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Hard-drive help.

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9arrow
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Hard-drive help.

Post by 9arrow » Sat Sep 30, 2017 10:54 am

I store my historic work on a Seagate 500 GB spare hard drive on which I have shots of the final fly-past of Jaguars at Coltishall up to the end of 2016 Duxford Autumn show. As I prepared to load 2071 stuff on there a month ago the drive failed and the process failed - I cannot load and I cannot read existing shots. We have a computer shop where I live and despite a lot of work he was totally unsuccessful in down loading. An alternate tried to down-load the contents onto a DVD with no sign of success in
down-loading the disc contents to a DVD.

In desperation I appeal to members as to their experience or source of anybody/company who could rescue the contents of approx. 5000 pictures on the hard-drive. Its a lot of history spread over a lot of years.

I have had loads of advice regarding "buckets" and "flickers" but they are all talking stable-doors and bolting horses and no use to a chap with a failed spare hard drive.

Regards
Dave

Sussex to Devon
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Location: Devon

Re: Hard-drive help.

Post by Sussex to Devon » Sat Sep 30, 2017 11:35 am

Hi,

I think it depends how it failed. If the HDD disc failed then you may have to go to a specialist company. It may not be recoverable, if mechanical. Not used this software, but there are other companies maybe worth a look at link. If it is the interface maybe this worth a try link

Again other places sale similar products. I am sure there are members on the forum that have a much better idea. One question has the drive failed completely?
Ian

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ChrisCwmbran
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Re: Hard-drive help.

Post by ChrisCwmbran » Sat Sep 30, 2017 12:55 pm

As Sussex to Devon asks, does the drive still spin up when powered? i.e. do you heard the disk increase in rpm until it reaches desired speed? Do you hear and another noises from the drive? Often sounds are one of the most important indications.

POL
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Re: Hard-drive help.

Post by POL » Sat Sep 30, 2017 2:24 pm

If you suspect the disk has failed in some way then the last thing you want to do is try and spin it up!

Go and find a data recovery specialist, and get them to look at it. Expect lots of zeroes on the price tag though.

Sussex to Devon
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Re: Hard-drive help.

Post by Sussex to Devon » Sat Sep 30, 2017 2:39 pm

Hi,
If you suspect the disk has failed in some way then the last thing you want to do is try and spin it up!
Especially if suspect the unit has suffered say being dropped. The read / write styli is on a arm that swings over the disc's. If jammed due to physical damage could scratch the disc, causing data to be unretrievable. If the drive is dead ie no light could be the external PSU. If the computer doesn't read the HDD or recognise it, could be the usb interface. Your see on the internet suggestions of putting the HDD in a freezer. It doesn't work. If it is just files missing and some of the drive works, chances are you might be able to recover some files. But if the read / write arm is stuck / damaged or even a disc damaged, I can't see how it can be recovered.
Ian

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ChrisCwmbran
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Re: Hard-drive help.

Post by ChrisCwmbran » Sat Sep 30, 2017 4:08 pm

I can't see where it says it was dropped.

In my experience older hard drives such as MFM/RLL units heads being suck were a common problem however a 500Gb drive isn't going to be MFM/RLL!

In this case it is unclear whether we are talking about a bare drive or a drive in the enclosure, and accordingly whether we the drive is PATA/SATA or as suggested USB.

Very often a drive will die as a result of bearing failure, but without more information from the OP I'd suggest its hard to judge much at all.

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ChrisCwmbran
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Re: Hard-drive help.

Post by ChrisCwmbran » Sat Sep 30, 2017 4:11 pm

EGVP wrote:If you suspect the disk has failed in some way then the last thing you want to do is try and spin it up!

Go and find a data recovery specialist, and get them to look at it. Expect lots of zeroes on the price tag though.
I work sometimes with someone from the US who does quite a bit of data recovery - to the point where in the event that the on board controller has failed he has been known to scratch build a replacement logic board to recover data.

