POOF!

[falcon409]

Well, I just lost my external HDD :angryfir: along with AFX, FSPS, TrackIR, FSHost Client, TS3, FSRepaint, GMap, PlanG, 3gig of a temp hangar I was keeping FSX aircraft in to shuffle back and forth and my last backups, lol.

I'm gonna take the drive to the Geek Squad and see if they can recover an of it, but I suspect that it's a lost cause. In the past 3 years I've had two internal and this one go south on me and I was never able to recover anything.:salute:

[Stratobat]

Sorry to hear that, Falcon.

Would it be possible for you to list manufacturer and size of the hard drive?

Regards,
Stratobat

[falcon409]

It's a "Simpletech" 250gig. I think it's one they no longer produce called a "Simpledrive_Pininforina".:salute:

[Hurricane91]

I am sorry to hear that Falcon. I hope everything is recovered. Good luck.

John

[mmann]

Did you have the files from the external drive backed up elsewhere? I try to back everything up at least in two different locations and sometimes three locations. The reason; I've lost too many hard drives over the years to trust them keeping my files safe!!

[BOOM]

Darn!! That Sux bud,I hope for the best for you.

[N2056]

Are there any actual computer shops in your area? Frankly the "Geek Squad" is the last place I would take it to!

[SPman]

Try putting it in the freezer overnight! I lost a 3 month old external HD last year and tried the freezer trick - the HD booted up long enough for me to grab and drag about 40G of files I hadn't double backed up elsewhere.

[Meshman]

I'm gonna take the drive to the Geek Squad and see if they can recover an of it, ...

:barf:

If you're in any way handy with a screw driver, I would tear the thing apart (no worry about voiding a warranty?) and try to see if your system will recognize the HD as an additional drive. It may be using a newer SATA hookup, but more than likely an older IDE connection. You should have either/both or they are readily available at most any computer shop. Hard drives do go out, but more often than not it's the interfacing equipment that goes bad before the HD.

If you do decide to check the HD and it shows as good, then there are replacement products that you can look to buy. Even Best Buy stocks one that I use! :salute:

[DennyA]

Sorry to hear about your tragic loss.

I just bought three 2TB drives for $99 each from NewEgg. Not much excuse not to back up all your important data to an external drive nowadays... (Which reminds me, time to run my backup script tonight...)

[Lionheart]

Sorry to hear this Falcon.

I have heard that finding a good one online on Ebay and trading the discs out in it will get you running, but others say thats way to difficult. Then there are companies that do that, but they might charge several hundred. There are many companies now that do this. You can find them online, google Data Recovery. You might find a cheap group.

I havent heard of the freezer trick. I wonder if that works?

[Daube]

Just before you try anything, how does this disk performs actually ? Does it spin ? Is it "recognized" by the system but somehow you get no more access to the driver letter or something like that ?

If it's just a problem with the partition or the FAT of the disk, there are some utilities that can try to recover that stuff. It's always worth a try...

Of course, if it doesn't spin at all anymore, take it to the geeks ;)

[expat]

was keeping FSX aircraft in to shuffle back and forth and my last backups, lol.
In the past 3 years I've had two internal and this one go south on me and I was never able to recover anything

Ditto. And ditto. I feel your pain Falcon. I lost three in three years. My tech guy at work was a genious and salvaged the files I could not bear to lose once but I was lucky and he thinks I have some kind of curse that kills any HDD I come near. Try the methods above or maybe with some professional assistance. Bypassing the controller and using various tools to read the disc helped my friend recover data off damaged drives a couple of times.

Interested to know if it just went "poof" with no warning or if there was any phyiscal impact on the unit. My friend's theory was that my gawky hyperactive teenage son was kicking the PC box over unconsciously while playing his teen vid games. I have seen him do this more than once! A hard jolt to the unit he said is what kills a hard drive - when its running - more than anything. Other cause can be static discharge so take care re grounding when rummaging around inside the PC.

Seems to me people here lose hard drives way more than we should be but guess the technology is still fragile and we always have this risk. How many times though can you back something up? Guess it's like 747 systems - triple redundancy won't guarantee failure but the probability is remote enough to regard as safe.

Fingers crossed for you.

[roger-wilco-66]

Just before you try anything, how does this disk performs actually ? Does it spin ? Is it "recognized" by the system but somehow you get no more access to the driver letter or something like that ?

If it's just a problem with the partition or the FAT of the disk, there are some utilities that can try to recover that stuff. It's always worth a try...

Of course, if it doesn't spin at all anymore, take it to the geeks ;)


I second that, this is a good advice. If you tell us a little more about the symptoms and interface we could give you a good diagnose of what's going on.

I had this happen, too, to an external hdd and the culprit was a faulty USB interface - it was zapped when I unhooked the drive from the computer. The hdd itself was OK, I still have it and just mounted into another external case.

Cheers,
Mark

[hey_moe]

Ouch, that is nothing more than a nightmare. Did you keep it hooked up to your computer all the time and also power plugged into it.

[txnetcop]

The freezer trick is the last resort to try...it does not always work anyway! The best advice is to see if it really is the hard drive or the interface. Falcon if there is a real computer shop in town go there. GeekSquad techs aren't very techy! They are parts replacers.

[Bone]

Did you have the files from the external drive backed up elsewhere? I try to back everything up at least in two different locations and sometimes three locations. The reason; I've lost too many hard drives over the years to trust them keeping my files safe!!

I'm with you, triple redundency!!

Sorry to hear about your troubles, Ed.

[gera]

If your disk is still "Readable"....Don´t panic !!!!!!!....I had the same problem a few weeks ago and I got all my data back and programs....first google for " getting data back from disk" and you will get a bunch of programs that do just that...I bought " Get Data" after I tried the demo which showed me all the "lost" data on the disk!!!!..the demos only "show" if you will be able to recup it......here is their url

http://www.getdata.com/

but there are many more.....Good luck, you should get all back.

[falcon409]

It's no longer readable. It's a USB External Drive and it's no longer recognized, so I can't access it at all. I do have a few places I can take it other than the "Geeks". You're right Ted, I've taken two other HDD's and one computer there to be checked and in all instances the answer was "It needs to be replaced"?

Thanks folks!:salute:

[icarus]

sorry for the problem...experienced same problem 6 years ago..since that best way is have two external hd with all backup, files, mail, bookmark, etc or have a disk image and use only one, so if died there are the other one that is still new.

due my bad past experience actually i have three 2 gb external hd with all backup, another one with image disk of the main computer i use and three pc with all backup + a notebook...expensive but i doubt i will be on trouble.

i read this post on cnet.com about tries to recover files..perhaps can help

http://forums.cnet.com/5208-10149_102-0.html?threadID=310752&start=45#2873525

http://forums.cnet.com/5208-10149_102-0.html?threadID=310752

[italoc]

Did you have the files from the external drive backed up elsewhere? I try to back everything up at least in two different locations and sometimes three locations. The reason; I've lost too many hard drives over the years to trust them keeping my files safe!!


Me too !!!!
Belt and suspenders :salute:
Never enough precautions, if you want to keep safe backups of your valuable files)
Worthwhile considering the constantly decreasing prices and increasing capacity of external HD
Italo