three months of iCal data missing

lorimer — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 19:56:33 -0800

iCal disaster. All records before a certain date are gone. This is true -- and the date in question is the same in each case -- for all my daily iCal backups over the last 30 days. I urgently need to recover these records if possible. I started using iCal on the 15th of September 07. As of some point more than 30 days ago, all my iCal data for the dates 15 sep 07 through 25 dec 07 was deleted. My iCal records now start as of 26 dec 07, and appear to be complete from that point on.

I sync iCal with my BlackBerry using Missing Sync (MS 1.0.1 / iCal 2.0.5 / Mac OS 10.4.10 / BlackBerry OS 4.2). I've been doing this daily since mid-September.

My Blackberry has over 22MB of free memory and is currently at its fullest point ever, so I doubt this has to do with a free-space issue. (More evidence for this: the other categories I sync this way [Memos and Address Book] appear to have all their records intact, including many I haven't touched since before 26 dec.) I've checked the bb in case it did have pre-26-dec cal records, but it has exactly what iCal has.

I only have my last 30 days of daily iCal backups (since mid-jan). When I revert to any of these backups, the data has the same issue (records start on 26 dec). I can't imagine what is significant about the 26th of December (no Christmas-related travel, new devices, changes in syncing/routine, or manual software updates [and nothing is set to auto-update on my computer). I know the sep-through-dec records all existed in mid-December, because that's the last time I went back through my records.

I urgently need to get those three months of iCal records back if there's any way. I'd pay money if the erased data could be recovered from my HD (however, my HD is usually at around 90% capacity, with large files that change often, so it's not likely that any deleted info survives for long). I don't do any syncing over a network or with a third party, and I'm BIS not BES so there's no corporate backup of my BB data.

I've clearly learned "in the future, keep backups much longer." Right now, please help me work with what I have and think of any way to recover the deleted records.

external hard drive erased when plugged in after a fresh xp install!!!

debu — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 19:27:34 -0800

short history: I started to get blue screens on my outdated laptop so I decided to just buy a new one.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.

Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with erased

three months of iCal data missing

external hard drive erased when plugged in after a fresh xp install!!!