Re: Somebody help! - Sudden massive loss of data from an external

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B. Chernick wrote:
Ok. Thank you one and all for your prompt responses. The problem has
somehow automagically gone away. For no good reason (instinct I
suppose) I did a shutdown and a restart and all the files have
reappeared. Looks like USB drives are truely idiot-proof. Once
again I have to ask: What just happened?

You did what you needed to do from the beginning: those are NOT idiot
proof. Once again, follow the rules. Use the Safe Removal tool. It's
there for a reason. RTFM also comes to mind <g>

Pop`



(By the way, which Maxtor hard drive utility are you refering to?)

Once again, thank you all.

"Malke" wrote:

B. Chernick wrote:
Yes I copied most of it. There were a few items that I cut and
pasted. Even so, that shouldn't result in total data loss. I've
already tried 2 data recovery programs and they can't see anything,
Maxtor's own 'File Recovery for windows' (it won't even allow me to
scan the disk), and File Recover 6.1 (which I'm running a physical
scan with and apparently will take some time.)

Is this just dumb bad luck or are USB drives really this
unreliable? I've been using them for years and this have never
happened to me before.

Also, if anyone has any favorite recovery utilities they'd like to
suggest, please do.

USB drives are usually not unreliable. Of course, the external hard
drive itself may have failed and this may have nothing to do with
unplugging it while data was being written to it. Hard drives do fail
sometimes which is why I like a layered approach to backup; i.e.,
files backed up to an external hard drive frequently and then a
DVD-R backup created once a month.

You can test your hard drive with the Maxtor hard drive utility or
contact Maxtor tech support for your next step.

For data recovery, I use Ontrack's Easy Recovery Pro but it is
expensive. R-Studio has been recommended by people I respect and it
is less than Ontrack's app.


Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User



.

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