Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Confused Canadian]

I'm sure I'll have those who tell me I should've backed my stuff up, an guess what...you're right. I normally do semi-regular backups, however things have been busy, and I just haven't had time lately...never again though...I'll make time.

Last Thursday, my mainboard died. Got a tech guy to replace it on Friday...needed one day to get the part...said he'd return the comp on Saturday and that he'd have to re-install Windows. I said okay (normally I'd do it myself, but I'm so busy at the moment, really don't have time, and my wife works on the computer at home, so it needed to be done ASAP). I expressly told him to only deal with the C: ... not to touch ANY of the other drives (I've got a 300 GB drive partioned into 3 drives C / D / E, and a 60 GB partioned into 2 F / G). I've got pics and home videos stored on the D: and E: partions...at least I had them...until this moron formated the entire drive!

Livid does not begin to explain how pissed I was. Anyways, after yelling at this guy for close to 1/2 an hour (the idiot disregard my specific request to reinstall my legit copy of Windows XP ... disc was in the CD drive, and yet he installed his own 'hacked' version). He didn't apologize once and repeatedly denied ANY wrong doing (though he didn't follow any of our clear instructions...given to him in Korean by my Korean wife). He claimed that the 300 GB drive only showed up as 1 - 116 GB partion, which is why he formatted the whole thing.

So, I had the presence of mind to find a guy that does data recovery in Yongsan. We showed up on his doorstep at 9 am on Sunday morning (yes, he works Sunday). He told us up front that if he was unable to recover anything, he wouldn't charge a thing. He said it should take about 3 hours. Turned out taking a bit longer, as he needed to make a few different attempts, but in the end, he was successful...mostly. He got the pics back from one partion, but not the home vids. I THINK I've got MOST of them backed up on disc, so that's not so bad. I'm currently in the process of making my computer re-usable (reinstalling drivers and programs), however, I'm going to re-install MY legit copy of XP on my smaller 60 GB drive and use the 300 GB only for storage, so this NEVER HAPPENS AGAIN!

The data recovery guy said there were definitely 3 partions originally (I know...I've been using the dang thing for over a year now, and I know how many partions I had). Not sure why one was damaged, but what's done is done. This data recovery guy was super nice, very friendly, and answered a number of questions my wife and I had. He figures the original 'tech guy' didn't update the BIOS on the new motherboard (it's P4 2.4 GHz) and that the older BIOS wasn't capable of recognizing a 300 GB drive.

Anyway, if you've ever in need of data recovery, send me a PM and I'll put you in contact with this guy. Don't think he speaks English, so you'll need a friend to help you. If you do need to perform data recovery after a format, the sooner the better...and don't use your computer at all until the data recovery process. After a format, the data is 'erased', but it's not completely erased until new data has been written over it. Once that happens, you can't recover it. In may case, the only new data was a Windows install, so the data recovery was pretty successful. BTW, he only charged 130,000 won for the 300 GB drive (smaller drives are cheaper), but compared to some of the other places we checked into on Saturday night, he was much cheaper. Some places were in the 350 - 400,000 won range!

Okay...end of rant / story....off to finish backing up ALL of my data...

[spliff]

oh, well...it wasn't my data... Do it yourself next time!

[SuperHero]

For data recovery if you have a working computer download Stellar FAT/NTSC and run it. As long as you haven't written anything to the drive you'll be able to recover everything.

It's amazing what you find on harddrives that people throw out on recycle day

[Confused Canadian]

[cubanlord]

glad to see everything...well...for the most part....worked out ok.

I agree, I hate it when people think formatting is the only solution. Those are the novices. :-/

[gsxr750r]

I bought a used hard drive from a small computer shop back home once, and it was full of videos of the owner's kids smoking pot at local high school parties. Numerous kids were involved. Had I turned it in to police, I'm sure there would have been a huge local scandal the newspapers would have loved.

I just deleted the stuff.

[Demophobe]

If it was a new mainboard (not the same make and model) then a format would be in order. The novice part was wiping out all partitions.

[Thunndarr]

[Demophobe]

I've done it too, but honestly, a putting a new mainboard in a system will be...odd without a format. I have done it twice actually...once on my own machine and once on another's. Both times, the machines were useable, but had some noticeable glitches.

There are certain things that can make it easier and more possible with less repercussions, especially in the event of a mainboard failure. One should get either the same board or one with many similarities...south, northbridge, controllers, etc...

[Thunndarr]

[cubanlord]

hehe. It's easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission. Oh wait, the guy denies everything!

[Confused Canadian]

Yes, it was a bonehead move.

And, as stated above, he installed his own version of XP, not my legit version that I instructed him to install. He 'claims' someone else in his shop did it 'by mistake'. Makes no sense to me...the XP CD was in the CD drive. Whoever did the install would've had to take out the nice, shiny XP disc and then use their own pirated version. And yes, now I do not have a 'genuine' copy of Windows, as attempts to update to Windows Media 11 have shown (10 runs fine and will do for now).

I will be reinstalling my version of Windows sometime in the near future...just trying to get the computer 'usable' for my wife's work situation until I have more time to do a proper install, and get things up and running the way I want to.

While on the topic...perhaps some of you gurus can help me...

Right now, my 300 GB drive is the Master, and the 60 GB is the Slave. I've now got everything backed up onto the 300 GB drive, along with the non-genuine install of Windows. My plan is to install my legit version of XP on the 60 GB drive. Can I install XP on the 60 GB drive, leave it as the slave (for now) until I get things exactly as I want them, and then when ready, switch the 60 over to the Master? In other words, will the computer continue to boot to the Windows installed on the 300 GB until I physically switch it over to the slave?

More headaches than I need... *sigh*

FYI, anyone in the Nowon Gu area....stay away from Wolf and Fox Computer (늑대와여우). You've been warned!

[Demophobe]

I am not playing the apologist card here...what happened is well and truly messed up, but you did tell him about the other drives in Korean, yes? I mean, it can make the difference, even in the world of computing, where most of the vocabulary is shared between languages.

Glad you got the important stuff back. It really does make sense to DIY computer stuff in Korea. There seems to be some real breakdowns in communication.

I am seriously thinking of helping people for a modest sum...maybe I can turn a buck from what I know and help people here.

[SuperHero]

[Confused Canadian]