PROCON: I see there are lots of helpful comments already, maybe this will bring some more. Good luck!
Posted on 08/09/2023 9:51:17 PM PDT by PROCON
*SIGH*, I had my desktop computer crash, renewed 10 year old Dell (Win10) last week, just went blank, screen eventually came up asking if I wanted to do a diagnostic test, I hit yes and after the diagnosis it said it didn't recognize my hard drive.
Where TF did my hard drive go?
Anyway, not being a computer nerd I ordered a different (HP) renewed computer from Amazon, it arrived Sunday, set it up and through my Microsoft account was able to recover all my files, documents, pictures, etc but not my MP3 music. 😥.
What happened to my music files?
I'm not a computer nerd so please be gentle and use terms I might understand 'cuz I really miss that music!
Take it to the shop where Hunter Xiden took his laptop.
That's what I recommend. About three years ago, my old MacBook Pro died after 12 years. It was the graphic card, but the hard drive was still good, so I had them take it out and put it in a case, and access it when I needed to.
When I traded in my 2005 Altima, and leased my first new car four years ago, I discovered they don't put CD players in cars anymore. I had to take all my CDs and format them into MP3, and put them all on a USB stick so I could play them in the new car. I've got an old iPhone, and didn't want to use it to hold all my music. Hopefully, your hard drive is still good, and you can get your music off of it, then I'd advise you to save them to a USB stick so you'll have them in the future if you need them. I don't use iCloud or anything to back things up. I just put those things on a USB stick.
Remove the old hard drive and plug it into a:
USB 3.0 to SATA IDE Hard Drive Reader
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09D7QK3YD/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1
Plug the usb cable into your new pc and look for .mp3 using the search icon near the Start button.
In the folder go to View then Details to see the location of where they are.
Copy and paste them say to a folder on the Desktop.
Download the FREE VLC Player to play the music and the video files.
I use Bvckup 2 Pro for Workstation $49.99 Bvckup 2 https://bvckup2.com to copy my files to another hard drive to another internal and a external drive.
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How do I reset the default associations in Windows 10?
Microsoft will reset the file associations and to fix this do the following:
To reset all Apps and File Associations to default in Windows 11/10, do the following. You have to do a Reset first as you will find that just doing a file association that Microsoft will ignore.
Press Win+I to open Windows Settings. Or Start button> Settings icon (gear) then Apps> Default apps
On the right side scroll down and you will see:
Reset to the Microsoft recommended defaults and click on the “Reset” button.
Next go to above list seen there and choose the programs you want.
Example: Web browser> Firefox
Some other file types you will need to go here:
“Choose default apps by file type”> Click on the file type and a popup appears and choose the program app you want.
Example: A .pdf file will open in Microsoft Edge and you want Adobe Reader or the better Foxit PDF Editor
Or for a .zip file you want Winzip or some other zip program.
Do this anytime the issue happens again, generally after installing some other software that has the ability to open images, pdfs etc. A reset then choosing your apps as default again will fix the issue and no restart is needed.
When you do a Windows update it may reset your favorite app to a microsoft one.....
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Start button> Windows System> Control Panel or use the search and type in ‘control panel’
You can create a shortcut for the future by right clicking on the result and Pin to Start or Taskbar.
Control Panel> Default Programs> Set your default programs
I learnt early in the PC revolution in 1993 that one really needs at least two computers and many HDs.
Multiple backups that are regularly examined and updated is key.
PROCON: I see there are lots of helpful comments already, maybe this will bring some more. Good luck!
Pay for backup service or use ITunes for free and upload them there
Get an auxiliary hard drive for a back up, they are fairly inexpensive and small and hold a lot of data. I have several Toshiba’s and had them for many years. Matter of fact I still have files from the early days of computers probably dating back over thirty years. Of course by then there was no Toshiba and I used some other types with external power supplies. But as technology progressed I kept upgrading my auxiliary hard drives, as I would not trust any other place for storage. Not only that but I also have duplicate hard drives, just in case one decide to go bell up, And by the way I am not a computer expert by any means. But this may give you an idea.
Never mind.
Backing up is very important. I had this playlist thingy Windows 10 installed and it zapped 21,000 of my songs when Windows discontinued it. ITunes did the same thing with my library previously. I have a couple of thumb drives and external hard drives for that reason. If it’s gone, I just reload it.
Can’t play vinyl in the car. But if you do, avoid the bumps.
“I have the files on FIVE different drives. Yeah, I’m that paranoid.”
My music is on a few external drives at home, one in our safety deposit box, and one on a small Kingston flash drive in my purse. Also a Kingston flash drive always plugged in to the music system in our RAV4. (Kingston seems to be the only brand the car likes.)
“I don’t use iCloud or anything to back things up.”
We don’t use any cloud system for backup, either. I don’t trust the security. (Not that any data is secure any more. I get that.)
You know, I used to be a music guy. I still have maybe four or five feet of vinyl, which I haven’t touched in ages.
I still like it when I hear it, on occasion, but, I’m just getting old, I guess.
Am I the only one who doesn't true the Cloud? I keep worrying anything on the Cloud might be hacked and stolen.
I turned off all the Cloud connections to my iPhone, so I have nothing on the Cloud. It also means I can't use certain Apps, which is okay.
I have no Cloud backups for my phone or computer, only on external hard drives.
I don’t trust the Cloud either, but I don’t have anything on my computer that is very important in that respect. Now the government should not use the cloud under any circumstances.
Until it’s scratched or worn out.
bkmk
I used Knoppix and Ubuntu Live modes to get data some.
Even made a little extra money from it.
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