If you're absolutely sure it's the controller board, and you're feeling brave, you could try some of the steps outlined HERE or HERE, or take it to a PC repair shop (who will almost certainly follow the same guidelines but charge you for the privilege). You could also try the safer option of burning the latest Ubuntu to a CD, booting off it and seeing if you can see the hard drive from it (Linux is infinitely superior to Windows in its interaction with hard disks. I've saved many a file from a 'dead' drive simply by accessing it with Ubuntu). Assuming it's not the controller but the drive itself, and Ubuntu can't see the data, a last ditch attempt could lie in freezing the drive. Sometimes, drives die because certain compoents - usually the drive arm that holds the reading head - gets jammed, so the disk can't read any data from the platter. The idea is that putting the hard drive in a sealed bag (to prevent moisture) and placing it in a freezer for at least 24 hours, shrinks the components sufficiently enough to free the drive arm and allow the hard disk to function again until the nature heat of the PC and activity causes it to jam again. I've only managed to get this to work once, with a 48hr freeze giving me a little under 20 minutes to grab the vital data, but this really is a last-ditch attempt that should only be tried with an otherwise totally dead drive.

Best Man

Tea Leaf

I was always rather more partial to the joke "What is the difference between a duck?" which delightfully continues to confuse many people..

Coffee Cup

Table Tennis

Thank you for your kind accolade, but I should point out that I run the IT department of a UK corporation, not a multinational (although the directors doubtless have designs in that direction!). As to scanners you have a ton of various options, so your guiding considerations really should be (a) what job should the scanner do, and, (b) what is your price margin? The scanner to which you linked retails at around £400, so using this as your assumed upper budget, I can suggest something like THIS, which will easily handle your scanning needs (including generating PDFs later if that's what you want), plus it's manufactured by a firm with a reputation for solid office equipment. You can of course go cheaper, in which case you'll find the features becoming less and less, although it should be pointed out that the actual scan quality is pretty much the same across most scanners these days. The optical technology that produces the scan is now so common, and cheap, that even the most basic of scanners will produce a decent enough image. Regarding 4-in-1 (or all-in-one) devices, I'd personally give them a miss. That may be a little prejudiced of me, since the devices I purchase for the offices are high-use, heavy duty, so I will always prefer devices that do one dedicated job. All-in-one devices used to have a not entirely unjustified reputation for falling apart rather quickly and easily, although they're almost certainly better now.

Car Crash

Music Box

I'm always popular; I control their internet privileges.

Work is slow for me as the vast majority of the office seems to have erupted into near-BNP-rally levels of thuggish nationalism. Employees are bedecking themselves in red crosses and are gutturally cheering on our team with what I understand is the usual degree of Neanderthal enthusiasm. Bunting has been run around parts of the office and productivity has ground to a halt. And my part in all this? I received a manager's directive this morning ordering my department (IT) make all PCs capable of streaming the football. An IT Manager's job is never done...

Jazz Music

Easy. 1. Daniel Day-Lewis was in Stars and Bars with Maury Chaykin 2. Maury Chaykin was in Where the Truth Lies with Kevin Bacon Now, make a link between Kevin Bacon and Kyle Minogue

Voodoo Doll

Inflatable Doll

Nope. I get around that problem by not having children. Other advantages are a relatively trouble-free life, the freedom to do as I please when I please and a large disposable income. I'm afraid it doesn't quite work like that. Your ISP conenction only has a certain amount of bandwidth available and it has to be shared out amongst all the connecting devices. It is possible to perform traffic shaping on your bandwidth (giving greater priority to certain ports than others, for example), but the process is quite technical and normally not available on home routers. I'd say the easier option is to stop the kids playing online at certain hours, or, even better, get rid of the kids. Alternatively, as midnight1200 suggests, you could get a dedicated connection to your house to use solely for gaming then charge them the rental fee.

You can tickle our respective scales, so to speak...

Curtain Call

It's possible, sure; the question is really whether it's probable, and not knowing anything about that company's network, I really can't offer an opinion. That said, I'd be extremely surprised if this were the case. DNS hijacking, even in the most basic of properly-run networks, is extremely unlikely, if for no other reason than the users are not (or should not be) given administrative level accounts. Sorry Max, but I have to say I entirely agree with geoff1248 here. If, as you say, you clicked the link then it's your action that brought up material forbidden by your company policy. As I said before, the only realistic defence I can see is that you closed your browser immediately upon realising your error, but I suspect whether or not that is accepted and the matter dropped as a result is the decision of the company.

