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01/14/2008 06:01:13 AM · #1 |
I have a problem.
Last night I was writing a 3000 word essay for university. I had finished the 3000 words, and pressed save many many times. I was using a USB powered external hard drive so I could take the work to uni to print.
2 hours after saving and closing all applications, I unplugged the hard drive.
Today, none of the work I did after 8:30pm was there! I've lost a good few thousand words! I've never had a problem with just unplugging drives before, but this new drive I got doesn't seem to like it. I did a test by saving a new version of the essay on the hard drive - windows says the file was last edited 10:50am today. I unplug the HDD, plug in back in again, and low and behold - last edited 8:30pm yesterday.
This is really weird. It's never happened before :(
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01/14/2008 06:34:06 AM · #2 |
Yeah I've lost stuff before by not safely removing the drive. I still don't safely remove but I find that if I wait a bit longer after I think it's done saving then it's ok. No problems since.
Message edited by author 2008-01-14 06:34:46.
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01/14/2008 07:10:23 AM · #3 |
Originally posted by Konador:
Today, none of the work I did after 8:30pm was there! I've lost a good few thousand words! I've never had a problem with just unplugging drives before, but this new drive I got doesn't seem to like it. I did a test by saving a new version of the essay on the hard drive - windows says the file was last edited 10:50am today. I unplug the HDD, plug in back in again, and low and behold - last edited 8:30pm yesterday. |
Are you saying the dog ate your homework? |
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01/14/2008 07:21:56 AM · #4 |
Yeah, I've lost a bunch of files before that way (including photos and Lightroom catalogs). I second the title of this thread.
Maybe there's some kind of file recovery software that might be able to get the later files back? (no clue if it's possible or not, or what software - I've never done it myself) |
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01/14/2008 07:36:47 AM · #5 |
| Are you sure you lost the data from not safely removing? Sounds to me it wasn't saved properly. Maybe you accidently saved it somewhere else on your computer. |
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01/14/2008 07:56:19 AM · #6 |
| Are you using Windows 2000, because that happens quite often if using an external memory device with it. |
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01/14/2008 08:14:42 AM · #7 |
Originally posted by cloudsme:
Are you sure you lost the data from not safely removing? Sounds to me it wasn't saved properly. Maybe you accidently saved it somewhere else on your computer. |
It's definitely from not safely removing :(
I tested it by saving again, checking the date modified in My Computer, then removing. When I put it back in the date modified had reverted back to yesterday :/
I'm using Windows XP. I've started re-writing it again and I think it's better this time, so no loss really except time
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01/14/2008 08:24:22 AM · #8 |
| On external storage devices, you can help guard against this by disabling write caching for the device. XP will set flashdrives up like this by default. I just yank them out and it has never caused lost data. Not sure about the default for external hard drives though. |
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01/14/2008 09:20:56 AM · #9 |
check your temp files / you may have a backup to gather from ..
with critical files save on two separate mediums (my Msc thesis was scattered on 3-5 separate machines ;) |
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01/14/2008 09:49:56 AM · #10 |
| Surely to save any file ONLY on the external drive is asking for trouble. Redundancy is not only what you might get when you leave university and get kicked out of your first job - it is also a way of making sure your files are saved for posterity. My choice would have been to save the work on the local hard drive and then back up on the external USB drive. That way you never loose anything. And make sure the USB drive is safe to remove.... there is a reason they say that. |
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01/14/2008 10:00:30 AM · #11 |
Does "eject" do the same thing? You can right-click on an external device in the left pane of Windows explorer and "eject" is an option.
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01/14/2008 12:55:28 PM · #12 |
| Ben, I always write my essays with one copy on my laptops HDD and a copy on a USB flash disk. That way, fi the USB dies or my computer irrevocably crashes, I've still got a copy to work with. Also, for every few hundred words, I save the document to a new copy. If for any reason I loose both copies of the last version, I can continue from the last version before that and don't have to start again from the very beginning. I hope this is helpful. |
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01/14/2008 01:53:18 PM · #13 |
| I always save to my hard drive THEN I save to the external drive. That way I still have a file on the computer. |
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01/14/2008 02:01:20 PM · #14 |
With my experiences (I wish you'd asked me first) never EVER work with your external anything directly if you have something that you think fragile such as projects or images. USB drives, flash drives and other drives connected to your computer is not real-time thing, cached in your internal HD for many times to save SPEED (yes god damned, that's how some stuff work fast you know)
Work INTERNAL HD first, and copy them NOT move them... again NOT MOVE them copy first.
