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I put it off long enough, and now I got the bad news

Posted: Mon May 14, 2018 2:55 pm
by BackInTex
Sort of like that pain you have, but you don't go to the doctor for fear of bad news, even though waiting doesn't change anything, but no news allows hope.

Though I don't recommend putting off a doctor's visit as the bad news could and likely will get worse.

My situation was a inoperable hard drive. 4 years ago I found that our computer would no longer read the second hard drive. There had been a funny whirring sound coming from the computer for awhile but I thought the fan was about to go out. Nope, it was the hard drive.

All our digital pictures were on that drive. 13 years worth. I was not concerned because I had been making backups periodically. I found the backups and realized much to my self flagellating dismay, I did not have, or could not find, backups for the years 2005-2007. That was strange having backups for 2004 and prior and 2008 and forward. But I could not find them. So the files were lost.

I looked up data recovery services and the estimates were from $500-$1500 to recover (if they could recovery). So, I let the drive sit in a drawer for almost 4 years. Finally, after hearing enough complaining from my wife and kids I took it to a place locally. I just got the news that the data was "unrecoverable". :(

They said the platter (or platters) had a "round scratch" on it/them. My heart sank.

I have found a company out of Wisconsin that says they can still possibly recover data from them, so all hope is not lost, but I'm not too confident. They said it would likely be more expensive due to the drive already being "cracked open" by another party. I think the party here was fairly reputable (good BBB rating) as is the party in Wisconsin. So hopefully they will be able to recover some of the lost pictures for not too much more.

I think this weekend I will go through all my CDs, cases, drawers, etc. trying again (though I predict without success) to find the elusive backups I should have, and hope I, made.

Re: I put it off long enough, and now I got the bad news

Posted: Mon May 14, 2018 3:06 pm
by flockofseagulls104
BackInTex wrote:Sort of like that pain you have, but you don't go to the doctor for fear of bad news, even though waiting doesn't change anything, but no news allows hope.

Though I don't recommend putting off a doctor's visit as the bad news could and likely will get worse.

My situation was a inoperable hard drive. 4 years ago I found that our computer would no longer read the second hard drive. There had been a funny whirring sound coming from the computer for awhile but I thought the fan was about to go out. Nope, it was the hard drive.

All our digital pictures were on that drive. 13 years worth. I was not concerned because I had been making backups periodically. I found the backups and realized much to my self flagellating dismay, I did not have, or could not find, backups for the years 2005-2007. That was strange having backups for 2004 and prior and 2008 and forward. But I could not find them. So the files were lost.

I looked up data recovery services and the estimates were from $500-$1500 to recover (if they could recovery). So, I let the drive sit in a drawer for almost 4 years. Finally, after hearing enough complaining from my wife and kids I took it to a place locally. I just got the news that the data was "unrecoverable". :(

They said the platter (or platters) had a "round scratch" on it/them. My heart sank.

I have found a company out of Wisconsin that says they can still possibly recover data from them, so all hope is not lost, but I'm not too confident. They said it would likely be more expensive due to the drive already being "cracked open" by another party. I think the party here was fairly reputable (good BBB rating) as is the party in Wisconsin. So hopefully they will be able to recover some of the lost pictures for not too much more.

I think this weekend I will go through all my CDs, cases, drawers, etc. trying again (though I predict without success) to find the elusive backups I should have, and hope I, made.
Someone in Russia can probably get you a copy.

Re: I put it off long enough, and now I got the bad news

Posted: Mon May 14, 2018 3:44 pm
by Bob Juch
I wear three belts and four suspenders. I have all my photos backed up to Amazon.com, Google, and MS OneDrive. I have thousands of documents on Google and OneDrive as well. In addition, my tower and three laptops all sync with both Google and OneDrive. And to top it off, I have an external backup drive on my tower drive. No way, no how will I lose any photos.

