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 Serato DJ Pro General Discussion
A Hard Drive horror story
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A Hard Drive horror story

maestromind 6:44 PM - 14 September, 2009
So the Friday of Labor Day weekend with a gig coming up in the morning I sat down on the couch with my VAIO laptop to organize my tracks and see what's new on Whitelabel. Within 3-5 minutes of using my laptop the screen froze. When I forced it to power off and turned it back on I got a "No OS found" message on bootup. I thought this was a fluke, but after 5 times it was clear that something was very wrong with my hard drive.

I thought about what could have possibly gone wrong since I just upgraded the HD 2 months ago to a new Western Digital black series, which aren't known for failing at random.
Then I realized the only thing that could have possibly caused this - my money clip demagnetized the hard drive. I had it in my left jeans pocket - with my VAIO's hard drive right above it. I don't have some crazy earth magnet money clip either - and it's never damaged or disturbed any other electronics. Of course my other electronics don't have the HD sitting in the most precarious place possible, with only a small bit of ventilated aluminum between it and the outside world. In any case - it was a mad dash to the only open computer store and then a long night of restoring the OS and ITCH. Incidentally, I tested the damaged hard drive to verify that it was completely demagnetized and useless.

Hopefully none of you guys will ever be in this situation - but if you carry a magnet in your pants think twice before using a laptop on your lap. Ironically, I almost always use a cooling pad under the laptop and take my wallet out when I come home - except this one time.

Of course a large part of this is the laptop's construction as well, so now I am shopping for a new one (and would love some feedback on my other thread). Thanks!
djcerla 7:07 PM - 14 September, 2009
On a Mac, you would have restored your HD with Time Machine, to a day of your choice before the crash (and obviously after the first Time Machine run).
No horror, just a click :)
kraal 7:12 PM - 14 September, 2009
djcerla that would not really help with the moral of this story. the HD was damaged even time machine can't fix the hard drive.
the point is wether you are using a mac or pc you MUST BACK UP ALL YOU STUFF
maestromind 7:13 PM - 14 September, 2009
Not in this case - the HD was totally killed. I couldn't even get it to format after throwing it into an external enclosure.
Windows has a similar feature called System Restore, but it won't work if your drive has been physically destroyed.
I am definitely considering switching over to a Mac tho (serato.com).
djfrancov 9:33 PM - 14 September, 2009
me love my mac long time.....lol
djcerla 9:50 PM - 14 September, 2009
Who cares about the HD? Just replace the broken one, plug your Time Machine backup drive and, bingo, your data are back!

Sorry Kraal but it's pretty much on topic.
djcerla 9:53 PM - 14 September, 2009
( sorryI assumed you guys all knew about Time Machine, backup data are automatically saved on an external drive or a wireless Time Capsule)
kraal 9:57 PM - 14 September, 2009
i am not saying it isw off topic just saying time machine would not fix a broken hd :)
djcerla 10:00 PM - 14 September, 2009
And so? Throw the old one in the bin, get a new one. Your data matters, not the HD itself. Time Machine is a revolution, as once set, it's totally transparent to the user.
kraal 10:01 PM - 14 September, 2009
nevermind
djcerla 10:08 PM - 14 September, 2009
@ kraal

My post about TM was not meant to be a flame, but a hint, as maestromind is on the market for a new laptop and I am sure he wants no more "HD horror stories".
kraal 10:12 PM - 14 September, 2009
got it thats why i am backing down my post are actually saying the same thing' back up' and u are saying the same thing 'time machine'
maestromind 10:47 PM - 14 September, 2009
Thanks djcerla, I actually had no idea Time Machine will wirelessly backup your data at home - so this is definitely useful info to know.
Even with everything backed up just sticking in a USB key and walking away for a few hours would have been a lot easier than reinstalling Windows and all the software from a backup disk.
djcerla 11:07 PM - 14 September, 2009
looks pretty impressive, too :)

Watchwww.youtube.com
DJ Fokus Tokyo 3:47 AM - 15 September, 2009
This is a job for the mythbusters I think. Can a magnet in your pocket really destroy an enclosed HD??

dsc.discovery.com
djfrancov 10:47 AM - 15 September, 2009
lmao...
maestromind 2:47 PM - 15 September, 2009
Quote:
This is a job for the mythbusters I think. Can a magnet in your pocket really destroy an enclosed HD??


Pretty sure I busted that one for them. There was nothing else that could have possibly done it.
kraal 2:49 PM - 15 September, 2009
it could of just went bad :) or a cricket crawled in there :)
DJ Fokus Tokyo 3:11 PM - 16 September, 2009
Still would be interesting to find out. They busted the old credit card and magnet thing a couple years back...
Scooter 3:52 AM - 13 October, 2010
I know it's been a while since the last post, but I found this tonight on Google and wanted to give the author some affirmation--the same thing happened to me.

I got a Western Digital Blue Hard Disk about a year and a half ago in my MacBook. I got a nice wallet/moneyclip with a really powerful magnet about 10 months ago. After 4 months of owning the money clip, the laptop went to a slow spiiiiin...click. ...after about a week of that, it died. I replaced it with another Western Digital Blue drive. It worked great for six months, until it started sounding funny a week ago...and it just died today. I don't know if it's Western Digital or all hard drives that have the problem...but I'm quite sure the magnet is the culprit. I've used the computer in my lap for 2.5 years with no hard drive issues.

It's worth noting that the magnet is fairly strong. Though part of the money clip, when I get out of my car, it usually sticks to my car, through my pants. I don't know why I didn't think of it until tonight...but I'm glad I'm not the only one who has experienced it.
JonnyLove 8:54 PM - 13 October, 2010
I have a macbook pro. And I carry around a USB Powered HDD with OSx with all my music on (or at least something that runs about 1 month behind mu internal drive). Should my internal drive fail at any point I can boot off my USB drive and run itch and my music with no issues what so ever. Should this happen when I'm gigging I can be back up and running within 5 minutes.

I can suggest no more than this.
kraal 9:27 PM - 13 October, 2010
if your internal drive fails you have more to worry about than your music collection
JonnyLove 8:52 PM - 14 October, 2010
Not if I can boot to an external one with everything on it ready to play all my music. Plus I found for a Seagate black 500gb drive their only £50 and it takes 20 minutes to replace.
kraal 11:11 PM - 14 October, 2010
Quote:
Not if I can boot to an external one with everything on it ready to play all my music. Plus I found for a Seagate black 500gb drive their only £50 and it takes 20 minutes to replace.

i wasnt starting an arguement just stating more than just music collection needs to be considered
JonnyLove 8:56 PM - 15 October, 2010
Thats ok Kraal. Guess the best tip for everyone is to have a external bootable drive with all your needs ready to go should the worst happen.
kraal 10:30 PM - 15 October, 2010
Quote:
Thats ok Kraal. Guess the best tip for everyone is to have a external bootable drive with all your needs ready to go should the worst happen.

i actually have an extra laptop hard drive to replace the enternal
JonnyLove 7:44 AM - 16 October, 2010
Of course for those will lots of cash you could always carry a second laptop
kraal 2:28 PM - 16 October, 2010
Quote:
Of course for those will lots of cash you could always carry a second laptop

i plan to update my laptop this year so that will give me a back up laptop
maestromind 2:07 PM - 18 October, 2010
Quote:
i plan to update my laptop this year so that will give me a back up laptop

Word on the street is new MBPs are coming on Wednesday...