0

I have a great collection of movies that I had stored in a logical mesh of folder on my 3.5 tb WD personal cloud drive. I woke up 1 morning and found that everything was fine with my data on this drive, except for my movie collection: There were two great folders, one "2sort" nd the other "segregated". out of all the segregated sub folders, only letter C D and 2 or 3 others remain. and the 2 sort folder, which has umpteen subfolders, amounting to more than 0.5 tb. is.. it's just gone!!

this is a great downfall..

now this is a personal cloud drive and has no usb port etc. unfortunately to hardwire and recover files..

now I'm sure there are softwares out there that can help me recover my beloved movies from such an interestingly "hard-to-reach" (should I say?) device? what may that software be compadre, my happiness lies within your answer.. thank you..

remember, recovery software or (WD) personal cloud. :)

these ovies were All, "hand-picked", over the course of ten years.. I just never catalogued my collection.. if I could just get the "list" of my lost collection, that'd be enough.. recovering em would be a bonus.. but they out to be damaged if I were to somehow recover you know? still, I'm certain they're all intact.. I guess the file index just got corrupted.. There surely is a veil of some sort that need to be thrown or pushed aside to reveal my movies.. what software can do/does that? thanks immensely!

3
  • 1
    These devices appear to ship with 0TB configurations, so presumably the disk removal is easy. I see people claim that they are configured by default as RAID 1 which is MIRROR. This means that each disk is/should be an exact copy. If you left it Raid 1 and did not delete files intentionally, one of the drives may have all your stuff on it.
    – horatio
    May 29, 2014 at 20:12
  • 4
    I can't really tell you how to recover the files as I know nothing about the equipment in question. First thing first, however: if you really care about the data, get a set of same- or larger-capacity drives (doesn't have to even be WDs) and use some tool to make a per-sector copy of the drives that now live in your "personal cloud" onto the new ones, then work with the copies and don't touch the originals. That way, if you screw up the recovery, you can make a new copy and start all over again. If you really, really care about the data, consider a professional data recovery service.
    – user
    May 29, 2014 at 20:43
  • @Michael Kjörling Thing is, the "size" (info) is not present either.. When I look for/calculate the size of the volume or folder, it displays a number that veritably excludes the size of the "missing" files in concern.. :( Jun 3, 2014 at 15:57

2 Answers 2

0

If the data is something that you can't live without you should probably send it in to a professional.

But if you want to DIY, I agree with MonkeyZeus. Dismantle to get at the SATA.

I'm sure there are tons of free and paid programs out there. You should do some research on them and find one that sounds good to you.

I like the EaseUS data recovery wizard. You can check it out here. They give you some info and it has a pretty good walk through on using their free recovery program.

** I am in no way affiliated with EaseUs **

5
  • but easeus does not display my network drive?! this is a mybooklive 3tb with no usb.. just personal clloud.. ohh.. there has to be a way por favor?? Jun 2, 2014 at 10:24
  • Effector Dhanushanth. Here is a link to a video on how to open the case. "WD My Book Live" NAS Disassembly Then try a program like data recovery wizard or Piriform's Recuva or any undelete program that you want.
    – tmfahall
    Jun 2, 2014 at 14:04
  • thing is, the mybooklive is "totally fine" otherwise. These files are jjust "missing". And yes I cannot live without it. But since the drive is workin fine otherwise (nearly 2BG of music collected over more than "2 decades" -sicne Kurt Cobain was alive") I think-wouldn't it be tomfoolery to mess with the casing? I tried Ease us.. it does no display my (mapped) my book live drives for starters. how do I get the recovery program or programs first register the my book live? I guess that'd be a good place to start.. I really really care about this data.. but can't afford professional recovery Jun 3, 2014 at 16:12
  • (contd. from above) (recovery) right now.. will professional recovery work by all means? I will be loaded enough by all means, in about a year but these movies cannot wait in slumber because these movies may play a big part in my progress (I'm a budding Screenwriter).. bottom line, cannot afford professional recovery.. but number 1 on the agenda, how can I have my mybooklive 3tb personal cloud "register" as a drive in a software such as ease us? and are there other softwares too that you think might work in this context? Thanks immensely Jun 3, 2014 at 16:13
  • I've been doing some research on this and it seem s like it is a fairly common problem. Do you access your MyBookLive with more then one computer? If so more then one type of computer (ie Windows, Linux, Mac)?
    – tmfahall
    Jun 3, 2014 at 16:48
-1

As with the others, I would recommend removing the disk and connecting it direct to your computer. You can get hardware that lets you mount "naked" drives very cheaply.

Then run a testing and recovery tool on the drive to make sure that everything is working correctly.

My personal favourite is Spinrite but it isn't cheap at around USD90. However, it does work miracles on barely running drives. Might take a long time to run though so be patient. I've seen it take 3 weeks!! to recover a large drive with lots of problems. Of course, it cannot always work but it will recover absolutely everything it can and it keeps at it, constantly repositioning the heads to have another go at getting even a small part of the data and putting it all together.

Assuming you manage to recover the data - back it up!! If you have a reasonable Internet connection there are plenty of "unlimited" space backup services such as CrashPlan that are not too expensive.

Also, don't trust to RAID no matter what people say. When using consumer grade disks RAID is often more of a liability than a help. With RAID1 corruption can be written to both disks. It is better than nothing but a disk with a solid backup is better. Spend on backups before spending on RAID.

7
  • The drive in question is a USB/Network drive I am not sure if Spinrite even works on anything except an internal drive. Its on the roadmap but the author of Spinrite has the attention span of that dog in UP
    – Ramhound
    May 29, 2014 at 21:16
  • If it is USB, then the bit about stripping it out obviously doesn't apply. However Spinrite does work on USB drives as long as your BIOS supports then directly - all BIOS's and UEFI have supported that for quite a few years now. I've used it as such. I know that many people don't like Mr GRC but I have to say that Spinrite really does work, I don't often spend that much on software but it was money well spent & I've used it to recover a number of drives since. It doesn't really need an update as it works just fine though it doesn't have a "modern" UI. May 29, 2014 at 21:24
  • that's the problem.. it ain't USB.. it's a my book live personal cloud.. how can I recover a folder(s) on my booklive without hardwiring it ie over just the cloud? there ought to be a way.. although I'm looking for something free, it'd help (greatly) to know what the (payable) software is.. so I could work towards it.. cheers! Jun 3, 2014 at 16:16
  • I think you already have your answer, but for the sake of completeness. You need to hardwire. I've listed what I believe to be the best tool available for you above. Why not put the word around and see if someone you know has a copy of Spinrite. Then if it works you can pay for your own copy when you have the cash! Jun 3, 2014 at 20:18
  • SpinRite should be avoided if goal is data recovery and if drive is in 'bad shape'. As a matter of fact anything that stresses the drive should be avoided. Oct 22, 2022 at 14:11

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .