Comments on: Win One of Six Seagate FreeAgent Go Portable Hard Drives From Gear Diary and The Gadgeteer http://www.geardiary.com/2009/02/04/win-one-of-six-seagate-freeagent-go-portable-hard-drives-from-gear-diary-and-the-gadgeteer/ Everyone can understand technology; sometimes it just takes a little translating. Wed, 15 Feb 2012 02:34:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Judie Lipsetthttp://www.geardiary.com/2009/02/04/win-one-of-six-seagate-freeagent-go-portable-hard-drives-from-gear-diary-and-the-gadgeteer/#comment-57717 Judie Lipsett Mon, 09 Feb 2009 14:49:20 +0000 http://www.geardiary.com/?p=20616#comment-57717 <span class="topsy_trackback_comment"><span class="topsy_twitter_username"><span class="topsy_trackback_content">winners chosen, posted and notified for the seagate hard drive giveaway. thanks for entering! :-) http://is.gd/iRJR</span></span> winners chosen, posted and notified for the seagate hard drive giveaway. thanks for entering! :-) http://is.gd/iRJR

]]> By: Michellehttp://www.geardiary.com/2009/02/04/win-one-of-six-seagate-freeagent-go-portable-hard-drives-from-gear-diary-and-the-gadgeteer/#comment-42152 Michelle Mon, 09 Feb 2009 04:14:17 +0000 http://www.geardiary.com/?p=20616#comment-42152 Last June my faithful 4-year-old Systemax began to act quirky. I'd frequently have to reboot in the middle of surfing the net and it was running very sluggish. Errors abound. The grinding noises coming from the computer desk should have been a clue that something was wrong, but I figured the fan was just dirty. I pulled her out and vacuumed everything and figured we were golden. Until that fateful morning she refused to boot. I tried all my tricks and still it would hang and wouldn't start. The hard drive was shot. The loss? Every one of my iTunes gone besides the back-up that I had made over a year ago. All my pictures including the ones from my brother's wedding that I'll never be able to replace. My husband's geneaology data, there was a back-up on cd but it was old so all new data was gone. I had my address book loaded on my computer, no written backup..so everyone's address and phone numbers were gone. I not ashamed to say I cried..hard. Last June my faithful 4-year-old Systemax began to act quirky. I'd frequently have to reboot in the middle of surfing the net and it was running very sluggish. Errors abound. The grinding noises coming from the computer desk should have been a clue that something was wrong, but I figured the fan was just dirty. I pulled her out and vacuumed everything and figured we were golden.

Until that fateful morning she refused to boot. I tried all my tricks and still it would hang and wouldn't start. The hard drive was shot. The loss? Every one of my iTunes gone besides the back-up that I had made over a year ago. All my pictures including the ones from my brother's wedding that I'll never be able to replace. My husband's geneaology data, there was a back-up on cd but it was old so all new data was gone. I had my address book loaded on my computer, no written backup..so everyone's address and phone numbers were gone. I not ashamed to say I cried..hard.

]]> By: Judie Lipsetthttp://www.geardiary.com/2009/02/04/win-one-of-six-seagate-freeagent-go-portable-hard-drives-from-gear-diary-and-the-gadgeteer/#comment-57718 Judie Lipsett Mon, 09 Feb 2009 02:37:17 +0000 http://www.geardiary.com/?p=20616#comment-57718 <span class="topsy_trackback_comment"><span class="topsy_twitter_username"><span class="topsy_trackback_content">be sure to enter our seagate giveaway http://is.gd/iRJR ;you can also win by entering at the gadgeteer! http://is.gd/iRK9 enter now...hurry!</span></span> be sure to enter our seagate giveaway http://is.gd/iRJR ;you can also win by entering at the gadgeteer! http://is.gd/iRK9 enter now…hurry!

]]> By: randy johnsonhttp://www.geardiary.com/2009/02/04/win-one-of-six-seagate-freeagent-go-portable-hard-drives-from-gear-diary-and-the-gadgeteer/#comment-42145 randy johnson Sun, 08 Feb 2009 22:59:36 +0000 http://www.geardiary.com/?p=20616#comment-42145 lost a years worth of my wife's work documents one time. was not a happy time. would like to get this to prevent from happening again. lost a years worth of my wife's work documents one time. was not a happy time. would like to get this to prevent from happening again.

]]> By: Geekhttp://www.geardiary.com/2009/02/04/win-one-of-six-seagate-freeagent-go-portable-hard-drives-from-gear-diary-and-the-gadgeteer/#comment-42144 Geek Sun, 08 Feb 2009 21:51:49 +0000 http://www.geardiary.com/?p=20616#comment-42144 At the time I only had one external hard drive, resulting in the loss of the lone clone. However, the CD backup maintained my hope of restoration. After rebuilding the computer I browsed the contents of the CD only to find my hopes shattered...nearly half of the files were reported as unreadable. Despite passing a verification scan after the disc's initial burning, my failsafe betrayed me as I learned the disc was faulty. It was then I learned lightening does strike the same place twice, figuratively speaking. I have been maintaining multiple copies of each backup/clone ever since, and as a result have had but a few lost files since. Nevertheless, one of those FreeAgent Go portables would be extremely useful as I have reached the capacity limits of my current drives and am once again approaching a state of vulnerability. Please Judie, help me avoid a return to such a precarious situation. At the time I only had one external hard drive, resulting in the loss of the lone clone. However, the CD backup maintained my hope of restoration. After rebuilding the computer I browsed the contents of the CD only to find my hopes shattered…nearly half of the files were reported as unreadable. Despite passing a verification scan after the disc's initial burning, my failsafe betrayed me as I learned the disc was faulty. It was then I learned lightening does strike the same place twice, figuratively speaking.

