Uh Oh

[Discus-n00b]

For anyone out there sitting in awe of mine, pat's, anyones photos.....this is what you don't see. Currently copying all of my photos from my computer to external harddrive for storage and backup purposes, and to free up space. What you see are the very very few photos we are comfortable posting, what you don't see is the other 36k of them:

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c172/clemmatt/uhoh1_zps17abb2d3.jpg

Thats just from 1 drive, I did another drive earlier that held about the same amount. Just over 36k images in this one folder LOL, that however includes RAW files for each. In reality I should of gone through each one and deleted the ones I'll never use....but talk about painstaking. Looks like I'll let this just run a while....praying for no computer freezes or crashes. Cool thing is, my external HD will still probably only be about half full after this.

[nc0gnet0]

I am guessing its a usb drive? If you pullled the usb drive from the external case and attached it to an internal SATA cable, it will take about 30 minutes to copy the contents.


rick

[Discus-n00b]

Yeah its USB. To be honest not sure I have a SATA cable free in the computer. I currently have 2 SSDs, and 2 other HDs in the computer. Usually I would do that, but this external drive is one of those with a solid plastic casing around it and I have no idea how to get inside of it without a hammer or breaking the case.

[Discus-n00b]

Nevermind, I found it LOL....time to look for a free SATA

[Discus-n00b]

Just kidding. Tricky Seagate fooled me. Found the plugs on the bottom (where I could remove the usb/power) but no SATA cable will fit into it because of the plastic, only their USB attachment will fit. Looks like I'm doing it via USB.

[Second Hand Pat]

Matt, this is what late nights are for. :) I am still in jpg mode with my pictures. I have no way to edit them yet. I made my dad mad when I told him I would have to bring him the x-mas pictures in person vs email. Darn pictures are just too big for email.

[DiscusLoverJeff]

That is one hell of a photo library Matt.

[Discus-n00b]

Probably to large Jeff lol. I got it all transfered. Feel better now that it is in a second place so if my computer crashes for whatever reason, they are safe.

[pcsb23]

Matt, this is what late nights are for. :) I am still in jpg mode with my pictures. I have no way to edit them yet. I made my dad mad when I told him I would have to bring him the x-mas pictures in person vs email. Darn pictures are just too big for email.Need to get you in the raw - oops I mean taking photos in raw format ;)


Probably to large Jeff lol. I got it all transfered. Feel better now that it is in a second place so if my computer crashes for whatever reason, they are safe.Matt, usb3 is signaificantky faster - would probably cut your time to a quarter.

I went through this exercise last year - not quite as much as you, just under 400Gb, but around a similar number of images. What started it for me was trying to find a couple of images and I couldn't! Basically I had used a variety of unique and novel ways to catalogue and store them. I used a variety of software in my workflow to download, convert (from raw) and edit my photos. In an attempt to preserve my sanity I've settled on one product, LightRoom, to do the downloading, cataloguing and converting - I can also do 90% or more of my editing in there too and have been hugely impressed with it. The older versions of LR were not particularly good at converting Nikon raw files, very good for Canon though. Apparently this is because the developers all shot Canon, they must have got some Nikon shooters on board as version 4.x is very good!

After backing up the originals I went through and deleted all the rubbish ones, it took a few days! Then removed all the ok but not good images to an archive, which has left me with my working catalogues. I have networked storage and have automated backups set up to that. Periodically I back the storage up to an off site location. I also upload (direct from LR) hi-res jpegs of my "best" or important images to an archive area of my website.

When I download off the camera I am a lot more ruthless now. I go through and delete all that are oof, all that have cut off subjects and all that are just plain rubbish. All of them now get keywords added and I put them into suitable collections too.

[Discus-n00b]

So glad I did this now. Today I come home to my main HDD in the computer dead as a doornail, not spinning or anything. Tested it in another computer too and nothing. So I'm kicking myself for losing everything else (even though I don't exactly know what that fully is) but sitting here smiling that I backed up my photo library to an external drive. Guess this gives me an excuse to go computer parts shopping! Newegg here I come....

