Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with Recovery

Undelete after a copy/paste error?

YoungAmerican — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 13:40:21 -0800

I lost a big file in a cut-and-paste snafu. Help! Yesterday I did an interview for my radio show, which generates a big (600+ meg) wav file. Today, I was getting ready to upload it to my FTP server so my editor can edit it. In FireFTP (FTP client for firefox), I cut the file along with another related file, and pasted them into a folder. It asked me if I wanted to overwrite the existing file (there was no existing file), so foolishly, I clicked yes. I got an error that said "error copying file" or something along those lines... and my files were gone. Not in the new folder, not in the old folder. I downloaded a file recovery program to another HD and am running it now. Is there anything else I can do? I'm using XP.

Data Recovery for an External Hard Drive Crash

tangyraspberry — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 10:58:10 -0800

My external hard drive just crashed so can anyone suggest a Portland, OR, based data recovery service?

My Seagate FreeAgent external HD may have been damaged in a move. Making clicking noises and not being detected by my computer.

Mr_Crazyhorse — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 18:21:11 -0800

My Seagate FreeAgent external HD may have been damaged in a move. Making clicking noises and not being detected by my computer. My Seagate FreeAgent is not being recognized by my computer and is making clicking noises and light is flickering accordingly. This is after a move where the HD

Other computers cannot recognize the drive.

There is a great deal of work-related data and my music collection on this HD. [WAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!!]

Is there any chance of physical recovery?

Reconstituting a wiki database from html?

Pronoiac — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 20:47:07 -0800

I'd like to reconstitute a years-defunct wiki I used to collaborate on. I've contacted the principals, & our searches for the database backup have come up empty so far. Without having the original database, the simplest path appears to be taking the html & transforming it into, say, an sql dump. So - how do I do that? Are there any MediaWiki, database, or Perl trails to follow?

Defend New Orleans: Lakeview v. ENOLA v. Algiers

Ogre Lawless — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 09:00:15 -0800

Post-Katrina Recovery: I recently caught corners of Lakeview and New Orleans East. While Lakeview seemed more affluent and maybe older and more established, it didn't seem like it would have great advantages over NOE that would account for the relative degree to which it appeared that Lakeview was recovered compared to NOE. Is NOE really behind the curve in recovery and if so, why? Additionally, as my junkets to Algiers and through the Garden District had me curious: I understand that the brackish and otherwise toxic water snuffed out most vegetation below a certain level. Were these two areas also landscaped in a generous manner before the storm?

Recovering from hospital-induced trauma

desjardins — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 07:17:03 -0800

How do you mentally recover from having been in the hospital, especially when you don't know what was wrong? My fiance woke me up last week and I couldn't move from the neck down. He called 911 and I was taken to the ER. I was admitted and spent the weekend in the hospital. There was initial uncertainty as to whether I'd had a spinal cord injury so it was emotionally difficult for me and everyone around me as we contemplated my being paralyzed. Three MRIs and an X-ray later, the spinal cord injury was definitively ruled out, and I'm able to move normally again. There is no explanation for what happened, and I was at the best hospital in the city with a large team of neurosurgeons. I'm not looking for speculation as to what happened; I say this to explain my mental state.

Physically, I am OK after all this. Emotionally, though, I am spent. I never felt like I would die, but I was afraid of being paralyzed not for myself but for the life my fiance would have to live, taking care of me. It was likewise difficult to see him so worried and tore up about me. There was also some family drama about who had power of attorney (I signed it over to my fiance since we'll be married in two months anyway).

The MRIs were very difficult for me as well. I'm not claustrophobic but I do have panic disorder and they had to stop one test when I started aspirating on my own vomit. The next day they wanted to run the whole test straight through and it took three hours. I was nearly catatonic afterwards. I still have tinnitus from the noise of the machine and I wake up fearing I'm still inside it. I'm also afraid to go to sleep for fear I'll wake up paralyzed.

What can I do to move on? I want to get "back to normal" but I feel like something's different now. Having no explanation, I fear it might happen again and I'm overreactive to the way my body feels. I've taken time off work, of course, but I will have to go back, and I don't want to talk about the experience. I would just like to forget it ever happened.

What's normal in the first few weeks of AA

Anonymous — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 18:40:03 -0800

Can someone who's been there, or is close to someone who's been there, relate to me how the first few weeks in recovery from alcohol abuse in an AA type typically play out? My partner is going through this, and I'm feeling pretty confused, abandoned, and (I'm ashamed to say) a little angry. My wife and I (late 30s) had fallen into a pattern of drinking way too much on most nights. I'd consider it pretty heavy drinking -- about a bottle of wine each, supplemented with a couple of beers, between dinner and when we went to bed around midnight. So we decided to cut it out about a week ago. I haven't found it difficult at all to eliminate the booze, but my wife felt the need to go to AA meetings because she's been having serious cravings, etc. I support that decision, but I'm confused about how all of this is supposed to work. She's been going to up to 3 meetings a day, hanging out at the recovery center even when there isn't a meeting, going out at night with fellow AA-ers, and so on. She's even taken our young kids to the center when she felt the need to go hang out there while I was at work. The latter makes me especially uncomfortable because lots of people at this recovery center are homeless and generally really down and out, and I'm not sure that's a setting that my 4 and 8 year olds need to be exposed to. But my wife says she *needs* to do this for recovery, so I don't feel like it's my place to question it. That said, I'm suddenly facing two very confused kids, have missed a bunch of work to accomodate meetings, and basically haven't seen my wife for days.

So my first question is whether this level of involvement with the 12-steppers is within the range of what might be considered typical. My second question has to do with alcohol withdrawal symptoms. As I said, we stopped drinking a little over a week ago, and my wife is still complaining of nausea, shakes, sweats, etc. Is that even possible? And if she's having such severe withdrawals, wouldn't it be wise to check into a residential detox center (she's steadfastly refused to do this)?

Thanks for any input, and just to head off the obvious suggestion I'll let you know that I already have an appointment with a therapist scheduled for myself next week. Wife is also in therapy and has been for a few months for issues unrelated (at least not directly related) to alcohol. E-mail me at plantbot@gmail.com if you'd rather not post publicly.

What can I do with mono?

bukharin — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 22:18:52 -0800

I have mononucleosis and I live by myself in New York. The first two days were agony, but six days later I feel great. When can I ride my bicycle again? Is it okay to have a beer? If I feel good, can I go for a long walk or dance to music? What about just hauling myself on the subway and getting groceries? If somebody elbows me, will my spleen rupture? How careful do I need to be? I'm not tired at all, do I still have to sleep all the time?

How can I get data off a bad hard drive?

deafmute — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 23:28:11 -0800

I am having a very unusual problem with my hard drive and CANNOT recover any data from it after trying numerous methods. Please help me with your technical expertise. A few weeks ago the hard drive for my Dell Inspiron 1520 became unable to boot into Vista after freezing suddenly. When trying to boot, I get a BSOD with the error message "Stop: c000142{DLL Initialization Failed} Initialization of the dynamic link library winsrv failed. The process is terminating abnormally." When attempting to launch startup repair, boot into safe mode, or boot off of several different Vista DVDs I am greeted with a cursor (that I can control) on a black screen that never goes anywhere.

I ran Dell's built-in diagnostic program, and after being given several hard drive related errors, Dell (very quickly) sent me a new hard drive. Now I need to send them the old one, and I would like to recover my data from it before wiping it and sending it back.

I first put it in an enclosure and connected it to Vista, but Vista does nothing more than prompt me to format the drive.

