Can anyone help a mego brother out with a external drive problem?

[Vinny0026]

So - I was getting ready to post the Vinny0026 Collection today - I was tweaking the pictures and BAM my drive freezes. Now normal I work of the lap top but I was backing up the pictures before I was going to load them up to photo bucket.

The light is on, but it is making a clicking sound. I hope it can be saved - I have all my kids pics on there and if not I will really be sick. I know I know I should have had a back up to the back up - pray for me.

Also there is 600 mego pics on there ready for posting!
I was only going to post about 10 - but the others were to be uploaded to photobucket account so everyone could see everything.

If anyone has any info on how to fix this, or where to bring it would really help
the drive is a 320 GB Toshiba external drive.

Thanks in advance for any help
Vinny0026

[Random Axe]

VIn, that doesn't sound good at all. External hard drives are not very reliable and are prone to catastrophic failure. You might be able to recover the data by opening it up and removing and accessing the EIDE drive. After a friend lost a bunch of recorded music on an external, which he'd only had a month, I learned to back up important stuff onto cd-r and dvd-r.

[Vinny0026]

VIn, that doesn't sound good at all. External hard drives are not very reliable and are prone to catastrophic failure. You might be able to recover the data by opening it up and removing and accessing the EIDE drive. After a friend lost a bunch of recorded music on an external, which he'd only had a month, I learned to back up important stuff onto cd-r and dvd-r.

I had this one for 2 years.
I normally never work off it, I just pop things on and off. With taking over like 600-800 pictures of my mego collection to upload to PB I wound up using it for a few hours straight - not sure if it had anything to do with it or not - but i should have save it over to my desktop first. Also Bella my 3 year old pulled it out while I was working with it as well.

You are 100% correct though - I should have just had them on a CD or DVD etc.
I just did not get around to it. If this info is able to be saved you better believe it will be the first thing I do. I just hope I did not lose the pictures. I have every picture evertaken of the twins on this flash drive along with many other pictures of family and friends.

I have a computer geek friend - I'm going to drop it off to him tonight and pray he can recover the info by taking it apart. There is some hope.
Even if he can't do it he said there are places that charge like 300.00 bucks to recover data - While that is a lot of cash to pay for a stupid mistake by not having them on a cd/dvd it would still be money well spend to recover those pictures.

Thanks for the advice - I will let you know how it turns out.

[ctc]

>I'm going to drop it off to him tonight and pray he can recover the info by taking it apart

As long as the heads didn't scratch the disk you might be okay. If they did you can probably still recover something: the pros use a static reader thingie. It can read individual sectors off the disk without needing the routing bits that have been damaged. It'll be expensive though.

(I'm not a computer expert, but I have a LOT of experience with computer related disasters....)

Don C.

[Shanester]

I wouldn't say external hard drives are unreliable. I deal with hundreds of them and in my opinion, they are just as reliable (maybe more so) than internal non-solid state drives. The clicking is a bad sign, but not the end of the world. Good luck.

[Vinny0026]

well my friend said he can't recover the info. So now I have to find a data recovery place. This is really sad news to be honest.

he said pretty much everything you all have said. I don't care about the mego pictures as I can retake them. But I can't replace my childrens pictures.
I have about half of them on face book, and other discs - and hard copies - so not all is lost. but i really don't want to lose any of them.

and he told me the recovery can cost anywhere from 500.00- 1500.00 -
like most of you I do not have this kind of money laying around - and now I have to be on pins and needles wondering if the info can be saved or not.

and i'm wondering if they flip me that bill either way if they save the info or not. that would really suck. losing the pics, paying to recover and then not getting them.
well thanks for the help guys and please say a prayer for me!

[palitoy]

Welcome to my 2010, I kept my life on that thing, kid's pics, websites, corporate tax information. That "klunk!" will haunt me forever and ever....

[drquest]

Here's a link with some info: http://lifehacker.com/5982339/diy-da...-goes-belly-up

Generally clicking is pretty bad, means the platter is getting touched.

Have you tried the freezer method by putting it in the freezer overnight?

[jacoblb]

Chances are you'll need to take it to a computer shop locally or ship online for a data recovery fixer. And that may not be cheap, unfortunately.
Sorry that happened to you.
I suggest everyone have more than one backup of a backup device especially for super important stuff. It may not be an inexpensive option, but if one fails then you'll most likely have something else to fall back on.
I don't think you need to use cd or dvds discs especially if you'd wind up saving lots of data because those can be unreliable after time and maybe the disc capacity wouldn't be enough to hold precious files. I know I have formerly blank cds that are damaged and it wasn't from wear and tear.
I am using a 3TB external hard drive and then I peridoically copy the contents of that onto my spare 4TB ext hard drive. In real life, I know of some people who are very OCD when it comes to backing up data. I generally know of only two types of computer people those who go way overboard backing up on ext drives and cloests full of discs and those who don't back up at all. Rotten luck aside, at least you had files on an external hard drive.

[Vinny0026]

Here's a link with some info: http://lifehacker.com/5982339/diy-da...-goes-belly-up

Generally clicking is pretty bad, means the platter is getting touched.

Have you tried the freezer method by putting it in the freezer overnight?

no i personally have not tried anything. what is this freezer method you speak of kind sir?

[Vinny0026]

Jacob - you are 100% correct - really I just hope everyone can learn from my mistake. please all of you back up your data. I'm so sick and can hardley even work today. I feel "ill" like I really want to throw up. Please back up yours before it is to late.

[Vinny0026]

I will try the freezer method tonight - if it does not work its off to the bank and than off to the clinic. I'm not really good with these things, and I can't be my own ginny pig to figure this out.

My fear is I wont get it all off in time if the method does work.
I have at least 150 gb - 200 gb of pictures on the 320 drive - so just making a copy of it on my hard drive will take a while.

But I have to try! I called a few places and it sounds like they will get me for 1000 at least more closer to 1500.00 I just can't afford that right now.
keep your fingers crossed and please say a few prayers for me!

will up date you in the morning with the out come.

[Brazoo]

Personally, I'd try this before the freezer method:

Try to dislodge the actuators:

1) Power the drive down.

2) Slap it on a table on one of its side edges. Do this fairly gently – perhaps hard enough to crack an egg. If the fault is the actuators that actually move the head back and forth this might break it free enough to actually become "unparked" and hopefully allow you to recover your data once the drive will spin up.
Note that if you do this with the drive spinning, it may destroy the drive.

I've never had luck with either - but I've never lost anything valuable to a physically damage drive.

One time years and years ago I had a Mac that got insanely corrupt and lost tons - so I've learned the hard way too. One good thing that comes out of this: you probably won't do it again!

[Vinny0026]

Personally, I'd try this before the freezer method:



I've never had luck with either - but I've never lost anything valuable to a physically damage drive.

One time years and years ago I had a Mac that got insanely corrupt and lost tons - so I've learned the hard way too. One good thing that comes out of this: you probably won't do it again!

I did not have the salt packets last night to try the freezer thing yet.
The wife is going to the mall today to see if she can get some.

I will try the tapping thing first when I get home. if it does not work the freezer after that I will have to send it to a data recovery place.
it is a lot of money - but the pictures are priceless.

you are right about 1 thing though - i will never let this happen again... never!

[ctc]

Hmmmm....

If you can't afford to get it recovered now, hang onto it. If you don't use it, it shouldn't accrue any more damage.

Don C.