Windows vs Linux : hard disk issues

Yesterday, my pc couldn't boot.

After some hardware configuration changes, I realized that the problem was my hard disk.

I put another hard disk with windows, to examine the problem.

The BIOS complained that the disk has BAD status (replace the disk) and the windows started CHDSK to find the problem. After the delition of many segments of the hard disk, the disk was still unaccesible.

Then I booted from an installation CD of windows, and tried to use the restore functions, but nothing happened. BTW the installation CD couldn't even see the partitions of that disk...

Then, and as a last resort I tried a live CD of Knoppix(linux distro). Guess what? It can see the whole disk, so I can backup all the data of it to a network pc. The only prob is that it didn't installed my network card the best way, so this process will propably take more than 2 days, but at least the data will be saved :)

I wanted to share this with you, as after the SATA era it is very common for a hard disk to fail. My lesson was that I should have installed some kind of automatic dailly backup system and a RAID controller with two mirrored disks (I will do that tomorrow)

of course this is the best way, Like I told before in the shout box I use a backup tool (costs 10 USD) and store the modified data on a network drive every day.

I am thinking to use something like rsync, but I am not sure as I haven't used it before.

Maybe it is too difficult to set it up

try the 30 day trial:

http://www.kish-d.com/

I will. Thanks for the tip :)