they're all gorn (1 Viewer)

Wildman

Free Member
May 30, 2008
0
8,470
Ilfracombe, Devon
Funster No
2,913
MH
Amazon Ambassador
Exp
since 1967
All of my media is stored on a seperate WD elements harddrive all 400 gig of it, all my photos from 1977 onwards, movies song sheets etc. Hundreds of document files including 20 years research of family history. Today the drive failed to boot. the power supply (once fuse was replaced) showed a neon until the drive was plugged in then the light dimmed to a flash and blew the fuse again. I suspect the drive has siezed causing an overload. Is it the cold weather or terminal I've no idea. I have been in the habit of making an MPEG movie disk of the photos every year so memories not entierly lost, however I don't think I can take the photos out again as individual photos to use when posting etc. Can it be done? There are thousands of photos that were catagorised by date and occasion, easy to find on the hard drive, a few hundred are on photobucket and same again on dropbox, but loads of personal research documents, manuals etc are not backed up. to say I am totally pissed of would be an understatement. I spent weeks digitising videos before dumping them, now all gone:cry::cry: months/years of my life gone in a flash is it time to give up the computer altogether?
 
Last edited:

Bailey58

LIFE MEMBER
Jun 23, 2010
8,785
29,149
Norfolk and Toftir.
Funster No
12,267
MH
Sold
Exp
July 2010 (ex tugger)
Nowhere near as bad as your dilemma but I have a removable hard drive on my HP desktop where I kept loads of pics and records from work and financial stuff but that won't boot up after I locked it away in a (hot) loft whilst away last year. :Sad:


 
Aug 30, 2012
4,270
11,303
Home of the war horse
Funster No
22,676
MH
burstnar T640
Exp
2010
Find a local data recovery company its suprising what they do
It may only be the electronics in the unit not the hard drive
Had the same thing this guy took out the drive pluged it into a replacment dock and got all my data back charged me 40 quid
 

hilldweller

LIFE MEMBER
Dec 5, 2008
605
36,108
Macclesfield
Funster No
5,089
MH
Zilch Mk1
Exp
From Aug 2007
I guess you don't want to spend hundreds of pounds sending it to a recovery firm.

So if desperate, pull it apart and see what type of drive it is. It may fit directly in your PC.

The drive may be OK, it could be the interface.

If it has seized you could remove the sealed cover and spin it by hand then replace cover and try again, once open it will last long enough to copy everything off, if the gods are smiling.

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 

rainbow chasers

Free Member
Oct 30, 2009
3,680
1,725
Mid Cornwall
Funster No
9,132
MH
Various
Exp
9
I'll have a word with a friend of mine, he can probably recover it for you as his company works in that type of industry. I will see him tomorrow and let you know what can be done.
 

thehutchies

Free Member
Aug 31, 2007
1,527
1,775
The Wheelèd Shed
Funster No
200
MH
.
Exp
.
As a very, very last resort :Eeek: I have managed to buy an identical drive and strip both down, then swap the old platters (storage discs) into the new drive.

I'm not recommending it, just saying that it can be done :Smile:
 
Jul 5, 2013
11,713
13,681
Tunbridge Wells, Tunbridge Wells, UK
Funster No
26,797
MH
A class
Exp
Since 2013
When the hard disc broke down on my work laptop a few years ago I took it down to a guy in Christchurch and he managed to recover all of the info on it within a few hours (I left it in the morning and came back later in the day). Mind you it was back in 2006 and and it was only a 40Gb hard drive. The total cost including VAT was £323.

He worked from his own house and his company was called Retrodata. You could try them. They are still in business but appear to have got bigger and have moved now to Lymington. Try www.retrodata.co.uk.

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 

TheBig1

LIFE MEMBER
Nov 27, 2011
17,509
42,755
Dorset
Funster No
19,048
MH
A class
Exp
many many years! since I was a kid
sounds like it may be the hard drive enclosure electronics have failed, try dismantling and removing the hard disk. then get hold of another enclosure or hard disc to usb adapter cable. should cost no more than £10 to try

last time I had dealings with data recovery it cost £50+vat per hour and that was some time ago

one trick i learnt for internal drives that failed due to heat was to place the drive in a zip lock bag and place in the freezer for a few hours. then reinstall and copy all data. repeat until you get it all. cost nothing to try and worked for me on a few discs
 

wivvy's dad

Free Member
Jun 22, 2010
3,205
1,795
48.066895,12.862673
Funster No
12,229
MH
Transit LWB Hi-Top PVC
Exp
On and Off since '98
I have a WD 500gb drive that has the "click of death", fortunately with no irreplaceable files on it. But it is such a pain.....:cry:

Let us know how you get on
 

hilldweller

LIFE MEMBER
Dec 5, 2008
605
36,108
Macclesfield
Funster No
5,089
MH
Zilch Mk1
Exp
From Aug 2007
As a very, very last resort :Eeek: I have managed to buy an identical drive and strip both down, then swap the old platters (storage discs) into the new drive.

