The other day, after coming back from Christmas vacation with a great idea about how to physically reorganize my music setup, I accidently knocked over my external HD--it head crashed, and I've lost all of my music files, all of my PG setup and related SW...I only have my finished mp3's.

Not sure if it's a sign that I ought to step away from songwriting and focus on something else for a while...discouraging, but restarting clean, with no project history, no unfinished work to fuss over, might be a blessing in disguise.

I still have some completed work that I haven't posted yet, so I'll probably do some of that while I'm rebuilding.

Makes you aware of how much faith we put in little 1's and 0's that can be washed away in an instant..

Man!! That is my worst nightmare.

Are there not places that can do data recovery on a crashed hard drive?

I'm hoping I can do that and recover something....lots of my family multimedia stuff was on there, as well as a huge digital music library ripped from CD's...hopefully something can be recovered!

You may be in luck.

If the drive itself is fried, as is the normal case of panic and terror, you are screwed if you did not back up.

But if it is merely the connections to the drive, they can take the drive and mount it into another chassis, or repair the connections, so to speak.

From the way you described it, I can't see how the data itself on the drive would have disappeared if you simply dropped it and shattered the housing. This does not sound like "data recovery" which can costs thousands and does not preserve your file structure or names (you will get thousands of files with names like ACXBJGRT7111.jpg--it sounds like you need a new box to put your hard drive in. Maybe.

Electrical shorts and corrupted disks are usually a nightmare, but in this case, I would take the whole thing in to a computer repair place and see what they can do.

I have a guy here in Raleigh who would mount the disk drive in a refurbished chassis with motherboard for about $65 bucks.

Just a thought.

On another note, there is no such thing as "OCD" when it comes to backup. As they say on the Cakewalk forum "if you only have one copy it does not exist."

I am a big proponent of multiple back up. I also like using portable hard drives "like tape" as is mentioned in another forum here. You can get 5 terabytes on a portable for about 100 bucks now. So I will have a "2018" portable drive with all 2018 files (Business, Pics, Music, etc.) that will get copied to another "master drive" which in turn gets copied to another drive. (Kept unplugged in a triple-locked closet with a solid door of course.) It is also nice to keep one master in a fireproof safe or offsite, like in a bank. It does not take long to do this, and again, you can't be too OCD. But again, I think there is a good chance you might be able to rescue that one.


Good luck.

You might want to look into an USB to SATA docking station. I have this Inateck model

https://www.amazon.com/Inateck-Dual-Bay-Docking-Function-FD2002/dp/B00N1KXE9K/ref=sr_1_6?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1546267955&sr=1-6&keywords=inateck+usb+to+sata

It not only can back up your disks it can also clone them without the computer. Just dismantle your external HD case and pull out the HD and plug it into the docking station. If the head or disk wasn't damaged then it will still be OK.

I have a lot of music software, songs and pictures. I back up my systems C:/ drive with Acronis and copy my data drives via the docking station. I copy one drive, verify it, then clone it two times. I keep two backed up HDs here and one in my bank's safe deposit box.

Good luck

David, thanks for the “slap in the head” that backup is a good thing...you’d think that a guy who spent his entire career in tech wouldn’t need that reminder!

Mario...I think I’m going to get that..good insurance, and a nice design. Thanks!

Sorry to hear that and hope the data can be recovered! I have seen several successful examples of data recovered from a trashed HD.

I likely over do it but with my iMac I back up (auto several times a day) to an external drive via the Mac's time machine and I swap the drives every two weeks keeping one in the bank. And for my music files I also back up to iCloud.

Why? I have photos and other files that date back 25 years and I like ready access to everything

Best to you with the recovery!!!! I mentioned this to a friend who’s the owner/CEO of a computer consulting firm and he says you have a good chance for recovery. He mentioned the same company Jim linked to.

Bud

I too have lost important (to me) music data.. several times in my life. hard drives failing, computers, malfunctioning and corrupting dives.

It's a hard lesson, to teach you to back up your data.. I've been playing music a very long time..Many years ago, a so called friend of mine, had been storing all my old 2 inch 16 track masters of music I did (from the 70's). 5 years of my life. Ultimately, I realized it was my fault for 'trusting' him and leaving them with him for too long.

I took it as a challenge, to keep making music.. If you like creating music.. Do not let this setback deter you.

+++ HERE +++ is a link to a computer repair and data recovery store in the Charlotte, NC area that is rated AAA+ by the better business bureau. They offer free diagnostics, onsite as well as walk in service.

+++ HERE +++ is a link to a second repair store. This store also has a good BBB reputation.

Well.... it's been said..... back up what you don't want to lose.

External drives are cheap insurance for your projects, considering the amount of work that can easily be put into just one project.

Thanks, everyone, for your kind chiding! Jim, I'm going to head over to one of those stores later this week, see what they can do...thanks!

IT guy here, so I've got no excuse, either.

Not too long ago, I decided it was a good idea to consolidate all my digital family photos onto one drive. I'd just gotten the drive recently, so I figured that the risk of it crashing was pretty close to non-existent.

Of course, it crashed.

I ended up shipping the drive to someone in San Jose who does this sort of recovery, and he put the platters into another drive and the photos were recovered. It wasn't cheap, but it was worth it.

Hi Tano Music,
I feel similar apprehension about windows updates. My computer is hijacked for 3 and a half hours. Do not shut your computer... While praying for no power outage. Then configuration failed... and it takes 3 1/2 to revert back to what it was.... a total of a 7 hour hijacking. While I am doing a Google search on my phone if things go wrong. And the reviews of catastrophes, where backups have proved unreliable in cases...
Still get angry just thinking about it.

I feel for you bro

Hopefully you'll achieve good results like David did. I'm looking forward to reading how it went.