Hard Drives Are Not Forever - Comments Page 1

Too many hard drives have gone to dust. So all my files go directly to external drives and/or flash drives. My next step is a t-byte external drive.

So far - none of my externals have failed.

steve

An important point for sure. And the problem is only going to get worse as SSDs gain popularity since NAND memory can handle far less read/write cycles than traditional drives. Fortunately some SSD manufacturers are implementing an "auto write disable" feature that sends drives into read-only mode when a certain percentage of blocks go kaput. More info on solid-state memory can be found on my blog: http://www.flashdrivepros.com/blog

The information was priceless. I am backing up my computer!!!! Thanks

Hi Bob,

I was once told that there are two types of hard disk drive:

1) hard disks that have failed and no longer work.
2) hard disks that will fail at some point in the future.

I've found (sometimes the hard way!) that it's true, so now I never have just one copy of an important file, whether it's a letter, a spreadsheet or a picture.

Chris

I put and additional hard drive in my computer (drive:D)and put all my files on that drive. The oporating system is on drive:C only.

My external hard drive crashed one day without notice, and so fearful was I that I now store a copy of my local files in "the cloud" in one of three places (depending on the category of the file): google dogs, box.net or dropbox. I recently read about Dropbox here, and it's become invaluable to me - esp when I work between my laptop to my desktop all day long.
I never use backup software, cuz I always find that when I upgrade my computer, the old backup software is invariably not compatible with my new system. And that's a drag!

Nothing is worse, when you start hearing a click, click, clicking sound or a whirling sound or a high pitch noise, when you start up your PC. For those of us, who build our own computers, we know what is about to happen. A dying hard drive!!!

Another thing that can happen, is a major power surge, that can 'kill' all hard drives & everything else. I use, Power Surge Protectors, with at least 2500 Joules, preferable more. Believe me, it has saved several of my computers, in the past. I even 'plug' a Power Surge Protector, into another Power Surge Protector. Now, that may seem like 'over kill' but, I know that it has worked for me & only has cost me about $40 for the initial investment., 10 years or so, ago. }:O)

Bob, I love ALL of your suggestions. I personally think, that having an external hard drive is the best. But, when a hard drive fails or dies, you MUST have a CD or DVD of your Operating System or a Recovery Disk from the company that built your PC/Laptop or Flash Boot Drive or using your back-up method will not work.

Most people don't think of 'backing up' the Operating System disks. One of the biggest problems, when trying to 'recover' from a dead hard drive, not having the Operating System disks available. Many computer companies, like Dell or HP, so on & so forth use what they call the Recovery Partition of the hard drive. When a hard drive dies, you are out of luck!!! Now, these companies will help you, but, it will cost you.

To avoid this problem, when you first get your PC or even now, while everything is fine, BACK-UP this Recovery Partition to a CD or DVD or large Flash Drive!!! Then, you will have the disc/flash drive needed, to put the Operating System, on a brand new hard drive.

Remember, these Recovery Partition or Disks are unique to each manufacturer's PC or Laptop. They will have 'special criteria' for that particular PC/Laptop, it should include the Operating System, all of the drivers & software that the Original Manufacturer put on the PC/Laptop when it was manufactured.

I suggest to the guy who wrote in with the question that he buy an internal drive that fits his computer and clone his drive over to the new. He can use easy windows transfer if that is what his os is. Or use clonezilla and copy it sector by sector to the new "Bigger" internal hard drive.

Hi Bob,
I have just purchased a "Clickfree" C6 500GB backup drive that backs up all my computer including Operating System.
What is your view of these drives?
They are very simple to use just plug to usb port and it does all. After the first backup it only backs up any changes to your computer and is really fast.
Yours.
Tom

Dear Bob,
This would be a good time for an article on the advantages of just backing up files verses making a full system image of the computer. And, which is better for creating the full system image? The system image on Windows 7 or using, say,the Acronis system that you seem to like so well?? This is an important topic, and we all need your advice. And, thanks much for all of your articles.
Nezzar

@ Gary you still need to have extra backup your drive D is not backed up in case of failure

Windows 7 has excellent backup and recovery software and should be covered in one of your articles. I think you missed out on the other half of backing up and that is how to recover data or an entire disk image. There are lots of recovery options and a user should try some of them when there is no pressure or anxiety. It makes a big difference to know that you understand the options to backup and recovery.

Since having a hard drive fail on me and losing a certain percentage of my files that had not yet been backed up, I have become a real belt and braces type of person! So I have Windows Backup backup my data on a regular basis. But I also keep a synchronised copy of all my CURRENT personal data files, including my Bookmarks and my Windows Live Mail store folder (which I move to My Documents, one one of my two portable external drives and synch them on a daily basis. The other I keep at my daughter's (in case of fire) and I swap them over every time I visit.

Hi Bob, thank u for the advice and hints. I use DVD's to back up my pics and to store important files along with CD-RW disc. I have put my personnel info on on a card which I carry with me at all times in the even of fire, theft etc. I also use free online auto backup. Picasa 3 from Google. My Facebook page, and my Google Blog site. I have created several gmail accounts some of which I use to send documents to and even attachments with pics and sound files, music. I had a really good instructor in college who taught us not to depend on any one storage device and to save, save, save. Usually once a year I back up all of my important files and .exe load files. Then I reinstall my operating program and reload everything. BUT, there is a problem now with the microsoft OS. Once they stop supporting a given windows version there is no longer any support to get the updates, some of which are required to load other programs like SP-1 and SP-2. Microsoft found a way to force consumers to purchase new computers and programs by discontinuing OS support and making the new OS larger so that it requires a larger hard drive and memory. I like the OpenOffice.org program. It is compatible with my older programs like WordPerfect 7 which I have many documents saved in that format. I can't wait for Linux to be able to make that program compatible with microsoft based programs. Much more reliable program and seldom crashes or freezes like Windows.

I have both an external hard drive connected to my computer via USB, as well as Carbonite as my off site online back up due to the amount of files I have. If you have 25 gb or less of storage needed, I would highly recommend Microsoft's FREE SkyDrive online storage.

Lots of good ideas here, but I'd like to add that MS Sky Drive offers 25 GB of free online storage. It's easy to use and MS should be a reliable provider for at least a few more years.
I have an NAS box with two 1 TB drives I use to make images and backups, and I've subscribed to Acronis online backup which syncs weekly.
I've upped my Google Docs storage to 20 GB for only $5.00/year, and this additional storage applies to my Picasa Web Gallery account as well.
If you don't have two copies of your data, it's at risk.

I must be really lucky. The drive that was in my RiscPC when I bought it in 1991 is still working, in fact I'm getting more concerned about the Jaz-drive I bought to back it up. It is worrying though. The machine's completely incompatible with PC and Apple OSs and it contains every piece of music I've worked on in the last 20 years. I just pray that the HD and the Jaz don't go down together.

A well-timed posting and some excellent followup suggestions above. I'm in the throes of such a hard drive failure right at this very moment from a Dell I bought in 1999! I have Maxtor's Black Armor with plenty of gbs available and a nightly backup programmed. I hate the thought of buying a new machine, but all good things must come to an end...or so I'm told.

I have recently switched from DVD backups to using cheap external hard drives. I've copied all my old backups from DVD to the new drives - or at least I've tried. Turns out that a lot of my backup sets are unreadable or full of CRC errors... these errors weren't evident when I made the backups - I checked the disks. All very frustrating.

I'm still leery of the 'cloud' to store backups of anything important. What happen if you need THAT DATA RIGHT NOW and they've got the hic-ups.

For backups, a second internal HD or an external HD is a darned good bet. I use both, JIC.

"I'd rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it"