Paul's Comments

If you read below you'll read the article about using Auslogics duplicate file finder. Well I have another story involving my external hard drive and the files on it, only this one doesn't turn out so good.

I was working on my new computer, which, because I have lots of data files on my previous computer, I have both plugged in and the old one runs headless. By having them networked I can use SMB (Windows networking) to share files from one computer to another, I can basically use my previous computer as a file server.

I have two external hard drives, one which is a 250 GB and the other is a 1 TB. The 250 is about 1/2 full as I moved my music collection over to it because the 160 GB drive in my old main computer was running low on space.

A few weeks ago, while moving things around, El Stupido (yours truly) moves his computer without removing the external hard drives, which were sitting on top. They both slide off and fall on the floor, about 2-3 feet. But it was enough.

They don't work anymore. I plug them in, one makes noise and the other just clicks. I wasn't really using the terabyte drive, but my entire music collection was on the 250GB. Did I have a backup? Well, yes and no; I had an older backup on DVD but that was in the folder that got lost when I was evicted. El Stupido didn't have a backup and kept the drive where it could get damaged if he wasn't careful.

I have no idea how many files I lost; I can estimate my entire music collection, probably 3,000 mp3s, WAVs, and OGGs, maybe 40 GB of files. [Update 1/18/2011] About a month ago I ran a duplicate file finder and dropped over 12,000 files. So I have to admit it's more like 15,000 lost files. [End Update] As the drive is essentially suffering from physical damage, it would have to be fixed in a recovery facility, probably by disassembling in a clean room. Cost: about $1100.00.

I had deleted the current files off my other computer because I needed the space. I have - or I hope I have - some of the original files on my other computer in the closet.

I can't believe I was this stupid. You know, it's funny; it's pointed out that the typical value of a hard drive is only a fraction of the value of the data. Or the cost of the recovery if lost.

All I can say is, make sure you have a backup, or that you have two. A 1 terabyte USB hard drive used to be about $100; if you look carefully you can now find 2 terabyte drives for that. If you don't need that much space, external USB hard drive prices are as low as 10c per gigabyte, which makes hard drive and DVD pricing close, with DVDs at 4c/GB, the only problem being DVDs being small compared to the tremendous amounts of data we typically have around. Small discs have an advantage that they are easier to store than hard drives, so that can be solved with larger discs. Blu-Ray burners can be gotten for about $120 or so; 25GB Blu-Ray discs sell for about $20 in 10-pack spindles.

Like Jacob Morley in "A Christmas Carol" I carry a ponderous chain of lost data, and I can only offer my example in a hope that you will not repeat it. "Otherwise you cannot hope to escape my fate."