Cloud

If you haven't got in touch with a data recovery expert yet, the best thing you could do right now is to take a picture of the damage and post it on here. It's quite possible that it's not actually fucked at all, but just some of the internals have got damaged, especially if it's USB powered.

Whatever you do, don't try and make it work any more - every time it tries to power up, it could be destroying data. There are ways of recovering drives, and to be honest, it would be really terrible luck if it was that badly damaged that you couldn't recover the data. But the fact that it's able to power on is encouraging - and it does point at the drive not being terribly damaged.

I'd certainly avoid the suggestions of freezing the drive - mainly because it may do more damage than good. It's fine and well if it's just a broken drive, but where irreplacable data is concerned, it's better not to fuck with 'man in the pub' cures.

If you can't afford the services of data recovery experts - then you could have a look at GRC?|?Hard drive data recovery software?? . It could do the trick, and there are plenty of testimonials about it. But I'd strongly suggest not considering it unless you really have no other alternatives. Whatever you do, don't let anyone touch it who doesn't clearly know what they're doing - although I've fixed a broken drive before, you don't want people who can repair things near the drive, you want people that can get the data intact from the drive.

As for recommendations for backup - it's a tough subject. I'd suggest having a read of this - Long-term backup [dive into mark] - and then deciding from there. CD/DVD based backup isn't the best in terms of life, although I imagine making three DVD backups using different media should be a fairly reliable method. It goes without saying that you should always keep one copy 'off-site' too.

From what little I know about backups, you should always try to ensure that the files are kept in an open source format too. I was reading something a while ago about the problems with older software, because the files generated were in a non-open format and thus it was difficult to actually read and convert the files in question.

You could also subscribe to an online service to backup the most important things too.

Hope it turns out fine

OK. my most sincere and humble apologies for failing to remember verbatim your actual words on the subject, you were certainly a fan of him and defended him to the hilt, I'm just surprised that no football club chairmen seem to share your view.

Nope, I'm not going to agree with you here. Calderwood did a bloody good job on what he had available, and while he probably wouldn't suit a club with money, he's a damn good bet for any top level club that doesn't have lots of money to invest.

I'll give it one bad start to the season and the Aberdeen faithful will be all over McGhee, especially as they'll be expecting a dream start to the season. Consideirng he'll be working with no money, with the Setanta mess on top - just what do Aberdeen fans expect?

Will McGhee really have any hope of getting to the last 32 of the UEFA cup?

Jesus christ, andy's done more positive stuff for bands and music in the north east than sandi thom has. He lost his radio show because radio stations make more money from automated shows than a small indie show.

What motivation is there for Sandi Thom to help anyone, seeing as small time charlies like this do nothing but criticise her? I certainly wouldn't be lifting a hand to help anyone if I was her, especially when someone who's 'done so much' uses an internet column to take cheap shots.

why is this even being discussed? Sandi thom writing and recording a whole song in response to a comedian saying he doesn't like her music is a bit of an overreaction. If she's doing so well then why the fuck would andy even be on her radar? She's obviously got a lot of down time between hectic american tours if she can spend it fannying about with this pish.

Maybe she's just taking the piss, maybe she's just showing that she's human and can be affected by unfair criticism just as the rest of us can? Or maybe, just maybe - she's having a laugh at people's expense who take themselves deadly seriously?

Thing is Cumulus, is it not equally pathetic that Sandi Thom feels the need to 'drop to his level' and post that pile of garbage up as a retort? Might just be me, but that comes across as being childish and very insecure, and god knows I've been in enough horse-shit no-win internet dogfights to know as much.....

It does, to be fair. I doubt anyone was even talking/thinking about his blog until she mentioned it - and she would've done far better to leave it be. Then again, it's got people talking about her, even if it's in a mostly negative way.

I wonder what her motivation was, to be honest - she might just be fooling around with too much time on her hands, or she might actually have taken it as a deadly insult. Hard to say...

Can we please stop going on like Sandi Thom is from Aberdeen. She's no more from Aberdeen than I am. I don't think it's worthwhile "claiming" her to be honest.

She's from the North East though, no?

It hardly backfired quite badly. She got annoyed at him and wrote a crap song. He must be shitting himself.

Well, he lost his radio show, his blog and is working behind the bar in The Tunnels. Meanwhile, Sandi is in America promoting herself.....1-0 Sandi, I'd say.

It is MY opinion that you and sandy thom are twats.

Such articulate language!

Hint : Try having your own opinions in future, rather than simply following the herd, eh?

