Musician - just got to BA for 4 months but lost equipment - can anybody help??

[dustyjeeves]

Hi there.

I just arrived in Buenos Aires with my girlfriend. I'm here for a few months and supposed to be working on a record but my library hard drive with all my working projects and sound libraries was dropped in transit and is damaged beyond recovery. I am desperate to recover this material as otherwise I will be unable to work here. I have one backup of the drive in London, UK, but have heard worrying things about sending items to Argentina by airmail. So I was wondering if anyone on this forum knows anyone who will be coming to Argentina from London in the next week or two? I'd much prefer to pay someone to bring my drive over with them than trust the Argenitine customs not to hold it indefinitely and then charge me through the roof. I'd be willing to pay decently and it would mean a great deal to me if anyone were able to help me out. Anybody??

Thanks so much in advance.

Theo

 

[KevinK]

if i were you and had someone i can trust in london i would
have them make a backup of the hard drive that stays in london before they send the new copy to you so that if this second one gets lost in transit you have something back home to work with

depending on how big is it...you know you can also just connect to a friends desktop in london with this connected ...share it for the evening and download.

or temporarily upload to a file space you rent cheap on the internet and download it here on a hard drive here.

wht kind of hard drive was it and how damaged is it..could it just be the external case (assuming externalhd) damaged bud hd ok?

anyway good luck

 

[dustyjeeves]

Thanks for the input Kevin. Unfortunately the drive is huge - 3TB, so way too big to send digitally. I have thought of that and will almost certainly get that drive cloned before sending. The other one was dropped from quite a height (a San Telmo 2nd level entrepiso onto the floor below!) as we were moving stuff from a friend's place to our new apartment. I've had it checked by a data recovery specialist recommended on this forum and he has pronounced it damaged beyond repair - it simply won't spin up...

Anyway thanks for the good luck!

 

[clooz]

I think I would use the filetransfer util dropbox to get the 3T here. I brought a 3T drive in my carry-on the last time, and it was DOA, so although using dropbox will take a bit of time, it will work.

 

[davonz]

if the data recovery specialist you saw wasnt ricardo - it might be worthwhile contacting him.. he does hard disk recovery, and has done for years.. and might be able to recover your data/music etc.. his contact details can be found here...

www.balaptop.com

 

[dustyjeeves]

Hehe...thanks for the tip, but it was indeed Ricardo! Cheers guys for the input...

 

[TrevorCito]

Hi dustyjeeves,

The drive capacity is 3tb but what about the data? Clooz above posted about dropbox but id have to disagree with his recommendation as the data upload and download transfer times could take weeks to complete. It's practical to use dropbox services for data sizes less than 50gb but anything over that just takes a very long time.

If you do elect to send a copy of the disk then I would recommend FedEx. They bypass the horrid postal system here and deliver to your door. They will however collect duty on behalf of customs so expect to pay up to 50% duty on postage and the hdd value.

On the damaged hdd, could you see physical damage to the hdd itself? The hdd data platters, motor, linear motion servo and heads can withstand enormous g forces when turned off but semiconductors cannot. An option would be to source an identical drive here in bsas and swap over the electronic components. This might just work provided that there is no physical damage to the platters, head and servo.

All the best.

 

[dustyjeeves]

Hi TrevorCito,

Thanks so much for your message. I agree with you about Dropbox or other cloud systems - would take way too long to transfer 2.5tb online (the drive is nearly full). That's useful advice about getting a second drive. I have another identical one with me so perhaps it's worth a try if all else fails.

Anyway, input appreciated, cheers!

Theo

 

[dustyjeeves]

OG post was deleted so thought I'd repost this... Had a miraculous surprise the other day when Ricardo of BA Laptop reported that my data was in fact salvageable, despite my drive having had such a huge fall... He spent nearly a week dismantling and reassembling my drive and worked some incredible magic that gave it new life. This is seriously impressive work, and I would highly recommend Ricardo to anyone in a similar position!