BACK UP YOUR STUFF !!!

pixie · Jul 4, 2007

I've just been informed that my 'hard drive has failed' on my iBook G4. The good news is that there was 4 days of warrenty left, The bad news is that I lost a year's worth of pictures :toilet:

I'd recently copied about half of my pictures but not all. Been pretty laid back about backing up my info 'cause I never really expected a catastrophic failure.

Don't you fall in the same trap !!!!

I have macs because of thier supposed stability. And I guess I'll buy another one because I hate Windows but I'm pretty disappointed.

Bobcat · Jul 4, 2007

Bummer. There are companies out there that specialize in recovering data from dead hard drives. Here is one...

http://www.dtidata.com/

I haven't used them, just an example. They do give free quotes and no charge if they fail to recover your data...

pixie · Jul 4, 2007

Thanks, Bob.

The guy said there was no hope but I'll ask again when I pick it up.

Gatorboy · Jul 4, 2007

pixie said:
I have macs because of thier supposed stability.

... as far as an operating system goes -- not sure how your hard drive failure comes into play in the OS stability.

With the external HDs available at very reasonable prices, I highly recommend everyone have one -- and set it up to automatically backup your sensitive and important files/directories. This way you'll always have two copies, so WHEN the next hard drive failure occurs, you will still have your files.

Bobcat · Jul 4, 2007

Usually local stores try software recovery techniques that usually don't work for a hard mechanical failure. The big companies that specialize in hard drive data recovery take the drive apart and recover the data directly from the platter(s). Anyway, may be too expense for personal pictures, but maybe not.

Found another company that charges $1000 to open the drive and recover the data in their clean room. No charge if no data. That's probably the going rate for going down to the platter.

Doc · Jul 4, 2007

I do believe everyone gets bit by the no backup bug at one time or another. To often I've seen friends get hit a 2nd time because they get complacent about the backups.

Most hard drive failures can be recovered by the specilty companies if you are willing to spend the bucks.

Automated backups are best since you don't have to remember to do anything, but even a manual backup once a week will save a lot of grief when a hard drive fails. External hard drives make it much easier than it used to be to keep up to date backups.

Remember it's not IF the hard drive will fail, it's WHEN. They all fail eventually.

pixie · Jul 4, 2007

Gatorboy said:
... as far as an operating system goes -- not sure how your hard drive failure comes into play in the OS stability.

Guess I meant reliability.

I'll definately be looking into the external hard drive... never understood what it was for !!!

thcri · Jul 4, 2007

pixie said:
Don't you fall in the same trap !!!!

Pixie,

About two months ago I lost my hard drive. Was able to retrieve some of my stuff but not all. So I thought I would have learned the lesson to back things up the hard way like you, however as I sit here with my new laptop I have not backed this one up in the two months I have had it. First thing thursday back at work I will copy to our server.

Murph

Durwood RIP · Jul 10, 2007

Yesterday my puter went belly up and i couldn't get it to boot up for anything. But luckily i had burned most of the pics on it to disc. So now i'm a member of the "Dell Hell" if something goes wrong with the new one i guess. :pat:

Dur

Junkman · Jul 10, 2007

Is there a way to have the auxiliary hard drive mirror the one in the machine? That way, everything in the machine will still be available for the future. I am just not computer savvy enough to know how to do all these things.... Junk.....

DaveNay · Jul 11, 2007

Junkman said:
Is there a way to have the auxiliary hard drive mirror the one in the machine? That way, everything in the machine will still be available for the future. I am just not computer savvy enough to know how to do all these things.... Junk.....

Yes, it's called RAID Level 1. What operating system are you using? It is built in on some OS, some need a software driver or hardware device. Usually, with software only you can't mirror the boot drive, only a data partition. With hardware RAID, you can mirror the boot drive also.

Doc · Jul 11, 2007

A major disadvantage of using RAID for your backup is if you delete or overwrite the wrong directory, you delete it on BOTH drives. RAID is used to ensure uptime since if one drive dies the other keeps running. The RAID systems I've worked with are all hot swapable, meaning you simply unplug the bad drive and plug in a new one. The system will automatically rebuild the drive to be a clone of the existing good drive. But RAID does not take the place of regular backups.

DaveNay · Jul 11, 2007

Doc said:
A major disadvantage of using RAID for your backup is if you delete or overwrite the wrong directory, you delete it on BOTH drives. RAID is used to ensure uptime since if one drive dies the other keeps running. The RAID systems I've worked with are all hot swapable, meaning you simply unplug the bad drive and plug in a new one. The system will automatically rebuild the drive to be a clone of the existing good drive. But RAID does not take the place of regular backups.

I agree 100%. For a casual user like Junk, I would actually suggest adding a second H.D., and then every 12 or 24 hours, schedule a synchronization program like SyncBack to mirror your working data over to the second H.D.

BACK UP YOUR STUFF !!!

pixie

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Bobcat

Je Suis Charlie Hebdo

pixie

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Gatorboy

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Bobcat

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Doc

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pixie

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thcri

Gone But Not Forgotten

Durwood RIP

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Junkman

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DaveNay

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Doc

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