My backup died and I lost all my files... help

Long story short, about a month ago I backed up all my photos (from like the last 2 1/2 years), programs, paid graphics, actions etc... I deleted them from my internal. My intention was to back up everything onto disks, which I did not get to.
I turned on my external last night to add some stuff and it's dead.
It turns on but it will not connect to my computer. I tried it on mine, my husbands and one of our laptops. Nothing. I tried another USB. Nothing. If you put it to your ear you can hear it trying to work and you can hear a beeping noise. I'm sure it is fried.
So after much crying and no sleep last night... it came to me that I could probably retrieve the files from my recycle bin, even though I deleted them.
My question is , I am looking for a program that works. I prefer free of course... but will pay if it works!
Right now I am running a program called RECOVER MY FILES... it's just a trial and it shows you what you can retrieve. Its been running for an hour and a half and it so far has over 50,000 files. You can choose what type files you want to recover. I choose the normal, jpg, psd, psp, png, gif etc... but... I didn't see where I could retrive my programs. If I can't find a free program I will more then likely buy this one unless anyone has any other suggestion.
Anyone?

...also... I want to be able to save them to an external drive when I do recover them instead of my internal drive, I wouldn't have enough room there... can this be done?

I use Runtime's GetBackData and it's a really good program. It's not free, though.

Good luck

Karl C wrote in post #5526481
I use Runtime's GetBackData and it's a really good program. It's not free, though.

Good luck

Thanks, I will check it out. I prefer to use a program someone has actually tried and can recommend!

Saving recovered files to a seperate drive is really important as you don't want to be overwriting potentially recoverable files on your internal drive.

just another tack to try, see if you can have a IT type person take the actual drive out of the external unit and try it in a P.C. to see if it's the drive that's failed or the enclosure unit which has it's own powersupply and drive interface electronics.
It'll be a whole heap less trouble if the drive has survived as you can buy the enclosures seperately.

joeseph wrote in post #5526557
Saving recovered files to a seperate drive is really important as you don't want to be overwriting potentially recoverable files on your internal drive.

just another tack to try, see if you can have a IT type person take the actual drive out of the external unit and try it in a P.C. to see if it's the drive that's failed or the enclosure unit which has it's own powersupply and drive interface electronics.
It'll be a whole heap less trouble if the drive has survived as you can buy the enclosures seperately.

My husband tried to open it up last night and couldn't. I didn't want him to force it.... I was considering taking it somewhere to have them retrieve... but now that I know I can recover from my internal I didn't think about just maybe busting the case open and trying it. I'm just afraid that once I do that what if I can't recover from my recycle bin (it shows a lot of corrupt files) and I completely destroy the external, then I have no hope at all.

I had the same thing happen and took the hard drive to a computer shop. For $150 they got the data out and I stored it in another drive. Worth the money because I had many files in it. I do double save the important weddings and events. Don't want that to happen again.

I would advise a couple of things, depending on just how important, and how valuable this stuff is.

First, IF it is this important, consider doing, or "not" doing the following:

First, don't screw with the external drive AT ALL. If you can afford it, have it professionally "retrieved." There are outfits that can actually pretty much recover the data from the bare platters, so to speak.

Second, I'd consider ALSO not using or doing anything with your drive on which you deleted the files. Any activity on that drive may overwrite the deleted files.

caroleigh wrote in post #5526522
Thanks, I will check it out. I prefer to use a program someone has actually tried and can recommend!

I'm sorry but was my post misunderstood? The program I recommended is one I've used.

Karl C wrote in post #5526481
I use Runtime's GetBackData and it's a really good program. It's not free, though.

Good luck

Karl C wrote in post #5528506
I'm sorry but was my post misunderstood? The program I recommended is one I've used.

No , No, I was saying I would check it out because you have used it...and recommended it... as opposed to the program I am considering, no one I know has used it. I would prefer to use a program I know someone has tried. This is why I asked for suggestions on which program I should use

440roadrunner wrote in post #5527594
I would advise a couple of things, depending on just how important, and how valuable this stuff is.

First, IF it is this important, consider doing, or "not" doing the following:

First, don't screw with the external drive AT ALL. If you can afford it, have it professionally "retrieved." There are outfits that can actually pretty much recover the data from the bare platters, so to speak.

Second, I'd consider ALSO not using or doing anything with your drive on which you deleted the files. Any activity on that drive may overwrite the deleted files.

Thanks for the advice. I have a question, when you say not to do anything with the drive I deleted the files, do you mean I shouldn't try to retrieve the deleted files or I shouldn't retrieve them back to the same drive? I plan to get a new external tonight and retrieve them all to that drive. If this doesn't work I will take the external hard drive to someone... I just don't know where in my area to take it.

My photos are important to me. I am not a professional photographer but I have 2 young children and I have lost almost 3 years of pictures. I am very bad at having my photos printed. My intention was to back them all up on disks. I needed to sort through and organize everything. I got busy and figured they were safe on the external. I suppose once I deleted from the internal they were no longer backed up, huh? I have really learned a lesson here.

