[BUCKMIESTER]

Help!!! I have a SimpleTech 1 Terrabyte backup hard drive running with RAID 1. All of a sudden it won't boot up. I'm sure the data on the physical hard drives is good. I called a professional data recovery company and they gave me an estimate of $2800. Way out of my financial sphere right now. As previously stated I believe the data on the physical drives are good. I am willing to forgo the warranty if it is possible to open the unit and retrieve the information. Is this possible? I have used only about 10% of the drive used. It is primarily my photographs in jpeg & RAW although I have personal and professional papers that I only need on certain occasions. Is there a cheaper way to extract my info from the hard disks? Thanks in advance.
Jim Buckley

[smax013]

First...a question...

If it is a backup drive, then would you note have the information on your primary drive as well?

Or do you mean that you are using it as your primary data drive and relying on the RAID 1 array as your "backup"?

(OK...so that was two questions)

If I assume the later, then if it is still under warranty, I see two possible options...

The first is to contact SimpleTech and see what their policy/process would be if you looked to have it dealt with under warranty. In other words, would they protect your data in some way? For example, assuming you are correct that the internal drives are OK and it is something wrong with the enclosure holding the drives, then would they repair/replace the enclosure or would they just replace the whole unit? Along this line, when you say "it won't boot up", what do you mean? Does the drive get power but just will not mount? Or does the drive not get power at all? If it is the later, then maybe it could be solved by a new power adapter/cord, which you could get by contacting SimpleTech. My overall guess is that they likely will just replace the unit, but it does not hurt to ask (FWIW, this is a reason why I "build" my own external drives these days or make sure that if I buy an external drive with a RAID array from a manufacturer that the drives are designed to be user accessible without voiding the warranty).

The second option is to take the drive apart and pullout the internal drive mechanisms. This will almost definitely void the warranty if they can detect that the case has been opened, but it should be do able. Whether or not the data is retrievable will depend on what is wrong with the drive. If it is something wrong with the enclosure and the internal drives are OK, then you should definitely be able to retrieve the information. If something is wrong with the internal drives, then it is less of a sure thing. If you do go this route, then you should be able to open the enclosure and then install the drives in an enclosure(s) that you buy yourself or use then with a USB drive adapter.

[BUCKMIESTER]

smax013 -- Thanks for the response. I did communicate with SmartTech and they told me it was a straight trade-out. I send them the box, they destroy the box and send me a new one.

Secondly -- you scare me when you talk about building your own drives, ect . . . 8-) Would a reasonably able tech be able to do this? I have not a clue as how I would go about it.

Thirdly -- I used the hard drive as a scratch pad for Photoshop. Do you think that could contribute to the early demise? Do you reccomend a commercial hard drive that would work as a backup and scratchpad?

Thanks

[smax013]

BUCKMIESTER said:

smax013 -- Thanks for the response. I did communicate with SmartTech and they told me it was a straight trade-out. I send them the box, they destroy the box and send me a new one.

That is what I was kind of expecting. That is why I tend to like manufactured RAID drive with user accessible drive trays. Both my LaCie RAID drives (one a NAS drive and the other a eSATA/USB drive) have drive trays...if you have problem with a drive, they send you a new drive. I would assume that if they have to replace the enclosure, then they send you a new enclosure which you put your drives in and then send the dead enclosure back or they do it on their end...regardless, you can easily get to the drives if you need to. Having the drives "locked" away in a RAID enclosure kind of defeats the purpose of a RAID 1 array...i.e. being able to easily swap in a new drive if one of the two drives dies.

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Secondly -- you scare me when you talk about building your own drives, ect . . . 8-) Would a reasonably able tech be able to do this? I have not a clue as how I would go about it.

>

It is not nearly as scary as it sounds. It is merely a matter of buying an external drive enclosure of your choosing (there are bunch available through NewEgg) and buying an internal drive of your choosing (again a bunch available through NewEgg) and installing the internal drive in the enclosure...which is typically a matter of one or two connects to connect the drive and some screws and that is generally about it. The definite advantage is that you do not void a warranty to open it up and try the drive in a computer or another enclosure. It usually costs less too...but you do not get any software with it (if that matters to you).

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Thirdly -- I used the hard drive as a scratch pad for Photoshop. Do you think that could contribute to the early demise? Do you reccomend a commercial hard drive that would work as a backup and scratchpad?

Early demise...maybe. Certainly, the more you use a drive the more likely that it will "burn out". But, in your case, it seems more likely to be an enclosure issue (if it was setup in RAID 1, then BOTH drives would have to fail for it not to work if the enclosure was still fine...and the odds that both drives would fail are rather small)...and that should not necessarily be due to more use.

Personally, I would not suggest using an external drive (except for an eSATA drive...and maybe a Firewire 800) for a scratch/virtual memory disk (this is what I assume you meant) for Photoshop due to speed issues. Photoshop's scratch disk function is basically mimicking RAM when you run out of RAM...thus, the more speed, the better. I would use an internal drive for that or if you want to use an external drive, then an eSATA drive.

And I would DEFINITELY not recommend using a backup drive for anything other than backing up. The whole idea behind a backup drive is to have second copy of your key files if something happens to your primary copy. Using it as additional data storage means that such data is like the only copy, which would mean that you would not have a backup copy of that...and making a backup copy of that additional data storage to the same drive completely defeats the purpose...after all, if something happens to that drive, then both primary and backup is gone. And using for a scratch disk for Photoshop just means that you are using the drive more and there is more of a chance of something going wrong with the backup.

You never really answered if this drive was really more of a data drive (i.e. the only copy of the data) or if it was actually a backup copy of the data (i.e. primary copy is on the computer's hard drive).

Personally, I would have an external drive that is STRICTLY for backup purposes. This would be drive for a second copy of all your critical data files. And you might even consider a second external drive for a second backup (i.e. third copy) if this is REALLY critical data (i.e. data files for a business, etc). You then keep your primary data files either on the computer's drive or on some other external/internal drive. For a scratch disk, use either computer's internal drive or install a second internal drive (if possible...if it is a laptop, then this might not be possible)...if neither is possible, then look to an external drive, which should be as fast as possible...eSATA drive would be first choice, then Firewire 800, then Firewire 400, then USB.