external hard drive failure

[andygolfer]

not exactly photography but my external hard drive appears to have failed taking with it all my 'straight from the camera' photos.
It started squeaking 2 evenings ago and this morning was only showing some images and then the PC stopped recognising it altogether. I'm assuming it'd knackered.

I use it for my initial download of photos and being a 2TB one it's got everything from 2015 including non aviation stuff - the lot! It's got nothing but photos on it which in a way is fortunate.

My method is
1: to download onto the external HD
2: then do the editing and saving at full size to the same HD,
3: when I have completed the set I then copy them at a reduced size (usually 1600px wide) onto my PC internal hard drive thus ensuring I have a back up on a separate device - Whew!
4: Then I upload a selection to Flickr (and sometimes reduced size to FB as well) thus they are stored in cyberspace.
5: every few months I back up my PC hard drive onto ANOTHER external HD which is stored in my garage away from the house - in case of fire etc (I thought I was covering all eventualities).

Now to me (until this morning) that all seemed very thorough BUT I now only have copies of those that I have actually edited (or got round to editing) so there are thousands that I've never edited but kept in case I need them (and at present I'm doing a project that does indeed need many of them and I've lost all of that as I hadn't got to the stage of backing that up to my PC - damn!). There's also many holiday pics that I haven't yet done as well so another pain.

so - anybody know if there's a way of recovering the data from a failed external hard drive please or is it lost forever - please tell me it isn't but I fear it is.

One lesson I've learnt now is don't buy one large external HD but go for smaller ones so the damage will be limited if it happens again.

The ext HD is just sitting there bleeping at me every 2 or 3 seconds. When I unplug it and plug it back the PC bleeps so it knows something is happening but it doesn't show up at all.
Not a good start to the day

any help gratefully received.
Andy

[PorkScratching]

It sounds very much as though there is a mechanical failure within the hard drive. Unplug it now to limit any further damage. Most (if not all) the data can often be recovered by a specialist company (you need a clean room, specialist hardware and software to do so). This costs in the order of several hundred Pounds, but sounds like it may be worth it for your situation. Kroll Ontrack (https://www.ontrack.com) have a very good reputation, although they may not be the cheapest.

One lesson I've learnt now is don't buy one large external HD but go for smaller ones so the damage will be limited if it happens again.

I would not recommend using multiple drives in this way - the more you have, the more likely you are to suffer a failure, and it makes administering it all far more difficult (so more likely a mistake will occur, or something won't get done).

I suggest the following setup:

1. Copy all images off the camera cards to a hard drive (ideally a hard drive within a desktop, but not everybody has a desktop). This is your primary working copy.
2. Copy all images off the camera cards to an external hard drive connected to the main PC. This is your immediately available full backup. Can be done either directly from the cards, or from the copies made in step 1. Consider disconnecting it when not copying to it, to help prevent its contents from being encrypted if you suffer a ransomware infection.
3. Make at least one offsite backup. This could be an external hard drive that is kept in the shed, the in-laws, at work etc. Obviously not always practical to update it every time you have new shots, but perhaps aim to do so every month or so. An alternative (or addition) is an online backup (I use AWS S3).

Obviously ensure the above also covers your edited copies too.

[andygolfer]

I only have one connected at a time Nick except when doing the backup, what l meant was go for a smaller ext HD and get a new one every year say so that if l get a failure l don't use as much. At least it happened before my Canadian trip. Thanks for the link, will look at that tonight when I get home from planning appeal

[PorkScratching]

I only have one connected at a time Nick except when doing the backup, what l meant was go for a smaller ext HD and get a new one every year say so that if l get a failure l don't use as much.

What I wrote still applies: with multiple hard drives you will increase the chance of one failing, and it's more difficult to administer, so you risk making a mistake, or putting off backing up.

Obviously my solution proposes multiple hard drives, but there's good reason for that: each one is serving a particular purpose (one for main work drive, one for primary local backup, and one for offsite backup). By definition, those need to be separate hard drives.

[Bloxham Boy]

Hi Andy,
Probably way too late but I had the same thing a few months ago. My PC stopped recognising the external hard drive overnight.

I then tried attaching it to other laptops in the house (ie the kids’ !) and found that it was recognised by one of them but not another two. I was then able to copy the files / photos to disks or usb sticks and slowly I got them back. It can still be read each time I try after switching off etc but only on that one laptop - it didn’t “fix” the issue but at least allowed me to get them back.

May be worth a try if you haven’t already done so.

John

[andygolfer]

Thanks John, I tired it on my laptop and with other leads and it wouldn't work. A friend checked it and confirmed the motor had failed.

I have been investigating companies that retried data from failed disks and actually sent it off today so hopefully there will be good news soon

andy

[Danseaman]

Sorry to hear about the loss of all them images, I'm afraid I can't help with recovery but I find my storage option to be the most secure and may help in the future.

I have 2 EXT Hardrives on the go at once, One backs up the other, so that means they both have exactly the same on each other. When I'm traveling I only take one and that one backs up multiple SD cards.

Advantages:
I have two copies of everything,
When I'm traveling I have one HD safety at home (incase of loses/damage/theft etc)
When I'm traveling I never delete a SD card because I have 6 (usually change everyday) and the SDs backed up onto HD every night,

The only disadvantage is you have to remember to back up and also it does add to the cost.

I really hope you manage to save your images as we all appreciate how much time and money goes into them.