The crashed hard drive thread

[cowboy]

Yep. Mine's toast. I'm posting from home, where I'm taking an early lunch.

All things considered, it wasn't that bad. I mirror most of my hard drive on the server, so I didn't lose much beyond some archived email. It sucks because I'll be three days down - one to get the hard drive replaced and two to get it all reformatted.

The last two times were much worse. The first time I lost a hard drive, I lost a month's worth of work, the second time I lost all the pictures I had of my kids. I'm learning. So what are your hard drive horror stories? I'm sure some of you have had some big-time hard drive crashes, so lets hear 'em.

[Surfah]

I had a motherboard go bad on my last laptop. I took the HD out and put it in an enclosure to transfer everything to my new laptop. Somewhere in that process any significant file was corrupted. Albums, docs, .mp3s, etc. Gone.

Thankfully I have a dad with the FBI who was able to take the HD in to work and have one of his tech recover everything for me. It was not a good day when I had to tell Gidget we lost those pics. He was also able to reformat that drive so I use for backup as well as a second drive.

[JohnnyLingo]

About a year ago I started getting nervous about my 5-year old laptop and how there was no backup for the stuff on the hard drive. I decided to start a free trial of Carbonite and took a couple days uploading all of my files.

Not a month later, the hard drive on my laptop goes kaput.

I decided to upgrade to the full version of Carbonite and have been using it ever since. I like that it automatically uploads new files every day so I don't have to worry about it.

Conspiracy theory: Carbonite somehow crashed my hard drive in order to convince me to upgrade to the full version.

[I.J. Reilly]

I lost my hard drive on my laptop about a year ago. It really sucked because 1. My wife had been storing all of our pictures on there from when we were dating through about the first year of our marriage. Most of our wedding pictures were digital and they were all on there, as we hadn't gotten a lot of them printed out yet. All of our engagement pictures were there, too. 2. I had about 6000 songs on there that I lost. Most of them came from my personal collection of cds that I have, but some came from friends and I had tons of playlists and such that I had spent a lot of time organizing. Loading all of those cds on there is more than a pain, which is why I haven't even thought to undertake it on the new hard drive. 3. I lost most of my papers and projects that I had done for school. Some of these were more of a sentimental value, but some of these I could really use on a professional level.

I took my computer to the BYU place and had them do what they could but when it was all put on the new hd all of the files were corrupted and many of them were missing. In fact, it is paining me just thinking about it right now. I have been blocking this memory out. I really wish I had an FBI dad who knew some guys with serious data recovery skills. I may have to do some more searching and see if I can find anything. I kept the old hard drive and I bet it would be an awesome present to the wife to get all of those pictures back.

[Surfah]

I took my computer to the BYU place and had them do what they could but when it was all put on the new hd all of the files were corrupted and many of them were missing. In fact, it is paining me just thinking about it right now. I have been blocking this memory out. I really wish I had an FBI dad who knew some guys with serious data recovery skills. I may have to do some more searching and see if I can find anything. I kept the old hard drive and I bet it would be an awesome present to the wife to get all of those pictures back.

I am fortunate. The alternative was pricey. I had a few quotes and they ranged around a grand for the recovery.

[wuapinmon]

My Dad's company, eFolder, backups stuff like this, so if the hard drive crashes, you don't have to worry. They don't sell directly to people, you have to go through a provider. Here's an article about one of them. He would've been so proud of this article.

http://www.crn.com/it-channel/218100422;jsessionid=CZOIG4YT3DS1OQSNDLPSKH0CJUNN2JVN

[FMCoug]

As an IT geek, I have LOTS of stories to tell. Most are of users and their local hard drives. But I have a doozy involving a server for a startup dot com. Maybe some day I'll tell it. It involves a chartered Lear jet flying from Austin to Provo and back in the middle of the night for starters.

[Sizzle]

About a year ago I started getting nervous about my 5-year old laptop and how there was no backup for the stuff on the hard drive. I decided to start a free trial of Carbonite and took a couple days uploading all of my files.

Not a month later, the hard drive on my laptop goes kaput.

I decided to upgrade to the full version of Carbonite and have been using it ever since. I like that it automatically uploads new files every day so I don't have to worry about it.

Conspiracy theory: Carbonite somehow crashed my hard drive in order to convince me to upgrade to the full version.

Mozy is another great service. I would highly recommend them.

[creekster]

OK, now I am concerned. For my home desk top I have an external 1TB dirve that automatically backs up everyhting. That's good enough, isn"t it?

[BigPiney]

OK, now I am concerned. For my home desk top I have an external 1TB dirve that automatically backs up everyhting. That's good enough, isn"t it?

Sounds like it to me.

[falafel]

OK, now I am concerned. For my home desk top I have an external 1TB dirve that automatically backs up everyhting. That's good enough, isn"t it?

Yeah, but what happens when that HD dies?! That's my problem. I have a lot of stuff backed up, but not necessarily "mirrored."

[FMCoug]

Yeah, but what happens when that HD dies?! That's my problem. I have a lot of stuff backed up, but not necessarily "mirrored."

Sounds like your definition of backed up is lacking? A backup is a 2nd copy of it in another location (preferably physical location). If you're saying you move stuff from one location to another, that's not backing it up.

[falafel]

Sounds like your definition of backed up is lacking? A backup is a 2nd copy of it in another location (preferably physical location). If you're saying you move stuff from one location to another, that's not backing it up.

Yeah... I knew that was coming.

Let's just say I have it singled-up. I'm worried enough about it now that I'm going to double it up.

[cougjunkie]

My laptop was less then a year old, and it was acting up. I took it in to the store I purchased it from as it was under warranty still. They said if they need to do anything to the hard drive they will call me. 5 weeks go by, I call them to follow up several times they say it is still not done. They finally call I go to pick up my computer and they put in a new motherboard, hard drive and video card. They formatted the old hard drive and didnt back it up, everything on it is gone. I went ape shit on them, and all I get was an extra year on my warranty.

[Moliere]

OK, now I am concerned. For my home desk top I have an external 1TB dirve that automatically backs up everyhting. That's good enough, isn"t it?

I'm thinking of getting an external harddrive to connect my my mac. Any ideas on what to buy? I'm really a novice at computers. The usb port ones seem easy but is the data transfer fast enough? I'd also prefer it to not be noisy. One thing I love about my mac is it is quiet. My HP laptop at work is the noisiest machine I've ever had as the fan and harddrive seem to be going constantly.

I'd be using the harddrive for two things. First to backup my files (photos, home movies, music, etc.). Second to store my DVDs (I just bought an Apple TV and want to rip them somewhere. I currently have a 1tb harddrive on the mac but that only has 300gb left plus I really want a physically separate harddrive (meaning just outside the mac, not in an entirely different location) in case the mac goes belly up.