I then ran Spinrite, which, after 27 hours(!) of operation returned no bad sectors or errors of any kind. What's unusual, however, is that my old drive does not exactly match my new drive in terms of partitions. The data partition is flagged as being too large for the size of the drive, and I am advised to change my BIOS's "understanding" of the drive (which I can't do). It is also missing a partition labeled as "hidden CTOS memory dump". I have no idea what this means.

I then booted off of a Knoppix cd and attempted to mount the drive there. I was able to mount the two partitions containing Dell's hidden diagnostic and recovery data, but Knoppix was unable to recognize the existence of a third partition containing my data.

Google searches have proved inconclusive (particularly in the case of my BSOD error message). Please help me get my data!

See the tear standin' in my eye

TheSecretDecoderRing — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 00:53:20 -0800

The USPS lost the contents of a media-rate package. Many books within. What are the odds I'll get any of it back? A couple weeks ago I shipped a box, shortly before moving to a new address. Today I got a letter saying the contents were found to be missing, and included the original address slips from the box, and a form letter asking to provide info on the contents, to be sent to a mail recovery center.

I'd thrown a ton of random books in there, but I'll probably be able to figure out most of the titles. All in all, everything's replaceable so it's not a complete nightmare (although I'd like the Calvin and Hobbes one back in particular), but has anyone had success getting their stuff back in a case like this, especially when nothing was personalized or really unique? I've looked around online on the matter, and some have suggested trying to find a number to call the center directly. Whatever I do, I'm kind of skeptical they'll put that much effort into tracking everything down.

Considering two of my other packages seemed to have endured a lot of rough handling, I'd hate to see what actually goes on during the course of the shipment process.

And one of the frustrating things was the letter advising me to, in the future, include contact info within the package itself. Wish I'd thought of that earlier. (slaps forehead)

Super Healing Powers

decathecting — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 09:51:09 -0800

Any tips for faster ways to recover from a twisted ankle/bruised foot? Yesterday, while running in my office in flip flops (yes, I am a complete idiot), I fell in a spectacular (and I am told, hilarious) manner, and twisted my ankle. I have a moderate amount of bruising on the top of my foot, but there's no swelling all all. It hurts, but I can still walk okay.

In exactly 8 days, I am scheduled to direct a conference at which I am responsible for chasing after 60 college kids. I need to not be limping around. How can I maximize my healing so that I will be able to perform this task ably without further injuring myself?

I'm currently doing the ice and ibuprofen routine, staying off of it as much as I can (though I have to go to work and walk around a bit, as I'm preparing for the conference), elevating it when I'm sitting, and wearing an ace bandage whenever I'm out and about. Is there anything else I should be doing? Could a doctor do something else that I'm not doing, or would s/he just tell me to do what I'm already doing?

I'm pretty confident that it's just a twisted ankle or a bruised muscle, not a fracture. I broke my foot a few years ago, and I had massive swelling. This doesn't feel like that, and there has been no swelling at all. So I don't think it's broken. But if you all tell me that I need to see a doctor for an x-ray, I will.

File recovery woes...

whatisish — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 19:14:07 -0800

File recovery woes. OpenOffice Writer doc, no backup... The XP user opened the file and found it blank. It was a lengthy doc once upon a time but now even the file size is teeny tiny. I'm guessing that the novice user somehow 'selected all' and deleted the contents. Then, upon closing the file, resaved at the prompt.

So, there is no actual file to recover. Given that we know phrases that were once in the file, is there a relatively easy way (with a freeware app) to search the unallocated HD space for the lost file contents?

Guess what? I broke Vista.

judge.mentok.the.mindtaker — Tue, 27 May 2008 10:39:40 -0800

I irreparably damaged my installation of Windows Vista by trying to clean out my winsxs folder. I'm pretty sure there's no way to recover at this point. I'd like to know if anyone has some good suggestions for tutorials or tools to use to rescue my user info so that when I reinstall I can salvage my stuff. I was very good with XP and used to do desktop support for it professionally.. so I'm familiar with file and settings transfer wizard, command line utils, snapins.. all the support goodies. Since then I left desktop support, so I'm not nearly as savvy with Vista.

