C: Drive crash

[APK]

Recently had my music recording computer boot drive crash (Windows).
Very depressing. Had not backed up for quite some time.
Had all recent recordings / projects on it.

A reminder to BACK things up.
Clone your drives.

:(

[Seren]

Ouch, sorry to hear that.
Is there no way to get the stuff back?
Given the technology  - can't you take the disks out and take them somewhere?

[petekelly]

Yes, that sounds pretty grim.

I backup every week and have had no issues with using SSDs.  As Seren said, is there any way to try to recover your lost data ?

[Julio Di Benedetto]

Ouch.....sorry to hear that.

I use carbon copy cloning software on my Mac and have a 1T Glyph Drive just for backups. Actually I have only used Glyph Drives...https://www.glyphtech.com...because Glyph are able to recover all data from their corrupted hard drives if you send them in.  Only used this service one time and it was just a firmware issue and not a drive failure.

Hope you can get the data off the drive.  There are some amazing computer Wizards out there that seem to be able to fix anything or remove spells if need be.

[APK]

Sad thing is that the drive is no longer registering in the BIOS. SO computer does not see it.
It spins, but no reading. So can't run a rescue program on it.
It has been in a repair shop to see if they can clone it using a hardware cloner. No luck.

I will get it back today and try a different route. I have an identical drive and will remove the controller board on the good drive and put it on the bad one. Might work ... could just as easily be an electronic component problem as a mechanical one.

Last option is to seal it in a bag and put it in the freezer for a couple of hours, then try it. This has been known to work.

Yes, should have a more reliable SSD instead of the old style drive. My other three computers are all SSD.
Stupid really because the music computer is by far the most important one.

Problem is that when you put in a new drive you have to re-register/licence so much of the music software. And I use a lot of VST plugins. So I was being lazy.   :-\

[chris23]

I'm sorry to hear that, Anthony. I hope something works out.

Just out of curiosity: What do most musicians do to manage downloads, plugins, and licenses? Are most of them easily transferable across machines? Or do some of them breakdown across OS updates and create a huge pain?

[APK]

Jana ... yes, first thing I tried.

Swapping the controller board from a good drive to the bad one was promising, the disk shows up, but still not readable ... still not sure if it will save me paying a $1000 to a data recovery company though. They will take the platters (disks) out of the old drive and put them in a blank one, in a dust free environment, and try to copy the drive using the good read head.

Chris ::  I'd say they are transferable across machines, but you do have to cancel them on one and register them on the other. I don't find them much of a pain, generally. But it is a LOT of software. Much of the software is from smaller companies, or individuals, who are there to help make things easy.

[Julio Di Benedetto]

Just out of curiosity: What do most musicians do to manage downloads, plugins, and licenses? Are most of them easily transferable across machines? Or do some of them breakdown across OS updates and create a huge pain?

Regarding software audio plugins and their licenses it is handled by iLok which is basically a small usb drive that holds the encrypted licenses.  You will hear lots of people complain about this system and its inconveniences but it has work well for me over the years.  I don't have a vast amount of plugins, just a choice selection of EQ's compressors and FX for recording.

I have an IT co-worker that has every plugin under the sun for Pro Tools and he had to upgrade / cross grade his OS and drives and said it took a good week to complete, though he had 100's of gigs of samples as well to port over....nearly drove him mad and computers are his occupation.   So yeah Chris it can be a huge pain.

Anyone using a Cloud for backups?

[petekelly]

I'm sorry to hear that, Anthony. I hope something works out.

Just out of curiosity: What do most musicians do to manage downloads, plugins, and licenses? Are most of them easily transferable across machines? Or do some of them breakdown across OS updates and create a huge pain?

Yeah, sample libraries are the most time consuming. Whenver I re-install windows or get a new PC, I install some 'core' programs (FL Studio / various NI stuff / Valhalla verbs etc.) and it's usually not too bad. The thing that really takes time is tweaking the system to get rid of the bloatware /crap 'features' that comes with (in my case) windows 10 !

[APK]

Update on that almost dead drive.

It is now off at a hard disk recovery place over here. Hopefully with useful results.
Will be expensive, but it was that or stop doing music altogether and maybe take up
another hobby (trout fishing, bitcoin mining ...) that I would not like half as much.  >:(
It was not only months of lost recordings, but also a lot of presets I have made for my
favorite soft synths and effects that would be lost.

Again ... clone that boot drive, regularly !  Don't just back things up.

[APK]

Meanwhile, this has been a good opportunity to play with hardware synths more than usual ...
especially sitting out in the sun with headphones on.

I am enamored by my little Roland System 1m (been on all my recent recordings, in small interesting ways).
Fed by the Arturia Keystep ... so very portable, yet capable.
Also enjoying the Korg Electribe 2.

[APK]

Crashed drive was recovered and cloned. Just got it back.
Files are readable -- possibly all of them.  8)
Right now copying all my music project files to SSD. Going well.
The drive might also be bootable, but Windows does report some errors on it.
Will copy first, run a check disk program later.
But positive results so far.

[phobos]

 8)

[Julio Di Benedetto]

I can hear the exhale......happy for you and the music.

[chris23]

 :) :)

[petekelly]

Good news !
Just wondering if a dead SSD could be recovered ? From what I've read, if they die, then that's pretty much everything gone (?) Whereas your HD (even if it didn't boot), could still be recovered.

[APK]

It boots !!!!!!!!!   ;D

Things work !!!!!!

[APK]

I'm putting away the basket weaving kit, and back into music !  8)

Thanks for all the comments.  :)

[APK]

Pete.

SSD can be recovered, depending on the problem.
Same with memory sticks.
What you have probably heard is that a SSD has a set number of read/write cycles before it dies.
That is in fact true. But it is one hell of a lot of read/writes. 20 years or much more in normal use.
Which is why you do not de-fragment Solid State Drives ... you gain little in efficiency, but lose a lot of cycles.

But a SSD still has controller chips and other electronics that can act up, or go bad. And important index information that can get messed up, as with a hard disk. The hard disk rescue places will also work on solid state drives.

[petekelly]

APK,

Cheers, not quite as simple as I thought. I have to say, it's the mechanical element to the HD that concerns me more than anything.

Pete.

SSD can be recovered, depending on the problem.
Same with memory sticks.
What you have probably heard is that a SSD has a set number of read/write cycles before it dies.
That is in fact true. But it is one hell of a lot of read/writes. 20 years or much more in normal use.
Which is why you do not de-fragment Solid State Drives ... you gain little in efficiency, but lose a lot of cycles.

But a SSD still has controller chips and other electronics that can act up, or go bad. And important index information that can get messed up, as with a hard disk. The hard disk rescue places will also work on solid state drives.