I have been maintaining multiple copies of each backup/clone ever since, and as a result have had but a few lost files since. Nevertheless, one of those FreeAgent Go portables would be extremely useful as I have reached the capacity limits of my current drives and am once again approaching a state of vulnerability. Please Judie, help me avoid a return to such a precarious situation.

]]> By: Geekhttp://www.geardiary.com/2009/02/04/win-one-of-six-seagate-freeagent-go-portable-hard-drives-from-gear-diary-and-the-gadgeteer/#comment-42143 Geek Sun, 08 Feb 2009 21:51:06 +0000 http://www.geardiary.com/?p=20616#comment-42143 I was in the process of cloning my hard drive when a sudden, severe storm blew in. Confident that my UPS would protect my system from any possible surges, brownouts, etc, I let the cloning process continue. Moments later, however, lightning struck a high-voltage transformer a few feet outside the window, causing it to blow. The system instantly lost power, though the UPS continued to power the monitor and other peripherals plugged into it. Hoping the UPS had just failed to power the tower, it was not until the power was restored that I discovered the motherboard, both hard drives, and one of the optical drives were fried. Later testing seemed to indicate that the surge had not passed through or damaged the UPS...the tower was simply too close to the transformer when it blew. < Too long -- Continued below. > I was in the process of cloning my hard drive when a sudden, severe storm blew in. Confident that my UPS would protect my system from any possible surges, brownouts, etc, I let the cloning process continue. Moments later, however, lightning struck a high-voltage transformer a few feet outside the window, causing it to blow. The system instantly lost power, though the UPS continued to power the monitor and other peripherals plugged into it. Hoping the UPS had just failed to power the tower, it was not until the power was restored that I discovered the motherboard, both hard drives, and one of the optical drives were fried. Later testing seemed to indicate that the surge had not passed through or damaged the UPS…the tower was simply too close to the transformer when it blew.

< Too long — Continued below. >

]]> By: Geekhttp://www.geardiary.com/2009/02/04/win-one-of-six-seagate-freeagent-go-portable-hard-drives-from-gear-diary-and-the-gadgeteer/#comment-42142 Geek Sun, 08 Feb 2009 21:50:25 +0000 http://www.geardiary.com/?p=20616#comment-42142 I have always been wary of data loss and taken the proper precautions to ensure successful recovery from such disasters. This previously entailed a weekly process of cloning my hard drive to a secondary, external, hard drive as well as burning a copy of my personal files to CD. The idea of maintaining two copies, one complete clone and one individual backup, on different media was a logical choice for optimal protection. A few years ago, however, I learned the hard way that the improbable is always possible. < Too long -- Continued below. > I have always been wary of data loss and taken the proper precautions to ensure successful recovery from such disasters. This previously entailed a weekly process of cloning my hard drive to a secondary, external, hard drive as well as burning a copy of my personal files to CD. The idea of maintaining two copies, one complete clone and one individual backup, on different media was a logical choice for optimal protection. A few years ago, however, I learned the hard way that the improbable is always possible.

< Too long — Continued below. >

]]> By: Joehttp://www.geardiary.com/2009/02/04/win-one-of-six-seagate-freeagent-go-portable-hard-drives-from-gear-diary-and-the-gadgeteer/#comment-42134 Joe Sun, 08 Feb 2009 03:51:33 +0000 http://www.geardiary.com/?p=20616#comment-42134 I had a habit of storing my files on an external USB hard drive. One day, I was working on the train. With all the vibration of the ride, it damaged the HD and by the time I got to the hotel, the HD was unusable. I had to rewrite everything that I had done on the train ride (about 3 hrs of work) and I had a presentation the following day, so I had to stay up all night to catch up. Now, I carry 2 separate HDs and keep all my data backed up with double redundancy. Plus, I use Windows Live Sync (previously called FolderShare) to keep my files backed up remotely. I had a habit of storing my files on an external USB hard drive. One day, I was working on the train. With all the vibration of the ride, it damaged the HD and by the time I got to the hotel, the HD was unusable. I had to rewrite everything that I had done on the train ride (about 3 hrs of work) and I had a presentation the following day, so I had to stay up all night to catch up. Now, I carry 2 separate HDs and keep all my data backed up with double redundancy. Plus, I use Windows Live Sync (previously called FolderShare) to keep my files backed up remotely.

