Anime Club - Heaven Society

[helping]

I have super bad news, and if you use my Plex server this is terrible news. The Plex server is dead, long live the Plex server.

 

The hard drive that I had all of my anime, movies, TV shows, EVERYTHING on has died. The last month or two it's been randomly inaccessible and sometimes it wouldn't show in Windows at all. Earlier today it wasn't showing in Windows, so I ran up to Best Buy to grab another 3TB drive so I could do a raid 1 array, but of course BB didn't have the drive, but by that time it was already too late.

 

I did some simple troubleshooting such as restarting Windows multiple times, completely powering off my PC and starting it back up, and switching SATA ports. All of these are things that have worked in the past when the drive failed to be recognized before. 

 

Sometime (hopefully) soon I'm going to get another high volume drive (NAS drive this time, and 2 of them) and begin rebuilding the Plex server. The server was a lot more than just downloading shows and throwing them into a folder to be viewed by whoever. I had to rename everything, compress almost everything, and of course download everything, not once, not twice, but three times! Yes, the entire Plex server (aka its content) had to be redownloaded three times because of compression and naming errors I originally made. The downloading process for the anime alone took a good month and a half of straight downloading everyday, and the compression... Don't even get me started on the compression process... What's even worse is that some of the torrents aren't even active anymore, so I'm gonna have a difficult time getting some shows back...

 

The entire process of getting the money for the drives, downloading, renaming, and compressing everything will easily take 2 or 3 months, possibly even longer. Plex will return eventually, but for now all I can say is this...

 

 

hot damn that sounds like horror

RIP

praying I never have to go through that

 

 

Do you know what part of it died? It might be worth repairing

 

If you have a BD drive (you're in tampa so this is easy) just ship post it to ORL and I can mirror some of my folders if you need it

I would offer you a file transfer... but buying a BD drive,  burning,  and two way shipping, and return it is actually faster.

 

@Vitalius I thought that only worked for worn dead drives?

I don't think it'll last long enough to rip all the files off since spindles are kinda slow and heat up too much

 

could try and do it multiple times but IIRC the more you do it the less likely it'll continue to work

 

also if you try that, wrap it in some towels

I've seen this work before though, along with shoving GPUs through Auschwitz.

[TopWargamer]

so. your sayin. backups are important. because that's all im hearin.

Yes Vitalius-senpai... I did a dumb...

 

Freeze the drive in a freezer. Then run it. I'm serious. That shit can magically work. I've seen it happen. The drive will last an hour or so. Long enough to warm up, then it will start dying again. Some issues (like head crashes) just won't work even with that though. Bad/unrecoverable sectors & UREs? Cold air fixes it. Somehow.

It might work one more time after the first attempt and warming up, but that's very unlikely due to condensation (your enemy at this point). Then you are done. 

To do it right, you'd want to get it into a sealed plastic bag (air tight preferred, but not vacuum packed) with 0% humidity air. Hard to do, but doable.

Or just leave it in the fridge while it's running. The secret of that is a very long SATA cable and a very thin power SATA cable. Cover the connections with electrical tape to prevent random ice falling onto the connectors. Have it propped up on styrofoam, cardboard, or plastic of some kind.

... I have experience with drive failure, as you can imagine. $15,000 worth of it.

Why the hell not. The drive is dead anyways. So, just to clarify, put the hard drive in a sealed bag with as much air sucked out as possible, connect a super long SATA cable to it, then throw that whole contraption in the freezer (or fridge?), plug it into my computer, and start copying away? 

[TopWargamer]

Isn't there a way to recover the data? Since it's a HDD?

Working on that.

[That_Random_Guy]

It was great while it was alive. I need to reinstall plex on my phone anyway. 

 

I look forward to it going back online, thanks based wargamer. 

 

oh... so he was hosting anime lol, wish i would have known. Would have saved me a crapton of HDD space

 

Oh snap they increased the max file size of uploaded images to 30mb lol When was that a thing

[TopWargamer]

hot damn that sounds like horror

RIP

praying I never have to go through that

 

-snip-

 

Do you know what part of it died? It might be worth repairing

 

If you have a BD drive (you're in tampa so this is easy) just ship post it to ORL and I can mirror some of my folders if you need it

I would offer you a file transfer... but buying a BD drive,  burning,  and two way shipping, and return it is actually faster.