I'm not recommending it, just saying that it can be done :Smile:

Respect !

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 
Apr 27, 2008
11,794
13,956
Eastbourne East Sussex
Funster No
2,327
MH
Hymer low profile
Exp
Since 1972
I keep all my photos on three separate external drives (three copies). Sad perhaps but short of the house burning down I shouldn't lose them. Perhaps should get a fire safe.:Blush:
 
OP
OP
W

Wildman

Free Member
May 30, 2008
0
8,470
Ilfracombe, Devon
Funster No
2,913
MH
Amazon Ambassador
Exp
since 1967
Update, it is the harddrive enclosure electronics playing silly beggers waggle the board once stripped and I can get it to work so new caddy needed and a back up drive. The trouble is all decent drives these days are USB3 both of my machines only USB2 nowt but blooming problems
 

GJH

LIFE MEMBER
Aug 20, 2007
29,450
38,828
Acklam, Teesside, originally Glossop
Funster No
127
MH
None, now sold
Exp
2006 to 2022
Update, it is the harddrive enclosure electronics playing silly beggers waggle the board once stripped and I can get it to work so new caddy needed and a back up drive. The trouble is all decent drives these days are USB3 both of my machines only USB2 nowt but blooming problems

That's good news.

USB3 drives are normally backwards compatible with SB2. Two of the external drives I use for backups are Toshiba Stor.E Partners. One is always used in a USB2 port (this machine has one USB3 and two USB2) so you should be OK.

Get at least one extra backup drive ASAP though :Smile:

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 

thehutchies

Free Member
Aug 31, 2007
1,527
1,775
The Wheelèd Shed
Funster No
200
MH
.
Exp
.
I keep all my photos on three separate external drives (three copies). Sad perhaps but short of the house burning down I shouldn't lose them. Perhaps should get a fire safe.:Blush:

I had many photos on a laptop and backed up to an external drive.

When the laptop died, I went upstairs to get the backup drive and dropped it down a wrought-iron spiral staircase onto a tiled floor.

It took three purchases to find another drive that was internally identical to the original, even though they had the same manufacturer and model numbers.

It took many hours of very frustrating work to recover all the original images.

I'm going back to plate cameras and the wetplate collodion process :thumb:

.

(This is actually the website of the father of a fulltiming motorhome family who earns a living from his photography)
 
OP
OP
W

Wildman

Free Member
May 30, 2008
0
8,470
Ilfracombe, Devon
Funster No
2,913
MH
Amazon Ambassador
Exp
since 1967
Having stripped the drive from the electronics I have managed to clean all of the electroniic connections and got it functioning again, I bought a HDD docking station and have backed up to two different drives now, both stored in different places so the bulk should hopefully remain safe no matter what happens to this drive in the future. However two previous IDE backup dries that have not been accessed for at least 5 years are now no longer readable so I do wonder just how safe digital media actually is.
 

GJH

LIFE MEMBER
Aug 20, 2007
29,450
38,828
Acklam, Teesside, originally Glossop
Funster No
127
MH
None, now sold
Exp
2006 to 2022
Having stripped the drive from the electronics I have managed to clean all of the electroniic connections and got it functioning again, I bought a HDD docking station and have backed up to two different drives now, both stored in different places so the bulk should hopefully remain safe no matter what happens to this drive in the future. However two previous IDE backup dries that have not been accessed for at least 5 years are now no longer readable so I do wonder just how safe digital media actually is.

What's the problem with the IDE drives Roger? If it is simply lack of interface you should be able to get a IDE to USB caddy or stick them in an old desktop machine.

Generally speaking, any media in storage should be kept in conditions designed to prevent deterioration. When we were in business we maintained machines with every version of Windows from 3.11 to Vista (with the exception of ME) - I think most of them are still in the loft - and used to fire them up from time to time just to check them out.

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 

Join us or log in to post a reply.

To join in you must be a member of MotorhomeFun

Join MotorhomeFun

Join us, it quick and easy!

Log in

Already a member? Log in here.

Latest journal entries

Funsters who are viewing this thread

Back
Top