]]> By: Peter H.http://www.geardiary.com/2009/02/04/win-one-of-six-seagate-freeagent-go-portable-hard-drives-from-gear-diary-and-the-gadgeteer/#comment-42130 Peter H. Sun, 08 Feb 2009 01:25:20 +0000 http://www.geardiary.com/?p=20616#comment-42130 Ok so I consider myself to be fairly computer literate and over the years I have helped any number of friends and family with whatever computer woes were ailing them. One day my new girlfriend, Emily, mentioned to me that her parents had nearly run out of space on their computer. Her mother had recently gotten a digital camera (thanks to my suggestion) and had been filling up their computer by dumping thousands of pictures onto their computer - she takes great photos and has an award winning scrapbook collection. I told Emily that all they needed to do was purchase another hard drive and copy their data over to the new hard drive - and could I do it? Sure, anything to get in good with the parents! After they purchased the new hard drive I volunteered my services and set to work. I booted up to the data transfer software, specified my source drive, specified the destination drive, and let ‘er rip. Once the data transfer was finished, I rebooted and got the dreaded “Operating system not found” error. Turns out that I confused the source and destination drive - that’s right: I copied the BLANK drive over to the drive with their DATA which resulted in two blank drives!?! All of her Dad’s work files - gone. All of her mom’s photos - gone. Everything - gone. Oops. Ok so I consider myself to be fairly computer literate and over the years I have helped any number of friends and family with whatever computer woes were ailing them. One day my new girlfriend, Emily, mentioned to me that her parents had nearly run out of space on their computer. Her mother had recently gotten a digital camera (thanks to my suggestion) and had been filling up their computer by dumping thousands of pictures onto their computer – she takes great photos and has an award winning scrapbook collection.
I told Emily that all they needed to do was purchase another hard drive and copy their data over to the new hard drive – and could I do it? Sure, anything to get in good with the parents! After they purchased the new hard drive I volunteered my services and set to work. I booted up to the data transfer software, specified my source drive, specified the destination drive, and let ‘er rip.
Once the data transfer was finished, I rebooted and got the dreaded “Operating system not found” error. Turns out that I confused the source and destination drive – that’s right: I copied the BLANK drive over to the drive with their DATA which resulted in two blank drives!?! All of her Dad’s work files – gone. All of her mom’s photos – gone. Everything – gone. Oops.

]]> By: Alexander Horvathhttp://www.geardiary.com/2009/02/04/win-one-of-six-seagate-freeagent-go-portable-hard-drives-from-gear-diary-and-the-gadgeteer/#comment-42127 Alexander Horvath Sat, 07 Feb 2009 20:35:59 +0000 http://www.geardiary.com/?p=20616#comment-42127 I have always kept running backups of my stuff, but my fiancee is a different story… She’s not the most technologically adept person and never thought data was something she could loose…. So one morning we’re still in bed and she’s reading an article (on Dicken’s criticism of Victorian pedagogy in his book “Hard Times” I think) while I slipped in and out of consciousness beside her. Seeing how comfortable I looked she decided to put the laptop away and curl up with me before getting up to officially start the day. She woke me up and passed me the laptop to put on the ground beside me so she could curl up… the problem was that I was not fully awake, and as I went to put the laptop down I let go and it flew across the room, bouncing on the floor twice before coming to a rest about 6 feet from the bed… Needless to say I was fully awake at that point. The laptop powered on and appeared to have survived the flight… but after I left for work it started making that horrible clicking sound and eventually gave up. A new hard drive later and her computer was good as new. Unfortunately there was nothing recoverable on her hard drive… she lost all of her music and a lot of her academic work from the last 3-4 years. Scrounging around on Gmail and her storage space at school we were able to find about 25% of her work but the rest has been lost forever. Being starving students I have been forced to share my external hard drive for mutual backups, but space is running out quickly… So yeah… that’s my data nightmare… ironic considering I’m known as the one who fixes things among all my friends and co-workers, yet in the case I was the bringer of death for my beloved’s data! I have always kept running backups of my stuff, but my fiancee is a different story… She’s not the most technologically adept person and never thought data was something she could loose….

So one morning we’re still in bed and she’s reading an article (on Dicken’s criticism of Victorian pedagogy in his book “Hard Times” I think) while I slipped in and out of consciousness beside her. Seeing how comfortable I looked she decided to put the laptop away and curl up with me before getting up to officially start the day. She woke me up and passed me the laptop to put on the ground beside me so she could curl up… the problem was that I was not fully awake, and as I went to put the laptop down I let go and it flew across the room, bouncing on the floor twice before coming to a rest about 6 feet from the bed…

Needless to say I was fully awake at that point. The laptop powered on and appeared to have survived the flight… but after I left for work it started making that horrible clicking sound and eventually gave up. A new hard drive later and her computer was good as new. Unfortunately there was nothing recoverable on her hard drive… she lost all of her music and a lot of her academic work from the last 3-4 years. Scrounging around on Gmail and her storage space at school we were able to find about 25% of her work but the rest has been lost forever. Being starving students I have been forced to share my external hard drive for mutual backups, but space is running out quickly…

So yeah… that’s my data nightmare… ironic considering I’m known as the one who fixes things among all my friends and co-workers, yet in the case I was the bringer of death for my beloved’s data!

