I'm so upset I cannot even cry!

[tzuhouse]

My father took my laptop, today, to work on it. He wound up erasing the entire harddrive. All my pictures I just took in Missouri, are gone. Pictures from cubscouts, all the butterfly pics I've taken this year, a photoshoot I did of a family (last weekend) and was going to burn for them tomorrow, are gone. Documents. I cannot even begin to think of what all I've lost. I know all my itineraries I had created for each day at Disney, which I was going to print and tape onto index cards, are gone. 1000's of hours. I know I should back this stuff up regularly, and I usually do, but I've had so much going on, I just didn't have time to plug in the external harddrives and drag all this stuff and wait.

I told him that if it got to the point where he needed to erase it, to stop, until I had backed up everything myself. I was at work and called to see how it was going. He said he had just erased it. He "thought" that the files on my desktop would backup also, but when he searched for my files, they weren't there.

I'm on a Mac, so please don't send me instructions on trying to recover. I've spoken with the Apple Store and he said if the search didn't turn up my files, then they were gone.

Thanks for letting me vent.

Mary

 

[disneymcgraw]

 

[robinb]

Bummer . It's time for a regular back-up schedule.

 

[Sparx]

ouch. something similar happened to us just recently. I'm sorry. I know its really hard. We are graphic artists, and we lost SOO much art that we hadn't backed up. I'm sorry that you lost all of your stuff.

 

[safetymom]

Sorry to hear that. But I bet from now on you will back up on a regular schedule. I back up my photos before I start to do anything with them on the computer. I couldn't stand to lose them.

 

[MsDisney23]

That is just terrible.

 

[raammartin]

Sorry to hear you lost your stuff.

 

[lookingforward]

I am so sorry!

 

[LindsayDunn228]

Lesson to Tzuhouse: back everything up on a disk.

 

[Disneyglobegirl]

I'm sorry! Because of things like this we always do regular back ups on disk. I would cry if I lost all my pics too!

 

[lucincia]

Ever since we went digital in 1999 for family photos, I have been paranoid about backup, to the point that my wife thinks I am insane (she thinks I am insane for other reasons too, but I digress). I figure if something happens to our physical possessions, we can replace them. But, photos, no.

The main storage area of the photos is on our main desktop. Every day when I plug in my laptop into the network, the photos directory (and some other home-related files, including home inventory, scanned docs of insurance, medical stuff, passports, IDs, etc) are sync'ed to the laptop (everything is encyrpted and password protected on the laptop). Once a week, the same files are automatically backed up to an external HD. Couple times a year, the same files are burned to DVD/tapes and moved off site to the bank's security deposit box. If we leave the house for extended period of time, I make sure I take the laptop or the external HD.

In my mind, if there is a fire in the house, I would grab these things in the order of importance -

1) Kids
2) Laptop
3) Wife (Don't let her read that!) (j/k)

 

[grlpwrd]

Well, at least take it to a technician first. Even the FBI can extract info that was seemingly "erased" from a harddrive.

Other than that bit of hope...yes! Always backup and get it on hardcopy.

GL!

 

[VSL]

I would be so mad!
(((hugs)))

On the plus side, I also have a Mac - aren't they so cute?!

 

[Grumpy's Gal]

were there any pictures on there that someone else would have had similar pictures? Can you get pictures from them?

 

[Dan Murphy]

Is a Mac different from a PC with deleted files?

So sorry to hear that, I can imagine.

 

[lucincia]

Is a Mac different from a PC with deleted files?

So sorry to hear that, I can imagine.

I find it weird that Mac does not have "undelete" utils out there (unless the newer MacOS has changed). In the past, I have been able to recover accidentally deleted files, as long as you have not written over it with something else. Maybe the newer MacOS has security feature that when you delete something, it writes over with random 0's and 1's for security purpose?

A quick google search pulled up this -

http://www.stellarinfo.com/file-recovery.htm

This is just the first link from the google search. There are tons of stuff out there if you look for like "mac delete file recovery".

 

[nativetxn]

I can't imagine how frustrated and disappointed you must be. Sorry this happened.

Katholyn

 

[AdventurerKat]

Take it to a tech. They must be able to do some sort of recovery. It probably won't be cheap but hopefully they can at least get back some of what you lost.

 

[tzuhouse]

Well, I guess they are different. I've spoken to the Apple store. Dad has searched his external harddrive, which he 'thought' he'd backed everything up to. But, it doesn't appear. Right now he's searching for my email program, so maybe I'll at least get all my contacts back, emails from the car rental companies and such for the disney trip, etc.

please wake me up. I hate this nightmare.

Mary