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External hard drive question.

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CX

posted on Jan, 16 2014 @ 01:15 PM
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Hi all....a probably quite basic question for you regarding external hard drives...

I have an old 40gb laptop that i have hardly any space left on, so until i get a new laptop i was thinking of getting an external hard drive.

I have opted for one of the 2tb Seagate ones from our local Maplins here in the UK. I was going to stick most of my photos and videos of my kids, so as to free up my old laptop a bit.

I spoke to Maplins today, asking them if anything went wrong with the external hard drive, is the data recoverable? They said they'd just replace the hard drive, but the data wouldn't be under warranty. They said the idea of an external hard drive was to back your data up, so you had it still on your laptop.

Well thats no good to me as i have no space left on my computer.


What i'm asking is, can i still get the data back off of the drive if it stops working for any reason? Don't particularly want to buy a laptop AND a hard drive, but will if i have to. My daughters are really getting into their music and photography so i'm going to need a bit of space.

Thanks.

CX.



posted on Jan, 16 2014 @ 01:20 PM
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The data will be recoverable on your external hard drive for sure.
All they're saying is that the sale of the drive does not guarantee your data will be safe if the drive screws up, but it will be recoverable, he's just covering the shop as they're only selling the drive, not data security

Even somewhere like PC world can retrieve your data for you.



posted on Jan, 16 2014 @ 01:26 PM
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reply to post by CX
 


If you buy an external hard drive, there is a decent chance that it will contain a tower computer hard drive in it. Okay, so a lot of people (myself included) will buy two external hard drives, and mirror the data from one onto the other.

If that doesn't work for you, there are two options here, one of them (when or if it breaks) is to take out the hard drive inside the mechanism and place it in a tower computer, the other one is to buy a new mechanism (or case) and place the hard drive from the old one into the new one. The case is the thing that plugs into the wall, USB on the computer, or both.



posted on Jan, 16 2014 @ 01:27 PM
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reply to post by CX
 


Sometimes it can and sometimes not, it would have to be taken to a special lab to be recovered. Even then, there is no guarantee.


If you really want to be sure, you could always set up a few HD disks for RAID 5 or more, that's if you want to be really sure that your data is safe. But that would take a good amount of money and time.
edit on 16-1-2014 by kx12x because: (no reason given)



posted on Jan, 16 2014 @ 01:29 PM
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reply to post by CX
 


What i'm asking is, can i still get the data back off of the drive if it stops working for any reason?

Yes you can - the NSA, CIA and FBI will be able to confirm this.

I have asked them to star this post as acknowledgement that my comments are correct.

Standby...........

EDIT: Bloody Hell!! that was quick. You guys are good, very good.
edit on 16-1-2014 by Sublimecraft because: (no reason given)



posted on Jan, 16 2014 @ 01:31 PM
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CX
Hi all....a probably quite basic question for you regarding external hard drives...

I have an old 40gb laptop that i have hardly any space left on, so until i get a new laptop i was thinking of getting an external hard drive.

I have opted for one of the 2tb Seagate ones from our local Maplins here in the UK. I was going to stick most of my photos and videos of my kids, so as to free up my old laptop a bit.

I spoke to Maplins today, asking them if anything went wrong with the external hard drive, is the data recoverable? They said they'd just replace the hard drive, but the data wouldn't be under warranty. They said the idea of an external hard drive was to back your data up, so you had it still on your laptop.

Well thats no good to me as i have no space left on my computer.


What i'm asking is, can i still get the data back off of the drive if it stops working for any reason? Don't particularly want to buy a laptop AND a hard drive, but will if i have to. My daughters are really getting into their music and photography so i'm going to need a bit of space.

Thanks.

CX.


You can recover an external drive just like an internal drive, the programs are available. One thing to remember if push comes to shove, you can remove the external drive from its case and install it into a desktop with the right interface adapter and then really go to town on it. Personally, I would use a cheap desktop for backup storage with internal drives and stick it on a local network. A little more expensive than an external drive, but one helluva lot more flexible.

