Help Needed The Dreaded Happened

[Julian de'Courcy]

Well there are many worse things than an external hard drive not powering up. If I lose the data it is not the end of the world, but it does have many years of raw files and general saved work.
It is Sata WD 1TB external hard drive. i removed it from the case and attempted to explain in pictures, any advise would be appreciated.

The power light comes on when plugged in the goes out straight away, away connection is made and stays on very dimly. The disks do not rotate or any evidence of the drive starting up. I have tried different power connectors of the same specs and no joy.

I now wonder if I can simply get an external case, which I presume will have the power circuit board installed. My only worry is, does the circuit board I'd remove from the drive, store any data which is needed to access the data.

Any ideas?


This circuit board with the power connection and usb connection is easily detached.


To reveal what i know as a HDD for internal computer.
Not sure what C pins are for. Maybe alternative power?


I believe I have the Power and SATA conectors correct.



Is it therefore as simple as buying an external 3.5 case and putting it in?

If so would you be happy to carry on using this drive or would you, if it just boot up, quickly transfer the data to a new drive.

This has shown to me maybe it is a good idea to backup the backup , backuped raws

 

[Chris Dodkin]

if it has key files, I'd take it straight to a data recover company to get the data off (if possible) - it's failed once so I'd be trashing it after data recovery has been attempted

I think these guys are in your area - probably not cheap though

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[Brian Moore]

Wish I could help, Julian, but I'm a dunce on this kind of stuff. Looks like Chris has some ideas, though. Good luck!

 

[Rob MacKillop]

A timely reminder to copy my external hard drive, or at least place it in the cloud somewhere. Good luck, Julian!

 

[Pete Askew]

I'd try either a new external case or connecting it internally. If that brings th drive up I would copy the files to a new drive and, as Chris advises, ditch the old one and buy a new drive (ideally two!).

http://www.ebuyer.com/213422-dynamode-external-housing-for-sata-2-5-hard-drive-usb-hd2-5s

 

[Julian de'Courcy]

if it has key files, I'd take it straight to a data recover company to get the data off (if possible) - it's failed once so I'd be trashing it after data recovery has been attempted

I think these guys are in your area - probably not cheap though

Thanks Chris, this will be the last resort. I will phone round locally to see if there is the obscure computer shop that does this.
As I guess this may cost and arm and a leg also. All my 5Dmk 2 files are on it from when I first had the camera many years ago, as are the 30D my first
DSLR. Many family photos and swimming ones going back to when my daughter first swam competitively. I am surprised I am not more pi**ed than I am
but it is always going to happen at some time.

 

[Julian de'Courcy]

Wish I could help, Julian, but I'm a dunce on this kind of stuff. Looks like Chris has some ideas, though. Good luck!

I'm over in the corner with the hat on

 

[Julian de'Courcy]

A timely reminder to copy my external hard drive, or at least place it in the cloud somewhere. Good luck, Julian!

Not sure if I'd use others to look after the files, but having said that I have not heard any stories of companies losing data, or have I ?

 

[Julian de'Courcy]

I'd try either a new external case or connecting it internally. If that brings th drive up I would copy the files to a new drive and, as Chris advises, ditch the old one and buy a new drive (ideally two!).

http://www.ebuyer.com/213422-dynamode-external-housing-for-sata-2-5-hard-drive-usb-hd2-5s

That is what I'll try initially. Pc world do a case for £17 thye dropped £2 over night so thats nice plus they are local. saves postage and I can get onto it straight away. i would I suspect also need conecters
if I put it inside the main computer case. Then if that does not work get a quote from
one of Chris's links.

Thanks all

 

[Pete Askew]

All you'll need for the external case is a USB2 cable to connect to the PC (and I guess you have the old one). There will probably be a spare cable inside the PC itself if you want to connect it internally. You could just lay it loose while you copied the files off.

 

[Lesley Jones]

I know nothing about these things either Julian, but I'm so sorry you are going through this. Initially I put all my files on the PC until it was nearly full. Then my husband bought an external drive where they could live instead. I tried copying stuff to the cloud some years ago, but it could take literally all night for one large file and I gave up. For some time I've used a second external drive as a back up (and kept in a different part of the house). I also have a third kept off site, which comes home about once a month.

I do hope you can find someone to get your files off intact...

 

[Dave Young]

I'm afraid I can't offer any comfort, but I feel your pain buddy... just lost an old Macbook which has lots of old sentimental stuff on it, and wondering if we should get it fixed.

I keep some stuff on a cloud but never the right stuff! Important lessons for us all I guess...

Hope you find a suitable outcome

 

[Brian Moore]

I save digitized images to an external hard drive and also I have a 2nd hard drive as back-up. But since 95% (or more) of my pictures are shot on film the only thing I will lose if my hard drives get wiped out is the 5% (or fewer) digital images I have taken with the 7D and the time I have invested in scanning negatives. I'd hate to lose my 7D images, but I'd still have all my film negs. That's a comfort to me sometimes. (May I recommend that everyone on RPF dump their digital cameras and shoot film from now on?)

Seriously, though, I don't want to sound as if I am taking Julian's problem lightly. I've considered using the Cloud. I wouldn't put personal data or information there, but photos I may at some point.

 

[Chris Dodkin]

If anyone is looking at a new drive for image storage, you can look at a Raid 1 drive - a drive box with two or more hard drives built-in, which replicates data between the drives to avoid data loss if one drive fails.

This is a great initial security feature - but I'd always recommend a 2nd physical back-up or a cloud back-up as well.

The other thing I always look for in external drives is a drive with a cooling fan built-in.

One of the things that kills hard drives is heat - and the cheaper models don't have fans, relying instead on heat sync cooling - assuming that they're not going to get extended hammering for read/write access.

When you're using them for your image editing (rather than just back-up storage), they are getting stressed and this may well cause earlier failure.

So for my edit drive, I have a drive with it's own cooling fan built-into the case - and for backup, I use a cheaper non-fan model.

 

[Lesley Jones]

My film is also a comfort, but unless you scan, you still only have the original. Some of mine is now so old that is has developed odd colour casts

 

[Lesley Jones]

If anyone is looking at a new drive for image storage, you can look at a Raid 1 drive - a drive box with two or more hard drives built-in, which replicates data between the drives to avoid data loss if one drive fails.

This is a great initial security feature - but I'd always recommend a 2nd physical back-up or a cloud back-up as well.

The other thing I always look for in external drives is a drive with a cooling fan built-in.

One of the things that kills hard drives is heat - and the cheaper models don't have fans, relying instead on heat sync cooling - assuming that they're not going to get extended hammering for read/write access.

When you're using them for your image editing (rather than just back-up storage), they are getting stressed and this may well cause earlier failure.

So for my edit drive, I have a drive with it's own cooling fan built-into the case - and for backup, I use a cheaper non-fan model.

Thanks for the advice Chris. I have noticed that my external drive can get very hot - especially if I spend my non-working day on my images. I didn't know you could get them with built in fans. Are they easy to get hold of and more important, are they much more expensive?

 

[Chris Dodkin]

They are a little more expensive Lesley - more moving parts I guess - but worth it I think

 

[Lesley Jones]

Thanks Chris! My old drive will need replacing in the next few weeks. I'll make sure to find one with a fan

 

[Pete Askew]

Great advice Chris. We use multiple RAID backups and I have a portable eSATA raid that I carry with me as well when traveling. And you've just reminded me to order a new HDD to replace the one running Time Machine on the Mac Pro!

 

[Pete Askew]

Done!