portable hard drive - what did I do wrong?

[2dgzrul]

Hi. I have a where did I go wrong mini catastrophe question. Our computer was dying, so I saved all my digital supplies to a portable hard drive (Seagate) so that I could transfer them all over to our new computer. The problem is that all of the unzipped files became files with a .ptl and are now unusable (as far as I can tell). I have begun the long process of re-unzipping all the old files.

Can anyone tell me what I did wrong? Why did all the files become .ptls? Is there any way to stop this? I like the idea of having all my files stored safely in case this computer dies too. . . but I don't want to have to re-organize all over again.

Thanks so much!
Melissa

[KATPOR]

Melissa,
I don't know why your files are now .ptls, but if you can afford it I would suggest getting a different hard drive. I had a Seagate Replica and I hated it. It was slow and I had trouble retreiving files from it and since I work in IT I am pretty PC savvy. I bought a Hitachi external hard drive for my laptop and a Western Digital external hard drive for my husband's desktop and we've never had an issues with either one.

Good luck retreiving your files!
Kathy

[dugarner]

I looked up that file extension and it says it's an Adobe Premier extension. I don't know what Adobe Premier is, but if you have it, you should be able to open the files in that and maybe save them. I cannot imagine what might have happened that caused your files to do that.

I have a Toshiba 1 GB, it does well, and I had a Western Digital (and 2 friends had the same drive) that did horribly. I had to format it about every six months, and they are very unreliable. I don't know if the new ones are better, this one was about three years old when I trashed it at Christmas. They are notorious for failing to mount, which can give you a heart attack when you're getting ready to run a backup or access data.

I think it's probably the luck of the draw. I run my computer backup once a week onto my 1 GB Toshiba and once every two weeks onto my 320GB, which I then carry to my classroom and leave there until I need it again.

[2dgzrul]

Thanks, ladies.

Sorry for the lag time. The new computer's hard drive crashed right after I posted (imagine that), and it's finally back from the shop.

Since the zip files saved fine, I guess I will just have to start from scratch and unzip everything again.

I appreciate your input and will invest in a new hard drive.

Melissa

[iUma]

I use G Drives.... and especially love the mini drives for portability. i have my DD product files backed up on three EHDs. Reduntant??, maybe, but saves work and worry.