External Hard Drive Problem Help please

[Melody]

I was working on files with on one of my external hard drives...

everything was fine....then PS said couldn't save to drive it timed out...

So I went to explorer it's not showing ANY of my files and saying the drive isn't formatted and do I want to format it :woot:

The drive shows up just none of my numerous files...uh what now! :confused: :confused: please don't say they died :cry2:

I did NOT hit format I'm afraid that would wipe out my files that are on there.

Melody

[Linda G]

Melody,

Try simple things first. Is it usb? Unplug that then replug it. If that doesn't do it, unplug it, reboot your computer, replug it. You have more than one computer, plug this external drive into one of the others to see if THAT computer sees it.


If those first lines of defense don't work, there are recovery programs out there, don't reformat!

[Andre]

Hi Melody,

I would save the file somewhere else, then exit PS. Unplug the USB cable, and after a minute plug it back in. See what happens.

Andre

[Melody]

Thanks Linda,

I've turned it off and on a few times, tried in in different USB ports...hmmm strange it was working fine all morning :confused:

I'll take it and another of the drives over to the studio computer.....have I mentioned these darn things drive me nuts!

Melody

[Melody]

Hi Melody,

I would save the file somewhere else, then exit PS. Unplug the USB cable, and after a minute plug it back in. See what happens.

Andre

I saved the file elsewhere and that worked, I didn't leave it unplugged long just a few seconds and right back in I'll try that too. Thank you!

Melody

[Melody]

well waited a minute that didn't work, tried a different hard drive in that same port using the same cord and it worked fine...off to a different computer

[Melody]

same news on a different computer here at the office, asks if I want to format it and none of my files are showing :cry2:

[Theo2005]

I was working on files with on one of my external hard drives...

everything was fine....then PS said couldn't save to drive it timed out...

So I went to explorer it's not showing ANY of my files and saying the drive isn't formatted and do I want to format it :woot:

The drive shows up just none of my numerous files...uh what now! :confused: :confused: please don't say they died :cry2:

I did NOT hit format I'm afraid that would wipe out my files that are on there.

Melody

External harddisks are great, thery are cheap and add lots of storage space. :goldcup:

Unfortunately, this comes with a price...they are less reliable and sometimes like to play tricks on you, esp the usb ones. :woot: :crazy:

Most of the time it's enough not to panic and do what Linda already mentioned. :cheers:

I have several of these things and non has failed me permanently yet. But they all annoy me from time to time .... :beat:

Whatever you do, NEVER format a disk like that. And I really mean NEVER! :hitother:

Should a disk really die, then there are companies who make a living out of saving the data stored on it. At a fee of course :D

Good luck Melody
Theo

[Linda G]

Wichita Wayne saved me when my first external went nuts. He has a program he downloaded that refound all my files. Contact him! Er, I will when my pups allow. They tell me they need attention NOW!

[Melody]

So I'm finding out :surrender Bryan had told me it was better then dvd's and granted it's lots faster and easier to find stuff but sheesh!

I'm not in a major panic uh YET the files I have to use and print are also on the studio computers hard drive :clap:

I've been searching and there is a demo of get data back that will show if my files are still on there http://www.runtime.org/gdb.htm

Also a larger company with an office in Orange that I can take it down to for them to recover the files...yeah wonder what that fee will be this is a 250gb hard drive, guess I should be happy it's not one of the 500gb ones...

Needless to say I'll be shopping today for MORE hard drives for even more duplicate back ups :(

Melody

[Melody]

Wichita Wayne saved me when my first external went nuts. He has a program he downloaded that refound all my files. Contact him! Er, I will when my pups allow. They tell me they need attention NOW!

Awww well give them hugs for me too! I'm gonna try this one that was mentioned several had success with and see how that goes if not I'll be yelling as usual...now where on earth are my cigarettes I must INHALE or breathe or something!

Melody

[Theo2005]

So I'm finding out :surrender Bryan had told me it was better then dvd's and granted it's lots faster and easier to find stuff but sheesh!

