mrcrassic
TPF Noob!
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2008
- Messages
- 52
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Brooklyn, NY
- Website
- photobucket.com
- Can others edit my Photos
- Photos OK to edit
Thought I was doing the right thing keeping my photos on a 500 GB Western Digital external drive. Seemed to work well till yesterday when the drive wouldn't show up in Windows Explorer when plugged in. Thought if I got the drive to show up, it'd be OK.
So today the drive shows up but when I try to look at a folder it comes back and says "the drive is not formatted. Format now?". Can't see any pics, kinda assuming I'm never going to again... five years' worth.
Data recovery starts (starts!) at $500. I make a couple bucks doing photography but certainly not enough to justify this.
Just thinking about what I won't be able to see again makes me sick.
You did the right thing backing them up to an external. If your pictures were REALLY critical, you could have bought some online storage space and placed them there.
Data recovery is NOT cheap. Some shops run "specialized" software to get your data back, while others actually open the drive, swap platters to a working drive (considering that the platters aren't damaged) or switch logic boards, then recover your data...all of which has to be done in a dust-free environment in order to prevent complete destruction of the platters.
If your pictures are worth it, pay the money.