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1) yes, but dang if I can remember it off the top of my head. I used it to recover a hard drive that had been badly mauled. Got back 95% of the files. I'll see if I can find the name. Depending on the type of drive failure, it might help.
Ha! Found it. I used R-Studio Data Recovery.
2) Cloud - well, if it's a big drive, then cloud can get pricey. If you only have some files than MS one drive and other options are useful. The useful thing about the cloud is that the data is elsewhere - so you are sort of disaster proof.
For me? I normally backup to an external drive and take it to my safety deposit box.
Charlie Gilley
<italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape...
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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1, See Data recovery[^]. Restored almost everything from a corrupted hard drive.
2. Online Cloud Backup | IDrive®[^]. Use for a couple of years now. Very easy to use and restored everything that was lost when another system got destroyed.
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If your backup drive contains the only copy of a given set of files, you don't have a backup at all.
I buy my drives in sets of 3: The live instance my systems access all the time, an offline backup that gets updated regularly, and an off-site backup that gets replaced with the other drive once a month or so.
Depending on the application, the live instance drive may be mirrored through RAID, but that's keeping in mind that this is for redundancy - it's not a backup.
As for recovery software: Some people swear by GRC's Spin-Rite. Others are skeptical, but essentially this is their only for-sale product, and they've been living off of it for over 20 years, so if it was total snake oil, I have to believe someone would've called them out on it by now.
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dandy72 wrote: If your backup drive contains the only copy of a given set of files, you don't have a backup at all.
I buy my drives in sets of 3: The live instance my systems access all the time, an offline backup that gets updated regularly, and an off-site backup that gets replaced with the other drive once a month or so.
Word.
And don't overlook off-site backup! I have come across too many stories of 'The fire took both my PC and all the backup disks'. Or the flood did. Or the thief. Or the power surge. Or the new puppy who chews up everything...
Another schedule for using double backup disks is to do regular backups regularly (say, every Sunday night) and bring the disk with the new backup to the offsite location (typically: your office) Monday morning, and take the previous generation back home Monday evening, to become the backup for the following week. (Note: Do NOT bring the old backup home first! Always keep one copy strictly off-site!)
In the worst case, damage to both the PC disk and all on-site backup, you may still loose one week of changes/additions, so you may want to (read: should) back up all changed files daily to an external disk. If you unplug that disk once the copying is done, and store it apart from the PC; that will protect it somewhat from theft, puppies and power surges. Some people don't want that bother every time they leave the PC (or they have a scheduled incremental bakcup every night at 04:00 which requires the incremental-backup disk to be on-line). That of course reduces the protection of the changes made this week, but some people will trade that protection for convenience.
Unplugging the backup disk is essential, both the power supply and the network. If you catch a ransomware virus that locks all you files and all of your disks, you may sit with completely useless backups, locked just like the original. (The same goes for malware that doesn't lock your files but erases them or destroys them.)
I think it is a good habit to set all file backups as read-only. For incremental backups still available on-line, it gives some (but certainly not full) protection against malware that could overwrite/delete it, but most of all: It keeps me from accidentally overwrite it, say, by overwriting the backup with a destroyed file rather than the other way around.
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Pics and videos are usually the high ticket items when it comes to space. If you have a Google account you can store unlimited pics & videos on Google Photos. Pretty sure Amazon and a few others do the same.
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But then: What is the cost of disks nowadays in cents per hour of video? Depending on your quality requirements, MPEG-4 video requires from less than 1 GByte/hour up to 3 GB/h. So a 6 TB disk can hold two to six thousand hours of video, and you can find those diske for 200 USD.
That is a low price to pay for protecting your privacy, and for avoiding the time it takes to transfer gigabyte by gigabyte across the network connection. Not everyone has fiber to the home.
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Buy two and remember to put one in your sibling's/friend's/whoever's garage. In the past, I've "traded" drives with someone. They backup and store their drive with me; I do the same with them.
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I use a NAS that automatically backs up everything from my work computer even while I'm out of the office (given I have Internet access of course).
This NAS has two HDD's in RAID 1.
I have a physical external USB HDD connected to the NAS to back it's contents up.
I still have to buy another HDD to be able to cycle between them, but I'm still trying to figure out how to be able to ask the super back up application that runs in the NAS to cycle using more than one HDD.
I'm afraid of using remote cloud backup systems... Sensitive data...
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I just recently ... nearly bought a NAS system, but in the end opted for a much cheaper DIY solution: I bought 3 x 6TB HD's and installed them in my old computer (Win7) and have them as shared drives on my hone network. I can just drag and drop into them, and/or set up my own backup s/w routines. So far so good 
Like you, I don't trust the cloud. Possession is ownership.
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I use dropbox.
I pay around £108 a year for 1TB of space together with a restore service.
The restore service allows me to restore any file to any point in time since it has been synced - which has come in very handy.
I consider £108 to be money very well spent considering the 1TB of space and peace of mind knowing that I can restore any file to any point in time.
It also means that if I am burgled, I can recover my data from online even if the thieves gain access and decide to delete everything(NAS is great until the building it is stored in goes up in flames or it is stolen, I cannot see any reason not to use cloud backup).
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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1) No - they are all hit and miss depending on how much coffee/beer/unidentified fluid infiltrated the drive housing...
2) OneDrive - $70 per year for 1TB. I also backup to an external hard drive and a large thumb drive which I have on my person at all times.
