Even Microsoft's free SyncToy works under XP and Vista and ANYONE can set it up in seconds to mirror their documents director (for example) to another drive, either on a network or as an external USB drive (which are REALLY cheap right now). Run this very simple program once a week and you are covered.

It's well known that trolls stalk the Internet...

Awww have you got a gripe for being a tosser cracked software user serves ya right

You're welcome. (Re-Bart's PE) I ran into utility this years ago, and it's always been a part of any recommendation when I frequent Forums such as here. We still can only guess if the original post here is a disk crash, or OS/software issue based on his posts. One simple boot from a Bart PE disk, Live CD (Linux etc), or one like it, would sure have gone a long way into helping out here. You can go as far as editing your boot.ini to boot to a Barts or LIVE CD environment as a choice, but I hesitate to recommend this to those unfamiliar. It's documented if you're so inclined...FYI.....

Mark

This post has gone so off-topic, I guess I can add my two cents without upsetting the mods

Mark - I think your back-up advice is some of the best computer advice anyone can give. Can't tell you how many times I've helped panicky friends try to salvage pictures, finance files, etc from a fried hard drive. Without a back-up the success rate is pitiful.

I've become so anal about backing up I use two back-up programs on every unit. Only takes one time to be "bit" by a "corrupt image" to realize one can't be too safe (or should I say "two safe" in this case ). Everyone of my units has either a boot-up CD (usually through Linux) or a boot-up floppy (DOS) from which to recover when things get dire.

Like you, I've been a big proponent of Acronis Trueimage, but run into a recent problem. I built a Quad with a new motherboard that uses a chipset for which there is no Linux driver yet. Since Trueimage relies totally on Linux for recovery, TI is hardly an option for this unit. Your comment about Acronis and Vista may not be an OS issue, but a hardware issue. Acronis is reliable, but they always seem to be playing catch-up with new hardware because of the recovery methods.

To bring this back OT - it was my back-up that saved me with a recent Windowblinds install problem. WB 5.51 would not install properly for me for whatever reason. I had to force a registry change manually to get it to work. Took awhile to figure that out. Until them it was my back-up that saved the day and let me keep using WB.

On a for it's worth final note - WindowBlinds 6 is GRRRRRREAT. If you haven't updated do so ASAP. The ability to modidy colors, transparency, font size, etc is a blast. Oh yeah - and I still think it's this guy's hard drive that is fried. Since the hard drive is being recognized, it's probably in good enough shape to recover data from. What I would do it put in a new hard drive, restore the unit with the manufacturers recovery disks so I'm up and running then take the old drrve to someone to pull off what I want. He can always put the drive on the shelf if he finds out it wasn't the drive, but it sounds like it is.

My custom PC I put together a few months back uses an older duo core E6850 and a P5K Deluxe ASUS MOBO which play fine with Acronis. I would try Ghost 12 to see if it will work with your hardware. And yes too, WB6 works great for me too, but still, backing up is key to computer sanity, IMHO

Best.....
Mark

Mark - thanks for the Ghost recommendation. I was about to purchase Ghost when a friend suggested Drive Snapshot. What a great little utility. It's a bit pricey, but it's blazing fast, small and super simple to use. One can recover from Windows, DOS or set-up a BartPE CD.

The next feature I hope that's added to WB is a button shape/size/color changer. My eyesight is getting pretty bad and the buttons on some of the newer skins aren't very easy for me to use. Maybe Skinstudio 6 will be the answer for now. Skintudio was much too hard for me to figure out!

Power to the backer-uppers

Sleep

Thanks back for the recommendation. Super thread drift here, but good stuff for all involved. I will give Drive Snapshot a look at/try at report back on how it performs versus Acronis and Ghost.

Mark

OK...my apologies to all re-thread drift, The following is based on my own individual testing of Ghost 12 and Drive Snapshot. My PC is configured with two 150GB 10,000RPM SATA WD Raptor Drives setup RAID 0. I also have two older Maxtor SATA drives in my box 250GB each, 7200RPM (but going on 4 years old ). Lastly, an old WD 500GB My Book External USB HDD and to round it out, my IPOD 60GB Video Music player.

