:-):-) I just lost all of my computer data dating back 20 years. Long story short I had it BACKED UP on a 2tb portable hard drive which I dropped. It's trashed. 2 different sysops looked at it. I can send it to the company and pray but that bill starts at $1000.00 They took it apart and its running but the arm is scratching back and forth across the disk. No light comes on and it is not recognized by any computer I plug it into. 20 years of taxes, personal files, small business files and lesson plans and lessons from my 30 years of teaching welding - gone.:-):-)
Truthfully I had it backed up on my computer c drive which had to be re-imaged.
My though was, it gets re-imaged, I copy everything back, now I still have two copies. :-)BAM god punished me.:-):-)
Don't be me, back that stuff up twice. I would do it on "the cloud" but know little about it. Mr. Wizard is wrong again!
PS is the cloud a good idea for an old dog like me? [Reply]
Originally Posted by Mr. Wizard:
I hate to disagree but flash drives are bulletproof. External hard drives are NOT.
They can't take any punishment at all. I dropped this one 6" and its done????
I know my job requires alot of moving around from computer to computer but Never again.
Flash drives aren't bulletproof. That's just the thing. It's really easy to break the solder on the flash, making it useless. Plugging them and unplugging them over and over can actually lead to them breaking. They also have a limited number of writes before they're just worn out. Flash drives make for decent file storage but they suck for actual backups.
If dropping an external HDD is that big of a problem for you (I've personally never dropped one myself but I don't generally carry them around either, that's what flash drives are for. :-)), get a protected one.
Several companies make external enclosures covered in silicone or other materials to make them drop and shock-proof. [Reply]
Originally Posted by htismaqe:
Flash drives aren't bulletproof. That's just the thing. It's really easy to break the solder on the flash, making it useless. Plugging them and unplugging them over and over can actually lead to them breaking. They also have a limited number of writes before they're just worn out. Flash drives make for decent file storage but they suck for actual backups.
If dropping an external HDD is that big of a problem for you (I've personally never dropped one myself but I don't generally carry them around either, that's what flash drives are for. :-)), get a protected one.
Several companies make external enclosures covered in silicone or other materials to make them drop and shock-proof.
PLEASE post a link! My job teaching over 100 kids in a huge welding shop with CNC capabilities is hard as hell on technology. [Reply]
I finally got my old VHS tapes digitalized. Very happy seeing the kids 1st Christmas, 2nd birthday party etc.
There are several companies that will get data even off a physically broken hard drive.
I back up the most crucial files on a 500GB thumb drive. Then full backup to an external hd. Backup all photos from phone and computer to Amazon for free. [Reply]
I backup via Time Machine and I have my data in a RAID. As I understand it, a RAID means that there are 2 drives that appear as one and when the computer saves to the RAID, it saves to both drives at the same time. I have them encrypted and use a VPN.
Sounds good, but .... a friend of mine had his office burn down and he said he had no off-site backup. I think about that every 6 months and resolve to do something about that but then forget about it for another 6 months or so. [Reply]
That sucks man but I've got one even worse. I lost 20 years worth of porn because my external drive failed and I didn't back it up. 2TB worth. You ever seen a grown man cry? [Reply]
Originally Posted by Mr. Wizard:
I hate to disagree but flash drives are bulletproof. External hard drives are NOT.
They can't take any punishment at all. I dropped this one 6" and its done????
I know my job requires alot of moving around from computer to computer but Never again.
Originally Posted by candyman:
That sucks man but I've got one even worse. I lost 20 years worth of porn because my external drive failed and I didn't back it up. 2TB worth. You ever seen a grown man cry?
I sent a mechanical hard drive off for data restoration many years ago and got it all back. A few drips of coffee shorted the hard drive. Non-heroic means we’re ineffective in recovering the data. [Reply]
Use Carbon Cloner software...it can make a bootable back-up complete with your OS. If your main HD fails...you can simply plug it in and are good to go. Replace the failed drive and reverse the cloning process.
Dont like Time-machine as you cant get back up and running immediately.
I have 18TB of G-tech drives...which all have a cloned back-up.
There is nothing worse than kicking yourself for not addressing this...after it happens. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Mr. Wizard:
How much would it cost. I am willing to try, just not gonna drop $1000.00 for them to start and then $50.00 per hour plus parts. I would but I got kids in college man.
Honestly, if the read arm scratched the platter, then you're fucked. Sorry. No recovery place is going to bring back that kind of damage. They usually recover data due to failed read arm or other failure that still results in all the data platters being preserved. They can then remove the platters, and install them into a working drive. Data is scattered across multiple platters, and it's all interconnected by a bit mapping sequence. If one platter is damaged, it's just a jigsaw puzzle of corrupted bits.
My advice is to always maintain a physical backup as well as a cloud backup. External drives fail as well. Cloud backup is redundantly secure. There's lots of free services like boxdrop.com, box.com, OneDrive, etc. That usually gives you ~5GB of free cloud storage. If you pay a small ~$5 monthly fee, you can usually upgrade your cloud storage to ~50GB. Cloud services are safe and secure. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Mr. Wizard:
I hate to disagree but flash drives are bulletproof. External hard drives are NOT.
They can't take any punishment at all. I dropped this one 6" and its done????
I know my job requires alot of moving around from computer to computer but Never again.
Nah, flash drives are certainly not bulletproof. I've seen more fail than I could keep count. Not just from drops and mishandling either. Just flat failure.
Flash media tends to have an advantage, because there aren't any moving parts. So you're usually more protected against drops and bumps. But they still can fail just the same. Too much heat, overvoltage, undervoltage, and sometimes just for the fuck of it.
1 set of files are your working files, at your primary location. Then another backup copy at that location. Then, a third copy at a different location (can be cloud). Backblaze as mentioned is the most user friendly.
