Dormant Drive Debacle!

[jrides]

Long story short..... (not really)

I just got back from Louisiana this morning to pick up a couple of internal hard drives used for recording. Very important projects mixed for another party, are on these drives. They havent been in use for at least a yr. I left for a 3 month deal right before September thinking, "They should be okay for a couple of months without spinning." A year later, and there is no water or moisture damage due to where they were located, but they were probably exposed to a lot of heat.

My plan.... buy two new drives. See if the ones I salvaged will power up and spin long enough to clone them right away. Now the way I understand it is, that drives have a higher chance of failure with prolonged inactivity. Any tips, tricks, or experiences to share before I take on this task? ANYTHING would be helpful.

[Agzilla]

I've left drives for a year and used them just fine! Maybe you should just power up and be suprised when it all works as it should?

Feel lucky?

Seriously though...probably work just fine.. unless you tried already and it didn't..

Zz.

[jrides]

Originally Posted by Agzilla

I've left drives for a year and used them just fine! Maybe you should just power up and be suprised when it all works as it should?

Feel lucky?

Seriously though...probably work just fine.. unless you tried already and it didn't..

Zz.

THIS is my hope! I am really hoping I can pop them on and Viola!!!


In all reality though... I have had enough hard drive problems to know that, in the long run it is safer for me to have a clone (and a plan B). Two HD's are what $100? I dont wanna run into the situation where they work fine for a week or even a month, then crash and are unable to be recovered. Thanks for the encouragement though. It helps to have a positive attitude. Any other thoughts folks?

[George Necola]

go, buy 2 new drives, and set the costs on your clients bill. thats it

I prefer Raptor-drives.

cheers

[Agzilla]

I was in NO way advocating NOT backing the data up by cloning or otherwise...

I was being positive that you could start them up and run them long enough to make safety backups...

Do us a favour and let us know what happened..when your all clear of course!

Good luck..

[jrides]

Thanks for the comments and support guys. Im gonna give it the old college try this weekend. We shall see how it goes. Im with Agzilla though. Im sure it will go fine.

J