Thread: Have you ever lost any footage / asset or media due to hard drive failure?

Hey all,

I have been working in the AV industry for some time supplying Pro AV Hardware and I have seen a lot of changes over the years one of the which was the move from Tape Base Camcorders to Tapeless Systems.

The Big question that I used to hear a lot was "so...how do I store my footage after I've shot them if I don't have any tapes to put on my tape library shelf?" and the short term solution always has been "Put them on Hard Drives"!

I recently read that there is a 13% Failure rate across the board for Hard Drives that are used for storing media asset (or anything else for that matter)!

As Videographers, Editors, Film Makers and people who are involved in the world of video content creation, does this not worry you?

Have you lost media because of a faulty Hard Drive?

not faulty hardware . more a case of deleting footage and then realising I needed it..

Originally Posted by TFV

not faulty hardware . more a case of deleting footage and then realising I needed it..

That sucks, I've done that to a load of images before!

You didn't have it backed up then I guess?

yes. i formatted an SD cards worth of footage before realising i hadnt backed it up properly. i managed to restore most of it.
also managed to successfully restore a mates SD card in a similar situation

Yes, Lost video, stills, accounts , correspondence. all backed up to an LaCie external drive. I went to load it after a problem with the internal drive. the external showed as faulty. contacted LaCie for help and advice on recovery. NOT INTERESTED. couldn't help. they said I should have backed the stuff up. (I had, to the LA CIE drive). fortunatly I had hard copies of the photos and video but not the accounts or correspondence. I was going to buy another La Cie hard drive but then again, maybe not. On a regular basis I got emails from them to ask if their advice had been helpful. got the same message month after month and each time I told them the same NO. and asked again for help. eventually I told them I would reccommend anyone asking to avoid their kit and would also put a warning on my web page. Were they interested....NO.

Originally Posted by snapper2

Yes, Lost video, stills, accounts , correspondence. all backed up to an LaCie external drive. I went to load it after a problem with the internal drive. the external showed as faulty. contacted LaCie for help and advice on recovery. NOT INTERESTED. couldn't help. they said I should have backed the stuff up. (I had, to the LA CIE drive). fortunatly I had hard copies of the photos and video but not the accounts or correspondence. I was going to buy another La Cie hard drive but then again, maybe not. On a regular basis I got emails from them to ask if their advice had been helpful. got the same message month after month and each time I told them the same NO. and asked again for help. eventually I told them I would reccommend anyone asking to avoid their kit and would also put a warning on my web page. Were they interested....NO.

Sorry to hear about your hassle. My cousin has the same issue with WD! He's lost 3 years worth of Uni Work!

Have a look at Aframe | Keep it all together one of the better solutions than just storing stuff on Hard Drives.