[colug-432] I/O Error?

[Bill Schwanitz]

On Dec 6, 2012, at 8:16 PM, Rick Hornsby <richardjhornsby at gmail.com> wrote:

> That is really good to know, thanks.  Always keeping my eyes open for good tools like this.
> 
> Have to be honest.  I'm with the sentiment that others have expressed - get your data off the drive. now.  If a tool like spinrite lets the drive live long enough to manage that, great.  It just paid for itself and was definitely worth it.  If it brings a drive back from the dead - I'm tempted to buy it right now just to have it on hand.  
> 
> However, I'm really hesitant to ever trust the drive for anything remotely important again.  As someone else said, rip out the magnets and call it done.  Maybe try a WillItBlend experiment with the platters. Drives are cheap compared to what you lose when it barfs on itself, and chances are you can get a bigger drive (thus risking more data to a single piece of hardware ... hmm) for whatever you bought the newly acquired doorstop for.

This also highlights the importance of backups. Even if the drive smokes, is stolen or some other catastrophy - you are more likely to have ( even if dated ) a copy of the important stuff laying around.

I personally prefer cloud backups just because its fairly inexpensive but backing up to a local drive, a neighbors house etc.

Bill