Hey all. Let me share this with you so that others don't end up in the same prediciment.

Two days ago, one of my hard drives to my desktop computer descided to start clicking and now, not boot. On this drive was every single composition I ever made. Every idea I ever had. Anything musical was on this drive. I have no other source where I saved all my compositions. Now, in order to recover the files (if they are even recoverable) off the drive, I must seek professional help. The average cost to retrieve data from a failed hard drive is about $100USD per Gigabyte. I had at least 2Gb of compositions and 20Gb of music on that drive not including other important files I'd need. That's already about $2,200USD I would need to spend to recover what I need.

Back up your scores.

I think you'd rather pay $100USD for another hard drive to create a copy of your files in case a drive fails then to pay 22x that to recover lost data.

Yeah. I would go for an external hard drive for back-ups, though. And your situation really sucks. :(

Oh man, that's one of my worst fears. Sorry for your loss. What'll you do now?

Ouch! Sorry for your loss. :( There HAS to be someplace cheaper to get the recovery done. Don't you have some saved on a composition thread here?

edit: This thread REALLY needs to be stickied...xP

@Al: I'm going to take the drive to a mom and pop computer store back home to see if they can do anything. If that doesn't work I'll just have to move on.

@zippy: Not even a fraction of my completed score are on here.

Let me tell the user base: there's nothing worse than losing your only copy of data. It is in your best interest to keep weekly backups of everything you consider important or your own intellectual property. I cannot stress this enough, as the most important and expensive part of your computer is not the parts, but the files you create.

If you just can't get into the habit of actively keeping backups of your data, I would recommend using an internet syncing services such as:
Dropbox (https://www.dropbox.com/)
Mozy (http://mozy.com/)
SpiderOak (https://spideroak.com)

Each of these provide a limited amount of space on the web to store your data, monitoring a folder and providing on-the-fly backups for your files in certain directories. These services have saved me several times over and I have used them over my college career. In fact, all of the compositions Porsche wrote for a project we're working on are in save thanks to these file syncing services.



I know it sounds like something that won't happen to you, but please back things up. It only takes once to leave you in shambles.

It's good practice to regularly backup anything important.

Even if the chances of something going wrong is less than 1%, it pays to be prepared.

Terribly sorry to hear that. If it's just an issue with booting, maybe you can try booting with a portable opperating system like BartPE to access the files?

The very same thing happened to me not too long ago. I had taken the side off of my desktop to install a new sound card, and within 10 minutes of installing it, someone spilled a beverage on the tower. All of my data was lost, including my earliest works from when i was still in high school. This is a horrible thing I'd never wish on anyone. I backup all of my projects on an 8gb flash drive. I'm so sorry this happened to you. :( Just use it as an excuse to make 20gb more of even better work!

Terribly sorry to hear that. If it's just an issue with booting, maybe you can try booting with a portable opperating system like BartPE to access the files?

I tried accessing it on someone else desktop. It isn't reading the disk. I'm pretty sure the files aren't currupted but its some kind of hardware malfunction. Hard drives are really the only mechanical part in your computer.

I tried accessing it on someone else desktop. It isn't reading the disk. I'm pretty sure the files aren't corrupted but its some kind of hardware malfunction. Hard drives are really the only mechanical part in your computer.

Well, that at least means that it probably CAN be recovered, right? ...if you can afford it, that is.

Sorry man. :\

Oh man that blows :(

I feel your pain though, i had a hdd failure early this year. I didnt back anything anywhere up to. Good thing i have a ver good friend who ran a computer shop at some point and helped me restrore pretty much all of my work.

Seriouly though this is an advice everyone should take before they learn in the hard way.

This is part of the reason why I didn't get a solid state drive in my laptop...the person at the apple store pretty much told me even though they are better, after x amount of cycles, it just shits out on you.

