Firstly, let's not go there with the lectures about backing up. I don't have a recent backup of this drive and I know it was completely retarded not to do so. So, I've already given myself all the grief possible over this.

My secondary data hard drive has failed. It is 500gb and has pretty much everything on it, all our pictures from the last 10 years, music etc etc etc. I do have a backup of it, but only a previous failed drive that I still have which I have been able to access, but it is about 2 years since that drive was used, so technically, everything from the last 2 years or so is lost.

I spent fucking ages trying to access the drive yesterday by connecting it to a USB. I tried lots of combinations, but just couldn't get it to work. I could hear it spinning, but nothing more. I tried it on Rosie's laptop and that would recognise that there was a device connected to the USB and it could identify it as a Western Digital 500gb (it showed the part number), but it wouldn't show as a drive that I could open.

Today, however, I have plugged it in and I got the 'Autoplay' window to appear. Now it shows as a drive. I can see both partitions, one of which I can access fine. But the more important of the two, I cannot. This is the message I get.....

"the disk structure is corrupted and unreadable"

I now that's bad, but from what I have read, as long as the OS recognises the drive, all is not lost. So, what can I do to retrieve the data? Software?

 

I had many success with Recuva - http://www.piriform.com/recuva

Freeware.

Good luck!

 

Fucking lol

 

Fucking c*nt.

 

I just couldn't help myself!!!

 

if you can get it to a point where you can see both partitions but not open the second then open up a command prompt, cmd.
type chkdsk d: /f

I am making the assumption that d: is that partitions assigned drive letter before the crash

 

Right, now I've restarted the drive, it won't open. This leads me to believe that it is better while cold, but as soon as it is warm, problems occur.

So, it got me thinking about this.....

http://lifehacker.com/5515337/save-a...-freezer-redux

Opinions?

 

yep been tried and tested, works well but you have to be very quick!

 

Got nothing to lose by trying the freezer trick.

 

same happened to me and i dropped the drive into local computer shop , the guy managed to get all the pics on a disc for me but the rest was gone , only charged Ł10

 

It's double bagged and in the ice-cube section now.

PMSL.

I'll keep you posted, this could be interesting.

 

ive even run them from in the freezer via an ide usb lead to a laptop, they heat up very quick though

gl

 

This.

I've heard of people sticking it in the freezer for a bit then running it while still in the freezer.

Otherwise, try;
http://download.cnet.com/File-Scaven...-10028488.html

 

Which model drive is it? I lost a Western digital barracuda recently and it's a known fault.

 

Did it work then?

Cant still be in the freezer now it will be frozen solid.Oh and just done my first ever backup just in case

 

ive lost my 320 WD caviar, still sat here on my desk, hopefully with all my data on it, mine wont recognise the drive at all nor will it spin up.

all the pro recovery firms want btween 350-500 plus vat to recover it (or try to )

let me know how the freezing goes - could be my next option.

 

yours could be an even better candidate for the freezer technique...

 

It is still in there. I tried 15 minutes at first and as expected, I could access it again, as per when it was cold first thing this morning. I then tried about 3 hours and same again, so I put it in again at about 5.00pm this evening and it's still there now. I've not been any further into it than I had but at least I know making it cold makes it accessible, although doesn't help with the corrupt aspect of it.

Some guides I read suggested 12 hours.

I reckon software will sort it, it's just working out what will work. I'm trying the ones that have been suggested above and will keep you posted.

 

I have to put my sky router in the freezer from time to time as it's basically fooked!!electronics respond well to cold,we've moved the router now onto the tiled floor which sinks the heat off nicely,well much better than the hall table we used to use.

As he said the bags only to prevent moisture.

Used to be a common problem but the other way around on astra gte's water ran into the ecu and caused it to fail.

Couple of hours on the radiator via a towel fixed it no probs,my mate had a free Gte years ago due to this!

 

Well who would have thought putting your failing HDD in between ice might have worked.

 

Used that too with good success. If you can get the HD recognised that is.

Backed all mine up last week as I hadn't done it for a year or so!