I'm not in a major panic uh YET the files I have to use and print are also on the studio computers hard drive :clap:

I've been searching and there is a demo of get data back that will show if my files are still on there http://www.runtime.org/gdb.htm

Also a larger company with an office in Orange that I can take it down to for them to recover the files...yeah wonder what that fee will be this is a 250gb hard drive, guess I should be happy it's not one of the 500gb ones...

Needless to say I'll be shopping today for MORE hard drives for even more duplicate back ups :(

Melody

Yeah well, DVDs are even less reliable...luckily most people are in blissfull ignorance regarding that. :troutsmac

Seeing you frown ( :( ) in combination with having to do more shopping is certainly a first for me :woot: ;)

But seriously, I hope this works out for you...

Theo
Theo

[Duck]

So I'm finding out :surrender Bryan had told me it was better then dvd's and granted it's lots faster and easier to find stuff but sheesh! Melody

Melody, I did say that... and I will continue to say that... However I never leave all my eggs in one basket, I make a CD backup, I have my files on my hard drive, as well as an external hard drive... I have a second external hard drive that I will copy the first external hard drive... All this just incase one goes bad...

It sounds like you might have a virus... that is what happened to my first external hard drive... I had to purchase a program to recover my files... cost me $125, but I was able to save over 30 client pictures, and lost only one client folder...

I hope you are able to get your files... :doh:

[sandman]

Just a thought . is it firewire compatable as well? .
If it is what happens when you unplug the USB and run it only on firewire ?

Brian

[Melody]

Melody, I did say that... and I will continue to say that... However I never leave all my eggs in one basket, I make a CD backup, I have my files on my hard drive, as well as an external hard drive... I have a second external hard drive that I will copy the first external hard drive... All this just incase one goes bad...

It sounds like you might have a virus... that is what happened to my first external hard drive... I had to purchase a program to recover my files... cost me $125, but I was able to save over 30 client pictures, and lost only one client folder...

I hope you are able to get your files... :doh:

I'm sorry I should have clarified it was Bryan Swampy who told me they rarely go bad. :doh: figures it's my 'newest' hard drive too :p I do have the clients files backed up elsewhere and recently just said forget it to the dvd stuff I have entirely too many files :(

There's 45 min left on the recovery program I'm trying it says it will show you the files then to be able to copy them elsewhere is when you pay but at $80.00 it will be worth it.


Theo,

I typically don't smile if I'm shopping for something I didn't want to have to go for :lol: :lol: However now I picked up 1 more 500gb and 2 300gb, sheesh where am I gonna keep all these darn things! :confused:

Melody

[Melody]

Just a thought . is it firewire compatable as well? .
If it is what happens when you unplug the USB and run it only on firewire ?

Brian

Yes it is Brian I hadn't thought of that I'll give it a try :) Thanks :)

wait I'm waiting for this recovery thing to finish it takes a long time and I"m at over 80% now


Melody

[Melody]

Can't find the files with that program anyway :(

I'll try another, lovely google searches.....boy I'm really getting caught up on my day off here :doh:

[Melody]

I am very lucky I just called a friend of mine who actually has some experience with this stuff and he will try to see what he can get off the drive for me :D I'll take it to him on Wednesday...guess I get some forced time off :getdown: well not really I'm gonna copy uh the 500gb drive over to another and the 250 and the 250 and oh sheesh I'll be here all day anyway :crazy:

Thank you all for your suggestions and trying to help.

Melody

[Wichita Wayne]

It is called Filerecovery Professional and it comes from http://www.lc-tech.com. Also you can download the program and pay for it on line at that web site. If your trouble is on an external drive then you need to be sure that your internal drive (or another external drive) is big enough to hold the data you need to recover. Lastly, it takes a long time to completely recover a big drive. Maybe even more than 24 hours. It took overnight for me to recover Linda G's corrupt drive.

Good Luck,

[Melody]

Thank you so much Wayne! I really appreciate the info. I'll try it :)

This one I tried said it could take an hour for every 50gb and it's a 250gb external, my computer is fairly fast so hopefully that helps :confused:

It's got another 5 min to go trying it with the FAT this time I figured I have no life and what did I have but time :baldy:

I went and got another 600gb and two 300gb drives this morning... :woot: that should be enough to back up what I have so far that so far are in duplicate in most cases except now I'm paranoid! :woot: :woot:

Melody

[Melody]

O.M.G. It got them this time all my files are there!!! :clap: :clap: :clap:

Betcha my credit card is out faster then anyone's before well I sorta have it memorized! :lol: :lol:

Cross your fingers!!!