I unfortunately do not have a Bluray drive, but it's been on my list of things to buy for a while. I may just bite the bullet now if it means recovering the data. As for copying over your folders and whatnot, would it be easier if I just drove up to Orlando? I honestly don't mind the drive, but I'm not sure how you feel about some random dude from the Internet showing up at your house being like "Sup." I'll leave that up to you, if not, that's fine, then we can definitely do the mailing stuff and copying stuff.

[helping]

Yes Vitalius-senpai... I did a dumb...

 

 

 

Why the hell not. The drive is dead anyways. So, just to clarify, put the hard drive in a sealed bag with as much air sucked out as possible, connect a super long SATA cable to it, then throw that whole contraption in the freezer (or fridge?), plug it into my computer, and start copying away? 

...eh you might wanna think about that

you could still pay to get data recovery, even if it's pointless technically, aside to save time

or you could try refurbing it yourself before freezing

 

your struggles is why I want to find a reliable way to save file-tree snapshots regularly offsite to at least know what I lost when I lose it.

[Tr3vor]

"retro" gamers need to shut the fuck up, seriously.

 

going on about patches being bad things? Go back and play Pokemon red and blue. That is some of the most broken shit ever. 

 

"modern games have no soul". Please quantify/define soul and get back to me on that later.

 

"retro games have more variety", Yeah, says the 2 million platformer games.

 

 

I just remembered this is an anime thread. I'm gonna go watch mushishi now.

[Fred Castellum]

oh... so he was hosting anime lol, wish i would have known. Would have saved me a crapton of HDD space

 

Oh snap they increased the max file size of uploaded images to 30mb lol When was that a thing

Screenshot (28).png

It's still pretty beneficial to have your own copies. 

 

But on the go? Hell yeah @TopWargamer's plex server was the shit. 

[TopWargamer]

oh... so he was hosting anime lol, wish i would have known. Would have saved me a crapton of HDD space

 

Oh snap they increased the max file size of uploaded images to 30mb lol When was that a thing

I had almost a terabyte and a half of anime alone. Around 500GB in movies alone. Around 300 or 350 anime series and around 300 movies total.

[TopWargamer]

It's still pretty beneficial to have your own copies. 

 

But on the go? Hell yeah @TopWargamer's plex server was the shit. 

What I could do is bite the bullet and buy Plex Pass, that way I can offload my server to a cloud storage provider (more money to spend, yay) and then run the server that way. Right now it all comes down to cost. If it's more cost effective to do it that way, then I'll do it. I just need to run the numbers, and right now I'm a bit too tired to do that. Tomorrow though for sure.

[Techicolors]

I have super bad news, and if you use my Plex server this is terrible news. The Plex server is dead, long live the Plex server.

 

 

damn bro, that sucks 

 

you could try paying for data recovery. perhaps werecoverdata.com, since the guys at LTT had a potential data loss with their on-site server but were saved with the aforementioned service 

 

oh... so he was hosting anime lol, wish i would have known. Would have saved me a crapton of HDD space

 

Oh snap they increased the max file size of uploaded images to 30mb lol When was that a thing

Screenshot (28).png

 

how'd you get your icons like that? 

[helping]

I unfortunately do not have a Bluray drive, but it's been on my list of things to buy for a while. I may just bite the bullet now if it means recovering the data. As for copying over your folders and whatnot, would it be easier if I just drove up to Orlando? I honestly don't mind the drive, but I'm not sure how you feel about some random dude from the Internet showing up at your house being like "Sup." I'll leave that up to you, if not, that's fine, then we can definitely do the mailing stuff and copying stuff.

