NationStates Jolt Archive

My external hard drive, containing approximately 150GB of music (25k+ tracks), which I've been collecting since 2001, has just died. Boooooo.

Anyone know of and hard drive recovery techniques?

Hard drives tend to actually be pretty resistant, there are usually specialists you can call that will restore it.

Its called buy the actual, physical CD, not being all elitist and downloading songs by themselves.

Hard drives tend to actually be pretty resistant, there are usually specialists you can call that will restore it.

It made a horrible "click-WHIRRRRRRRRRRR-crunch" noise then a high pitched whine. I'm pretty sure the head just crashed into the platter.

Its called buy the actual, physical CD, not being all elitist and downloading songs by themselves.

As if I have enough money to buy 25,000 songs.

Its called buy the actual, physical CD, not being all elitist and downloading songs by themselves.

Double fail: firstly, you have no idea whether the music he had was illegally downloaded. Secondly, there is nothing elitist about downloading music.

As if I have enough money to buy 25,000 songs.

Not at once. I'm assuming you downloaded them through less than legal means.

It made a horrible "click-WHIRRRRRRRRRRR-crunch" noise then a high pitched whine. I'm pretty sure the head just crashed into the platter.

Well I've heard about being able to recover hard drives even when the computer was destroyed in a fire.

Double fail: firstly, you have no idea whether the music he had was illegally downloaded. Secondly, there is nothing elitist about downloading music.

Exactly what an elitist would say. :p

There are companies that can do it for you, try and find that will give a free estimate of how much data they can recover - it is not always worth it. It will cost upwards of £80

All joking aside, why do you need 25,000 songs?

All joking aside, why do you need 25,000 songs?

I have an extreme aversion to deleting things. Since 2001, I've downloaded music, and even if it was shit, I wouldn't delete it. It made using shuffle play impossible, and importing them all into iTunes took three days.

I have an extreme aversion to deleting things. Since 2001, I've downloaded music, and even if it was shit, I wouldn't delete it. It made using shuffle play impossible, and importing them all into iTunes took three days.

But why did you download that many in the first place?

Its called buy the actual, physical CD, not being all elitist and downloading songs by themselves.

I have a modest library of 1500 songs, and all are from CD's. Yea!

I have a modest library of 1500 songs, and all are from CD's. Yea!

Good, this kinda stuff makes sense.

But why did you download that many in the first place?

If I liked a single, I'd download the album.

Exactly what an elitist would say. :p

Just because you're inferior to me and my elite capabilities doesn't mean I'm an elitist. :p

My external hard drive, containing approximately 150GB of music (25k+ tracks), which I've been collecting since 2001, has just died. Boooooo.

Anyone know of and hard drive recovery techniques?

I've been told that if you seal the hard drive in a ziploc bag, remove as much air as possible, and put it in the freezer, you might be able to get it working again. If it works, it might give you enough time to copy your files to another hard drive.

Just because you're inferior to me and my elite capabilities doesn't mean I'm an elitist. :p

No, it means you got better orportunities than me because of you being better off.

I've been told that if you seal the hard drive in a ziploc bag, remove as much air as possible, and put it in the freezer, you might be able to get it working again. If it works, it might give you enough time to copy your files to another hard drive.

That sounds like total bollocks to me. I have heard this suggested for other things like unlocking a keycode protected car cd player. Any idea how this is supposed to work?

I have an extreme aversion to deleting things. Since 2001, I've downloaded music, and even if it was shit, I wouldn't delete it. It made using shuffle play impossible, and importing them all into iTunes took three days.

I think your hard drive did you a favor. Consider this a sign that you should rebuild your music collection, sans the crap.

That sounds like total bollocks to me. I have heard this suggested for other things like unlocking a keycode protected car cd player. Any idea how this is supposed to work?

I didn't say it was something I've done (or witnessed), it's just something I was told works sometimes. As to how it could work, I have no clue.

I didn't say it was something I've done (or witnessed), it's just something I was told works sometimes. As to how it could work, I have no clue.