Cheers - Dave



posted on Jan, 16 2014 @ 01:31 PM
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Think of the external hard drive as a storage unit. When you move stuff out of your home and in to a storage unit to clean up some space in your home, you are simply moving the stuff from one location to another. If the storage unit was to catch fire, your stuff would be lost just like in any fire.

That said, a new external hard drive is going to be more structurally secure than the old, used hard drive that is currently in your laptop. While the odds are in favor of the 40gb laptop hard drive failing before the new 2tb external hdd, there is still the slight chance the external harddrive could fail first.

Having your all data in one single location is always risky. The proper way to "backup" important data is to have it stored in multiple locations and i think this is what they are getting at when they say to have it on the laptop and the external harddrive.

If you want to make sure your data is secure, i would suggest purchasing two separate 1tb external hard drives instead of one single 2tb external hard drive. The 40gb of storage on your laptop is tiny compared to modern harddrives and if you have survived on 40gb for this long i am sure that 1tb will be plenty of space for you to do everything you need without worrying about running out of space.

You can store your pictures, videos, software, downloads, or anything else you want on the 1tb external then set up the second 1tb external as a redundant backup drive. The second drive will simply mirror the first drive so that if one ever fails you have a second copy of all your data. This is how a true backup system works and will ensure your data remains safe.

If you have any questions feel free to U2U me


DC
edit on 1/16/2014 by xDeadcowx because: rogue word!



posted on Jan, 16 2014 @ 01:48 PM
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reply to post by CX
 


Never just assume your data is safe. You can never have too many backups.

Those are two things I try to get my clients to understand. Sadly, some of them don't take it serious enough until their data is gone. Then they cannot get the money out fast enough for a backup solution.

Bet to buy two external drives. Put all the critical data on one, then store it somewhere else. Bank safe deposit box, relative's house, at the office/home, just somewhere other than where your computer is. (heaven forbid your house of business burn down) Use the second drive for your working drive. Just be sure to periodically back up to the stored drive, so your data is current.

(BTW, they sell 32GB memory sticks at WalMart for about 25$.

Treat your data like your life savings. Depending on what's there, it may be just as important.



posted on Jan, 16 2014 @ 01:50 PM
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reply to post by CX
 


Depends on what's wrong with the external HD. Could be a simple driver issue with your system or something going on with the HD itself (ie. bad sectors, etc). That's why I'll tell you that you might be able to get your data back but no guarantees. Just be prepared to let out a loud "oh fudge" (language cleaned up for ATS, lol).



posted on Jan, 16 2014 @ 02:05 PM
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reply to post by CX
 


If you lose the drive you lose everything.

The data could be recoverable. But it might cost you alot of money to get it back.

As some pro's say. You should have 3 copies of any data you really want to keep.

And those copies should be in 3 different formats.

I would suggest using a service like carbonite that backs up to the cloud.



posted on Jan, 16 2014 @ 02:14 PM
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If your only copy is on that drive then what happens lets say it get stolen...no amount of IT skills can magically recover the data from something thats now sat in cash converters

3 copies is the realistic minimum you should have of important stuff...1 on the machine and 2 in some sort of backup preferably well away from the original machine

Theres plenty of cloud backup sites that will give you a few GB of space for free so perhaps dump the lesser important stuff to a few of those



posted on Jan, 16 2014 @ 02:16 PM
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reply to post by CX
 


HI CX my advice is to look into something called NAS (Network Attached Storage). It is a stand alone unit that contains 2 hard drives in raid configuration. This means if one of the drives stops working you do not lose your data as it is 'mirrored' on the other drive. The devices are wireless so you can access the data stored on them from any machine in your house and some of them even let you access your data over the internet if you are away from your home.



Of course they are more expensive than buying a single drive but its worth it if you want to keep pictures safe.


edit on 16-1-2014 by PhoenixOD because: (no reason given)


CX

posted on Jan, 16 2014 @ 02:29 PM
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Thanks for all the replies, much appreciated.

Might go for the two 1TB's. It's only family photos on there, but i can't replace them.

Cheers.