I don't particularly have an aversion, but if you prime your stuff to my address and I just ship it back to you it'll only be like.. what 10$?

also you don't have to spend time driving and waiting for file transfers while we twiddle our thumbs and talk shit about forum users (because copying like a TB is going to take LOLFOREVER)

you could also go the scumbag route and "rent" one, but you said you need one anyway so there u go

 

you could also ship the hard drive here, but you already have it so that sounds more expensive, especially since you bought it from BB so you don't have ship-ready packaging

 

2016 and sneakernet is still valid, smh

[Fred Castellum]

damn bro, that sucks 

 

you could try paying for data recovery. perhaps werecoverdata.com, since the guys at LTT had a potential data loss with their on-site server but were saved with the aforementioned service 

 

 

how'd you get your icons like that? 

Google for em. Or go to DeviantArt and look for them. There are tons.

[TopWargamer]

I don't particularly have an aversion, but if you prime your stuff to my address and I just ship it back to you it'll only be like.. what 10$?

also you don't have to spend time driving and waiting for file transfers while we twiddle our thumbs and talk shit about forum users (because copying like a TB is going to take LOLFOREVER)

you could also go the scumbag route and "rent" one, but you said you need one anyway so there u go

We could hit up Disney, haha. (Or Fun Spot, that's cool too, yo.) But ya, I'll more than likely just mail you whatever you need.

 

(because copying like a TB is going to take LOLFOREVER)

Oh my goodness yes. The original Plex server (back during it's uh "beta" days) ran on a 1.5TB USB 2.0 external drive that I got for $50. Slow, crappy, and almost died. Had to transfer that (almost full) drive to the current (and dead) 3TB drive, which took a solid day, but then again that was over butchered USB 2.0 speeds.

[That_Random_Guy]

how'd you get your icons like that? 

ALOT of time lol

1. Google say (Noragami folder icon). 2. convert that image to a .ico. (i use convertico.com). 3. place them in a folder/ i used a folder named Folder Icons in my primary drive. 4. then just right click on the folder and go to advanced and change folder icon and boom. takes awhile but its worth imo and i do like 8 or so at a time because its faster.

[Vitalius]

Isn't there a way to recover the data? Since it's a HDD?

 

Not unless you want to pay $1,000+ to a data recovery company. 7 HDDs in a RAID 5 cost $15,000 ish to do, but that was a clusterf***. A single HDD would probably be about a grand or so (i would imagine).

 

Oh right, I remember reading about that method of recovering data on dead drives. Shit I shoulda tried that before tossing one that died recently. 

 

Maybe he should get new drives on hand before trying this trick so he can copy files asap?

Indeed.

Yep.

Yes Vitalius-senpai... I did a dumb...

 

Why the hell not. The drive is dead anyways. So, just to clarify, put the hard drive in a sealed bag with as much air sucked out as possible, connect a super long SATA cable to it, then throw that whole contraption in the freezer (or fridge?), plug it into my computer, and start copying away? 

You say that. I have a 4TB WD Red alone in my server atm. Need another for RAID soon.

Sure. Edit: Read this whole thing before taking action. /edit

No. You want as much air in the bag as possible with it still being air-tight (kinda hard to do with a generic plastic bag). You want the air to be as dry as possible though.

Hard Drives need air. They have an air filter in them (a super high quality one too). This is to keep them cool while they are running, so vacuum sealed is a no-no. It will just make it suffocate and get hot faster, leading quickly to a dead drive. Drives literally need air to run.

The rest of it: Yes. Only I just realized... "If the plastic bag is sealed, how to get wires to drive? Can't. Oh well. No sealed bag then." Unless you melt the plastic around the wires... difficult, but doable ... while maintaining an air seal (because if you can't then may as well use a cheapo plastic bag).

What you do, step by step:

1. Get HDD.
2. Put in Freezer (unless you have a way to melt plastic while maintaining bag integrity and 100% sealing)
3. Leave for 3+ hours (make sure it's as cold as it's gonna get before starting).
4. Run wires to it (freezers usually have that rubber around the door to seal them; easy to run wires through without damaging door).
5. Spin it up with PC and copy AFAP.
6. Hope it lasts long enough to get what you need (file hierarchy list is #1 priority) @helping plz tell him how I told you to do it cuz I forget
7. copy whatever you can get that is now rare.
8. then copy whatever else you can

helping does have a point though. This will definitely kill your drive due to condensation once you do it. This is last ditch effort, period. 

