Backup DVD/CD or External Hard Disk Which One?

deba

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Dear All

As I was backing up few video files (flv from Youtube) from my Computer HD to a Maxtor External Hard Disk by using Cut Paste process I lost the files mysteriously.

I am trying to understand the cause of it but couldnt locate it.What caused such abnormal behavior and loss of data. Any Idea? The data simply vanished. Its not a hidden file either.

Is it better to backup files in DVD-R and CD-R of reputed brand then to store it in External Hard Disk because you may loose data due to electronic or mechanical failure of HD which wont be the case with Optical Media?
Just take care of your disk and protect it from scratches and chance of loosing data is minimal. Which way to go ?

Your views please.

Thanks.
 
Both hard discs and optical media are safe. In my 30 odd years of using computers I have never lost any file excepting once when my external hard drive crashed. Even then I was able to recover all the files using an external agency.

Unless you specify a particular sun directory, Windows will usually save files to a sub directory within 'Documents & Settings' of current user. Do a search of all drives and see if the file has been saved elsewhere.

I have always found Windows Explorer to be a pain in the neck and completely inadequate for simple file management tasks. I use Total Commander, and have never used Explorer in my life. I am sure there are other utilities that are good and popular.

Cheers
 
Very IMP data shld be backed up on DVD/BD & rest on HDD.
HDD if crashed can cause serious loss(due to high capacity)
DL material can be redownloaded.
 
I have never lost any data on HDD but lost some flv files and searched my entire computer and failed to locate the file.....they are not even in the external HDD.

They were not hidden files either.......so where are they gone in the cut - paste process......I am sure I have not deleted the files intentionally.So what went wrong ?

I hope such things wont happen in Optical Media as the data is burned and there is no electronic component as found in any HDD.
 
hi deba,

did you try 'chkdsk' on the disk parition?
sometimes it recovers the lost data during cut-paste..

You can also try with right-click on disk partition -> properties -> tools -> Error-checking
 
Yes I have run Chkdsk and no errors were reported but I couldnt recover the flv files.
This has never happened to me before......
 
Deba,

I will agree with Venkat, I have been using Total Commander for the past 10 years! and kind of addicted to it.

Cheers
 
Since you mentioned time machine in mac.

I have macbook with around 90gb used and I am using an ext HDD size 160gb for time machine. Now after making regular backups the total GB occupied on the ext. HDD reached 140GB. Now it is not backing up any further saying that the new backup of 25GB cannot fit in the ext HDD.

Why is Time Machine not deleting older backups to make space for the new one?

on this backup chapter, after my very recent switchover to Mac from Windows, I got the Apple Time Capsule and backup is all invisibly done now by the time machine in OS X of mac. I dont even need to bother.

What a relief and 'voila!' to mac!
 
They were not hidden files either.......so where are they gone in the cut - paste process......I am sure I have not deleted the files intentionally.So what went wrong ?

Deba, this could be a one time incident which may not have been completed properly. I would suggest you experiment with a few FLV files and see what is happening. It is possible that some Anti-Virus software has deleted the software. Just copy a single file of the same extension to a sub directory you have created and see what happens. That way you can see what the OS or software is doing.

For saving YouTube files, there are some specific software such as Download & Save Youtube Video Files Easily that are available. Please check them out.

Cheers
 
Have you tried to recover the files using free tools something like ( i just googled - you may find better ones )
Freeware file recovery software to undelete files or recover lost files

just to be on the safer side do not copy/move/intall any new software/file in the partition where you had the flv files untill you recoverd (unless otherwise).
If possible, recover it to another partition - else it may overwrite existing area


I myself had faced this problems using external HDD( usb based )
but I usually copy first( HDD + DVD media) , check and then delete.

In my instance the hdd is usb powered and the front panel usb slots does not have sufficiet juice to power at times - resulting in data loss

hope this helps
 
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because i make a lot of changes. deleting old movies and adding new ones. :yahoo:

Hi Raghav
It would be silly of me to advise you on this, being myself a beginner on the Mac front as am using it only since last few weeks. Sorry - haven't got an idea. Only thing I know is that when I got my Time Capsule, they told me that the 1TB HDD was more than enough that I'll ever require. Also, only the 1st time entire backup is done, & then onwards, just the changed files or additions are backed up. So, I fail to see why so much HDD space would be used.

regards!
 
