Hard drive failure!
2 years of photos lost.
Including all the ones of my 2 kids.

Might just be power failure. Here's hoping!

But if it's not said once...it's said a hundred times!

BACK UP!

try easeus data recovey wizard can recover nearly anything i used it on a crashed hd a few weeks ago got 93% back

Really sorry to hear that. Is the drive altogether dead? If you can't even get it to start spinning, you might want to consider using a professional data recovery service. They tend to be fairly expensive but in this case it might be worth it. Good luck.

Originally Posted by skippy77 try easeus data recovey wizard can recover nearly anything i used it on a crashed hd a few weeks ago got 93% back

Originally Posted by Richard Really sorry to hear that. Is the drive altogether dead? If you can't even get it to start spinning, you might want to consider using a professional data recovery service. They tend to be fairly expensive but in this case it might be worth it. Good luck.

Thanks guys. I have 5 "beeps" (not beeps really, but short "seeking" sounds, first high pitched, and the last 4 are lower). Then light stays on, but dim. No actual "spinning" noises...

It has been suggested it's a power problem, and a new controller board might do it, but we'll see. I don't have a desktop, let alone one with SATA connectors in which to plug it, the bare drive, I mean, to see if it can be read that way.

I have a couple of friends who will be taking a look in the next couple of days. In the meantime, off I go for a couple of 1Tb drives and will be backing up RAW files as a matter of course!

Keep in mind that "poking around" at the drive if something is wrong might make things worse, especially if it's a power issue.

As far as a recovery service I don't have any inputs based on direct experience as to which on would be best to use.

I do know one person who was successful getting things recovered at a Best Buy.

Tallyn's does recover http://www.tallyns.com/datarecovery.htm and their prices seem pretty reasonable.

SpinRight may be able to recover some of your data http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm . It boots from a cd so your disk doesn't have to be working to use it. It may not work on your drive or be able to recover what you lost, but it has a no questions asked refund policy.

Originally Posted by Bend The Light Thanks guys. I have 5 "beeps" (not beeps really, but short "seeking" sounds, first high pitched, and the last 4 are lower). Then light stays on, but dim. No actual "spinning" noises... It has been suggested it's a power problem, and a new controller board might do it, but we'll see. I don't have a desktop, let alone one with SATA connectors in which to plug it, the bare drive, I mean, to see if it can be read that way. I have a couple of friends who will be taking a look in the next couple of days. In the meantime, off I go for a couple of 1Tb drives and will be backing up RAW files as a matter of course!

Hope it's as simple as a power issue or controller failure and that the integrity of the platters is mostly intact.

I'm sure you've learned your lesson, but for others reading this thread: unless you don't give a damn about your pics and other personal data, you should always have an absolute minimum of two copies of everything on separate media.

I've just been and bought 2x 1TB hard drives...back up time! Maybe a little late, but onwards and upwards!

http://tallyns.com does data recovery service.
http://backblaze.com will backup your entire everything for $60 / year.
You've already bought more hard drives for local use.

I am an IT tech. I have used ontrack.com maybe 20 times or so for clients. They were able to recover one drive for me that was physically damaged in a house fire. Last recovery was around $900, iirc.

As said above, the more you mess with it -- in any way -- the less the chances of recovery.

Originally Posted by Bend The Light I've just been and bought 2x 1TB hard drives...back up time! Maybe a little late, but onwards and upwards!

To quote Cheech Marin in Ghostbusters 2 when the Titanic arrived in New York:

"Well... better late than never!"

I back up my stuff to an external drive and to my laptop. My most critical files are also backed up to encrypted flash drives which I take with me, so I have some off-site backup. Pics are backed up online.

Setting up your drives in a RAID 1 mirror may be of interest to you now for protection vs. physical failure

And off-site storage is a good idea too. If you don't trust uploading it online, a small portable 2.5" drive which you can encrypt and leave in your car, a relative's house, whatever, in case of a house fire or disaster, is a great idea too. Just remember the password, LOL.

