Looks like I ruined a portable drive.

[kitekrazy]

 

It fell on the floor about a 12 inch drop.  It was running and now it can't read or write.  It shows as a RAW format.  I tried everything.  The downside is it was all of my Kontakt library purchases.  I guess the heads are damaged.

 

 The not so bad side is I can download most of the stuff I bought.  All NI that I bought separately is in my Native Access.  I can still download my KH Diamond bought many years ago.

 

 Those that I can't recover I'll just zip the libraries and put them on another drive. I have 4 machines and the Kontakt folder mirror each other.

 

 The plus side is now I'm taking inventory of libraries on my system. removing ones I don't use and archiving them.   You would be surprised how many of the freebies take up space.

 

 BTW does anyone compress all of their libraries via Kontakt?  Developers often do this but I'm surprised new one that are not like Riffendum.

[Gswitz]

There are great tools for analysing what is on your drive taking up space.

https://utils.kde.org/projects/filelight/

 

[bitman]

testdisk for windows is weird but free and can copy files off raw drives (usually).

[bitflipper]

I've done that. Carrying too many things under my arm at once, I dropped the drive on the pavement and it was toast. Couldn't even access it to run any diagnostics. It just sat there making clicking noises.

When I replaced that drive, I also bought a sturdy carrying case and attached a lanyard so that whenever I'm over encumbered I can hang it around my neck. 

It was easier in the days when I just kept the backup drive connected to the computer all the time. Of course, that didn't work out too well, as it was stolen along with my computer. So now I keep the backup drive in the house or car. In a padded hardshell case. I also back up my most critical files on a laptop. But rather than trying to figure out which files are worthy of regular backups, I just got a big enough drive to hold the entire contents of all my hard drives - and let Acronis worry about what needs to be backed up.

And yes, I do make a habit of compacting libraries, although I've been slacking off on that lately.  As a consequence, my 1 TB sample drive is now 98% full. Thanks for reminding me. 

[kitekrazy]

 Well test disk recognized the manufacturer.  I tried to create an image but it was taking forever and reported errors.  I think it is officially toast.  Great timing since I got a 5TB one.   I probably also free up about 50GB in my Kontakt folders as well.   It still have to wait for download links for KH Diamond.

One thing I know is there is no such thing as a secure backup.  It's nice that there are more developers that allow you to download your purchases.