In my instance the hdd is usb powered and the front panel usb slots does not have sufficiet juice to power at times - resulting in data loss

hope this helps

This may be the reason I lost my data.......
 
This may be the reason I lost my data.......

This a rare possibility. If the USB does not supply enough power to the drive, the drive will not be recognised by the OS and will not come up in Explorer or any other file management system. One possibility is that the drive was recognised before the copying started, then somehow got 'removed' due to some reason half way through. Even then the copying or downloading software should display an error.

If you faced no issues or did not see any error messages - the files have either been copied into some obscure sub-directory, been somehow renamed, or, most probably, the copying did not happen at all.

Cheers
 
This a rare possibility. If the USB does not supply enough power to the drive, the drive will not be recognised by the OS and will not come up in Explorer or any other file management system. One possibility is that the drive was recognised before the copying started, then somehow got 'removed' due to some reason half way through. Even then the copying or downloading software should display an error.

If you faced no issues or did not see any error messages - the files have either been copied into some obscure sub-directory, been somehow renamed, or, most probably, the copying did not happen at all.

Cheers

maybe.......:sad:....very difficult to detect the reason of it........
 
This may be the reason I lost my data.......

This is highly doubthful.

You wont lose the data due to intermittent loss in powering your USB. Your drive is either powered or not. If there is insufficient power it wont even be recognised by the PC.

If you are getting paranoid about this problem, you may want to look into flash based drives of larger capacity. They are very expensive now but as with storage, the prices shoudl drop in a few months.
 
maybe.......:sad:....very difficult to detect the reason of it........

I think sbg has spotted the problem correctly. Use of the front panel usb slots is the reason. It can happen in linux too, I think. I have no idea though why the front panel usb slots would be any different from the rear ones, but I have always seen our systems people always use the rear usb slots.

Regards.
 
I think sbg has spotted the problem correctly. Use of the front panel usb slots is the reason. It can happen in linux too, I think. I have no idea though why the front panel usb slots would be any different from the rear ones, but I have always seen our systems people always use the rear usb slots.

Regards.

When I connect any USB Thumb Drive or Ext. HDD or Card Reader to the front panel USB port of my desktop computer - it does not work but the same works when I connect it to the rear USB of my computer. Why this happens ?

But with some card readers and HDD the front panel USB will work.Very Strange.(This happens in my Desktop only)

The flv data loss I have suffered happened in my HP Pavillion Laptop so front panel USB or back panel in this case does not arise.
Thanks.
 
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Hi Deba
I am trying to understand the cause of it but couldnt locate it.
Just a wild guess try searching for them in temp folder...
...to a Maxtor External Hard Disk by using Cut Paste process I lost the files mysteriously.
Next time try using Copy Paste command.That way original files stays on HD. after confirming backup you can delete it.
Is it better to backup files in DVD-R and CD-R of reputed brand then to store it in External Hard Disk because you may loose data due to electronic or mechanical failure of HD which wont be the case with Optical Media?
My suggestion would be ~ backup on 'Once write DVD' make two copies, keep one safe use other one.
Regds
 
"Next time try using Copy Paste command.That way original files stays on HD. after confirming backup you can delete it."

This is a wise suggestion......will do so...Thanks......
 
Reasons for drop outs is that
when the usb device is first plugged in - its get recognized by o/s but when you start using it, there is additional power draw.

also HUBs are most of the times "useless shits" unless u you use it for thumb drives.
( 500 mA gets divided by no of ports)
USB pinout and wiring @ pinouts.ru

Additionally i have these problems - but ok with it now.
When using the external HDD, my wireless connection (usb based - connected to the rear of the pc )drops
-signal strength drops by about 30% - actually lose the connection to the modem.
( mother board is 865gbf )
 
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