Back in 2006 I bought an external hard drive to take with me on deployments (US Navy Submarine). I moved all the pictures from previous deployments to it, and continued storing all my pictures on it through the end of 2008 when I got out. Jan 2009, about a month out, It stopped working. Seemed completely dead, would not mount when plugged in, no blinky LED. I bought a hard drive bay and took the disk out, put it in the bay, and I would be able to access it for ~30 sec and then it would disappear. In desperation, I shelled out for another brand of HDD bay and got the same results. Tried different cables, different PCs, etc. Tried everything there is to try, and it simply would not stay alive more than 30 seconds. The more I tried, the shorter the window got, until I would plug it in and hear the "ba-dunk" immediately followed by the "bee-donk." Very disheartening. All the photographic evidence of the most interesting chapter of my life, gone.

I did not throw the HDD away; I threw it into "the box" of old HDDs from past PCs and externals. in the years since 2009 I have tried a few more times to reclaim my pictures, with the same results. "The Box" has grown since then and is now home to over a dozen HDDs, probably 2 dozen thumb drives, and a handful of old camera phones and cameras. For Christmas, I bought myself a Synology DiskStation NAS and started dumping the contents of all my old storage media onto it. I was just indiscriminately grabbing HDDs, plugging them in, backing up, repeat. Sort it out later.

So I'm going through sorting out what's on my NAS and I encounter a complete backup of my Navy hard drive! Apparently I grabbed that old, "bad" drive, and it stayed alive long enough for a complete backup! Hooray nostalgia! I'm too excited not to share some of what I found on there. Here are some highlights:

The obligatory awesome submarine shots:
<submarine sunset
<from the bridge
<me in the bridge. last breath of fart-free air for a month or two.
<My accommodations (a prison mattress minus the spring cushion, tucked half-way behind a wall)

Some pictures I took holding my digital camera to the periscope eyepiece:
< ass end of the boat, transiting the Suez canal
< some badass skyscraper AK47 bayonet monument in Egypt
< another Egyptian monument along the Suez
(as the most junior qualified Periscope Operator, I got stuck on the periscope for the duration of the maneuvering watch for the Suez transit while everybody else slept. I have hundreds of these scope shots)

Some places I went:
< indoor ski slope in the desert (in a shopping mall in Dubai)
<beached boats outside a seaside castle in Spain
<Ruins of Knossos, Crete, Greece

 

Very nice pictures.

 

The bullet-pitted stone monument in Egypt is iconic for the region. Here are a few of the many links for your boat:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Oklahoma_City_(SSN-723)

https://m.facebook.com/SSN723?refsrc=https://www.facebook.com/SSN723

http://www.navsource.org/archives/08/08723.htm

 

Congratulations on surviving a situation you couldn't get me into without chloroform and some ropes.

 

Funny how those things work...

 

Submariners ROCK! (I know this because my son is one.)
Thanks for the pix.

 

It stopped working. Seemed completely dead, would not mount when plugged in, no blinky LED. I bought a hard drive bay and took the disk out, put it in the bay, and I would be able to access it for ~30 sec and then it would disappear.

What I have done in the past is to put the HD in the freezer for ~1Hr, it stays alive just to allow the cloning!
Max.

 

What I have done in the past is to put the HD in the freezer for ~1Hr, it stays alive just to allow the cloning!
Max.

Freezing is a surprising solution - and I have experienced it before as well, on a router. I bought a Linksys router in late 2013 and had a power outage shortly after. The router would not restart. belkin had acquired the linksys router division from CISCO and Belkin tech support told me to put the router in the freezer for an hour. It worked for a while after each freezer dip. After a marathon call to customer service, I finally got a return authorization as the disconnecting and freezing every few days was a bit annoying.

 

View attachment 78302 <me in the bridge. last breath of fart-free air for a month or two.

I'm pretty sure this isn't a selfie

You seem a bit surprised and agitated. lol

kv

 

I'm pretty sure this isn't a selfie

You seem a bit surprised and agitated. lol

kv

Yes it is a selfie. From the POV it was taken, the would-be photographer would have to be floating in mid air. But, it was taken before the word "selfie" was part of common vocab, so maybe it can't technically be called a selfie (and therefore be subject to the typical assumption of vanity)? I had never heard the word at the time, and only took the pic because nobody else could. Meh, whatever. It's a selfie. At least it's not a duckface.

 

What I have done in the past is to put the HD in the freezer for ~1Hr, it stays alive just to allow the cloning!
Max.

Never heard of that trick. Maybe it was what saved my data though. I was doing the backups in the back room of my house. My house has jacked up air flow. There has been some remodeling and room sizes were changed, but HVAC duct sizes were not. As a result, not all rooms stay the same temp. It was probably 60 degrees in that room. It's uninhabited because its too cold; that's why it's "my area."

 

Submariners ROCK! (I know this because my son is one.)
Thanks for the pix.

I seem to remember you saying something about your son before but the details escape me. IIRC when last I was aware of it, he had just gotten into the Navy? Has he made it to a boat yet? Got his fish yet? Or am i confusing your story with someone else's, and he's a 20 year veteran chief?

 

I seem to remember you saying something about your son before but the details escape me. IIRC when last I was aware of it, he had just gotten into the Navy? Has he made it to a boat yet? Got his fish yet? Or am i confusing your story with someone else's, and he's a 20 year veteran chief?

Don't know if I'd mentioned him before. He graduated USNA in 09 went to nuke school and deployed on a Virginia class SSN out of Hawaii. He's pinned and a diver as well. He's currently rotated ashore and teaching naval engineering to ROTCs in Nebraska (!).
Best Regards.

 

Yes it is a selfie. From the POV it was taken, the would-be photographer would have to be floating in mid air. But, it was taken before the word "selfie" was part of common vocab, so maybe it can't technically be called a selfie (and therefore be subject to the typical assumption of vanity)? I had never heard the word at the time, and only took the pic because nobody else could. Meh, whatever. It's a selfie. At least it's not a duckface.

Nice work; now days our cell phones pull it off. Back then you have to guess on the shot.

Selfie is one looking at ones self as you take the pic and yes it is for Vain use; most of the time for internet and public display of ones self as if anyone would care. lol

Your shot is historical; as well as cool. To be standing where you were; it's a really cool shot.

kv

 

Awesome Pics thanks for sharing!!

Also congratulations on the successful submarine tours, I stayed overnight at the USS Silversides a couple times, NOT something I would want to be doing for months on end, lol

 

Don't know if I'd mentioned him before. He graduated USNA in 09 went to nuke school and deployed on a Virginia class SSN out of Hawaii. He's pinned and a diver as well. He's currently rotated ashore and teaching naval engineering to ROTCs in Nebraska (!).
Best Regards.

Well that doesn't sound familiar at all, so I must have confused you with someone else. Well, congrats to him! Hawaii is where I wanted to go; that's where everybody wants to go, so you have to be at the top of your class and squared away to get that as your first assignment. In my graduating class there were 3 Hawaii billetts open, and by grades alone I would have had first pick, but I had been a little naughty a few times, and got almost last pick. So the fact he got Hawaii tells me he's no screwball. That, and teaching Engineering, of course .