]]> By: HeatherChttp://www.geardiary.com/2009/02/04/win-one-of-six-seagate-freeagent-go-portable-hard-drives-from-gear-diary-and-the-gadgeteer/#comment-42124 HeatherC Sat, 07 Feb 2009 16:44:46 +0000 http://www.geardiary.com/?p=20616#comment-42124 This is for my honey, and her back-up problem. She recently was switching from Win 7 beta back to Vista. Well, she forgot to back-up her data before switching since she was in a rush to get things done. One of the probems is that she keeps her back-up drive at work since its too big to carry around. I think if it was at home where she would seen it, she would have remembered. So, portable drive would be perfect for her. This is for my honey, and her back-up problem. She recently was switching from Win 7 beta back to Vista. Well, she forgot to back-up her data before switching since she was in a rush to get things done. One of the probems is that she keeps her back-up drive at work since its too big to carry around. I think if it was at home where she would seen it, she would have remembered. So, portable drive would be perfect for her.

]]> By: Lois Shoreshttp://www.geardiary.com/2009/02/04/win-one-of-six-seagate-freeagent-go-portable-hard-drives-from-gear-diary-and-the-gadgeteer/#comment-42120 Lois Shores Sat, 07 Feb 2009 07:21:21 +0000 http://www.geardiary.com/?p=20616#comment-42120 I haven't had a problem yet I haven't had a problem yet

]]> By: Rodneyhttp://www.geardiary.com/2009/02/04/win-one-of-six-seagate-freeagent-go-portable-hard-drives-from-gear-diary-and-the-gadgeteer/#comment-42113 Rodney Fri, 06 Feb 2009 19:20:39 +0000 http://www.geardiary.com/?p=20616#comment-42113 I've had hd failures and OS corruptions before, so I decided to start storing all my family photos on a seperate internal HD. And I would periodically back them up to DVD. Over the course of about 3 years I had 40gb worth of photos. Unfortunately, I got busy and forgot to update by DVD backups. And then my picture backup HD failed. Arggh. Good thing was I only lost 3 weeks of photos. But they were the 3 weeks over Christmas. And it was my daughter's first Christmas. I usually can get data off HD's that have corrupted boot sectors and such, but this was physical failure... Double Arggh. I sent the HD to Segate it was going to cost $1400 and there was no guarantee on getting the data back. I got some similar photos from my parents and in-laws, so I'm only now missing about 1 week's worth of photos. Now I use Genie Backup Pro and SugarSync to store my photos on several HDs and in the 'cloud' I feel very protected now. Thank goodness. But I sure could use a way to easily backup my and my wife's laptop computer. I've had hd failures and OS corruptions before, so I decided to start storing all my family photos on a seperate internal HD. And I would periodically back them up to DVD. Over the course of about 3 years I had 40gb worth of photos. Unfortunately, I got busy and forgot to update by DVD backups. And then my picture backup HD failed. Arggh.

Good thing was I only lost 3 weeks of photos. But they were the 3 weeks over Christmas. And it was my daughter's first Christmas. I usually can get data off HD's that have corrupted boot sectors and such, but this was physical failure… Double Arggh. I sent the HD to Segate it was going to cost $1400 and there was no guarantee on getting the data back.

I got some similar photos from my parents and in-laws, so I'm only now missing about 1 week's worth of photos.

Now I use Genie Backup Pro and SugarSync to store my photos on several HDs and in the 'cloud' I feel very protected now. Thank goodness. But I sure could use a way to easily backup my and my wife's laptop computer.

]]> By: KC Kimhttp://www.geardiary.com/2009/02/04/win-one-of-six-seagate-freeagent-go-portable-hard-drives-from-gear-diary-and-the-gadgeteer/#comment-42111 KC Kim Fri, 06 Feb 2009 18:56:45 +0000 http://www.geardiary.com/?p=20616#comment-42111 One time I got a virus on my computer and had no antivirus software and I had wished I had backup my data. I had to reinstall Windows and lose all my important documents, photos, and other important files. One time I got a virus on my computer and had no antivirus software and I had wished I had backup my data. I had to reinstall Windows and lose all my important documents, photos, and other important files.

]]> By: Geoffrey Maughamhttp://www.geardiary.com/2009/02/04/win-one-of-six-seagate-freeagent-go-portable-hard-drives-from-gear-diary-and-the-gadgeteer/#comment-42106 Geoffrey Maugham Fri, 06 Feb 2009 17:16:43 +0000 http://www.geardiary.com/?p=20616#comment-42106 My worst data loss was when I used Norton Ghost incorrectly and overwrote my entire data drive when I thought it was doing something else to it. Very embarrassing and very painful. My worst data loss was when I used Norton Ghost incorrectly and overwrote my entire data drive when I thought it was doing something else to it. Very embarrassing and very painful.

