Has anyone had any signs that their external hard drive is going to crash? Mine has started to be really slow, and not respond to requests....I feel like it's telling me to get a new one. Which I know it will be cheaper to get a new one now rather than try and get my data off the crashed one...
*knocks on wood* I've never had signs of one crashing. Mine hasn't crashed. (I have mine backed up, so while it would be a pain in the butt, I wouldn't lose anything) I think if you're at all worried, it's going to ease your mind to have a new one.
I'm not sure if there are signs, but I think I might go with my gut and get a new one. Better safe than sorry
As both Jan and Kristina have already said, go with your gut, especially if it's your only EHD. I say this as the victim of a water-spill on my laptop (before I even knew what an EHD was!) Now I try to follow the "3-2-1" rule (3 backups, 2 different media, 1 offsite). So, hopefully yours is fine, but maybe a new EHD is a good idea anyway?
i had one that would make more noise than usual and turn on & off randomly while still connected. i'd prepare just in case.
Sometimes. One worked one day, but not the next. One fell off the table, so no, no warning on that one. One started squealing.
Yes - mine started running really slow at first, then it started making a weird noise -- sort of like a half-click, half-beep noise. Then death. But Backblaze saved all my files for me.
a sign to me is any uneasiness...I too use Backblaze for peace of mind..but that slowing and then the death gurgle click, been there, cried and learned.
Mine stared doing what you said (slow to respond, etc) and then started clicking .... got a new one just in time, now I can see the files on it (if I wait 30 min) but can't save to drive.
OMG that made me giggle! I mean, it's totally true, but still funny to see "gurgle" typed out about an EHD! I'm gonna say this the next time one of mine acts up!
I've had 2 do that. The first died. The second, the USB port on my computer died. So, yes, I would get a new one and move the data! Especially if it's already slow, it'll take awhile to move.
So, there are two ways an external EHD can go bad. The first is the click of death that others have mentioned. That means that the actual read/write head is probably going out, or the drive that spins the platters is failing. The second is if the USB controller (that the drive uses to talk to your computer) starts to fail. That one is possibly recoverable if you're comfortable with taking the drive out of its case and putting it into a new one. In that case the actual drive is still good, it just can't talk any more. I always buy EHDs in matched pairs- one to store whatever data, and the second identical one as a backup for that data.
I've had a few HD failures. A few times I didn't know until one day it wouldn't boot up. Then the second last one wouldn't show up in my directory sometimes and then sometimes it would. Then one day it just crashed completely. Then the last one messed with my operating system. It would be really slow to boot up the computer and would make a clicking noise but it would go away after a few minutes of turning on the computer. Didn't know it was actually an EHD problem until it crashed (then my computer wuld boot up fine and no noise). That drive is put away until I can get afford to pay to see if anything is retrievable off it.
Could you explain this in more detail? I know, I'm crazy, but I haven't done anything with all the stuff on my computer and you are all starting to scare me!!!!
I hope you don't get too scared Nancy. Just scared enough. LOL. 3 backups - 3 different copies of your media. So, your photo is in 3 places. 2 different media - I've read it two ways - as 2 different local places (computer and EHD), or 2 different types of media (like printed, and digital). 1 offsite - 1 copy of the data not in your house. An online backup does this, or I know some people have a hard drive that they keep at work or at a friend/parent house. For me, it looks like this: All my photos live on my hard drive. They also live on an external hard drive, actually 2 external hard drives. They are also backed up to Backblaze. So, in the event my hard drive fails, I have the photos available locally on an external hard drive. In the event my house is broken into, or burns down, my photos are also off site at Backblaze storage facility. I do have photos scattered on Amazon, Flickr, Persnickety, Shutterfly, printed, on SD cards, in Dropbox and shared with family on their computers, etc. So, in the event all of the other options fail, I would still be able to retrieve some photos. But my main plan is computer, ehds, Backblaze. I hope that wasn't confusing!
@bellbird and @NancyP, while I appreciate your honesty, I have to go Mom Mode for a moment. Ladies, and anyone else reading this who still doesn't already do so, BACK UP YOUR STUFF! (Not that I would ever actually yell at you, but I needed the caps for emphasis. lol!) I spilled water on my laptop when DD was a baby and I'd just started scrapping. I lost everything: her birth pics, her first month(s) pics, her first Christmas pics, our wedding photos and all of our digital pics (probably 5 or 6 years' worth at this point cuz we went digital in like 2002 or 03), music (although iTunes has it "in the cloud," I still want a copy backed up, ya know?), all my papers and my resume etc, and--of course--all of my full-size LOs. It was horrible. Thankfully, but quite a bit later, a tech guru at DH's work found a case for my HD and got it to work! Everything went onto an EHD the moment I got those things back. And I still have the HD and the case, just in case I ever want to plug it back in. Funny enough, most of those first LOs are... well, not good rotfl, but I'm so glad to have the pics back so I can make pretty LOs again! So don't wait, because most fried-computer stories don't have such a happy ending. Or it costs a lot to get all that stuff back.