[MKD]

This is why i don't like digital pics. it's good thing you did the back up and shopping is fun.

[Chad Hughes]

Check out Tiger Direct! (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Category/guidedSearch.asp?CatId=8&sel=Detail%3B17_791_47515_47515,Detail%3B17_35_502 11_58254)
I love shopping at here. When I was in Iraq, I bought everything from this place. I think they ship faster to Iraq tahn domestic. LOL!

[Kal-El]

Need to get you in the raw - oops I mean taking photos in raw format ;)

Matt, usb3 is signaificantky faster - would probably cut your time to a quarter.

I went through this exercise last year - not quite as much as you, just under 400Gb, but around a similar number of images. What started it for me was trying to find a couple of images and I couldn't! Basically I had used a variety of unique and novel ways to catalogue and store them. I used a variety of software in my workflow to download, convert (from raw) and edit my photos. In an attempt to preserve my sanity I've settled on one product, LightRoom, to do the downloading, cataloguing and converting - I can also do 90% or more of my editing in there too and have been hugely impressed with it. The older versions of LR were not particularly good at converting Nikon raw files, very good for Canon though. Apparently this is because the developers all shot Canon, they must have got some Nikon shooters on board as version 4.x is very good!

After backing up the originals I went through and deleted all the rubbish ones, it took a few days! Then removed all the ok but not good images to an archive, which has left me with my working catalogues. I have networked storage and have automated backups set up to that. Periodically I back the storage up to an off site location. I also upload (direct from LR) hi-res jpegs of my "best" or important images to an archive area of my website.

When I download off the camera I am a lot more ruthless now. I go through and delete all that are oof, all that have cut off subjects and all that are just plain rubbish. All of them now get keywords added and I put them into suitable collections too.

+1... USB 3.0 is a lot faster than SATA/eSATA about 4.8gbps. You may want to invest in a USB 3.0 hard drive enclosure and put in a 2TB HDD in it or buy an external 2 TB HDD with USB 3.0 @ newegg, tigerdirect, or online electronic store. There a lots of great deal for 2TB HDD drives.

[strawberryblonde]

You might have already tried this, but if not, give it a go, cross your fingers and be ready to copy EVERYTHING you want to keep:

1) Beg, borrow or buy an external hard drive enclosure. Don't spend a ton on it if you have to buy it because you don't want it just sitting there collecting dust if this doesn't work.

2) Remove your hard drive from your pc, remove the cover on it, flip it upside down and let it sit that way for at least 1 minute.

3) Place it into the enclosure, being VERY gentle with it. Don't bother putting the entire cover together, just get the connections done.

4) Plug the USB into any working computer and then hold your breath and see if the drive doesn't spin up and show up as an external drive.

5) If it does show up, QUICKLY start transferring the files you want while NOT bumping or jiggling it. You get just one shot at it, since the ones that do boot up generally won't do it a second time.

Dunno why this works exactly, I have some theories, but no hard facts. But it works about 90% of the time!

[Discus-n00b]

Thanks, I tried it already lol. It won't even spin or click or anything. Almost like it doesn't even draw power.

[Kal-El]

Thanks, I tried it already lol. It won't even spin or click or anything. Almost like it doesn't even draw power.
If no power than it's probably the hard drive controller is bad... At this point you won't be able to mount the drive and pull any data without it registering. Only other way to get the data recover is the professional way, which a professional will open the drive in a vacuum enclosure and moving the hard disk to rebuild it in a working controller. At this point it isn't worth trying to have professional like "Disk Doctor" recover the data as it'll be very expensive.

[discuspaul]

WOW - you folks are communicating way over my head !
Wish I had all your knowledge.

[MKD]

When there is no power which has a fan in the back of tower case. check the power supply fan is on or not. If no fan, that means power supply. Just my 2 cents from my first career in 1995 that im way out dated.

[Discus-n00b]

Everything else runs fine, just that HDD is gone. Even tried another HDD externally so its not even the external connection. I have 4 HDDs in this machine, the main one goes out....go figure right LOL. At least it wasn't my boot drive...