From what I've heard, you have to pay for it in Poland.

No luck, even the Premium membership isn't available here.

I'm sure absolutely no-one is interested, but these services tend not to even get off the ground here. Even iTunes isn't available here

Cloud you really are an unbearable winnet.

Then again so is sandy thom.

Awww. Someone doesn't like the fact that people can actually have their own opinions!

Does it make you feel scared?

Andrew's radio show was cancelled because Original were freed from their obligation to devote a portion of their airtime to local music and non-mainstream material by the Radio Authority. They felt that more money could be made through advertising by playing MOR standards in between adverts rather than music from local bands and up-and-coming artists.

Oh, I know the story, but it is damming that a show dedicated to dull MOR had more worth to the station than a show dedicated to local music.

I think it's a matter of record that he was asked to stay on as a presenter, but he chose to leave the station rather than have his playlist dictated to him. He stood up for his principles, and I guarantee you, every single band that appeared on that show, and every single song he played, had more artistic merit and worth to the local scene and the music scene in general than anything Sandi Thom has ever managed to produce.

This is exactly the point I'm making here - he may have done a hell of a lot for Aberdeen locally, but to take cheap shots at one of the very few people to have succeeded out of the North East for no real reason than seemingly to appeal to his circles is absolutely pathetic.

I don't know him and can only judge him on the basis of what he's written online - and he comes across badly to an outsider. Whether or not he's a good guy isn't here nor there - come on, there's plenty of good guys offline who have been involved in some incredibly petty arguments and feuds online.

(as a random aside, given the mockery of the EE by almost everyone with an ounce of sense in Aberdeen - why on earth was he writing for them??)

Just check the dates of her blogs and Andrew's. It's not difficult.

That's not 'clear' though, is it?

So what you're basically saying is, it's OK Aberdeen doesn't have a outspoken voice and an outlet for local talent, we've got Sandi Thom. Please Sandi, don't give up on us now. Take this vast wodge of our money to impose your soulless dreck upon the rest of the world. We could have spent it on developing local talent, or financing a local radio show that plays music that's different to every single other pop/rock oriented station in the country, but we'd like you to have it because you've had a HIT SINGLE in the CHARTS! Good on you Sandi, show those worthless bastards in the Tunnels how it should be done.

No. I'm saying that after she was dropped by Sony, people should have been clamouring to get her 'on side' here. No matter what anyone says, she's had some success and could have helped Aberdeen in some way, especially as she's gone stateside to try and find a deal there. But what motivation does she have to help anyone, especially if people like him are taking cheap shots at her? No matter what you say, she could get coverage in the local press by attending the naming of a cat cermony - whereas many people would struggle to even get the cat mentioned in the EE.

The thing I don't like is that this guy is coming across online as being part of something that's much better than you because he doesn't listen to Sandi Thom - yet of all the people he could be slagging off, he choses to pick on one of the very few success stories from the North East. It was misguided and stupid to do so - especially as it appears to have backfired quite badly.

Cloud, you've taken some controversial viewpoints in the past, and you've made both very valid points as well as spouting unhinged nonsense. There have been times when I've stood up for you and defended your right to make your points in the way you do, but you are so far off-beam with this one it's just incredible.

Maybe it's a matter of a different perspective - I don't know or care for him or Sandi Thom, so I don't have any personal attachment to either of them.

But people like this guy can work their ass off promoting the local scene, doing all that's good and so on - yet someone like Sandi Thom could do far more with one gesture than he could do all year. It's not fair, or right - but it's the way it is.

Yet another service that isn't available here..rubbish

Very good Cloud.

I see someone has nothing intelligent to say

I could probably send you a couple of Polish workers to do it cheap?

Sandi Thom wasn't a columnist when he wrote the apology (as clearly stated) back in February.

If you can't read very well, you may not be the best person to give their oh-so-valuable judgement on 'mince blogs'.

So that would be why he lost the radio gig and his blogging gig, then? Clearly slagging off Sandi Thom didn't do much for him...

As clearly stated where though? Not in the February blog post, and not on here...

Then again, he just sounds bitter that someone from the North East managed to get to get their 15 minutes of fame, whereas he's still stuck behind the bar in a random music venue in a backwater of the UK. Sandi's right - he was taking a cheap shot, and where she might actually have managed to do some good for Aberdeen in publicising the city abroad, there's absolutely no reason for her to do so now.

Perhaps he would learn a lot by not shitting on his own doorstep in future?