 

If the hard drive doesn't need an external power supply then just go to the freezer section at tesco with a laptop and do it there

 

Right, as an update to this and really just because I want to stick a bit of fear into all those that don't back their data up. I know everyone knows its a good idea, but like me, most of us don't do it, let's be honest.

So, as I said in the original post. This 500gb drive is probably about 70% full, at a guess. It contains alot of stuff, but mainly a folder I call 'Archive', which although not that big in terms of physical size, it is where I dump all my stuff. So, when I have a folder of pics that I have sorted out, they go in there. All my music is in there (OK, most I have the CD's for in the loft), setup files for programs that I don't have the disc for are in there. Every document I have ever written is in there, so CV's, letters, articles I've written etc etc.

To elaborate more on the pictures. I have a folder of several hundred pictures in date-named folders that we took as we renovated our Bungalow. Right from the derelict beginning, practically to the finished article. There are lots of photos of our pet's (all were dear to us and have now passed, so not nice to lose).

Every holiday we have ever had has a folder in there. Every car show I have attended has a folder. Every family event that I took my camera to has a folder. Our recent Honeymoon has a folder, consisting of several hundred pics and about 60-70 HD videos from Dubai and the Maldives.

I'm sure this is just scratching the surface, but what comes to mind instantly. So, I know that not backing it up was beyond stupid.

I've been trying for about a week now to access this drive. I've tried so many different bits of software and have managed to retrieve about a dozen usable files, but nothing of any worth. I've lost count of the amount of times this drive has been in and out of the freezer. Right now I can no longer access it, so that looks to be pretty much it.

On the plus side, I've found a DVD from 2006 which had the folder backed up that far, but of course only really contains the pictures from up to that time. So, all is not lost, although I reckon I've taken alot more photo's in recent years, possibly 2 or 3 times as many as I did in this early period. I have also found one of the two SD cards that I took on our Honeymoon, so have the first few days worth of pics and videos, the other card has since been reformatted. Luckily I have these all hosted on an online facility too, so thats not so bad. However, holidays from the last 5 or so years are gone, along with a whole load of other stuff too.

Remaining options as I see it.

1. Say fuck it and move on.

2. Send it to a specialist company, but I already have an idea of the sorts of numbers they'll be talking about (thousands I don't doubt for a drive of that size, unless anyone else knows different?)

3. Attempt to rebuild the platters into another drive (I've begun reading about this and it really isn't very straight forward or successful and is certainly a very last resort).

This morning I removed the cover, just for a peek inside, incase it had anything obvious wrong that I could easily sort and without getting really involved, I can see a reasonably hefty scratch in the top platter. Fuck knows how that happened, but it looks to have been the cause.

So, bottom line folks, don't just TALK about backing your shit up. Actually do it. NOW. It WILL happen to you one day, don't go thinking it won't. So be prepared.

 

sorry to hear of your troubles, but thanks for the highlighting the problem and spelling out so clearly what you have lost and what it clearly means to you and would mean to others if it happened to them. let's hope at least somebody takes the advice and it saves them some hassle.

a question for the IT specialists on this thread that may be able to help: i have 2 separate NAS drives that i mirror occassionally and also a separate USB portable HDD that I mirror (even less occassionally) so have backup options. however, they're basically all at risk from fire or burglary. any suggestions?

is there anywhere online that you can back everything up to? (must take ages for 500GB to upload, and cost a few quid).

i guess a sensible option would be to keep the usb HDD in a fireproof safe, and for the cost of one i was thinking about getting another and keeping it at my brother's house.

 

NOT cool

I'd hate to lose pics. I have all sorts with all my family and the kids growing up. We tend to keep all pics on 2 laptops and a couple of HD's.

 

oooppsss, doesnt sound very good tbh - fair play for opening it up though! Hope you were very careful..
Sounds like a head has fallen below the cushion of air and thus caused the scratch..

there are places online that you can buy quota from and allow distaster recovery.. google it

or alternatively pop the removable storage in a heat proof safe? or leave it at someone elses house?

