Twenty years of research, maps, legends, places, trips and photos gone

BuffaloBob

Bronze Member
Jan 6, 2005
1,367
262
Rocky Mountains
Detector(s) used
Minelab X-Terra 705 Gold Coil
deteknixXpointer Probe
Minelab Ex-Terra 70
White's Classic II
2014-2015 Colorado Gold Camp Prospector
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
Every new computer I had included research and trips I've taken. Twenty years or so. Now possibly gone forever. Computer problems. I'll save the hard drive but I have a feeling it is not worthe the cost to recover. Recently moved to another town. Bought some thumbdrives to backup data but in the move can't find them. So no backups. Maybe it's just as well. I remember the important stuff but had lots of Colorado history I scanned or copied or wrote about. On the other hand only a few friends are interested and I just can't get to the places I'd like. We are newbies at this older age stuff and life style changes are inevitable.

My New MInelab X-Terra 705 Gold setup is great. Tuned it for jewelry and wouldn't you know it first day out found a R/R spike! And a old cap gun. Shoulda seen my blood pressure jump when I incovered the barrel.
BB
 

pat-tekker-cat

Gold Member
Feb 23, 2011
6,335
8,486
S. Fl.
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
Minelab Excal II, Garrett, Tesoro
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Hey BB, I was wondering where you was at the other day.
Sorry to hear about the computer and pics etc..... Maybe them backups will show up. I got an old computer I won't throw away, it will still boot, but it will overheat and go down. Maybe one day I'll get around to wiring and firing her up, just to snatch some info of it. Good luck with yours.
Hope you'll be posting now that you kinda settled.
 

dieselram94

Gold Member
Jun 17, 2011
9,174
6,675
Mid Coast Maine
Detector(s) used
Xterra 705, Tesoro Sand Shark, Garrett Pro Pointer (mine). Fisher F2 my son's
Primary Interest:
Beach & Shallow Water Hunting
Sure sucks to loose your pics. Thumb drives are small so I bet there just misplaced and will show up.

sent from a potato with gravy!!...
 

Eldo

Banned
Jul 7, 2014
1,890
698
Vermont
Detector(s) used
Brain, Pointing Finger, occasionally the Pinky Finger
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting

Loco-Digger

Gold Member
Jun 16, 2014
11,825
17,742
Northern O-H-I-O
🥇 Banner finds
1
Detector(s) used
F75 LTD, 1280X Aquanaut, & a Patriot (back-up/loaner)
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
One of the tricks I heard to get data off a dying hard drive is to remove it, put it in the freezer for a day. Pull it from the freezer and install and try to start the computer. You may have a chance to save some of the data you deem important to a CD or DVD
 

Randy Bradford

Sr. Member
Jun 27, 2004
486
847
External drives, big ones (not thumb drives) are relatively cheap and extremely powerful. You can store a terabite of data on a drive no bogger than your hand for a hundred bucks or so.
 

Cactus Pete

Greenie
Apr 21, 2015
10
6
Skykomish Valley, WA
Detector(s) used
Fisher Gold Bug SE w/two coils
Bounty Hunter Pioneer 505 w/two coils
Digital Control F5 (locating device for directional drilling)
Drillguide Gyroscopic Steering Tool (inertial guidance for directiona
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
Eldo has the right idea. I've salvaged almost all the data from laptop drives that were trashed enough to not start the computer, but still had my personal data on them. Rip it out of the computer, put it in an enclosure, and access it as an external driver. I've even salvaged some of those drives by saving the data to another drive, reformat the trashed drive, and then organize the saved data and write it back to the drive. Reformatting usually maps out any bad sectors and you can continue to use the good parts of the drive (although I wouldn't trust it with my only copy of critical data!!)
 

Holyground

Hero Member
May 17, 2014
579
826
Not in the can
Detector(s) used
Garrett AT GOLD, Garrett ATX
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I have three Seagate drives. One with massive storage and two smaller. I've been Treasure Hunting for over thirty years, and have lost a lot of hard copy pictures from the early days, in moves and what have ya, but the bulk of my pictures, I think, are safe with the extra storage. I have some amazing photos of things that almost killed me to get to. I can't lose them. My partner and I started when we were in our 20's. It's funny to see us as skinny kids with Weavers Needle in the background. Pictures are valuable.
 

WVPapaw

Sr. Member
Feb 22, 2013
348
100
Hills of WV
Detector(s) used
Garrett AT Gold, pro pointer, and two dowsing rods.
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Buffalo Bob, I had a similar experience once and took the hard drive out of the computer and installed it in an external drive case. I plugged it into another computer to find the data was alive and well. Small investment for valuable info if it works.
 

Tiredman

Bronze Member
Oct 15, 2016
2,311
1,486
Primary Interest:
Other
We had a storage device that nothing would open. Found a throw out cheap laptop, no battery or power cord bought the cord and of all things it opened the storage device.
 

A2coins

Gold Member
Dec 20, 2015
33,807
42,606
Ann Arbor
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
3
Detector(s) used
Equinox 800
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Hope you can recover those but the memories will always be with you
 

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