Welcome to the computer crashers club

Good to hear from you and welcome to the club. Which club? The I-Crashed-My-Computer- Needed-Drivesavers- and-Now-I-Know-Better -Club; it is not a club of I-gotta-clue- from-hearing-about-it, it's more of the membership of I-needed -the-experience -myself. I am a member in the latter catagory.

This is when you need the men in the little white body suits - I use drive savers in such cases:
http://www.drivesavers.com/

Why?
1. They are #1 in the business.
2. It is all they do.
3. They are successful at retrieving all the files possible.
4. I had a good experience with them.
5. They are not BestBuy.

But?
1. They are not cheap - they require "clean rooms" so they pass those costs onto customers. (Yippee, hun?!)

See the cool demo at:
http://www.drivesavers.com/company-info/virtual-tour.html

Nothing of the original programs is useful - get all your application files from the original disks and reinstall.

Filing systems, while a pain, are absolutely essential in this business, just like backups. It is what sets professionals apart from amateurs.

Linda Lane's recommendation?

1. Call DriveSavers (cost compare with another data retrieval firm) and find out what it will cost for data recovery. Make your decision.

2. Retrieve your box from BestBuy (their goal is to get your money by selling you something).

3. Send your box to DriveSavers for data recovery (if you really need/want the stuff off that computer)

4. Define what solutions you need and follow up on them rigorously (or religiously). See 5 & 6.

5. Think about your backup system -
a. Did your backup system serve you well?
b. What could you have done differently or better to preserve your data?
...
z.Did you have a complete disk image of your entire system when it failed, for example?

6. Investigate great file management systems, and purchase one for tracking and versioning videos and images.

7. Do some in-depth research for your next box and order it directly from the manufacturer. (no gateways or off brands, Alienware is cool but do you need cool or a workhorse, or a cool workhorse? etc )

Freedom
This all provides you with the opportunity to start fresh, get your network speed issues sorted out, and begin best practices for:
1. Regular disk backup

2. Use of a file system to manage your contents for easy access, naming conventions etc.

3. Fear of costs over dead systems will light a fire to keep you purchasing and moving to new machines from time to time to stay ahead of the diskcrashing bogeyman.

Now you know why I have four computers, and three backup drives, two external DVD writers, and two Webhosts for my sites, and memberships in various computer information organizations and subscribe to email listserves on graphics topics.