Tim Cook wrote:


> As for myself, I've never had much luck with optical media.  Trust them
> way less than hard drives.  But I'm planning on getting a new desktop at
> the end of the month with 2x1 TB and was going to use this external
> drive as the backup for *that* (until I need a second one)...

Same here! I've had more than one DVD-R or RW go bad. If I archive important
stuff to a R or RW disc, I usually make another archive copy 6 months or so
down the line. A year later I rotate, throwing out the "tail end" disc and
writing a new one. More than once I had to "bring forward" the
backup-backup disc, 'cause the "real" archive copy had gone south.

In the olden days on the Apple ][ with CP/M I had three - the grandfather,
father and son (and holy ghost! :) - I still remember the stomach churning
dread of those horribly loud floppy drives grinding and grinding and
then "BDOS ERROR" on the monochrome green-screen... Those were the days!
 
> As I said, I *hope* it's just the enclosure that croaked, and the drive
> itself is just fine.

Isn't that hoping against hope? I mean, the most mechanically vulnerable
components are in the -drive-, no the enclosure? The enclosure is just a
port and physical container?
 
> If it's not...I dunno.  Data recovery places are expensive, and I don't
> know if I can justify $1000+ even on the ~year's worth of data I had, at
> the moment.  How time-critical are these kinds of things?  Can I just
> keep it and when I have more money in a few months send it to a data
> recovery place, if I can't get it working myself?

Not sure, but I think the quicker you do it the better the results you might
get? 

-- 
Stefan Viljoen

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