Hard drive died

tonyheaney

I have a few hard drive and last night my external powered hard drive stopped working taking all my favourite movies with it. A few months ago my computer powered hard drive also stopped working and took a lot of stuff with it. Does any one know why this might be? I depend on HDDs to keep stuff safe and now i am not sure. help please

bonzodog2

Disks fail. Cables fail. Enclosures fail. Power adapters fail.
You may be lucky with an external, maybe the disk inside is still good.
If it was only some movies, consider yourself lucky and use as a learning experience!

tonyheaney

bonzodog2 wrote: »

Disks fail. Cables fail. Enclosures fail. Power adapters fail.
You may be lucky with an external, maybe the disk inside is still good.
If it was only some movies, consider yourself lucky and use as a learning experience!

What would make them fail in the first place? The mains powered was plugged in for a few days and i didn't know, but the pc powered one wasn't always on and only powered up when needed. What is the learning experience?

PropJoe10

tonyheaney wrote: »

What would make them fail in the first place? The mains powered was plugged in for a few days and i didn't know, but the pc powered one wasn't always on and only powered up when needed. What is the learning experience?

Regular hard drives are made from moving parts - they have a disk platter that spins with an arm that reads the data. Anything that has moving parts will eventually fail - which is why its important to have backups of any important data you might have.

As they say - having one copy of data on a hard drive is basically the equivalent of having none, because if it fails, the data is gone. You should have at least one backup of any important data.

NIMAN

They are an incredibly complex technology, and considering what goes into their manufacture its a surprise they work at all.

You sound like you have been unlucky to have 2 fail in such a short space of time. I have had experience of maybe 25 HDDs over my lifetime, from computers to iPods, to PVRs to externals and have had only 1 ever fail on me.

In fact some are still working about a decade after they were bought.

Its always important to backup critical data, and this includes burning on to CDs or DVDs, as your backup on a 2nd HDD may also fail.

The_Valeyard

It can happen OP,

I was very unfortunate to lose an external Hdd and internal ssd in the space of two days.


It can happen. Just bad luck.

tonyheaney

I have one of them USB key fobs 60gbs (see pics) and it seems to be working better then the hdds as i have my wife's shows on it. But simply its not as big as id like, would these usbs have a better shelf life then HDDs? I have all my family photos and movies backed up on my Pc, and my 50gb HDD and some on Facebook and email.


with the exception of a Seagate i also have this:

degsie

OP, the first hdd fail should have been a wakeup call to backup your stuff, but you seemingly failed to learn that lesson. Harsh but true.

tonyheaney

I only have essential stuff backed up like family photos and family videos so thank god they are still safe i always keep at least original and two copy's of them but i have 150gb of family memories so space is a premium as for the movies i can get them back easily. But i always though i coud depend on hard drives and after using cds to save stuff i found hard drive a god sent now how ever they seem to be the work of the devil.... and im not a religious person persay hahaha

mordeith

tonyheaney wrote: »

I only have essential stuff backed up like family photos and family videos so thank god they are still safe i always keep at least original and two copy's of them but i have 150gb of family memories so space is a premium as for the movies i can get them back easily. But i always though i coud depend on hard drives and after using cds to save stuff i found hard drive a god sent now how ever they seem to be the work of the devil.... and im not a religious person persay hahaha

The simple fact is no storage medium is infallible. Just have at least one backup of everything important and ideally another backup offsite

degsie

Google '3-2-1 backup' to get an idea of good backup practice.

Ste-

Backup as much stuff to the cloud as you can.
Flickr for example offer 1tb for pictures.
google photos has no limit for pictures. should be enough for your memories ?
If it's your videos (i.e home movies) then upload to youtube, not sure about size of them.

beauf

tonyheaney wrote: »

I have a few hard drive and last night my external powered hard drive stopped working taking all my favourite movies with it. A few months ago my computer powered hard drive also stopped working and took a lot of stuff with it. Does any one know why this might be? I depend on HDDs to keep stuff safe and now i am not sure. help please

Power spike. Do you have surge protector in front of your computer gear?

tonyheaney

beauf wrote: »

Power spike. Do you have surge protector in front of your computer gear?

no, would the surge come true the computer from the mains? and if so would that not hurt the main computer also?

beauf

Surges can have unpredictable effects on computer gear.

https://www.google.ie/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=Hard+Drive+Failure+Surge

MiskyBoyy

Have you taken the HDD out of the case and maybe tried it in a different case/caddy or tried plugging it inside your PC via a SATA & power cable?

