[ChristyVW]

So, last night I realize my EHD has crashed. Computer shows is as connected but I get a "Error Performing Inpage Operation" message if I try to access it.

According to the 'help' system with it, it needs to be returned to Seagate for replacement. It is still under warranty, so my only cost will be shipping to them.

The tough part is, you don't get your data back from them, just a replacement EHD. Conveniently, though, they do offer data recovery services. From what I can tell though, they usually cost hundreds of dollars!! (Hmmm...kind of sounds like a suspicious system to me, buy anyway!!)

Fortunately for me, this is my 'backup', I have not lost any original data. The biggest loss for me is that any pictures older than 6 months are on there and on disk. I really didn't want to reload them all to a new EHD.

So, I googled my error message and found a site that gave a simple, non-destructive way to try and recover the EHD.

This is what it said:

1. Start > Run > type in cmd then click OK to get a command prompt.
2. Type in chkdsk e: /r (replace e: with the drive letter of your external hard drive).

This won't do any harm, it will fix errors on the disk and try to recover data from bad sectors. It might not solve the problem but it's worth a try.

It took about 10 hours to complete, but I have complete access back to my EHD!! It found a couple bad sectors, so I may have some minor file loss, but I am so excited to have access to the drive again!!

Now, I need to decide if I will still send it in or not. I am sure I will probably either buy another EHD or use an online service in addition to this one.

I just wanted to share my happy ending, in hopes it will help someone else someday!!

[Shelbi]

That IS very good news!!

Don't you just love google?

[April Showers]

Happy to hear you were able to recover most of your files. And I'd probably get a new drive and send that one in for replacement.

[princessrunningfingers]

That is wonderful. There are usually ways around things, my daughter tells me. I messed up my startup on my computer yesterday because I installed a piece of software that came with my camera. I didn't read the fine print saying it wouldn't work on a 64 bit machine. My computer wouldn't start up no matter what I tried and I was so upset. I called DD and she came over after work, and she managed to get it started for me. We deleted the software, and then looked on the internet and found a fix that allowed it to be installed on my machine. So, thanks to her, I now have my machine running, and the software as well. I guess the message here is don't despair, just keep looking for solutions. I am so happy that we both found them.

[sunnie2004]

WAHOO!! Good for YOU! So glad to hear this!! I shut my 2 ehds off all the time I have made a habit of doing this after I talked to Seagate when I was installing my new EHD. The techie recommended that when not in use to unplug the drive and it will definetly hold up longer. Knock on wood my older one which is about 3 years has been unplugged for months I bought a huge one and that one kinda is a back up back up. Congrats for being so smart Christy!!

[CRS]

That's great news! Isn't the internet wonderful? I can't imagine how we survived before the internet, lol!

[kimmybutton]

Wow! My heart sunk when I saw the title of the post. Now, I'm relieved! Thanks for sharing the info, Christy! When my EHD crashed a year ago, I was fortunate to have a back up of it on another EHD. But, I did send in my WD My Book for a replacement. I've been using that ehd without any problems.

[Silly]

That is excellent news - thanks so much for sharing!!! So smart of you not to completely rely on it as your only backup source. I have one older EHD that I need to replace before it crashes but it's just a redundant backup too.

[DDecker]

I was thinking "hm thats GOOD news?" LOL I am glad you got it working again. You might want to try and defrag it to see if you can get those bad sectors fixed.

[Jster025]

It seems like there are quite a few EHD failures posted at the board.

Why is it that the EHD’s seem to be so much more fragile than the internal ones?

I’ve had my MyBook for a couple of years now; and like Sunnie, I keep it unplugged unless I’m using it for a back-up (which is all I use it for). I just decided to do that myself—thinking that it might lengthen its life. This was after reading so many topics about EHD’s going bad. I’d like to get another one and do a dual-back up, but I’m getting kind of afraid to put anything more on my elderly Dell system—‘he’ is trying his best to get me to Windows7.

[Bobbi Jo]

Jster025, on 18 August 2009 - 11:41 AM, said:

It seems like there are quite a few EHD failures posted at the board.

Why is it that the EHD’s seem to be so much more fragile than the internal ones?

I don't know for sure, but I've heard that the reason they don't hold up is because they have no cooling system, i.e. no fans like the internal HDs do. Laptops can have significantly shorter lives for the same reason. If that's truly the case, it would make sense that they last longer if they're unplugged most of the time.

Glad this turned out so much better than you anticipated.

[kerryveale]

I save everything to two EHDs. (save once to the Seagate, then to the Western Digital).) I have had one fail before; Western Digital replaced it, and fortunately my backup data on the other EHD was up to date.

I do try to remember to shut down my computer and my EHDs when I'm not working at the computer. Should I be physically pulling the EHD's electric cord out of the power strip, also, when I shut my computer off?

I did notice that Seagate offers a 5-year replacement policy while my WD only had one year. My Seagate runs faster, too.

Christy, I am so glad you fixed your EHD!

[scraphappen]

You are sooo lucky!! Usually when I loose a hard drive it's gone to hard drive heaven forever!!! LOL
Glad you got your stuff.

[AmandaFace]

nice!

[Cheri T]

That's great when you can be your own tech support and it works! Woohoo, congrats:)

[elibar]

Thanks for sharing that tidbit! could save my EHD someday! Gotta love Google

[nicole_j]

That's awesome! and good to share.

[StephRN]

Ooooh, Christy thanks for sharing your discovery. That may be a lifesaver for others that end up with EHD failure.