Hard drive finally died.

[Joyofsox]

My Dell laptop has stopped at last. I had been trying to identify a noise in the machine for weeks, and I now see it was the hard drive conking out.
So I'll get a new laptop from Dell outlet, but I want to recover the data (mostly family photographs) for the old hard drive. How easy is this and how do I go about it? The old drive made a buzzing noise before it finally stopped, and if I had realised it was the hard drive, I would have bought a new machine earlier and transferred everything.
Don't remind me about backing up. I know.

[SmilinAtU]

I do not know the statistics about how often data recovery efforts are successful, but you may well be out of luck. Obviously, this is not something you can try to do yourself. You will need to find a data recovery specialist with a good reputation. ask friends first. Good luck.

[none of the above]

Unplug all the power cables... Turn the lappy upside down and undo all the screws, have a rootle around inside, you are looking for a bee... possibly a bit angry so wear a pair of gloves. Let that out and the buzzing noise will be cured.

[SmilinAtU]

Unplug all the power cables... Turn the lappy upside down and undo all the screws, have a rootle around inside, you are looking for a bee... possibly a bit angry so wear a pair of gloves. Let that out and the buzzing noise will be cured.

A story similar to this is often given as the origin of the term "bug" in the computer world. According to Wikipedia, the following story is true but not the origin of the use of the term.

The invention of the term "bug" is often erroneously attributed to Grace Hopper, who publicized the cause of a malfunction in an early electromechanical computer.[5] A typical version of the story is given by this quote:[6]

“ In 1946, when Hopper was released from active duty, she joined the Harvard Faculty at the Computation Laboratory where she continued her work on the Mark II and Mark III. Operators traced an error in the Mark II to a moth trapped in a relay, coining the term bug. This bug was carefully removed and taped to the log book. Stemming from the first bug, today we call errors or glitch's [sic] in a program a bug. ”

Hopper was not actually the one who found the insect, as she readily acknowledged. The date in the log book was 9 September 1947,[7][8] although sometimes erroneously reported as 1945.[9] The operators who did find it, including William "Bill" Burke, later of the Naval Weapons Laboratory, Dahlgren, Virginia,[10] were familiar with the engineering term and, amused, kept the insect with the notation "First actual case of bug being found." Hopper loved to recount the story.[11] This log book is on display in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, complete with moth attached.[8]

While it is certain that the Harvard Mark II operators did not coin the term "bug", it has been suggested that they did coin the related term, "debug". Even this is unlikely, since the Oxford English Dictionary entry for "debug" contains a use of "debugging" in the context of air-plane engines in 1945. See: debugging.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_bug#Etymology

Next time I am at the Smithsonian, I will have to take a look at the bug.

[none of the above]

Unplug all the power cables... Turn the lappy upside down and undo all the screws, have a rootle around inside, you are looking for a bee... possibly a bit angry so wear a pair of gloves. Let that out and the buzzing noise will be cured.

That is actually where the term "bug" comes from in the computer world. I don't recall the details right now, but something like this: An early large computer with vacuum tubes failed with sparks flying. After considerable work, the operators found a corpse of a moth inside it. And the expression "there's a bug in the system" is born. I don't know if this is urban legend or truth, but I like the sound of it.

More than likely...

I used to work in a place that assembled cola/lemonade dispensing machines (the sort found in pubs), when these machines ever failed and were sent back to our dept for us to test & repair they were invariably bunged up with a good variety of insects in there for the sugar. Yum.

[SmilinAtU]

Sorry, NOTA. After posting that I tried to find out whether that story is true. I went back and edited the post, apparently after you posted your reply. I should have just added another post saying that the story is apocryphal. Sorry for the confusion that will generate.

[none of the above]

Interesting...

For someone that programs a multi axis CMM machine I know all too well the happiness of de-bugging.

[Joyofsox]

I have sort of fixed it.
I took out the hard drive caddy and bashed it on the worktop a few times, put it back in and started it up.
Now how do I transfer everything to somewhere safe?

[DanMc]

I've never done it and I don't know if it works, but there have been reports that putting the disk in the freezer for about half an hour will make it work, at least for a while. If it does then you need to copy the data as quickly as possible to something like a USB memory stick.

If the motor has died or the disk is completely corrupted the only possibility is a specialist data recovery company, but it's probably going to cost serious money.

[DanMc]

I have sort of fixed it.
I took out the hard drive caddy and bashed it on the worktop a few times, put it back in and started it up.
Now how do I transfer everything to somewhere safe?

OK, forget the freezer. A USB memory stick is the easiest. They are cheap now and you can get them from places like Argos or Partners etc.

There are specialist backup programs, but I just copy and paste the files onto the USB stick manually.

[Joyofsox]

Righto, I've shifted all the photos to a PC via USB stick and I've been and got a 500GB portable hard drive from LIDL as they were the only place who had anything at all.
So while it is still spinning, I'm going to put as much as possible onto the portable.
Is there a program to do an exact copy of the hard drive, so I can repopulate a replacement?

[PlasticAnnArbor]

Is there a program to do an exact copy of the hard drive, so I can repopulate a replacement?

i use a terminal program called " dd "
but that is standard on linux and not Microsoft windows

look at "clonezilla"
http://clonezilla.org/
http://clonezilla.org/downloads.php
it is a "live" linux os that runs on a dvd

[Joyofsox]

Is there a program to do an exact copy of the hard drive, so I can repopulate a replacement?

i use a terminal program called " dd "
but that is standard on linux and not Microsoft windows

look at "clonezilla"
http://clonezilla.org/
http://clonezilla.org/downloads.php
it is a "live" linux os that runs on a dvd

I looked at that, but a review said although it's probably the best, you need to know what you are doing. As you can see from my hard drive repair technique, I'm more "hands on" than "brain engaged". In the end I found Paragon Backup and Recovery 2011 and have already copied the hard drive. I'm going to do the same to my PC now, as I have become a little paranoid.

[Greg39]

JoS,

I was just about to mention Paragon when I read your opening post, then I saw your last post

That's a great piece of software to do what you need, I've used their's for a while now.

There is other software around for drive content recovery, but it's not cheap and can take a while.

Anyway, I hope it's all okay now.

Greg.

[Joyofsox]

JoS,

I was just about to mention Paragon when I read your opening post, then I saw your last post

That's a great piece of software to do what you need, I've used their's for a while now.

There is other software around for drive content recovery, but it's not cheap and can take a while.

Anyway, I hope it's all okay now.

Greg.

New laptop tomorrow, and the old one has not quite expired, so I hope all will be well.

And hello Greg! How the devil are you?!