[sphinxvc]

Lost about a hundred GB of carefully selected music over the last 8-odd years, various work files and invaluable libraries of photos.  My back up HD was temporarily housing some other files so I've lost it all for good.  I tried some recovery methods that have worked before for other dead HDs but nothing worked.  It's all just gone.
 
This HD is only 6 months old too.  It isn't a simple matter of re-ripping either, some of the CDs were borrowed and ripped, some songs were just you-know-what.
 
Moral of the story?

 

[DougofTheAbaci]

Always have multiple redundant backups at all times or risk losing everything and gaining no pity from anyone when it happens? Haha, sorry, we've all been there and it really sucks.
 
However, all is not entirely lost forever... There are some reputable data-recover labs out there which might be able to help you. However, be forewarned it can be very expensive. I once asked how much to recover data from a 500GB drive that was part of a RAID0 array and they said anywhere from $800 to $4,000. it may be different depending on your issue but that's kind of how much was when I was asking.
 
What they also told me was that the way it works is you pay a flat fee for them to figure out how much they can recover, they tell you how much data that is and tell you how much you're now going to have to pay them to recover it.

 

[steve1979]

It's not backed up unless you have at least 3 different copies in 3 different places.

 

[fufula]

Sorry to hear that. I'd hate to lose my collection, despite the fact that my music folder is an unholy mess that just keeps getting worse with every new album I acquire.
 
Disk recoveries can be quite costly. It'd be easier and cheaper to rerip the stuff you own physically, and the rest, well, you-know-what it again...

 

[fatcat28037]

Definitely contact a professional data recovery company. Take a look at these guys, I don't know anything about them other than their prices seem reasonable.
 
http://www.lowcostrecovery.com/pricing.html 

 

[Silent One]

Quote:

Lost about a hundred GB of carefully selected music over the last 8-odd years, various work files and invaluable libraries of photos.  My back up HD was temporarily housing some other files so I've lost it all for good.  I tried some recovery methods that have worked before for other dead HDs but nothing worked.  It's all just gone.
 
This HD is only 6 months old too.  It isn't a simple matter of re-ripping either, some of the CDs were borrowed and ripped, some songs were just you-know-what.
 
Moral of the story?

We're with you in spirit. And wish you a speedy, emotional recovery from the experience. There's some good data recovery firms out there. And like the previous poster mentioned, expensive. It's customary for them to ask for a flat fee to make an assessment. From there, they'll consider the drive's size and encryption scheme, if any.
 
What I would do next is contact my IT Dept and ask them to assist - this would depend on a few factors: privacy; value of work info; expertise of those in the dept. That or any other geek in or out of university. This could be a cheaper way out... best of luck!
 
Silent One
 
Post Script.: I'd also reconstruct a list of CD's and poll my friends. As well as research the CD's at the Metropolitan library and Universities. You'd be amazed how many CD's I found a ripped from city and university libraries, including hard to find selections.
 

 

[WNBC]

Sorry to hear that.  Happened to me in 2010.  I learned my lesson the hard way but luckily I had some scattered on other computers and for my favorite bands I buy the CDs.  But I still ended up losing a couple hundred gigs of music.    I always had data backed up multiple times but I gambled with my music.  Now everything is backed up 2-3 times.
 
Starting from scratch can be exciting but unless one has deep pockets it's a slow process of re-building.
 
Good luck.  Maybe some of your friends have the same taste in music and can loan you their CDs.  Ebay can be your friend for used CDs.

 

[sphinxvc]

Quote:

Always have multiple redundant backups at all times or risk losing everything and gaining no pity from anyone when it happens? Haha, sorry, we've all been there and it really sucks.
 
However, all is not entirely lost forever... There are some reputable data-recover labs out there which might be able to help you. However, be forewarned it can be very expensive. I once asked how much to recover data from a 500GB drive that was part of a RAID0 array and they said anywhere from $800 to $4,000. it may be different depending on your issue but that's kind of how much was when I was asking.
 
What they also told me was that the way it works is you pay a flat fee for them to figure out how much they can recover, they tell you how much data that is and tell you how much you're now going to have to pay them to recover it.

 
Well, in all my years of owning a computer (16) this is the first time I've had a hard drive failure.  This is why I've been lax with back-ups.  It does suck and all is indeed lost forever.  I'm trying to zero out data on it right now and it sounds like the dentists office in there.
 
