A second vote for SpinRite. Their testimonials are filled with scenarios like the one described. Once the damaged boot files were repaired, the whole system continues to act normally until a proper backup/drive replacement can be made. That's a best-case scenario and perhaps easier to accomplish than my Live CD/external drive suggestion. She'll need a second computer with which to purchase, download the program and burn a CD but after that it's easy to operate. On 10/24/2013 2:22 PM, Greg Perham wrote: > ** Be sure to fill out the survey/skills inventory in the member's area. > ** If you did, we all thank you. > > > > > Hi George, > > The first thing I would try is SpinRite > <https://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm>. Don't be put off by the ancient > website design. If the drive is up to the task mechanically, SpinRite > will recover anything that is recoverable. It may take hours or a day, > depending on the type of damage, but it will get everything possible. > > Greg > > > On Oct 24, 2013, at 5:56 AM, George Forman wrote: > >> ** Be sure to fill out the survey/skills inventory in the member's >> area. >> ** If you did, we all thank you. >> >> >> Dear Hidden Tech Community, >> >> A colleague of mine who works in Honolulu cannot open a back up drive >> that contains 3 years of work. She is absolutely undone by this >> lost. The drive contain 3,000 video clips of a demonstration >> preschool that presents an innovative approach to early childhood >> education. The drive will boot then crash. The standard attempts to >> repair the directory have not worked. She was told by a company in >> Honolulu that it would cost $700 to retrieve the data. Doesn't that >> sound like way too much money? Does anyone know of a reliable >> service that can retrieve the data for less? She has a Western >> Digital, 2 terabyte drive that is about 75% full. I would then call >> your recommended service to learn what is involved in retrieving data >> (dust free room, manual retrieval versus batching it, etc.) and >> communicate this information back to my colleague. >> >> Thanks, >> George Forman, President >> Videatives, Inc. >> Amherst, Massachusetts >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Hidden-discuss mailing list - home page: http://www.hidden-tech.net >> Hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net >> <mailto:Hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net> >> >> You are receiving this because you are on the Hidden-Tech Discussion >> list. >> If you would like to change your list preferences, Go to the Members >> page on the Hidden Tech Web site. >> http://www.hidden-tech.net/members > > > > _______________________________________________ > Hidden-discuss mailing list - home page: http://www.hidden-tech.net > Hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net > > You are receiving this because you are on the Hidden-Tech Discussion list. > If you would like to change your list preferences, Go to the Members > page on the Hidden Tech Web site. > http://www.hidden-tech.net/members -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.hidden-tech.net/pipermail/hidden-discuss/attachments/20131024/9a808712/attachment.html