Worked for me once when my hard drive crashed. But it was actually a case of mega-overheat, because the fan had died. So it made sense, really.

Still might as well give it a shot. And look at getting it recovered by a pro. But just hope you don't have any pr0n on it, that could get awkward.

I have a modest library of 1500 songs, and all are from CD's. Yea!

4,200, all from CDs. The trick is to borrow CDs from your friends.

They nerfed 8-tracks, cassettes and record albums. You didn't think it would end there did you?

It made a horrible "click-WHIRRRRRRRRRRR-crunch" noise then a high pitched whine. I'm pretty sure the head just crashed into the platter.
Ewww.

It still might be possible to recover data, though if the HDD is physically damaged, you'd end up paying for some techie to recover it.


All joking aside, why do you need 25,000 songs?
No-one needs 25,000 songs, but it would certainly be enjoyable to have them. I listen to anywhere between two to twenty albums a day, depending on how long I'm in my flat, and I don't like listening to the same album often.

A conservative estimate would be that I listen to 1500 albums in a year, so having 25K songs available isn't a bad thing.

Its called buy the actual, physical CD, not being all elitist and downloading songs by themselves.

Collecting individual, worthwhile songs, instead of buying a CD containing two decent songs and gods know how much crap, isn't elitist: it's smart. Only an idiot pays dollars for shit.

Exactly what an elitist would say. :p

No. An elitist would decry CD's as a crass shiny bauble of the hoi-poloi.

Stick it in the freezer overnight and try to retrieve data while it's still cold.

...getting someone else to recover your data is likely to cost a lot. Also, if it's an external hard drive, it might be harder to fix in general because they're built to be more resilient. If it's just music, be happy that's all you lost. That can be downloaded again. Losing things like pictures or documents is a lot worse.

Stick it in the freezer overnight and try to retrieve data while it's still cold.

...getting someone else to recover your data is likely to cost a lot. Also, if it's an external hard drive, it might be harder to fix in general because they're built to be more resilient. If it's just music, be happy that's all you lost. That can be downloaded again. Losing things like pictures or documents is a lot worse.

It contained a lot of pictures, a lot of backups and a lot of documents. However, they're all out of date so it's no real loss. Even the music is no real loss. The only irritating thing is that the drive itself is dead. I could've used it for something :(

I have a modest library of 1500 songs, and all are from CD's. Yea!

4,200, all from CDs. The trick is to borrow CDs from your friends.

You elitists. :p

You elitists. :p

*raises his ivory pedastool a little bit higher to avoid the stench coming off the plebians and p2p downloaders.*

It made a horrible "click-WHIRRRRRRRRRRR-crunch" noise then a high pitched whine. I'm pretty sure the head just crashed into the platter.

A crash is kind of a click, grind, whir nose.

I would not keep turning it on especially if the heads haven't retracted. They probably did as the tech is much better these days.

If there is a head crash, it usually means you have to go to a specialist with a clean room. There they take the drive apart, take the platers and mount them. That way they can get at files.

Problem is the structure and in many cases the file structure is garbage.

They will put to CD/DVD so in most cases. You just get a disk of files.

Now comes the sticker shock.

Such a process gets super expensive. My last recover as a couple grand (US) for a small drive(don't remember the size).

You might have to accept complete loss and a life lesson thing.

Next time I would invest in a mirrored drive setup. A buddy has a friend who is a obsessive collector. He has a setup with mirrored terabyte drives.

Next time I would invest in a mirrored drive setup. A buddy has a friend who is a obsessive collector. He has a setup with mirrored terabyte drives.
How does that whole thing work?

did you lose any good porn ?

You elitists. :p

Still clinging to record players? :eek2:

Still clinging to record players? :eek2:

hey records produce superior sound.

12,000 songs total.

I just gave up on downloading songs until I can buy another external hard-drive. (My other one is fried. That's what I get for buying cheap, huh?) And i won't be able to buy another one until my new laptop comes in and I buy the wireless router that I need for it. Blech.

