oh my god!

[emraphoto]

well here's the latest in my lost files saga. i also purchased a kaser 250gb hardrive (external) and pulled all the files off an older model imac. about 4-5 years woth of photo's. i transferred the entire hard drive to the external drive. sent the older imac home with the folks and plugged the kaser 250gb harddrive into our new 24" imac. checked it all out and everything was fine (i actually made sure the files were there the day i did it). fast forward 5 days and now for some reason my new kaser 250gb hard drive is empty except for a short cut to the new imac's hard drive and a random photo file containing new files (recent photo's):bang: :bang: :bang: :bang: !
i am obviously very, very concerned. i ran media recovery, software recover etc and both are showing an empty drive! i highlight the drive and scroll down to "get info" and it shows nothing on the drive!! full capacity basically (it HAD 40 gigs of photo's).
apparently during the day my wife was getting "you unplugged the device incorrectly" messages although she didn't do anything?!?!?!?
4 years of photo's !?!?!?!?!?:bang: :bang: :bang: :bang:
if any of you kind souls have any advice PLEASE let me know!!!
if it turns out i have lost everything i'd say digital has become a very questionable medium in my opinion

 

[emraphoto]

when i try and run mediarecovery the drive dissapears from the desktop and says "you didn't unplug the device properly blah blah blah" and "some files might be lost and/or corrupted".
when i quit mediarecovery it reappears?!?!?
wtf?

 

[FrankS]

Very sorry to hear that John!

This is in reference to another recent thread: This kind of thing does not happen to film negs - they don't just disappear!

 

[akptc]

Perhaps a utility like Undelete would help?

http://www.undelete.com/undelete/home/undelete.asp?RId=1&SId=2&CId=1&Aeid=0&Apid=0

 

[Rafael]

Wow, you are having some terrible luck this week! I really feel for you. In your position, I would be taking the hard drive in to a professional tech at this point. Good luck. I really hope that you are able to recover the files.

 

[antiquark]

Strange, a few days ago one of my coworkers was telling me about a virtually identical problem he was having. Some possibilities:

- Try powering off and on the computer with the harddrive connected. Ie, first plug in the harddrive, then power up the computer.

- Take the harddrive to another computer, like a PC or Linux box, and see if the contents are visible.

- If you're eager for some technical trickery, you can remove the HD from its case and mount it internally in your computer. (as far as I know.)

It seems to be a common problem with USB drives. Usually it's a problem with the USB interface, not the data integrity on the harddrive itself.

Hope that helps.

 

[emraphoto]

i think the usb drive is the issue as it seems to be causing all kinds of trouble... i will most certainly take it to a recovery place but what REALLY concerns me is when i single click on the external drive and scroll to "get info" it shows only 1 gig of info used on the drivewhich is the size of the random folder that just appeared on the drive?
i am deeply concerned that there is no info to recover!

 

[emraphoto]

you're right frank, and i swear if i can't recover these files a/ someone is gonna get sued and b/ i will never shoot digital again!

 

[foto_fool]

Unless the drive has been overwritten the data are still there. I'm not so mac-savvy these days, but check to see if you are running the same version of the OS on the new machine that you were on the old. If the versions are different there could be USB driver issues.

If the folks are nearby you might try to plug the box into the old machine. If the files are still not visible, send the box in to a drive recovery service - spendy but worth it for 4 years of photos.

BTW - if you put 40 GB of files on the drive you might have confused the drive and the mac - the format limit is 32 GB per partition. I'm not sure how this would manifest.

Buy a DVD burner and put your photos on something more reliable.

- John

 

[emraphoto]

i thought the whole point of a 250gig hard drive was A/ it could hold 250 gigs of info and B/ they were reliable?!?!?
the reply i got from the tech support for the drive was nothing short of shameful!
they said basically that i "only created a short cut" and " i bet the transfer was fast". that's it?!?!?
whereas i CLEARLY stated in the original email that it took over an hour and that i had actually checked on the new computer that everything was running fine and the files were there!
i really am concerned as when i retrieve info re: the external drive in question it says there's no info stored on the drive?! it also "created" a short cut to my new imacs hard drive seemingly on it's own!?!?! i do have a dvd burner and i was just in the process of organizing everything and burning etc.
as well i have had loads of strange goings on over the last 2 days as a result of my new "usb hub"...
i never buy gear from the big box stores but this time i did... they assured me there was no problem with the hub and it would function with osx no problem. it's been NOTHING BUT A PROBLEM!!! and it serves me right for trusting the opinion of an underpaid, clueless teenager.
the old machine is on the otherside of the continent and i am in the process of trying to get ahold of the new owners to have them search the machine and see if the files remain. as well i'll try and have them take it into a data recovery place out there!
man, neg's and slides are looking real interesting again!