 

I had it happen to me. Even worse when you have young kids and have the first few years of their lives on there too - Imagine the grief this generates from the mrs. Mine was hysterical at the prospect.

For me it was the hard drive in my laptop which failed so I drove it to the data recovery specialists I located about 70 miles from me in Surrey and a couple of days later they called to confirm they had the lot and for Ł650 plus vat its mine. (no obligation!) I paid it.

I now have 3 points of back up running automatically. 2 online vaults and an external HDD.

Lesson learn't for me.

Hope you are able to recover your memories.

 

have you got an aircompressor ? if so, try using the drive without the cover on it, with a (cant remember what there called) lead from the drive to computer, and use teh airline to keep it cool ???? idk, might work lol

 

which online service do you use please?

the way women panic about this sort of thing you'd think they were about to lose far more than just some digital numbers, no sense of perspective about the real world where people are losing their homes and lives to floods, wars etc

it would be very annoying though, and expensive as i converted all my cds and dvds and gave them to charity shops

and i come up with thousands. how to choose?

 

Christian,
Can I suggest speaking to http://www.cbldatarecovery.co.uk ?

I had a hard drive fail a few years ago. I spoke to one of our IT guys at work who suggested a company to send the drive to. This I did, and a few days later the drive was returned with an invoice for something like Ł225. They couldnt recover any data! (This invoice was argued and reduced by around 50%, still expensive for no gain!)

So I googled data recovery specialists and liked the professional look & sound of CBL Data Recovery. They offer a free inspection and quotation only once they have received the drive. They sent a quote for a little under Ł1000 and suggested they could recover all the data!

As it happens I didnt get it done, but I still have the drive and know they can recover it if I ever feel flush enough to get it done!

Might be worth a shot

 

Thanks for your comments guys.

Oh, forgot to mention, the F901 TMF folder is gone too. So, everything I had to do with the RST. All of the development pics, everything. I had LOADS of folders in there of the development of each and every component that I ran on the car, whats on my resto thread is, again, just skimming the surface. There was also techy stuff in there.



Talk about wipeout.

 

How many Scuddy Beccy pics did you lose?

 

In a sense, I personally use three;

Virginmedia part 'free' part paid (obvious choice as they are our isp of choice)
Norton's 360 part 'free' part paid
My server (as in one i own)

There are literally hundreds of companies offering data backup services.
If you google this search term 'data backup services' you will see.

Obviously there is a correlation between amount of storage space Vs cost and if on a budget, you must decide what is getting backed up - Priorities. Your family pics and docs or your porn collection

Needle in a haystack google 'data recovery services' returns <31mil results

I can't remember the name of the company I used. They were in Banstead, Surrey working from a residential address but did the do for me.
They email me from time to time with 'keep safe' tips but I junk them as I feel I got it covered now

 

Yip, a few.

...and like most people these days, I can't say for sure that there isn't some stuff on there that would limit who I would be happy to give the HD to.

 

Haha! Data recover folk must see all sorts.

 

Infact, I read an interesting forum reply the other day on the subject from someone that does data recovery. He was saying that he HATES other peoples data with a passion and got bored of looking at their porn years ago. Suppose it would be fun the first few you recover, but must get uninteresting.

 

Haha it wouldn't stop me looking

Made easier when it's some hot chick that drops the drive off

 

If you have a desktop, look into getting two identical drives, and running them as RAID1 (a mirror of each other), that way if one disk fails, the other is still up and running with no loss of service - just replace the faulty drive and you have your redundancy back again.

Beats backing up .

 

Bung a sweaty fat bird a couple of Ginsters pies to drop it off and make innuendos about seeing pics of her out of control growler and dangleberrys... it'd be a sick man who would ignore the fear and start to pick through the pictures after that.


Cheers,
Grant

 

I don't suppose there's anything of any use saved at APT? Even the porn?

I've lost count of the various pictures and videos of our old pets that I've lost over the years on old computers/phones which have shit themselves, and I really wish I'd backed them up. Sometimes it's the crappy, informal photos that mean so much more to you.

I've emailed a guy we used to use at my old workplace to see if he can help or recommend anyone locally.