Wayne is there any reason I can't save these files to a new external hard drive since it's so huge??

Melody

Edit: found the answer it says I can copy to an external drive :clap:

[Melody]

Update the files are copying away to another hard drive... :D

btw the drive that failed was my newest one a Western Digital I will check however it is somewhere between 3-6mos old :mad2: I have another 250gb WD and a 500gb LaCie, both of those will be duplicate backed up as well on the new hard drives, although all of that I have dvd's for as well.

Thank you all very much for the suggestions and listening to me PANIC! My day of working turned into a day of recovery instead but it worked! :clap:

The reason the program mentioned didn't work the first time was I read the directions stating that if I had XP to download the nfts? version, then I thought I remembered that drive was FAT which is why I tried again, and it was! :D well worth the $69.

Melody

[Theo2005]

Melody,

Great to hear you recovered the files from the broken drive.... :righton: :getdown: Another lesson learned right? :woot:


Now back to the real item: how do we preserve our "customer" pictures.... unfortunately a tricky situation these days. :(


For me that works like this:

I save the files on 2 different harddrives. And then I save them on a set of DVD's.

If, after a while (like half a year) I need to get that space empty on one of my harddrives, I save them onto a set of DVD's AGAIN. And when the last copy on the other harddrive is to be removed...another set of DVD's.

So once the pictures are no longer "online" on my computer, they are on at least 3 sets of DVD's.

And I backup such DVD's at least once a year....and keep doing that... :( A lot of extra work as well as cost, but what can you do...DVD's (and CD's) are simply not very reliable....one might check okay now and go bad tomorrow. It really happens. And no, I don't use really cheap ones...quite the opposite.

Anyway, the program used to burn them suckers is very important too. Not all burn software is created equally. I once had a Sony drive that came with burnsoftware called BGOLD that would burn a CD, then verify it and ALWAYS say Okay! Luckily I checked these CD's myself after burning: more than once I found some files that were unreadable on those disks....right after burning! :baldy:

The biggest problem arises after getting a another new PC...which might not read the cd/dvd's written by one of the old PC's very well ... check it and check it again. Best reburn everything with that new pc then and preferably while the old PC is still around :)

Personally, I use a number of external drives to keep all those pictures "online" for as long as people are likely to order reprints. I don't use them to "keep" pictures for years and years. But to each his own I guess... ;)

Meanwhile, I'm still waiting for that one, simple, reliable medium that I can trust my pictures to hold for years without having to worry about them, without having to backup every year... will it ever come?

Probably not :cry2:

Theo

[BARBARA LUKE]

Melody so glad you managed to save yor files.....You are so clever ..... :clap:
I would'nt have known where to start......But I am :crazy: ......I haven't started my photography buisness ""delayed because i have a problem with my back""" and am only just getting my first external hard drive.....my son has got me one for my b/day 250gb.....waiting for it to arrive....I will have to start organizeing my files now ... saving them more than once.......I tend to be a bit slapdash with them at the moment.........What type of DVD are the best to save pics on????? Barbara

[KeithM]

Hi Melody.

If you're not already aware of them, has anyone mentioned RAID arrays to you yet - 2 or more harddisks configured as one large volume giving you redundancy ( if a drive fails, you take it out, put in a new one, the array rebuilds and you just carry one ). The usual place for them is inside your PC or server. There are different levels of redundancy depending on how may drives you have in the array - basically the more drives the better. It is possible to go very silly with lots of stripped/mirrored/redundant arrays :D

A cheap(ish) solution are these Netgear Storage (http://www.netgear.com/products/details/SC101.php) - I've used them a little - 2 harddisks setup as mirrored drives ( you see one harddisk but your data is copied to both ). They're a bit slow but OK for storing files you're not currently working on. There are probably other implementations of external Raid arrays but I've not looked.

If images are your business, then it could save a lot of hassle. The Netgear and similar are OK for home-user setup but anything bigger, you're better off engaging the services of your local trusted IT supplier.

Keith.

