If this can happen to a really smart guy like me. . . well...

[Doughknob]

..., but like I said, I am really smart.......

We must not be related......

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

Or be like me, no data. No computer, np pictures, got a few phone numbers saved but they are also written down. I can walk away any time they want to turn it off. Bye bye love.

 

[WM75Guy]

I know people don't like cloud backup but I use Microsoft 365 for office software and backup. For $99/yr I get 5 copies of Office for the 2 desktops and 3 laptops that we use and 1 TB of OneDrive storage for each computer. All my docs, pics, videos, and music are on OneDrive. The files are on the OneDrive cloud and on my hard drive in case the internet is down. OneDrive syncs the files with my desktop, laptop, and cloud. If I have a hard drive crash I never restore from backup. I load the OS and programs fresh and then sync the OneDrive files to the hard drive.

 

[blee03]

There are a few good data restoration companies out there ...

not recommended but the last hdd I thought I lost everything on, I stuck it in the freezer overnight, the next morning I was able to copy over about 95% of all my “lost” files.

The hard drive was sweating like crazy when I hooked it back up to my pc so I left it outside the case sitting on a towel.

A few hours later after it warmed back up, it was back to not working again.

I would seek out a data restoration company with a great reputation first... in my case I was broke so I couldn't afford to pay for this kind of service (it’s not cheap!)

Another piece of software I’ve used to recover data with success is ‘EaseUS Data recovery wizard’. Might be worth a shot if you end up trying to recover the data yourself

 

[plowhog]

Another piece of software I’ve used to recover data with success is ‘EaseUS Data recovery wizard’. Might be worth a shot if you end up trying to recover the data yourself

Agreed. With any hard drive failure, there is some chance that all of the data is sitting there perfectly intact waiting to be extracted, and only the directory that points to where the files are got damaged. Not always as simple as that but there is a chance ...

 

[Midniteoyl]

TheMan419, actually I had one as well, a Western Digital My-Book

Did it actually die? How old was it.. From WD:

Western Digital has an important announcement for registered My Book Live or My Book Live Duo customers.

Immediately disconnect your My Book Live device from the Internet to protect your data from ongoing attacks. You can disconnect the device and continue to access your data locally by following these instructions on our Knowledge Base.

Some My Book Live devices connected to the Internet are being compromised by attackers and in some cases, the attackers have triggered a factory reset that appears to erase all data on the device.

We are here to help. Although this product family is no longer sold or supported by Western Digital, we know some of our customers have been impacted and we want to help. If you have lost your data as a result of these attacks, we will provide data recovery services which will be available beginning in July.

We know how important your data is to you and are committed to helping you protect it. We are launching a trade-in program that will allow you to upgrade from your My Book Live to one of our supported My Cloud devices.

We will provide details about how to take advantage of these programs in a separate email.

In case you are concerned about other products and services from Western Digital, our investigation of this incident has not found any evidence that our cloud services, firmware update servers, or customer credentials were compromised. The vulnerabilities being exploited are limited to the My Book Live devices, which were introduced to the market in 2010 and received a final firmware update in 2015. These vulnerabilities do not affect our current My Cloud product family.

The latest information about this incident will be available on our Product Security Portal. If you need any additional help, please contact our Customer Support team.

And:

Hello My Book™ Live/My Book Live Duo Customer,



If you are a My Book Live or My Book Live Duo customer, we are offering the following limited time offer:



Trade-In Offer:

Western Digital is offering current registered My Book Live or My Book Live Duo customers a trade-in discount of 40% off a select new My Cloud™ Home personal cloud storage or My Cloud EX2 Ultra 2-bay network attached storage device. For more information regarding the trade-in offer for eligible devices, please visit My Book Live and My Book Live Duo: Trade-In Offer.



Additionally, if you are a My Book Live or My Book Live Duo customer that has lost data as result of the recent security incident, we are here to help you by offering the following service.



Data Recovery Service (“DRS”) Offer:

Western Digital will help to recover your data using the data recovery services provided by a Western Digital-selected vendor. Western Digital will cover all the costs of shipment of the qualifying product to the DRS vendor and for the DRS. Recovered data, if any, will then be sent to you on one or more My Passport™ portable hard drives. For a list of qualifying products and eligibility requirements, please visit My Book Live and My Book Live Duo: Data Recovery Offer.



At Western Digital, we strive to continually improve our products and customer experiences. To take advantage of either of these services, or if you have any questions, please contact our Western Digital Support Team.



Sincerely,

Western Digital

Something to look in to.

 

[Complete Turf Care]

My subscription to QuickBooks Desktop Pro includes daily online backups. This saved me in 2017 when I took my desktop computer into a computer repair shop because it was acting funny, and as they were trying to transfer everything, it all crashed. It took about 2 days and lots of time on the phone with QB, but everything that I had backed up online was restored.

I can use the QB Online backup to store my pictures, documents, and just about any other files that I want.

I also backup my QB to a thumb drive about once a week just for added insurance. In fact, I'm going to do that right now.

 

[/pine]

Generally there are two reasons a HDD fails...either the mechanics fail or the electronics fails...
In the case of the former...the disk quits spinning or the actuator fails...in the case of the later something on the controller card has failed...

...in the case of the latter a sister drive can be purchased (e-bay etc.) and the PCBs can be swapped out...

Mechanical issues are more difficult to deal with...

 

[gsganzer]

I back mine up periodically to a portable hard drive. But as someone pointed out, you need to make sure it's actually captured the data and it can do a restore. What's the simplest way to test the restore function?

 

[sandman2234]

I lost all my pictures that were backed up with an online system. That online system was known as photobucket. One day they just decided they didn't want to be a free backup and locked everyone out, and the only way to get your photos was to pay a rather large membership fee.
Now multiple hard drives are my backup.
David from jax