short history: I started to get blue screens on my outdated laptop so I decided to just buy a new one. My new laptop came, I installed a fresh version of xp, rebooted, and plugged my old external in. I got the "Installing drivers for you new hardware" bubble in the task bar then after opening the external drive none of my files were there, but there was the four following: clean (Windows nt command script) install (folder ) windows (folder.. with a windows installation I didn't do!) $$ rename (text document) 230 gigs gone :( The only thing I can think of is the initial blue screens on my OLD laptop were caused by a virus that had infected my external drive? This had all my school notes, notes on books I've read, photos, backups of my old laptops partitions, all that kind of stuff from the past 3 years. I'm feeling kinda, sick, pissed off, and am wondering what the crap could have happened? Any help on this one would be VERY appreciated.
posted on Jan 11, 2008 - 17 answers

I have a Mac laptop, which replaced my PC which I used for many years.....I recently found out that there is some files and such on my PC that I need to take of my computer and store onto my new external hard drive....Yes, I should of did this before hand.... [more inside]
posted on Sep 20, 2007 - 12 answers

Can anyone suggest an affordable, stable external hard drive for archiving purposes? [more inside]
posted on Jul 19, 2007 - 21 answers

Thumb Drive Life Cycle [more inside]
posted on May 24, 2007 - 2 answers

I am trying to wipe my hard drive... [more inside]
posted on May 5, 2007 - 18 answers

My Western Digital MyBook has a folder on it called "iPod control." I have tried deleting it, but it always comes back. This hard drive has had this "feature" since I bought it." As a result of this, my Rhapsody software keeps thinking I have an iPod attached to my computer when I don't. I realize this hard drive is only trying to be helpful, but this quirk makes me want to beat it with a hose.
posted on Dec 29, 2006 - 8 answers

I recently purchased a 250 GB Western Digital Caviar SE hard drive. It's a internal hd and I foolishly thought it would be ok sitting on my desk hooked up through a ide-usb cable. It also has a power cable which runs down the side of my desk. Well long story short it fell off of my desk due to someone snagging the power cable and now my computer will not recognize it. I have a lot of important data on it which I would really like to recover. Any ideas?
posted on Jul 11, 2006 - 8 answers

I'd like to upgrade my 4 year old Dell Dimension 8200 computer, while hopefully getting components that I could use later, should I decide to build a whole new system in a few months. Sadly, I know nearly nothing about computer hardware. [more inside]
posted on Jan 5, 2006 - 23 answers

Is there a cable I can purchase that will connect an old hard drive (i.e. the one I just removed from my old computer before donating it) and my new computer, preferably with a USB interface? I'm mainly interested in making sure there are no useful files on it before I destroy it. I run WinXP, if it matters.
posted on Dec 5, 2005 - 9 answers

I just got a new used laptop, and it has a lot of error messages showing up, so I want to completely clean it up before I start using it. Is it better to use the manufacturer's Quick Restore discs (Compaq), or to reformat the HD completely and install an operating system clean? [more inside]
posted on May 19, 2005 - 9 answers

My 160 gig HD is being scanned daily by Anti-Virus Guard. Seems like all this wear-and-tear would add up. Does this reduce the life span of a hard drive? Bonus if you know how to make Grisoft's AVG Free Edition scan less frequently.
posted on Mar 21, 2005 - 9 answers

MacFilter: Finally upgraded from my old 400 mhz G4 to a 1.25 ghz dual processor G4. I'd like to move the maxtor ata hard drive that I installed in the old machine to the new machine. Will I lose the data in the process? Or can I just take it out of one, put it in the next, and continue to access all my files as if nothing has changed?
posted on Feb 5, 2005 - 19 answers

So I just got a 512MB USB key drive as an early christmas present, and I'm looking for interesting things to put on it (other than, you know, files). I know about Portable Firefox and Portable Thunderbird, but is there anything else I should check out?
posted on Dec 24, 2004 - 11 answers

I've just bought a Lacie 160 gigabyte firewire drive. It's to be plugged into a Windows XP machine, but also to be written to and read by a Mac OSX machine. I want to format it with the FAT32 file system, but Windows won't let me. Is there a way to force the drive to format as FAT32? [More inside...]
posted on Oct 28, 2004 - 6 answers

I'm looking for an external hard drive that I will use to backup my personal computer. What should I buy? [more inside].
posted on Aug 12, 2004 - 11 answers

My 48x CD-R drive is *really loud*. Is there any way to slow it down for basic tasks like audio CD playback? Googling finds me some brand-specific "control panel" apps, but this is a no-name model. Is there a generic utility out there?
posted on Feb 22, 2004 - 3 answers

I want to know if I run the risk of Hard Disk damage by having large (8 inch sub+midrange) speakers near my computer. I have a Western Digital 100GB 7200 and a 160GB 8MB cache disk installed.
posted on Jan 21, 2004 - 3 answers