Years of Recordings Possibly Lost?

[bigideas]

In 2000 my parents bought me a computer to use for college.
Before too long I acquired Cakewalk and an SM57 and began recording original songs on it.
I think it was around 2008 that I inadvertently downloaded a Registry Key. My computer started running slow. This computer used Win98SE. It worked perfectly fine with my recording software and I could still navigate the internet pretty well despite having an older OS. At work, if we ever had a problem they told us to reboot and see if that fixed the problem. As the computer rebooted an error message came up with the Log In screen. Once I moved the mouse another Error message came up, cleared it and then a third. The computer then seemed to work fine, the Win98SE screen came up and the Desktop seemed like it was about to load, but then it froze before the icons appeared. I have tried running in Safe Mode but that does not let me access anything either.

I am not very knowledgeable about computers, so I am afraid to do anything in fear of erasing 8 or so years of original recordings made by myself. I do still have all the original backup discs that came with the computer (Gateway), but on the OS one it has a clear warning that using it may erase all files.

Then, of course, the next option is a computer professional. I just do not like the idea of handing over all my own creations to someone else. It's almost like if I kept a personal diary and then had to hand it over to someone else to copy. Sure, I would hope most people would just copy and not read it, but there is always the possibility that someone would.

I have told more computer savvy friends about my problem and they have suggested one of the hard drive/USB things. They offered to let me borrow theirs, but then they just forgot and I get tired of asking.

So, does anyone have knowledge regarding Gateway computers that used Win98SE? If I use the OS disc, will it definitely delete all files I have created? Am I worrying too much about the local computer repairmen going through my recordings? Any advice would be helpful. It really stresses me out whenever I think of all of that getting lost.

I think if I ever do get another computer and record again I will burn CDs of everything. If it gets tedious then maybe I will just do it once a week or whatever seems frequent enough.

Now if I come up with a song or idea that I want to remember, I record it crudely on my phone or recycled cassette tapes and later put on computer and burn a CD of that. I really do miss being able to multi-track myself.

[RodC]

Insert large post about "you need to back your shit up" here.

I would plug the HD into a working computer and backup the data ASAP.

[kslight]

I am fairly certain that using the "restore" discs will reformat the hard drive and thus remove everything on it, not just the OS...it is designed to get people to a "zero point".

I would definitely suggest you back up your data, either by putting the drive yourself into another computer or through a local computer repair guy if you are not comfortable doing this yourself (though it is fairly simple even if you've never done it before I'm sure Google could lead you on the right path). However I don't really think you'd have a lot to worry about in having someone else back up your data, unless you've got something to hide on there. Mostly likely what would happen is you'd just take it over there and tell them to copy everything off onto a new hard drive, not just pick and choose certain files...so its much less like hand copying pages out of your diary and more like cutting the spine off of it and throwing the pages into the auto feed of a copier.

[E-money]

Why do you care what the local PC repairman thinks about your recordings?
Chances are, he's not even going to listen to them. You need somebody to see if the files are retrievable from your hard drive, if you don't know anybody that can help, pay for help.

A few other lecture points. Why are you a musician if you are afraid of people hearing your music?

Also, if you plan on doing precious work on a PC, learn a thing about maintaining a PC. If you were a professional tailor, you'd know a thing or 2 about maintaining your sewing machine. If you were a fisherman, you'd know how to maintain your rods and reels.

And for god's sake, you need to back up your work. Hard drives crash all of the time. Data is not backed up unless it's in 3 places, at least one of these places offsite.

[farview]

Just get an external hard drive and back all that stuff up onto that. They aren't that expensive.

Once you have that stuff backed up, you can do what ever you need to in order to get the computer running again.

Unfortunately, this is what happens when you break the two biggest rules of computer audio recording.

1. Always write your audio files to a second hard drive.

2. Always back up anything that you don't want to lose.

If you want to take it to a professional, I really wouldn't worry about them listening to your stuff. Why would they be interested in rummaging through the audio files of some random guy off the street that brought in an ancient computer? The biggest problem you will have is trying to find a 'professional' that has ever even seen Win98. Most of those guys are in their early 20's and were in grade school when that operating system was current.

[GooberNumber9]

Also. Ummm... you really do have to keep up with computer technology. I'm more surprised than you can imagine that this post is actually dated 2012 and we're talking about Windows 98 SE. Yes, it was a great operating system. And yes, your computer worked fine until now.