Could be just the HDD case that's broken?

tonyheaney

MiskyBoyy wrote: »

Have you taken the HDD out of the case and maybe tried it in a different case/caddy or tried plugging it inside your PC via a SATA & power cable?

Could be just the HDD case that's broken?

sadly thats something i dont have expertise in doing

MiskyBoyy

tonyheaney wrote: »

sadly thats something i dont have expertise in doing

It's very easy. Google how to. I'd rate it 2/5 in difficulty if even.

RossieMan

It's opening up a couple of screws. It's not a difficult task.

riclad

A Hard drive is a mechanical device,it wears out,
Also it can be damaged by random surges ,
buy a good surge protector with at least 4 sockets on it.
it stops surges from effecting your sensitive devices .
IT protects sensitive devices like tvs,pcs, external drives
I Have 12 hard drives , 6 or 7 working
80- 5oogig various sizes .
i have at least 4-5 dead hard drive s .
sata and older ide models .80gig and 1 or 2 dead 500gig drives .
if you have music ,data, backup it up to 2 drives ,or dvdr discs .
or google drive ,dropbox etc
An ssd solid statedrive is more reliable ,no moving parts ,
but its more expensive than a standard drive.
Certain brands are not as good as other brands .
google hard drive reliability survey data hard drive .
IF there,s one bad power supply in your pc,or external drive power unit,
you may not know it .
but it can cause damage to your hardrive.
There maybe be a problem with the house wiring that could cause problems for pc equipment,
i,m not an electrician so i cant give advice on that .
Try the external drive in a pc or a sata usb caddy .
i,d had 5 or 6 pcs,in the last 12 years, so i cant remember at this point why those drives stopped
working.
if a laptop i breaks down i sell it or give it away and remove the harddrive first.
I damaged a hardrive sata 80gig 4 weeks ago cos i was careless .
but i had the data backed up to another drive.
and i have 4 ide 2.5inch laptop drives i can only acess thru a caddy sata/ide unit.
You can put 1 500gig ssd drive in a pc as drive d for movies ,data ,and another 1 for the os ,windows,program s installation.
ssd solid state has no moving parts.
i have a few usb drives that are 10 plus years old.
2gigabyte .
they still work fine .
i have 3 old old ide 40gig drives that are 12 years old and they still work fine .
i just use them for podcasts etc non vital data .
if you copy files to 2 separate sata drives ,
the chances of both drives failing at the same time is small .
make sure you have a high quality pc power supply ,
not a cheap brand x power supply .
open up caddy , put in drive, make sure the drive is connected,
IE The power and data port and power port male, on the clicked in, locked into the data /power ports female in the caddy .
its like putting a cd into a cdrom drive .pretty simple
turn on power to caddy,
wait 1 minute ,for drive to spin up,
than plug usb cable from drive caddy into pc usb port.
Wait 2 minutes ,
there should be a window,on the screen,
click ok,to to view files on this drive,
external drive ,
ie it shows up in a window ,like drive c on my computer , if its a linux or a windows pc.

google set up caddy pc hardrive sata hard drive .

riclad

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Il10EXrviM i have old 2.4inch ide drive 60gig, laptop drive

it only works in ide/sata drive caddy enclosure with an external power supply.
it does not work in my usb powered caddy unit.

http://www.cdlmicro.co.uk/hd-hdock04-2.53.5-sata-usb-2.0-esata-desktop-docking-station.html
this is like the caddy i have,
with 12v power unit.
but mine has 2 ide power data ports at the front .
so i can connect any ide drive to it ,using ide data, power cables,connecting drive to caddy.
the top drop in slot means i can put in any drive,
3,5inch or 2,5inch sata into the caddy from the top.
I drop in the sata drive gently ,slot into the sata ,data slots and turn on the caddy.
then i plug the usb cable into the pc wait 1-2 minutes for the drive to be detected by the pc.
drives over 200gig usually require an external powered caddy if the drive is 3.5inch in size.
cost 30 euros approx in a brick and mortar store
eg shop on the street.
check is the drive 3.5 or 2.5inch in size before you buy a caddy.

riclad

IF you have an old spare hard drive, with no important data files on it,
hard drive is probable sata,
switch off caddy, remove power cable from esb socket,
open caddy case,
remove 4 screws to take off case,
take out old drive,slot,s put in drive 2 to power,data slots,
put case back on,
turn on caddy power,plug caddy into pc,
See if drive is detected,can you see files on it,
this will tell you if drive is working.

http://www.allcam.biz/catalog/images2/allcam/hard_drive_interface_ide.jpg
ide drive above.


sata drive pic



http://i.stack.imgur.com/OZF0H.png

the 2 gold male connectors ,small/ large , are Sata data, power connectors , they

slot in to the 2 identical female slots in the caddy unit.

