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External HD ?

Discussion in 'Technology' started by 285ferrari, Apr 16, 2011.

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  1. 285ferrari

    285ferrari Two Time F1 World Champ
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    #1 285ferrari, Apr 16, 2011
    I have a 500gb external hard drive that I back up pics, videos, etc to. I tried to add a few pics recently and they would not save. The HD folder for the ext. drive under My Computer icon shows it has 217gb of info in it, but when I open it it shows all folders as empty.. Any thoughts?
     
  2. Etcetera

    Etcetera Two Time F1 World Champ
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    #2 Etcetera, Apr 16, 2011
    Did you run a quick error check on it? Right click on the drive, select Tools then run an error check on it.

    Other than that...have you tried it on a different USB port? On a different PC? With a different cable?
     
  3. iamthesimpleone

    iamthesimpleone Formula 3

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    #3 iamthesimpleone, Apr 16, 2011
    Did you originally format the HD on a different Operating System than the one you are trying to access it from?
     
  4. 285ferrari

    285ferrari Two Time F1 World Champ
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    #4 285ferrari, Apr 16, 2011
    Having changed anything and back it up with stuff everyday almost.
     
  5. 285ferrari

    285ferrari Two Time F1 World Champ
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    #5 285ferrari, Apr 16, 2011
    Ran the check it it didn't do anything. It still shows 217gb of space taken, but nothing in the four folders except one folder with 27gb of iTunes music....
     
  6. 285ferrari

    285ferrari Two Time F1 World Champ
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    #6 285ferrari, Apr 16, 2011
    I think the HD is going bad---It is really hot on one side
     
  7. Etcetera

    Etcetera Two Time F1 World Champ
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    #7 Etcetera, Apr 16, 2011
    None of the files are set to hidden in file attributes, are they?

    If you tried different ports/cables, your next step is to pop it out of the enclosure and try the bare drive in the PC itself.

    I don't have any data recovery software recommendations because I've never had any luck with them.
     
  8. 430man

    430man Formula Junior

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    #8 430man, Apr 16, 2011
    I said the same thing until I has a friend who lost all her baby pictures. After a few weeks of trying different things I found this http://www.whitecanyon.com/recover-my-files-data-recovery.php

    Not only did I get the baby pix back but I found she and her husband had some rather um... interesting hobbies. ;)
     
  9. 285ferrari

    285ferrari Two Time F1 World Champ
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    #9 285ferrari, May 9, 2011
    Went with another ext. hd----I did a backup to it. It now has 400gb of info in it, but I can't figure out what's in it---When I open it it has a bunch of setup, mediaid stuff. Maybe I am not looking in the right place...
     
  10. 4REphotographer

    4REphotographer F1 Veteran

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    #10 4REphotographer, May 9, 2011
    You might want to do a full format before you back-up to it. I bet a lot of it is just junk the HD company put on there for if you wanted to use it for media etc.
     
  11. Etcetera

    Etcetera Two Time F1 World Champ
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    #11 Etcetera, May 9, 2011
    Windows backup creates mediaid.bin. I can't say much more than that because I used Vista's built-in backup and it failed a restore test and I haven't used it since.

    I use Syncback Pro to handle my backups. It's kind of a pain to set up (you only have to do this once since you can back up the profiles) and it doesn't have the level of plug-and-play automation that Windows backup has, but it's vastly more powerful and it just works.

    www.2brightsparks.com/syncback/sbpro.html
     
  12. 285ferrari

    285ferrari Two Time F1 World Champ
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    #12 285ferrari, May 10, 2011
    Just did the format and it erased everything on the drive, no big deal because I wanted to try a different route anyway.
     
  13. Etcetera

    Etcetera Two Time F1 World Champ
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    #13 Etcetera, May 10, 2011
    Just how many pictures of donuts can one man have, anyway?
     
  14. 285ferrari

    285ferrari Two Time F1 World Champ
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    #14 285ferrari, May 12, 2011
    LOL---- Just a few thousand...
     

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