Lost My Files Please Backup! and check your backups!

[echoes]

Hi, all, I sit here in tears. I had my files on an external hard drive. It failed. The HD was set to be backed up to the cloud but evidently that stopped at some point. The files are no longer there. I have lost thousands of dollars of kits. Not to mention family photos, genealogy info, and 2 years worth (or more) in layouts. My heart is just broken. I've downloaded the kits I purchased - the ones with links that are still active but oh, the loss. Anyway, please don't just set your backup and walk away. Put a reminder on your calendar to check that all systems are working. I'm going to download my layouts from the gallery so at least I have those, even if the quality isn't great. Back up your backups!

 

[fl_connie]

Don't give up hope! Many times when the HD fails, it is the connection that fails, not the drive itself. Please see a competent repair person who can see if simply exchanging the case of the hd will solve the problem. I've done this before, and it was not very expensive.

 

[echoes]

Don't give up hope! Many times when the HD fails, it is the connection that fails, not the drive itself. Please see a competent repair person who can see if simply exchanging the case of the hd will solve the problem. I've done this before, and it was not very expensive.

Thanks. I'm going to find someone on Monday. Fingers crossed!

 

[Mother Bear]

Oh Donna, I really hope you can get your HD repaired and recover all your stuff.

 

[echoes]

Oh Donna, I really hope you can get your HD repaired and recover all your stuff.

Thanks so much. I hope so. If not, I won't be posting on a couple of sites. including this one. I was only able to retrieve 20 kits here and that's just not enough to do challenges, etc. And I have enjoyed all the challenges, etc. Fingers crossed.

 

[Beth]

Oh, Donna, I'm so sorry to hear this! I've had that happen so many times that now I back everything up to Backblaze.com. I've found their services so reliable. If, for some reason, it doesn't backup, I get notifications. Check them out!

 

[jenyurko]

OH MY. Been there done that and learned the lesson the hard way! I hope you find somebody that can recover your files that won't cost an arm and a leg!

Externals eventually fail, no matter which one you buy. I, too, have been using Backblaze for at least 10 years if not longer on my desktop without any problems being able to download and recover all my files. I've even snagged files from the cloud to a laptop when I've been out of town. THE best option I've found so far -- I agree with Beth... check out their site. They're $100/year, runs automatically, tells you if nothing's been backed up in x number of days - and worth every single penny.

 

[Fayette]

Donna, please check your email

 

[angbrey]

Oh nooooo. That happened to me. I now have two external hd's that are identical copies of each other at all times. I also use BACKBLAZE to continuously backup my computer and ALL of my hard drives (I have the yearly plan) with unlimited storage backup. As a professional photographer, Data Recovery and Secure Data Recover are amazing at recovering your precious images and files. They're always at all of the events promoting their specialty. I would highly recommend contacting them. DM me if you need/want more info.

Please note that if you use cloud backup, whatever you do on your computer is identically done on your cloud!!! If you delete from your computer, it's deleted on your cloud backup drive. Corrupted files and crashes, well......sadly, your cloud backup suffers the same. Many many people I deal with in my photography group don't realize this and they think their cloud backup is safe. Typically, it's an identical replica of your system. If you have a monthly subscription, or pay yearly for a 30 day plan, that means at least 1x per month you need to login to that device (ie computer or ext hd) and connect it to ensure it shows active and to remain backing up. Again, something not everyone is fully aware of. If you don't attach that ext hd for example for 45 days, those files are pegged for deletion and are moved into your trash bin on your account (on the cloud server backup site). If you don't go into your trash bin, you may not even know they're there. I've been using backblaze for many years now and switched to the 1 yr plan so I have a full year to recover and retrieve any files that would have been otherwise moved into the trash bin or pegged for deletion. I like that I can select a past recovery date to pull files from. It's imperative that you contact the customer service reps for the server you use and ask these questions so you can fully understand what happens when files get deleted, corrupted, or you suffer a hd failure so you can recover them. I haven't really needed to pull recovered files from Backblaze very often since I have a complete ext hd duplicate but when traveling I can access my files through my account and have done that quite a few times, especially work related documents. I pay $99/year for the yearly plan and I have about 30+ terabytes backed up currently.

This is a very painful experience and I'm so sorry for anyone who faces this tragic experience.

**Ps....please, never leave your external hard drives continuously attached to your computer. They have running hour time like a light bulb. An ext hd has an average life of approx. 40,000 hours. You don't want to waste those hours when you're not using the drive. This equates to only 3-5 years before a component fails.