Help Help Help Help Help Help Help Help Help Help Help Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Posted by Jason_R on Apr-03-2006 17:57:

Help Help Help Help Help Help Help Help Help Help Help Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My 4 month old external hard drive has just decided it won't turn on.

WHAT DO I DO WHAT DO I DO??????????????????? I KNEW I SHOULD OF MADE BACK UPS.

AARRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Posted by staticblue on Apr-03-2006 18:03:

aw bad luck, im afraid i cant help you there

Posted by Jason_R on Apr-03-2006 18:12:

Thank feck I backed up my projects only yesterday but all my samples / some software / documents / and porn are gone.

Posted by JustinMead on Apr-03-2006 18:15:

The only loss i see is the porn

Posted by Thois on Apr-03-2006 18:22:

if it's crashed, put your harddrive in the fridge and try again, that worked for me to save my files.

Posted by Jason_R on Apr-03-2006 18:30:

quote:
Originally posted by Thois
if it's crashed, put your harddrive in the fridge and try again, that worked for me to save my files.

Really how long do I put it in for? Many thanks for the advice guys!

Oh yeah it was 42gb of porn!!

Posted by qiushiming on Apr-03-2006 18:31:

42fkinGB?? damn.....lol

no wonder you're upset....if it was just samples/software, id say just reinstall!

Posted by Low Profile on Apr-03-2006 18:32:

yup that can actually work, just make sure you put it in a plastic bag first

But External HDD's a very prone to crashing, at least in my experience. I've had 3 disks in 2 different enclosures and 2 of the disks have crashed on me (maganed to save one of them after 12 hours of Bad sector scanning and more fun like that.... ), and many of my friends have externals that have died very quickly after they came out of the box, brand new... Just buy extra IDE/SATA controller cards, cost like 20 bucks, the internal IDE and SATA disks just seem to last longer and run more smoothly.

Posted by Jason_R on Apr-03-2006 18:42:

Thanks it's in the fridge. Thing about the samples is it's not just ripps off cds but stuff I've been making myself. Even more that I'am reakky gutted about is my custom made synth patches. I was really getting into that and many hours of work is now gone.

As for the porn Ihave a pervy mate who doesn't have the internet and pays me to download stuff for him. I just leave it on the hd. Don't want to sound gay but I'am really not that into porn!

Posted by Jason_R on Apr-03-2006 18:42:

Posted by /I\ on Apr-03-2006 18:42:

quote:
Originally posted by Jason_R
Really how long do I put it in for? Many thanks for the advice guys!

Oh yeah it was 42gb of porn!!

Did that once too and saved all my porn ... 24hr should cover it ... you might get an hour out of usage but def enough to pull your files out

Posted by Jason_R on Apr-03-2006 18:44:

quote:
Originally posted by /I\
Did that once too and saved all my porn ... 24hr should cover it ... you might get an hour out of usage but def enough to pull your files out

Excellent! I just wish these drives would gve out some type of warning that they might go wrong.

Posted by Aquascape on Apr-03-2006 19:22:

I hope you find a way to retrieve all your data, dude. But if you can't then it's your own silly fault for not backing up.

It's the first rule!

Posted by emc^2 on Apr-03-2006 20:35:

Fridge thing??? LOL! Hm... Ok, so - here's my suggestion:

Since it's an external Hard Drive, take it out of the hard drive enclosure and install it directly into your PC - who knows, your USB port could be shot. If that's the case, you'll be able to use the drive internally. If it's not a problem with USB but drive itself, there's a program created by WinInternals that I had to use before to extract data from my crashed drive but it assumes your drive mechanism is still operational. If the drive motor is f*cked, obivously the only thing refrigeration would do is make it a really COOL dead drive. In that case you could use it to... keep your beer cold just a little longer.

Also, and this is absolute last effort - not recommended or guaraneed by any means. What I had done before as a last resort - I took the drive apart. Initialy, the logic behind it was this: well, if it won't work - at least I'll see how it looks inside. After taking it apart and plugging it back in - it worked!!! I put it back together and it has served me for 3 more years. I guess it just needed some fresh air.

back to my initial suggestion. When you do take your external drive enclosure apart, you'll find standard drive inside (unless it's one of those small laptop drives.) If it's a laptop sized drive (2.5in) you'll need an adapter to make standard IDE cable fit your 2.5IDE interface. Those run about 5 bucks and sold in most computer specialty stores or online. when you plug your drive in, I'd recommend keeping your "bad" drive and "good" drive on separate IDE interfaces. You may have to temporarily disconnect some of your other IDE devices, depending how many you have inside, etc.

