Back Up Issues, trashed drive and Questions

Chrisbie

Chrisbie

Suspended / Banned
Messages
2,315
Name
Chris
Edit My Images
Yes
I have a back up routine for all my photos where I back up to an external hard drive and then also copy them to DVD discs as data files.
Last Weekend I stuffed my backup hard drive (dropped whilst running, dont ask). I thought SHoneT but at least I have me DVDs (about a dozen or so).
So its out to buy a new external drive and start to copy back from the DVDs and a few cds.
CDs no problem, DVDs one cannot be read, and one gives CRC on some files.
any ideas what I can do, I have tried some recovery software but as the disc is not even recognised its no go.
Is reliability of DVDs affected by age or quality or how they are originally written
any ideas for a better back up routine welcome
 
All digital media degrades over time!!

As for recovering the lost data you could send the HDD of to one of the specialist data recovery companies. This is not a cheep option but you should get your photos back.

My backup involves 4TB RAID 5 + 1 and a 3 hour fire safe.
 
you sure its the drive thats dead or just the enclosure?

personally id split the plastic case open and put the drive into a computer to get the data off. my money is on it working, unless you dropped it more than 6ft.
 
The quality of DVD's/CD can be variable. After some research it seems that Verbatim seem to have the best reliability. I've started using the exclusively now, but rely on HD back ups as the main source of security.

Can you not back up your new drive from you existing internal one ?
 
Agree with neal, its worth opening the externall hdd and removing the hdd and putting it in internally. Nothing to loose, pictures to gain.
 
What they said as well as my earlier post, get busy with a screw driver and have a go.
 
I always use DataWrite and have never had problems with their DVD blanks.

I still have DVDs with data from over 10 years ago and they are still perfectly readable.

However I do keep them in the folders you can buy cheaply.

Don't know whether being in the light, especially sunlight, affects them.

I also use Phillips Re-Writable ones and they are also very good.

CDs seem to suffer less from data corruption probably because the data isn't so packed together.

I also burn at half the maximum speed of the Disk, and always verify the data afterwards.
 
Personally I back up to external drives, one kept in cupboard, one attached to pc but not always turned on. I have admiration to people who back-up to cd \ dvd. I have over 100Gb of photo's so that would be alot of discs! Although with blu ray writers crashing in prices, a 30gb or 50gb disc might be a more suitable for todays size images.
 
Guys
thanks for all the advice, the drive is completely trashed and would need a specialist recovery with the drive being rebuilt in a clean environment and this starts at about £500. The drive fell from less than 3 foot but it was whipped by tripping over a cable when backing up a laptop. It hit the wall and floor at quite a velocity internally its a mess.
I have recovered all the pics from DVDs apart from the one DVD that is trashed.
I mainly do motorsport so tend to save as raw files for later processing then save them to DVD with one or two DVDs per event, I think I am lucky I have in effect only lost one events pictures.
I have now reorganised how I back up and moved power supplies etc. Just purchased some decent DVDs and for the extra cost and ease of it in future I will burn 2 copies.
I have recovered all the files to a new external hard drive.
If it can happen to me it will.
I am normally very organised but this was the only occasion I moved the drive from its normal location where its is secure, sods law I suppose.
I do like the idea of a second external drive for backup, I will also consider that.
 
HTH - You only need to loose some images once before upgrading the backup plans in place. Hope non backupers read and start to do backups, save tears.
 
I have all my negatives in a box. Last time I looked, they were all still there!


Steve.
 
seriously have you tried taking the drive out of the case and putting it in a PC?

unless the actual drive (not the enclosure) is in more than 1 bit now its probably worth a try at least.
 
Steve Smith said:
I have all my negatives in a box. Last time I looked, they were all still there!
Steve.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reminder Steve Phew just checked my negs as well and they are all still ok.

Dave450 said:
HTH - You only need to loose some images once before upgrading the backup plans in place. Hope non backupers read and start to do backups, save tears.
Click to expand...

I had a backup plan in place , it was not 100% I found the small percentage of problem area.

neil_g said:
seriously have you tried taking the drive out of the case and putting it in a PC?

unless the actual drive (not the enclosure) is in more than 1 bit now its probably worth a try at least.
Click to expand...

Its stuffed it makes funny clicking and buzzing noises.

HOWEVER
regarding the DVD that was u/s . I tried a software package called Isobuster and it recovered most of the files !! only problem all the nef files were tagged as tiffs so had 300 files to rename but with some freeware that was soon sorted. the software cost me £20 - well worth it.
 
Chrisbie said:
Thanks for the reminder Steve Phew just checked my negs as well and they are all still ok.



I had a backup plan in place , it was not 100% I found the small percentage of problem area.



Its stuffed it makes funny clicking and buzzing noises.

HOWEVER
regarding the DVD that was u/s . I tried a software package called Isobuster and it recovered most of the files !! only problem all the nef files were tagged as tiffs so had 300 files to rename but with some freeware that was soon sorted. the software cost me £20 - well worth it.
Click to expand...

With regard to the hard disk drive, are you certain it is dead? I'd be willing to give recovery a go if you pay the postage and send it to me.
 
See if you can borrow an external DVD reader from some one.

I was copying backups from DVD on to my new NAS when I started getting errors on some of them. I too thought they were toast but tried my other drive (my PC has a DVD-ROM and a DVD/CD-RW) and found they worked fine.
 
I've had many occasions where dvds don't read in a drive that they weren't burned in, or will read in some drives but not others. So you know what I'm going to say here - try some different drives.

As for dvds degrading, I haven't had this happen but I have with CDs. When I do dvd backups, I always burn two discs. But those discs are different brands.
 
thanks guys for all the offers, with the software described above I now have all pics back. I didnt dismantle the drive and it was supposed to be shock resistant. Took it back to supplier and surprisingly they suggested a refund or exchange. I am now happy and have learnt a valuable lesson.... dont give up
Oh and what a great bunch of folks on here, Thanks for all the offers and help
Cheers !!!
 
Glad you got it all sorted Chrisbie :) I wouldn't rely on dvds as a backup- most don't last very long!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top