In need of a crash course in data recovery & backup...

Wondering if any of you computer savvy peoples could be of assistance this evening.

My problem:

Have a 3tb Seagate external that is seemingly on its way out, despite hardly being used. Will still "beep" as if it's recognized by Windows, but won't fully power up (can feel it spinning, but not all the way?).

What I've tried so far:

I did some quick research the other night and was "suggested" that I take it out of the enclosure and put it directly into the tower because it's quite likely that the power supply for the enclosure has gone bad (apparently this is common on the Seagate ones?). So I did that tonight and the computer wouldn't boot up anymore.

I remembered I had bought a universal HDD enclosure for when our last computer had issues, so I tried it in there as well. Same thing as the original enclosure. Beeps like it's recognized, but doesn't actually power on. Light on the enclosure blinks and it feels like it's spinning but not under full power.

So I start reading about BIOS settings and boot order and what not and figure out that by me just putting it into the case that it's possible the computer isn't reading the boot order correctly anymore.

I set the computer back to how it was when it was working properly. 1 SSD and 2 HDD's. Go into the BIOS settings to make a mental note of the order before altering. (See below)



Then put this additional HDD in and reboot. Go into the BIOS settings and now it only shows 2 drives instead of the original 3, or even the then current 4 that it physically had in it. The SSD (which has Windows on it) is no longer listed (hence why it wouldn't boot up anymore) and the 3tb HDD I just added isn't on the list either.


Anybody got any suggestions? I'm completely out of my element here and am ready to just start checking into data recovery services to hopefully get back what's on our external (which is unfortunately a sh!t load, most of which isn't actually "backed up").

Whether that works or not, I'm also in desperate need of figuring out an actual backup process that is functional and makes sense. Up until this point I've mistakenly just viewed the external as kind of a mass vault where I'd just dump everything I wanted to save indefinitely on there and since we hardly used it I was under the assumption that it'd last longer and there'd be no worries. Fingers crossed I didn't totally screw myself...

Much thanks to anybody offering assistance! This sucks...

 

That sucks, I've been there before. What type of interface does the drive use, IDE or SATA? I have a connector that will allow an IDE drive to be hooked up to a USB port for power and to transfer files that has saved me a number of times if you want to give that a shot?

You probably don't want to hear this right now, but anything important should be backed up using the 3-2-1 strategy.

Kroll OnTrack in Eden Prairie does data recovery. Back when I used to work for them they were considered one of the best in the business. You could try contacting them for a quote.

 

Nevermind, I just re-read you tried a universal enclosure already... The thing I mentioned is basically the same thing. Sorry. I've never had good luck with externals. Too much moving with something spinning 5k+ rpm.

 

Try giving Doug Swinhart a call. He is co-host of WCCO AM 830's Tech Talk radio show. Seems to really know his stuff and I'm sure will be less expensive then Kroll Ontrack. 651-five-five-two-9543 That is his number not the show's call-in line. I think you can also reach him at wccotech.com

 

"Unfortunately", everything in this one is SATA based so the IDE route won't work.

Also, in my research last night I found that some places can essentially rebuild a drive using sourced parts from a known working one, as long as it's the same model and revision (if applicable). Coincidentally the 3tb hard drive that I got from a friend for free (that's in the tower but isn't really being used currently) is the exact same make/model/revision as the one that's dying. They're actually made 9 months apart from each other back in 2013. So that may or not matter at all in this situation but it's good to know if it comes to that. I took the currently working one out of the tower last night just in case.

I guess the most frustrating part about this for me (other than my ignorance in not backing things up properly) is the fact that this thing failed/is failing with such little use. It really basically just sits there and we only hook it up when we need to put something on it. I've noticed a couple times recently where it seemed a little slow to connect, but guess I didn't think anything of it at the time.

Think I'm gonna get a good WD Black to replace these two Seagates and then check into a proper cloud backup option.

 

I don't recall the manufacturer dates, but there was some serious hooplah about certain Seagate 3TB drives being massively unreliable. Class-action lawsuit unreliable.
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/3tb-hard-drive-failure/

As for recovering data from a failed/failing drive, you can try the old freezer trick, but it's a longshot. If it's not spinning normally or mounting, it's probably hosed as far as home-based tricks go.

