Hard drive problems, may have lost all RAW files :(

gordon77 · Oct 10, 2007

History: i havnt turned on my external hard drive in a few weeks (i only turn it on whenever i download images from my camera) and before now everything has been goin sweet. altho this is an external HD i do not take it anywhere, it stays plugged into my computer all the time and sits on foam so it does not get any shock. it is parted into 3 seprate drives, RAW, Finished, and JPEG.

Problem: today i turned it on about an hour after i booted my comp (normal) but nothing came up to indicate i had it on, normally a little box comes up for a few secs reading it then all is good i can access the files. i pluged the camera in and turned that on. Lightroom popped up as usual and then crashed (end now thing came up) when i closed it (i dont use lightroom to download images), this is not normal. i had to open up EOS utility which should open up as soon as i plug the camera in. i couldnt download images onto the drive and the names for them didnt come up, they just had the letters C, D, E. i went into my computer and tried to access them but it came up 'access denied, drive is corrupt' or some bad message like that. i restarted my puter with the HD on and still same message came up. i took it to another computer in my house and pluged it in and turned it on, then booted the comp. it came up with diskcheck and so i ran that on all partitions. it recovered a whole heap of files (so it said) and when windows started i could see all the partition names. the files were still there in Finished and JPEG but when i went into RAW no files. i shut everything down took it back to my comp and started everything back up. it didnt go thru diskcheck and i still cant see any files in the RAW partition. the JPEG and Finished still have eveything. i went into properties for RAW and it says it has 30Gb of stuff on there (what was there when it was working)

im baffled and rather worried. my brother is a computer guru but is currently in the states

i know a bit about computers but not enough to figure this out.

im sorry for the long ass post but i believe maybe i have done something wrong along the line and therefore need to explain every step. im not looking for sympathy if ive lost all my images, sh*t happens :madmad: but 3550 images dont just dissapear so some advice on what i can check/do to either fix this problem of prevent it from happening again would be most appreciated

Corbin Lane · Oct 11, 2007

gordon77 said:
History: i havnt turned on my external hard drive in a few weeks (i only turn it on whenever i download images from my camera) and before now everything has been goin sweet. altho this is an external HD i do not take it anywhere, it stays plugged into my computer all the time and sits on foam so it does not get any shock. it is parted into 3 seprate drives, RAW, Finished, and JPEG.

Problem: today i turned it on about an hour after i booted my comp (normal) but nothing came up to indicate i had it on, normally a little box comes up for a few secs reading it then all is good i can access the files. i pluged the camera in and turned that on. Lightroom popped up as usual and then crashed (end now thing came up) when i closed it (i dont use lightroom to download images), this is not normal. i had to open up EOS utility which should open up as soon as i plug the camera in. i couldnt download images onto the drive and the names for them didnt come up, they just had the letters C, D, E. i went into my computer and tried to access them but it came up 'access denied, drive is corrupt' or some bad message like that. i restarted my puter with the HD on and still same message came up. i took it to another computer in my house and pluged it in and turned it on, then booted the comp. it came up with diskcheck and so i ran that on all partitions. it recovered a whole heap of files (so it said) and when windows started i could see all the partition names. the files were still there in Finished and JPEG but when i went into RAW no files. i shut everything down took it back to my comp and started everything back up. it didnt go thru diskcheck and i still cant see any files in the RAW partition. the JPEG and Finished still have eveything. i went into properties for RAW and it says it has 30Gb of stuff on there (what was there when it was working)

im baffled and rather worried. my brother is a computer guru but is currently in the states i know a bit about computers but not enough to figure this out.

im sorry for the long ass post but i believe maybe i have done something wrong along the line and therefore need to explain every step. im not looking for sympathy if ive lost all my images, sh*t happens :madmad: but 3550 images dont just dissapear so some advice on what i can check/do to either fix this problem of prevent it from happening again would be most appreciated

There are some file recovery tools out there that I have for windows if you want some of them. It sounds like the drive is corrupt but it shouldn't be unless it's very old or your computer was trying access that drive with transferring data and you lost power or something. I think your best bet would be

1. Wait for your brother to help you out
2. Try and recover data from the drive and reformat
3. RMA the drive and try to get them to get the information off of it.

I usually don't keep my external plugged in all of the time because I've heard that because its no plugged into the Motherboard directly it does not get a type of protection that the other drives do.

Bummer though man! I know what its like loosing lots of files.

TCimages · Oct 11, 2007

I would consider replacing the external enclosure first. Often times the USB interface will go bad. Empty enclosures are very cheap and really simple to switch your drive. If you can see the drive, use recovery software.

What ever you do, Do not reformat anything. Atleast not until you are absolutley sure you've recoverd all of your images.