If it comes down to it.. can I copy my folder from C:\Users\ ? What do I need to look out for, etc...

TIA!

How can I extract data from Wordpress MySQL files?

phliar — Fri, 09 May 2008 15:47:32 -0800

Is there any way to restore Wordpress MySQL tables from the Unix directories? I don't have a database backup. If a restore of the tables is impossible, can I at least recover the text of my blog entries? An unfortunate Ubuntu meltdown required a re-install of my server. I saved /etc, /home and /var, thinking I'd got everything. Alas! I forgot two important details: I didn't perform a MySQL database backup; and I didn't realise that Wordpress on Ubuntu saves stuff into /usr/wordpress. *%#$&!!!

After I spent a little time cursing Ubuntu's Wordpress for putting user-modified files into /usr, I remebered that the text of the entries and comments is in the database. I have a full backup of /var/lib/mysql so I should at least be able to extract the text of the blog entries -- right? Or am I completely screwed?

I'm proficient in Unix and C but know very little about databases.

Recovery key plz? (again)

T.D. Strange — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 11:17:14 -0800

What key I need to hold down to access the recovery partition on my Sony Vaio? So my Viao is corrupted and wont boot (again, god how I hate Vista and its shitty sleep/shutdown). I can fix it because this has happen 4 or 5 times now, but I can't for the live of my remember which key you have to hold to enter the recovery partition. I've tried F2 (bios), F8 (Vista recovery console) F10 (nothing), F8, Nothing, F6, Nothing and R, nothing. I need to get this started in the next hour if Im going to be able to take notes in my night class this week - help me hive mind!

Does anyone know what the right key is?

iPhone data recovery

Lucy2Times — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 13:32:14 -0800

Recovering iPhone data to OS X 10.5.2. My significant other's MacBook hard drive died. Thanks to fabulous assistance from members of MeFi, I was able to put a new hard drive in without too much trouble. Now I'm wondering what the safest / easiest way is to recover iTunes music. The iPhone is still running 1.1.2.

Basically, I'd like to get all the music files and playlists off the iPhone and onto the new OS/hard drive/iTunes in the MacBook. I know there's third-party software out there which claims to do this. Does anyone have any thoughts or recommendations? I'm worried if we plug the iPhone into the Mac, iTunes will automatically resynch and wipe out the files on the iPhone before we have a chance to recover the songs.

We've already re-entered all Address Book info, Notes, etc., so we're only interested in recovering those music files. I'm most thankful in advance for your help.

What about this gray water recovery system?

wsg — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 23:08:07 -0800

I'm kicking off a major home renovation and looking for some green innovations I can incorporate without breaking the bank. This gray water recovery system looks promising. The AQUS system sells for about $300.00 per toilet. Does anyone have experience with this system? Is it practical? Is it funky? I've read where the gray water can mess up the toilet hardware with time. You have to feed the reservoir tank bromine and chlorine tablets to kill bacteria in the sink waste water. Is it nasty? Is this more pain than it's worth? Any feedback is appreciated.

Vista Hell

rumbles — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 23:36:10 -0800

The Vista Home Premium DVD I'm using to "recover" the factory settings on my Toshiba A200-TR6 just pops open before even beginning "Operation Recovery." Save me from this Vista nightmare...! So, I'm trying to recover my Toshiba notebook so I can sell it. Up until this point I've been running it with XP Pro (and Toshiba's sad excuse for XP drivers -- the sound driver in particular); I'm keen, however, to sell it in a factory-fresh state.

Problem: DVD #1 of 4 just pops out after booting and while "initializing partition." It boldly declares "insert next disc" prior to actually accomplishing anything (rinse and repeat, etc.). The harddrive had been wiped using the tool recommended by Toshiba here to remedy a different error that pops up when trying to recover/restore using the recovery DVD when another OS (XP Pro or Vista) is already installed.