]]> By: Michael Curtishttp://www.geardiary.com/2009/02/04/win-one-of-six-seagate-freeagent-go-portable-hard-drives-from-gear-diary-and-the-gadgeteer/#comment-42099 Michael Curtis Fri, 06 Feb 2009 14:08:52 +0000 http://www.geardiary.com/?p=20616#comment-42099 During my first programming class I was walking my final project over to be loaded when I tripped and my whole stack of cards went flying. Several ended up sliding underneath of a soda machine, utterly irretrievable. During my first programming class I was walking my final project over to be loaded when I tripped and my whole stack of cards went flying. Several ended up sliding underneath of a soda machine, utterly irretrievable.

]]> By: vlbsweepshttp://www.geardiary.com/2009/02/04/win-one-of-six-seagate-freeagent-go-portable-hard-drives-from-gear-diary-and-the-gadgeteer/#comment-42096 vlbsweeps Fri, 06 Feb 2009 08:33:14 +0000 http://www.geardiary.com/?p=20616#comment-42096 Well, back in the days… First computer had a 2GB hard drive and that was huge at the time, but I was running out of room (never thought about the back up concept). Well, I found this neat little option to compress a hard drive. Needless to say, eventually that compressed hard drive hiccuped and left me in a bind. Luckily, my son had a geek friend who was able to grab my data and put it on a couple of CDs. No more compressed drives thank you. Well, back in the days…
First computer had a 2GB hard drive and that was huge at the time, but I was running out of room (never thought about the back up concept). Well, I found this neat little option to compress a hard drive. Needless to say, eventually that compressed hard drive hiccuped and left me in a bind. Luckily, my son had a geek friend who was able to grab my data and put it on a couple of CDs. No more compressed drives thank you.

]]> By: A Khttp://www.geardiary.com/2009/02/04/win-one-of-six-seagate-freeagent-go-portable-hard-drives-from-gear-diary-and-the-gadgeteer/#comment-42095 A K Fri, 06 Feb 2009 04:17:29 +0000 http://www.geardiary.com/?p=20616#comment-42095 my worst data loss happened at work last Monday when my brand new laptop hard drive crashed. This happened two days before my project was going live. Luckily i had a backup which was 2 versions old and I was able fix things before project went live today. Its always good to have more than one backup. my worst data loss happened at work last Monday when my brand new laptop hard drive crashed. This happened two days before my project was going live. Luckily i had a backup which was 2 versions old and I was able fix things before project went live today. Its always good to have more than one backup.

]]> By: mkss55442http://www.geardiary.com/2009/02/04/win-one-of-six-seagate-freeagent-go-portable-hard-drives-from-gear-diary-and-the-gadgeteer/#comment-42094 mkss55442 Fri, 06 Feb 2009 01:49:21 +0000 http://www.geardiary.com/?p=20616#comment-42094 I'm a firm believer of backing up. I do a daily backup to an external drive and each month I copy the last month's backup to another hard drive. Now I need another hard drive to backup my backup laptop. I'm a firm believer of backing up. I do a daily backup to an external drive and each month I copy the last month's backup to another hard drive. Now I need another hard drive to backup my backup laptop.

]]> By: Shan Geehttp://www.geardiary.com/2009/02/04/win-one-of-six-seagate-freeagent-go-portable-hard-drives-from-gear-diary-and-the-gadgeteer/#comment-42088 Shan Gee Thu, 05 Feb 2009 20:15:52 +0000 http://www.geardiary.com/?p=20616#comment-42088 This has to be the worst hard drive story here ever! I have an HP Slimline PC tower that I kept on the top of my desk. While I was working on my college assignments I decided to take a break because I was tired of typing. I had just gotten off my computer and my younger three-year old sister quickly ran underneath the desk. She started playing with the wires and I quickly went to stop her but it was too late because she had moved the wire and my HP Slimline PC fell down. I turned on my HP Slimline PC and heard some clicking noises and my PC just showed a blank screen. I searched up my problem online and found out that my hard drive had died. I looked up some hard drive recovery services online and saw that it would cost thousands of dollars to recover all my family pictures, school data, and many other documents from my hard drive. I couldn't afford to pay thousands of dollars just to recover a hard drive because I could of gotten a new computer for that amount so I just had to figure out another way to recover all the data. I saw an article where someone mentioned that they had managed to recover their data by "freezing their hard drive". I was a bit skeptical but I noticed a lot of people commenting that this worked with their hard drive. I put my hard drive in a ziploc bag in the freezer, and my family thought I was weird when I did that and they were all laughing. When I took the hard drive out after 10 hours I opened the case of my computer and plugged in the hard drive. I started my computer and it turned out that the hard drive didn't work! I couldn't afford to purchase a service to recover all my data so the only choice I had was to purchase a new hard drive to do my school work. I purchased a new hard drive from New Egg and my computer started working again. I save all my important word documents a hard drive now, and I've brought an extension wire so I don't have to put the slimline PC on my desk any more. If I won a Seagate portable hard drive it would make a lot of things easier for me and I could carry my work wherever I need and not worry about loosing it. Thanks for holding this contest GearDiary and I look forward to seeing if I win or not. This has to be the worst hard drive story here ever!

