Mormorazzi Loc: Temple, Texas

It's a Western Digital. They'll take it back and give me a new one, but I just discovered I'm missing some important photos that aren't on my iMac or in Time Machine. (Grrrrrrrr.) Any recovery suggestions or companies you've been happy with?

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

Sorry to hear that. Hope you can get your images recovered somehow. What model WD was it? I have six 2TB WD My Passport Ultras. I only run them when I need to, not even connected most of the time. I keep thinking I should switch everything to some WD Enterprise Grade Black Label 3.5" 2TB or 3TB Drives as internals and another set as external back-up. But that would take some investment.

Leicaflex Loc: Cymru

Mormorazzi Loc: Temple, Texas

It's a My Book Studio USB 3.0 3 TB

I used this external only for photographs, a place to dump photos directly from my camera and then retrieve photos for Lightroom. Last October, I also spent HOURS setting up folders divided by subject--family members, my photo business and organizations so I could easily access them. I didn't realize that Time Machine wasn't backing up my backup. I tend to learn things the hard way.

Mormorazzi Loc: Temple, Texas

Thank you very much! I've contacted Ace Data Recovery. They have a location in Dallas, about two hours north of me. I didn't realize I needed to send it to an approved location in order to avoid voiding the warranty!

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

Whatever you decide to do next, if your photographs are truly valuable to you, get a 2 bay external HD that is RAID capable. Set it up to mirroring, so if 1 drive fails, your data is backed up real time on the second drive. All you have to do is remove the dead drive and insert a replacement. Look at Netgear NAS for an Ethernet connection or Drobo for USB.

Mormorazzi Loc: Temple, Texas

Thank you! I'll check it out.

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

If you are still OK with WD (all drives fail sometime) you could also look at the My Book Duo USB attach ( http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_13?url=search-alias%3Delectronics&field-keywords=wd+mybook+duo&sprefix=WD+mybook+duo%2Caps%2C322) which has user replaceable WD red drives that are specifically designed for this if you don't want to go down the NAS route....

Good luck with getting your data back.

bdk Loc: Sanibel Fl.

as Im sitting here I have an assortment of ext drives on my desk. I back up stuff everywhere BUT I also back up to
amazon cloud service. Its unlimited photo storage for $12.00 per year. which reminds me, I have a lot of stuff to put up there, gotta go, lots to do.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

WD Black are not quite enterprise level - they are called "enthusiast class" drives. They have a 5 yr warranty so presumably they are better build quality than the cheap stuff, but they are not certified for RAID which would make them enterprise class. FWIW, I used 4 in a RAID 1+0 for 2 yrs without mishap.

sueyeisert Loc: New Jersey

G-drives were recommended to me. My western digital drive also crashed.

Mick 53 Loc: Minneapolis

Same thing happened to me. I have Carbonite that backs up my computer and one external hard drive. It took about two weeks for the external back up of almost 2 gb mostly photos. I also back up to another WD external hard drive.

BboH Loc: s of 2/21, Ellicott City, MD

I had a similar experience some years ago with both WD and Iomega, about 8 years now.

Tell you what I have done, First I bought a Buffalo 1 TB that consisted of 4 250 GB drives, configured with RAID 5. I can have up to 2 drives fail simultaneously, replace them and the data lost will be restored by the remaining two drives. Then, bout 4 years ago I saw a need coming for additional storage and I bought a Logitec 2 TB drive consisting of 2 1TB drives, configured with RAID 0 - 1 drive fails the lost data will be restored by the remaining drive; additional drives can be added to this system.

I use my external drives for primary storage; when I load/save photos they go directly to my Logitec, designated as drive Q. I Ioad images into any PP program from that drive, process and save back to that drive.

I use the Buffalo for document storage - such as spreadsheets, Word documents, etc.

I am a Windows user and I use Windows Explorer to manage my drives, creating folders and sub folders as needed with whatever name I desire into which files are stored and from which they are recalled.

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

You may want to check with WD for recovery software or services. I had a WD external develop bad sectors which resulted in corrupted photo files. I did recovery many of them with software I purchased online. (EaseUS Recovery Software).
Best of luck in recovering your missing photos. I know how precious they are.
Mark

dcampbell52 Loc: Clearwater Fl

Once you get your pics recovered, make sure that you make more than one complete backup and verify it. Keep your at least one of your backups off site and rotate your backups so that each is constantly updated. This is not a perfect solution but it is a solution.