I feel it does matter that Andrew Learmouth is an exceptionally nice guy - he even apologized for hating Thom's music, which is far more than is deserved for such tosh. Yet she responds with evil sonic warfare. That's cold.

Did he apologise because he meant it, or did he just want to keep his blog on the EE website? Bearing in mind that having Sandi Thom as a columnist is far more interesting than him, he might just have been covering his own back.

And you've noticed that Andrew (alongside every column writer) talks about themselves. Congratulations. Columnists write about their own experiences. If they didn't, they'd be writing about other occurrences... y'know... like the rest of the newspaper?

Writing about how cool he thinks he is because he goes to 'indie gigs at The Tunnels' is absolutely pathetic. His posts about the Fringe are done well, but some of it just screams 'look at me, look at me, i'm different'.

Doesn't really matter if he's nice or not - the point is that his blog is absolutely mince.

If this bloke is a nice guy or not, it doesn't really matter - the point is that he was a dick online to someone and then got called out for it. Sandi Thom's done far more than he appears to have done, and the whole thing screams of 'let's pick on Sandi because she's an easy target'. He's coming across in his blogs as being the classic case of someone who likes to think that he's some sort of IMPORTANT PERSON. Certainly, he's about as controversial as Greigsy for crying out loud!

Seeing as everyone is so desperate to talk about me being in Poland, I think I'll make it a recurring theme in every post I make.

Wonder if Sandi Thom will do a tour of Poland? If the Manics can support Limp Bizkit here (seriously), then she could quite easily do some nice support gigs here.

haha thats ace, that guy is a pleb anyway!

Have you read any of his columns? He sounds like a complete dick.

He goes on and on and on about how he's 'cool' and 'knows music' - then goes on about seeing the Arctic fucking Monkeys at the AECC, because ...that's where cool is to be found.

I notice he writes about "me, me and fucking me" the whole time too.

He actually represents everything that's horrible about Aberdeen Even down to his constant mentioning of The Tunnels, like some sort of superior being just because he goes to indie gigs there.

I had PHD last week and it was fucking shit.

PHD has always been fucking shit, nothing changes there

I see Biz has been leaving comments...

I don't really like your music, but you've come a long long way since that first gig at Lava/Kef and that time when you played Union Street market and Murray spewed up at the end of the set for rocking out too much.

Voted.

Voted too.

And Jesus, I remeber that time on Union Street like it was yesterday, but it was what, 6 years ago?

i'm pretty certain that works the same for using a lloyds machine with a card from another bank. lloyds atm's aren't like super atm's which can tell you information other atm's can't.

Doesn't it depend on the bank? Lloyds machines will tell you the current account balance and the available balance, whereas RBS machines used to only tell you the current account balance. I might be mixing the two up - but certainly, RBS would only tell you what was in your account.

HBOS machines always gave both figures when using a Lloyds card, though.

Yeah' date=' I had money in the account. I came home immediately and checked my balance, just in case something was wrong, but the balance was fine. So I dunno...still stumped.[/quote']

Bizzare... maybe it was just a fault in the Link network then.

Lloyds cards are hit or miss abroad too, I've found, especially in Germany.

Did you have money in the account? Some machines will tell you that you've got money in your account, but a Lloyds machine (using a Lloyds card) will tell you the real scenario - usually when you've used the money paying for something, but the money hasn't left your account yet. RBS machines used to be terrible for doing this, at least.

aye, 1.50 - 2.50 in supermarkets just now for a punnet, though they are ALWAYS listed as more but constantly "on offer"

I bought a kilo of strawberries yesterday for the equal of 65p...and they were fresh from the field!

(then again, in a country where a kilo of apples is no more than 50p, I suppose it's no shock...)

Can someone do me a favour and check the price of strawberries, please?

Lance Armstrong, for me. Anyone that can be a world champion at 21 like he was, get hit with cancer (and his prognosis was terrible!), then come back and win the Tour de France 7 times is nothing short of absolutely jaw droppingly incredible.

If he wins number 8, then there'll be absolutely no question about it.

Avoid Fink Breu unless you like the taste of rotting weeds.

Shut up, Fink Brau is the drink of kings.

I spent an entire summer school drinking nothing but Fink with my flatmates and had a brilliant time...only beer I've ever found that gets you nicely pissed and yet no matter how much you drink, you still stay at that nicely pissed level.

'stop thinking, start finking'

Is Back Wynd OK? Thought it was just taxis and disabled badge holders.

Unless things have dramatically changed, Back Wynd was for Green badge holders at the very start, with taxis the rest of the way. I know someone who posesses a Blue Badge and was caught out there.