Hard drive failure

[agb]

I'm not sure if it has failed or is corrupted somehow, but my main photos storage drive(L in my case) is no longer accessible. If I start the computer a scan and repair reaches 56% and then goes not further, so I have removed the drive.
What is the best way to get Lighroom to find the images on the main backup (M drive in my case)?

[vinhtee]

If you're unsure of what doing take it to a data recovery specialist. Don't risk losing data that might Still be salvageable

[Warbler]

Sometimes the scan and repair appears to have stopped, but it is in fact still working. How long did you wait? I've had these run 24 hours before on a 2TB HDD.

[ameerat42]

Well, I wish I knew about LR. I understand you lost no [important stuff]?

[fillum]

Graham are these internal or external drives?

[agb]

Graham are these internal or external drives?
Two internal and one external. i would like to get one of the the internal ones as being the folder that Lightroom sees for the images.

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If you're unsure of what doing take it to a data recovery specialist. Don't risk losing data that might Still be salvageable

Nothing is lost. I have so many copies of my data that there would have to be a massive failure for that to happen. I had three internal drives with the images and documents and two external drives. I just have lost one drive, which when I have Lightroom sorted I will have another go at re-starting.

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Sometimes the scan and repair appears to have stopped, but it is in fact still working. How long did you wait? I've had these run 24 hours before on a 2TB HDD.
Perhaps I did not wait long enough,so should I give it another go. It just does not seem to be doing anything.It is a 2Tb HDD that is having the problem so is it safe to leave it say overnight?

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Sometimes the scan and repair appears to have stopped, but it is in fact still working. How long did you wait? I've had these run 24 hours before on a 2TB HDD.
Perhaps I did not wait long enough,so should I give it another go. It just does not seem to be doing anything.It is a 2Tb HDD that is having the problem so is it safe to leave it say overnight?

[Warbler]

I would. I'd also run it as a command prompt and type in chkdsk L: /r At least you'll see what it is doing that way. Running the repair in explorer tends to mask what is happening. It will use heaps of CPU and RAM though, so you won't be able to do much whilst it is running.

[agb]

I would. I'd also run it as a command prompt and type in chkdsk L: /r At least you'll see what it is doing that way. Running the repair in explorer tends to mask what is happening. It will use heaps of CPU and RAM though, so you won't be able to do much whilst it is running.
I cannot do that because the computer will not start with the L disc operating.

[fillum]

Two internal and one external. i would like to get one of the the internal ones as being the folder that Lightroom sees for the images.So is L: drive external? I had a problem with an external drive a few months ago where it appeared to be failing. After a process of elimination (different usb port, different usb cable, etc) it turned out to be a problem with the power supply. The wall-wart thingo was supplying some power but apparently not enough to get the disk up to working speed. I tried a different power supply and it's been working fine (or at least appears to be) since.

In LR5 (can't recall for earlier versions) you can tell LR the new location of the image files. The amount of work involved in doing this will depend on the folder structure of the new location - if it's identical to the former folder structure you should only need to do it at the top folder level (I think), otherwise you might have to do it for individual folders / files if structure is different.

In the Library module...

open the Folders dropdown list
right-click on a folder name
the context menu that opens will either have "Update Folder Location..." or "Find Missing Folder..."
tell it (/navigate to) the new location

If your existing exported image files are not on the new drive and you want them there, you just need to copy them manually. Also if your LR files (catalog, etc) are on the L: drive you may need to move them manually and tell LR where they have been moved to. Let us know if you need more info...



Cheers.

[Warbler]

I cannot do that because the computer will not start with the L disc operating.

Ah! So the message to repair comes before you boot through to windows.... You might have to remove the drive and stick it in a dock. You can get USB3 docks for about $50. I have one to insert discs in for checking just this stuff. Your computer should boot okay without it. It's not your boot drive is it?

[agb]

Ah! So the message to repair comes before you boot through to windows.... You might have to remove the drive and stick it in a dock. You can get USB3 docks for about $50. I have one to insert discs in for checking just this stuff. Your computer should boot okay without it. It's not your boot drive is it?
Not the boot drive, and I had not thought of a usb dock. That might help see if the drive is worth recovering. But since theyonly cost $90 I might just chuck it out and get a new one. I have now used the missing files thing in Lightroom to get the files all sorted. Should have done that in the first place. Now I only have 4 copies of all my images:)

[arthurking83]

.... Now I only have 4 copies of all my images:)

LOL!

dump this problem drive then!

Unless it is, as Phil said .. just a power supply issue if it's an external drive.
Once a storage systems starts to fail, chances are that it will fail again into the future. Don't trust them.

[agb]

Today I bought a $29 HDD dock, popped the questionable HDD in, scanned and repaired and now it works like a dream.
I wonder if I leave it in the dock or pop it back into the box.

[ameerat42]

AGB, for my money....
(What follows "hickory-dickory"?)
Am.

[Warbler]

Depends agb. If it said that your disc has bad sectors during the repair, I'd be like Arthur and not trust it with any data again. If no bad sectors, I put it back in the box.

[arthurking83]

I'd be inclined to leave it in the dock for a bit, and use it for a while with stuff that may not be so important, or maybe semi important.

Stuff that you could use it for could be photos and or photo editing, as long as you have made backups of these images(if they're important to you!!).

Using the drive 'regularly' ... in performing many read/writes to it, will determine if it's going to fail or reveal any bad data again.

Do you have any HDD analysing software.

Years ago I used a very small program called Bart's stuff test to test some dead/dying CF cards.
All it does it write some random data to the storage device and reads it back .. basically doing lots of what you would normally do to a storage device, just in a quicker time frame.

SEE HERE (http://www.nu2.nu/bst/) ... you don't install this software, just unzip it and run it from the folder it unzipped too.
Very small and light on resources, so you can do this sort of test 'in the background'.
Note that if you do try it, you may need to point the program to a folder, not directly onto the root of the storage device.

That is, on my CF cards I've used it on, it returns an error of I try to run the test on the root of the card. It says somethign about needing the pro version(which is not available! :confused:)
But if you manually make a folder on the drive(in my case CF card) it then works fine.
I've never tried it on a HDD, so I don't know if it works the same way or not.
Note too, if you do try it, the default settings is that it's an endless loop of testing.
For as long as the software is running, it'll just keep on going. There are options in the program for a quick test or whatever .. I just run the endless loop on the problem cards I've gotten over time.

Also note: In the notes it says that if your drive does start to show signs of failure, or fails .. then it wasn't the fault of the software .. it was on it's way out anyhow. This software just brought that issue forward .. and more importantly, is that you didn't lose any data in the process ;)