Please remember to look at your photos...

[pigtailpat]

I know some of us on this board are scrapbookers (although not me, I can't bring myself to cut a photo)...so I wanted to share a warning with you..

I had to do my son's yearbook page as he is graduating, so I started looking at stuff I had not touched for awhile. To my surprise, 17 folders on my external drive was corrupted, but I knew the data was there, as a mouse point over the folder was giving me a folder size, but I couldn't see the pics.

I took the laptop and tried the drive on another source, same thing. To me, that's a tip off to data corruption rather than a virus. I strongly suspect the drive had a power failure, and in the power down, some of the files got corrupted. Additionally, since I clone as a way of backing up, the corruption got cloned over as well.

I retrieved the data no problem with recovery software, but it took time and what a PITA!

So, in the hopes of preventing someone else from the same pain, look at your photos every now and then. Mine sat unlooked at for quite a while.

I used software called remo recover, as they can recover canon raw files (.cr2) and not every piece of software could do that format. The raw files are the digital negative, and you always want them! It was a $50.00 purchase, but really worth it to me.

I hope this warning helps someone, or prevents someone from a meltdown.

Pat

[kim]

VERY nice to know Pat and THANKS for sharing. I would rather lose my house than my photos.

[Elizabeth]

Thanks for the info, Pat. Glad you were able to recover your photos!

[kate3]

Pat,
I back up my files and photo's on my computer, on my portable hard drive and I burn a disc of them. I found out the hard way that a disc can go in under 2 years, my computer can die and so can my portable hard drive. Now I print a copy of every digital photo I want to keep. Expensive but I still have them and not really that expensive. I have a just photo printer that didn't cost a lot and to replace the 5 ink cartridges is only $28.00. I have one printer where just one colour ink is $189.00. So $28.00 for all 5 is very cheap.
I am happy you recovered yours. I thank you for the place you gave to recover them too if I ever need to try on some I have and still can't get.

[kate3]

VERY nice to know Pat and THANKS for sharing. I would rather lose my house than my photos.

No you wouldn't! I lost both together and I missed the house more. I don't have wedding albums or baby albums. I just have the bad photo's family took but that is something. I have a about a 5 year gap in my daughters life and I miss them. I don't miss my wedding albums.

[pigtailpat]

Kate -

Wow so sorry for the loss of your home. That is a major life altering event. One of the ladies in my quilting guild also just lost her home and she will be rebuilding with the insurance proceeds and is living in a small rental with her family. On recovery, you might need the professional level of the software, if you are trying to retrieve data on top of a reinstallation of windows or a partitioned drive, That is a little more money, I think it is $79, and only you would know whether you need that, as I don't know your situation. I did not need that, as I only had to retrieve data off an external that had nothing reinstalled on it like a system OS.

Photos are such cherished memories to us. It is like having a piece of history with you always. I'm usually so careful, and I have no idea how this occurred, but you can bet I will check my drives more often to see if there is trouble. I may investigate a power protection for the drives. Over this past summer, and even extending into this fall, we have had many short power outtages (you know like those momentary poffs no power and a few seconds later goes back on). That's enough to bring the drive down and corrupt a few files. Those externals are not on all the time, they go on only when I need to access the files, or write new ones. I do my best to preserve them. They also contain **gasp** all of my cutting files, and if I ever lost those toooooooo........

(AGGG..don't wanna go there.........)

Pat

[kate3]

Pat, That was years ago when we lost our home. We are good now. Australia is a land of big extreme's, we have big floods, big fires, big earthquakes, extreme temperatures and big cyclones. I have lived in homes that faced them all. I have been flooded out 3 times, been in 2 big earthquakes and had fires come so close that my gardens were burned. Floods like me best and I have learned to only live on hills. I didn't own the homes that were lost. I did own what was inside them and we were compensated even though you can't replace many things. Our homes were always supplied by my husbands employer. Now I own a home or the bank and I do and it is on a big hill. I no longer live in a Cyclone State but I do have lots of trees for bush fires. Trees are protected here and you cannot cut them down on your own property without a permit that they never let you have. It is now fire season so we do what we can to protect our homes. Like cleaning gutters and clearing anything dead around us in the gardens. The council told me I could trim the trees but that didn't mean leaving a 12 inch stump, lol. It was like he was reading my mind.

[Gigi]

Pat -

I am SO glad you were able to recover your photos. Funny you should mention this. I have mine backed up several places (and on cds) and just started to upload them to a cloud. Want to get my cutter files "up there" to as I would cry for months if I lost those!!

It's a really good reminder to check every now and then - thank you.