I need prayers for a hard drive.

[lildreamer316]

The one we used to use as backup became husband's main drive when he had to start being a VJ at his new job. Now it's crashing; and all of our family photos and music is on there. It's still working - barely. We don't have the money to send it to a recovery place, I don't think.
Please pray for the hard drive. ;(

[kayakjohnny]

1. Just make the feds mad at you.

They'll find whatever your missing.

[BlueJazz]

2. Buy another hard drive....clone your drive to the new one. It's easy and we'll help you.

[lildreamer316]

4. We bought another one...

he has both of them at work right now, transferring one to another. Both are external. The dying one is an HP personal media drive that goes in the bays that our desktop has (of course also has a separate power supply so it can stand alone). It's a 500g. The new one is a stand-alone HP 1TB.

He messaged me and said it's doing better transferring than it was at the house. When it was here I could hear the drive arm making a noise.

Suggestions? Can we clone it successfully, and after we've transferred some stuff to the new one already? I don't know anything about cloning.
Thanks...

[City of Mills]

6. Oh yeah

You should be fine, unless some files are written to the bad parts of the disc, everything else should copy over. I've had an important drive die and had to send it out for recovery, it cost about $1000 which SUCKED. That drive wouldn't spin up at all, and wasn't recognized by the computer. But, if this drive is clicking and making noise, and the PC still recognizes it, most if not all files will be able to transfer to the new drive.

[lildreamer316]

8. You just made my night.

I certainly hope that holds true. It's hard not knowing.

[Kali]

3. does it work enough to copy some dvd's?

back that stuff up! Put as many files as you can on cds or dvds

[lildreamer316]

5. We bought

another hard drive and he's transferring as fast as he can, but neither one is firewire - they're just USB 2.0; so the going is slow. The original drive is 500g and the new one is 1tb. The 500g is almost full; about 50g free. We've got a lot of stuff to save.
It's just frustrating.;)

[Roon]

7. I learned long ago

not to save something on your hard drive that you aren't prepared to lose.

[lildreamer316]

9. Update: It's gone.

I did discover that I have backed up my family pics onto another drive; so that's good.But five years of a music library, as well as some things critcal to husband's work are gone.
I'll hang onto it and hope that we can make the thousand it's going to take to get it recovered. But I'm heartbroken about it.
Thanks anyway, friends. :hug:

[bbernardini]

10. Don't forget about the freezer trick.

Some say it's a myth, but some computer guys I know who really know their stuff say it works. Just do a search for hard drive and freezer, and you should find some info. The basic idea is that putting the drive in the freezer for 24 hours will possibly allow you to access it again long enough to pull some of your more important files off it.

[lildreamer316]

11. Okay, but

does that work in the case of a mechanical failure? We think that it's the arm or somesuch..we don't think the data is gone; just not accessible.
I'll look it up, thanks for the tip.

[noamnety]

12. Yes, the freezer thing works - I've done it.

Put the drive in a sealed ziploc first, so moisture doesn't get on it. It's specifically for mechanical failures. The expansion/contraction from temperature changes can knock a stuck part loose so the drive can spin again. (Kinda like running a jar under hot water to loosen a stuck lid.)

I used to work in a classified facility, we couldn't send out drives out for repairs, so this was our way to recover info from a bad drive.

Once you get it running again - immediately get everything you want off of it because it is in the process of dying. This isn't a way to "fix" it, just a way to prolong pulling the plug.

[lildreamer316]

13. Thanks! One other question:

If I do this; and get some info off but not all (this is a 500gb drive; we got about 200g off but I want to get the other 250g off if possible); can I still send it to a data recovery service AFTER I've done this trick (when I have the money); or does this make it totally and completely unrecoverable? And do you have a base recommended time for freezing? I'm reading accounts of up to 20 hours. Sorry for all the questions.

[noamnety]

14. I don't think the timing is all that critical (like soaking beans overnight)

We'd put them in the freezer, then pull them out the next day.

There's nothing in the process that would ruin the drive for a data recovery service.

[lildreamer316]

15. Thank you!!

I'm going to try this. Very hopeful, after reading some other info, that this may work. Appreciate you answering my questions!

[LTR]

16. I usually run two internal drives on my systems

They're cheap to come by, and the bigger one I use for music files, archiving and for swapping files from system to system. I also have some really ancient drives (some 6 and 10GB ones) that I put a backup Windows/software installation on (in case of crashes or other issues). I have a stack of these that I've either been given, or come across by salvaging old systems.

I just upgraded my computer, and transferring files was a breeze.

The best thing about it is that it is incredibly easy to install a second internal drive. It's merely a matter of moving the plastic "slave" pin and connecting two plugs. I don't use external drives, but may get one eventually for backup. I just feel more secure with internal drives.