External HD's

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There is one avenue I have not pursued. The one MyBook HD that is not working, does not seem to be recognized by my laptop or the Numark. Is it toast? Or is there a way to save the hard drive and make it function again?
Does the drive show up on other systems? If it powers up, the data could potentially be saved / could even be fine. If it's data corruption, the drive might be fine - the data just needs to be corrected. If the drive is physically failing, then it'll need to be replaced. If you're intent on replacing your drives and have an exact mirror, I wouldn't even worry about it whether or not the drive having issues is working or not. All drives have a lifespan (including SSD's). I keep drives until they physically fail - at which point, it's time for a new one. Disposal of all drives should be physical destruction - then the trash.

I remove the Drives from my old laptops before I get rid of them. If the drive is still functional you’ll be able to hook a cable to it and access the data. They also sell cases for some drives turning them into external drives. Somewhere in the house a box of all my old hard drives.
The drive he's speaking of is an external already in a case - ready to go. It's having issues showing up when connected.
 
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We talking about main systems you use for when your performing. Your backup will be another external drive which you keep at home and/or in the cloud.
Now your laptop is your main tool, you need to understand it and how in works, how tech on it changes.
Software being created now is written to take advance of the latest features on computers. Why VDJ with stems, OBS and other programs won’t run on some older machines.
I carry the backup HD with me. What good is it at home? I have an older laptop that I can use that has VDJ. That one has never been online. There's now as you know Windows 11. I'm sticking with what I have. It works fine. Why do I need to change, just because it's the latest thing? The old saying is if it ain't broke don't fix it.
 
Allow me to chime in on this topic.

I have been using SSDs for a decade, if not longer, and have yet to experience any failures. Not so with spindle drives, especially since they have gone way down in manufacturing quality control. A lot of spindle drive failures occur when they are frequently removed from a computer without utilizing the "eject hardware" feature in your lower right hand task bar area.

A feature no one seems to pay attention to on the mechanical spindle drives is the rpm rate. If it says nothing, it's probably a 5400rpm (slow). Some will say 7200 rpm (way better). Some will say 10,000 rpm (best) but those are nearly impossible to find in a 2 1/2" form factor portable.

SSDs are ideal for large file use such as video DJing (.mp4) as the latency (time to load then play) with DJ/VDJ software is very low. While the .mp4 file plays well from a spindle drive, one can notice a slight visual stuttering, although the audio is just fine.

Using an SSD as your primary laptop drive speeds EVERYTHING up, cutting boot up timing from 20 to 40 seconds down to 10, an unimportant speed increase unless one has to reboot during a performance, where 20 to 30 seconds seems like a lifetime.

As with any crucial data/media, backing everything up on two or more drives is the most intelligent and carefree way to eliminate concerns over any unexpected drive failure. Keep one copy of your media/data files off prem in case your house or office burns down, or you get burglarized.

My favorite program to keep all this media updated without having to copy, and recopy, then recopy some more, is called DSyncronize and can be found at http://dimio.altervista.org/. Good news? It's free and super easy to use.

Good luck with which ever way you decide to go.
 
I used to use a full size HD. I got away from those and found using a portable HD is easy to transport and doesn't need a power cord to be plugged up for it to work. Both HDs fit into my laptop bag with ease.. I have 2 laptop bags. I may be selling one of them.
 
Does the drive show up on other systems? If it powers up, the data could potentially be saved / could even be fine. If it's data corruption, the drive might be fine - the data just needs to be corrected. If the drive is physically failing, then it'll need to be replaced. If you're intent on replacing your drives and have an exact mirror, I wouldn't even worry about it whether or not the drive having issues is working or not. All drives have a lifespan (including SSD's). I keep drives until they physically fail - at which point, it's time for a new one. Disposal of all drives should be physical destruction - then the trash.


The drive he's speaking of is an external already in a case - ready to go. It's having issues showing up when connected.
The HD powers up (lights on disc spins) but it is not recognized by the Numark OR my laptop.
 
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Have you tried that external with a different computer? What kind of results?
 
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It does "tick"...

Ooh, that's not good. Like the others said, try it on multiple machines but more than likely, that drive has experienced a mechanical failure. Now the good news, even if it has mechanically failed, that doesn't mean it's dead completely. Sometimes when you have a drive that's just about gone, it will successfully reconnect sometimes but it may mean you have to try it numerous times (20-50). IF you can get it to reconnect, make sure you have another drive on hand and immediately ping everything off that drive to a backup. It may be the only chance you get. Hope this helps and good luck with it.
 
IF you can get it to reconnect, make sure you have another drive on hand and immediately ping everything off that drive to a backup. It may be the only chance you get. Hope this helps and good luck with it.
The one that's dead is one of two identical mirrored drives. The one that still lives has all the files I need. I want to get another so I have a backup again.
 
The one that's dead is one of two identical mirrored drives. The one that still lives has all the files I need. I want to get another so I have a backup again.
Good advice. I love to say you need backup because man made it not God.
 
Good advice. I love to say you need backup because man made it not God.
I know you know what you're doing but I would suggest having three identical drives. Update one to the other but not the third. When you update again update the third but not the second.

Sometimes it's possible to copy clone update a corrupt file and sometimes that's hard to recover. So at least you have one drive that hasn't been touched since the error was discovered. The likelihood of needing that is almost nil but when you're well-being and livelihood depend on precision, don't fool with the devil.
 
I know you know what you're doing but I would suggest having three identical drives. Update one to the other but not the third.
If this post was intended for me, I do have a third backup at home. A one terabyte external hard drive that has everything on it. Pictures, files, documents, and yes all of my music. When I add new music to one drive, I add them to all of my drives.
 
I know you know what you're doing but I would suggest having three identical drives. Update one to the other but not the third. When you update again update the third but not the second.

Sometimes it's possible to copy clone update a corrupt file and sometimes that's hard to recover. So at least you have one drive that hasn't been touched since the error was discovered. The likelihood of needing that is almost nil but when you're well-being and livelihood depend on precision, don't fool with the devil.
I know I have 3 and they are all identical in size and make. Just different colors.