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So, anyone have a favorite backup/recovery plan? I just lost 2 terrabyte drives and they took the other 2 with them (all satas). For some reason, the usb drives went out as well and took the drivers for the 2 other tb drives with them. I know the 2 drives still have their data intact (used a sata to usb adapter on my XP and linux boxes, but the 2 that started the mess are not spining up. Any suggections other than a total rebuild? The system is a gateway with 8 gb ram, HAD 7 tb storage, and a quadcore processor, with vista media center that serves (served?) the media for the entire house, and tivos everything. Thanks for taking the time to listen to me whine :P /sigh
Diana
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I had a bad controller a few years ago
I found this software http://www.restorer-ultimate.com/ and it allowed me to recover all the files...it's Windows based.
Good Luck
Bad controllers
Thanks for the suggestion, I had forgot the trick of swapping the controller board on the drive itself. Te drives are the same model so that might work. Appreciate it!
Diana
Dee, That many Drives?
Technically, it's either a nuclear strike, a direct hit by lightning, or a curse from god.
Do you have an old unit to install them into, to see if they spin up? Sounds more like the controller to me as well. All the drives, usb and sata. If it's true, I'd be looking to hide myself under the bed or something.
Ask someone if you can put one of them into another system, and see if it's the controller on the MB that's died on you. Drives these days just aren't suppose to do this.
If you can, also Dee, let us know how you make out.
Sarah.
Thanks for the advice everyone
I have the system up and runing with a system rescue CD (gentoo based cd with tools, and from which I typing this-and yes, I like the chair and monitor setup), and while the 2 dead drives are still non-responsive, the rest are still working and accessible. I am still of the opinion that Vista was responsible, between volume shadow copy and superfetch thrashing the drives and its oh-so-wonderful driver reliability history. So, anyway, it looks like I only lost about half the vhs tapes and dvd's I digitized. The weirdest part of this hole mess is that the original 500 gb drive was still working (the drive that is actually backed up via imaging). I think I learned a lesson here; repacing the tb drives with 2 tb drives and going to a raid array for data backup. Thanks for everyone's help and advice
Diana
?
I was just wondering How long it takes to transfer data off a Tb drive as this would a nitemare; having 14 TB of external clutter?
You might try the drives in
You might try the drives in another PC as it could be a power issue, there are tricks like putting drives in the freezer in a bag for half hour but not sure it would help with this unless problem is seizure due to overheating, you could try turning the drives on their side or upside down. I had a drive making horrid sound and couldnt get it to boot, but when i turned it upside down it worked long enough to rip my data off it. Not really sure what else to suggest there are many little tricks for data recovery like getting hold of a working drive of the same make model and size and swapping the drive circuit boards but you have to use Recover My Files or similar recovery program to search the disk for your data.
Megumi :)
Bailey's Angel
The Godmother :p
Feel free to drop me a PM.
Feel free to drop me a PM.
I'm a computer consultant by trade, and there are a half dozen different thing to try, along with various data recovery software out there. With better information, I might be able to help you out, at least to some extent.
Don't plug the drives back in until you have everything ready, is the first thing. Second, get an external USB to SATA converter, if you don't have one (you already said you did). Third, don't use the freezer; I've found that what works better is ice packs - the reusable kind. What you do is bag the drive in a ziplock bag (or similar), and put the ice pack on top of it. You can keep switching the packs out and keep the drive cold as long as you need to, and condensation is kept at a minimum (or eliminated)
if the drives are identical, you may have fried controller boards on the two 'aren't spinning up' ones. in that case, you have a chance (not great, but a chance) that you can put one of the boards from the good drive into the bad drive(s) and get your data back. My recommendation, if you can possibly afford it, is to replace the drives FIRST. That way, if you lose the rest of the drives, you aren't dead in the water. Anyway, drop me a PM, and I'll point you to some data recovery software, if what I've already said doesn't help.
BW
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
How to spin up dead drives.
