Andy Mueller IPA

Gracey, 10 months ago

See if the mfg. of your external HD has a website – some of the mfgs sometimes have a software that can rescue the drive.

I’ve had mine (my oldest one) for two years with no issues, though I tend to buy names I trust, rather than cheaper ones with more space from mgs. I’ve never heard of before.

Failing that, call a computer service tech in your area if you want the stuff back of that drive – he/she can probably get it for you (it’ll cost a little money).

Gracey, 10 months ago

Um sorry, the software won’t rescue the drive, but rescue the data on the drive.

lance leopold, 10 months ago

Sad to hear of your plight,Andreas,i do hope you find a solution to the problem,i know how you feel,my computer crashed so badly,the technicians could not retrieve my photos,some of the best i have taken,i have my fingers crossed for you,cheers.Lance.

Andy Mueller IPA, 10 months ago

Thank you guys, yes I made the mistake of buying a “no name” brand to save a little money. I don’t believe I will be doing that again. I have contacted the manufaturer and opened a trouble ticket via the internet, so we’ll see how that goes. It is a USB drive, so I will first try a different USB cable, if that nets the same results, I will install it on my desktop. Worst case, I will take your advice Gracey, about taking it somewhere to see if the data can still be retrieved.

Kimberly Palmer, 10 months ago

Andy – I had an issue once with my external drive…. I tried different USB plug-ins, with no results. I ended up calling the manufacturer, and they easily got me re-connected. I somehow disabled my External Drive, and that was why I couldn’t access it. Hopefully it will be as simple as that for you. If I could just remember the steps they gave me…..

Keep us posted!!!
~ Kimberly

Andy Mueller IPA, 10 months ago

So there is hope? Just want I wanted to hear. Thank you Kimberly, you’ll be one of the first to know if I get my images back.

Mundy Hackett, 10 months ago

Having lived a similar nightmare myself some years ago, I can say that I try to save my images in at least 3 different locations when at home base!

PhotogeniquE IPA, 10 months ago

so sorry to hear that. Always a good idea to store stuff on/in at least 2 different places. really hope you manage to retrieve it.

Andy Mueller IPA, 10 months ago

Mundy, I agree with your 3 different backup location rule of thumb. I will certainly implement that, especially for the “Keepers”. Kimberly already knows, I pulled the trigger on a lighly used D200 a couple of days ago. So it may be an omen that most of my D50 images are now gone, will have to start out all over again with the D200 images. I’m very excited to get the camera, should have it by Thursday this week. Can’t wait. You shoot primarily with the D200, don’t you? Maybe some day I will be as good as you? hehehe

Randy Monteith, 10 months ago

Andreas -

Rule #1 : First of all watch out who you listen too for help!!!!

Yes there are many nice people that want to help but really have no clue on what they are telling you when it comes to saving your treasures.

I have been at this for over 30 years. Worked in serveral local computershops and now I do all the electrical / electronics computer work on the subway and railcars we manufacture at Bombardier of Canada.

I recently saved a ladies family pictures some 500 images from her hardrive when the next door neighbour ” Computer Expert ” deleted them. We only lost 10 images cause he installed ” Special Software ” to get them back and messed things up more.

If your Desktop computer is running Windows XP, try plugging in the drive into it and see if it works. Windows XP or Vista do not need a driver to recognise the USB drive.
Windows 98 does.

Could your problem be with the power source for your external drive , if it requires one?

Keep in mind the problem could be your Laptop.

There are places on the internet that can take your hardrive and rebuild it and try to save your images. This is costly but check into it.

Take it to a computer tech you Trust!!!

I back up my work to 3 external usb drives plus to DVDs

Did you upload any of the lost photos to Redbubble?

If you did they can help you get back the original hi-res files you upload!

Contact earswideopen@redbubble.com for help

When I buy an external USB type drive the first thing I do is open it up to see what brand name of hardrive is inside. If its Maxtor or Western Digital its a keeper. Any other brand goes back.

Hardrives can and will fail at anytime whether they are years old or brand new!!

If you have any other questions BubbleMail me!

SnowDog

Randy Monteith, 10 months ago

Andreas – One more point I forgot to mention

The drives inside these external cases are normal 3.5 inch or 2.5 inch notebook hardrives.

Maybe your problem is something has gone wrong with the case?

Taking it apart and hooking it up to your desktop as a normal drive would prove this.

If your not sure get a trusted tech to do it for you

SnowDog

Andy Mueller IPA, 10 months ago

UPDATE: Looks like my data might be recoverable after all. After speaking to the Tech Support person of the drive manufacturer, he immediatley said that my drive/data is corrupted. It seemed almost like a standard reply, and he wanted me to format the drive. I said that I really needed to see if I can recover the data and he mentioned that I check out a utility called “DataRescue PC” from www.prosofteng.com. I downloaded the free demo which will go through the drives data and report on which files it can recover. A quick glance revealed that most might be recoverable. I purchased the software, purchased another external drive to copy the restored data to and will see what happens.

Kimberly Palmer, 10 months ago

Whoa…..... know what I’m referring to?

Yaaaaaaaay, glad you may get them back. Keep us posted!

Andy Mueller IPA, 10 months ago

Oh yeah, I know exactly …..

Kimberly Palmer, 10 months ago

;-)
I’m thinking of getting some DVDs to back up too now.

Kimberly Adams, 10 months ago

Good to hear your data may be recoverable! I am a computer geek, I have 3 computers. One with Linux on it, one with Windows and then my laptop. I have my photos on all 3 hard drives and then an external hard drive for all 3 systems to backup data too.

So I would say that everyone here is right, the best thing to do is have several (2 or more) locations your images and data are stored.

Good luck Andy!

Andy Mueller IPA, 10 months ago

UPDATE: “RecoverSoft Data Rescue PC” utility ($99.00) came through for me and was able to recover most of my data. A few of my RAW Nikon .NEF images were not able to be recovered but most everything was. I am so elated and not sick to my stomach anymore. So, I’m ready to upload some more work now ….

Kimberly Palmer, 10 months ago

Glad for you!!!

Sheryl Kasper, 10 months ago

Glad everything worked out for you!

blanefox, 9 months ago

I back up all my files on two computers and two back up drives and i burn a dvd every month as well, which i have locked in a safety deposit box at a bank.
Our building burned down many yrs ago. andi dont want to lose data or photos again.

Andy Mueller IPA, 9 months ago

Blanefox, I don’t think you could have a more solid backup solution than what you use. Perfect in every way.

Michael Bermi..., 9 months ago

Hey Andy, Just discovered this post of yours. I may as well tell you what I do.
I have a three dvd system.
Every 3 months I save all the new picture files onto DVD which is then archived with the relevent date on it.
I then make a copy of this disc and put it in a fire proof safe.
And the third thing I do is use a DVD-RW and save my entire stock of images to it once a month. This way, you have an Image of your My pictures folder that can be easily copied back to your computer if the need arises.
I dont trust external drives to protect anything.