 

[kuzano]

I have a document I have written on the viability of digital where changes in technology affect image quality. I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that these storage problems will have a serious impact on original image storage where transition to newer (and rapidly changing) technologies are concerned. I actually believe that if you acquire the images digitally, for archival purposes, you need to output them to film and use safe and unchangine archival methods. We may find in ten years that we can't find the equipment to open files from this time. The drives won't exist. File formats will have changed. If you understand what I am saying here, you may well ask..."Then why don't I shoot them on film in the first place, and then scan them for the digital marketplace?".... And I am telling you that may be a very reasonable question. Digital storage won't stay static, and there is an inherent signal to noise proble with digital electronics as these files are saved in these evolving formats.

Anyone who wants a copy of the document I have written will receive it if they email me at larsco2002@yahoo.com

I'd be interested in feedback and or refute on my thoughts before continuing on with the disbursal of it.
[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]

 

[kuzano]

By the way, the purpose I have written this all up is exactly the reasons that everybody on this post and your last post. I believe the computer industry has WAY oversold the viability of USB for storage. I have seen destroyed hard drives, flash and thumb drives and memory cards for cameras. The two common sources of difficulty come down to powered hubs and not disengaging USB storage devices using the tray item in the system tray to shut off power to the external device.

I have a question. It is implied that the message your wife is getting about not disengaging the drive properly that the USB is not functioning properly in the machine. Are you still using that powered hub... I think you said you got one. Get rid of it. I also agree with the person who said to pull the drive from the case and install it in the computer on a more conventional interface. But then, the question comes up whether the new drive is SATA vs. IDE, and whether your computer has SATA or will need a SATA expansion card.

It's possible the internal interface will show up your images, if they got on the drive in the first place. USB seems to be causing a lot of problems so far as data transfer is concerned on really fast drives. For instance, if the new drive is a 7200 RPM spindle speed, it simply may not work with the achingly slow USB 2.0 interface.

Good luck, and if you want to email me, the email addy above is working.

 

[Kin Lau]

the reply i got from the tech support for the drive was nothing short of shameful!
they said basically that i "only created a short cut" and " i bet the transfer was fast". that's it?!?!?
whereas i CLEARLY stated in the original email that it took over an hour and that i had actually checked on the new computer that everything was running fine and the files were there!

it also "created" a short cut to my new imacs hard drive seemingly on it's own!?!?!

That last line pretty well says it all. I hate to say it, but I agree with tech support.

 

[emraphoto]

i will certainly email you my friend. this has been a very painful week for me and yesterdays events cannot occur again. now i need to decide if i can ever trust the digital medium again!
i am going to take the drive to a media recovery specialist (my best friends wife times scripts for the movies so they have a very good contact). i'm also trying to have the old machine taken to someone as well... BUT the question remians for me. do i, can i EVER trust the digital process again. i am seriously considerning a return to film for the very reasons you have outlined.

 

[teo]

Try Alsoft Diskwarrior. I''ve used it for years, it's been used by Apple technicians too.
It's the only that can save your butt. If not, files are lost...

(I know that it's too late but, for the future: 2 copies of everything...)

 

[gavinlg]

This is the reason why I still shoot film for all my personal stuff. I know that in 20 years time I'll still have the real, material negatives in my hand. A digital file is not a physical thing you can hold or keep safe.

I'm sorry for your file loss

 

[BOSS65]

This is why if your pics are digital, they should be saved on several types of different media - on your computer, dvd, cd & / or external hard drive. You never know which one is going to fail.

 

[feenej]

I had all my old digital files go poof when I had them stored on an external firewire drive after I got a new iMac. Then I was using the external drive between an OS9 machine and my new OSX iMac, and had disconnected it without ejecting it off the desktop first, then got an irrecoverable error and had to re-format the drive. I had given my old iMac to my Dad and all my old files were still on it, so I recovered them.

 

[palker]

Hey,

Very sorry to hear about your problems.

I Actually use two firewire drives and back up on a weekly basis. I use an application called SuperDuper, it makes a carbon copy of my internal hard drive on a delta basis (it takes about 6 mins to run). I have to admit I'd also set up a process to back up within Aperture to a DVD and then never ran it .. maybe its time to put it in place as well. I know I'm paranoid, but unfortunatelly accidents do happen, regardless of the media, and I try to keep one step ahead.

I once dropped my iBook and killed it, I was able to make a complete restore - magic.

I hope you are able to recover the data, and please set up a parallel back-up.

There is a convenience with digital which allows me to experiement more freely than using film and I don't want to give it up.

Good luck,

Phil.

 

[ferider]

Do not play with it. Bring it to a professional for recovery.
Sounds like most data are still there and recoverable.

Roland.