Not trying to make you feel worse, but did you really run for two years knowingly without any backup at all?

Protect thyself:

1) RAID array on all systems (or more frequent backups if not available).
2) Nightly off-site versioned (snapshot) backups.
3) Weekly on-site "last known good" backup.
4) Quarterly backup restoration tests. << Skipping this can make all the money you spent on 1-3 moot.

I've worked as a SysAdmin contractor all over the world. I've been hired in post-data loss scenarios to try and recover data. I've seen many companies and lives ruined. Grown men weeping like children! Entire countries not able to pay workers (for weeks)! World-wide embarrassing press coverage! Hardened company executives praying in the office with their staff for God to grant them a miracle to restore the data, weeping! Managers pleading with technical staff to save them from being fired! Much, much sadness. Heed the three ways. Doubly so if you make a living on that data.

My condolences on your loss. I hope you are able to find a way to recover the data. By the way, look in to SmugVault if you aren't already using it. I use another cloud provider for backups, but SV should work great as well.

Originally Posted by Andy http://tallyns.com does data recovery service. http://backblaze.com will backup your entire everything for $60 / year. You've already bought more hard drives for local use.

Thanks. Will look into some online storage...Thanks. :)

Originally Posted by waywardfool I am an IT tech. I have used ontrack.com maybe 20 times or so for clients. They were able to recover one drive for me that was physically damaged in a house fire. Last recovery was around $900, iirc. As said above, the more you mess with it -- in any way -- the less the chances of recovery.

I don't intend messing, apart from extracting the drive from the casing and trying it in a desktop. If that doesn't work I will be passing it to the friend-of-a-friend who does this sort of thing. I won't be doing anything major myself.

Originally Posted by WillCAD To quote Cheech Marin in Ghostbusters 2 when the Titanic arrived in New York: "Well... better late than never!" I back up my stuff to an external drive and to my laptop. My most critical files are also backed up to encrypted flash drives which I take with me, so I have some off-site backup. Pics are backed up online.

I think another drive, stored in the car or wherever may be an idea, although at present, my images are less of an issue than everything else in the house should the house become a burnt out shell. I can see that images become more important if they are business, though. Cheers

Originally Posted by Overfocused Setting up your drives in a RAID 1 mirror may be of interest to you now for protection vs. physical failure And off-site storage is a good idea too. If you don't trust uploading it online, a small portable 2.5" drive which you can encrypt and leave in your car, a relative's house, whatever, in case of a house fire or disaster, is a great idea too. Just remember the password, LOL.

Will check out the RAID idea...not really had anything to do with that before...cheers.

Originally Posted by kdog Not trying to make you feel worse, but did you really run for two years knowingly without any backup at all?

Yeah, I know. See the thread title! I know, I know...!

Originally Posted by RyanS Protect thyself: 1) RAID array on all systems (or more frequent backups if not available). 2) Nightly off-site versioned (snapshot) backups. 3) Weekly on-site "last known good" backup. 4) Quarterly backup restoration tests. << Skipping this can make all the money you spent on 1-3 moot. I've worked as a SysAdmin contractor all over the world. I've been hired in post-data loss scenarios to try and recover data. I've seen many companies and lives ruined. Grown men weeping like children! Entire countries not able to pay workers (for weeks)! World-wide embarrassing press coverage! Hardened company executives praying in the office with their staff for God to grant them a miracle to restore the data, weeping! Managers pleading with technical staff to save them from being fired! Much, much sadness. Heed the three ways. Doubly so if you make a living on that data. My condolences on your loss. I hope you are able to find a way to recover the data. By the way, look in to SmugVault if you aren't already using it. I use another cloud provider for backups, but SV should work great as well.

Thanks for that. I will be working on improving my backups. To be fair, other than pictures of my kids, it is not the worst event of my life. Two years of images, yes, but a large fraction of them were crap! It's only recently I have improved a little. I am not making money from them...but in the future I need to have things in place, as things may be different then.

