4 years worth of images - GONE. - Printable Version
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4 years worth of images - GONE. - slejhamer - Sep 7, 2005
AAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!
:x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x
Do NOT, under any circumstances, buy a LaCie hard drive if you are running WinXP with SP2.
I will admit that I didn't do my homework on this - I bought it because it was there in the store and LaCie has a great reputation in monitors - how bad could it be?
BAD.
As in, THE WORST.
They are advertised as compatible with WinXP. But in small print on their tech support site, they say it's NOT compatible with SP2. Well if that was on the packaging, obviously I wouldn't have bought it! Who goes to the tech support site before they need tech support?
I bought the drive this past weekend. I moved all my images to this drive. 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005. I was going to dupe them to CD this weekend. The drive didn't last a week! I read one report where a LaCie drive didn't last 2 hours!
Can't even do data recovery - the computer doesn't even see it now.
Well, CRAP.
4 years worth of images - GONE. - Petographer - Sep 7, 2005
Oh man! What a bummer. I feel for ya man.
4 years worth of images - GONE. - EnglishBob - Sep 7, 2005
Ouch man, can't even begin to imagine how you feel.
4 years worth of images - GONE. - Irma - Sep 7, 2005
Hi this is Guerito, from Irma's account (I'm off to work in a minute).
You might be able to save the data. I have a LaCie drive too and my data were gone, although it's been under W2K. The bloody Fat32 file system broke. I bought a utility to rescue corrupt FAT32 files, and I got back most of my pictures. If you want you can have it and give it a try. The utility can even detect drives that are not recognized by the system, I believe. Send me a PM with your email address if you want to try it.
The most important thing now is to do absolutely nothing that would corrupt the drive even more.
I will check back here in the evening.
I'm really sorry for that, Mitch.
4 years worth of images - GONE. - shuttertalk - Sep 7, 2005
Nooooooo! I'll make sure to stay away from that brand.
Hope your data is salvagable....
4 years worth of images - GONE. - Rufus - Sep 7, 2005
That's terrible!
Echoing G, I'd say do nothing with it until a solution is available. There will surely be one, if not now, then at some point.
4 years worth of images - GONE. - Toad - Sep 7, 2005
Mitch:
Take it to a professional in data recovery in DC. They can take the drive apart and salvage the data - much better than you can do with software at home.
4 years of photos are unrecoverable - don't cheap out - the data is still there - it has not been erased from the disk - it just needs a pro to recover it.
4 years worth of images - GONE. - Petographer - Sep 8, 2005
Toad Wrote:Mitch:
Take it to a professional in data recovery in DC. They can take the drive apart and salvage the data - much better than you can do with software at home.
4 years of photos are unrecoverable - don't cheap out - the data is still there - it has not been erased from the disk - it just needs a pro to recover it.
Good suggestion. My thoughts exactly. I guess you just need to ask yourself what is it worth to you.
4 years worth of images - GONE. - guerito - Sep 8, 2005
I do not think that taking the drive apart is necessary, as long as the drive isn't physically damaged, which is unlikely in this case. Also, professional data recovery services don't come cheap, you'll pay through your nose for this.
My suggestion is to give it a try with specialised software. I can give you more information when I come home from work, but from what I remember the program I have is really good. It works on low level commands, bypassing most of the OS. As far as I know it's not destructive, that means it never writes anything to the disk. For me it worked just great. The price was relatively moderate, around $50 as far as I remember.
4 years worth of images - GONE. - noisynoodle - Sep 8, 2005
Slej,
You might find this link useful. This software has had very good reviews and as far as I can tell it can recover just about anything.
It's $89 which is a lot less than a pro recovery company would charge.
spinrite
Jan
4 years worth of images - GONE. - noisynoodle - Sep 8, 2005
Oh, and one more thing....If you can't boot from it, try installing it as a slave. Even if you can't boot from it, you may well find Windows can see it as a slave and then you can recover the data.
Jan
4 years worth of images - GONE. - slejhamer - Sep 8, 2005
Hey thanks for the support all!
G: this is formatted in NTFS not FAT32, but let me know what you've got and I'll try it:
slejhamer at hot mail dot com (no spaces, . for dot)
NN: It's an external USB drive; not sure how to configure it as a slave. I've disconnected it and tried installing it as new, but it just makes a loud clicking noise and the PC does not recognize it.
Well first thing I'll do is call LaCie tonite when I get home from work and see what they say.
P.S.: It's not quite as disastrous as it seems - we print most of the images we keep and store them in photo albums, and the few really good ones are on the wall.
P.P.S.: Coulda been much worse. I could live in New Orleans. Perspective ...
