Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

I am surprised these days that you are permitted to plug in a USB drive to a company owned laptop - with all the data breaches happening, many companies lock down usb ports to prevent access to data by unauthorized personnel.

RFC Loc: Tucson, Az

I work at a mine and we also use the laptop on the large mining haul truck and we need to connect to the seven on board computers. we have to be able to up load new programs, down load data for trouble shooting problems. I would be lost with out usb.

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

Yes, I am sure, however wait till there is a breach and the mine loses millions, then see how life will be after USB access is gone ;)

I managed a network, a large state network, we ended up getting pretty tight on security over the years, encrypting laptops, locking down USB (and when I say locking down, understand that included providing access for approved devices) but users were not allowed to install programs - that was a no no... users do not know or consider what data can be accessed by the software they just downloaded, especially in a Windows world where viruses, trojans and malware are everywhere. One breach of the data could cost millions of dollars, so they became very serious.

mackolb

A great resource for the best information on how to manage your image library was developed by American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) funded by the Library of Congress, in recognition of the fact that while our old analog content (film and enlargements) might degrade/deteriorate gracefully over time, our digital images will degrade absolutely as storage media fails. The site for your consideration is:
http://dpbestflow.org
I highly recommend it as a fabulous source to enhance our understanding and appreciation of the value of our work and how to retain that value over time.

Robertski Loc: So California

It is likely that your hard drive is OK. The external enclosure may be the culprit (unless the drive is making a clanking racket). As a video editor, I have nearly 100 drives... mostly Seagate. The External 3 TB has been the most problematic for me. The USB 3.0 controller or the external interface are always failing and the drives can't be seen by Windows. The same is true of USB 2.0. What type of connector is used? If it is the flat Micro-B connector, it has two parts. The wider side is just the original USB 2.0 Micro-B, used by many Android cell phones. Use an earlier connector & cable to access just the USB 2.0 side and your files will appear. Be aware that hard drives exceeding 2 TB can use different partitioning & formatting, which also confuses some motherboards. Changing the temperature of the drive can also cause electronics to shrink & make a better connection, hence the good results of putting the drive in a refrig or freezer before hookup. Also power the drive before connecting the USB can help once the OS has loaded. Firewire and USB have always been finicky with connections. Lastly remove the drive from the enclosure and hook it directly to a SATA cable & power. Good luck.

(Download)

tradergeorge Loc: Newport, Kentucky

I used to work for a company that did forensic recovery as one of their functions. Sometimes, the recovery is as easy as replacing the driver board with a new one and booting the drive. In other cases, it can be a mechanical failure, in which case, you are talking a "clean room" disassembly and more advanced recovery. Most of our clients were either lawyers trying to preserve evidence or corporate clients with valuable financial records. Prices could run into the thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars. For this reason, we seldom had many consumer level clients go beyond the first attempt, which was only a couple hundred dollars, with no guarantee of recovery. Yes, it is a grim business, so multiple backups are advised.

Lucian Loc: From Wales, living in Ohio

I had a new 28 day old 750gb laptop HD fail and then a 2 and a3TB external HD fail and these two were between 3 and 7 months old and were the black versions. All were Seagate and although any make can fail I no longer trust the brand Seagate.

As far as warranty is concerned, who cares if if is a year or 3 years or 5 or even life time! They only give you a new one when it fails, they do not give you any recovery protection, which is the only thing we need when such a thing happens.

rfmaude41 Loc: Lancaster, Texas (DFW area)

Gee; I have two (storage) systems that are built on Seagate drives. The first is a RAID 1 2TB system built with the usual "cheap" drives. This one has lasted 4 years without a failure (it runs constantly). The second is an 8TB RAID 0+1 (commonly called RAID 10). This one uses Seagate Constellation (enterprise class) drives. It's been going almost 3 years, constantly, without a single drive failure. Seagate is likely no better, no worse than any of the other brands (WD, Hitachi, etc.).

Dick Z. Loc: Downers Grove IL

Exactly!!!


:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

Viejo Bell Loc: Buda TX

Just had a similar problem. Mine quit working and I checked it out with a friend. We pulled the drive unit and placed it in a dock and it worked just fine. The problem turned out to be a bad capacitor on the circuit board. Replaced the capacitor and now all is back to what passes for normal around here. You should be able to find a dock for about $20.

Might be an alternative. Good luck.

MB

Photoninny Loc: Monterey Bay Area

Earlier this year Backblaze Online Backup wrote an article about their experience with HDD's. With nearly 30,000 units, they have a pretty good sample. Read the article and come to your own conclusions. It depends on what your needs and usage patterns are.

http://www.backblaze.com/blog/what-hard-drive-should-i-buy/

redrocktom Loc: Sedona

Great resource. Thanks for the link. I have my homework for next week.

donnieb55 Loc: Greensboro, NC

Yeah, I just had my Seagate 3Tb external go bad also., but my loss is not as large as yours. Check customer support if you haven't, they may be able to help you recover your images.

Photoninny Loc: Monterey Bay Area

Just remember, you do not want to move an external hard drive while the disc is still spinning. Gyroscopic action can exert a large force on the bearings which they are not designed for. Wait for the disc to stop. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyroscope for an explanation.

rfmaude41 Loc: Lancaster, Texas (DFW area)

Interesting; but, would be interested in the "enterprise" class drives; I use Seagate Constellations, not the "run of the mill" stuff...