all my stuff hates me...

[Kev Williams]

Last night I shut down my big C02 laser after giving it a basic workout yesterday...
... this morning it only half powers up, got power but the firmware won't load; display screen just shows 2 very dim rows of black LCD squares...

And not 1/2 hour later, my 'main' computer starts hanging, and task manager wouldn't shut down my Corel OR my Foxit PDF reader programs.
...A reboot had to force those programs to shut down...

Once the computer rebooted, I noticed nearly all of my mapped network drives had dreaded red X's in front... No access to any of them...

This is bad. All of the network drives point to the same place:
-- my 1tb Sandisk Extreme portable SSD drive. Specifically, every PDF, Excel, Word, Corel and Gravograph job and other files, for all customers, are saved on this drive...
... and now it shows up on the computer exactly as an unloaded Floppy, CD or DVD drive, "No Media" ...
It's listed here in the 'DiskPart' command prompt as Volume 4:
no media.jpg

I have a 2tb drive connected to my router that HAD an automatic backup program built in, used to save all my work files daily, automatically. About the beginning of this year the backup program just quit working, and at that time I just copied all my job files manually to it. They're still there thankfully, but pretty much every job I've saved in the last 10 months has vanished because I haven't backed up since.

This drive is/was less than 2 years old, and wasn't even 1/2 full yet.

Just wondering if anyone's had an SS drive do this? I'm aware that in might simply be a bad cable, lord knows almost every computer cable I've ever had has gone bad. Problem is I can't self diagnose because the cable that connects to the drive, while appearing to be a typical USB type C, isn't- the end that plugs into the drive is typical, goes in either way, but the other end has tiny notches that fit into a Type-A to Type-C adapter that came with it, and the adapter side only fits one way. When I plug it in (to any computer) the computer recognizes it, but only shows up in the "Storage/Disk Management" console, but nowhere else-
(Disk 3 here)
no media2.jpg
-But when I plug a 'basic' USB/type C cable from the computer directly into the drive, nothing happens. Needs the cable that came with it...

I'm assuming Geek Squad at Best Buy can check this out for me? In a perfect world the cable will be the problem. Next to a perfect world would be to at least recover my files...
...But I'm not holding my breath...



I currently have orders to build over 100 ski lift operator panels by March, with likely that many more coming... I make these op panels from scratch. Most of the panels ordered I've built before and the are on this disk. Each panel I have to rebuild the machining and engraving files for is about an hour's worth of work. Oy...

I'm going to assume I'm SOL, but I'm wondering if anyone has had any luck having a bad SS drive fixed or files recovered?

[Jim Koepke]

Hope this works out for you Kev.

In the mean time, I think I will run a back up today.

jtk

[Larry Frank]

So sorry for you. Did you have a power surge or power blink?

[Kev Williams]

At first I thought it might have been a power surge, since I lost the laser overnight too, but it was switched off at the breaker box, I'm thinking coincidence fits better...

I did run across my saved files, they're only a year old so not TOO bad...

I ran it to Best Buy and they were able to test it while I waited with their cables and computers, no joy. Quoted me $500 for data recovery minimum, which I'm okay with, but the 'and could go WAY UP from there' caveat, not so much

Came across a place called $300 Data Recovery, basic cost is obvious, and the MOST they'll charge is $500 plus a drive to put any/all recovered data onto. I'm waiting on a "chances of recovery" email based on my drive and problem. $500 is well worth getting files back just in the time I'll save not having to rebuild my machining files. I'm hoping!

[Andrew More]

I'm sorry to hear that. A couple of suggestions.

First, there are companies that specialize in file retrival services for situations like yours. I'd look into hiring one.
Second, I like putting anything critical into Google Drive (though the actual service is irrelevant) because it going to take a heck of a lot more issues to destroy the data. It's also nice because with most of these programs the cloud "drive" acts like it's just another storage device on the computer. So no need to worry about backup programs, or backup storage, or even what happens if an onsite disaster like a fire or hurricane hits.

Good luck!

[Bill George]

I don't know how a SSD can be recovered, a standard HD yes.

[Curt Harms]

I don't know how a SSD can be recovered, a standard HD yes.

Perhaps if a recovery service has spares of the SSD's controller and the controller failed. From what I've read if relying on flash media it's best to have recent backups because data recovery is more difficult and less reliable than spinning rust. I don't have anywhere near the backup needs of someone like Kev but I bought a USB 3 hard drive enclosure and a 1 TB spinny hard drive. If I had the need I could rotate hard drives - different sizes and brands - for backup purposes using the same enclosure.

[Kev Williams]

The recovery service I spoke of sent me an email stating they've worked on 8 drives like mine, and from that gave me a 20% chance of recovery. Better than none I guess.

Found a local place online about 2 miles away, I'm probably just going to take it there and hope for the best. Be a lot faster, by at least 5 days worth of shipping time...

--So, the drive was working fine one minute, then while saving a file, the computer I was using started hanging, then just went un-responsive. After reboot, the drive was like an empty can. I'm having a hard time believing the data just vanished into thin air and isn't still there, the thing basically acts like a fuse blew. It still does connect, to my computers, and it still vibrates slightly like it always has, it just acts like 'the wire' that carries the data just broke. I'm hoping that's essentially the case...

Been using platter drives since 1991- right now I have 9 PC's and 4 laptops in this place, and 13 HDD's stacked in a cabinet in the back room, ALL of them still work. 2 of my PC's have SSD's in them, and this portable is only the 3rd SSD I've ever owned. Don't know how many flash drives I've used...
--In all those years and drives, I've had 1 laptop HDD and 2 PC HDD's go bad.
--I've NEVER had a flash drive go bad, go figure...
--In the 2 years I've been using 3 SSD drives, the newest one failed. A 33% failure rate within 2 years, hmmm... thinking I'd best be backing up my other 2 SSD's- and that right soon!

I will say this, I'm now using my 5tb HDD for accessing/saving my jobs, and it's excruciating how much more time it takes an HDD to do the same thing an SSD does.

[Malcolm McLeod]

... and it's excruciating how much more time it takes an HDD to do the same thing an SSD does.

I'm sure the IT pros can provide more specific advice, but in the past I/we had a need for data back-up (at home). We could have lost a couple of years worth of work in the event of a un-recoverable fault as you describe. I found a RAID 1 'box' and put 2x 1TB HDDs in it. You may be familiar w/ RAID designators, but just in case, the box 'looks' like a (single) network drive to anything on the network and any data gets written to both HDs. It provided all the backup we felt we needed and seemed to be reasonably priced at the time. Other higher RAID designations provide more/better data redundancy.

And, maybe a SSD for speedy daily ops, with another RAID unit for backups to meet your comfort level???

[Chase Williams]

We internally utilize multiple Synology units in multiple locations for essentially an internal cloud. While its not the cheapest solution we are pushing give or take 60TB of storage with 2 drive failure redundancy at each unit. The units backup everything immediately to one another and we keep each unit in a different location with different ISPs, really more for power/internet outage vs fire, but even if a building burnt down everything is backed up. Probably overkill for most, but we do a lot with sensitive files and have clients that require on-premise secure sever/storage. Even if we only needed the storage backup and nothing else the Synology unit has to offer, I wouldn't hesitate to purchase everything again. I also recommend a whole-panel surge protector and for each circuit that has sensitive equipment, I put a Levitron Surge Protected 20a Outlet (I like the surge protector internal to the outlet), it protects all the outlets downstream from it too... cheap insurance.

As for the drive, Best Buy isnt what I would call qualified people for that... a real data recovery place isn't usually as publicly accessible vs mail-in. I will say that the tech people at Microcenter are about as good as I've found locally and they do offer data recovery and those techs really do some advanced things. I would remove the drive from the enclosure and plug it into a SATA power w/ power most larger desktops have the stuff internally already, SSD is trickier than HDD as you cant feel if its energised, whereas HDD you can hear and feel the disks spin. SSD drives are usually quoted at 1M hours of useful life, now EMMC drives are crap and fail and sometimes are passed off as solid state in the sales process, they are but its not the same as real SSD. I just dont trust that best buy even really tried anything, ive had issues with them, so I would start at square one. If there is some life, I would immediately put the drive in a cloner and move it to a new drive just to mitigate risk.

I sent a PM, give me a call. I would think that if there is something to figure out on it we could get to the bottom of it.

[Mike Null]

Kev
Back in July my old Win 7 pc began to show signs of its age. I immediately backed it up and sure enough a day or two later it wouldn't boot. I had my computer guy come over and he said to scrap it. (he is a pro, on his day job he's the IT guy for a bank.) A day or two later my UPS computer died but no back up It was 3 or 4 years old (not the property of UPS) and the power supply went out. It turned out to be a nightmare because World Ship wouldn't load properly on the refurbished I bought from Amazon. One of my customer finally got me running again as I use third party billing and ship to Canada.

In the meantime I had bought a second refurb to handle my business needs. I had loaded everything (no small job) and within a few days it crashed and burned. (actually the same problems your having) I went to BB and bought a device to read ssd's but the hd could not be read and I had no back up. I was literally out of business and I'm still recovering from all the problems it created. I'm typing this on my new Lenovo Think Pad--no more refurbs for me!

There's more to the story but it's all pain so I'll spare you that.

[Kev Williams]

I actually have great luck with refurb computers. I use 12 computers every day, there's only 4 that are 'originals', and all of them are pre-win8 computers. Most of my computers are refurb'd Dell's I've bought either from locals or on eBay. I've grown a healthy respect for Dell stuff in the past 8 years or so. Oldest computer I use daily is a refurb HP running its original win98, which I need for my Casmate program...

Anyway, I'm definitely researching back up plans, like a basic RAID using identical SSD's that read & write identically and simultaneously. I discovered some RAID setups that use multiple platter drives that are simply made for SPEED rather than redundancy, never heard of these before- You can build a setup using as many HDD's as you want, and how it all works, is all drives are speed synchronized, and every data byte that's being written gets put on each drive individually and sequentially; as I understand it, if you have 6 drives in this RAID, byte1 gets written to drive 1, byte 2 writes to drive 2, byte 3 to drive 3, etc etc, then byte 7 starts the cycle over at drive 1, byte 8 to drive 2, etc.... Because platter drives read/write speed is limited to the platter's rotational speed, by reading/writing data to 6 different sync'd drives, you can move 6x the data in one platter revolution... not sure I made sense -- but it fascinates me to know that something like this can actually be done (if I'm understanding the tech correctly anyway!)

CHASE: The drive is on it's way to Ohio, and NOT to BestBuy - in hopes the data can be retrieved.

I DID find a bit newer set of backup files yesterday on my 6tb drive, that I made about 11 months ago... not a lot newer files BUT this backup contains ALL of the files I use daily, lots of PDF blueprints and Excel files. Life is better today than it was yesterday!

[Chase Williams]

I hope they get the drive recovered. Checkout the synology setup their RAID configuration is proprietary and lets you mix and match drives without needing identical model or size and functions well. I’ve had issues sourcing identical drives when one fails after 5 years and it becomes a more expensive issue to replace them all. As for speed drives usually that’s SAS drives or SSD or m.2 SSD and they are all usually smaller size capacity and usually higher priced than the SATA equivalent. I’m still pushing ~125mb/s with SATA drives and don’t see the need to go faster for the additional expense. I’ve used QNAP, Buffalo, and some server based NASs and like the additional capabilities of the synology unit over the others. The storage is just a small portion of what we use the synology for.

If you are running machines that are that far back have you considered using a sever and installing vSphere/esxi? That’s what we migrated to awhile ago and now anytime we need to have another machine, we can create/clone a virtual machine in minutes and we can have a working instance of anything from windows 95 to Linux. We picked up a Dell r series server from our tech wholesaler (used) for $700-$800 with 1.5tb of sas storage and 512gb of ram. The only downside is they can be power hungry but still 110v. Lots of redundancies on these as well to prevent issues.

While your on the tech upgrades, we use Ubiquiti for our network stuff and have a VPN setup so we can access everything as if we are on site (if we aren’t on site) and it’s pretty slick, maybe something to look into.

[Ernest Martin]

We use a combination of local and online backup. Our online backup is through Carbonite. Backing up multiple computers online can add up but it is a peace of mind.

[John K Jordan]

Kev, major bummer, best wishes for the data recovery. I hope your search gives you a bulletproof long-term backup solution.

When I was working I worried constantly about losing projects and work in progress, many had 100+ hours of time invested. This may sound paranoid but when working on a project I saved the file under a different name every time I did more work than I wanted to do over - often ended the day with 30-40 incremental saves of the same file. Then several times a day I did manual backups, often to multiple computers on my network and to external drives and never had data stored in fewer than three places, usually five places. Sounds excessive but in 30 years of work I never lost a file.

Retired for 16 years now I don't worry so much but I would still HATE to lose files, especially about 70,000 photographs and videos, edited video projects, and illustrated woodturning documents I've written. So I do two things:

First, my son told me about Macrium Reflect; he's been using it for years - it automatically runs a backup on a schedule. I set it to backup several times a week to one of a several 5 terabyte external disk drives connected by USB. Every so often I switch the drives so I haven't lost much in case of a computer drive or even a backup drive failure. Macrium Reflect does a combination of incremental, differential, and full image backups. In case of corrupted or lost data you can go back in time and pull any files you need from a selected date. Based on my experience and that of my son I can recommend this software. This software is not free but well worth the cost IMO.

The second thing I do is periodically copy the drives from each computer to a Synology NAS (network addressable storage device). Mine has four 12TB drives, three set as raid-5 and one set as an automatic hot swap drive in case one of the others fails. I can access files from the computers on my network or from anywhere using a web address. It's not incredibly fast but it seems solid. BTW, I use SSDs for my system and data drives on each computer for the speed but don't yet trust them for backups or long-term storage.

JKJ, department of redundancy department