EHD disaster report...

Nada...no data left...6 years of photos gone...thousands of digital graphics gone...and who knows what else...gone...irrecoverable.

The hard drive doctor said:

We are sorry to inform you that your hard drive data is not recoverable. After careful analysis, our clean room engineers reported that they were unable to get a sufficiently clean data stream from the drive to recover any of the drive data because the drive had a combination of physical surface head crashes and significant misalignment of the read/write heads that irreparably corrupted the data surfaces.

Crap.

In the meantime, here's what I am doing to try to recover my peace and sanity:

1. Purchase a new domain name, catriona-macgregor.com, with a web host that will give me 1,500GB of file space on their servers. [Yes - that's 1 1/2 TERAbytes! Woo hoo!] And all for $6.95 per month if I choose a 2 year subscription...no brainer there! Check it out!
   
2. Redesign my existing design portfolio website and upload it to the new site.
3. Develop folders on the site where I will be storing my backup files. (might as well start out somewhat organized!)
4. Send out an e-mail to my friends and family to try to gather photos from shared events. We frequently would make disks to share so at least I'll get some things back so I can scrap them!
5. Go through my saved e-mails for digiscrap purchases and make a list so I can contact the store owners and see if they will be so kind as to let me download them again. I know some kits have been permanently retired but maybe they have a backup...LOL!
6. Resurrect my first two months of Project 365 by copying the [very reduced] images from my blog. Thank goodness I posted them weekly!
7. Develop a weekly schedule for backing up all other internal and external drives.
8. Retrieve my poor dead EHD from the 'morgue' and send it in for a replacement while it's still under warranty.
   

Please, BACK UP YOUR FILES! NOW!

It WILL happen to you...and without warning.

A note about emerging data storage technology...
Solid state drives (SSDs) have been around for a long time but with limited storage capacity and slower speeds than traditional hard drives. However, what IS new is that they are being re-engineered to jump into the laptop and external drive market because...they do not crash! No moving parts! Huzzah!

• StorageSearch.com has a whole bunch of information on their site - go check it out.
• Another company developing SSDs is Crucial. They are making drives that are pretty small...32gb is NOT enough for any digi scrapper's storage needs!

I went to Fry's today, to investigate, but they do not have any SSDs in yet...they're too new! There are two on their website but they're way expensive and Remember, as demand increases, the price will go down and the capacity and speed will go up.

Disaster can strike anyone - anytime...

The dreaded external hard drive (EHD) crash has hit without warning. Of course, I didn't have a backup. Of course, it's the one with my photos (for the past 6 years!) on it. Of course, it's also the one with my digiscrapping purchases and freebie downloads on it...over 10,000 files...nicely categorized by artist. Over 200 gb of my life...clicking away and 'drive not recognized'. Crap.

The only wee light at the end of the tunnel is that it happened while I was transferring my own digi designs and kits in process to a new EHD and I got almost all of them. ;-)

So here's the story of my journey to EHD recovery...

1. Reboot laptop...maybe it's just overworked...no luck.
2. Take to work and see if it works on my laptop there...no luck.
3. Give to geek friend to have it evaluated (without opening the case)...no luck.
4. Check warranty...still covered but they don't get your files back - just new hardware.
5. Take to local professional shop to try recovery software (without opening the case)...no luck. $90. They recommend taking it to a local recovery pro shop with a cleanroom who will open it up and try to save the data.
6. Call pros and make appt for next week. $100. Recovery not guaranteed but if they can, it may cost over $1000. Ouch.
7. Buy new 500gb EHD for recovered files...positive thinking. $179.
8. Start researching online storage options for backups. I have a web site with lots of space on it...I never thought to backup my files there until a design buddy mentioned it! Doh!
9. Back up all other internal and external drives...immediately.

Are my files worth it...yes. Are my fingers and toes crossed...yes.
Stay tuned...and learn from my misfortune: BACK UP YOUR FILES! NOW!