3TB Verbatim hard-drive died.

xrapidx

xrapidx

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The 3TB external drive I bought from Game last year on the 10th of April just died - one week outside of what I believe is the warranty.

Does anyone recall if the warranty was two years or one year?

The drive is accessible, but exceptionally slow, I'm not sure if the data is recoverable. If its not under warranty, I'm going to crack it open and try put it into a PC and see if I can get the data off.

I've been procrastinator for over a year on getting my storage redundancy sorted out - and today I'm going to learn the hard-way why procrastination doesn't pay off. (it also has the only copy of our wedding videos on it)
 
If you want the data back: http://www.southbit.co.za/

If you want it swapped: Contact Game and see what they say, otherwise find out who supplies Verbatim to SA and contact them and see what they say and/or use their website to find a service center if possible.

I think the 1 year warranty is from Game, there may be a warranty of 2 years on the product, you just need to find someone to honor it.

If all else fails ask [email protected] if he can help you.
 
I would put the drive in a zip plastic bag and place it in the Deep Freezer for 3 - 5 hours and then try to access the drive and copy the important stuff to your pc.
This is assuming the data is not worth taking to professionals.

This method has worked countless times for me.
Sometimes I had to put it in the freezer more than once to get all of the data.
 
NomNom said:
If you want the data back: http://www.southbit.co.za/

If you want it swapped: Contact Game and see what they say, otherwise find out who supplies Verbatim to SA and contact them and see what they say and/or use their website to find a service center if possible.

I think the 1 year warranty is from Game, there may be a warranty of 2 years on the product, you just need to find someone to honor it.

If all else fails ask [email protected] if he can help you.
Click to expand...

Thanks - almost got all of my wedding weddings off :p

The drive itself sounds fine - I'm wondering if it doesn't have something to do with the USB controller in the external bay. Its incredibly slow.

Biggest issue is not having somewhere to store the content on the drive before trying to get in a warranty claim.

I ideally don't want to loose the content, but most of it is downloaded crap anyways.

RoMark said:
I would put the drive in a zip plastic bag and place it in the Deep Freezer for 3 - 5 hours and then try to access the drive and copy the important stuff to your pc.
This is assuming the data is not worth taking to professionals.

This method has worked countless times for me.
Sometimes I had to put it in the freezer more than once to get all of the data.
Click to expand...

Has that actually been proven to work? Sort of last resort for me :p
 
xrapidx said:
Thanks - almost got all of my wedding weddings off :p

The drive itself sounds fine - I'm wondering if it doesn't have something to do with the USB controller in the external bay. Its incredibly slow.

Biggest issue is not having somewhere to store the content on the drive before trying to get in a warranty claim.

I ideally don't want to loose the content, but most of it is downloaded crap anyways.



Has that actually been proven to work? Sort of last resort for me :p
Click to expand...
I promise you that I have done the many times that were normally inaccessible or very slow and it was effective, even if just for an hour.
Granted it were smaller drives and yes if the info are really important I would recommend a professional service.
 
The freezer trick does work. It cools all the metallic bits which then contract, so if anything inside is bent/warped it should work until it heats back up again.
 
My Verbatim drive (also from Game) died earlier this year too. Managed to move everything off the drive before complete failure though.
 
xrapidx said:
Thanks - almost got all of my wedding weddings off :p

The drive itself sounds fine - I'm wondering if it doesn't have something to do with the USB controller in the external bay. Its incredibly slow.

Biggest issue is not having somewhere to store the content on the drive before trying to get in a warranty claim.

I ideally don't want to loose the content, but most of it is downloaded crap anyways.
Click to expand...
If you cracked it open then your warranty is dead.

xrapidx said:
Has that actually been proven to work? Sort of last resort for me :p
Click to expand...
Yes, though its a bit of a cowboy solution. Its the last thing you try before you chuck the drive in the dustbin. If you care about the data then you skip this and send it to a pro straight away.
 
Picard-facepalm-o.gif
 
HavocXphere said:
If you cracked it open then your warranty is dead.


Yes, though its a bit of a cowboy solution. Its the last thing you try before you chuck the drive in the dustbin. If you care about the data then you skip this and send it to a pro straight away.
Click to expand...

Drive is spotless - never did open it up - its still trying to copy. I'll have to see what I can get off, 3TB is a large sum to loose, the drive is 98% full.

Oddly enough, I've been procrastinating for years now about sorting out the storage, and three weeks ago I started the process by getting out an old PC, making sure it runs, seeing if it'll handle unraid.. and *boom* The donor PC is actually standing here on the table.
 
Those verbatim externals usually have samsung drives inside. Samsung has a warranty validation checker you can use on the Seagate website. You will need to open the enclosure though.
 
Then leave it in the case..you won't gain much from cracking it if its kinda working out atm.

>>Oddly enough, I've been procrastinating for years now about sorting out the storage

Yeah...my backup strategy is largely faith driven atm too. :p

Most of it I can pull again though (Steam installs etc) so not too worried.
 
Well..busy setting up netflix for now. This drive was all my HD stuff :(
 
Pity you're in the Cape. I would have lent you my 3TB drive to back up your "wedding" videos. Once you have it sorted out, you should consider uploading the really critical stuff online.
 
Thx. Got the wedding videos off. :) probably should make a plan with them, but they're 19gb raw.
 
Compress them using Handbrake and upload them to Youtube or Dropbox. Safest option.
 
Whoever is suggesting people put their hard drives in the freezer to 'fix' them, please stop. You're risking people's data. It's like suggesting you put your dog with a broken leg in the freezer to fix it. The fault and suggested solution are not related and only make any problem worse, often a lot worse.

If someone's data is irreplaceable, they should send it in for professional recovery. If the data is not very valuable, then go ahead and try different DIY tricks. But really, the freezer myth needs to die.
 
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