going to really energize and change the paradigm the company is working under.

Wait a second; I recognize that speak. You're not really technical at all - you're a product marketing manager!

I should know, I left IT for dark side 10+ years ago. :)

We can agree to disagree, but computerized appliances won't have file structures you can see and future computers will have a UI neither U nor I will understand. OK that was lame.

The drive spins up, but isn't recognized by the BIOS (and therefore anything else). I've tried the cables, even tried moving it to a machine where I knew the cables were good, it isn't the cables or cable seating this time. It doesn't sound like a head crash (no odd noises). I found some software that bypasses the BIOS, it sees the drive and its cylinder layout.

This could actually not be bad news. What I mean is the lack of noise signifying a physical hardware crash where typically something has physically impacted the disk platters causing real damage. Almost sounds like an electronic problem. Which means they should be able to mount new electronics and in a perfectly executed situation your drive would essentially be fully intact.

I have a cable problem now -- there is a native SATA controller on the motherboard, no regular IDE cables at all and no slots (actually just one, an AGP for the graphics controller, which I need to see the screen), and the software has trouble with SATA and USB mounted drives.

I'm not really following what you mean here, controllers and cables being two different things. Do you mean the systemboard has only SATA connections on it and no IDE controller at all? And which software are you talking about having trouble with SATA and USB drives? Must be the operating system, since that's the only software that gives a shit what kind of interface is being used.

I did get some quotes that offered to go in and fix electrical and/or logical problems and return the drive intact so I could image it, but most companies want to image stuff onto DVD's or CD's. I do have some backups, but currently have no way to get to them, and they are out of date. The irony is that I didn't buy the backup software a couple of months ago because it was too expensive.

I always suggest to people to buy a good quality DVD burner and get in the habit of following through and make backups. Only after we have evaluated *what* really needs to be backed up. Sometimes people back everything up, or all the program files, etc, when it just isn't necessary in most cases.

I had originally asked because I'm way out of my element on disk recovery companies and don't know which one to trust, and was hoping someone had used such services around here. Now I am very thankful, I have contacted some of the contacts people have given, but I'm somewhat embarrassed that I derailed a thread on a super important topic.

I wouldn't sweat it too much. It's late and it seems to me the topic is winding down for the day. Besides, comment sections today are a lot like the old Usenet groups of yesteryear. OT and wild divergent tangents are the norm. My two-cents FWIW any way.

People don't need to know about memory architecture, or CPU internals, or what a bus is and the different types of busses there are in a typical system. But the same way I can look into my car's engine compartment and know where the battery is at, the radiator, etc, people should know some basic fundamental info about the computer.

Funny you should put it this way. Once upon a time, I rebuilt the master directory of a RAM disk byte by byte and recovered an important document (someone's thesis). At that time, I was also a mechanic, and I fixed cars (for $8/hour 40 hours a week). Now both look strange inside to me. The computer has internals and cables and devices that require a book a piece to learn about, and a language a minute for software, and cars now have very fancy vacuum systems, and injectors and tons of valves and very sophisticated onboard computers -- not to mention up to 17 air bags (hopefully labeled).

With cars, the problem started when no one cared about what happened to the car after the sale in terms of design. With computers it is somewhat the same.

With government, no one cares about the people after the election, after the sale is made. Way earlier on this thread, Paul Dirks worried about people that just start trashing corporations -- maybe it isn't the corporations all the time, but the spread of the mentality into areas of life where it doesn't belong.

Does anyone remember a car called the Morris Minor? You could get to any part in the engine compartment, because it was designed that way. And Word Perfect, which built its success on customer service. Standing by one's product was the mark of a "reputable company". "Established in..." all integrity and reputation.

This must be what it's like to grow old.

Wait a second; I recognize that speak. You're not really technical at all - you're a product marketing manager!

Yuck! Now you're really on my shit list ...

We can agree to disagree, but computerized appliances won't have file structures you can see and future computers will have a UI neither U nor I will understand. OK that was lame.

I'll believe it when I see an actual live, functional computer appliance. Personally they have been promising radical new systems for literally decades now, and they never come about due to the need for backwards compatibility. As long as, ahem, IT Managers continue to shovel buckets of money into MS' coffers they will never really change how the dominate system operates. Instead they will offer lots of small incremental changes to keep the market churning and money flowing in.

Think about it, how is Windows Vista so much different than Windows 3.x? It really isn't in terms of how users interact with the system. Yes, it is much more stable and sexy looking, but the same basic methods used to open, save, and work with files and applications really haven't changed much.

After nearly two decades of this insanity, and with the wealth and power Microsoft has, I think this is pathetic to say the least.