TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Certainly worth trying IF the drive is spinning - that's really the first question. If the drive is not spinning (you can feel it), then you might try multiple restarts, placing the drive on its side and then restarting, and if all else fails, a slap with your hand on the flat surface of the drive will sometimes start the drive assuming the onboard controller hasn't failed. If that works, then you'll want to copy off the documents to another drive (or cloud) immediately without turning off the machine.

Mark also mentioned a failed backup/recovery. I'd just mention that there is a difference between a backup and a copy or mirror. In the commercial world, where companies often spend 100s of K$ for backup software, it is estimated that a small, but real percentage of recoveries from backup fail. The number I recall is 8%, although I'd have to dig to confirm that %. If you don't have an external drive or NAS for a mirror available, perhaps you have a 2nd computer in your home available on a home network. In that case you can mirror documents in both directions so each computer has a copy of the other's documents. This method is often used commercially when the data set is too large for backup within a limited window. (and of course, a copy off-site or in the cloud to protect against a disaster or theft at your home).

rdiiorio Loc: NYC

One thing you do NOT want to do is 'SLAP' a energized drive. The platters spin at 5600~10000 rpm and the heads HOVER above the spinning platters not actually in contact with the platters AT ALL. IF the heads come in contact with the platters that's where the damage is DONE. There are many instances of well intentioned advice here by people who unwittingly perpetuate 'fixes' that just don't work due to a lack of understanding.

blackest Loc: Ireland

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk is free and can work forensically the first job is to make a raw copy of the drive and then work on the image for file recovery.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

I believe I suggested that ONLY if the drive is NOT spinning. I would never suggest subjecting a spinning drive to any unnecessary shock. There is no "lack of understanding" on my part as I've been selling specifying and installing storage for almost 30 years for the largest storage companies in the world (EMC, NetApp, IBM, DDN, Isilon, Oracle, Ciprico).

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

This is a good reminder about backing up your photos!

But, your tirade against Seagate is pretty silly and misplaced.

I use a dozen or more very large Seagate "enterprise" drives, alongside some similar drives from Western and Hitachi. Yes, I see the occasional failure (I can recall two, in the past 7 years)... But no more or less from one brand or another.

First, you need to be aware there are different quality of HDs. What comes in most store-bought computers are a consumer grade that aren't built to withstand continuous use or for long term durability. Enterprise drives are designed for critical business and server use, with better bearings, dampening against shock, and other refinements, for higher reliability and 24/7/365 use. Some of them also have power saving features.

Truth is, any drive can fail... there really aren't any brands that are better or worse, on average. Some manufacturers offer models designed and built for higher reliability. If you switch to another brand of HD as a result of this failure, and aren't careful about what you buy, you're likely to just repeat the process sooner or later.

In fact, some people switching to the "latest and greatest", much more expensive Solid State Drives for their excellent speed are going to get a very rude awakening if they don't have and use a good backup plan. SSDs do not yet have the level of reliability that standard HDs do (especially "enterprise" type, built for durability). A friend of mine is an exec at one of the largest drive manufacturers, including SSDs, and he tells me not to use them for photo archives. They are fine for anything that can be reinstalled, such as a software program.... and might be fine if used in conjunction with careful backup. But shouldn't be trusted for long term storage of important data.

In fact, people lose photos without hard drive failures. If you have a house fire or flood or a tornado comes through your neighborhood, your computer could be destroyed with the same result. A friend of mine had her laptop stolen while traveling in Europe and lost many years worth of photos (she contacted me to help replace the ones I'd taken).

P.S. Your crashed drive might be largely recoverable. It is often possible to repair and rebuild drives, to get some or much of the data off them. It's not free, of course, but there are services that do this. Search for "hard drive crash recovery" online.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Hell, they ALL fail. No brand is forever!

www.drivesavers.com might be able to help. They are NOT inexpensive, but if your images are priceless, they're worth it!

If your drive is "clicking" when you try to use it, STOP. No recovery software is going to help that drive. Professionals can recover some of the data, some of the time. But it has to be done in a special environment. The drive requires disassembly, "repair," and THEN recovery.

Good luck. Thanks for the reminder! Most folks put off that extra drive purchase (or online cloud storage) until it is too late.

marty wild Loc: England

I thought it was well known that seagate hard disk are of an unreliable storage media device. Sorry too here bout your miss fortune, my whole net work collapse with 3 800 gig seagates in 2005 since then I have had no problem with Samsung all though I do have a 1.8 t portable SGate where nothing hurtful to my network will happen if it falls.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

I send small prints (4x6) to a lab. I make larger prints on an Epson photo printer.

