Should have stuck with Maxtor!!

Brandon Rice

Brandon Rice

Distributed Producer
So, I have a few external hard drives. I have bought all Maxtor, because I've never had any issues with them at all. Well, last year I needed a drive to back up all of our completed projects here at Signature Productions. I went to get one and didn't find a maxtor, so I bought a Western Digital. Now the drive isn't connecting to any of my machines!! it spins up and sounds fine, but it won't connect. I've got issues because ALL of our projects are saved on there. Is there anywhere I can get this stuff off the drive?
 
Try a data recovery service, but from what I hear they are expensive. I also know that CompUSA does data backups for $50, but I don't know if you want to put your projects into their hands.
 
Oh, man. Yes there are place called data recovery services. The one that most seem to recommend is Drive Savers. They aren't cheep. I had to use them recently because we lost our feature on a LaCie 500GB drive. The price doubled because it was really 2 x 250 GB drives inside.

http://www.drivesavers.com/

The drive was under warranty with LaCie but they said we'd lose the data when they reformatted the drive. After checking around...I think we checked out 6 different data recovery services...we settled on Drive Savers.

(If you want you can PM me) or just ask your questions here.
 
B-Man!! Here's a post I read recently at another site with the same problem, and his resolution.

[FONT=verdana,arial][SIZE=-1] Hey folks.

I had a mild freak out yesterday when my main external drive - the one with all my "On the Fringe" DVD files - was showing up as "corrupt and unreadable". I nearly broke down (after 6 months of working on it, I'm sure some of you can relate).
Anyhow, after an hour of panicing, I bought and downloaded a program from EaseUS called the DataRecoveryWizard.
link here
http://www.easeus.com/resource/data-backup.htm

It worked like a charm, was simple to use and all my files are now safe - and backed up. I was going to pay the local computer store $99/hour. Instead I now own the program for $99 and fixed it myself.

All in all, it was a very stressful day that ended on a high note. Thankfully.

For folks dealing with any file recovery issues or hard drive problems, I highly recommend that program.

Now I can safely say the Fringe DVD will definitely happen. Phew!!
(wiping sweat from brow)[/SIZE][/FONT]
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Thanks Larry, but the trouble I am having is even to have Windows recognize the drive... I think the USB2 connection is screwy, cause it'll go on and off in recognizing it if I wiggle the usb plug.
 
Just in case there are others out there with this problem, Brandon, I'm posting this here, too.

There may be other options. I tried software recovery programs but my problem was that my computer couldn't see the hard drive to try and fix it. So I felt there was no choice. It doesn't cost anything to call them and find out, which will help ease your concerns by giving you a starting point. Their number is 800-440-1904

Something I forgot to add to the PM was this statement in their quote:

Our pricing is based on the drive capacity, the operating system, and the complexity of the recovery. DriveSavers will never exceed the maximum amount quoted.
 
briceman said:
Thanks Larry, but the trouble I am having is even to have Windows recognize the drive... I think the USB2 connection is screwy, cause it'll go on and off in recognizing it if I wiggle the usb plug.
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Yes ... but this software, like Disk Warrior for mac, can sometimes see the drive anyway.

Windows might not be able to see the drive becauseth part of it that causes it to load up is damaged or isn't configured correctly. But this software can see the whole drive and rearange, fix, or it.

I've been in this boat, but on a Mac, in which case I would reccommed Drive Genious and Disc Warrior, but on Windows I can't reccommend software.

There are also places oy can send it for a stage one recovery process which is like $125 or something, but stage one means they are gonna use software to fix it just like you would.

Stage Two (I think that's what its called) can be done for a flat fee but is at least double the price since it requiers a sealed room to work on the drive in.
 
They "stripe" the drive.

Jack, I tried the software route first but when it didn't work that's when I bit the bullet and went to Drive Savers. I checked out several companies but in the end went with Drive Savers.
 
I have a recovery program called GetDataBack... I've used it before... I'll try it with this drive and see what happens.
 
briceman said:
I have a recovery program called GetDataBack... I've used it before... I'll try it with this drive and see what happens.
Click to expand...
Always try the free options first. If you hear ANY grinding or "bad" noises coming from your drive STOP IMMEDIATELY so as not to damage it any more. As long as all you're hearing is it spinning up, you should be okay.
 
USB and FW drives are just regular disk drives in an adapter cabinet. If the cabinet circuitry is bad you can probably install the drive in another cabinet or directly in a cpu and access the data. Worth a try before spending $2k or more on a data recovery service.
 
Just pull the drive out of the enclosure and hook it directly up to your IDE port on the motherboard. Like J Michael said, t's probably just a standard 3.5" drive.

I'd skip a new enclosure entirely for testing purposes. Who knows, your USB ports on the computer might be bad also.
 
I'm suprised it took so long for someone to suggest that the enclosure might be bad. That's what it sounds like to me. If there are no funny noises, then it probably is the enclosure. Check to make sure all led's are lighting and do what Owen said and take it out to test it. If it still doesn't work, try it on another computer before spending all that cash.

-Kegan
 
I agree -- it is likey the enclosure. Pulling out the drive and hooking it up internally is the way to go. Besides, data recovery software won't help you if Windows won't even see the drive as being plugged in -- not seeing the data is one thing, but seeing no drive...the software won't see one either. Hopefully the drive itself is fine -- if only the enclosure is bad, then your data should be just as you left it.
 
Blaine said:
I have also had great success with my Maxtor drives. STAY AWAY FROM LACIE!!!!!!!
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Thats funny because I used to use Maxtors and I have had a bunch of them go bad on me and I will never use them again. Western digital are owned by maxtor and I dont trust them either.
I use lacies and seagate even though now i hear seagate is being or has been bought by maxtor.
I lost soo much data with maxtors. FOOK THEM.
 
Aram Bauman said:
Thats funny because I used to use Maxtors and I have had a bunch of them go bad on me and I will never use them again. Western digital are owned by maxtor and I dont trust them either.
I use lacies and seagate even though now i hear seagate is being or has been bought by maxtor.
I lost soo much data with maxtors. FOOK THEM.
Click to expand...
I don't know why they work so well for me but they do. It was amazing when I opened the LaCie, though. There were two Maxtor drives sitting inside. But $4400 later for data recovery, you won't find me buying another LaCie. The tough part was...since the LaCie drive was under warranty, they sent Drive Savers one as my new target drive. Everything was put onto another LaCie drive. :shocked: But as soon as I got it back I took ALL the data and copied to to DVDs for archival purposes and also backup everything immediately on my Maxtor.

We finally finished the movie and it's been compressed for DVD. So I can finally breathe easier. I still want to put it out to dv and minidv tape as well as Digibeta. After that, things will be safely locked away.
 
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