I use this in the professional version. It's top notch and if there is a file to be recovered, it'll find it.

caroleigh wrote in post #5528574
Thanks for the advice. I have a question, when you say not to do anything with the drive I deleted the files, do you mean I shouldn't try to retrieve the deleted files or I shouldn't retrieve them back to the same drive? I plan to get a new external tonight and retrieve them all to that drive. If this doesn't work I will take the external hard drive to someone... I just don't know where in my area to take it.

Hope you will excuse me for jumping into this thread, but I might have some ideas.

First, I understand that you deleted your original files from your camera?

Where did you then place those files? Your computer's main hard drive, as well as an external USB drive?

You mentioned the Recycle Bin. Are those files still there?

Are you using XP or Vista as an operating system?

Frankly, you sound lost, and we need to get your bearings on where things are, and go from there.

My initial guess based on reading your posts is that your USB drive got filled beyond capacity. Sometimes a USB drive will not warn the user about this.

If that is the case, the drive will lock up and you will lose files, but still have a chance to get many of them back.

I have successfully used a program called "Spinrite" to rescue some drives. It works, but is quite slow as it works in "lower level" sectors of the drive to try and fix things. $69.00 is the cost. It takes some savvy to set it up as it must be booted from a CD to run.

Trying to dismantle the drive is risky as there is circuitry in there that could be damaged.

50,000 files is a lot of drive errors waiting to happen. It might be worthwhile to have a professional service take care of this, considering the personal value on what is on there.

Don't beat up on yourself. When I did tech support I had grown men literally cry on the phone because they failed to back up years of college work, at the masters and PHD level and poof it was gone. Oftentimes, a pro service would still be able to retrieve the data for them but at a very large cost. (thousands of dollars)

First, it is not a backup if you only have 1 copy. Make sure that you have multiple copies. The best backup program that I have found is ShadowProtect. Works wonders.

weather_wrangler wrote in post #5530542
Hope you will excuse me for jumping into this thread, but I might have some ideas.

First, I understand that you deleted your original files from your camera?

Where did you then place those files? Your computer's main hard drive, as well as an external USB drive?

You mentioned the Recycle Bin. Are those files still there?

Are you using XP or Vista as an operating system?

Frankly, you sound lost, and we need to get your bearings on where things are, and go from there.

My initial guess based on reading your posts is that your USB drive got filled beyond capacity. Sometimes a USB drive will not warn the user about this.

If that is the case, the drive will lock up and you will lose files, but still have a chance to get many of them back.

I have successfully used a program called "Spinrite" to rescue some drives. It works, but is quite slow as it works in "lower level" sectors of the drive to try and fix things. $69.00 is the cost. It takes some savvy to set it up as it must be booted from a CD to run.

Trying to dismantle the drive is risky as there is circuitry in there that could be damaged.

50,000 files is a lot of drive errors waiting to happen. It might be worthwhile to have a professional service take care of this, considering the personal value on what is on there.

Don't beat up on yourself. When I did tech support I had grown men literally cry on the phone because they failed to back up years of college work, at the masters and PHD level and poof it was gone. Oftentimes, a pro service would still be able to retrieve the data for them but at a very large cost. (thousands of dollars)

Let me try to start over... I was trying to not make it so long in my original post.

Yes, the photos have been deleted from my camera, we are talking almost 3 years worth of photos and several different cameras...

I have a 250GB hard drive in my computer and a 250 GB external hard drive, which started out as my backup (reason for my title, I was used to calling it backup).

I have some downloaded programs which are installed on my computer, I put the installers on the backup drive so that if I had an internal crash I could get my programs back. I still have the programs on my internal, but no installers...so now I have no backup.

My internal started to get very close to full so I decided to put all of my photos on the external, along with all of my graphics (many paid) , all of my templates etc... that were on my internal. My intention was to back them up onto disks. I deleted all the original files off of my internal, along with the installers for the programs that I have installed on my computer. I thought I would be safe - saved by my backup if my internal should fail. I dumped my recycle bin. With the intention of putting my photos on disks the last couple of weeks I have only saved my photos to my external, so the last couple weeks of photos were never on my internal, but one good thing about that is the only photos I have really taken were of my sons baseball team and I have them all upload, 4x6 size for the parents to download, so I can redownload the ones of my son there... but there are few candids I have lost, they are recent photos so that's ok.

So the other night I turned on my external hard drive. The light comes on but it will not connect to my computer and makes a beeping noise. It was not filled, still had plenty room.

Anyhow, what I am trying to do is recover the files I have deleted off of my internal hard drive. I know there are programs to do this, this is what I am asking here, which program is most reliable. This is the step I want to take before trying to recover my external hard drive. If I can get my photos back I will be happy. I would like to get my installtion files back for my programs but I can always rebuy them if anything.

I hope I have explained my situation so that you can get an idea of what's going on and what I am trying to do.

rklepper wrote in post #5530995
First, it is not a backup if you only have 1 copy. Make sure that you have multiple copies. The best backup program that I have found is ShadowProtect. Works wonders.

Your right, it did start out as being a backup until I deleted my originals because I was getting full, with the intention of backing everything up to disks. I just got used to calling it my backup.

Thanks for telling my about the program , I am leaving now to go get another external.