Hard Drive Crash!: Lessons Learned

By PJAMES on September 24, 2006 8:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

September 24, 2006: USA

Two days ago while working in Photoshop, my 3 year old Western Digital 120GB external (non-portable desktop type) HD started clicking for 3 seconds, then died completely (powered up with no clicking, but totally un-responsive.
...the drive couldn't read anything on it, and my PC wouldn't even power down & turn off while that drive was connected - I had to disconnect the AC power to get it to shut down.

I hooked that drive up to my notebook, and WIN XP wouldn't even recognize it, not would it power on or off while the drive was attached - so I disconnected it & declared it dead - the armature sounds like it just broke down, and hopefully the data is still there on the hard disk for an attempted recovery in the future.

ALL of my digital images from 1999 to present day were on it (including over 3 years of Philippines and Project RICE images) and it's the only drive I worked off of - I did not have that drive backed up to another internal or external HD which in hindsight was a terrible mistake. (post continued)

Last week I'd planned a trip to B&H in NYC to get a G-Tech external HD with an over-built heavy duty aluminum enclosure - I knew I badly needed one for archiving, but I wasn't able to get it in time.

Just by happenstance last week I backed up all current pRICE stuff to my Western Digital Passport 80GB HD to take with me to work last week, so I have those pRICE & related Photoshop PSD files saved - I got very, VERY lucky there with that timing.

I now have all the important image files from the WD Passport 80GB portable HD backed up to a separate Western Digital Passport 120GB external portable HD.

All 2005/2006 recent Philippines images were backed up daily to Verbatim Brand DVD's while in Philippines & I restored those today on the WD Passport 120GB HD.

In 2003/2004/2005 in Cebu & Manila I backed up daily to CD's, then to DVD's when I got back, and I just found those today and put those on the new Passport 120 HD.

Today I made a 2nd. set of DVD's for Philippines 2005/2006/2007 on Verbatim DVD's which are what the Pros use to archive; they're said to be the very best aside from the Belkin 24KT Layered Gold DVD's.
...I'll make a 3rd. set of those DVD's on another brand later this week.

Last year, I took an entire day and I made DVD's of the important image Galleries of the drive that would later fail, and I found those today & burned them to the 120 GB Passport HD....that day last year backing up to DVD's is what saved me.

All the pBase.com images are now recovered, but the Photoshop .PSD files for those images (with the layers intact) are gone; those PSD's for Philippines 2005 & 2006 are the only files I did not back up, but at least I do have the ORIGINAL images from Philippines 2003 through 2007 and that's the most important thing - I can now go back into Photoshop & re-create what I need from the original image files from the Olympus E1 & E10.

In the future I'll need a G-Tech 320GB-400GB external drive, transfer all files from the 120GB Passport, and work off that G-Tech , leaving all the originals ON the 120GB Passport which will become a back-up drive.

I also backed up to DVD's all the digital video I have from Philippines 2003 , so I'm thankfull I kept backing up to DVD's the past few years.

* PLEASE DO NOT TRAVEL with an external HD that is not designated as "portable" ie. shock-mounted HD (I'd been traveling with the now failed WD 120GB external HD since late 2003)

IF YOU DO NOTHING ELSE OTHER THEN BACK YOUR FILES UP TO DVD RECORDABLE DISKS IT CAN SAVE YOU FROM A DISASTER!

* A NICKEL'S WORTH OF FREE ADVISE:

IF YOU ARE ARCHIVING OR SAVING YOUR FILES ON AN EXTERNAL HD, PLEASE BE SURE TO BUY ADDITIONAL EXTERNAL HD TO BACK UP THE DRIVE YOU'RE WORKING FROM, OR HAVE AN INTERNAL DRIVE PARTITIONED SOLELY FOR BACKUPS - THEORETICALLY AN EXTERNAL HD THAT IS BACKED UP ONCE PER WEEK & THEN DISCONNECTED FROM YOUR SYSTEM & KEPT OFF SITE IN A DIFFERENT LOCATION (BANK DEPOSIT BOX, ETC) CAN HELP SAVE YOU IN THE EVENT OF A BREAK IN OR FIRE, FLOOD, ETC.

Best Regards,
PJAMES