CX.



posted on Jan, 16 2014 @ 02:36 PM
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blupblup
The data will be recoverable on your external hard drive for sure.
All they're saying is that the sale of the drive does not guarantee your data will be safe if the drive screws up, but it will be recoverable, he's just covering the shop as they're only selling the drive, not data security

Even somewhere like PC world can retrieve your data for you.


blupblup, this is the second Computer Help post of yours that I've seen that is TOTALLY WRONG. Not trying to nitpick, but this forum is here to guide those who don't have a thorough knowledge of IT/Computers, not to try to sound smart and just throw guesses out there at people who don't realize you're totally full of it.

First off, the OP's question is grey because data recovery is strongly dependent on the manner in which the data had been lost. For example if I had an external hard drive and dropped it on the ground, destroying the board that allows it to connect to a PC/Mac via a USB or other interface, yes, it'd more than likely be recoverable.

Now on the other hand, if the DRIVE (external hard drives are no different than internal drives, aside from additional circuitry that allows them to connect through a different interface, such as USB/firewire/etc.) dies, you may not be able to recover anything. I personally have done a large amount of data recovery at my work, and it really does vary quite a bit. There have been instances where I was able to recover entire partitions of data, no problem. There has also been other times that drives were found to be completely shot, usually due to electric overload or EM (electromagnetic) interference. Other time, drives just die due to manufacturer defect, poor maintenance (like keeping your drive in a damp, hot room), or just bad luck (lightning strike without surge protection)!

Furthermore, the sheer nature of transferring data TO an external device is somewhat dicey due to the lack of consistency in external interfaces. Data corruption is much more common when transferring files from an internal drive to an external drive.

OP, in short, my advice is this: if you're beginning to use an external drive as your primary storage location (meaning you save directly to it, since you no longer have space on your lappy), then I would recommend getting a second external drive with equal or greater capacity then the one you already have. This way, you can plug them both in on regular intervals and backup your data!

Redundancy is a data-hoarders best friend



posted on Jan, 16 2014 @ 02:36 PM
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You could also back up important data on DVD's and store them in some kind of safe. DVD lasts much longer than any HD. Data can stay on DVD for 100+ years if kept away from sunlight, moisture and heat. And they have to be good quality, not cheap ones.



posted on Jan, 16 2014 @ 02:38 PM
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Lol, and by the time I finished typing this post, 3 other people have responded with the same concept. See that, great minds think alike!



posted on Jan, 16 2014 @ 03:08 PM
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Nothing is 100%. It's more likely you can, but never 100%.

My Q is why buy from Maplins?
Ebuyer is probably a lot cheaper..

Just make sure you buy a external drive that has a good build quality/cooling.
As 90% of the time the drives become faulty due to overheating, and then end up not being detected by any device it is plugged into.

Could always go for a raid unit. 2x1TB in one.



posted on Jan, 16 2014 @ 05:45 PM
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reply to post by CX
 


Depends what happens.
If the physical unit is cactus then you'll need to pay someone to retrieve it.
If the partition gets corrupt or the drive is formatted for what ever reason, software like getbackntfs is ideal. I've recovered many hard drives (although pst files are a bit of hit and miss)

NO harm in buying 2 drives, 1 larger 1 smaller.
Leave the larger one plugged in as your every day kinda drive
Use the 2nd one to make backups of photos. Every month, pull it out, do a fresh backup, then store it in a drawer or folder somewhere.



posted on Jan, 16 2014 @ 07:00 PM
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reply to post by CX
 

Ive got 2 ext drives...one 500g and the other 1T (1,000gb). Every 3-4 months or so, I copy all my stuff over to either one and toss it into the drawer.

Great to have, and you never lose anything (as in "online storage" wait...what????)

Anyway, you control the safekeeping, and can haul it out, put it back or take it to a friends house. A lot of security satisfaction with externals. And yes, you can get the stuff off it (look into SATA patch cords-cheap).

With that you can open it up, look into it using another computer by pluggin into the long pin strip/ribbon, and retrieve lost files like from a crash.

PS Yes, Ive done it. Twice in 10 years.


edit on 09-22-2013 by mysterioustranger because: (no reason given)



posted on Jan, 16 2014 @ 08:53 PM
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I personally use 2 3TB Seagate external hard drives, and trust me OP when I tell you that you are making a good decision in using Seagate. I have tried 4 or 5 brands over the years and I have found Seagate to be the most reliable.




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