[Gary Bagshawe]

Hiya all, I have a caddy drive in my system so that I can plug in all the internal old HDDs I have and get stuff off them, 1 of them was having a problem getting seen and reported a few errors which windows fixed. So I thought, I know I will but an external 500GB usb drive and transfer all info to it before it goes bang. Got the drive today, plugged in old drive and windows can see it but says that it needs formatting and there is nothing on it. But there should be about 200 GB worth of stuff on there. Most of the really important stuff is backed up to DVD but I wondered if any of you clever boffins knew of a way to recover the info off the drive?

[Chris H]

Have pm's you a link mate to summat that might help

[Gary Bagshawe]

Cheers mate

[Rob Barron]

Gary, that sounds like you need to redetect the HDD in the Bios. When it can see a drive but not what is on it, that is usually the step to take as far as I am aware.... but I confess to not being an expert by any means.

Cheers,
Rob

[Gary Bagshawe]

Cheers Rob, I ran a chkdsk on the drive and it sorted itself out for long enough for me to recover things.

[AQ]

That reminds me. I must run by backups again

[VinnyP]

Originally Posted by Anthraquinone

That reminds me. I must run by backups again

Useful thread Here

[AQ]

Originally Posted by VinnyP

Useful thread Here

Thanks for that .

I back up onto a second internal hard drive everytime I add pictures to the main folder. To an external HD about once every two weeks depending on how many new pictures I have . And also to DVD each time I get enough new pictures.

I am starting to wonder how long DVDs will last for.

Me paranoid ?? Never

[Dabhand16]

Originally Posted by Anthraquinone

I am starting to wonder how long DVDs will last for.

Funny you should say that. a video forum where I am a member had a lengthy debate on this very subject some time ago. It seems that the lifespan of 'home made' DVDs can vary depending on storage conditions and brand of DVD. Commercial DVDs have a longer/infinite life as the manufacturing process is different.

One guy found that a DVD that had been stored (with others) in a jewel case in a conservatory suddenly would not play. Close inspection revealed an arc of discolour. He put it down to sunlight affecting it as the transparent edges of the jewel case may have allowed the light to be focussed over the DVD.

Others found that DVDs would not play after 5 years possibly due to the coating of the material that is burnt by the laser deteriorating. Others found DVDs working OK after 8 or more years.

The advice given at the time was to copy DVDs at 5 years old, although it was aknowledged that if any deterioration had taken place in the coating, these imperfections would also be copied, so might have an accumulative effect.

It would appear that there is no 100% reliable long term storage media, so the best bet is to spread your risk by using more than one media.