RossieMan

what the hell are the last 3 posts? i know you're trying to be helpful, but its so hard to read.

You'll have to format your posts better.

riclad

Maybe you can borrow a hard drive caddy enclosure ,put the old
drive inside,
Make sure its fully slotted in the 2 power and data slots .
Turn on the caddy power switch .
wait 2 minutes.
Place the caddy usb cable in the pc usb port.
Wait 2-4 minutes for the drive to be detected .
Click ok ,open explore eternal drive folders,
or see does it appear in my computer drive E OR F external drive 500gig .

Any sata drive can be connected to a pc,
maybe disconnect the sata power , data cables from the pc dvd rom drive,
connect the 2 sata cables to the sata old external drive.
There,s one large cable and 1 small one .
For the matching sized sata ports on the old sata hardrive .

Before you swap cables switch off all power to the pc ,
remove pc power cable from esb socket .

place sata drive on a flat surface close the the pc sata cables .

Put plastic tape underneath the old sata drive to gaurd against short circuits on the underside of the drive pcb circuit board
after you remove the drive from the old enclosure case .

RossieMan

that really isn't any better.

Its making a simple job really hard to understand.

riclad

The point is you can buy a caddy or borrow 1,
put the old drive in it ,
make sure the hardrive fully slotted into the sata power , data ports .
turn on caddy, put usb cable in the pc.
wait 2-5 minutes .
see if its detected. click ok browse drive , external drive .

if the drive is 2.5inch Sata or ide buy or borrow a usb powered caddy enclosure .
cost 12-14 euro in moore st or any pc store , maplins etc

http://www.amazon.co.uk/b?node=430435031

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Anker%C2%AE-Drive-External-Enclosure-9-5mm/dp/B00KCEY3WU/ref=lp_430435031_1_20/278-0435065-9428060?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1434708492&sr=1-20


You don,t have to be a tech expert to get a usb caddy ,put a drive in it .
Its like putting an tape in an old vcr video player .

IF the price is the same go for a usb 3 caddy over a usb 2 one .

beauf

tonyheaney wrote: »

I have a few hard drive and last night my external powered hard drive stopped working taking all my favourite movies with it. A few months ago my computer powered hard drive also stopped working and took a lot of stuff with it. Does any one know why this might be? I depend on HDDs to keep stuff safe and now i am not sure. help please

I use a surge protector on my PC where possible.
I have a HD backup that is disconnected when I'm not doing a backup.
Any really important stuff is also backed up on DVD. (perhaps also the cloud)

Every now and then you should check your backups are OK, by trying to get the data back of them.

Hard drives are mechanical and electrical devices that fail. I wouldn't reply on them alone. The more disk you have the less likely they'll all fail at the same time. They shouldn't be all stored in the same place, and perhaps not all in same building. (Off site)

For movies consider a a streaming service. Then you don't have to store any of them.

200motels

The one thing that people have in common about hard drive failures is they didn't expect it to happen, the minute a HDD starts spinning it's doomed to fail, as has been said back up, back up and back up again and not all your back ups in the same location, the cloud is brilliant for back up but some people don't like it because of security.

riclad

You can backup data to external hardrive,s
or even dvdr discs .
IF you are wary of using online storage .
The chances of two drive s breaking down at the same time is very small,
unless your house is flooded or something extreme happens .
Most people that uses pc,s laptops dont know that every hard drive will stop working ,
probably at a time when you have no recent backup .
Drives are designed to last about 4 years .
IT depends on who much you use it ,its vunerable to surges in the power network ,if theres no surge protection installed .

or the pc power can break down too .
Old ide drives 3.5inch would sometimes make a grinding noise ,when they were close to failing ,
meaning drive is nearly dead ,
time to backup your data ,buy a new drive .

Most ordinary users don,t understand this ,so they don,t make backup,s
they are shocked when one they their pc or laptop does not boot up .
And all their data ,school essays , pics ,music is gone ,
due to faulty drive .
The rule is backup, regularly maybe backup to 2 different places ,an external drive and maybe dropbox or some other service like google drive .
Any drive in a pc or laptop is gauranteed to stop working at some point .
Backup the most important files first and often .
i have 4-or 5 ten year old drives 40gig ,ide , 2.4inch ,and 3.5inch
they still work,
but i dont use em much.
as its easier to just put 1 large drive in my pc .
And backup to my 500gig external drive.