[JMaruru]

Originally Posted by girishv

Can you please run the following two commands by opening a terminal

sudo apt update
sudo apt install testdisk

If it throws some error, please let me know

The update command throwing errors like 'Temporary failure resolving archive.ubuntu.com' and 'Temporary failure resolving security.ubuntu.com'

[girishv]

Originally Posted by JMaruru

The update command throwing errors like 'Temporary failure resolving archive.ubuntu.com' and 'Temporary failure resolving security.ubuntu.com'

Let's take it up offline.
Will let you know through PM

[CeeBeeR]

Hi All,
I was going through the 'How do you Organize/Transfer/Backup your digital photo collection?' thread when I realised, with a feeling of impending doom, that all my photos and other personal data is stored only in an external HDD. Some photos are stored in cloud solutions, but that's a small percentage.
I immediately, placed an order for a new SSD and also increased my cloud storage capacity to follow some of Thad's suggestions in that thread. I then connected my existing HDD to my laptop just to backup some important data and that's when my some of my worst nightmares were coming true.
The external HDD is detected(both in my Mac and Windows laptop), however, the read and write operations are agonisingly slow. Sometimes even opening a file in that drive is taking about 30 mins. Copying of 5 MB took 15 mins. I'm not sure what happened, whether there is a virus issue or whether the HDD took a tumble on the floor.
I've tried antivirus scans and defragmentations but both of them failed to execute on the windows machine.
I really can't afford to lose my data and would love to hear the available options that I can pursue in this situation?

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by CeeBeeR

I've tried antivirus scans and defragmentations but both of them failed to execute on the windows machine.

I'm glad they failed to execute.

The first rule of dying disk or file-system situations is do nothing that writes to the disk. Absolutely only try to read from it.

They only exception to this is if you decide to commit to recovery software, which must write to repair errors in your file system.

Worst case, you have a hardware problem, which may limit your recovery attempts by the disk grinding to a halt. Commercial recovery may very well be able to cope with that.

Yes, I've been through recovering file systems recently, but I'm very much and EX-professional bumbling my way through. I'd rather leave advice to members better informed and up to date.

Commercial recovery? I looked for that once, and the quote was huge. That was the day my current stricter backup regime was born! I think I lost about 3 months data: thankfully not all on that disk. It was not worth the money they wanted.

[CeeBeeR]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

I'm glad they failed to execute.

The first rule of dying disk or file-system situations is do nothing that writes to the disk. Absolutely only try to read from it.
............
Commercial recovery? I looked for that once, and the quote was huge. That was the day my current stricter backup regime was born! I think I lost about 3 months data: thankfully not all on that disk. It was not worth the money they wanted.

Thank you for your inputs! In this case I'll try mounting it on read only mode and see if I can salvage some data by copying it into my laptop.

If that doesn't work, I guess I'll have to part ways with a significant amount of money for a commercial recovery. I found out yesterday that I took a backup of some of the important data from the HDD, so I'm hoping the commercial recovery cost is reduced based on the amount of data I actually want to recover rather than the entire HDD.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by CeeBeeR

... so I'm hoping the commercial recovery cost is reduced based on the amount of data I actually want to recover rather than the entire HDD.

I doubt it. I don't know the process, but how would they separate what you want from what you don't need without recovering it all!

[CeeBeeR]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

I doubt it. I don't know the process, but how would they separate what you want from what you don't need without recovering it all!

The person taking my enquiry call at one of the data recovery services said they'll ask me which folders I'd like to recover and the cost would be estimated based on those efforts and the nature of damage.
It didn't make too much technical to me though. I'm not sure how they can identify the folders to restore by looking at the read/write heads. The drive is still accessible through the UI, but their restoration process will definitely not be through a copy/paste and would rather involve accessing the drive heads.


My job would be so much easier if I can even delete some of the folders before I reach out to the commercial recovery service, but I'm afraid even deletion would impact the drive since that's also a write operation in a sense.

[ph03n!x]

Originally Posted by CeeBeeR

...
I really can't afford to lose my data and would love to hear the available options that I can pursue in this situation?

Like others have said, do not write anything to the failing drive.

If it's a 2.5" external HDD that uses SATA data and power connectors, see if you can take it out of the enclosure and connect it to a desktop - the data and power connectors are the same for both 2.5" and 3.5", just that the 2.5" drives ignore the 12v (uses only 5v) while 3.5" drives uses both. This way, you're eliminating any issues the connectors/ small circuitary in the external case to be the problem.

Copy as much as an possible - a command-prompt based copy command is better, Windows Explorer does stuff like reading all the content, create thumbnails, etc., that's not required or conducive to your situation.

Rule of thumb - have a 3.5" internal HDD in a desktop which all critical data, and keep buying a new HDD to replicate this archive every 2 years. Leave the older copy of your archive disconnected (but still in the desktop) so that they don't move around or face undue shocks.

This is in addition to cloud and external HDD/ SSD backups - I have a new 4TB that's connected and running, another 4TB that's not connected but has the same data, yet another 4 TB in my cupboard

Finally, data recovery is a lucrative business - be prepared to pay a bomb if all else fails.