In sum, XP Pro installs fine, and Vista installs fine when using the method and files offered here (i.e. when not using the recovery discs). This method, however, refuses the product key on the bottom of my machine and, well, I'm not so keen on the idea of having to sell a computer that requires questionable workarounds, etc. to get it working.

Thoughts? BIOS settings? SATA something or other? It's still under warranty, FWIW. Warranty recommendations? Can MSFT send me a "real" version of Vista (since I seem to have received a useless one)? Also, Toshiba has already replaced the DVDs once, since I thought that the ones that came with my computer were defective. No dice. Thanks!

I think I still have some healing to do.

milarepa — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 08:26:05 -0800

How can I best heal emotionally from life threatening surgeries? Earlier this month, during a stint in the hospital, I had a couple of "incredibly dangerous" thoracic surgeries...ICU, 12 days in the hospital, respirator, and so on. While I am on my way to full physical and emotional recovery, and no longer wake up crying, I am looking for advice or tips (ideally from people who have gone through surgery) on how I can aid my emotional recovery. I have an appointment with a therapist for some short-term treatment, but feel like there must be some people here who've almost died and have a little wisdom they could share.

For the record, a lot of good came out of my ordeal already, besides improved health. For example, my world-view and relationships have grown stronger. I am also doing a he'll of a lot better than I was doing a week ago when I was discharged. I'm just looking for some casual advice on how I can rebuild my life. FYI, I am < 30 years old, with a family that I am very grateful for and that I love very much.

Are there secular alternatives to Al-Anon?

Anonymous — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 14:07:20 -0800

Looking for secular alternatives to Al-Anon. My partner has some ongoing problems with alcohol, and while he's working on treatment, I am also feeling like I need some help doing my own dealing with the situation. I'm looking into finding an individual therapist, but meanwhile, I thought maybe I'd look into an Al-Anon meeting for some support.

I am very determinedly atheist, and at least the particular meeting I went to had more of a religious flavor than I was comfortable with, and I won't be going back. I've got a list of some other meetings and will probably try out the ones that I can make work with my work schedule since I gather the religious component can vary from group to group, but I'm wondering whether there might be explicitly secular programs out there for friends/family of people with addiction problems.

I've looked through the couple of previous thread about sobriety and recovery and found a couple of suggested secular programs for people with addictions, but the websites are so convoluted that I can't figure out whether there's any support offered for friends and family.

So I turn to the hive mind - can anyone offer any pointers toward the secular equivalent of Al-Anon? Bonus points if there are groups in PA, but for now any sites with useful resources would be great. Personal recommendations would be even better, but since I'm doing this anonymously I can hardly ask anyone else to speak up. I do have a gmail account set up for any comments people might not want to post publicly: secularrecovery@gmail.com.

Help get data from a raid partition

KirTakat — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 19:43:24 -0800

I would like to recover data from two SATA hard drives that were once part of a single logical partition under Linux A year ago I got a Thecus N2100 that I was using to store a bunch of miscellaneous data on. I was having some speed issues with it (video files streamed VERY slowly), so I decided to try updating the bios. During the middle of the process the system locked up, and it never recovered. So now I have two hard drives that were configured as a single logical drive that I would like to get some data from. Vista detects the drives fine, but obviously can't access the data. SpinRite says that each drive is actually separated into two partitions, one is a Linux partition, the other is a "Raid Autodetect." The drives themselves are SATA drives and, other than not being able to access the data, are seemingly fine.

So how can I get this data off the drives so I can reformat them? I'm using a Vista system primarily, and I've connected the drives using a SATA to USB connector. If there is a good Linux live disc that can do this, I'm perfectly willing to do that. Suggestions?

