Flash Trax FTX40 Problems

[Nic_dk]

I went for 3 weeks to Vietnam carrying a borrowed Flash Trax 40GB as I shoot roughly 2GB pics a day in Raw+jpg on a canon 20D. I tested it before the trip and it worked well. After day 9 the disk was 54% full and it began to make strange tik noises, beeping and unable to copy CF cards.

from then on stopped trying to use it and hoped to recover data on Return to Europe. I then shooted jpg only and went when available to a local photo store to backup CF cards on CD.

Now I'm back, and was able to copy 80% of the files back to PC. most of the files I have to copy one by one. some files may take minutes to copy other won't at all. For the last 20% I then used Stellar Phoenix FAT Recovery application. It recovers some image files but all with stripes, so unusable.

Has anyone some good advice on the data recovery workflow.

And how reliable are these pocket backup HD. I planned to buy one, but not sure anymore.

Nicolas

 

[Michael Thomas Mitchell]

This problem sounds like it has more to do with the internal HDD than any other aspect of the unit. In general, I tend to believe that 2.5" HD drives are somewhat reliable, and probably more durable and rugged than standard desktop hard drives. However, they are nonetheless fragile machanical devices. As such, they are susceptable to damage if not handles well.

Since most portable storage units are HDD-based, the relability of the actual memory storage itself is probably going to be comparable. If that's not sufficient for you, then you might wish to consider of the portable CD burners that copies files directly from your CF to a blanck CDR. Although there is an obvious disadvantage that you have to tote around blank media, the two primary advantages are that CD media is not susceptable to drops and breakage anywhere near to the extent of HDD technology, and you can make multiple backups of the same data, and can even mail a copy home, too. (Let's see you try that with a Flashtrax!)

Michael Thomas Mitchell
http://michaelphoto.net

 

[tim g203860]

try these folks: http://www.r-tt.com/

i think they have demo software...

--
Tim G

http://www.gangloffs.org

 

[Pixy]

I went for 3 weeks to Vietnam carrying a borrowed Flash Trax 40GB
as I shoot roughly 2GB pics a day in Raw+jpg on a canon 20D. I
tested it before the trip and it worked well. After day 9 the disk
was 54% full and it began to make strange tik noises, beeping and
unable to copy CF cards.
from then on stopped trying to use it and hoped to recover data on
Return to Europe. I then shooted jpg only and went when available
to a local photo store to backup CF cards on CD.

Now I'm back, and was able to copy 80% of the files back to PC.
most of the files I have to copy one by one. some files may take
minutes to copy other won't at all. For the last 20% I then used
Stellar Phoenix FAT Recovery application. It recovers some image
files but all with stripes, so unusable.

Has anyone some good advice on the data recovery workflow.
And how reliable are these pocket backup HD. I planned to buy one,
but not sure anymore.

Nicolas

Hi Nicolas,

This is the link for e mail support from Smartdisk. The technical support people are very good. They will help you out at once, in my experience.

http://www.smartdisk.com/eWeb/smartdiskus/www/staticpages/contacttechnicalsupport.asp#

This is the link to the main site. http://www.smartdisk.com

Please let me know how this works out for you,

Pixy.

 

[Nic_dk]

Thanks Tim & Pixy for the links, Ill try with the demo
and hear what support says.
And yes Michael I am shure it´s a HD problem, not FlashTrax
specifik.
Most CF card copy where made while driving in car, sometimes

I felt a small bump due to the road condition. I checked on the display after each copy a few randomly chosen images to ensure copy was ok.

Problems started first after 10 days while copying with no vibrations at all (flashTrax on a table in hothel room).

I made from 5 to 7 CF copy a day, whenever possible to shorten copy times and free the maximum memory possible.

Nicolas