Your computer obviously isn't reading the boot order properly. SATA is hot-swappable, though, so you could leave the case open, boot, and CAREFULLY try connecting the failing drive to an open header. If you have multiple sets of SATA headers on your MOBO, they may mean different things as far as boot goes. If that's the case, check your manual. But if it's not reading in another known-good enclosure, it's probably not going to mount this way either.

Otherwise, it's Kroll Ontrack as mentioned. They are not cheap.

For cloud backups, I've been using Backblaze for several years. I have fortunately not needed them in a catastrophic failure situation, but I have tested restoring a few files/directories and it works great.

 

Thanks!

Just curious, is this gonna end up in one of those weird "how did you get this number" calls?

 

No. He gives out his phone number on the air all the time to have people call him when their problem is more complicated than can be addressed with a simple on-air answer. I suspect you might have to leave a message and he will get back to you. I think you can also send an email through the web site too. I think he works out of his home rather than having a store front.

 

WD has always been my go to as well for physical drives.

 

Same. I put a WD Red in my file/backup server I built at home.

@Krazylegz1485, if you're looking for a storage/cloud backup solution, my 'server' is just a super low power (the whole unit pulls maybe 10 watts at load) fanless brick PC that hosts file shares. It has Backblaze running on it backing up that shared directory to the cloud. It's mostly baby photos, lol.

It's a fairly elegant solution as it satisfies my desire for both network shares and cloud backups but doesn't consume as much as leaving a more powerful machine powered on all the time.

The WD Red series, though designed for storage arrays, was still a good choice for this application due to its always-on durability.

 

WD Red is the way to go. 5,400 RPM drives are historically more reliable as they are under less stress because they spin slower and generate less heat. But nowadays the 7,200s are just as good and a titch faster.

For what its worth, I have 2 8TB 5,400 WD Reds in my NAS build. If I was going to do it again, I'd get the 7,200.

If I was looking for an external, SSD is the only thing I would consider.

 

3TB was a dark era for consumer SATA drives. Everyone's drives sucked. I stopped keeping 3TB spares on hand as soon as 4TB drives became available.

I have 10 3TB Seagate *SAS* drives in my network storage at home, and they're great and have lasted a very long time (I got them after they were retired from a data center), but enterprise drives are a whole different deal.

 

Thanks for the suggestions everybody. I'm not even remotely attached to the 3tb specifically. The only reason I ended up with two of them is we bought the external thinking it'd be more than plenty for several years and we'd never have to get another, at least not for a while. The second one was free from a friend, so I figured why not.

 

Also, anybody ever heard of or used DataCorps?

 

Krazylegz, short of seeing the behavior in person, I don't have any suggestions. I would have started where you did by directly connecting to the SATA port on your motherboard.

A little insight for you all... While there are some outlier models, Seagate and WDC have very similar reliability.

...and don't look at the RPM as a sign of reliability. Generically speaking, the 5400RPM drives are lower on the totem pole. They 'waterfall' drives (similar to speed binning processors). The external USB drives are the bottom of the totem pole, with OEM drives at the top. If you can find a 'OEM whitebox' drive, you will get the best available to consumers. (I don't mean the WDC White Label drives)

Drives fail, period. If you had any idea of the technology in them, you wouldn't be surprised. My old drive technology training book has an image...a 747 flying 1/32" of an inch off the ground, at over 1 million mph! That was the equivalent of the drive head flying over the media in a drive 20 years ago. Wait until you see the new HAMR drives. They use a laser to heat the media and then write to it...allows for higher data density. We should be approaching 50TB drives in a few years.

...anyway lesson off, and backup your data.

 

This.

That.

 

Why do I rarely see mention of external SSDs for back-up use?

 

Probably due to the cost/capacity ratio, but they are a good idea.

 

I agree that it is likely cost... Note that SSDs do have their own set of issues, they are not infallible either.

 

Well, here's an update on this situation. Took my sweet ass time getting around to getting this thing figured out, but dropping a bunch of money just wasn't something to get excited about.

Anywho, ended up going with OnTrack. They managed to recover 85% of the hard drive, which ended up being roughly 750 gb. So, obviously lost some stuff but also ended up recovering quite a bit. Charged us a "flat rate" of $800 for the recovery and gave us a 1TB WD My Passport for free to get our stuff back.

So, long story short, all is well (or as well as it could be in this scenario, I guess) and an expensive lesson was learned. Now onto checking into backup options and hopefully getting something figured out here in the very near future.

Thanks again to anybody/everybody for the tips/suggestions.

 

Glad you were able to get most of your information and porn back!