BTW, I have got all my kids photos...I sent a folder of large JPGs to my father in Law. Not RAW files, but all the pictures I processed are there. :)

Originally Posted by Bend The Light I've just been and bought 2x 1TB hard drives...back up time! Maybe a little late, but onwards and upwards!

Originally Posted by Overfocused Setting up your drives in a RAID 1 mirror may be of interest to you now for protection vs. physical failure And off-site storage is a good idea too. If you don't trust uploading it online, a small portable 2.5" drive which you can encrypt and leave in your car, a relative's house, whatever, in case of a house fire or disaster, is a great idea too. Just remember the password, LOL.

Off-site is essential for full disaster-proofing, but forget about the idea of keeping an external hard drive in a car, for several reasons:

1) Your car might be stolen, and then not only have you lost your backup, but any sensitive data you might have on the drive along with your pics and videos becomes food for identity thieves or other criminals.

2) Your car might be wrecked or damaged in a disaster such as a flood, water main break, severe storm, or severe storm, and then your backups are gone. Still, losing your backups this way simply means you need to replace your HDD and make a new copy of your files, but it's a greater risk than keeping them in a building, IMHO.

3) Heat and cold are the enemies of electronics. Store a HDD in a car, and you're just begging for it to die on you, either by being fried in summer time heat, or by having components pop off the boards due to repeated expansion/contraction cycles of overnight cool/daytime warm.

HDDs are okay as backups, but keep them indoors, in reasonably secure and safe buildings like homes or businesses (as opposed to storage units or hidden in outdoor structures), preferably in climate-controled areas (as opposed to basements, garages, or attics).

Originally Posted by WillCAD Off-site is essential for full disaster-proofing, but forget about the idea of keeping an external hard drive in a car, for several reasons: 1) Your car might be stolen, and then not only have you lost your backup, but any sensitive data you might have on the drive along with your pics and videos becomes food for identity thieves or other criminals. 2) Your car might be wrecked or damaged in a disaster such as a flood, water main break, severe storm, or severe storm, and then your backups are gone. Still, losing your backups this way simply means you need to replace your HDD and make a new copy of your files, but it's a greater risk than keeping them in a building, IMHO. 3) Heat and cold are the enemies of electronics. Store a HDD in a car, and you're just begging for it to die on you, either by being fried in summer time heat, or by having components pop off the boards due to repeated expansion/contraction cycles of overnight cool/daytime warm. HDDs are okay as backups, but keep them indoors, in reasonably secure and safe buildings like homes or businesses (as opposed to storage units or hidden in outdoor structures), preferably in climate-controled areas (as opposed to basements, garages, or attics).

Fair enough...there are a few places available to keep copies. :)

I highly recommend choosing one of the many trustworthy on-line backup services as your off-site location. They all have their systems stored in a secure datacenter facility. Buildings specifically built to house computer systems with all their redundant components and technical staff. Since those systems often contain highly sensitive data, they are locked down quite tight. I've seen prisons less secure than some of the datacenter facilities I've been in.

Certainly a few providers are not trustworthy. Stick with the mainstream ones and you should be good. If you have some real reason not to trust anyone, then there are still options. They all cost time or money. Usually both.

There are only 2 kinds of photographers. Those that have lost data, and those that are going too.

I connected with a cable...

It didn't want to know...I tried an old IDE drive which did work, so thought my luck was out...Same noises with the broken drive as it was in the casing. Decided to...erm...give it a little TAP!...And it started spinning! And it works! Ha ha ha! Backing up now before trying it back in the casing...

Originally Posted by Bend The Light I connected with a cable... It didn't want to know...I tried an old IDE drive which did work, so thought my luck was out...Same noises with the broken drive as it was in the casing. Decided to...erm...give it a little TAP!...And it started spinning! And it works! Ha ha ha! Backing up now before trying it back in the casing...

Whew! Once you get the data off, I hope you're planning on tossing the drive. Miracles are not to be taken for granted.