1TB lost. Suicide? An hero!!

:noooo:
Dudes, my 1TB USB disk flipped down (probably while working) and now I only get a clicky sound and no access to the disk, not even for defragmentation. Actually when I connect the drive, I get the icon and then explorer freezes, etc.
The disk was full (950GB) of music, anime, ISOs, vacation pictures, epic IRC logs since 1996 and even some source code. How screwed am I? Any chance that software will do anything? Somebody bring the light of hope. Or GTFO. lol
Any idea how much the data recovery centers charge? Is it per GB or by damage?
:banghead:

 

Per gig usually, your stuff is probably safe on the disks but the rest of the drive is toast.

 

Ha!
Try a hd-recovering util like the ones you get from Seagate or Matrox..they worked fine for me!

 

It's a Lacie, will it blend? Link? :>

 

damn. I feel for you =(
I 'only' lost 250GB of data but that was like +6 years of code and I know how pissed I felt.

 

I find leaving them for a week or so will normally let you access it for around an hour to get some more data out

 

Maybe it's Karma working... :lol:

 

Damn, and I was pissed off because I lost 50 GB of stuff last tuesday (I backup a lot ), including an almost finished programming task that had to be uploaded to my college website until last friday...

Good luck recovering that stuff ^_^

 

The only time I lost any stuff off my HDD was like 2 years ago: I was making some backups from old HDDs I had since 1999 (and were kinda flimsy) into a new SATA2 250GB HDD, then all of sudden 10GB of data dissapeared!

Using some tools I was able to recover most of the stuff in those 10GB, but alas the most important folder where I had several rare programs, was lost forever...

 

I lost an extrenal HDD last week, but only about 80 GB. I'm getting the clicking sound now, too. I've decided that I'm going to use online sotrage instead for my really important items. Luckily I had my business stuff backed up in a different location as well but I lost all of my music.

 

This brings back my concerns and the thread I started on optimum storage media for backups a while ago.

My dislike for HDDs, a cheap yet many times risky storage medium made me consider the following:

1)stored data can have two classes.
a) Static(data that belongs in an archive, for reference, eg music, video, childhood pictures etc) and b) Dynamic (data that belongs to the current running period, might include many things not worth keeping in the long term, but nevertheless important.

Based on this distinction, the two classes should never be stored on the same physical hardware for backup purposes.

The reason is that current files you may be able to reproduce, but oldies are lost forever if there isn't another backup lying around.

Also, the way the data is stored is more consistent in static content, because fragmentation does not occur during a serial writing of the disk compared to the rate that constant backups fragment the disk.

2) Always keep multiple copies of your backups on different hardware locations. This is especially true for Static content (I always keep records of my Statics in different countries as well, in Greece and here in the UK for example, in case the place catches on fire etc.)

It's tempting to use one target medium for all backups, but just think what happened in this thread for a moment.

For example, for a bulk 10GB of data if you set out to buy an external hard drive of 20GB, buy two 10GB hard drives instead. Keep them in different locations so that environmental conditions that might destroy one will not do the same to the other (it's statistically rare for both your backups to be destroyed or corrupted if stored at different locations , under different circumstances)



3) Don't leave your backup disks on. Always turn them off after you have backuped.


and remember kids:

Backup disks should be kept seperate for running disks. Mixing them can lead to very bad results.

 

I already have an old 40GB HDD full f godknowswhat in my closet. I should get a USB case for it since having to open my PC and connect the damn thing is such a pain in the ass that I may just skip the whole process and store the stuff in one of my 3 running HDDs:-(

Like 3 years ago I tried to use HP backup tapes since those where 60GB each and I got the recorder for free from a friend. Jesus cristo was that crap slow! I had avoided making DVD backups of old but important stuff since it would take me a week to cram the minimum 200GB I needed to save on DVDs, but fuck! those 60GB where slow to record AND to play!

At least the DVD has an OK-speed when you have to play it...

I would love to make a RAID array, or just get a couple of external firewire HDD for backups, but right now I'm on a college-to-college transfer and I just dont have the time to go through 10 years of files and stuff.

Therefore my new rig better have at least 1TB!:lol:

 

be warned, using USB cases for IDE drives can cause corruption and further issues.

 

Take the drive out of the caddy, slap it into a PC, it may just be the caddy. Mine died once and I just swapped the drive out into a £6 Hong Kong caddy and it worked perfectly.

 

Who knows, plus that HDD is ancient history, in fact I think is less than 7200RPM...

As soon as I solve this mess and get some free time I'm buying a couple of 500GB Firewire drives (there was a sale a month ago, at $200 each) so I can finally move all this crap from my main HDD, and also plug something in that useless port.

Seriously, I HAD to pay for that firewire crap in my motherboard cuz it was the only Pro model that came with dual gigabyte LAN ports.

 

If you can afford it, definitely. And if you can afford to have a 1TB disk I think you should be able to afford to double up to protect your data. The cheaper way perhaps would be to backup your essentials to optical discs. God I can't wait for Blu-ray to come down in price.

 

When my 250gb HD (also an external one) died last year people recommended to put it into a plastic bag and put it into the freezer for a few minutes. According to them it would usually magically give the disc one last boot. I tried it and it indeed worked. The disc booted up again, and I backed up most of the important data to a new disc. In your case however I would not go for this unless its the very last resort. Getting it restored professionally seems like a better option for your 1TB. Good Luck.

 

I also read to do that when I had an 80GB drive die on me but I never bothered... I didn't really doubt it but had no faith in my drive as the noise was so far beyond repair that I just sat it on a shelf and forgot about it.

Luckily I only lost movies and mp3's that were a rip away from being back on my HDD but if this thread has shown anything it's the fagility of hard drives.

they seem to be dropping like flies!

 

like Tachikoma said, take it out of the caddy and plug it directly.
but since it's clicking I dont think there's much you can do

btw what brand was it? seagate? xD