The world is over for me - my HD crashed

[J0hnny]

Seems like I may have 1/2 year of photos, documents, etc.

I'm such a dimwit for not backing up - I've told myself many times I would back up the data...but I've only had the HD for 6 months!!

I posted on the computer help forum but that place is like a desert... can't find a soul.

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2181372&enterthread=y

anyone willing to answer that thread?

No cross posting
Anandtech Moderator
Gillbot

 

[imported_Jdo]

Sorry for your loss man. I just got a 500GB backup external USB hard drive a few days ago and backed up all my important documents, pictures etc. about 60GB worth. You never know when your HDD might fail. As I was backing my data up, I was wondering to myself what if my HDD fails now, i.e. during the transfer? I can tell you that I sure felt a sigh of relief as soon as I was done.

 

[imported_Jdo]

And I had about 8 years of photos, documents...no photos ever printed, nothing ever backed up.

 

[Tobolo]

done

 

[fatpat268]

I've always heard of programs like spinrite working for a lot of people. I dunno, point is though, there are programs out there that should be able to help you.

But thanks for the reminder, I'll do a backup tonight. First backup in 3 months. Heh.

 

[Anubis]

if the drive still spins the program called "Get Data Back" (http://www.runtime.org/ will find all your data and you can simply use the program to copy that data onto a new HDD

its worth the 100$ they want for it, its saved my ass before

 

[Koing]

It's brutal man

Koing

 

[imported_Jdo]

Originally posted by: Anubis
if the drive still spins the program called "Get Data Back" (http://www.runtime.org/) will find all your data and you can simply use the program to copy that data onto a new HDD

its worth the 100$ they want for it, its saved my ass before

fix your link

sounds like it could work

 

[imthebadguy]

i cant believe HDD's are still so damn unreliable....

 

[Anubis]

not my fault the stupid forum software pulled the ) into the link

 

[AmpedSilence]

Originally posted by: Anubis
if the drive still spins the program called "Get Data Back" (http://www.runtime.org/) will find all your data and you can simply use the program to copy that data onto a new HDD

its worth the 100$ they want for it, its saved my ass before

totally agree.....

but, um, if your resourceful... you can find it out there...

 

[imported_Jdo]

Originally posted by: imthebadguy
i cant believe HDD's are still so damn unreliable....

Well they are mechanical devices after all.

 

[Bateluer]

I have too much data to back up effectively. 2000GB on 4.7GB DVDs isn't practical at all, even on the expensive 25GB BD disks is not exactly easy either.

 

[desy]

Second the 'get data back'
used it a bunch of times
Even save a bunch of stuff off a PC that had the operating system reloaded and I told the guy DON"T do another thing to it

 

[XxPrOdiGyxX]

You probably will want to also back up to a permanent medium. External HDs are great for quick backups...but if that fails on you too you are SOL.

Also, I recommend the GetDataBack suggestion someone posted. I use it myself and it's pretty good and not astronomically overpriced or has limited number of uses like Ontrack's stuff.

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: Bateluer
I have too much data to back up effectively. 2000GB on 4.7GB DVDs isn't practical at all, even on the expensive 25GB BD disks is not exactly easy either.

raid 5

 

[imported_Jdo]

Originally posted by: Bateluer
I have too much data to back up effectively. 2000GB on 4.7GB DVDs isn't practical at all, even on the expensive 25GB BD disks is not exactly easy either.

How about two 1TB external HDDs. Ebay's a good place to look. That's where I got mine.

 

[Queasy]

If the data is important to you, you can always go somewhere that does data recovery. It will be costly but worth it if the data is truly valuable.

I still keep meaning to sign up to one of those online data backup services as a secondary backup to my normal backup.

 

[SearchMaster]

Originally posted by: Anubis

Originally posted by: Bateluer
I have too much data to back up effectively. 2000GB on 4.7GB DVDs isn't practical at all, even on the expensive 25GB BD disks is not exactly easy either.

raid 5

The drawback with RAID is that it doesn't save you from software-based failures ("accidentally" wiping your disks, viruses, etc.)

 

[MrPickins]

I hate to be a jerk, but you crossposted after 5 minutes?!?

Patience, grasshopper.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Originally posted by: Jdo
And I had about 8 years of porn, porn and more porn...no photos ever printed, nothing ever backed up.

fixed

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: Jdo
Sorry for your loss man. I just got a 500GB backup external USB hard drive a few days ago and backed up all my important documents, pictures etc. about 60GB worth. You never know when your HDD might fail. As I was backing my data up, I was wondering to myself what if my HDD fails now, i.e. during the transfer? I can tell you that I sure felt a sigh of relief as soon as I was done.

i once had one of those 500gb seagates die in about a month or two
that blew chunks.
shipping costs more with external for rma

as for raid 5....
raid 5 + apple time machine would be nuts but awesome lol

 

[rudder]

Man that sucks. Me.. I am paranoid about my digital pictures. I back up to two external drives and keep one drive at the office. I also occasionally back up to DVD... but at 60 gigs it is a pain. Hence the fairly cheap 500gb mybooks.

 

[SpunkyJones]

I set up a external drive a few months ago, I should check and make sure its still doing backups. My wife would kill me if some thing happened to all the family pictures.

 

[Special K]

Originally posted by: Jdo

Originally posted by: Bateluer
I have too much data to back up effectively. 2000GB on 4.7GB DVDs isn't practical at all, even on the expensive 25GB BD disks is not exactly easy either.

How about two 1TB external HDDs. Ebay's a good place to look. That's where I got mine.

Externals aren't any more reliable than internals though, are they? They certainly aren't as reliable as hard media. I guess you would just be reducing the chance of losing your data by storing it in 2 places, although I'd still be paranoid since the data is still being kept on an unreliable mechanical hard drive.