Uh, Oh, hard drive wont spin up

[blackbones]

Alrighty, this is the second time i've had to post about this hard drive. Its a 180G Lacie Porsche External Drive (lately these things have been notorius for being horrid pieces of machinery).

Anyway, the thing wont spin up as all. I've been using it as my backup drive for my power book, so there is a ton of very important files on there.

Lacie will take it back but will only give me a replacement.

So my question, is it possible to get my files off of that drive if i take it to a repair shop? From what i've read if the problem is the motor im basically out of luck, but if its a faulty controller it should be rescuable.

advice? comments?

thanks

 

[Duff-Man]

Duff-Man says...First thing I would do is make sure it is not just the LaCie case causing the problem. Can you remove the drive from the case and attach it to another Mac (internally) or put it in another case to try it out? Perhaps it is a longshot but it should be easy enough to test just to be sure....oh yeah!

 

[outerspaceapple]

There are places that can retreive data out of anything. Seriously, my friend & I took this crap 512MB hard drive & burned it, brough it to this data retrival shop, and they said they could definantly get at least some of the data off - for a heafty price tag of course. It all depends on how important your data is to you. Do a google search for like "hard drive data retrival" or the like.

cheers,
outerspaceapple

 

[blackbones]

thanks guys, im gonna take it over to the local repair shop tomorrow to see if they can slip it into a tower or anything like that (i only have access to a powerbook and an imac right now).

the data very important so, if all else fails...

everyone says its "super expensive" any price range? are we talking $500 are we talking $5000?


thanks!

 

[Blue Velvet]

I don't get it.

First you said it was a backup drive, next you're saying the data's very important...

If the data was that important, you should have backed it up. Sorry to nag when you're feeling crap about your drive, but it constantly astounds me to hear of people not backing up properly.

A little expense & planning at the beginning can save a fortune in blood, sweat & tears (and money) when all goes wrong. I speak from bitter experience...

At work, our 3 main G5's are backed up each morning to internal drives, every night we do a network backup with Retrospect to a G4 server and THAT backup is duplicated onto an external drive. Completed work is burned onto CD or DVD, duplicated and the copies put into a fire-proof safe downstairs.

I'm not suggesting you go to these lengths but a simple reliable system will save your bacon in the future.

BTW: This could end up costing $1000s not $100s.

 

[beatle888]

I don't get it.

First you said it was a backup drive, next you're saying the data's very important...

........ Completed work is burned onto CD or DVD, duplicated and the copies put into a fire-proof safe downstairs.

I'm not suggesting you go to these lengths but a simple reliable system will save your bacon in the future.

CDs and DVDs in a fire proof safe? wont the plastic melt in extreme heat? Ive heard it mentioned that a fire proof safe for such content isnt very effective.

 

[blackbones]

I don't get it.

First you said it was a backup drive, next you're saying the data's very important...

If the data was that important, you should have backed it up. Sorry to nag when you're feeling crap about your drive, but it constantly astounds me to hear of people not backing up properly.

A little expense & planning at the beginning can save a fortune in blood, sweat & tears (and money) when all goes wrong. I speak from bitter experience...

At work, our 3 main G5's are backed up each morning to internal drives, every night we do a network backup with Retrospect to a G4 server and THAT backup is duplicated onto an external drive. Completed work is burned onto CD or DVD, duplicated and the copies put into a fire-proof safe downstairs.

I'm not suggesting you go to these lengths but a simple reliable system will save your bacon in the future.

BTW: This could end up costing $1000s not $100s.

totally agree with you, this was the back up, a good portion of the information is backed up on dvd... but with in the last two months I've had to relocate to the west coast... and unfortunatly haven't had the chance to back up the work i've been doing during the last two months.

 

[Blue Velvet]

CDs and DVDs in a fire proof safe? wont the plastic melt in extreme heat? Ive heard it mentioned that a fire proof safe for such content isnt very effective.

I don't know. These are the huge 8ft fire-proof safes that the IT dept use for their tape back-ups...

I guess if there's a fire of that magnitude then we'll be worrying about more than lost work. In theory, I should also be taking duplicates home but I don't want them littering up my tiny flat.

Still, it's a good point. We do have off-site archival but nobody seems to have much luck in retrieving stuff. They're a bit of a black-hole...

I think a situation like this calls for honest risk-assessment, I think we're covered for 98% of potential problems. If something cataclysmic happens, then we'll be more worried about saving our own skins...

 

[Blue Velvet]

totally agree with you, this was the back up, a good portion of the information is backed up on dvd... but with in the last two months I've had to relocate to the west coast... and unfortunatly haven't had the chance to back up the work i've been doing during the last two months.

Oh...

I feel bad now, ranting like that...

Still, it's best not to use that drive at all now and get it to a shop asap.
Be prepared to spend some money...