[Amrik Singh]

My 4TB Hard Drive slipped off my hand and fell down on the floor really hard. I can hear some clicking noise from the drive which otherwise is not accessible on my Laptop. Indication light does appear 'ON'. I think I will have to go to Data Recovery and would have to pay off my nose to any demand. The total data would be around 500 GB only but is precious to me as this is the only part I could gather after losing my Hard drive to Car break-in in San Francisco last year.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by ph03n!x

Like others have said, do not write anything to the failing drive. ... ... ... Copy as much as an possible - a command-prompt based copy command is better, Windows Explorer does stuff like reading all the content, create thumbnails, etc., that's not required or conducive to your situation.

Excellent advice. That's the sort of thing that marks out the really good techies from the rest if us!

Even I would likely be using a graphic file explorer for generally looking around a device. Mind you, I think I'm right in saying that my Linux system does not write thumbnails etc to the viewed directory: it has central thumbnails files in the home directory. But still, I hadn't thought of it!

This is in addition to cloud and external HDD/ SSD backups - I have a new 4TB that's connected and running, another 4TB that's not connected but has the same data, yet another 4 TB in my cupboard

As per the organise/backup-photos thread, I always want two external backups, one off-site.

Finally, data recovery is a lucrative business - be prepared to pay a bomb if all else fails.

I think the company I went to was called Stellar. They do free diagnosis. I had already had dead read head diagnosed by another company, and they agreed. if I remember rightly it was something like 40k to have the disk recovered, and this was 10-15 years ago. It might even have been more!

I don't dispute that this is not an easy job. They cannot use the disk's own heads and circuitry to read the disk. The equipment, staff and clean-room conditions themselves are not going to be cheap. None the less, I'm sure the pricing has corporates who have to recover data in mind.

[ph03n!x]

Originally Posted by Amrik Singh

...
I can hear some clicking noise from the drive which otherwise is not accessible on my Laptop.
...

That is physical damage to the mechanical part of the drive! Take it to data recovery if you have sensitive data in it, it's going to be an expensive affair!

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

...
I think the company I went to was called Stellar. They do free diagnosis. I had already had dead read head diagnosed by another company, and they agreed. if I remember rightly it was something like 40k to have the disk recovered, and this was 10-15 years ago. It might even have been more!

I don't dispute that this is not an easy job. They cannot use the disk's own heads and circuitry to read the disk. The equipment, staff and clean-room conditions themselves are not going to be cheap. None the less, I'm sure the pricing has corporates who have to recover data in mind.

The "damage" could be in the mechanical components (motor, heads, platter), in the electrical circuit in the drive, or could be a software corruption - in order of ease of recovery.

If it's a software corruption (eg. Virus messing with file allocation table or equivalent, depending on the file system), it's easy to recover. If it's a ransomware that's encrypted the drive ("locked"), it's still not too difficult - you'll of course still spend a bomb in either reversing the encryption or paying the random - but data is intact, just not accessible.

If it's an issue with the electrical circuit, there was ways to fix it - easiest being finding a hard disk from a similar batch and swapping the circuit board (this is why I invariably buy two HDD of the same type/ model wherever I have to buy one!).

The most difficult part is mechanical damage - head or spindle motor failure, head crashing on the platter, etc. This requires specialized equipment, clean-room, etc., And will be the most expensive recovery.

But, invariably, most recovery services quote by quantum on data recovered, irrespective of the kind of damage

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by ph03n!x

The most difficult part is mechanical damage - head or spindle motor failure, head crashing on the platter, etc. ... ... ... But, invariably, most recovery services quote by quantum on data recovered, irrespective of the kind of damage

Nice information! I seam to remember that I took that disk to bits (I often do, with old, dead disks. Partly for fun and partly because I'd rather not throw them away intact) and found an actual broken head. I don't think there was any visible platter damager, though.

[R2D2]

To repeat what I said, please backup your data electromechanical and electronic drives will fail some day when you least expect it. Treat these devies as having a life of 3 to 5 years. Then consider buying replacements.

I have faced too many disk and even a SSD failure and I don't trust them. What I'd suggest is a backup of your most valuable data to a home NAS, external drive and if possible cloud. Invest in backups and backup devices so you aren't worried.

Originally Posted by R2D2

Data recovery is very expensive and unless you really deem the data to be very important I would suggest just buying a new drive and backing up from start.

At the cost of repetitition - ALL drives fail at some point. A 4-5 year old Corsair SSD in one of my home desktops failed last week and was replaced. The PC was up and running within 15 minutes thanks to Macrium Reflect a backup and imaging software I swear by.

Always backup your data preferably to multiple repositories (USB drive, internal drive, NAS) and even the cloud for disaster recovery.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by R2D2

What I'd suggest is a backup of your most valuable data to a home NAS, external drive and if possible cloud. Invest in backups and backup devices so you aren't worried.

"home NAS, external drive"

... if they are in your home, they are not a backup. They are just another copy, because they are at equal risk of being wiped out or lost by the same event that affects your interior data. Yes, they protect against the independent failure of a single hdd/ssd, but that is only one of the many serious risks. I think the technical terminology/jargon is that they provide increased availability, but not increased security.

[R2D2]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

... if they are in your home, they are not a backup. They are just another copy, because they are at equal risk of being wiped out or lost by the same event that affects your interior data. Yes, they protect against the independent failure of a single hdd/ssd, but that is only one of the many serious risks. I think the technical terminology/jargon is that they provide increased availability, but not increased security.

That's right, hence cloud backups on multiple encrypted cloud platforms. I used to store a backup on hard disk(s) offsite at a relative's place but then I don't get to update the data every now and then. Cloud is a good solution..albeit with its own set of caveats and drawbacks.