly allow you to see if it is the problem. You won't be able to open anything from the disconnected drive obviously, but file explorer should work fine, and programs should throw a quick error message instead of locking up.

Loopysue

If that's the problem, Remy, isn't it usually the case that a local IT tech person should be able to recover all the information on the external drive and put it on a new one?

Monsen

Perhaps. It depends what is wrong with it (and how much you are willing to pay). Sometimes it is easy to recover the data, for other cases it might need to be taken apart by a professional data forensics company (which is out of the price range of most people).

But this is jumping to conclusions obviously, we don't know yet if that is even the culprit, but it is an obvious first step to try. Better find the cause first, then worry how to deal with it.

Loopysue

Maybe its just the cable or one of the ports

(trying to be positive here)

[Deleted User]

Have you tried hooking it up to your abacus?

LadieStorm

abacus? what's that?

[Deleted User]

Ancient counting machine - my poor attempt at humour, just to cheer you up.

Loopysue

Its one of those frames with lots of wires of beads on it used to teach kids to count, add and subtract back in the days before mum's iPad was available for such things

LadieStorm

lol... I know what an actual abacus is. I thought Quenten was talking about an app or something in Win 10 that I knew nothing about.

Well, I have some good news, and I have some bad news. The good news is the problem is NOT the laptop. It's the external hard drive. The bad news is... it's the external hard drive, which is where I put EVERYTHING that isn't an app for the laptop. All of my maps, All of my notes, my crochet patterns I'm working on... everything. Which means I've lost everything.... AGAIN...

Loopysue

Now don't get all carried away.

It doesn't have to be irretrievably lost.

And it doesn't have to be the expensive end of the scale to get it all back again.

Have you tried plugging it into a different port, or using an alternative cable?

If you have, then it might be time to look into the customer ratings for a small range of local IT specialists who might be able to get most or all of it back again and put it on a new drive.

Loopysue

And if its got all your crochet patterns on it, and you've registered your business, I should think the system in the US is fairly similar to the one in the UK - you can count the cost of a new drive and the work to retrieve the data as a business cost against tax.

Monsen

It might not necessarily be the drive itself, it could also be just the enclosure it is in. If so, you can just take it out of the enclosure and put it in a computer (a desktop one probably, most laptops don't tend to have room for more drives internally). You should probably let someone with some hardware skills do this though.


And I know saying this right now does not help you at all in this situation, but please everyone, ALWAYS keep a backup of your things. Drives break down all the time (or are stolen, lost or destroyed), always keep up-to-date (weekly minimum, daily preferred, I keep hourly) backups. And the backup should be on a different drive, preferably on a different physical location. These days, with the abundance of cloud services out there, this is easy to accomplish. Cloud services like OneDrive even keep file history (for a short while, but still) so you can retrieve an earlier copy if the latest is bad. Keeping an offsite copy also protects you against theft and fire as well. Even if you need to pay a bit to upgrade your cloud storage beyond the free tier, it is well worth it when it saves you from the grief of loosing a lot of important data. Personally, I just pay Microsoft for Office 365 which comes with 1 TB OneDrive storage extra for up to 5 accounts, which ended up costing me the same as just 1 TB of storage by itself from either Google or Dropbox. Of course, there are also actual backup services out there, they tend to be cheaper on the storage, but you cannot use it as a "daily drive" as you can with the aforementioned services.

LadieStorm

I've already called my computer guy, he'll be at my house tomorrow. Yes, I have a computer guy that makes house calls! I have a couple of other laptops for him to take a look at too, so

And I haven't exactly lost everything... I may have lost all of my fcws, and works in progress... but I have jpeg backups here, at the guild, and I have a DeviantArt page, where I've been storing my jpeg maps. My poetry is backed up at allpoetry.com, and the two crochet patterns I've published are saved and downloadable on another crafting website. So I'm really just out of my cc3+ backups, my fcw's, and my game notes.

Hopefully Ben will be able to help me get it all back.

Loopysue

Good luck with it, Storm

pool7

You may want to consider adding a cloud backup (and ideally another external drive you keep sync'd regularly with the one you already have).
Sites like backblaze provide a very affordable service (flat fee for unlimited backup storage) and if you ever need to restore data from their service, you can either download it or have them mail you a drive with the data.

Lorelei

I use Backblaze and am so grateful for it. Thankfully, most of my .fcw files are backed up on my own personal cloud, but I still use Backblaze for all my program files, etc. It's a lifesaver.

LadieStorm

well, it's official. The problem was the external hard drive. Which means I've lost everything....again....

I have to start Ganocia, pretty much from scratch which means 4 months of pushing to get it done in time for summer... down the drain.

But it wasn't just my fcw's and jpegs that I lost. I had crochet pattern wip's I've lost too. The tutorial and the fcw's for my color wash technique, gone. Everything I've done in the past two years... gone. Actually, just about everything I've done since I got the hard drives, almost three years ago... gone...

book notes... pictures, backups... The Allenhold Commission that I was still working on, the new commission I was working on... everything is just gone...

I feel like giving up... all that work...

JimP

Does he have any recovery software ? Put it in a different external case and make a copy image of the drive ?

Good Luck !

Monsen

Sorry to hear that, you have my sympathies. Loosing all that is awful. I've had my shares of lost work in the past, but fortunately not on that scale.

I assume your tech is experienced enough to properly test out the "regular" stuff to try to get the drive working again (and failed). There are companies that specialize in the recovery of dead drives. They usually do a pretty god job with it, but it isn't cheap, but it might be worth it. For a hard drive, the data will still be on the physical platters, it doesn't just disappear, but usually it becomes unreadable because the drive heads failed or the drive circuitry dies. Bot of these things makes it impossible for a "regular" tech to do anything about it at all, but the proper data recovery companies have equipment to open up the drive and replace faulty parts. You may wish to talk to them and check prices.
This video (as well as this video) is both informative and entertaining (It is about it a youtuber visiting one of those facilities and getting hands on on swapping parts inside the HDD. It showcases what these guys actually do to fix drives. It is NOT a video with instructions for something you can do yourself.) [This is the company he visited, but there are others out there. Personally, I am not in the US, and don't have any real knowledge about any of the companies operating over there.]

LadieStorm

My tech guy is good, and normally, can repair, or at least, recover data from bad hard drives. But the Toshiba external hard drives are made differently, so he can't put my hard drive into a dock to get it to read.

as for all of those data storage sites. They are great... but they also cost money. Money I don't have to spend on data storage, which is why I haven't done it up to this point. The only free one I know of, is google drive, but I avoid google as much as I can. I use their email, (because I had to for a client), nothing more.

I guess all is not completely lost. Any jpeg I've saved to here, or the guild, I can get back. The Voud Califf fcw is part of the atlas, so I can get it back.

But there was so much on that hard drive, that I can't get back... and not just maps. Some of that data was profitable data...

And this is now the.... what....3rd time, 4th time... I've had to start over? Each of those other times... it was the program that failed. I lost my configuration, but I still had all of my projects.

This time I've lost years worth of work... and again, not just maps. I stored projects I've been working on for years on that hard drive... I just feel so defeated...

Monsen

My tech guy is good, and normally, can repair, or at least, recover data from bad hard drives. But the Toshiba external hard drives are made differently, so he can't put my hard drive into a dock to get it to read.

Even the best tech guys won't even be able to get close to what a real data recovery company can do though. There is data recovery, and there is professional data recovery. A normal tech (including all normal tech-support companies, small or large) doesn't have the experience nor the advanced equipment those places have, such as the one I linked above. I recommend you ask them (or another one of your choosing) for a quote at least. I noticed on their page that they said it won't cost anything if they couldn't recover any data (But most probably they can though, those guys aren't hindered by simple things like non-standard connectors and such).

The only free one I know of, is google drive

Both Microsoft (OneDrive) and DropBox have free options. Not unlimited space of course, but neither is Google drive, but you can still store quite a lot of important files on either of the services. Of the three, I prefer OneDrive myself. There are others out there too, but hose three are the best known ones.

ScottA

That's tragic. I'm so sorry. I keep an external hard drive, as well (two, actually, so I have two or three copies of everything, but still...), but I still worry about losing data. I used to use Carbonite but stopped. Its stories like these that make me reconsider off-site backup plans (clouds or whatever... I'm not that tech-savvy!).

Grimmric

My recommendation is a NAS with mirrored harddrives.
I use a Synology NAS with two 4TB mirrored harddrives.
If one drive gives up, i just buy a new one and swap without loosing any data.
Its better and more reliable than an external drive.
But if you go that way its important to buy harddrives that are made for NAS as it runs 24/7.

Loopysue

If you happen to rent MS Office 365 you get a whole Terabyte on OneDrive. It works out a bit cheaper than just renting the drive space alone, and you get MS Office with it.

That's the way I'm thinking of going - to have a second back up drive for the one I already have built into in my PC.

LadieStorm

I don't rent MS Office. I spent the money to buy it outright.

I'm going to see what the cost of data recovery is... see if there is any way we can afford to do it. But that will probably be a month or so, at the least. I don't know...

Loopysue

Yes, I had MS Office 2013 on my laptop, but that's dead now and the licence wasn't transferable anyway. I think the versions you can buy outright like that are too quickly outdated, even though I had one myself until just recently. I discovered how far behind it was when I started a course in IT to refresh my qualifications and first used 365.

I'm not saying that everyone should do it, and if you are happy with the owned version anyway that's fine, but when I was considering whether I would buy the newest copy of MS Office or rent the 365 version I decided the cost of owning it and updating each year to keep it in date on a par with the 365 version was about the same as if I just rent 365. The thing that swung it for me was the Terabyte OneDrive that comes with 365 for no extra cost.

I haven't started renting it yet (it will be several weeks before I can afford even that small outlay), but I will - and all my graphics can then be backed up on OneDrive.

Grimmric

I bought this program after i damaged a sd-card that i had a lot of photos from a trip i had done.
https://www.easeus.com/datarecoverywizard/free-data-recovery-software.htm
I got almost all my photos back.

Try use the free data recovery to see if you can see and recover any files that you have.
If it works then $69.95 is a cheap price to get all the files back.