Mother board crashed while...

[mschall]

...writing tags to files. Yesterday I planned on backing up everything. After reading that I should write tags to images before backing up I dutifully tried to do just that. It got to 30% complete and my laptop shut off and now won't turn back on. After calling Dell they say I need a new mother board. Luckily the computer is only 9 months old, so they will replace, supposedly as soon as Monday. Anyway....I'm assuming the timing of the event was merely a coincidence?!

Also, non PSE question: Since it was the mother board (one word?) will everything that I didn't get a chance to back up still be there? I had a bunch of photos on my desktop that I hadn't gotten on my EHD yet. Maybe this time I'll learn to do that automatically....:mad:

[MazG]

...After calling Dell they say I need a new mother board. Luckily the computer is only 9 months old, so they will replace, supposedly as soon as Monday. Anyway....I'm assuming the timing of the event was merely a coincidence?!

Also, non PSE question: Since it was the mother board (one word?) will everything that I didn't get a chance to back up still be there?

Everything will be there if they only swap out the motherboard. I think I would stick a note to the computer requesting that they notify you to request permission if they plan to either replace or reload the hard drive (I'd put your phone number and email on it). That way when the technician works on it, he'll see it and contact you if he decides that he needs to do either of those things. I know when I sent my HP back that observed the note and contacted me.

In future, you might try a backup program like Shadow Protect Desktop (for Win). You can schedule it to do a full backup once a month and incrementals on a daily basis (or whatever you want). As long as your PC is hooked up to a backup drive and switched on, it will happily make backups for you with no interference to what you are doing. Well worth the $$.

[Joe M]

I agree with Marina. If I were replacing my motherboard at home the information would be safe. But computer companies are notorious for reformatting or replacing hard drives in this situation.

If they said they could fix it by Monday I assume you have already shipped it. I would email and call them to explain the situation. If this is your only copy of the images I would insist that they save your information.

[mschall]

Amazingly they are coming here to replace it! In-home hardware service was included for the first year. I was shocked when I pulled out my paperwork and saw that. They are supposed to show up within 2 business days. Since I called late yesterday they said it probably wouldn't be until Monday. I assume Dell has to ship the motherboard to a local repair shop.

Since the tech. will be here, what do I want to tell him/her? I'm guessing, to let me transfer files to my EHD before they replace or reload my HD. Would that be possible?

I will look at Shadow Protect Desktop. I had considered Carbonite several months ago, but it didn't back-up external drives. They were considering adding that feature, maybe they have. It sounds like you are saying Shadow Protect will.

[genevh]

If they are replacing the current motherboard with the same model board, as long as the HD is still OK, there is a pretty good chance that the PC will boot up. In order to copy your data from the HD to the EHD, hopefully the tech will have the equipment to do this. I would ask him before he even opens the case what he intends to do with the HD and tell him your concerns.

Simply replacing a motherboard does not necessarily mean you have to wipe the HD and start over from scratch. There are settings that can be deleted during the initial boot up in safe mode that will allow Windows to see the new hardware and load the proper drivers. This may not be the ideal situation, though, but would get your PC to a point where you could recover your data before running the recovery routine on the machine. And as an FYI, the last time I rebuilt my machine (new MoBo, HD, sound card, video card and memory) I did not wipe my HD and start over. I thought I might have to, but so far my machine is running fine with not having done it.

In your post you said laptop in the first paragraph, and desktop in the second. Which is it? Laptops generally only have room for one HD while most desktops have room for at least 2, and some far more than that. If this is a desktop, and the HD also needs replaced, I would get them to let me keep the original (will probaby cost you some $$'s though) and once the desktop was running on the new one, stick the old one in and see if I could get my stuff off it. There is a chance it could be readable, but not bootable. If the tech has the equipment to recover your data before he does the wipe, all the better. But he should try booting before he decides to wipe.

[GaryK]

HI

Even if you have a laotop and they say they need to format the hard drive to replace the Motherboard, I would seriously think about asking for a new hard drive (you pay) and keeping the old one to get your images off of it.
If you have copies of them somewhere, then it is not as critical. You would only lose the tags and any other info you have added to them.

Replaciing/refprmatting the hard drive will also mean reloading any programs that did not origianally come with your computer,,, maybe like PSE.:)

[mschall]

It is a laptop. Unfortunately, it crashed before I got my images onto my ehd. Now that both of you mention $$ to keep the hd, I remember that the Dell rep. mentioned the tech sending back the parts. There was no mention of the hard drive. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the tech can recover my data. Oh man....now I'm worried. I CERTAINLY will learn from this experience. I have 2 ehd's and only occasionally back up to them and burn CDs. That practice is changing! I have to seriously look into one of those automatic online backup services. When I said desktop I was referring to a program mentioned by MazG "Shadow Protect Desktop".

Reload my programs?! This just keeps getting better and better.:(

[MazG]

It is a laptop. Unfortunately, it crashed before I got my images onto my ehd. Now that both of you mention $$ to keep the hd, I remember that the Dell rep. mentioned the tech sending back the parts. There was no mention of the hard drive. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the tech can recover my data. Oh man....now I'm worried. I CERTAINLY will learn from this experience. I have 2 ehd's and only occasionally back up to them and burn CDs. That practice is changing! I have to seriously look into one of those automatic online backup services. When I said desktop I was referring to a program mentioned by MazG "Shadow Protect Desktop".

Reload my programs?! This just keeps getting better and better.:(

Hey don't worry too much. It doesn't sound like the hard drive is faulty at this point so it is unlikely they will replace it.

What is more likely, is that they like to use their own test software which requires running a series of tests and usually it is designed only to work with a freshly installed machine (hence the reason they often reload the hard drive and why you could possibly lose your data and have to reinstall programs).

It is important to put a call into the support office to tell them not to reload/replace your hard drive without consulting you (because you don't have a backup). They should follow your instructions even if it means they can't thoroughly test the replacement of the motherboard for you (that is your perogative).

They usually don't do backups of hard drives because it is too time consuming for them and opens them up to data loss liability. That's why they always have a disclaimer about loss of data.

Just phone Dell ASAP.

[mschall]

Since the tech will be here, in my home, to do the replacement, I'll beg if I have to! ;) If the tech doesn't want to do the back-up I'm hoping I can do it myself before he progresses. Time will tell.

[mschall]

Thank you to all that offered advice and support. I'm back up and running. The tech didn't touch my HD!!!! I am so relieved. He replaced the motherboard and a noisey optical drive and everything is as good as new. You can be sure the first thing I did was back up all my photos on both my ehd's and in the organizer. I really need to come up with a routine system and/or software or website. $$ is short right now, so I'll have to try to be diligent with my ehd's.

I spent all day yesterday tagging my scrapping stuff. I'm anxious to get that backed up as well. I'm only about half way through 8920 items.

thanks again

[genevh]

Now that's what I call "excellent"!