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My 8TB external drive just crashed—APFS map got corrupted, but the data is still intact. All my Logic files are on it, and this is the second time it’s happened, so I’m weighing my options. I could get a new drive, copy the old drive to it, and then reformat the old one; use my other drives (8TB and 7TB) to temporarily upload up to 4TB to Rapidgator and then copy/format as needed; or set up a local cloud server, which I’ve never done before, so any tips would be helpful. What would you do, or would you approach it differently?
I still use LTO4 tapes to back up my personal NAS because cloud storage is expensive and slow for photography and video. Tape has saved me a couple of times—once after a ransomware attack on the NAS (external drives and cloud backups were also affected) and once after drive failures when the NAS was dropped.
Restoring from tape took about 5 hours, compared to over two weeks from the cloud, which would have cost $40 for 600GB. LTO9 looks good for bigger setups (18TB per tape), but older drives are common for personal or small business use. Next year, I plan to move my archives to LTO6 if I can find an affordable drive.
The backup server is just a PC with a SAS card and enough power. I thought about portable or shucked hard drives, but tapes are more compact and cheaper—around $25 for an 800GB LTO4.
Who else is still using tape?
Best software options for recovering data from LTO tapes?
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That would be perfect to recover the lost photos. But first one need to try the manual fixes.
Thanks Kael,
That’s important too.
That’s a good suggestion Genelia.
Hi Silas,
You can try but that won’t work. 😉
It’s better to check the camera settings or Hardware issues.
That usually means the file is either corrupted or not actually a JPEG, even though it has a .jpg extension. A few things you can try: Open the file with a tool like IrfanView, GIMP, or an online tool — they may handle broken images better. Try checking the file type with a tool like ExifTool or file (if you’re on Mac/Linux). It’ll tell you what the file actually is. If you still have access to the source, try re-downloading or copying the image again. There are repair tools out there (like Stellar Photo Repair).
Images can get corrupted for a bunch of reasons—like problems during saving, file transfer interruptions, bad sectors on your storage device, or even software glitches. Sometimes, if the file header (which tells your computer how to read the image) gets damaged, the picture won’t open.
As for fixing them, there are a few tools you can try, depending on the image format:
For JPEGs: Tools like Stellar Repair for Photo, JPEG Repair Toolkit, or online services can sometimes recover parts of the image.
For PNGs: Tools are less common, but some image editors like GIMP or Photoshop might open a corrupted file partially.
First, try opening the images with different programs like IrfanView or XnView. Sometimes the default viewer just gives up, but other apps can handle damaged files better.
If that doesn’t work, there are some repair tools you can try, like Stellar Repair for Photo or JPEG Repair Toolkit. They’re pretty good at fixing common issues like messed-up headers.
First things first: don’t format the card yet. That error usually means the file system is corrupted, but your data might still be there.
Here’s what I’d try:
– Try a recovery tool like: Recuva (free and easy to use on Windows), PhotoRec (a bit nerdier, but powerful), Stellar (has a free version that works pretty well)
Just install one, let it scan the SD card, and see if your files show up.
– Try CHKDSK (Windows): Plug in the SD card. Open Command Prompt (as admin), Type: chkdsk X: /f (replace “X” with the SD card drive letter).
Sometimes this magically fixes the corruption without deleting anything
-Try a different card reader or computer: You’d be surprised how often the reader is the issue, not the card itself.
If nothing works and recovery tools don’t find your stuff, then yeah, you might have to format it
There are a few options you can try to fix:
– Check Disk Management: Sometimes the drive is actually there but not showing up properly. On Windows, press Win + X, choose Disk Management, and see if your USB drive is listed. If it is, right-click and assign it a letter.
– Reinstall Drivers: Head to Device Manager (right-click on the Start menu > Device Manager), expand the Universal Serial Bus Controllers section, and uninstall the USB device. Restart your PC, and Windows should reinstall the drivers automatically.
– Run a Check Disk: If your drive is showing up but you’re seeing corrupted files, you can run a quick check to fix any errors. Open Command Prompt as admin, type chkdsk X: /f (replace X with your USB letter), and hit Enter.
– Format the Drive: If there’s no important data on it, or you’ve already backed up what you need, you could try formatting it. Right-click the drive in File Explorer, hit Format, and choose a file system like exFAT.
– Data Recovery: If you really need the data and it’s not showing up, there are some free data recovery tools out there, like Recuva, Photorec, or Stellar Photo Recovery, that might be able to help.
There are a few things you could try to troubleshoot:
– Test on Linux or a Different OS: Sometimes, Windows has trouble detecting USB drives. If you can, boot up a Linux live USB (like Ubuntu) and see if it picks up the drive. Linux often recognizes drives that Windows can’t.
– Device Manager Check: In Windows, open Device Manager and see if the drive is listed under Disk Drives or Universal Serial Bus Controllers. If you see an exclamation mark or “Unknown Device,” you could try updating or uninstalling the driver, then restarting your computer.
– Diskpart in Command Prompt: If you’re comfortable with it, you could try using Diskpart. Sometimes a corrupted drive won’t show up in File Explorer, but Diskpart might still see it. You can open Command Prompt as admin and type diskpart > list disk. If it shows up, you can try assigning it a drive letter or see if there’s any issue with the partition.
– Data Recovery Software: If the drive is still showing up but you can’t access the files, you could try a data recovery tool like Photorec, Stellar Photo Recovery, or Recuva to recover your data before trying to format it.
I have a DS423+ with three 20TB drives. I want to reserve 4TB for backing up files and documents in a RAID5 pool, and use the rest for ripped Blu-ray movies in RAID0, since I already have backups. Can I set it up this way, or do I need to dedicate whole drives to the RAID5 pool?