[Binladeda]

.....I have a bit of a problem and was wondering if anyone could help...........I use a Boss BR1600 to record my music and it seized up the other night .......The hard drive just stopped. The warranty ran out about 3 years ago, and after reading a few bloggs and sending some emails, I've ordered a new drive from a specialist manufacturer.  It seems quite straight forward to fit, but the BIG problem is the 140+ songs that are on the old drive.  I've been told to put the old unit in a jiffy bag and put it in the freezer overnight, and then try it again. Has anyone ever heard of this ?? I've got data copies of a lot of the songs but there's a lot that I haven't, including the one I've got posted here at the moment  I've been told data retrieval is very expensive......Any suggestions most welcome. Thanks

[Dutchbeat]

i have no advice right now, but i want to say that my thoughts go out to you

that is bad

i never heard of that freezer tip, but it doesn't sound good to me

[tone]

I don't recommend putting your hard drive in the freezer - that sounds like a good way to make matters worse.

In truth, it depends what is wrong with your drive as to how expensive it will be to recover your data.

You could try buying a usb connector for your 'dead' drive an plugging it into your PC, see if you can access any files. But if the mechanical part of the drive has failed, that won't work.

It's a tough one to learn but the lesson is: ALWAYS back up as you go.

Good luck

[nooms]

hey bin, you have my sympathy mate.
but all is not lost necessarily
my advice would be to do nothing till you get good solid advice. (bit of irish there !)
the datas on the drive, just got to access it.  Boss must have encountered the problem before & and im pretty sure freezing it wasnt the answer..
hopefully ramshackles or estreet will be grazing the forum tonight..
good luck

[James Nighthawk]

Yikes. A borked HDD is never fun. And unfortunately Tone is right. Backup, Backup, Backup! Drives fail, something you have to ditch them and move on.

Sometimes things can be done. I'll chat to my housemate tomorrow, he works in IT, see if he has any ideas....

Best with it man!

[estreet]

I have heard of freezing your drive. It's said that it can 'wake' it long enough to pull stuff off it. Apparently, it's only useful in cases where the drive is failing to spin at all: more info here: http://www.datarecoverypros.com/hard-drive-recovery-freeze.html

Also, you heard right - data recovery is very expensive: you will probably be looking at £300-400 although many only charge if they succeed in getting your stuff back.

You say the hard drive 'stopped' ie: stopped spinning? If so, it's got to be worth trying the freezer trick unless you can afford the recovery.

[Ramshackles]

You may be able to connect the harddrive to your pc and then use something like
ubcd4win to recover the data. That would work if the actually hardware is still working (and it is a file system or similar pb).

The problem there could be connecting it to a pc. I did a quick search and it seems the connection is SCSI which is pretty outdated (having been largely replaced by SATA). You might be able to get a SCSI to USB converter or something.

Hard drive failures tend to be pretty catastrophic...backing up to an external drive (one that is not constantly being accessed by the OS) is always the safe option.

I suppose you dont smoke around it,but if you do, be aware that smoking is a huge cause of electrical/mechanical failure...

[Binladeda]

Thanks for the advice guys.  I'm pretty sure that it is a spindle thing as it just won't load...not moving at all. So I think I'll try the freezing idea. I'll let you know what happens. On a positive note.....to cheer myself up, I went to my local music shop to look at new recording equipment, and ended up buying a Bass  ....Got me a Ibanez Ergodyne, it's Amazing, so pleased with it, can't wait to start recording again.....Anyway, thank you all again for your advice and information....and sympathy.  And yes I will backup....I will backup....I will backup 

[nooms]

thats one scary looking guitar bin..

you sound positive so hope all works out mate

[Ramshackles]

I wouldve gone for a different recording solution...I was browsing forums yesterday and it seems a ton of people have had problems with the boss hard drive! :S

Cool looking bass though, hope it all works out well for you.