Remember the drive is dead anyways so this won't seem so wierd. Also if you plan to try to recover the data through a service... read no further.
1) the drive is overheating in a dead spot... try freezing the drive overnight. put it in a zip lock bag. put it imediately into the computer and power it up. If it spins up... move everything off... it likely won't start again. The freezer above your fridge is likely cooler than an chest freezer.
2) the drive is in a spot where something is preventing the initial spin. try in a twisting motion banging one of the long edge corners of the drive on a table. same as above... get everything you can't redownload off the drive before powering it off... it likely will not start again.
Did I mention the drive was dead? You have nothing to lose.
Nobody.
ps. yes I was a computer tech, yes we used these methods. Yes they work sometimes. Don't forget that even after you freeze it and bang it on the desk... you can still RMA if if its 3 years old or less. *laugh*
On freezing accessoires
I once had a laptop that took on a habit of switching off every hour or so, after booting up. In the end it was determined (by me and my brother) that the problem was with excessive heat/insufficient cooling and we had to clean up the radiators clogged with copious amounts of dust. In the meantime (before getting to the root of the problem), we have taken 3 tin cans from sweets, filled them with water, and put in the freezer. After that we put the ice holders above and below the laptop so that it had additional cooling. By the end of session usually the cans were thoroughly defrosted.
Faraway
Big Closet Top Shelf
Where you can fool around like you want to and most you get is some bemused good ribbing!
Faraway
Big Closet Top Shelf
Where you can fool around like you want to and most you get is some bemused good ribbing!
Damn dust bunnies breed like
Damn dust bunnies breed like mad and clog up everything :( lol. Best to vacuum vents once a month and with proper PC's turn off, open side panel every 6 months and carefully vacuum inside, checking cables and cards are secure before closing and booting back up.
Most people dont do this and then wonder one day my their machine keels over. more dust bunnies more heat less airflow.
Megumi :)
Bailey's Angel
The Godmother :p
Have you ever...
opened up an OLD desktop/tower box - in a chain smoker's office after a few years... I had the "pleasure" back in the late '80s - of opening such a case. I made the user touch the yellow gum coated cables/components. I refused to touch anything in there. I still shudder thinking about it.
That all said - GRC has a utility called "spinrite" that's been known to fix some drives - if you can get them spinning again - and recognized. A big outside shot. Others mentioned are more likely to work.
Annette
Aw heck, that ain't nothin!
Worst one we ever had come in the shop. Dude brought his machine in, a Dell. Said he wanted us to reload and make sure there was no trace of his sumo-porn on it. Yes, I said sumo-porn.
No problem, except for the somewhat unusual part with the sumo wrestlers, not an abnormal request.
No, the problem was with the whitish splatter marks down the side of the machine. We kinda figured out what they were and after that the machine was totally gross.
Needless to say, we did the software work and left the stains. I even told dude when he picked it up. "Dude, I'll clean your mess up when it comes to software, but you gotta wipe your own spooge stains off."
Never saw him again, and was totally cool with that.
That's so classic!
I've done it and had it work, so I can't say a thing. The spin starting trick worked better with older SCSI and other drives. I was actually wondering if anybody would mention that one.
Hey, check the warranty, and if it's still covered, just make sure to hit the data interface with a stungun! That will fry the controller for sure and should give you no prob with the RMA. It will not wipe data that may remain on the platters, so if there is anything sensitive there, destroy the drive and take the monetary loss. If you want to destroy data, you need a rather powerful electromagnet. Alternatively, bashing the platters into little bits with a hammer and burning them works quite well.
Last time I had a fry up that total, it was because some person hit a power pole 1/2 a block from my shop. Check your power inputs and make sure you hide behind some serious protection!
power
A friend of mine had a similar problem, and ended up formatting everything (and loosing everything). The only problem was that the hard drives did not have enough power, so they started, and stopped because no more power was available.
I don't know much about SATA, but you might want to investigate that.
Mildred