I add the IPOD reference only to state that Drive Snapshot actually showed the IPOD as a source drive for backing up. I do have the IPOD hacked with Rockbox firmware that dual boots the setup. (Rockbox.org for those interested in what you can do with this.)

Anyways, Drive snapshot would crash when starting to backup the IPOD. Just wanted to add this comment. I do have other software for file copies of IPODS. (Ipodcopy is the software, BTW)

Next, Testing drive snapshot to image my main drive C RAID setup to one of the Maxtor SATA drives produced the following. The image process ran an average 3100MB/min with bursts between 2800 to 4100MB/min. The backup also produced a number of 1.45GB files in the backup folder. I personally do not like the idea of the program creating a number of 1.45GB files based on the total disk sizeof the source. IOW, divide out the HDD size by 1.45 gives you an approx number of files this program creates.

Ghost 12 on my setup ran a consistent 4500MB/min or better than double the speed. It produces basically one large image file instead of a number of smaller files. It did NOT see my IPOD, but that was of small concern.

Most important, the program included utilities to produce a bootable CD with all the drivers on it for booting from that CD to run Ghost. Drive Snapshot stated that because of licensing issues, you basically have to make your own boot disk (such as a BartPE, or place NTFSDOS on a disk to read NTFS drives from a boot. IOW, while I agree that this program does the job, it requires users, that may have little experience with understanding basics such as just being able to see NTFS drives from outside of the Windows environment, to do stuff that in the long run, would make them less inclined to even run the program and be ready to use it, from an emergency non bootable situation.

Ghost 12, and Acronis for that matter does hold your hand, helping to create a boot disk with proper drivers to restore a machine. I'm surprised that Acronis has a hardware recognition issue with your setup, but you could probably work with their techs to resolve that. I'm an old Ghost user, that has tried most imaging products and they all have their pluses and minus.

The two major pluses for me are speed and ease of creating a boot disk for the program. Acronis is a close second. Some may even like Acronis more, since it will create a hidden partition for backups and will even edit the boot.ini file so that you don't even need the boot disk, although I still would create that disk

Thank's for the Drive Snapshot info. I like to test imaging software and haven't run across that one before your reference.

Sorry for the long post.....

Mark

Mark - wow ... I'm impressed! Nice review. Not sure how long this drift will be allowed. I try to talk about WB in every post just to keep it partly on topic

Ghost sounds like a fine product. I use Driveimage 5.0 on some older systems and hope some of that technology made its way to Ghost now that it's part of the Ghost/Symantec family.

Just an fyi ... Drive Snapshot does create a one floppy DOS based recovery that recognizes my NTFS and USB drives without adding NTFSDOS. USB is not a big deal for me since my primary backup is to a second internal NTFS drive.

The problem I'm having with Acronis is documnented on their forum and hopefully will be resolved in their next update. I went back and forth playing twenty questions by e-mail with their support staff until I told them to just close the ticket. E-mail tech support is slow and virtually useless.

Another program to consider is Paragon's Hard Drive Manager 8.5. It creates both DOS (floppies) and Linux (CD) recovery media. Their Linux recovery doesn't work on my Quad either. Same problem as Acronis - no known Linux driver yet for the chipset.

Maybe we can convince Stardock to make an imaging program. Also a good Windows unisntaller. Both are necessary evils to keep one's hard drives viable. Love what Stardock has done with Windowblinds. Version 5 was HUGE. Resource issues were eliminated. WB 6 is even better. Multiplicity is potentially another great product. Don't own it yet, but it's on my radar screen.

Now where is the originator of this thread? We're killing time babbling waiting for him to tell us how his problem worked out

Sleep

P.S. Mark - sent you a PM so we can stay in touch offline.

