Ahhhh, my external hard drive crashed this weekend!!! I have been beside myself since it happened. I am such a fool for storing my life on a little black box!!! I knew the risk and yet I took it. Why didn't I have a better back-up? Why didn't I use the external hard disk as a back-up and not a second hard drive to save space on my computer? Why was I so cheap not to have put my data on the Microsoft Private Cloud? Ahhhh! My pictures, all of my pictures... 2 yrs of my toddlers life in pictures & movies, my books... 100's of ideas and rough drafts, my documents... years of graphing my bills, my genealogy... years of research, ahhhh! I'm not a complete idiot, my completed books have a back-up and I luckily monthly post pictures of my daughter on Picasa, but still, so much was on that external hard drive. I could careless about the music or films, they're easily replaceable, it's the personal/sentimental things that I am flipping out about. When it stopped connecting to the computer I worried, I messed around with it for a while (it's copped out on me before, that's when the back-up's took place) but eventually had to go to bed. It took forever to fall asleep, my head swarming with things that I could probably lose. The next morning (a weekend morning) I awoke at 6:00AM, I couldn't sleep, I had to see if the drive started working again. Like before I let it rest one night, turned it on its side, and voila, it worked. But this time, nothing. I let it be until my husband awoke, he said he'd take a look at it when he had time. It was so hard not to touch it, but I didn't want to jinx myself. Unfortunately, he couldn't get it working either. 
Being the weekend I couldn't get through to the manufacturer, Western Digital. So I tried to patiently wait, every time I turned around I needed something from the external hard drive, ahhhh! This morning I finally got through to WD, I wanted to follow the proper chain of commands not wanting to break my warranty, so that I get my data back and it not cost me a fortune. At first it looked like I was going to have to mail the hard drive to a company in north Netherlands, Attingo, they're a data recovery company that is partnered with Western Digital. But once I had WD on the phone they said I could just go to Media Markt; I stupidly got my hopes up. I rushed to Media Markt, I was basically there when the doors opened. But they were afraid to help me, they said if they opened the hard drive it would break my warranty and they were only authorized to trade it for a new one, not to retrieve the data. My heart sank. I explained that WD had told me Media Markt would open it and access the internal hard drive, but I didn't dare break chain of commands. When I arrived home I called WD back, explained what happened, and he again confirmed any specialist could look at it.
For my own reassurance I called Attingo, he basically told me because my external hard drive is encrypted there is no way Media Markt can help me. Plus the clicking sound it's making means something is broken inside. I never dropped it, I've never even knocked it over, but apparently I was using the hell out of it and that too can cause problems. Attingo said I can send it to them for analysis, starting costs €238, ouch!!! He said depending on what is wrong with the hard drive the costs can sky rocket to €1500 or more, ahhhh! The information on the external drive is dear to me, but that kind of money is no joke. WD said they'd replace my hard drive, if I follow the chain of commands, but there is basically no chance of reimbursement for data recovery. I am beating myself up, why did I wait until it was too late? Nowadays everything is digital, which I love, but in this circumstance I'm hating it. Simplifying my life, getting rid of paper documents and printed photos, saving space at home, all of it for what, now so much is gone. Boo-hoo! I have to keep my head up though, there is still a slim chance I get the data back, and there are many people in the world with bigger problems, I just have to put it into perspective.
Being the weekend I couldn't get through to the manufacturer, Western Digital. So I tried to patiently wait, every time I turned around I needed something from the external hard drive, ahhhh! This morning I finally got through to WD, I wanted to follow the proper chain of commands not wanting to break my warranty, so that I get my data back and it not cost me a fortune. At first it looked like I was going to have to mail the hard drive to a company in north Netherlands, Attingo, they're a data recovery company that is partnered with Western Digital. But once I had WD on the phone they said I could just go to Media Markt; I stupidly got my hopes up. I rushed to Media Markt, I was basically there when the doors opened. But they were afraid to help me, they said if they opened the hard drive it would break my warranty and they were only authorized to trade it for a new one, not to retrieve the data. My heart sank. I explained that WD had told me Media Markt would open it and access the internal hard drive, but I didn't dare break chain of commands. When I arrived home I called WD back, explained what happened, and he again confirmed any specialist could look at it.
For my own reassurance I called Attingo, he basically told me because my external hard drive is encrypted there is no way Media Markt can help me. Plus the clicking sound it's making means something is broken inside. I never dropped it, I've never even knocked it over, but apparently I was using the hell out of it and that too can cause problems. Attingo said I can send it to them for analysis, starting costs €238, ouch!!! He said depending on what is wrong with the hard drive the costs can sky rocket to €1500 or more, ahhhh! The information on the external drive is dear to me, but that kind of money is no joke. WD said they'd replace my hard drive, if I follow the chain of commands, but there is basically no chance of reimbursement for data recovery. I am beating myself up, why did I wait until it was too late? Nowadays everything is digital, which I love, but in this circumstance I'm hating it. Simplifying my life, getting rid of paper documents and printed photos, saving space at home, all of it for what, now so much is gone. Boo-hoo! I have to keep my head up though, there is still a slim chance I get the data back, and there are many people in the world with bigger problems, I just have to put it into perspective.
You should always have a back up of those files (whether those are photos, videos, powerpoint presentation etc.). And to be doubly safe, I back up my files online too - I used to backup files in Dropbox. Have you ever heard of it?
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to hear that. I understand how that feels. I once lost 8 GB worth of files just because I felt confident that I didn't need to create a backup. Now I'm paranoid. I keep at least two copies of every important file that I have – one in my external hard drive, and another in cloud storage.
ReplyDeleteCordia Remsen @ RBSMN.com