HELP - External Hard Drive Has Gone Kaput!

[Master Bates]

Originally Posted by Xxphd

I would go for the good old Norton Utilities* for Windows and start with running "Disc Doctor" to check your external volume.

I lost a hard drive in 2003 due to Norton, it kept telling me (falsely) I had a bad boot record and did I want it replaced? Once I inadvertently clicked 'Yes' and the next time I rebooted it was unbootable. The data was still there but I had to replace the boot drive and slave the old drive.

If you are actually able to read files but they are garbage (as opposed to an inacessible drive), it sounds to me like the drive has cacked it. Sorry.

[the_knicker_inspector]

Originally Posted by NIN

I think it may have something to do with this incident?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/517604.stm

In addition there is an offence of possession of extreme pornographic images (Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, part 5, sections 63 to 67) which took force in January 2009.

An ‘extreme image’ (defined as either moving or still) is one which is ‘grossly offensive, disgusting, or otherwise of an obscene character’ and depicts an act which threatens a person’s life, or an act which results or is likely to result in serious injury to a person’s anus, breasts or genitals, or an act which involves sexual interference with a human corpse, or a person performing an act of intercourse or oral sex with an animal (dead or alive), and a reasonable person viewing the image would think that any such person or animal was real.

There are no defences obviously applicable to a data-storage situation as described in this thread except, perhaps, that the image portrays an act in which the accused directly participated and that the act did not involve any infliction of non-consensual harm. In a case in which the image portrays an act with what appears to be a human corpse, that is was not in fact a corpse there is no public interest defence.

Maximum sentences are custodial.

[Xxphd]

One of my two MyBook Studio drives has kicked the bucket
It suddenly refused to mount and the status LED on the enclosure wasn't operating like normal.

I suspect these MyBook series (2008) have weak electronics (a) because after dissasembling the enclosure, removing and testing the "WD Caviar" SATA hard drive (b) in a HD Docking Station, the hard disk itself does function 100%.

I have replaced this kaputt MyBook Studio with a new 2 TB one.
I'm thinking about putting the "WD Caviar" in a new, generic enclosure.


the "MyBook" after the 'operation':

[9876543210]

Xxphd,

Originally Posted by Xxphd

I suspect these MyBook series (2008) have weak electronics (a) because after dissasembling the enclosure, removing and testing the "WD Caviar" SATA hard drive (b) in a HD Docking Station, the hard disk itself does function 100%.

I have replaced this kaputt MyBook Studio with a new 2 TB one.
I'm thinking about putting the "WD Caviar" in a new, generic enclosure.

I've "worked" on a couple of those MyBooks over the years and found them to be real junk. IIRC, their cases are sealed and you have to literally tear them apart to get the HD out. Its been awhile but thats what I remember. I know I'd never buy or recommend one.

[Xxphd]

Originally Posted by 9876543210

I've "worked" on a couple of those MyBooks over the years and found them to be real junk. IIRC, their cases are sealed and you have to literally tear them apart to get the HD out. Its been awhile but thats what I remember. I know I'd never buy or recommend one.

It took me a few minutes to get the plastic case open, but (indeed) not without damaging it.

The latest MyBooks have aluminium cases, and appear to be more solid than the first generation ones. Probably WD evaluated the technical feedback and complaints about these 'old' MyBooks and improved the build quality and the electronics. In any case, the WD hard disks inside the enclosures are extremely reliable, and the risk that you will actually lose your data when your MyBook stops working is very slim. All you need is a dock or new casing for your (intact) HD.

[9876543210]

Xxphd,

The Mybooks I worked on years ago were both plastic and not working when I got them. I seem to remember looking the darn things over for awhile before just breaking the cases to get the HD's. I think I still have one of those old drives but I think it was an 80 Gb so its probably stored somewhere or in a machine I built. Who knows. But WD drives are pretty good. I don't remember many problems with them.

[9876543210]

Remember what someone said about putting all of your eggs in one basket? I've found it best to have at least two backups of anything you want to keep. It used to be that at least two separate drives were required but, nowadays, these online backup sites aren't too bad from what I've heard. I've never used one and don't know their positions on storing porn, but worthwhile checking into it.

[Xxphd]

As a main backup for my collected stuff, I have two external 2TB FireWire 800 drives of which the contents is 100% indentical.

I update and syncronize the folders on the drives about once a week with a special backup program. I think 2 or 3 TB (mirrored) is a nice backup volume to work with. My 'old' 1 TB FireWire 800 backup drive* was running out of space rather fast, so I moved all the stuff I want to keep to it's "big brother(s)" and use the 1 TB drive as a kind of temporary storage now.



* the crashed MyBook (its HD is in a new enclosure now)