Beyond being a freelance writer and a professional practitioner of public affairs, my base nature, I realize, is that of a data researcher, collector and organizer. [more inside]
posted by CollectiveMind on Nov 6, 2008 - 8 answers

I know there are dozens of data recovery question on here, but nothing that appears to address my specific question. I have an Apple Powerbook G4 laptop running 10.4.1. In preparing to sell the machine I transferred a bunch of files across to an external drive, then deleted them, emptied the trash and deleted the entire user account (while telling it not to store a disc image of that account.) Since then nothing has been written to or deleted from the disk. Now I find that not all of my files were successfully copied to the external drive so I've lost a lot of data. In particular I would like to save just one folder full of Excel spreadsheets - my past few months of accounting. What is the likelihood of being able to achieve this, either myself or using a data recovery company?
posted by skylar on Sep 28, 2008 - 6 answers

Give me some ideas to manage my files, my data, my general computer setup etc. etc. for best use from multiple locations. [more inside]
posted by djgh on May 26, 2008 - 8 answers

Ahhh! My Mac crapped out! Can anyone recommend a good data recovery company that is dependable but won't charge me an arm and a leg to retrieve my files? I really hope so. I have a lot of photos and files that I would be SO distraught over losing. MY MORALE IS IN YOUR HANDS!!! [more inside]
posted by lukeklein on Feb 7, 2008 - 13 answers

Please don't let me lose all of my phone numbers, datebook, project filing, etc... (You need not be treo-conversant to answer this, but it might help a little.) [more inside]
posted by Ash3000 on Aug 6, 2006 - 7 answers

What is the best software program for encrypting certain folders on an external hard drive. [more inside]
posted by turbanhead on Mar 31, 2006 - 12 answers

What do you do with all your data cruft? What is the most efficient way to organize all the non-deletable stuff on your drive? [more inside]
posted by about_time on Nov 16, 2005 - 9 answers

I'm hoping to recover some corrupted files that (I think) got messed up during a transfer to a Firewire drive. Could you be a lamb and step inside? [more inside]
posted by Hankins on Aug 30, 2005 - 0 answers

Is there any way to recover files saved under a temporary profile in Windows XP? (MI) [more inside]
posted by brookedel on Oct 21, 2004 - 4 answers