If the drive was unseen by the system, then it's a controller issue (the green PCB on the back of the HDD). Controller issues can be hard to fix & diagnose. But, if you do succeed in fixing it, your drive is usually A-OK sector wise and this means 100% data integrity.

What you can do is get a broken but same model HDD and swap the Controller boards. However, you will have to desolder the memory pcb on both and swap those too, because it holds Drive specific info that the controller needs to manage the drive correctly. Otherwise, it could destroy some of your data when you try to use it. And will probably quickly lead to the drive dying again from bad sectors.

Depends how old the drive is honestly. Older drives (I'm talking 2007 and prior) could work with just a controller board swap (no desoldering), but newer ones require the soldering step because they are too smart (effectively).

[-CLASSIFIED-]

ima try linux again, ima try to do an Elementry os install on a spare ssd i have (shit v300 kingston) 

[helping]

We could hit up Disney, haha. (Or Fun Spot, that's cool too, yo.) But ya, I'll more than likely just mail you whatever you need.

 

Oh my goodness yes. The original Plex server (back during it's uh "beta" days) ran on a 1.5TB USB 2.0 external drive that I got for $50. Slow, crappy, and almost died. Had to transfer that (almost full) drive to the current (and dead) 3TB drive, which took a solid day, but then again that was over butchered USB 2.0 speeds.

it's more of what you need than what I need, since I only need a medium you could mail an external or two and that would work

 

external, hdd, or BD, though you'd probably want a dual layer burner and discs

the latter of which is more of an upgrade and investment, obv

 

 

this does make me wonder what people do when they need to move large files quickly

It wouldn't surprise me if someone has already like... Uber'd a mission critical multi-TB drive across the state at one point.

 

In places with shit internet or large cities that might be a pretty neat niche business.

[BashZeStampeedo]

Eh? They were out of content by the time Hyouka finished. They had one novel left, and the story didn't seem to be anywhere close to finishing up.

Really? I remember asking you about that and getting the impression that there was quite a bit left in Hyouka they didn't adapt. Nice to hear there may be a potential future KyoAni show I actually can look forward to.

[TopWargamer]

@Vitalius and @helping and @ anyone else (I forget things super easily)

 

I've gotten more help from you guys in an anime thread than I have in the Troubleshooting section of the forum. Every time I post a thread in Troubleshooting, it never gets resolved, nor are there many (if any) real solutions.

 

(Just keep the discussion here, but here's the thread I made, for reference.)

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/516380-tips-for-bringing-a-hard-drive-back-to-life/

 

[Vitalius]

this does make me wonder what people do when they need to move large files quickly

So... we did that once. 4TB HDD. Drove to Dallas and back from my home town of Groesbeck (1.5 hour drive one way). Had to get the data for that 7 drive RAID 5 array that died (each drive was 1TB).

@TopWargamer

The ice box trick only works with a drive that died due to bad sectors. A bad controller probably won't be fixed by it. 

There's your choice, really. Your options are buy a controller and hope swapping it + desolder/resolder the memory chip on it works, or freeze the thing and fight the clock getting what you can back. 

For former means 100% recovery if done right, but requires money (buying a controller board) and expertise (soldering). But if you go that route, and it doesn't work, you can just swap the boards back and do the ice box method.

The HDDs need to be as close to the same time made as possible. i.e. both made May of 2013 or wtv. Even a month can make a difference in HDD firmware (because: improvements/bug fixes).

Latter means guaranteed dead drive at some point (again, condensation), but gives hope in getting some stuff back anyway.

Your issue (drive suddenly not visible to machine) sounds like controller issue, so I say do that first. 

Have you tried connecting it to other PCs and SATA ports? Your SATA port dying would be weird af without other issues going on, but it's an infinitely better problem to have than a dead HDD.

