Ok, I know I asked for this. I have, oops, I had a secondary hard drive with all my media - ripped music, videos, documents and downloaded programs (freeware and paid for). It was so much data, I never bothered to back it up. I did not have anything large enough to back up to. I guess I should have backed up the harder-to-replace stuff, but....

I shut down the pc and heard what sounded like something was shoved between the blades of an electic fan. A very loud electrical kind of grinding with a click or two thrown in for good measure. I even thought, "uh-oh, I better see which fan I need to replace." Then the pc would not boot. Some changes in the bios to get into the O/S (different drive) and find, unfortunately, the secondary drive is COMPLETELY mechanically dead. NO Warning. No errors. No clicking. No nothing. Well, nothing except for the dying convulsions. I never had a chance to say goodbye.

Just received the replacement from Newegg.

Maybe I will Limewire the CD's I already own. It is faster than ripping the cd's. I wonder if it is illegal to download pirate music I already own the CD of.....

Please accept my sincere condolences and may it rest in peace. As for the “legality” question, I suggest that you consult with one of our moderators here.
By the way, any ideas about data recovery efforts?

No recovery. It wont even power on. Not to mention the very loud electrical sound and louder grinding sound. I do not see myself removing drive platters in a clean room or paying anyone to do the same.

Definitely not a good idea unless your income is in the seven figures neighborhood.

Only takes about five minutes to rip a CD with Audio Grabber, which is freeware, and it will go out to the databases and get the titles and create the ID-3 tags, too. You can also select the bitrate that you want them ripped at.

I know I shouldn't laugh because mine could be next, but maybe now people will understand why I still have backup CDs from 7 years ago. Course I should probably get on to making a new set of backups now that I'm finally going to be reinstalling XP after 7 years.

Sorry for your loss, but what about Ghost or Acronis now you will be having a fresh start. I run both on various systems, change the external often so in 10 years have had no stress as you have experienced.

Good luck with your new Hard Drive.

There was a news item here a few days ago saying that one ISP was going to start writing to its members that they know are using filesharing software to 'remind' them that downloading MP3s is illegal.

Nice.

Fortunately, that ISP isn't the one I use.

On my laptop, ripping a CD takes less than 5 minutes and that's using just the supplied software when it came new. Even though my broadband connection is quite quick, I reckon that's faster than I could download the same from a filesaring service.

That qualifies you for the Guinness World Records.

Technically Dino I don't HAVE to reinstall. I'm just choosing to. I always got annoyed when people dissed XP as being finicky. I think my experience is proof that OS's are as unstable as their users are inexperienced. But I digress. At least some people such as we members of SAF want to learn! So good on us for that.

That is funny you should say that. I purchased Acronis online a long time ago. The program was on the dead harddrive! I know I backed it up, but cant find the stupid backup dvd's. I might have accidently tossed them (I had LOTS of cd's / DVD's. Got kind of out of control). The only reason I never backed up the entire drive was I was too cheap to buy another external drive that was large enough. I think it is time for a DL dvd burner to replace my first gen sony +/- 2x dvdrw.

I am getting all kinds of signs a new system might have to be in the works...

Hey Jim, I like audiograbber, but 5 minutes is a long time for the cd's i will rip. I also use FreeCD Ripper, which is even faster, but I think audiograbber songs sound better, even at the same bit rate. Audiograbber files are slightly larger as well (if you rip the same song with both and compare).

It was just a joke; please don’t take it seriously and keep me on the D-girl’s good side.

I didn't think it was anything else, but I still feel compelled to defend my beloved XP.