Stupid! Stupid! STUPID!

Bend The LightBend The Light Registered Users Posts: 1,887 Major grins
edited May 9, 2012 in The Big Picture
Hard drive failure!
2 years of photos lost.
Including all the ones of my 2 kids. :cry

Might just be power failure. Here's hoping!

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

BACK UP!

:cry:cry:cry
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Comments

  • skippy77skippy77 Registered Users Posts: 131 Major grins
    edited April 28, 2012
    try easeus data recovey wizard can recover nearly anything i used it on a crashed hd a few weeks ago got 93% back
  • RichardRichard Administrators, Vanilla Admin Posts: 19,893 moderator
    edited April 28, 2012
    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.
  • Bend The LightBend The Light Registered Users Posts: 1,887 Major grins
    edited April 28, 2012
    skippy77 wrote: »
    try easeus data recovey wizard can recover nearly anything i used it on a crashed hd a few weeks ago got 93% back
    Richard wrote: »
    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!
  • Dan7312Dan7312 Registered Users Posts: 1,330 Major grins
    edited April 28, 2012
    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.



    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!
  • RichardRichard Administrators, Vanilla Admin Posts: 19,893 moderator
    edited April 28, 2012
    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. deal.gif
  • Bend The LightBend The Light Registered Users Posts: 1,887 Major grins
    edited April 28, 2012
    I've just been and bought 2x 1TB hard drives...back up time! Maybe a little late, but onwards and upwards!
  • AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited April 28, 2012
    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.
  • waywardfoolwaywardfool Registered Users Posts: 42 Big grins
    edited April 28, 2012
    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.
  • WillCADWillCAD Registered Users Posts: 722 Major grins
    edited April 28, 2012
    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.
    What I said when I saw the Grand Canyon for the first time: "The wide ain't wide enough and the zoom don't zoom enough!"
  • OverfocusedOverfocused Registered Users Posts: 1,068 Major grins
    edited April 28, 2012
    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, Laughing.gif.
  • kdogkdog Administrators Posts: 11,680 moderator
    edited April 28, 2012
    Not trying to make you feel worse, but did you really run for two years knowingly without any backup at all? eek7.gif
  • RyanSRyanS Registered Users Posts: 507 Major grins
    edited April 28, 2012
    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.
    Please feel free to post any reworks you do of my images. Crop, skew, munge, edit, share.
    Website | Galleries | Utah PJs
  • Bend The LightBend The Light Registered Users Posts: 1,887 Major grins
    edited April 28, 2012
    Andy wrote: »
    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. :)
    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.
    WillCAD wrote: »
    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
    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, <img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6029383/emoji/Laughing.gif&quot; border="0" alt="" >.

    Will check out the RAID idea...not really had anything to do with that before...cheers.
    kdog wrote: »
    Not trying to make you feel worse, but did you really run for two years knowingly without any backup at all? <img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6029383/emoji/eek7.gif&quot; border="0" alt="" >

    Yeah, I know. See the thread title! I know, I know...! :(:
    RyanS wrote: »
    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. :)
  • WillCADWillCAD Registered Users Posts: 722 Major grins
    edited April 28, 2012
    I've just been and bought 2x 1TB hard drives...back up time! Maybe a little late, but onwards and upwards!
    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, Laughing.gif.

    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).
    What I said when I saw the Grand Canyon for the first time: "The wide ain't wide enough and the zoom don't zoom enough!"
  • Bend The LightBend The Light Registered Users Posts: 1,887 Major grins
    edited April 29, 2012
    WillCAD wrote: »
    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. :)
  • RyanSRyanS Registered Users Posts: 507 Major grins
    edited April 30, 2012
    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.
    Please feel free to post any reworks you do of my images. Crop, skew, munge, edit, share.
    Website | Galleries | Utah PJs
  • OhEddieOhEddie Registered Users Posts: 337 Major grins
    edited May 1, 2012
    There are only 2 kinds of photographers. Those that have lost data, and those that are going too.
    Blessed are those who remain flexible, for they shall not get bent out of shape.
  • Bend The LightBend The Light Registered Users Posts: 1,887 Major grins
    edited May 2, 2012
    It works!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    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...
  • RichardRichard Administrators, Vanilla Admin Posts: 19,893 moderator
    edited May 2, 2012
    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...
    :ivar:ivar:ivar

    Whew! Once you get the data off, I hope you're planning on tossing the drive. Miracles are not to be taken for granted. mwink.gif
  • Bend The LightBend The Light Registered Users Posts: 1,887 Major grins
    edited May 2, 2012
    Richard wrote: »
    :ivar:ivar:ivar

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

    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!
  • ziggy53ziggy53 Super Moderators Posts: 23,763 moderator
    edited May 2, 2012
    I connected with a cable... Decided to...erm...give it a little TAP!...And it started spinning! And it works! Ha ha ha! ...

    Congratulations. clap.gif
    ziggy53
    Moderator of the Cameras and Accessories forums
  • Bend The LightBend The Light Registered Users Posts: 1,887 Major grins
    edited May 2, 2012
    ziggy53 wrote: »
    Congratulations. clap.gif

    Thank you. :)
  • aj986saj986s Registered Users Posts: 1,100 Major grins
    edited May 2, 2012
    Great news!

    Your thread prompted me to be purchase a couple of USB 3.0 2TB drives to backup stuff on our computers. bowdown.gif
    Tony P.
    Canon 50D, 30D and Digital Rebel (plus some old friends - FTB and AE1)
    Long-time amateur.....wishing for more time to play
    Autocross and Track junkie
    tonyp.smugmug.com
  • Bend The LightBend The Light Registered Users Posts: 1,887 Major grins
    edited May 2, 2012
    aj986s wrote: »
    Great news!

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

    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! :)
  • NikolaiNikolai Registered Users Posts: 19,035 Major grins
    edited May 2, 2012
    Andy wrote: »
    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! thumb.gif
    I'm so gonna try it...deal.gif
    "May the f/stop be with you!"
  • rob marshallrob marshall Registered Users Posts: 224 Major grins
    edited May 3, 2012
    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! :D

    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.
  • Bend The LightBend The Light Registered Users Posts: 1,887 Major grins
    edited May 3, 2012
    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! :D

    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!
  • rob marshallrob marshall Registered Users Posts: 224 Major grins
    edited May 3, 2012
    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 :cry:cry:cry
  • Bend The LightBend The Light Registered Users Posts: 1,887 Major grins
    edited May 3, 2012
    Ooo! You don't want to do that. I did it (voluntary redundancy) and I now have lots of time.... but no money :cry:cry:cry

    Yeah, I know. That's the problem. :(
  • ian408ian408 Administrators Posts: 21,904 moderator
    edited May 9, 2012
    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.
    Moderator Journeys/Sports/Big Picture :: Need some help with dgrin?
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