How does that whole thing work?

A very basic explanation.

It's a hardware approach where the device writes to both drives at the same time. One goes down; the other takes over. I don't remember which vendor he used.

However, you can look at snap applainces, if you are really curious.

If you really want to get into the tecno talk, look up RAID mirror.....

did you lose any good porn ?

Some exceptionally difficult to get a hold of 60s erotica, yes.

12,000 songs total.

I just gave up on downloading songs until I can buy another external hard-drive. (My other one is fried. That's what I get for buying cheap, huh?) And i won't be able to buy another one until my new laptop comes in and I buy the wireless router that I need for it. Blech.

I've been meaning to start a new collection for a while now, but the whole "never delete" has hindered me from starting afresh as has my slow connection speed at my current location.

I've been meaning to start a new collection for a while now, but the whole "never delete" has hindered me from starting afresh as has my slow connection speed at my current location.Well, if I hadn't insisted on spending so much on the damn laptop, I could go and guy on right now, but nooooo, had to buy an expensive laptop. xD (I'm usually too lazy to upgrade, so I ended up paying $1,000 for convenience, plus the other $800 just for the hardware itself.

25000? Wow, I've got just over 250 songs on my HDD.

My external hard drive, containing approximately 150GB of music (25k+ tracks), which I've been collecting since 2001, has just died. Boooooo.

Anyone know of and hard drive recovery techniques?

Try the PC Inspector. Worked fer me daddy's HD.

Some exceptionally difficult to get a hold of 60s erotica, yes.



I am always weary of anything before 1978.
Some stuff exist that was legal then involving girls that are 16 or 17.

I am always weary of anything before 1978.
Some stuff exist that was legal then involving girls that are 16 or 17.

My taste in men tends towards big, muscular and hairy. Little chance of 16-17 year old girls being in it, in any case. It's difficult to find decent hairy men these days, it's all hairless, pseudo-female eighteen year old runts.

I've been told that if you seal the hard drive in a ziploc bag, remove as much air as possible, and put it in the freezer, you might be able to get it working again. If it works, it might give you enough time to copy your files to another hard drive.

That does in fact work, byt 25000 files naaa man, take it to a specialist and pay lots of cash. If this data is really that important to you?

I would take to a professional. Many times it is salvageable but don't play around with it. Especially if you heard horrible noises. Sounds like a head crash which means you have very few replays left.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_crash


This is kind of cool you might be able to tell what is wrong with it by the sound it made.

http://datacent.com/hard_drive_sounds.php

Still clinging to record players? :eek2:

Yes but not those new ones which uses a vinyl the way to go is to use a cylinder phonograph. :tongue:

I would take to a professional. Many times it is salvageable but don't play around with it. Especially if you heard horrible noises. Sounds like a head crash which means you have very few replays left.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_crash


This is kind of cool you might be able to tell what is wrong with it by the sound it made.

http://datacent.com/hard_drive_sounds.php

It sounds more like bad heads, judging from those sounds.

You should probably check that the HD salvage company don't report pirated material to the PRS or police before you take it to be salvaged.

But why did you download that many in the first place?

So...what, you like an album, or a song, but you don't put it on your computer/download it because you've gone over a certain number of songs on your hard drive already?

"Well, I really like this album, and I'd love to have it on my computer for ease of listening, but I already have 5,000 songs on there so I just can't download it"

What? No.

4,200, all from CDs. The trick is to borrow CDs from your friends.

Which, funnily enough, is just as illegal as downloading.

How high does your horse feel now?

Which, funnily enough, is just as illegal as downloading.

How high does your horse feel now?

All my songs are from CD's I own. :D

Which, funnily enough, is just as illegal as downloading.

How high does your horse feel now?

Actually, I don't think he was trying to be condescending towards people who download illegally.

Which, funnily enough, is just as illegal as downloading.

How high does your horse feel now?

Ahh yes, but 0 chance of getting a virus with it.