It should be noted with respect to hard drive catastrophies:

Each time you power it up...may well be the last time you successfully do so

With that in mind you MUST have an effective plan to immediately rescue your most valuable data FIRST

This involves the following:

Do not allow the drive to be energized until you are absolutely ready

Do not allow others to accidentally energize the drive in your absence

Do not EVER boot from that hard drive again(until everything of value is rescued at least)

When you do energize the drive be prepared to immediately go directly to the most valuable data first and get it copied to a safe location immediately

Do NOT attempt to copy the whole drive

GO GET YOUR VALUABLE DATA FIRST!

A large portion of the data on the drive is of absolutely no serious value

You can easily replace the operating system and each and every piece of additional software and/or driver

Again, operate under the assumption that the drive will only last another ten minutes

Go to your most irreplaceable data FIRST and rescue it immediately

The biggest mistake we see at the service counter and technician's bench is making the assumption that the drive is going to stay operational through ANY specific process

As the owner of the equipment, consider that each time you turn your machine on...that may be the last time the system operates properly and without any losses

Hence our worldwide web battlecry...BACK IT UP! SECURE YOUR DATA!

And for the technician and hobbyist the same holds true and is even MORE important

You must demand that your friends and patrons give you a list of EXACTLY what must be rescued

You must demand BOTH what must be rescued AND the order of value(and hence the order in which data will be rescued)

You must proceed ONLY after an effective and complete plan of action is determined

Otherwise you will either be physically transplanting your platters into another hard drive to retrieve the data...

Or...

You will be paying someone else big money to do it for you

Again...

You have been warned!

So...

While your hard drive is operating perfectly fine, start backing-up anything and everything that you can't afford to lose FOREVER

As always, your mileage may vary, buyer beware, and buyer be aware

We now return you to your regularily scheduled programming

.