The problem is that you would be hard pressed to find any real support for Windows 98 at this point. If you called Microsoft, they wouldn't try to charge you $150 or whatever for an incident, they'd just say "Sorry". If you called a professional, they'd either be old and grizzled (like me) and they would probably remember most of their Win 98 tricks after about 1/2 hour of puttering around, or they'd be young and fresh and have absolutely no idea what to do.

And you are way too worried about a computer tech "going through your recordings". We have no interest in your personal files, we just want to fix the problem, get paid, and get out. And we've already seen midget donkey transexual porn on someone else's computer, a few seconds of your guitar noodling and off-key wailing (assuming the worst) will be forgotten before we hit our next job.

So, to summarize:
1) Back up everything, all the time, twice if you can manage.
2) Try to keep no more than 5 years out of date. Save up and buy an iMac and an external USB drive and you'll solve (1) and (2) at the same time.
3) Call the computer pro when it's important. It's definitely going to be easier than your first colonoscopy.

Edit: as I think about your knowledge level, I have to recommend you get a pro to help you. Make sure you tell them that you don't care about the computer working or anything, just that you get a back up of your files. Tell them that they are sound files and that you're not sure where on the drive they are (unless you know exactly where they are). Definitely do not even think about the OS install disks, and don't let anyone else touch those disks, since they will absolutely delete your data. The less you know, the more you have to trust a pro, and it looks like you have to put about 99% of your faith in a pro. You just have to hope that they can actually access an old IDE drive. At my work I'm not sure I could any more. One more point on the keeping up with technology side.

[artifus]

you could try a live cd running a lightweight linux distro such as damn small linux or puppy linux. there are many more.

these boot directly from the optical drive or usb and can run from ram not touching your hd but will give you access to transfer your files and may well run better than win98 on your gateway - giving you a bit more use out of it, at least for office/internet duties, before being consigned to landfill. puppy is very user friendly with versions written specifically for older hardware and laptops.

http://help.artaro.eu/index.php/windows ... x5962_nBbE

[bigideas]

I already was aware of needing to back up everything, but when I was looking into external hds they were already not listing Win98. Then life happened and I keep going and working day to day, etc., then wammo.

Why are you a musician if you are afraid of people hearing your music?

Hard to say. Are there music psychiatrists?

Why would they be interested in rummaging through the audio files of some random guy off the street that brought in an ancient computer?

I don't know. I guess there is the fear that I put something down jokingly, purposefully singing bad, or doing a quick run through on something when I don't have much time in order to remember it and that it could sound really ridiculous. Once someone had this potentially embarrassing file, for all you know they could put it on YouTube and it becomes an overnight viral video. ha.

you really do have to keep up with computer technology

I wish I had the money to update to all the newest gadgets, but that is not a reality for me. When you're dealing with wanting a computer to handle audio recording that increases the budget even more.

I'm talking small time here. I began plugging a mic or instrument into the 1/8 mic jack on the back of the tower. Then later I got a Yamaha mixer so I had the phantom/condenser option, but still plugged it in via the 1/8 jack. So everything was one track at a time in mono. It was just me doing everything so it was fine. I don't own a drum set either, which typically require more mics, etc.. Honestly, I don't even know what one needs to record multi-track on a computer, I just like writing and recording when I feel the inspiration. There are no clients or money involved. Just me. Thanks for any responses.

[mscottweber]

Hard to say. Are their music psychiatrists?

I think I just found my true calling. There's certainly no shortage of clients...

[jhharvest]

I wish I had the money to update to all the newest gadgets, but that is not a reality for me. When you're dealing with wanting a computer to handle audio recording that increases the budget even more.

I think it's awesome that you just hit record rather than chase after the biggest and newest gear. However as a practical advice:
If you plan on keeping the same computer then you should at the very least change your hard drive. Because once a HDD fails, even if you manage to get it working again it'll very soon fail again. I'd recommend that you remove the failed disk from your computer, put in a new one and do a clean install of your chosen OS on it. Then buy a disk dock, something like this. After that you can try to salvage whatever you can from the disk. There's all sorts of software for that but unfortunately I can't assist you that much with Windows stuff.

[Z-Plane]

Hang on - anyone able to bounce tracks to .WAV and save MIDI files in a folder has probably future-proofed their work for decades, no matter what system or DAW so long as you label things clearly its done and dusted. You can restore these sessions in just minutes on any current system or likely any invented for the next x years, and given the alternatives already mentioned surely this is a win-win?

...unfortunately I can't assist you that much with Windows stuff.

I love saying that. So poilte and helpful yet so utterly insulting.