I have an HP Slimline PC tower that I kept on the top of my desk. While I was working on my college assignments I decided to take a break because I was tired of typing. I had just gotten off my computer and my younger three-year old sister quickly ran underneath the desk. She started playing with the wires and I quickly went to stop her but it was too late because she had moved the wire and my HP Slimline PC fell down. I turned on my HP Slimline PC and heard some clicking noises and my PC just showed a blank screen. I searched up my problem online and found out that my hard drive had died. I looked up some hard drive recovery services online and saw that it would cost thousands of dollars to recover all my family pictures, school data, and many other documents from my hard drive. I couldn't afford to pay thousands of dollars just to recover a hard drive because I could of gotten a new computer for that amount so I just had to figure out another way to recover all the data. I saw an article where someone mentioned that they had managed to recover their data by "freezing their hard drive". I was a bit skeptical but I noticed a lot of people commenting that this worked with their hard drive. I put my hard drive in a ziploc bag in the freezer, and my family thought I was weird when I did that and they were all laughing. When I took the hard drive out after 10 hours I opened the case of my computer and plugged in the hard drive. I started my computer and it turned out that the hard drive didn't work! I couldn't afford to purchase a service to recover all my data so the only choice I had was to purchase a new hard drive to do my school work. I purchased a new hard drive from New Egg and my computer started working again. I save all my important word documents a hard drive now, and I've brought an extension wire so I don't have to put the slimline PC on my desk any more. If I won a Seagate portable hard drive it would make a lot of things easier for me and I could carry my work wherever I need and not worry about loosing it. Thanks for holding this contest GearDiary and I look forward to seeing if I win or not.

]]> By: Tim Callowhttp://www.geardiary.com/2009/02/04/win-one-of-six-seagate-freeagent-go-portable-hard-drives-from-gear-diary-and-the-gadgeteer/#comment-42087 Tim Callow Thu, 05 Feb 2009 18:43:44 +0000 http://www.geardiary.com/?p=20616#comment-42087 Just happened last week. Got a last minute call to bail out an account team by facilitating a workshop in Chicago. we use various tools for workshops, Mindmaps, scoring templates, etc. and I religiously back up to thumb drives when I create, usually during the meetings, and definitely after the meetings. Two days worth of brainstorming is not the kind of data you should lose. Since this was a last minute thing I did not get a chance to do my usual prep work, and I forgot my backup drive, and my thumb drive. I have never had a problem with losing any files, because I am so careful about backing up and copying needed files to the thumbdrive. Because of my track record, and the harried nature of this particular session, I didn't even think about backing up to a thumbdrive during the meeting. At the very end, when we needed to show the results to the client, the scori9ng template had some problems and one of the techies in the crowd thought he could fix it. We took a short break in the meeting and tried to fix it, didn't really work but I managed to dance around it and client was happy. I never touched my tablet after the techie was finished doing whatever he was doing, and I had to run to the airport. The next day I start up my tablet, no file, its not there! Search again and again, older files but not a file with the last two hours worth of data. I am about getting sick when I finally found it, in a temp folder. Minutes of worrying because I didn't follow my regimen of backing up. Thanks for letting me vent. Just happened last week. Got a last minute call to bail out an account team by facilitating a workshop in Chicago. we use various tools for workshops, Mindmaps, scoring templates, etc. and I religiously back up to thumb drives when I create, usually during the meetings, and definitely after the meetings. Two days worth of brainstorming is not the kind of data you should lose. Since this was a last minute thing I did not get a chance to do my usual prep work, and I forgot my backup drive, and my thumb drive. I have never had a problem with losing any files, because I am so careful about backing up and copying needed files to the thumbdrive. Because of my track record, and the harried nature of this particular session, I didn't even think about backing up to a thumbdrive during the meeting. At the very end, when we needed to show the results to the client, the scori9ng template had some problems and one of the techies in the crowd thought he could fix it. We took a short break in the meeting and tried to fix it, didn't really work but I managed to dance around it and client was happy. I never touched my tablet after the techie was finished doing whatever he was doing, and I had to run to the airport. The next day I start up my tablet, no file, its not there! Search again and again, older files but not a file with the last two hours worth of data. I am about getting sick when I finally found it, in a temp folder. Minutes of worrying because I didn't follow my regimen of backing up. Thanks for letting me vent.

]]> By: Ranhttp://www.geardiary.com/2009/02/04/win-one-of-six-seagate-freeagent-go-portable-hard-drives-from-gear-diary-and-the-gadgeteer/#comment-42085 Ran Thu, 05 Feb 2009 17:41:58 +0000 http://www.geardiary.com/?p=20616#comment-42085 Oh my. This couldn't have been posted at a better time. My HD just died on me a few days ago. All my documents, photos from trips to abroad, and backups of applications for my pocket pc were lost. If I do win this contest, I'm sure going to use it extensively! Thanks for the great contest!! Oh my. This couldn't have been posted at a better time. My HD just died on me a few days ago.
All my documents, photos from trips to abroad, and backups of applications for my pocket pc were lost.
If I do win this contest, I'm sure going to use it extensively!

