Missing HDD

[Monkeyman]

I have 4 HDDs and 1 SSD in my case.  The SSD is OS only and the 4 HDDs contain my vast collection of various TV shows (mostly complete series) and movies.  All 4 HDDs were shown (and working) on my desktop earlier today.  Now, I'm missing one.  I tried rebooting but that didn't add the HDD.

What can I do??  I need this HDD.  As money allows, I plan to add extra HDDs to back up what I've got but 1TB HDDs aren't cheap.

Thanks for any help you can give me.

[LL-user]

Hi Monkeyman,

If you can't see the hard drive listed when running:

Code:

sudo fdisk -l

I would start at the bottom which means going into the BIOS when the computer starts up.
IF you can't see it there then
- there is no use of looking for it in your OS.
- open the case and see whether it is spinning (or dead).
- IF it's dead/not spinning: check all the connections, swap cables with a hard drive that works.

Let us know where you're at. Then we can go from there.

In general
(I know it unfortunately won't help you right now with that specific hard drive - BUT with the other 3. You might be aware of it anyway, too.)

* The 3 most important tasks for a computer user:
1. backup
2. backup
3. backup

* It sounds harsh but it's unfortunately true: If you don't run backups then you ultimately don't need the data as a hard drive is a consumption device, i.e. it will ultimately be "used up" at some stage and die. Always!

* Trying to recover data from a broken hard drive is possible in some cases BUT VERY expensive IF you need to get professionals involved. Far more expensive than plenty of backup tapes/disks.

All the best!

[rokytnji]

Might just be a loose coble.

[avj]

If you recently added the hard drives you may be looking at a cascading power supply failure these are fairly rare usually if a power supply fails it fails all at once, but sometimes it can fail in stages. Before adding any new hardware to a system I recommend calculating the size of power supply needed to run the new hardware. This is the link to an online power supply calculator that can give you an idea of what size power supply you need.

http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psuca...orlite.jsp

This may not be the problem you are having but it is good to keep in mind.

[Monkeyman]

I think rokytnji was right.  I wiggled all the connections and the icon is back.  Still gonna buy some back up HDDs.

Thanks to all who replied.

[LL-user]

Great to hear you've got it back!

Even better to hear one "maybe loss" has been enough for you to buy some backup disks!

If you haven't looked into backup yet, your normal file manager is not the tool to use.

CLI: rsync is your friend (I backup all my stuff with little scripts based on rsync)

GUI: many apps available, I recommend at the moment, esp. for people still also using Windows: FreeFileSync  https://www.freefilesync.org/

All the best

[Monkeyman]

Just downloaded FreeFileSync.  Once I get the new HDDs, I'll install it and get on with it.  Thanks.

[LL-user]

Hi Monkeyman,

If you need any help with setting it up or want a short intro, feel free to send me a PM. At the beginning it can be a bit confusing. But when you got the hang of it, it's a no brainer to run a backup.

All the best

[N4RPS]

Hello!

These days, a 2TB HD isn't that much more expensive than a 1TB. Well worth a few extra bucks for double the size...

73 DE N4RPS
Rob