[Melody]

Hi Theo,

Boy I agree!!! What can we use that is reliable? We do need that magic answer :D

I have 90% or more of my images on 2 different hard drives and on dvds.

I quit doing the dvd's after ONE weekend taking just under 10000 shots (and I shoot events in raw as well) it took forever to burn that many shots on dvds as well. Bryan had mentioned that the hard drives were more reliable then the dvd's and with a duplicate there that was so much easier.

With this studio stuff obviously the # of images per client is much smaller and a good habit to get back into.

I was lucky in that all my client files even those I recovered are duplicated on the hard drive in the studio computer. I don't keep my duplicates in the same location in case there is a fire or something. It was a long day however I came home and slept like a baby knowing even the personal ones of mine I hadn't duplicated yet were there, I can spend today copying them over and yet over again! :lol:

Melody

[Melody]

Melody so glad you managed to save yor files.....You are so clever ..... :clap:
I would'nt have known where to start......But I am :crazy: ......I haven't started my photography buisness ""delayed because i have a problem with my back""" and am only just getting my first external hard drive.....my son has got me one for my b/day 250gb.....waiting for it to arrive....I will have to start organizeing my files now ... saving them more than once.......I tend to be a bit slapdash with them at the moment.........What type of DVD are the best to save pics on????? Barbara
Melody so glad you managed to save yor files.....You are so clever ..... :clap:
I would'nt have known where to start......But I am :crazy: ......I haven't started my photography buisness ""delayed because i have a problem with my back""" and am only just getting my first external hard drive.....my son has got me one for my b/day 250gb.....waiting for it to arrive....I will have to start organizeing my files now ... saving them more than once.......I tend to be a bit slapdash with them at the moment.........What type of DVD are the best to save pics on????? Barbara

Thanks Barbara I was thrilled! :bowdown: I know much more about computers then I did 2yrs ago, now I know enough to realize I don't know much at all :lol: I do remember what I'm told though I knew not to hit reformat, and I tried the on-off unplug stuff... Funny I'm fine with following directions and did that my memory is decent though then I thought well that drive is FAT though, so maybe it will work and it did! :D Clever? Well I'm clever enough to come on here and yell HELP! :getdown: I'm thankfull so many of you did! I'm also very lucky in that I called a friend after a quick search and realizing sheesh lots of companies do recovery to ask which do I use? He's incredibly sweet and had volunteered to try and get the data for me as he's got access to incredible equipment that most don't.

I'm fairly organized even with this disaster my clients files are duplicated on another hard drive in a different location (the studio) and then realized this morning I got tired of taking the hard drive back and forth so they are also all on dvds as well. However it's not the same you see the dvd's only have the ones I liked or they purchased and in PSD format my raw files aren't. I'm nuts but I keep all raw files as I learn more and more in PS I can go back and play with the files again ;) My background is banking and accounting so I'm a stickler for filing it's just natural to me, although let me tell ya old fashioned file cabinets never uh disappear from view! :rofl: (oh yeah fireproof cabinets too)

I'm sorry to hear about your back, just what do you and Igor do to them! Get well soon as well so you can get started!

Best DVD's I really don't know different people have varying opinions...I've just stuck with the major brands and those touted as being more reliable. I haven't heard recently so hopefully some can let us know which to use.

Melody

[Melody]

Hi Melody.

If you're not already aware of them, has anyone mentioned RAID arrays to you yet - 2 or more harddisks configured as one large volume giving you redundancy ( if a drive fails, you take it out, put in a new one, the array rebuilds and you just carry one ). The usual place for them is inside your PC or server. There are different levels of redundancy depending on how may drives you have in the array - basically the more drives the better. It is possible to go very silly with lots of stripped/mirrored/redundant arrays :D

A cheap(ish) solution are these Netgear Storage (http://www.netgear.com/products/details/SC101.php) - I've used them a little - 2 harddisks setup as mirrored drives ( you see one harddisk but your data is copied to both ). They're a bit slow but OK for storing files you're not currently working on. There are probably other implementations of external Raid arrays but I've not looked.

If images are your business, then it could save a lot of hassle. The Netgear and similar are OK for home-user setup but anything bigger, you're better off engaging the services of your local trusted IT supplier.

