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

No, won't throw it, but will be used just as a non-essential drive. Might use it as an enormous scratchdisk...can use it as a memory boost in Windows 7. :)

But for photos? Nope!

Originally Posted by Bend The Light I connected with a cable... Decided to...erm...give it a little TAP!...And it started spinning! And it works! Ha ha ha! ...

Congratulations.

Originally Posted by ziggy53 Congratulations.

Thank you. :)

Great news!

Your thread prompted me to be purchase a couple of USB 3.0 2TB drives to backup stuff on our computers.

Originally Posted by aj986s Great news! Your thread prompted me to be purchase a couple of USB 3.0 2TB drives to backup stuff on our computers.

Good stuff...gl;ad to be of assistance, and glad that I haven't lost everything in the process. :)

Still backing up the RAW files...very slow...but it is still working! :)

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.

$60/year for unlimited backup? Wow! Thank you for sharing!
I'm so gonna try it...

Craig

The most surprising thing about this is what you do for a living. My wife (and she is not alone) never stops telling me that I drive her mad. Every angle has to be covered, every possibility explored and accounted for. Not only do I worry about things that haven't happened yet I also worry about things that may never happen. My background is in IT (software development) which may explain some of that attitude. Which is why I was surprised on discovering what you do for a living!

Looking at your various site links, I'm getting the definite impression of someone who is very busy. Maybe the problem of not backing up your data is not really the problem at all, but just the outcome of something else? Everyone here is suggesting useful back-up methods (which is great) but perhaps you should also take a step back occasionally and ask yourself 'Is there something I ought to be doing, which I'm not doing?'

Hope you don't mind the personal comments: I'm only trying to help. Even I sometimes realize that there's something I should have been doing but am not. Normally, I have that realization when something goes horribly wrong.

For the record... I back up regularly to two external hard drives (and I also virus check them). I also back up daily new files to a laptop in my wife's office. If you use Windows you can set up a local network and copy stuff wirelessly.

Originally Posted by rob marshall Craig The most surprising thing about this is what you do for a living. My wife (and she is not alone) never stops telling me that I drive her mad. Every angle has to be covered, every possibility explored and accounted for. Not only do I worry about things that haven't happened yet I also worry about things that may never happen. My background is in IT (software development) which may explain some of that attitude. Which is why I was surprised on discovering what you do for a living! Looking at your various site links, I'm getting the definite impression of someone who is very busy. Maybe the problem of not backing up your data is not really the problem at all, but just the outcome of something else? Everyone here is suggesting useful back-up methods (which is great) but perhaps you should also take a step back occasionally and ask yourself 'Is there something I ought to be doing, which I'm not doing?' Hope you don't mind the personal comments: I'm only trying to help. Even I sometimes realize that there's something I should have been doing but am not. Normally, I have that realization when something goes horribly wrong. For the record... I back up regularly to two external hard drives (and I also virus check them). I also back up daily new files to a laptop in my wife's office. If you use Windows you can set up a local network and copy stuff wirelessly.

I definitley should stop and ask "Is there something I should be doing?"...and I do do this...mostly the reply to myself is "Yes, there is. But I haven't got the time!". And I also have a solution to that, which is to quit the day job...but sadly I can't afford that even though it is the one thing that would help me and my family immensely, were it not for the financial implications of the decision. :)

So, anyway, I have the back ups whirring away...I have enough links to off-site back up to preserve each Tb of data about 100 times. I'm on it...but forst I must go to work, teach 150 kids, and mark 60 books and a few exam papers...all before 2.30 today. Sigh!

Originally Posted by Bend The Light And I also have a solution to that, which is to quit the day job...but sadly I can't afford that even though it is the one thing that would help me and my family immensely, were it not for the financial implications of the decision. :)

Ooo! You don't want to do that. I did it (voluntary redundancy) and I now have lots of time.... but no money

Originally Posted by rob marshall Ooo! You don't want to do that. I did it (voluntary redundancy) and I now have lots of time.... but no money

Yeah, I know. That's the problem. :(

Sounds like your drive experienced a bit of "stiction" which has been a problem for some drives on and off. If you know the model and brand, look for a firmware upgrade-there might be a fix for it.

Originally Posted by ian408 Sounds like your drive experienced a bit of "stiction" which has been a problem for some drives on and off. If you know the model and brand, look for a firmware upgrade-there might be a fix for it.

Yeah, maybe. I have cleared the drive and backed up everything from it. It is in use as a scratch disc for Photoshop...things run smooth when it's plugged in as the temp files can be large...but it is not critical, even if it fails. Not used as storage at all now. :)