Do the Crash 3 October 2008
So. A week ago thursday. My less-than-a-year-old LaCie 500GB hard drive started acting weird. Wasn’t waking from sleep. Had to be restarted any time the computer needed to read or write with it.
“Well,” I thought to myself. “Best buy a new hard drive while this one still has some life in it and get my multiple gigabytes of valuable data to safety.” Good thinking, me.
So I bought one at lunch that day. Got it home. Hooked it up; got everything to make the transfer in as expeditious a manner as possible. Except the old drive. Didn’t. Spin. Up.
Didn’t spin up at all. I’m going to omit a lot of cursing and upset here. Because it didn’t help. Neither did this.
Things that are trapped on my now non-functioning drive
- All my digital photography prior to 2008.
- All my freelance work archives. Basically everything you see here.
- All my screenprint files. Including two new prints that were finished or nearly so but that I had not yet turned into actual prints.
- All my music, video, downloaded media etc.*
- Many other assorted files and things the inventory of which I do not possess because they’re stuck on a broken hard drive.
So I called a lot of data recovery services. The ones that seemed most professional and competent(ie. not this one) quoted me prices in excess of $1000 (if I’m lucky) and — more likely — in excess of twice that. Hence, more than I can afford at the moment with having just moved, needing things (a real non-shitty couch, framing) for the new place, approaching holidays, blah blah blah… So. Until I can find a way to afford this.** I. Am. Screwed.
Of course it was stupid to only have these things on one drive. Yes, I know. Don’t lecture me. I know you have no pity. I’m just venting because every time I think of it I feel ill.
One of these days, I really am going to buy a Drobo and this won’t happen again.
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*One pleasant side effect of having a job: I brought in the majority of my music to have on my computer at work. Not everything. And not any of the video/movies/TV shows/etc., but it’s something at least.
**While I was writing this I got a call back from one of the many data recovery services I’ve contacted. Apparently there is a payment plan. We’ll see.
See more: Unjustified Text, Miscellania
David
3 October 2008, 19:05 #
Yuck! sorry Phineas.
One more thing to add to the list of wish-you-would-have-known-before: those lacie hard drives? for some reason lots of people think they fail. a lot. (see comments on dive into mark). I’ve got a dead one on my desk I’m trying to revive myself. hope your new HD isn’t one of them.
let us know if you end up saving anything!