BTW porsche, I just remembered something. The same thing happened to me on my desktop...the drive stopped being read. All I had to do was send it back to HP and they fixed it, and they even backed everything up. (and if I remember correctly, it was only $50) Maybe you could try sending it back to the company and have them fix it? :\

It wasn't a SSD that failed, but a HDD. I built my computer myself, so the warranty on the drive has long since expired. :(

This is part of the reason why I didn't get a solid state drive in my laptop...the person at the apple store pretty much told me even though they are better, after x amount of cycles, it just shits out on you.

Solid State Drives are essentially flash drives; they both have a predetermined death dictated by the number of writes to a location on the disk. The thing about it is that the number of writes to one location is actually 100,000 per chip. When you sit down and do that math to calculate the total bytes per chip, and the average user, this predetermined "death" should not occur within 5-6 years. Most users purchase a new computer before this happens.

Just think about it: Over a standard 100 Mbps LAN connection, your computer can receive approximately 8640000 Gigabits or 108 Gigabytes of data over one days time. Assuming that each chip holds precisely one bit, and given complete activity over 24 hours, we can fill the SSD 1.68 times in a day. Now, we can fill the device 100,000 times until it will croak. This means that we have 59,259.25 days worth of writing activity. This is 162 years. I doubt you'll care about your data for that long. In addition, most drives now have four bits per chip, so we can multiply that number by four.

Now, mind you, there are faster transmission and write systems out there (25 MB/s lasts for only 185 or so days), but the average for a user is actually well below the LAN maximum transfer unit. Considering that 80% of computer usage is now internet related, which is at about 10 Mbps right now; making this figure one magnitude smaller than it should be. So, this estimated timeframe is actually a very early estimated "death".

Once you pull out the numbers and realize these facts, it's not so grim of a thought anymore. I wouldn't trust the salesman at that apple store anymore. At least, not until he pulls out some facts.

In addition, vendors suggests that a SSD to be used more for programs and operating system -- elements that almost never change -- than user files and data. Really, the whole death this does loom over the drive, but at the same time, it doesn't really apply to normal usage.

If you want to read another person's research on SSD and the "death" statement, see here (http://www.storagesearch.com/ssdmyths-endurance.html). That writer does a good job spelling out the minor details.

Wow...I'm sorry...that must suck. I know how that feels...Now I just use a 1TB external! Harbors everything I need it to :D

Hey guys, check this hard drive (http://www.amazon.com/Fireproof-Waterproof-External-Recovery-SL2000GBUSB20/dp/B002USP01Y) out. It's water proof AND fire proof. It's quite pricey, but worth it imo. Don't got to worry about your music when it's apocalypse proof...XD

Wonder if you can throw that at someone without it breaking.

The drive can still fail at any time without warning though. Even if they claim you're covered in case of a failure, I find that it's better to have your stuff backed up on multiple sources, so even if there's only a less than 1% chance your primary drive and a backup drive fails at the same time, you've still got another one.


Edit: From the Amazon page...
Any Loss. Any Reason. No Questions Asked.

The ioSafe Data Recovery Service provides a one time use, no questions asked data and hardware recovery service. For any loss, no matter the reason. Whether you’re a victim of a natural disaster or your child throws your drive in the family swimming pool - we’ve got you covered.

Need a few examples? We’ve got that covered too

- Soda / Juice / Mayple Syrup accident

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v291/ZeroIchigo/awesome.gif

if only it could protect -you- from the apocalypse, so you could enjoy those files you saved..

I find that it's better to have your stuff backed up on multiple sources, so even if there's only a less than 1% chance your primary drive and a backup drive fails at the same time, you've still got another one.

Oh, I agree. My music is on my laptop, desktop and a flash drive. Hell, I even have my music folder on my dad's laptop too! XD Still, this apocalypse proof looks really awesome...if only they made similar casing for a macbook...xP

Guess what happened... again. My new solid state drive died. Luckally this time all my new projects were stored on different redundant drives.

Jeez.

O_O;

Wow. Your computer must REALLY hate you. O_O; That's why I'm too paranoid to have a SSD. Regular hard drives might not be as fast, but they don't shit out on you after x amount of data writes. :eek: