Posted on 01/06/2018 7:42:50 AM PST by pabianice
I use an external hard drive to backup the files on my C drive. Have had it for years. Turned it on this AM and it is blank. It is formatted but all the saved files (about 100GB) are gone. Poof. Can anyone help explain what happened? Thanks.
There’s used to be some utilities you could buy for that sort of recovery. I don’t know if they still are available.
That’s what I started with.
I use Synology NAS with two 6 or 8TB drives in a “Synology Hybrid RAID” configuration. On my Mac, I use a LG Blu-Ray drive BE16NU50. Three software programs: MakeMKV to rip the CD or Blu-Ray disc; HandBrake to encode the MKV file to m4v; iFlicks2 to add metadata and art (not strictly necessary because Synology handles this). I then mount the server in the Mac Finder and drag the m4v to the server directory. I store the original mkv and m4v files on the backup drives. The server only contains the playable m4v files. I finally settled on Plex as my media software running on the Synology server. It is displayed on the Plex app on my Apple TV.
I just realized how complicated all of that sounds! It really isn’t that hard to do. I have my “workflow” down pat and can do all of those steps quickly (the trick is not forgetting how to do it).
Figuring all of that out and finding the best encoding settings for HandBrake was a lot of work. I tried a bunch of other solutions before settling on this as best for me.
It’s really nice to sit down and start a movie instantly without having to wade through all the crap Andrew menus on a DVD or Blu-Ray. The movie just starts. And the fast forward on a stored file I sent fantastic on the Apple TV. I can go to any location in the movie in a blink.
Good luck. Write if you want advice.
“I had a video file stored on three different and unconnected drives and a copy stored on a cloud backup service. ALL were zeroed out.”
Did you keep the same file name and content as the original?
Most compliance enforcement is automated matching name, size and date.
I have a home file server (of sorts). It’s an older computer that still functions OK, just not a hotrod anymore. It never sees the internet. That’s where I keep the working copy of my stuff (one of three copies). Another one I keep offsite at my brother’s house.
I learned the hard way...
Unless you keep a copy of everything on your computer, always backup with two drives. You can probably use a file recovery program to recover your files. If you still have the original files on your computer the buy another drive, backup your computer with the new hard drive, then format the disc that is giving you trouble, run chkdisc and if it is ok, backup your computer a second time with it.
Unless you keep a copy of everything on your computer, always backup with two drives. You can probably use a file recovery program to recover your files. If you still have the original files on your computer the buy another drive, backup your computer with the new hard drive, then format the disc that is giving you trouble, run chkdisc and if it is ok, backup your computer a second time with it.
Yes. But, it was all at home so it wasn’t done via a automated compliance system. I was not personally under any kind of restriction from having it. Space Shuttle Downlink videos were not classified.
Do an internet search for a freeware program named, “Recuva”. It works well and can possibly recover most, if not all, of your data. When recovering, tell it to ‘recover’ to some other drive, not to your backup drive.
I haven’t much success with Handbrake but I’ve read of other rippers.
Encoding video isn’t hard to me. For a long time in my last years in public TV land, I digitized countless tapes.
All formats from ancient 60s quad to DVC Pro and Digibeta. I escaped for IT around 2009.
My main thing would be backups. I tend to be a bit paranoid about data loss.
I will keep you in mind. At the rate things are going, probably spring.
Still a lot to do and other stuff to get at the new pad.
My collection isn’t that bad. The spouse is a much, much more avid DVD collector.
I’ll need the TB drives and a lot of them.
My stuff will be done first. The spousal unit isn’t big on the idea for some reason. I’m past the point of needing physical copy for everything.
All the stuff of mine that will get encoded, the discs will go to my parents or a couple friends. I could bum them if I need to.
Tech help
Perhaps the main file became corrupted and you ran a backup routine to copy the corrupted file to the 3 backup locations?
I have 3 external hard drives. Not exactly the same data on each EXCEPT for my critical work data. Purchase orders, invoices and customer artwork. All complete on each drive.
I have no faith in “the cloud” for backup.
The cloud service would probably have caught that for that copy.
“C: drive”!? That’s the problem right there. Get off the the 1980 technology.
Laughing My Ass Off!
What does the manual say about how to set up your “C: drive” to run the software?
Just “CD /; rm -R *” and reboot.
The number one cause of electronic failure is unsoldered contacts that have oxidized. The circuit board that controls a disk drive is not soldered to it but held against it with contacts. These contacts eventually lose their conductivity making your disk drive suddenly appear empty.
After exhausting non-destructive software recovery attempts, disassemble the disk drive including unscrewing the circuit board. There are often videos and websites that show you how to open the case. Then take a pencil eraser and rub the oxidation layer off the unsoldered contacts. Then partially re-assemble and test. The pencil eraser trick works about 50% of the time and will restore your disk drive to full operation.
Always buy two identical disk drives at the same time. If one circuit board fails, the option exists to recover data using the other circuit board.
No. There were all hand copied and each one was checked after copy. Also, the hard drives showed the file existed in the directory but all the data was removed. I could’t use any of my data recovery tools to get the file back. I used a disk editor to look at the file as well and it was precisely zeroed out. Been in tech since I was a kid and I’ve never seen a damaged file like it... and on three drives and removed from cloud.
OK. Interesting.
So you got me curious. Do have any idea how these happened?
I believe that it was wiped by the same folks who removed the original downlink tapes and wiped copies in the MCC. Yes, that sounds paranoid. If any other files had been damaged I would have suspected a virus. I think I was being sent a message.. as they could have just trashed all the drives completely. This was almost two decades ago so I’m not overly concerned now about it.
F&G ping
Soon as I saw the thread title, I knew this was coming.............
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