As you said it can be a very very expensive thing to do, but I can assure you his first question would "Does the drive spin up?" and to want to know more about the nature of the failure.

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sploosher
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Re: Hard-drive help.

Post by sploosher » Sat Sep 30, 2017 4:20 pm

We had an external hard drive that failed, we managed to recover image files using this program.............

http://z-a-recovery.com/

You don't have to buy the software to recover images, but you do if you want to recover documents etc..........

hope this helps....... :D
Please feel free to visit my flickr site http://www.flickr.com/photos/35699306@N04/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Sony A700, A550, Minolta135,500 a/f mirror, Sigma 10-20,400, Sony 18-70,50, Tamron 17-50,28-300,70-300,90

Sussex to Devon
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Re: Hard-drive help.

Post by Sussex to Devon » Sat Sep 30, 2017 4:40 pm

Hi,
I can't see where it says it was dropped.
I was just making a general comment, not that this one was dropped. I also was assuming it is a SATA HDD in a enclosure. I have had faulty bearings causing problems, like you posted. But I am sure I am right even the more modern SATA drives consist of discs rotating on a vertical shaft motor and a read /write arm. But like you pointed out it is only second guessing without more information.
Ian

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Thunder
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Re: Hard-drive help.

Post by Thunder » Sat Sep 30, 2017 5:56 pm

After reading this I have one question, where/how is the safest way to store your pictures?

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Dave934
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Re: Hard-drive help.

Post by Dave934 » Sat Sep 30, 2017 5:59 pm

I can't help in any way, but I just wanted to say that I'm gutted for you.
It's a terrible situation. Really hope you get it sorted.
Dave.

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ChrisCwmbran
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Re: Hard-drive help.

Post by ChrisCwmbran » Sat Sep 30, 2017 7:14 pm

I'm sorry to say in front of the OP but the answer is backups! backups! backups!

Time and time again I see people who's laptop has crashed, who's PC has been stolen and because they didn't take backups all their images are gone.

Remember a hard disk drive has moving mechanical parts - motors - bearings - and these parts have a finite lifetime.

SSD drives are better because they don't have moving parts however they can still be corrupted.

Therefore keep backups. Ideally more than one backup, and ideally keep one backup nowhere near the others - ideally offsite.

Another possibility is to write them to DVD/Blu-ray disk - but in these cases remember a) a disk can be scratched and ruined and b) the pigment used on writable discs fails over time.

To help you can buy archival quality writeable DVD/Blu-ray disks which can be designed to last a long long time, but even they can by physically damaged so make more than one backup.

Sussex to Devon
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Re: Hard-drive help.

Post by Sussex to Devon » Sun Oct 01, 2017 10:25 am

Hi,
I'm sorry to say in front of the OP but the answer is backups! backups! backups!
Totally agree. I used to try and drum this into my children, yet still they lost work after their computer or drive failed. Same happens when customers use PVR's to store programmes and videos. Lately people have lost their audio collections, often stored onto HDD. With PVR's we found life on a HDD would only last around 4 years on average. Also don't fill a HDD over 80%, if you do can get corruption when using it for video/ audio files. Other thing could use a cloud for storage as a double back up for very precious pictures. If you have a limit amount memory wise, a usb stick can also help. But like the last post said once a computer fails especially a hard drive, there is a fair chance unless stored elsewhere, it is all lost. Like suggested another good media that you can use is recordable DVD discs. But with photos the file size often eats up gigabytes of memory. Also keep them clean as suggested, they do damage, scratches the worse. Also they don't last forever. But more chance the unit playing back the media will go first. But always when finished remember to finalise the disc. That will enable it to be played back on any player. Also prevents accidental recordings.
Ian

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ChrisCwmbran
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Re: Hard-drive help.