I run the corporate network of a national company, so can try to advise on how things might stand from the IT perspective (I can't be sure since I don't know how your network is setup or administered). Firstly, whilst what SOD'EM says about viruses and adware is quite correct, I don't think that's necessarily the situation here, or at least I hope it's not since it would indicate a rather alarming lack of security on the part of your IT department! It sounds like you attempted to visit - in all innocence - an iPhone website that unbeknown to you contained (semi)pornographic ads/pop-ups/links. To be perfectly honest, this is extremely common for a lot of websites. Some have hidden scripts and malware imbedded in them to hijack the unsuspecting visitor, but the vast majority have their hosting costs part-funded by placing adverts over the site, and, where online revenue is concerned, sex sells. As to where that leaves you, it's something of a grey area. I'd suggest that the burden of proof is on your company - specifically the IT department - to show that you knowingly (note the adjective there) visited a site that contained material banned by law and/or your employment contract, as this would constitute an offence. If you actually clicked a link for the material in question, as you intimated in this post, you might be on trickier ground than if you'd just suffered a popup on an otherwise innocent page. Conversely, I'd argue the fact you closed the browser (which should also be evident to any tracking systems) almost immediately is an indication that you did not intend to access said material, but I stress that all of this is just the conclusion I'd draw as your IT administrator; it might not be how your company sees it. In many ways, it depends on exactly how the IT department tracked your net usage and flagged this in the first place, as there are many, many ways to implement tracking. If they just have a long list of all access websites, you might reasonably argue that you did not expect the page you were visiting to contain any questionable material and that, upon finding it did, you immediately closed the browser. Whether or not the company understands this, or whether or not they are required to, I can't say. You say you tried to replicate the issue on your home laptop, so if you were to give us the original iPhone link you tried to visit (by PM if you'd rather not broadcast it), we can take a look and see if we can help further. Sorry I can't be of more constructive help, but I simply don't have enough information to form a definite opinion.

I will correct this statement: ACAS will demand hard evidence from your employer, who if unable to provide it, is likely to find themselves in a lot of hot water. Employment tribunals for wrongful dismissal can be very, very expensive for a company... IT, rather than employment law, is my particular area of expertise, but from what I can see it boils down to the simple fact that the IT department either can't or won't (could be either, but I suspect the former) produce hard evidence to either support or oppose the reasons given for the dismissal. All they have done is printed out a list of emails, one of which was private. From what I understand, Management have assumed this means you have sent all the emails to your sister, but supposition is not a good enough reason to dismiss an employee. You have stated you did not send them, and without hard evidence the dismissal has no grounds and your sacking constitutes wrongful dismissal. It would help if you were in a union (assuming you have the facility to at your workplace), but regardless ACAS can and will fight on your behalf, and in my experience most employers back down very quickly at the first whiff of an employment tribunal with ACAS involved. Again, other people in this forum will be in more of an expert position than I to advise on the employment law and dealing with ACAS bit, but I would personally advocate you call them as soon as possible and give them all the details. They exist precisely to protect your rights. I would also request a copy of your employment contract and the company employee handbook from your old workplace, as well a copy of the printout IT made of the email to your sister of 12/02 (and if they refuse, ask them to confirm that refusal by writing/email). This not only allows you (and ACAS) to look at the exact details, but sends the company a clear message that you are taking the matter seriously and that your dismissal is going to be examined by the proper authorities. Hope this helps.

Boy Wonder

This is an odd statement. I run the corporate network of a national company, and if you are part of domain network and IT are asking you to change your IP address (and, indeed, if you have the freedom to) then the IT department are dangerously incompetent. Regardless, I'm surprised this has been an immediate dismissal. Unless they believed the emails to contain highly sensitive information, the usual procedure is to go through a disciplinary hearing. Of course, your employee handbook might say something different, but most companies I've worked for operate a 'three hearings and you're out' kind of policy. Secondly, has your daughter actually kept the email she received from you; the one without the 100 attachments? If so, you're easily in the clear here as it is a simple matter to prove that that email contained no attachments. If she doesn't still have it, or even if she does for that matter, the IT department (depending on how your emails are handled at work) should have a record of all email traffic both incoming and outgoing. This sounds like this situation has only happened recently, so a record should still be kept. Which brings us neatly on to... This is one of the important points for your case. I'm not legally trained, but I am of the belief that a company must be able to produce hard evidence of something that constitutes a dismissable offence before going ahead with any disciplinary procedures. Failure to do so risks landing them in a whole heap of trouble. The fact they can't 'find' this email to your sister says one of two things to me; either the IT department doesn't keep a record of email traffic (not your problem), or they do but are too incompetent to find it (also not your problem). So, where does all this leave you? In your position, I'd first check with your sister to ascertain whether or not she still has the email. If she does, hang on to it as it could become very important later on. Next, make a free call to the employment specialists ACAS on 08457 47 47 47. These guys provide an absolutely free and absolutely excellent service for fighting on behalf of employee rights, and in unlikely event they can't help you, they will be able to suggest a further course of action. Hope this helps.

Did you pass level 15 in the end, SOD'EM..?

Foot Soldier