Help me prevent losing my data!

August 2, 2006 12:43 PM

My external USB hard drive was making some really weird noises (screeching and clicking) last night, when I tried to un-rar a bunch of large files. I quickly shut it off, and waited a few moments before turning it back on. It seems fine now, but I want to make sure it really is, and the noises didn't cause any permanent damage. Do those SMART things work over USB? If so, what's a good, free one? Any other suggestions? I can't afford to lose what's on this drive!
posted by fvox13 to computers & internet (5 comments total)

Back it up ASAP, it may last a while but it may go down tomorrow. I had a drive that would occasionally stick on startup and required a whack to get going. This worked for six months or so and then one day, it just stopped working.
posted by doctor_negative at 12:53 PM on August 2, 2006

SMART does not work over USB. time to back that thing up and replace it (or the drive inside, I think) if it's not under warranty.. screeching and clicking is never a good thing.
posted by mrg at 12:54 PM on August 2, 2006

Three words: backup, backup, backup. Any data that's only stored in one place and on one medium is at risk. Copy any data that's important to another drive or a DVD. It's even better if your backups can be done off-site. A backup to an external hard drive won't help you if the computer and HDD are stolen at the same time, or both destroyed in a fire.

I've been using the online backup service Mozy for a while now, and I'm quite happy with it. It runs in the background and automagically backs up specified files every 2 hours whenever the computer is idle. It encrypts the files before backing them up, and sends them over a SSL connection to Mozy's servers. Mozy offers up to 2GB of backup storage space free, with the caveat that they'll periodically send you a newsletter with some advertising, or you can opt for a paid version if you need more storage apsce. If you use the referral link above and sign up, we both get an extra 250MB of storage space. If you'd prefer, you can use this link which is 'clean').

Honestly, whatever way you do it, make sure you've got multiple copies of any important data. Hard drives crash, SMART isn't always reliable (and doesn't work over USB, as noted by mrg), and it sucks not having backups of vital data. Off-site backup (either using a service like Mozy or by burning DVDs and storing them off-site) is essential if the data is in any way important to you.
posted by gwenzel at 1:58 PM on August 2, 2006

urg... apsce = space.

One thing I didn't mention about Mozy - it only backs up files that have been changed since the last backup, so the first backup will take a long time (it took a couple of days for me) but subsequent backups are very small and quick.

Oh, and to elaborate on my answer to your question: replace the external drive. If it's showing signs that it's about to die, you don't want to use it to store important data.
posted by gwenzel at 4:35 PM on August 2, 2006

The disk is almost certainly a bog standard ATA one connected to a USB/IDE controller; you should be able to open the enclosure and plug the drive directly into your system and see what SMART has to say.

It'll probably say "Status OK" while the drive bursts into flames, but it might be interesting to see anyway, plus you can have it perform self tests, check error logs etc.

But yeah, consider this your wakeup call. "I can't afford to lose what's on this drive" aren't words you want to repeat, no matter the status of the drive.
posted by Freaky at 4:12 PM on August 3, 2006