- Jul 17, 2018
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Alright, so bad news. I just did the worst cardinal sin of computing, not backing up my data. And now am really reaping what I sow.
Just the other day, my WD Passport External died all in a sudden. It's still relatively new, I still have the receipt and years worth of warranty and all. The drive stopped responding, and CRC check failed (or something like that, I never seen one of those errors really). Sentinel showed the drive as red (not just yellow, red). It's peculiar as the drive spends most of its time sitting on my desk, not much in a way of shock or something. And when I do take it with me I always put it in my backpack inside its soft case. I'm sure I've never dropped it, not a single time.
I've done everything imaginable to recover the files. The usual disk repair, stuck not responding (before it even starts). Trying numerous different cables and PCs, no dice. Connecting it to a Linux machine (as a last resort, was desperate), nothing at all. The frightening part is the drive used to be accessible, with only few folders being problematic (I was able to save a few files here). Then it gets worse, with the drive not showing up, and it struggles to light up/. It worsens to the point where the drive won't even spin now. No vibration, like nothing is being plugged in. No signs of life. That's when I said enough is enough, if anything, I'd just ruin the drive even more.
Lost plenty of irreplaceable pictures and videos, mostly old ones. But alas, it's too late now.
To prevent this from happening ever again, I'm backing up my data now. And I'd like to do it properly. But I do have few questions to ask.
What I'm gong to do is buy two hard drives to backup all my important data. Do the backup, unplug the hard drive and store it in a safe place. I have around 3 TB of data, give or take. The hard drive will only be used as a 'dead backup' (I don't know if there's a proper word for that, basically the hard drives will be filled up and never be accessed again. They won't be actively used). I've read the stickied post about drives for backup, and well, truth to be told that makes me even more confused. Different people swore with different drives.
My plan is to buy two internal 4 TB drives. The main reason is cost, compared to external drives internal SATA drives are much cheaper (e.g. I could get a 4TB internal for the price of a 3TB external drive), and as I'm only going to write once the ease of use provided by USB cables is irrelevant. I'd probably just buy the 5400 rpm ones, as speed doesn't really matter here. I'll probably buy one of the Seagate ones. The question is : can I just use any drive, or is there a special drive geared towards backup use that I need to look out for? Or maybe external drives are the way to go because of reasons I don't know yet? Of course by 'any' I mean a shiny new hard drive from well known vendor with good rep, not refurbished drives or anything.
Or maybe I'm missing out an important part of the process entirely?
Anyway, thank you for reading my 'rant', I just don't want this to happen again..
Just the other day, my WD Passport External died all in a sudden. It's still relatively new, I still have the receipt and years worth of warranty and all. The drive stopped responding, and CRC check failed (or something like that, I never seen one of those errors really). Sentinel showed the drive as red (not just yellow, red). It's peculiar as the drive spends most of its time sitting on my desk, not much in a way of shock or something. And when I do take it with me I always put it in my backpack inside its soft case. I'm sure I've never dropped it, not a single time.
I've done everything imaginable to recover the files. The usual disk repair, stuck not responding (before it even starts). Trying numerous different cables and PCs, no dice. Connecting it to a Linux machine (as a last resort, was desperate), nothing at all. The frightening part is the drive used to be accessible, with only few folders being problematic (I was able to save a few files here). Then it gets worse, with the drive not showing up, and it struggles to light up/. It worsens to the point where the drive won't even spin now. No vibration, like nothing is being plugged in. No signs of life. That's when I said enough is enough, if anything, I'd just ruin the drive even more.
Lost plenty of irreplaceable pictures and videos, mostly old ones. But alas, it's too late now.
To prevent this from happening ever again, I'm backing up my data now. And I'd like to do it properly. But I do have few questions to ask.
What I'm gong to do is buy two hard drives to backup all my important data. Do the backup, unplug the hard drive and store it in a safe place. I have around 3 TB of data, give or take. The hard drive will only be used as a 'dead backup' (I don't know if there's a proper word for that, basically the hard drives will be filled up and never be accessed again. They won't be actively used). I've read the stickied post about drives for backup, and well, truth to be told that makes me even more confused. Different people swore with different drives.
My plan is to buy two internal 4 TB drives. The main reason is cost, compared to external drives internal SATA drives are much cheaper (e.g. I could get a 4TB internal for the price of a 3TB external drive), and as I'm only going to write once the ease of use provided by USB cables is irrelevant. I'd probably just buy the 5400 rpm ones, as speed doesn't really matter here. I'll probably buy one of the Seagate ones. The question is : can I just use any drive, or is there a special drive geared towards backup use that I need to look out for? Or maybe external drives are the way to go because of reasons I don't know yet? Of course by 'any' I mean a shiny new hard drive from well known vendor with good rep, not refurbished drives or anything.
Or maybe I'm missing out an important part of the process entirely?
Anyway, thank you for reading my 'rant', I just don't want this to happen again..
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