Your internal HDs even clicks, pufs, crashes, still are your best bet EVER... anyone tells me the other way I am going to debate it forever, I do have 25 years of experience daily basis.
GRRRR... makes me angry because I have seen many cases such like this one.
FP
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01/14/2008 03:31:17 PM · #15 |
Originally posted by levyj413:
Does "eject" do the same thing? You can right-click on an external device in the left pane of Windows explorer and "eject" is an option. |
Eject is the same thing as "safely remove" I believe, so yes this should work. That said, I would concur with all the advice to save to the local drive first - NEVER trust removable media alone for anything important. Although I admittedly get complacent once in awhile and inevitably get bit. |
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01/14/2008 05:50:56 PM · #16 |
Originally posted by Art Roflmao:
Originally posted by levyj413:
Does "eject" do the same thing? You can right-click on an external device in the left pane of Windows explorer and "eject" is an option. |
Eject is the same thing as "safely remove" I believe, so yes this should work. That said, I would concur with all the advice to save to the local drive first - NEVER trust removable media alone for anything important. Although I admittedly get complacent once in awhile and inevitably get bit. |
Thanks. The only time I work directly with an external device is when I shoot for a challenge at 11:45 and need to do my editing RIGHT NOW, so I load it from the camera straight into PS, even before I copy it to my hard drive. :) Then I copy the original over after I submit.
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01/14/2008 06:14:51 PM · #17 |
Originally posted by FocusPoint:
With my experiences (I wish you'd asked me first) never EVER work with your external anything directly if you have something that you think fragile such as projects or images. USB drives, flash drives and other drives connected to your computer is not real-time thing, cached in your internal HD for many times to save SPEED (yes god damned, that's how some stuff work fast you know)
Work INTERNAL HD first, and copy them NOT move them... again NOT MOVE them copy first.
Your internal HDs even clicks, pufs, crashes, still are your best bet EVER... anyone tells me the other way I am going to debate it forever, I do have 25 years of experience daily basis.
GRRRR... makes me angry because I have seen many cases such like this one.
FP |
Thanks for the advice. I had no idea that the drives worked like this. I assumed that once I pressed save and the save bar in Word finished, it was saved! I'm now working on my internal hard drive and copying over to the external every now and again.
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01/14/2008 06:35:56 PM · #18 |
Externals are just as reliable as internals in my experience. I've been running between 4 and 5 external drives for years, both Firewire and USB 1.0 and 2.0 and other than the external power supply going bad in the case of one of the Firewire, I've never had any problems. And this is on Win 2000. I copy stuff back and forth, pull out the hot swapable Firewire drives unplug cables and other than the alert I've removed a external device, I've not lost anything or had a problem. I run external drives on computers at work running XP Pro and even Win 2003 Servers and pull them off and plug them in and haven't lost anything or had any problems. I'm not sure why those that are having problems do, but I find external drives to be just as reliable as any other drive.
Mike
Message edited by author 2008-01-14 18:36:45.
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01/14/2008 07:07:15 PM · #19 |
I would never install applications to external drives, never work in real-time, meaning I don't work with any file directly from external drive... I only use them as storages, transporters, backup drives, and that's always going to be like that for me no matter what kind of OS or machine I have. External drives are not designed to use such methods, they are connected with wires that can be pulled off during a backup, copy or defragmentation, and not most HDs are forgiven when it comes to "cut the cord" situation. Internal HDs always have the first priority. Even fastest connections, if external HD is busy for some reason, because of their memory lack, internal HDs or local memory caches the information momentarily, or until buffer is full and then sends to external HD to write. It does not happen all the time, but I don't like to take my chances. We don't run a nuclear power plant that it would be that critical, but drives people crazy to lose 3 hours of work just like that.
I say one more thing; NEVER trust your single internal HD for your file backups. To those who don't know the difference, partition drive is not physical drive, even you have a different drive letter(s) such as E, F, G etc, and they are in the same HD just sliced to organize things better. Use either internal or external HD to backup your stuff. When I say this I am very passionate about it, I can't express how important is to backup your files to another physical something (HD, FLASH, CD, DVD etc) regular basis.
hot files: local drive... always :) |
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