[Binladeda]

Thanks Ramshackles for your help here....yes I too have read that on a few sites But, to be honest this is the first problem I've had in 5 years of daily use...and in cash terms, that works out to under £200 per year. less than 50p a day which I would say is good value...so I think I'll stick with the Boss for the time being. Apart from the fact that I have already ordered and paid (£68 delivered) for a new drive......NO..not a Boss one There are some facilities on there that I really like, and i have other roland equipment that works well with it. Also after 5 years I'm quite familiar with it......Please don't think I'm turning my nose up at your advice, I'm not. In fact, that you are generous enough to spend time on helping, makes me feel very humble. And that goes for all you 'mainstay guys' on this site. I appreciate all the hard work and dedication that you all must have put in over the years to get where you are, not to mention the talent here.....and the fact that it's all available to me just because you're all 'nice guys' astounds me....must be an internet thing...but I love it ....Thanks again....I shall let you know how it goes

[mihkay]

I use my Boss BR1600 all the time. Mostly as a phantom power unit for my mic.

Seriously though although I do most of my mixing and all my midi on the PC now. My BOSS is, and has been a great servant and even when I upgrade my sound-card in my DAW (Soon hopefully!) it's still going to be my workhorse for doing quick demos. Once you get used to it it is really a quick way to record despite the mixing limitations.
I've had it a quite a few years now, since before home PC recording was really cheap.  It cost me nearly £600 and it's been worth every penny. I still record vocal, guitar and bass on it. Then transfer those recordings losslessly into my DAW.

Luckily it's worked perfectly for me. But again anything I record on it automatically gets transferred to the PC so a disk fail is not a problem. I know..."!stable door open...horse gone!"    BUt I hope your replacement drive works 'cause it really is a great piece of kit.

Good luck with the repairs.

[Binladeda]

Hi.... Finally I'm back in the saddle ....been a month and a half of technological nightmares. Not only my hard drive, but my PC decided it had enough and quit on me too.  Got the new drive ( after 12 days in customs ) only to find it was the wrong one. Anyway, eventually got the right one. Installing and formatting the drive was relatively easy, much to my surprise, and its now working fine. The freezing thing didn't work for me....so I'm resigned to the fact that I've lost over a years work.....frustrating, but not the end of the world. Got my work cut out now getting back to speed on some projects I'm involved in. In fact the worst thing about all of this is that I feel really bad that I've let other people down who've put in a lot of work on these projects. But they are being very understanding and supportive....musicians are the nicest folk....Just like to say thanks again to all you lovely people for your help and advice....I'm sure our paths will cross again in the near future  ....and yes BACK UP. BACK UP. BACK UP (what a fool I've been)

[S.T.C]

Hi.... Finally I'm back in the saddle ....been a month and a half of technological nightmares. Not only my hard drive, but my PC decided it had enough and quit on me too.  Got the new drive ( after 12 days in customs ) only to find it was the wrong one. Anyway, eventually got the right one. Installing and formatting the drive was relatively easy, much to my surprise, and its now working fine. The freezing thing didn't work for me....so I'm resigned to the fact that I've lost over a years work.....frustrating, but not the end of the world. Got my work cut out now getting back to speed on some projects I'm involved in. In fact the worst thing about all of this is that I feel really bad that I've let other people down who've put in a lot of work on these projects. But they are being very understanding and supportive....musicians are the nicest folk....Just like to say thanks again to all you lovely people for your help and advice....I'm sure our paths will cross again in the near future  ....and yes BACK UP. BACK UP. BACK UP (what a fool I've been)

I don`t hang on to anything electric for too long..i have a desk top..which is loaded with film and music.song lyrics!!..but will keep it as purely a back up ...its reasonable, its a pretty good computer still(3 yrs old)..but my lappy that i`m on now is 1yr old..and will sell at 2 yrs old ..whilst it is still good..for £260 now,,you can pick up laptops with high quality features..so why wait till they let you down and are worthless.