Re: I put it off long enough, and now I got the bad news

Posted: Mon May 14, 2018 3:57 pm
by BackInTex
Bob Juch wrote:I wear three belts and four suspenders. I have all my photos backed up to Amazon.com, Google, and MS OneDrive. I have thousands of documents on Google and OneDrive as well. In addition, my tower and three laptops all sync with both Google and OneDrive. And to top it off, I have an external backup drive on my tower drive. No way, no how will I lose any photos.
I'm well covered now.

Re: I put it off long enough, and now I got the bad news

Posted: Mon May 14, 2018 4:16 pm
by flockofseagulls104
Bob Juch wrote:I wear three belts and four suspenders. I have all my photos backed up to Amazon.com, Google, and MS OneDrive. I have thousands of documents on Google and OneDrive as well. In addition, my tower and three laptops all sync with both Google and OneDrive. And to top it off, I have an external backup drive on my tower drive. No way, no how will I lose any photos.
I have a comeback to this, but I better not....

Re: I put it off long enough, and now I got the bad news

Posted: Mon May 14, 2018 5:35 pm
by Spock
Bob Juch wrote:I wear three belts and four suspenders. I have all my photos backed up to Amazon.com, Google, and MS OneDrive. I have thousands of documents on Google and OneDrive as well. In addition, my tower and three laptops all sync with both Google and OneDrive. And to top it off, I have an external backup drive on my tower drive. No way, no how will I lose any photos.
Say what you will, this modern way is so much better than having a shoebox full of pictures.

Re: I put it off long enough, and now I got the bad news

Posted: Mon May 14, 2018 6:05 pm
by BackInTex
Spock wrote:
Bob Juch wrote:I wear three belts and four suspenders. I have all my photos backed up to Amazon.com, Google, and MS OneDrive. I have thousands of documents on Google and OneDrive as well. In addition, my tower and three laptops all sync with both Google and OneDrive. And to top it off, I have an external backup drive on my tower drive. No way, no how will I lose any photos.
Say what you will, this modern way is so much better than having a shoebox full of pictures.
I will be looking through shoeboxes this weekend to determine what pictures DID get printed. I know we had some printed along the way.

Re: I put it off long enough, and now I got the bad news

Posted: Mon May 14, 2018 11:24 pm
by Estonut
BackInTex wrote:
Spock wrote:
Bob Juch wrote:I wear three belts and four suspenders. I have all my photos backed up to Amazon.com, Google, and MS OneDrive. I have thousands of documents on Google and OneDrive as well. In addition, my tower and three laptops all sync with both Google and OneDrive. And to top it off, I have an external backup drive on my tower drive. No way, no how will I lose any photos.
Say what you will, this modern way is so much better than having a shoebox full of pictures.
I will be looking through shoeboxes this weekend to determine what pictures DID get printed. I know we had some printed along the way.
Are you aware whether or not any of your devices may have auto-uploaded to a cloud account?

Re: I put it off long enough, and now I got the bad news

Posted: Wed May 16, 2018 7:00 am
by BackInTex
Estonut wrote:
BackInTex wrote:
Spock wrote:Say what you will, this modern way is so much better than having a shoebox full of pictures.
I will be looking through shoeboxes this weekend to determine what pictures DID get printed. I know we had some printed along the way.
Are you aware whether or not any of your devices may have auto-uploaded to a cloud account?
Most of the stuff missing is from a non-phone digital camera, so no auto-loading to cloud, unfortunately.

Re: I put it off long enough, and now I got the bad news

Posted: Wed May 16, 2018 8:51 am
by Bob Juch
BackInTex wrote:
Estonut wrote:
BackInTex wrote:I will be looking through shoeboxes this weekend to determine what pictures DID get printed. I know we had some printed along the way.
Are you aware whether or not any of your devices may have auto-uploaded to a cloud account?
Most of the stuff missing is from a non-phone digital camera, so no auto-loading to cloud, unfortunately.
When I upload from my camera to one of my PCs, it is automatically backed-up to SkyDrive, Google, and Amazon.