Thanks for the great contest!!

]]> By: Stevehttp://www.geardiary.com/2009/02/04/win-one-of-six-seagate-freeagent-go-portable-hard-drives-from-gear-diary-and-the-gadgeteer/#comment-42084 Steve Thu, 05 Feb 2009 16:53:25 +0000 http://www.geardiary.com/?p=20616#comment-42084 I've had both weeks of work data lost because the company-wide backup didn't happen to include the computers in my department, and personal data lost including scanned pictures of family that I'd taken many hours to touch up and original art, music and writing. I've had both weeks of work data lost because the company-wide backup didn't happen to include the computers in my department, and personal data lost including scanned pictures of family that I'd taken many hours to touch up and original art, music and writing.

]]> By: Selene M.http://www.geardiary.com/2009/02/04/win-one-of-six-seagate-freeagent-go-portable-hard-drives-from-gear-diary-and-the-gadgeteer/#comment-42083 Selene M. Thu, 05 Feb 2009 16:37:39 +0000 http://www.geardiary.com/?p=20616#comment-42083 I don't have a data loss horror story. Hubby is very big on daily backups on external systems. Hope I still qualify for the giveaway.. I don't have a data loss horror story. Hubby is very big on daily backups on external systems. Hope I still qualify for the giveaway..

]]> By: Anthony Winnerhttp://www.geardiary.com/2009/02/04/win-one-of-six-seagate-freeagent-go-portable-hard-drives-from-gear-diary-and-the-gadgeteer/#comment-42080 Anthony Winner Thu, 05 Feb 2009 15:11:31 +0000 http://www.geardiary.com/?p=20616#comment-42080 My latest story is our HR lady got a virus, and the day before I was leaving to go to a customers site I tried to help her get rid of it. Unfortunatly I was dumb and used a Thumb drive to run a AV program I had on it. Can you guess the result, yep I moved the virus from her computer to my laptop, I ended up with a brick the whole trip as I slowly lost the OS. If I had a portable backup I could have just restored an image of the OS from it, but insted had to wait till I got home 2 weeks later to do it from the restore DVD’s, fortunatly I didn’t lose any data, just a lot of time and frustration. My latest story is our HR lady got a virus, and the day before I was leaving to go to a customers site I tried to help her get rid of it. Unfortunatly I was dumb and used a Thumb drive to run a AV program I had on it. Can you guess the result, yep I moved the virus from her computer to my laptop, I ended up with a brick the whole trip as I slowly lost the OS. If I had a portable backup I could have just restored an image of the OS from it, but insted had to wait till I got home 2 weeks later to do it from the restore DVD’s, fortunatly I didn’t lose any data, just a lot of time and frustration.

]]> By: Ben Woodwardhttp://www.geardiary.com/2009/02/04/win-one-of-six-seagate-freeagent-go-portable-hard-drives-from-gear-diary-and-the-gadgeteer/#comment-42081 Ben Woodward Thu, 05 Feb 2009 14:50:35 +0000 http://www.geardiary.com/?p=20616#comment-42081 We lost everyting on our computer, music, pictures, everything We lost everyting on our computer, music, pictures, everything

]]> By: Garyhttp://www.geardiary.com/2009/02/04/win-one-of-six-seagate-freeagent-go-portable-hard-drives-from-gear-diary-and-the-gadgeteer/#comment-42078 Gary Thu, 05 Feb 2009 14:24:29 +0000 http://www.geardiary.com/?p=20616#comment-42078 My biggest back-up misadventure occurred when I had the habit of saving too many files to my laptop hard drive, rather than to the server. In any event, lugging the laptop to and from work probably resulted in its early demise, but my hard drive started clicking. I knew that time was limited and I started downloading files to the network and trying to save desktop settings, browser bookmarks, etc. I actually saved about 90% of the data, but there is always something that is missed when you back-up piecemeal like I did. I'd love to have a USB drive large enough to mirror the hard drive. My biggest back-up misadventure occurred when I had the habit of saving too many files to my laptop hard drive, rather than to the server. In any event, lugging the laptop to and from work probably resulted in its early demise, but my hard drive started clicking. I knew that time was limited and I started downloading files to the network and trying to save desktop settings, browser bookmarks, etc. I actually saved about 90% of the data, but there is always something that is missed when you back-up piecemeal like I did. I'd love to have a USB drive large enough to mirror the hard drive.

]]> By: lgreenberghttp://www.geardiary.com/2009/02/04/win-one-of-six-seagate-freeagent-go-portable-hard-drives-from-gear-diary-and-the-gadgeteer/#comment-42082 lgreenberg Thu, 05 Feb 2009 13:45:46 +0000 http://www.geardiary.com/?p=20616#comment-42082 I have 2. 1. The hard drive on my 3 month old iMac failed. Thank god for external hard drives and Time Machine. 2. At one point I had been not backing things up but simply moving all my media files (pictures, movies, etc.) to an external drive. The drive failed and I lost everything. I have 2.