Post by ChrisCwmbran » Sun Oct 01, 2017 12:28 pm

Sussex to Devon wrote:With PVR's we found life on a HDD would only last around 4 years on average.
If you look at a hard drive manufacturer such as Western Digital you will find they do various "specifications" of drives. There will be a standard model, then perhaps a model designed for use in a security system/PVR and then at the top of the range what will probably be branded as an Enterprise level hard drive which will cost somewhat more but will be designed for 24 hours 7days a week usage. Very often the higher grade drives will also have a longer warranty than the basic cheaper drives.

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ChrisCwmbran
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Re: Hard-drive help.

Post by ChrisCwmbran » Sun Oct 01, 2017 12:38 pm

9arrow - in case you didn't notice you have a PM.

martmpf
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Re: Hard-drive help.

Post by martmpf » Sun Oct 01, 2017 3:05 pm

9arrow wrote:I store my historic work on a Seagate 500 GB spare hard drive on which I have shots of the final fly-past of Jaguars at Coltishall up to the end of 2016 Duxford Autumn show. As I prepared to load 2071 stuff on there a month ago the drive failed and the process failed - I cannot load and I cannot read existing shots. We have a computer shop where I live and despite a lot of work he was totally unsuccessful in down loading. An alternate tried to down-load the contents onto a DVD with no sign of success in
down-loading the disc contents to a DVD.

In desperation I appeal to members as to their experience or source of anybody/company who could rescue the contents of approx. 5000 pictures on the hard-drive. Its a lot of history spread over a lot of years.

I have had loads of advice regarding "buckets" and "flickers" but they are all talking stable-doors and bolting horses and no use to a chap with a failed spare hard drive.

Regards
Dave
I assume the shop and the alternate tried connecting the offending drive directly, internally to a second computer. This would be via a SATA (ESATA) or IDE data connection usually, with the power supply required as appropriate, to the problematic drive itself. This usually needs to be a desktop computer with the side removed. On re-boot, the drive may be recognised and data can be recovered. I have done this many times successfully.

If this does not work, each drive manufacturer (or a universal one) provides a free Hard Drive Test (HDT) program. This can be downloaded and run. The drive may then be identified and tested with a possibility of at least some recovery. Sometimes, it can be the drive itself won't "boot", as the boot sector on the drive has been become damaged/scratched/electronic (simplified!).

Should these actions fail, as stated by others, if the motor that spins the drive or the arm/head that reads the data is damaged/failed, any recovery is unlikely or very expensive.

9arrow
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Re: Hard-drive help.

Post by 9arrow » Thu Oct 12, 2017 9:43 pm

Thanks for the responses.

Dave

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Cornish-guy
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Re: Hard-drive help.

Post by Cornish-guy » Fri Oct 13, 2017 12:04 am

Just to add my 5p with regard to storing/keeping files, I would suggest several - create your own website, Flickr and at the same time discs.

Hope this helps when you get things going again.

C. :thumb:
Nikon D7100, Nikkor 300 f4 IF ED :-)

9arrow
Posts: 61
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Re: Hard-drive help.

Post by 9arrow » Tue Dec 12, 2017 5:03 pm

As Christmas is beginning to appear over the horizon I am writing to close my saga - but with good news. Last Thursday DHL delivered a parcel to me after 2 days transit containing a new hard-drive on which were over 90% of the files saved on my faulty one. I am so grateful for the service I received from this company along with the reasonable charge made. In case any of you find the need I recommend ZEST DATA RECOVERY. Their web-site will tell you all you need along with prices etc.

Regards
Dave

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xkekeith
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Re: Hard-drive help.

Post by xkekeith » Tue Dec 12, 2017 8:02 pm

Dave,

Nice to hear you had a 90% happy ending, a lesson to all of us, buy a couple of spare drives in the sales and make at least two backups......
Mate of mine crashed the hard drive on his laptop, found the backup was faulty and had to pay an accountant to rebuild his company accounts, not cheap.
Another friend lost the only photo's of his new born child at the hospital on a corrupt drive, which was a whole different level of pain from his partner!

xkekeith
Canon EOS RP & 7D II

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