Data Hoarder

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We are digital librarians. Among us are represented the various reasons to keep data -- legal requirements, competitive requirements, uncertainty of permanence of cloud services, distaste for transmitting your data externally (e.g. government or corporate espionage), cultural and familial archivists, internet collapse preppers, and people who do it themselves so they're sure it's done right. Everyone has their reasons for curating the data they have decided to keep (either forever or For A Damn Long Time (tm) ). Along the way we have sought out like-minded individuals to exchange strategies, war stories, and cautionary tales of failures.

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What should I do with my old hard drive? (alien.top)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I have a Seagate Barracuda 7200. 500GB. It came from my old gaming pc. I got an external case and was using it as sort of an oversized USB. It just had a bunch of my photos and D&D stuff on it.

Well, long story short... I had to move my desk into the kitchen. And my cat knocked down the case. Now it won't work. And I'm scared it's the hard drive.

When I hit the power button, it comes on. The lights work. But when I plug in the hard drive it starts up then stops. Starts up. Then stops. The computer recognizes the case, but the hard drive isn't pulling up. I can feel the insides of the hard drive starting and stopping, too.

I bought another case but didn't pay attention so it's the wrong frickin size. I'm scared it's the hard drive that broke. It's a brick but... I don't know.

This hard drive is really important to me. It has some photos on there that... I really need. There are pictures of my son, who has passed away. And photos of my partner (his father) during that time and after that are very meaningful.

Should I buy another case? I have tech savvy friends who can look at it. Should I take it to them? Can I salvage what's left? Is it fixable?

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I own a computer repair business and unfortunately you probably damaged the hard drive and not the case. Literally just had to tell a customer this same thing yesterday and all they did was just tip over the drive didn't fall or anything. I've seen this numerous times and have even done it myself but fortunately had no important data on the drive that broke. Anyone local unless you're in a big city won't be able to take care of that for you you will have to send it in the mail to somebody. I know that prices can vary wildly but expect at least $120 an hour for a process that may take 10 to 15 hours. That will be your only chance to recover your data. There's a company called Drive savers that I have heard of but have no experience with. You are able to call them and supposedly they will give you a free quote and then you mail your hard drive to them and they don't charge you if they can't fix it. You can start there at least you'll have an idea of what you're dealing with.