If you are inkjet printing, you need enough volume to keep the ink flowing smoothly... a few 8x10s a week will do it. If you buy one of the LARGER printers, and I mean capable of loading 17" or larger roll paper width, it will have nice, large ink cartridges that are less expensive to use. But know that you're paying for permanence... The best pigmented inkjet ink and paper combinations last FIVE TIMES as long as the best archival silver-halide color papers available (roughly 200 years vs. 40 years in controlled dark storage).

rdiiorio Loc: NYC

Your right i made a mistake in not seeing your mentioning if the drive was not in the 'on' state.
Don't take what i say personally about well intentioned advice, it wasn't meant for or at you.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Maybe a little more information would be helpful here. As I mentioned previously, the key issue is whether the drive platter is spinning - that's the first thing that needs to be determined before " giving up" on a drive. If you place your hand on the drive surface, you can quickly tell if it's spinning. If so, you can proceed with different methods of recovering the data. It may be as simple as running chkdsk or scandisk, using drive recovery SW, or as a final resort, employing an (expensive) drive recovery service. If it's not spinning, there are multiple possible causes. It may be that the power is bad due to a faulty power supply or a "flakey" molex power connector. It may be a bad on-board drive controller board, or less frequently, a bad motor. If not spinning though, a more likely explanation is a head stuck while parked in the debris from the platter or "sticksion" in the bearings preventing start-up. You often see this phenomena following a shutdown or power failure where a previously working drive will not come up. Older, more experienced readers may remember that during Y2K, many storage manufacturers warned customers not to power down their storage for this exact reason. In 2000, many drives used ball bearings to support the spindles (and platters), but now many if not most drives use dynamic fluid bearings, but "sticksion", where the required start-up torque is higher than the running torque requirement is still present. Another issue is debris (magnetic material coating) that flakes off the platter over time. Centripetal force causes this to move to the outside tracks, and the drive heads, which normally float above the platter on a cushion of air, may become embedded (stuck) in this debris depending on where the drive parks the heads. If the platter is not spinning, try a different power connector, multiple restarts or placing the drive on end (NOT upside down) and trying a restart. If that fails ( and you're SURE the drive is not spinning) a "slap" on the flat surface of the drive may cause it to spin up. If so, get the data off the drive as soon as possible WITHOUT powering down the drive - you can use your network, an external drive or USB thumb drive for this purpose. I was recently able to recover all the data from a Seagate Barracuda 7,200 RPM drive in this manner after it had refused to restart after a power failure (it's still spinning and working a month later, but I doubt it will restart if I power down). It should go without saying (but I'll re-clarify) that subjecting a SPINNING drive to any unnecessary shock is a very bad idea and may initiate a head "crash", damaging the platter and making later data recovery difficult or impossible, depending on where on the platter the head crashes. I'm also not a fan of the placing the drive in a freezer and then attempting restart, as has been suggested several times on this forum. It may or may not work (temporarily), but the inevitable moisture that condenses on the platter when it is subjected to moist hotter air after removal from the freezer can make data recovery difficult or impossible when the head encounters a water droplet on the platter. I hope this clarifies my earlier suggestion.

lbrandt79 Loc: League City, Tx.

Don't know how long you have been doing this but you need to keep one off site at the very least. Used to store one in my office, was a principal at a high school, now take one to my best friend at the change of seasons. I.E. Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring etc., maybe more often, just depends.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

No problem - it's all good (and thank you).

Cheers,
Chris

bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada

Yup, I know that feeling...

After three Seagate HD crashes in the same number of months, we also dropped Seagate from our approved supplier list. We've moved totally to Western Digital with no problems in over seven years.

But any drive can crash! BACKUP RELIGIOUSLY AND OFTEN!!

bwa

Reinaldokool Loc: San Rafael, CA

Sorry for your loss. I've been there. Actually Seagate is a good brand. Google has done tests on all the major brands. The top three were Seagate, WD and Hitachi (Which is now called HGST) No significant difference between them. When you read it on I'net, it is somebody's personal anecdote. When Google compiles statistics on over 100,000 drives, you can take it to the bank. But there are differences in quality levels. For instance, WD drives blue, green, black or red versions are significantly different. And the cost reflects this.

Another test was BackBlaze. In larger drives 3tb or above HGST and Seagate tended to be ahead of WD. They only tested 49 thousand drives. https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-reliability-q3-2015/

Statistics are fine, but when it comes down to MY hard drive, I've had seven hard drives from all three top brands, running constantly for three years in my current desktop. four of those had run an additional four years in a previous machine. I had one failure earlier this year. It was a Hitachi with the old name.

mas24 Loc: Southern CA

Heck, with all these corporations buying up one another on hard drives, who would you trust? In due time I suppose all will fail eventually. I am glad I read this post. Backup is very important.