I HATE external harddrives

I am just... so perplexed right now. I don't know whether to cry, scream, skin an animal, or slit my wrists.

I had an external harddrive I used for everything. All my music, personal files, years worth of information... And one day, it died. I never really recouped that music information, I haven't listened to nearly as much music since.

I had my internal harddrive on my mac die last summer. No reason, didn't drop it or anything, just was using it one day and the spinning wheel just kept spinning. So I restarted and it give the little folder icon. Got a new one installed under warranty.

I've been editing my first feature film for about two months now. I got a new kitten. She's not supposed to get on the dresser, and when she does I sit her down, but she just won't learn. I finished my daily scene worth of editing, so the harddrive wasn't running. She darted onto the dresser too quick for me to stop her, just running around like an idiot, and there the harddrive went. Bam, on the floor. Hard fall, hard wood floor. Guess I'll go buy another tomorrow and hope it functions long enough to transfer everything via USB. However, I doubt I'll get much sleep worrying about it.

I am just sick of this. How do people get by? Why must a 1tb solid state drive (enough to edit a feature film's worth of video and save all the rendered files) cost more than my camera? I'm just... going to have a meltdown. This kitten is laying next to me now. Now she wants to cuddle. I'm considering using her skin as a soft cover for the next harddrive. Think that'll protect it?

Maybe next time don't place the hard drive and its cables in a place where they can be yanked down to the floor?

I've got five external hard drives. They sit on a shelf low to the ground away from any foot traffic. It's impossible to get accidentally entangled in their cables. I have never had a problem with physical damage to any of my electronics because I don't put them in a compromising position.

I dunno if you have trouble with reading comprehension or if you just don't care and just want to berate people without getting your facts right, but the first two weren't caused by an physical damage. They just happened. This one happened from a tiny little animal. And it wasn't yanked, it was pushed. So the options are put it on the ground where she may pee on it if she feels so inclined, and where her dander goes, or put it higher where she may knock it down.

As far as the internal in your Mac, Hard drives die. There are NO Apple hard drives. Apple uses the same brands of hard drives that any other computer company uses. I have had brand new drives (even Seagate and WD) right out of the box fail SMART and had to be returned.

I just repaired a 24" iMac where the 250GB WD 7200 Desktop drive totally died. You plug it into any other computer the system locks at the Bios or EFI in Apples case and will not do anything. It happens.

I am sorry for you loss of the external though. I have cats and know with animals around you have to be careful where you place things like drives and know it first hand!

I know it's a pain but try with the new drive to place it where it might be a bit more stable and not get knocked down as easily.

Not putting you down BTW, just giving some advice from one pet owner to another!

Fact of life. Drives die eventually. Some last many many years, some last 6 months. It's luck of the draw, but until solid state drives (and even they can get corrupted) of a decent capacity come down in price we are stuck with using them.
It's unfortunate to lose them to pet damage though.
Back up data regularly, or invest in an online back up service, and buy well known brands of drive, as they do tend to be a bit more reliable.

It's bound to happen. Perhaps if you seem to have this kind of luck, you should consider purchasing an external drive to be used solely for the purpose of backing up your computer. When you're not using it, you can unplug it and store it away somewhere safe. I do this (or did until I get a larger HD) - I have a drive that I use solely for CCC backups and when I'm not using it, I unplug it and put it away.

I agree with what vansmith said. I have an external hard drive solely for backups. After my backups, I tuck it away in a safe place.

For sure what the above 2 guys say makes sense, because most drives fail due to be constantly running, though there is a train of thought that says that constantly starting up the drive from cold, even daily, puts more wear on the parts. This makes sense and I agree with it. It's why I never switch my iMac off, and never have done. My old iMacs drive is still fine after 8 years.
Using a drive once a week for back up's only is a good way of preventing failure in the short term.

Always do redundant backups on more than one hard drive, that's a must, or get a higher desk with cable management.

I use 3 ex-hdd's for back-ups ,

TM , CCC , CCC kept off site. Maybe a little much but space is a lot cheaper then recovery !

Clay

I dunno.. if your work is so important to you, I think you should take more things into consideration and be more prepared. Yes, drives can just die if they're faulty or if they're not stored in good surroundings, so you have to account for that by always syncing a backup hard drive or two for that precious data.

I have a cat as well. She's trained to not go to certain places, that's part of the deal. You can't expect an animal to do what you think is right without some training, that's your responsibility. And yes.. cats can be trained like any other animal. As for the dander, give the cat a bath every month and brush its hair. Vacuums work wonders, I know cuz I vacuum every day. You'd never know I had a cat unless you saw her.

Back your stuff up ! No excuses.. external drives are cheap as dirt these days ! In fact, I keep NOTHING on my internal MBP hard drive. I've had a rock solid Western Digital external for years and it has shown no signs of deterioration. Love it. Have another one that was originally an HD which was in a Linux box, and I put it into an external enclosure, so there's another 640 gigs. I also have a portable Firewire external which is fast and very handy. Another 500 gigs. I'm planning on getting another one soon.

Doug

Well don't skin the kitten! It is someone else's fault for leaving the drive in such a precarious position. Put it down to experience my lad and do not worry too much about it.

You will have much bigger disasters, and more costly ones, as life progresses. And as Doug suggests follow the three most important rules of computing:-

BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP!!

mr_goodbomb said:

So the options are put it on the ground where she may pee on it if she feels so inclined, and where her dander goes, or put it higher where she may knock it down.

Click to expand...

Are you any good at building things? I suggest a simple wooden box, with narrow cable slits cut where necessary in the ends/sides, and a loose lid with ventilation gaps and a wooden block weight on top. Put your drive(s) inside, and put the box close to your Mac work station, where it's safe from cats - and aardvarks!

PS. here in NZ we say we have two essential commodities, 1) No 8 wire, and 2) beer crates. The latter are ideal for placing external hard drives in, and there are already gaps for the cables to pass through. All they need is a lid, simple enough to make. The biggest problem? Getting hold of empty beer crates.

Best of luck with whatever solutions you decide to try.