Snyder · Oct 11, 2007

My hard drive crashed once with all my images on it. All I did to recover them all was go to msdos command prompt and type. chkdsk G:/R so you should try it just type chkdsk [your external hard drive]:/R

gordon77 · Oct 11, 2007

ok thanks alot ppl, at least i know there is some hope lol

Garbz · Oct 11, 2007

Had a hdd drop out the other day. Something as simple as replaceing the cable helped. Sorry if this was already tried I didn't have time to read the OP.

gordon77 · Oct 11, 2007

haha no it hasnt been tried yet, i may just stik it in the case and see how that goes. if its still bung then ill try some software after my brother gets home from the US

jedithebomber · Oct 13, 2007

I hear this 10 times a week. I hope you can recover your data. Like others have said, try to replace your cable, then the enclosure. Or you can pull the hard drive out and try to put it into a desktop.

The key to make sure this dosent happen is to backup your data. My raw files go into my laptop, the laptop is backed up to my file server for permanent storage, periodically files are written to cd. Do you have to go through this much work, no. But the basic principal is to make sure you have at least 2 copies of any important data at any time.

Aquarium Dreams · Oct 13, 2007

This happened to me and my boyfriend was able to recover everything just by plugging it into a Mac. It was really a frustrating time, as we both tried all the usual remedies, all the while knowing the information was there, just inaccessible. The problem in my case turned out to be formatting-- I didn't format it to NFTS, or whatever it is, so the hd was still in FAT, which becomes "unstable" once it has stored 20g or so (this is what I've been told.) I'm basically ignorant when it comes to computers, so all I can do is share my experience, and hope it helps. Good luck.

Milhouse · Oct 14, 2007

*** IMPORTANT ***
Do not write anything to your hard drive until you are finished recovering your data.

Your drive suffered a problem, but now that you can access it, I am assuming that your other computer fixed the problem. I'm not going to get into detail with hard drive recovery, so basically what happened to the RAW partition is that when it was repaired, it forgot where it saved all your RAW files. The files are still there but your drive no longer knows how to access them. You will need recovery software to recover them. The recovery software will go through the hard drive looking for files that it can recover, and then copy them to another drive. You should be able to recover most of your files. Do not write/save anything to your hard drive. Since the drive no longer knows where your files are stored, saving new data to the drive can overwrite your current files.

If you are able to recover the files I would no longer use the drive and enclosure as your sole data source. I would use it as a backup and store the files on an internal hard drive. Using an internal drive would also be significantly faster than the enclosure, especially if you Photoshop or mod your pics.

If your brother can't recover your files, PM me and I'll try to help you out further.

solrac8126 · Oct 18, 2007

i don't know if it is too late but

http://www.drivesavers.com/

nossie · Oct 18, 2007

Recently as an I.T. worker from home I suffered a drive failure that was gonna cost me bad (boo for me I know as I.T. man I know).
You know your backups are only as good as your last back up, for me a week is a long long time.
Anyway from Dublin to Canada this guy I found saved my drive... [email protected] it cost me about CAD250 all told. Get in touch with him, it's his job and he'll feed you lots of pro advice.
(I'm a satisfied customer, that's all)

Now I insist on running my C: as 2x160GB drives and for storage 3x500GB drives in Raid5, then DVD backups. I can't recommend it enough to everyone to have 3,4 or 5 drives in RAID5 for storage. I feel insecure with only 3 drives and think I should make it 4 but it's all $€£.
The feeling of paying for redundant drives is nothing compared to the feeling of losing a valued drive.

Gordon, splitting your single drive into 3 virtual drives does virtually nothing for the safety of your files.

For those that don't have a clue about raid I'll try and put it super simple... You have 3,4 or 5 drives the same size that look like 1 big drive, if 1 dies the others will save your files, but you must replace the drive that died (and possibly assume that the others are old and will follow, hence the 3 different manufacturers and 3 different life expectancies)

So 3 x 500GB drives gives you 1000GB space, 1/3rd (the other 500) is used as backup. 4x500GB gives you 1500GB and 1/4qtr is backup...

A lesson to all. Your drives are mechanical and they WILL fail. Go RAID5 for storage RAID1 minimum (2 drives) if you're on a budget.

gordon77 · Oct 19, 2007

thanks for the replys eveyone! i havt been on here in a while so sorry for late replys. i have not turned on the offending drive since i found it was corrupt. im still going to wait for my bro to get back from tha states and he will be able to fix it by the sounds. investing in a dvdrw seems like a good idea, as does getting more hd's. memory is so so cheap now 8)

fido dog · Oct 21, 2007

Get a Mac. :hail:

I know that sounds crass, but I switched over a year and a half ago and you just can't beat the stability and imaging you can do. As a PC user for such a long time the machine (Mac) was boring..........everything makes sense and works.

I hope everything works out for you. I have 2 hard drives from 2 PC's that crashed that I need to have images extracted from.

One you go Mac....You never go back......hehe :lmao:

Good luck man!