Keith.

The mirror thing sounds perfect Keith....it would keep me from having to manually copying from one to another :righton:

However right now I am NOT happy with computer people I order stuff from....I tell them what I must have and they determine oh just a woman we'll do it this way UH NO! Do it any darn way but it better include the parts that are importrant to me and if it can't tell me at the beginning not at the end. Turns out the so called guru said something wouldn't work that I found, and you know what, my assistant and I (who knows less about computers then I do) installed it called tech support and it works like a charm :tongue2:
Now if I could find a female computer person who actually listened that would be fabulous! Can ya tell I'm still mad at that guy and it was over a month ago I never forget incompetance well or attitude! :lol:

Melody

[KeithM]

Given that hard disks are cheap, it's soon going to be more economical to run mirrored drives than pay a company to recover data from a dead drive.

I sympathise with your experience - unfortunately the computer world, like any other, is ripe for the charlatans to peddle their trade. Bit like finding a good car mechanic you can trust :rolleyes: :)

Keith.

[proberts]

Hi Melody.

If you're not already aware of them, has anyone mentioned RAID arrays to you yet - 2 or more harddisks configured as one large volume giving you redundancy ( if a drive fails, you take it out, put in a new one, the array rebuilds and you just carry one ). The usual place for them is inside your PC or server. There are different levels of redundancy depending on how may drives you have in the array - basically the more drives the better. It is possible to go very silly with lots of stripped/mirrored/redundant arrays :D

A cheap(ish) solution are these Netgear Storage (http://www.netgear.com/products/details/SC101.php) - I've used them a little - 2 harddisks setup as mirrored drives ( you see one harddisk but your data is copied to both ). They're a bit slow but OK for storing files you're not currently working on. There are probably other implementations of external Raid arrays but I've not looked.

If images are your business, then it could save a lot of hassle. The Netgear and similar are OK for home-user setup but anything bigger, you're better off engaging the services of your local trusted IT supplier.

Keith.

Some people have good luck with RAID-5, but my experiences have shown about as many catestrophic failures as with anything else- I tend to do straight mirrors when budget dictates, but the failure modes there are about the same, wrong two drives go and you data is toast. A lot of my RAID-5 experiences have been due to people not noticing a first bad drive because the system keeps functioning, then after another failure or two, when things stop working, they suddenly notice. If you keep on top of it, then the stats get a little better.

I try to keep my pictures on a server that's not physically the same place that I and my other copies are, so that a single building problem doesn't render me out of luck. There are relatively low-cost Internet-based backup services out now that might fit that bill, though I'm not sure what the long-term viability is, or how you gauge how well-capitalized one of those services is.

Paul

[KeithM]

Hi Paul.

You certainly can't beat an 'industry standard' setup of Raid array and regular backup with tapes/media off-site...

At least the technology is filtering down into more domestic setups - certainly where Raid is concerned - but we still seem to lack a more consumer priced backup solution. I'm one of the 'spare hard disk in a caddy' brigade and Ghost my main drive every now and then. I've never trusted the longevity of CD or DVD.

And I would judge that many people share your concern over Internet based backup.

If only DLT drives and tapes weren't so expensive.... :D

Keith.

[phil]

Have a look at something like this,


http://www.netgear.com/pdf_docs/SC101_ds_09Sept05.qxd.pdf

[proberts]

Hi Paul.

You certainly can't beat an 'industry standard' setup of Raid array and regular backup with tapes/media off-site...


If your backups are offsite and reliable, then RAID is arguably redundant (pun intended!)


At least the technology is filtering down into more domestic setups - certainly where Raid is concerned - but we still seem to lack a more consumer priced backup solution. I'm one of the 'spare hard disk in a caddy' brigade and Ghost my main drive every now and then. I've never trusted the longevity of CD or DVD.


Unfortunately, you still have to spend money to get real hot-swap hardware RAID- the software RAID on the motherboard is dirt cheap, but doesn't give you a "pull a drive out" backup strategy."



And I would judge that many people share your concern over Internet based backup.

If only DLT drives and tapes weren't so expensive.... :D

Keith.

Most people don't have the humidity control necessary to do tape right ;)

Paul