Help! Disk is not formatted/Back-up Protocol

[mpm32]

I have an external HD and when I go to access the files it says "disk J is not formatted, would you like to format now?"

I click no because I don't want to reformat and lose data.  Can I fix this without losing data?  I hava a ton of pictures and music on this drive.

Can anyone help?

[mpm32]

OK,  I found a data recovery product that looks like it will restore my files.  What I need to know is what everyone is doing for backing up their picture and music files.

Should I have multiple external drives?  What should the backup protocol be?  I have no clue how to do this.  My wife wants me to back-up to a cd or dvd, with the amount of data I have this would be impractical.

Any advice?

[boykster]

Depends on how much data you're talking about.  I use RAID5 arrays for my data, but even RAID is really considered a proper "backup" solution, just a redundancy in case of not quite catastrophic failure.  For really critical files -> digital photos, home movies, finacial records, etc, I do periodic dumps to DVD just as a sanity check.  I have had a RAID5 array go down completely so I like that extra sense of security.

Other options are tape backup, periodic disk mirroring, etc.

 

[saint]

I backup critical files to several computers around the house. This helps me avoid data loss from single computer failure. I then copy the entire set of critical data (22 gigs of family photos alone!) onto a portable hard drive, then bring that to work and mirror it off to my work PC. This helps me recover in case of a disaster in the house. Finally, I periodically burn a set of DVDs and put them in a fire-resistant lock-box in the house.

[jbox]

Wait, I thought this forum *was* your backup drive for those "important photos"? 

[mpm32]

Don't worry, no cheesecake photos have been lost.

[jbox]

Whew!