Once you have your drive connected, go int your system bios and see if the drive is even recognized by your bios. If your BIOS see the drive, consider yourself partially lucky - as you may still be able to pull shit out of it. If not, well... rest is a murky and risky territory that I wouldn't recommend to anyone but myself.

So, when that drive is inside, assuming your BIOS see it - bring it up your OS (again, I'm assuming you're running WIN variant of sorts). Linux steps are not covered and you'd want to recover it in Win-based system anyway.

So, if OS sees it - well, problem is almost solved. You might see it right away or you might have to tinker around to get your OS to recognize it.

One thing you have to watch out for - when your system is just booting up, I'd recommend listening for any kind of mechanical noise comming from the drive itself. Any clanking or unusual sounds and loud(er) noises like "tick tick tick tick tick" may be indication of mechanism issues. If it does not make any noise, place your fingers on the drive and if you feel it spinning up or moving - you have a chance that drive can be recovered from. If it does not make any noise nor do you hear or feel any vibration from drive spinning/up down or mecanism movement - electronics on that drive are shot. You can sometimes transplant electronics from another drive but it is highly complicated and risky procedure. I've done transplants of platters from one drive (dead) to another (alive) and was able to get it to work. but this is not recommended and highly risky. I take no responsibility for any problems arising from this desparate move.

good news is that drives don't usually just drop dead. If that's the case - usually it's drive electronics that are f*cked. In those rare cases you may still be able to recover, but again - advanced fu*cking around is involved. If you do manage to get your drive to work in windows, get your crap as fast as you can using something like symantec ghost or another copy utility. Ideally, though, you should use WinInternals ERD Commander. Keep in mind that bad drive recovery can sometimes take DAYS to get data off. So, be patient, if needed. I'd recommend disabling any utilities that may access your dead drive directly. As a matter of fact, WinInternals ERD commander disk is ideal, because it boots your system into WindowsPE environment, which is basically OS running from CD - this way nothing extra is loaded and you don't risk your drive being stressed any more than it has to be by programs like antivirus, defrag utilities, or FBI programs that are most certainly spying on you. (what, you thought that Bush only limited his illegal spying activities to wiretapping only? HA! HA! HA!)

Oh, and if you do end up recovering using my method, my usual fee applies - 100% of your pr0n made available for download.

Thank you for using emc^2 support hotline, where our moto is "We're not too proud to work for pr0n".

Cheers

Posted by Thois on Apr-03-2006 22:55:

I like "Shanes World College Invasion 8" scene 5

Posted by Storyteller on Apr-03-2006 22:56:

Too bad I don't have dvd quality rips, I can't do the scene/chapter skipping... what time does scene 5 start?

Posted by emc^2 on Apr-04-2006 01:46:

hey, that's not fair... all my smutt is still pics... some crappy dvd rips are somewhere on the drive but it all sucks... damn, I need to start exploiting the net again. haven't done so since audiogalaxy days...

Posted by Centra Spike on Apr-04-2006 05:50:

http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm

Posted by -_1_--Ben--_1_- on Apr-04-2006 12:52:

don`t worry Jason, with a download speed of 250 kbps you should have
your 42 gb of porn back in 15mb pm - 900mb ph - let`s make it easy 1gb ph, within two days.

you`ll have even more than you had before haha.

after a week you`ll have so big load of porn you`ll throw up.
(it stays disgusting)

Posted by Beyer on Apr-04-2006 14:18:

What brand of drive was this? I've heard certain drive brands are more prone to crash than other.. I've had two maxtor external drives for over two years now, and they've been running most of the time too.. I have no idea how to fix your problem, but it looks like you have some good tips already!

Posted by emc^2 on Apr-04-2006 16:01:

i bet it was a deskstar... those bricks should be marketed with a slogan "it's not a matter of it we will fail, it's a matter of how soon."

3 Deskstars of various sizes are currently paper weights on my desk - and reminder never to by IBM or Hitachi deskstar drives.

NEVER EVER EVER EVER PUT ANY DATA YOU WANT TO KEEP ON A DESKSTAR DRIVE.

never!

Posted by Jason_R on Apr-05-2006 13:35:

Many thanks for all the replies some really good advice there. However unfortently nothing worked so I'll have to send it back.

As for the brand it's a maxtor one touch 300gb. I only went for this one as it was recommended by computer music magizine!

Think I might get an internal drive next time as it looks quite easy to fit but I havn't got a clue how to get the case of my pc.

quote
Too bad I don't have dvd quality rips, I can't do the scene/chapter skipping... what time does scene 5 start

http://empornium.us:6969/index.php but I didn't tell you that!