1. The hard drive on my 3 month old iMac failed. Thank god for external hard drives and Time Machine.

2. At one point I had been not backing things up but simply moving all my media files (pictures, movies, etc.) to an external drive. The drive failed and I lost everything.

]]> By: breleyhttp://www.geardiary.com/2009/02/04/win-one-of-six-seagate-freeagent-go-portable-hard-drives-from-gear-diary-and-the-gadgeteer/#comment-42079 breley Thu, 05 Feb 2009 13:11:37 +0000 http://www.geardiary.com/?p=20616#comment-42079 Way back in the days of DOS, our company used to back up all its data onto an external SCSI Tandberg tape drive. The 2GB tape itself (phat for the time) was the kind that had the metal plate on one side and the two large visible tape spools in the clear cartridge, kind of like an oversized cassette tape. But I digress...anyway, we'd do daily and weekly backups with alternating tape sets, and I'd alternate with another fellow. These data sets contained all programmatic, graphic and email backups for the company. Things were hunky-dory for a few months, until one day when the other caretaker capriciously decided to relabel the sets of tapes so the dates and signatures and IDs would be more easily read. They did indeed look much better, and since he had finished with his set of backups he handed me the tapes for my week. I set up the tapes and backups went fine for a better part of the week. Unfortunately, in those days we loved to use Micropolis SCSI drives, whose operation had all the musical sweetness of a low-speed dental drill, and the main server's drive failed. No problem, just fix the RAID, oh wait, no, that would have been too easy. No, we had a Gateway P100 box pressed into service as a server (such were the days in a small company), so when the drive failed it was time to haul out the tapes. A couple of graphic designers and programmers eagerly awaited our results, because an important project had been temporarily been stored on that server drive the week before. However, unbeknown to us, careless project manager deleted the folder because she needed space on the server for her project (in those days, 500MB of 320x240 video was a space hog). Restores were measured in geologic time back then, and after many hours of tediously restoring the server and the file data we discovered the needed directory was missing--the guy I worked with who labeled the tapes in fact mislabeled them, so that week set 1 was labeled week set 2 and vice versa. I had unknowingly been using the wrong tapes, so that the tape that should have had the designers' files from the previous week had been overwritten and now didn't, and tens of thousands of dollars worth of video shoot footage, premier files and custom programming had been irretrievably lost. BTW, that coworker and PM no longer work at the company... Way back in the days of DOS, our company used to back up all its data onto an external SCSI Tandberg tape drive. The 2GB tape itself (phat for the time) was the kind that had the metal plate on one side and the two large visible tape spools in the clear cartridge, kind of like an oversized cassette tape. But I digress…anyway, we'd do daily and weekly backups with alternating tape sets, and I'd alternate with another fellow. These data sets contained all programmatic, graphic and email backups for the company. Things were hunky-dory for a few months, until one day when the other caretaker capriciously decided to relabel the sets of tapes so the dates and signatures and IDs would be more easily read. They did indeed look much better, and since he had finished with his set of backups he handed me the tapes for my week. I set up the tapes and backups went fine for a better part of the week. Unfortunately, in those days we loved to use Micropolis SCSI drives, whose operation had all the musical sweetness of a low-speed dental drill, and the main server's drive failed. No problem, just fix the RAID, oh wait, no, that would have been too easy. No, we had a Gateway P100 box pressed into service as a server (such were the days in a small company), so when the drive failed it was time to haul out the tapes. A couple of graphic designers and programmers eagerly awaited our results, because an important project had been temporarily been stored on that server drive the week before. However, unbeknown to us, careless project manager deleted the folder because she needed space on the server for her project (in those days, 500MB of 320×240 video was a space hog).
Restores were measured in geologic time back then, and after many hours of tediously restoring the server and the file data we discovered the needed directory was missing–the guy I worked with who labeled the tapes in fact mislabeled them, so that week set 1 was labeled week set 2 and vice versa. I had unknowingly been using the wrong tapes, so that the tape that should have had the designers' files from the previous week had been overwritten and now didn't, and tens of thousands of dollars worth of video shoot footage, premier files and custom programming had been irretrievably lost.

BTW, that coworker and PM no longer work at the company…

]]> By: Ahmedhttp://www.geardiary.com/2009/02/04/win-one-of-six-seagate-freeagent-go-portable-hard-drives-from-gear-diary-and-the-gadgeteer/#comment-42075 Ahmed Thu, 05 Feb 2009 09:20:58 +0000 http://www.geardiary.com/?p=20616#comment-42075 Believe it or not, I've never had one ..... SO FAR It's just because I always tend to keep multiple backups of important data, in a word .. Cloud Computing .. Keep your backups online, available everywhere and to a great extent .. SAFE Believe it or not, I've never had one ….. SO FAR

It's just because I always tend to keep multiple backups of important data, in a word .. Cloud Computing .. Keep your backups online, available everywhere and to a great extent .. SAFE

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