How to bring jpegs back from the dead

humannaire — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 21:06:41 -0800

How do I repair jpegs I accidentally trashed and recovered (WinXP)? A folder of spare parts I deleted turned out to be "something important," a month's worth of photos. After undeleting (using File-Saver) when I attempt to open with Paint or irFanView, many of the photo jpegs now come up "no preview available" (irFanView says "file header not found").

I went to download.com, bought a bogus little program called All Media Fixer from a phony software company (they also go by excellencesoft...ha!) called NewLive Soft—$27 down the tubes. (I contacted them, the support actually said, "Tough luck." I was sort of shocked. Also, grrrr.)

What made me realize that the program All Media Fixer sucks is that I downloaded another jpeg repair software called Jpeg Recovery Pro. It was $44 dollars and recovered about half of the files. (All Media Fixed recovered none.)

But I am still without half of the photos, about half of which I can see the thumbnail but refuse to "draw." And for (now) $70 dollars, I am hoping for somewhat more than that. (On the plus side, my hard drives have now all been all backed up.)

Suggestions? Inspiration? Help? I really miss these photos!

How to detriple-ize my triple-boot system without hosing my beloved partition.

Bondrake — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 22:43:21 -0800

What do I need to do to go from a triple-boot Ubuntu/Vista/XP system to only an XP system without destroying XP? So I initially set my system up with Windows XP. Then I got Vista 64 bit and also wanted to play around with Ubuntu, so I installed them basically following the procedure outlined here: http://lifehacker.com/software/ubuntu/hack-attack-how-to-tripleboot-windows-xp-vista-and-ubuntu-193474.php

Now I find myself never using 64-bit Vista due to some compatibility issues with programs I frequently use and with no need for Ubuntu. I would like to erase the partitions for Vista and Ubuntu to reclaim the space and boot directly into my XP partition. I also want to avoid hosing my XP setup though.

SO my question is: if I erase the Vista and Ubuntu partitions, then boot into recovery on with my XP disk and use fixmbr will I have a properly booting system? If not, what do I need to do in addition to or in place of these steps?

Getting sober in a drinking relationship

Anonymous — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 22:28:58 -0800

Is it really possible to get and stay sober while your partner continues to drink? A couple of weeks ago I had an unfortunate evening of drinking that led to a blackout. It served as a real wake up call that I have a problem with binge drinking. It's been two weeks tonight and I've not had a drop. I am struggling with the notion of permanent sobriety versus just trying to moderate.

My question is mostly about the fact that my partner (who lives in across the country and we see each other a couple times a month) continues to drink socially and occasionally has one too many - like tonight. Hearing my partners intoxication on the phone is difficult for me. It makes me cringe and generally uncomfortable. Is it possible for me to maintain sobriety and be in this relationship if my partner drinks?

If you have thoughts/feeling/suggestions on moderation versus complete sobriety I would love to hear those too. I honestly enjoy a good pint and a lovely cocktail and am usually fully capable of having a drink or two and calling it a night. But there are occasions when I just keep going.

I'm not ok with AA/12 step programs due to religious content and someone has suggested Rational Recovery. I'm checking it out and it seems to be a decent option.

Recovery in Texas without AA or 12 Steps?

buzzbash — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 17:09:45 -0800

I have a pretty serious drinking problem which has caused me to "call in sick" too often at my job. I finally confessed to my supervisor that I have a drinking problem. I should have been fired long ago, but because I appealed to them for help, the company is willing to keep me on the payroll provided that I seek treatment for my addiction. Here's my dilemma: where I live, every alcohol/chemical dependency treatment program is based on Alcoholics Anonymous and its 12 Steps. I have an intrinsic aversion to anything even remotely associated with a Higher Power, God, Jesus, etc. I need to find a treatment facility ( either residential or out-patient) that'll help me get sober without all the spiritual mumbo-jumbo associated with AA and the 12 Steps. I live in Corpus Christi, Texas and it's important that any suitable treatment program be located somewhere nearby--preferably Austin since I have sober friends there. But I guess anywhere in Texas will do. Any suggestions?