If I were you, Id try and figure out just what type of failure it was, if you hear noise, get the heck to a linux LiveCD/RecoveryCD and see if it cant mount the drive and let you copy files, if not, see if it'll let you run a program called rescuedd, its like 'dd' but will keep trying a few times on a failed sector, or eventually skip it and continue, so you MIGHT be able to recover SOME data. If the drive was making click noises and its now just returning errors, the old freezer trick might gain you some time, but its not often that it works. And if you didn't hear loud clicking, and you have another identical drive, swap the controller boards, that might gain you access to the contents as well.

The media for tape drives (the tapes themselves) are too expensive (once you get to the hundred gig mark), and the tape itself is slow. Just get an external USB drive to backup onto.

I used a free program called "test disk" which is command prompt based to rebuild a partition on an external hard disk drive. Before test disk, it didn't mount, or even show a drive letter. When it rebuilt the partition I nearly fell out of my chair in joy. The external hd was a backup drive so I was happy to get the data back. I now keep multiple copies of important stuff.

Actually there must be something in the air, just last night my server's hard drive made a "please god help me" blue screen for atapi.sys and then it wouldn't mount. I finally got it back up but who knows how long before it finally craps out. I just ordered a new hd.
Poor old hard drive... it was a 10 year old 20 gig hard drive that made it this far. Anyway, I'm afraid to turn the computer off till i get the data backed up... I have a feeling that the next time I shut down that machine will be the last time it boots off of that hard drive.

Well, continuing on with my weekend (because I'm so vain), my wife was moved to the SICU today and had a chest tube put in to drain the fluid in her lung (a bottle and a fourth to be exact, which I think 1 bottle = 1 litre). Tomorrow, draining the abscesses in her liver.

Man, what's she got? That's horrible.

They drained the abscesses, but her lungs aren't getting better. Going in for surgery tomorrow to have them "cleaned" along with a larger chest tube for draining.

Well, you're not forgetting. We don't know how this all happened, we just know she got bad (she's actually been at about 20% since August) and ct scans revealed liver abscesses (which contain an infection that grew fusobacterium necrophorum). At this point, the Infectious Disease doctor told me to also do research on the internet. Tomorrow is day 10 for her at the hospital.

I was trying to keep private about it since it's not me but my wife. However, lately, all I seem to be doing is telling everyone. I should probably take a breather.

Onewing, I hope she improves! I also agree with Neil Black. It's fair to say that if anyone close to you is suffering, it plays on your mind. It's probably healthier to talk about it then to keep it quiet.

Strength, my friend. Hope for the best.

Good luck Onewing...

Be strong, she don't need you to be worse than her.

You know how I am, I trust the humanity for saving her, all my wish are along with you.

:`(

_