Remember, the cloud is just someone else's box hidden somewhere you'll never find it.
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Kevin Marois wrote: but I feel weary of it for some reason.
Ok, then have a bad HD, then. What is worse, the cloud(which is great) or a corrupted HD (which is bad) Just saying...
Sorry, I won't preach anymore.
I don't have any suggestions for you other than, if you are successful in recovering any pics/data, then get that sh*t to the cloud ASAP. Stop mucking around with stupid ass HD backups, and thumb drives, etc.
If those fail, you have no recourse most likely.
BTW, most of the cloud services are on redundant servers, etc., unlike your HD. Sorry, felt compelled to hit the point home again.
Good luck. 
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I've used GetDataBack with success where a drive became unreadable from windows...but that was over a decade ago.
I'm no expert on backups, but what has worked well for me is to use an older laptop with mapped drives to the important stuff on the server. These mapped drives are set to be available offline and will synch automatically or on demand. This laptop is usually only started and synched on Friday afternoon, then it's shut down until next Friday or something really important happens. Got any old laptops laying around?
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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Option 2 here was mentioned already but it's worth repeating. If you don't want to go the cloud route, you got two options....
1) Get a cheap web host that offers FTP and unlimited space. Use that space.
2) Pony up the dough for a RAID over a NAS.
Now, if you're looking to save money, stay away from SSD. You won't get much size from them, and you don't need speed for this more than you need size. However, it's worth saying that SSDs are a bit more fault tolerant due to no mechanical parts... which is usually what breaks down the most when a HDD goes kaput but since you're in a RAID configuration you at least lesson the chances of both drives crapping out.
Pro tip: If you go the RAID route, think about a RAID 6 or 10 (1+0) instead of just a RAID 1. It'll cost a bit more in the fact you need more drives. But they are way more likely to cover your bacon in the event of two drives failing... which can happen.
Jeremy Falcon
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For family pics, docs, etc - RAID setup? Overkill, I think. Great suggestion if he has $$$$$$$$$ and likes to setup/config things.
but I'm sure he just wants a safe spot for last year's taxes and pics of the family dog. I could be wrong. 
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Slacker007 wrote: For family pics, docs, etc - RAID setup? Overkill, I think. Great suggestion if he has $$$$$$$$$ and likes to setup/config things.
Oh you're totally correct. I just couldn't help myself... geeking out... it had to happen. 
Jeremy Falcon
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I have had two Seagate NAS drives fail and become unreadable over the course of 2 years. Fortunately my primary storage on my PC was intact and I wasn't relying on the NAS for primary storage. If your time is worth anything at all in $$$ then reliable cloud backup is cheap.
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Oh, and just as a point of reference to the cost of Cloud storage... 5TB of blob storage on Azure is about $100 USD a month if you're active with it. Not sure about AWS or Rackspace, but I would imagine it'll be in a similar ballpark.
<edit>
Ok, forget Azure. I just found out Google drive will offer twice that amount for the same price as Azure. Yay Google.
</edit>
There are services like Dropbox, but they cap out at 1TB I think.
Jeremy Falcon
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Kevin Marois wrote: We used it for backup.
If you used it for backup, you should have the original files on whatever drive you were backing up.
So, it doesn't sound like you were using it for backup, but rather external storage. 
Kevin Marois wrote: What are my options for backup?
Private GitHub repo. 
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I'm surprised nobody mentioned Resilio Sync yet. This was formerly called BitTorrent Sync.
It's basically Dropbox without the cloud server. Keeps your local devices synced between themselves, but does not keep a cloud copy.
So, I use two different PC's which are always on (but it can be used with PC's that you turn on only occasionally, as long as that delay in copying your data is ok with you).
I keep the two PC's on different locations, but you can do it at home if you prefer. Both have a 1TB disk dedicated to this task, and Resilio keeps them synced.
So that's 1TB of replicated storage for less than $100, one-time payment.
Be careful that replication is not exactly the same as backup. You are protected against hard-drive failure, but not against you deleting your files accidentally (it replicates the screw up...). I keep two copies of my directories, one of them static and updated about monthly, just in case I screw up the other.
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To recover files from failed customer disks I have used a data recovery company https://www.mjm.co.uk/[^]. You would obviously need to find someone near you
I also advocate multiple external hard disks in rotation with at least one always being kept offsite in case the office burns down
If you have another friendly location then you could always set up a remote ftp server and I use winscp to keep backups in step whilst minimising the internet traffic
These days local backup disks that are always online are at risk from ransomware attacks so you need to have offline storage for backups
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#1 and most important always always always have 2 backups. in 2 locations.
#2 and just as important. Verify your backups on a regular basis.
Other wise pick anything someone else has offered
To err is human to really mess up you need a computer
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1) Loads of suggestions from others, but first of all try the drive in a different enclosure (or mount it in a PC) - it may just be the USB electronics that are failing.
2) Get a NAS which will connect to the Cloud. All (reputable) NAS's have backup software that will "pull" data from other computers and carry out full/incremential backups which can then be synchronised with a Cloud service (I use Amazon CloudDrive @ 70€/yr, if you have Prime you already get unlimited photo storage and 5GB for other files).
Remember if you have a fire, flood or burglary you may lose all your data at home, so off-site storage is a must for anything you value. If you don't trust the Cloud then back up you NAS to a USB drive (which too can be automatic at the press of a button) and keep the drive with friends/family.
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