Save hard drive data questions....

[Skypuppy]

Send it to me (I'm in Huntsville, AL (so just down I-65 from you) I will recover what I can for you. Please include return shipping. I'm on SS so not a lot of spare cash lying around.
Oh, been working on and programming computers since 1977. First one was a 48k (yes, K) Apple II. No hard drives, not even a floppy disk drive available until it was almost a year old. Cassette tape drive wasn't so bad, though. Have many computer types and OS's available to me.

 

[Vinnnie]

I have a Thermaltake "BlacX" thingy that is plugged into back of PC. I have a 3 TB hard drive in it. This has been my backup in case PC died. Well.....pc died. Meanwhile, wife rescued a 22 pound cat. Cat happened to walk beside desk, tangled his belly in the wires, pulled the Thermaltake off the desk, crashed to floor and now, my 3 TB disk might not be long for this world. (might have already left)

Going into PC, I started to copy files (old family pictures) over to a brand new 4 TB SSD external drive. Came home from work, many files moved but needed to hit enter to finish something, did so, screen cleared. I still have tons of stuff on 3TB drive.

Go into disk Management, 3TB shows "unknown", 2048 unallocated, not initialized. Right click to initialize, bullet is on "GPT", hit OK (also did this same with MBR selected. In both cases, get "Data error (cyclic redundancy check) error.

tried to run checkdsk but, no drive letter so can't mount the drive (unless I'm missing something)
Went on to run SFC / Scannow and again, though it worked, it wasn't working on the missing drive as best I can tell.

While in Disk Management, the disk has what appears to be a red circle with a + in it, reminds me of the Red Cross. Click Properties, "This device is working properly". Volumes: Disk 2, type unkonwn, status, not initialized. Volumes and capacity (bottom) are blank.

That's quick snapshot of where I am and what I've done. I have scanned photos (spent WEEKS and WEEKS scanning old photos from the late 1950's through today....)

I'm open to any ideas on how to retrieve.... I've stumbled onto some programs that say they can recover data even after formatting disk. (My understanding is when you reformat, it simply erases the first character in the name (or something), which then tells the system that space is usable.) I don't know how accurate that is but I've done anything yet.

Oh, turn the Thermaltake off/on, you can hear the disk spool up. Unplug the USB plug and it will beep when it's plugged back in, so to me, that suggests the computer "sees" something.

Any thoughts/help is appreciated!

WHAT ON GODS GREEN EARTH DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH TRACTORS WHISKY TANGO FOXTROT !!!

 

[Skypuppy]

People have more than one concern in their lives, usually. Someone is asking for help. Yes, it's "off-topic" but that's not a big deal.

 

[WM75Guy]

WHAT ON GODS GREEN EARTH DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH TRACTORS WHISKY TANGO FOXTROT !!!

It is posted in the Rural Living forum, wide open to questions like this. Neighbor helping neighbor. I keep tractor manuals and photos on my computer and occasionally need help. Lots of people on TBN have knowledge beyond tractors, as the replies indicate.

 

[riptides]

WHAT ON GODS GREEN EARTH DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH TRACTORS WHISKY TANGO FOXTROT !!!

Tractor pics and maintenance manuals were on HD. Lol.

 

[WM75Guy]

I use MS Office 365 and OneDrive for my storage. I get 1TB of OneDrive cloud storage which is plenty for me. Desktop and laptop both have SSD drives. My desktop, laptop, and the cloud storage stay in sync. Make a change on the desktop and when I boot up the laptop it syncs all changes from the last session. Since I don't travel much after retiring, I boot the laptop up occasionally just to sync files.

 

[Oaktree]

I use MS Office 365 and OneDrive for my storage. I get 1TB of OneDrive cloud storage which is plenty for me. Desktop and laptop both have SSD drives. My desktop, laptop, and the cloud storage stay in sync. Make a change on the desktop and when I boot up the laptop it syncs all changes from the last session. Since I don't travel much after retiring, I boot the laptop up occasionally just to sync files.

Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see any need to "sync files". A couple desktops and a laptop, all used for different purposes, almost nothing common between them.

 

[rontaki]

Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see any need to "sync files". A couple desktops and a laptop, all used for different purposes, almost nothing common between them.

Basically, just have 3 or more copies of your important data on as many different media. I choose to make direct copies rather than use a backup program that may be incompatible (down the road) with whatever I'm using to restore them with.