4 years worth of images - GONE. - StudioJ - Sep 8, 2005
Ok well that sucks to put it mildly. I bought an external Lacie DVD burner and it was absolute crud. I'd never buy anything of theirs again.
4 years worth of images - GONE. - noisynoodle - Sep 8, 2005
slejhamer Wrote:NN: It's an external USB drive; not sure how to configure it as a slave. I've disconnected it and tried installing it as new, but it just makes a loud clicking noise and the PC does not recognize it.
Well, if all else fails, open the external case and take the drive out, then put it in the PC as a slave to the main drive on your IDE (or SATA if that's what it is). Worth mentioning, too, that Spinrite deals with NTFS as well as FAT32 file systems.
Jan
4 years worth of images - GONE. - jericho - Sep 8, 2005
HOLY CRAP!!! I am really sorry to hear that Mitch. Almost speechless really, as I would probably pass out if that happened to me. Hope something works out for you.
Jerry
4 years worth of images - GONE. - guerito - Sep 8, 2005
I'm back from work, and I have some information.
My program won't help you because it's for FAT32 only. But they have a version for NTFS too. It costs $79 (US). You can download a trial version before you buy to check if the program can restore the files you need restored.
Here is a link to the web site, the program you're looking for is "GetDataBack - Data Recovery for NTFS V2.31". They have a lot of information about data recovery on their pages, I found this an interesting read. This page might be particularly interesting for you.
I hope this helps somewhat...
G
4 years worth of images - GONE. - guerito - Sep 8, 2005
Hmm, another thing to try would be to connect it to a computer NOT running XP SP2. Have you tried this already?
Yet another option is to deinstall SP2 from XP. I don't know if this is possible, it might be if you installed SP2 after the initial XP install.
4 years worth of images - GONE. - slejhamer - Sep 8, 2005
guerito Wrote:Hmm, another thing to try would be to connect it to a computer NOT running XP SP2. Have you tried this already?
Yes - just now. I took the drive to work with me and have tried it on a few different systems (Win XP with no SP2, Win2K) but the problem now is that NO computer will even recognize it. And I've swapped the USB cable too.
4 years worth of images - GONE. - noisynoodle - Sep 8, 2005
I still think your best bet is to take it out of the case and put it on your PC as a slave. You may still need data recovery software, but possibly not. However,if it's under warranty then maybe cracking the cse open isn't such a good idea. Usually, though, the manufacurer won't offer any help with data recovery anyway, and I suppose if it's marked as not compatible with SP then there'd be no claim under warranty so you might as well give it a go!
4 years worth of images - GONE. - slejhamer - Sep 8, 2005
I tried it this afternoon on my computer at work. Spun, clicked a few times like it was trying to read, then it stopped, with no recognition by the computer. Same as when it's connected externally. I also tried some software - one that LaCie tech support recommended, but it didn't help. The tech basically said what you said - they won't do data recovery. He said it sounds like the drive head (I think that's what he called it) is bad. "Sorry 'bout that."
4 years worth of images - GONE. - shuttertalk - Sep 8, 2005
slejhamer Wrote:He said it sounds like the drive head (I think that's what he called it) is bad. "Sorry 'bout that."
That's shocking! If their product is defective, and you end up losing data, I don't see why they shouldn't pay for professional recovery services or something like that...
4 years worth of images - GONE. - slejhamer - Sep 8, 2005
shuttertalk Wrote:That's shocking! If their product is defective, and you end up losing data, I don't see why they shouldn't pay for professional recovery services or something like that...
Their warranty doesn't cover lost data. (I'm sure no drive maker covers it.) They'll replace the drive or send it for service in which case it would be formatted - either way, no data.
4 years worth of images - GONE. - guerito - Sep 9, 2005
In this case, I'd open the box and try the disk as slave directly in the computer. Even if the warranty is void then, you might have a chance to get your pictures back, which is probably more valuable than the drive itself.
4 years worth of images - GONE. - slejhamer - Sep 9, 2005
Can the storage part of the drive be separated from the mechanical components? If so, that would probably work, if I could then put the storage thingy into a different chassis.
Well I'm going to take it to the Geek Squad tomorrow morning and see what they think. They can do basic data recovery for a lot less $ than most places.
4 years worth of images - GONE. - guerito - Sep 9, 2005
I've never opened an external disk drive in my life, but I'd expect to find some electronics for the USB connected to a regular IDE disk. You should be able to remove the disk drive from the box and connect it like an internal disk to your computer's mainboard. If you have some experts willing to have a look at it, that's probably the best you can do.