[Daegun]

All this talk about plex reminds me that I have a half set up server I need to finish.

 

it's more of what you need than what I need, since I only need a medium you could mail an external or two and that would work

 

external, hdd, or BD, though you'd probably want a dual layer burner and discs

the latter of which is more of an upgrade and investment, obv

 

 

this does make me wonder what people do when they need to move large files quickly

It wouldn't surprise me if someone has already like... Uber'd a mission critical multi-TB drive across the state at one point.

 

In places with shit internet or large cities that might be a pretty neat niche business.

Oh joy. We've reached the point where, because of increasing hard drive/file sizes and hardly any advances in internet speeds(relative to cost at least), snail mail has become the faster option again when moving large amounts of data. What a time to be alive.

[TopWargamer]

So... we did that once. 4TB HDD. Drove to Dallas and back from my home town of Groesbeck (1.5 hour drive one way). Had to get the data for that 7 drive RAID 5 array that died (each drive was 1TB).

@TopWargamer

The ice box trick only works with a drive that died due to bad sectors. A bad controller probably won't be fixed by it. 

There's your choice, really. Your options are buy a controller and hope swapping it + desolder/resolder the memory chip on it works, or freeze the thing and fight the clock getting what you can back. 

For former means 100% recovery if done right, but requires money (buying a controller board) and expertise (soldering). But if you go that route, and it doesn't work, you can just swap the boards back and do the ice box method.

Latter means guaranteed dead drive at some point (again, condensation), but gives hope in getting some stuff back anyway.

Your issue (drive suddenly not visible to machine) sounds like controller issue, so I say do that first. 

Have you tried connecting it to other PCs and SATA slots?

I have tried connecting it to one other SATA port. I'll move the wire around to the rest of the ports. As for throwing the drive in another PC, the only other PCs in the house are laptops, so I would need a HDD enclosure. Grant it, I could go to Best Buy, buy one, and then return it after a day or so.

[helping]

What you do, step by step:

1. Get HDD.
2. Put in Freezer (unless you have a way to melt plastic while maintaining bag integrity and 100% sealing)
3. Leave for 3+ hours (make sure it's as cold as it's gonna get before starting).
4. Run wires to it (freezers usually have that rubber around the door to seal them; easy to run wires through without damaging door).
5. Spin it up with PC and copy AFAP.
6. Hope it lasts long enough to get what you need (file hierarchy list is #1 priority) @helping plz tell him how I told you to do it cuz I forget
7. copy whatever you can get that is now rare.
8. then copy whatever else you can

helping does have a point though. This will definitely kill your drive due to condensation once you do it. This is last ditch effort, period. 

 

actually I forgot too and was going to ask if you didn't use this opportunity to tell him how to do it

 

though the procedures would be different, you would probably want to get this down to a script, or automate saving a quick filestructure snapshot.

Perhaps maybe a filter and a few instances of WinDirStat?

 

also I'd suggest, icewater bath instead. Throw HDD in freezer, run to gas station buy a few bags of ice, throw in cooler and let it melt enough to form enough water to keep the HDD under fluid.

 

You can reasonably well water-proof the HDD and get some pretty good contact cooling through plastic in a tub/cooler filled with ice and water mix, because I know he already has one.

Might not even need a long sata cable if you set it up right.

 

*Alternatively, if you're bored you can get oil or antifreeze mixture and cool that to below freezing and submerse in that with a good amount of ice.

 

 

>also I never bother with trying to ask this forum for tech help lol

if I can't figure it out myself, or beyond a group of a few smart people, the forum isn't going to.

[TopWargamer]

All this talk about plex reminds me that I have a half set up server I need to finish.

 

Oh joy. We've reached the point where, because of increasing hard drive/file sizes and hardly any advances in internet speeds(relative to cost at least), snail mail has become the faster option again when moving large amounts of data. What a time to be alive.

The issue isn't slow speeds or data caps. Those don't exist in Florida (if you're on Bright House or Verizon, which most people are anyways.) The issue is finding a solution to actually transfer the files. Uploading and downloading to and from a cloud storage provider would take far too long.