Hard Drive Recovery

[LibertyBeacon]

Well, I'll definitely be checking into some cloud storage once I get this situation fixed. Thanks

Encrypt with anything that uses the Blowfish cipher and I think you'll be OK:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blowfish_(cipher)

I am a fan (happy customer, not a paid shill) of rsync.net - they have good integration guides for all the major OSes -- Linux, Windows, OS-X and will give you pointers to setup complete end-to-end encryption, and they give you the option to pay for geographically separate backups for redundancy.

Oh, and sorry for your data loss. I'd wager it's happened to almost everyone who uses a computer.

 

[PsyOps]

is your computer connected to the internet ?

Yes, but I'm not near it now.

 

[PsyOps]

Encrypt with anything that uses the Blowfish cipher and I think you'll be OK:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blowfish_(cipher)

I am a fan (happy customer, not a paid shill) of rsync.net - they have good integration guides for all the major OSes -- Linux, Windows, OS-X and will give you pointers to setup complete end-to-end encryption, and they give you the option to pay for geographically separate backups for redundancy.

Oh, and sorry for your data loss. I'd wager it's happened to almost everyone who uses a computer.

Thanks

 

[GURPS]

Yes, but I'm not near it now.

then your data is at risk .... [if you are that concerned]


unless you have nude photos of jennifer lawrence or megan fox ... no one is going to care what you are storing

but if your are that concerned ... there are Open Source Encryption Methods ...

 

[PsyOps]

then your data is at risk .... [if you are that concerned]


unless you have nude photos of jennifer lawrence or megan fox ... no one is going to care what you are storing

but if your are that concerned ... there are Open Source Encryption Methods ...

I have copyrighted material - my music - on this drive. So, someone might see some value in stealing it (even though most folks would find my music worthless). But, as I said, I'm going to have to get over my fear of putting my stuff on someone else's server. My fear of losing it altogether, is outweighing my fear of someone stealing it.

 

[Hodr]

it is easier to fine a like drive in Ebay with the same revision, and swap the PCB

This is right advice. Start here, if that doesn't work then start shopping for professional recovery services.

 

[Hodr]

I keep my very most important files encrypted and backed up (taxes, vaccination records, scans of legal documents, etc.), everything else occasionally gets backed up if I do a system image.

I treat a drive failure as a means of starting over fresh. Like burning down the house when the dishes pile up.

 

[Misfit]

I treat a drive failure as a means of starting over fresh. Like burning down the house when the dishes pile up.

I tried unsuccessfully to retrieve the data on a tera hard drive last year but ended up bashing it to bits with a mallet.

 

[PeoplesElbow]

replace every 2-3 yrs ... I just had a WD Green Drive 2 tb start to fail
... I ran it another 2 days pulling files off, shut it down ordered a replacement 4 tb

the drive had 150,000 hours of 24x7 run time the only time I shut my computer down is when the lights go out, or a once a yeah cleaning

That would make that drive a minimum of 17 years old..... I think your numbers are off.

 

[GURPS]

That would make that drive a minimum of 17 years old..... I think your numbers are off.

good catch .... I have another one just as old, I'll run a smart check tonight

 

[Chuckt]

Given the PC won't even detect the hard drive, I'm thinking it's failed. I haven't done too much troubleshooting. I have some other computers I plan on throwing it on to see if it's something motherboard or driver or what. But given how the hard drive is behaving it seems it's that piece of hardware.

Or an electro static discharge erased a chip in which you don't know how to program but you might be able to diagnose it with a bus pirate.

It is like hooking up FIOS or DSL and when you put it to sleep, either the cable or FIOS company has to wake up the connection or you have to re-establish a connection because one of the devices lost its memory. Or you just need to replace a capacitor or something but you don't know how to do surface mount soldering.

 

[PsyOps]

Or an electro static discharge erased a chip in which you don't know how to program but you might be able to diagnose it with a bus pirate.

It is like hooking up FIOS or DSL and when you put it to sleep, either the cable or FIOS company has to wake up the connection or you have to re-establish a connection because one of the devices lost its memory. Or you just need to replace a capacitor or something but you don't know how to do surface mount soldering.

I found another hard drive with the same circuit board and swapped and got the same response. I decided to take the cover off and see what's actually happening and the arm swings back and forth across the platter about 8 times then quits. There is physical surface damage to the outer and inner parts of the platter. From everything I am reading, this sort of damage will not allow me to recover the data.

 

[GURPS]

sounds like a head crash ..... get ready to break out the wallet

 

[PsyOps]

sounds like a head crash ..... get ready to break out the wallet

From what I've read, this sort of thing happens when the HDD is bumped or falls over. Neither of these things happened. It's been secure in the tower and not moved. I'll have to chalk it up to just a plain hardware failure. It's a stinking shame computer hardware doesn't a life much past about 5 years old.

 

[GURPS]

It's a stinking shame computer hardware doesn't a life much past about 5 years old.

I guess it depends on wear and tear .... I have 5 1/4 floppies with my Commodore that work fine, and 800 k disks with my old Macs.



that is way my backup suggestion included 'Off Line Drives'

 

[Chuckt]

From what I've read, this sort of thing happens when the HDD is bumped or falls over. Neither of these things happened. It's been secure in the tower and not moved. I'll have to chalk it up to just a plain hardware failure. It's a stinking shame computer hardware doesn't a life much past about 5 years old.

There is a reason why manufacturers give you a warranty and sometimes you need to make backups before the warranty runs out. I could explain that even though some media like thumb drives are supposed to last 20 years, part of that is correct because the physical media won't go bad but it has a crystal and the warranty is two years. All you need is for the crystal to dry out and then you can only replace it with a skill called surface mount soldering and the correct crystal that may or may not be available years after it wears out and you can only replace it if you can get into the thumb drive case. And then you need a program to tell you what kind of crystal it has. Technology keeps changing and so does getting replacement parts.

I've had CD's that went bad even though they are supposed to last 100 years.
I've had a thumb drive go bad but it gave me warning signs before it went bad and I was able to back it up.
I've had a hard drive go bad.

 

[GURPS]

Technology is imperfect, Airplanes Crash, Space Shuttles Explode ....

 

[PsyOps]

Technology is imperfect, Airplanes Crash, Space Shuttles Explode ....

Humans are more imperfect

 

[GURPS]

good catch .... I have another one just as old, I'll run a smart check tonight

500gb - Power On Hours: 50867 [2119 days] 5.8 yrs - Hitachi HDS721050C
1.5 tb - Power On Hours: 47903 [1995] - Samsung HD154UI
2.0 tb - Power On Hours: 38934 [1622] - Seagate ST320006
2.0 tb - Power On Hours: 42236 [1759] - Hitachi HDS722020A

 

[PeoplesElbow]

I have a 100GB hard drive that I had used in 4 desktops, the only reason that I did not put it in my latest build is my motherboard does not have an IDE connector, last one had both SATA and IDE.