No real reason to pay for an expensive recovery either, I mostly just lost a lot of personal things.  Music, books, photos and writings.  The important work files I can get back easily (email attachments).

 

[heavytwenty]

Quote:

 
Well, in all my years of owning a computer (16) this is the first time I've had a hard drive failure.  This is why I've been lax with back-ups.  It does suck and all is indeed lost forever.  I'm trying to zero out data on it right now and it sounds like the dentists office in there.

That's pretty amazing that you went 16 years without a HDD failure. I've had three Western Digitals die before the 3 year warranty, and a fourth started making weird noises when I retired it.
 
I have a 8 year old Seagate that's still spinning well; I don't know why I keep going back to Western Digital.

 

[Monooboe]

I really feel your pain, I don't know what I would do if I lost all my music... or worse my photographs as I a photographer. The Photos are backed up though but the music is not, really should start thinking about that too.^^;

 

[WarriorAnt]

Quote:

Quote:
 
Well, in all my years of owning a computer (16) this is the first time I've had a hard drive failure.  This is why I've been lax with back-ups.  It does suck and all is indeed lost forever.  I'm trying to zero out data on it right now and it sounds like the dentists office in there.
 
No real reason to pay for an expensive recovery either, I mostly just lost a lot of personal things.  Music, books, photos and writings.  The important work files I can get back easily (email attachments).

Just out of curiosity what drive was it.   I used to have drives go all the time then I got an APC XS1500 and so far so good.   My last drive that died a knucklehead told me to put the thing in the freezer for an hour or so then try to retrieve data from it because it would not respond.  I was desperate and like an idiot I put it in the freezer for 2 hours then took it out hooked it up and it worked one last time!  I managed to get most of my data from it.
 
 

 

[Rizlaw]

Quote:

Lost about a hundred GB of carefully selected music over the last 8-odd years, various work files and invaluable libraries of photos.  My back up HD was temporarily housing some other files so I've lost it all for good.  I tried some recovery methods that have worked before for other dead HDs but nothing worked.  It's all just gone.
 
This HD is only 6 months old too.  It isn't a simple matter of re-ripping either, some of the CDs were borrowed and ripped, some songs were just you-know-what.
 
Moral of the story?

If your drive did not mechanically fail, then I suggest you either find a friend who has "Spinrite" or go to http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm (Gibson Research Corporation) and purchase a copy. It's about $90.00 for a license and worth every single penny. It's a heck of a lot cheaper than a recovery service which will probably use Spinrite to see if the bad disc just has a few software issues which can be corrected by Spinrite and then the data recovered.
 
The site has a lot of free utilities which are very useful as well.
 
Best of luck.
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

[sphinxvc]

Quote:

Just out of curiosity what drive was it.   I used to have drives go all the time then I got an APC XS1500 and so far so good.   My last drive that died a knucklehead told me to put the thing in the freezer for an hour or so then try to retrieve data from it because it would not respond.  I was desperate and like an idiot I put it in the freezer for 2 hours then took it out hooked it up and it worked one last time!  I managed to get most of my data from it.

A Hitachi 2.5". 
 
Quote:

If your drive did not mechanically fail, then I suggest you either find a friend who has "Spinrite" or go to http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm (Gibson Research Corporation) and purchase a copy. It's about $90.00 for a license and worth every single penny. It's a heck of a lot cheaper than a recovery service which will probably use Spinrite to see if the bad disc just has a few software issues which can be corrected by Spinrite and then the data recovered.
 
The site has a lot of free utilities which are very useful as well.
 
Best of luck.

 
It's a mechanical failure, or at least, sounds like one.  Disk can't spin and as I said before, sounds like a dentists drill.

 

[WarriorAnt]

Quote:

Quote:

A Hitachi 2.5". 
 
 
It's a mechanical failure, or at least, sounds like one.  Disk can't spin and as I said before, sounds like a dentists drill.

Mine was mechanical failure also, disk would not spin.  
 

 

[manaox2]

Ouch, yeah, disk not spinning and sounding like a dentists drill is bad. Professionals could probably do something though.
 
Most hard drives will fail within the first year if they are going to fail, the chances of failure go down even more at about three years and back up at about five which is about the time to replace your hard drive. SMART detection helps to detect those that make it the first three years in my experience. I have at least two backups, and more that are kind of old as I've neglected updating them. Tis' important.