DI7 is still the 'way-to-go' .....last ver by Powerquest .....backs up on-the-fly...that is, in Windows, without booting to Dos/whatever....just set it to do it's thing....and keep on working/skinning/whatever.

Backs up my OS drive [60 gig] in about 9 or 10 minutes [I don't see it...I'm in bed asleep - each Monday morning, 3.00 am]...a restore takes around the same.  If you only have one OS/drive then the DI7 CD is bootable to do the restore.

If yer like me...and have 2 OS drives [in caddies] you can knock yourself out making images/restoring ....

Everyone has their fav. backup programs

Mark

PIZZA..... has Wrecked.. my body !!!!!

what? you were expecting some techy reply?

Well, I must say that I am fairly impressed with all the tech help in here. Glad to see so many people get together to help 1 guy (so far away from home, might I add) fix his computer.

I had an e-machine. my suggestions to you are: find an IT person to copy your hard drive to dvd...
take your e-machine to a field...
smash it to pieces with a heavy, blunt object!!!

Next, go buy a nice reliable computer, one made by a reputable company. I build my own comps now. That way I know I'm getting quality.   

And always, ALWAYS back-up your system, kids. It's a little lesson that many of use have learned through trial and experience....

My suggestion is to try and restore your system to the last restore point before pizza. Or did you not make a back-up?  

DOH...

il have ta wipe the HD and reinstall...

Whoa. Its amazing when things actually fit together. My fan has been acting up. I have to constantly hit it with compressed air. In the past the fan would kick up to a high speed for 8 seconds and then cut the power as a precaution.

So is it all because of over heating to the hard drive?

I'm sorry for accusing Windowblinds. I never really liked my eMachines, that fan problem and the overall cheap structure has always bothered me. I never heard of the company before when I was shopping so I was hesitant. Should have gone with the gut.

I'd like to ask for your opinions once again, on a lighter topic.
After all of my data is recovered, I may consider making a new laptop purchase.
For a slightly above mid-range laptop, what would be your highest recommendations?

Thanks.

FWIW I always go to Toshiba with laptops. It's the only hardware I ever buy from PCWorld. I know the earlier Satellite models were prone to overheating because the design exacerbated dust build up. That said, a 3rd party guide to cleaning the heatsink was soon available on line and easily managed. Besides which, Toshiba wised up pretty quickly and improved their designs.

We have 3 in the family, not one has had to go back to the shop for any reason and barring some new information, my next laptop will be a Toshiba as well.

Toshiba....good choice
I probably have had a dozen or so laptops. All but one was a Toshie. The lone alternate was HP and that too was no problem. Currently have an older Qosmio G35-650 but primarily use a desktop I built myself.

Mark

Well, its done. My data has been salvaged, the system restored, and only 125 euros in the hole.

Thanks to everyone for their assistance.

!!!!!!!


Hope the data was worth more than that

Good news (if pricey).  Have you backed up your data yet?

And what was the problem?

Please....we All here are dying to know what was the issue with your PC...specifically...

Mark

Man, I wished I would have seen this post early on. I too have had a problem like that with my laptop. I managed to use my XP disc and recreate the boot sector. I am not a hard drive expert, but having gone through this I think the laptop gets hot and erases the boot sector on the hard drive or even possibly damages it. By using the disc you can rebuild the whole sector with out compromising the data. If that was your case I could have saved you 125 euros. Oh well lesson learned. Good luck and I would go with a Toshiba now if I could go back mines an HP.

Yes I learned my lesson and have purchased an external storage drive.
The guy that was working on my computer said he didn't know what caused the failure. I went to a service center similar to a GeekSquad in BestBuy. I told them to recover and restore. I figure they don't have time to look into it for answers.
I have been looking into the over-heating issue all over eMachines related forums and its very wide spread. Even Wikipedia mentions it in eMachines file.
Do you guys suppose that I can make any claims for compensation to eMachines even with an expired warranty? At least complimentary service?