I have been quiet this week after a whirlwind of computer crash, replacement hard drive, and a smooth restore from backup...and then the sinking realization that I have (yes, again) lost photos. I am a bit crushed, and have had a week of vacillating between just getting on with it, or running into the street screaming "SCREW IT!", never to even look at a computer again. To make it overly simplistic my photos were all backed up to a separate hard drive and, in the million to one moment, my laptop hard drive crashed at the exact instant the backup was at the photos, writing the linkbacks to the latest images, somehow corrupting the link to all of my personal photos on the backup drive. Oh, yes, lucky me. So while we know the images are still on the backup drive and it was just the 'connection' part of the process that was interrupted when my laptop crashed, we cannot access the images. A recovery company can, and they quoted $950. So yes, what a week.
I have been afraid to even download new images off of my camera (don't want to inadvertently write over anything) until we try a few things to see if we can retrieve the images from the backup drive on our own, so these are photos I took just last week.
I think I would much rather putter in the garden and look at flowers at the botanical gardens than think of all of the photos of my beautiful boys that I cannot access. Don't even get me started on how as a mom I am not often able to find time to paint or write anymore, and that taking photos has become my main artistic outlet. That these images are my threads of communication spreading out into the internet like spiderwebs, making me feel connected and creative.
There is a lesson in here somewhere, perhaps. Impermanence? Living in the present moment?(Or that getting the $air conditioning$ in the car working just in time for summer is more important than $recovering my photos$?) Geez, I get it.
23 comments:
I just about choked on THE AIR when I read the quote. Ouch. Things like the potential lost of photos really pushes one into the present reality. I'm so sorry that this happened. AND, I'm going to back up my photos in a third location today just to be safe.
oy. i'm hurting with you.
i'm also taking this as a sign to backup my photos today. carefully, i guess?
Jodi - Can you believe it? AGAIN? With stand alone backup drive and hourly automated backups and so on and so on. The odds that my laptop would crash at *that* particular instant? Grrrr. And in researching it, it would appear I'm the only person this ever happened to - one in a million freak occurrence. So sad.
Tara - or perhaps more important than carefully, triple"lly" or quadruple"lly". ;)
Aw that sucks. That is the bad thing about digital cameras. At least before we had a hard copy in our hands.
I should appreciate that I do have some images on Flickr and Picasso and on my blog..it is just just only a small percentage and only at a small size/resolution. But that counts for something! Whew.
Michelle - True! My moms house flooded a long time ago and so we lost photos from pretty much my entire childhood (including baby books, etc.). At least with this, I do have DVDs of much older images, and then copies of some on Flickr/Blog of course, even if only small/web resolution.
Ouch! That right there is my own personal nightmare. I was just thinking how wonderful it was that I could take pictures and not have to buy film or develop them. On the other hand...if I lost them all. Oy.
Oh I'm so sorry. That has happened to me twice as well and the sick feeling was awful. I have virtually NO pictures of Ella's birth until about 3yrs old. We started using Mozi.com for a backup system and after our latest crash it worked well. Good luck!
oh i'm so sorry to hear about this...your photos are truly beautiful and a gift to all who view them. i hope you get them back. i love the way your eye captures nature and the everyday joy of your children.
I'm so sorry this happened, that sucks so much. We started supplementing our own back-ups with an online back-up service:
http://www.backblaze.com/
It takes quite a while to do the initial back-up but it's nice to know if the house burns down or something we'll still have most of our files.
Oh--you're living one of the things I worry about constantly. I have a crappy memory and the possibility of truly losing my kids from that age freaks me out.
Good luck, hope it all comes together swimmingly and you can get ALL of your pictures back!
Candace - Thanks! The backup system works fine, it just was interrupted at the exactly wrong moment, so adding yet another tier of additional backup might be what is needed. :( My design/computer work is backed up additionally, but my photo folders are massive, and just way too huge for frequent DVD burns. Online might be a beast to double that up to - how much space do you backup offsite?
Thanks Brianna!
Candace - Ohp. Nevermind...doesn't do TimeMachine drives, which is my photos!
Oh my...that's horrible! I'm sorry that this happened to you.
i am so very very sorry. we lost our christmas pictures this year, and that was a small heartbreak. i cannot imagine how it would feel to lose every picture.
hoping that you can drum up that $950 somehow.
just about to go exploring your blog a bit more. hang in there, mama.
Cate - Thanks! The irony is that the day after my computer crashed/when I got the recovery estimate, was the day all my new furniture was delivered! Dining table & chairs, barstools, new couch, new leather side chair. Not that I would have cancelled any of it, but such timing... ;)
Sorry you have had such a frustrating week. I had that happen about 6 weeks ago. I cried for about two days because of the lost photos. Hopefully, better days are coming your way.
grrrr! i'd be spewing...like a volcano!!
i hope you find a way to retrieve them, economically and quickly.
So sorry to hear this! I had something similar happen a couple of years ago, and I paid. I don't think it was anywhere near $950, but in my view it was well spent, all of it. As you say, taking photos of our children is the main artistic outlet of many mothers, and they become "threads of communication" (love this definition Denise!). Good luck!
Oh my oh my...that is everyone's nightmare...happening to you! My heart was in my mouth for you reading this...I hope the *fix* comes easier than expected. Truly.
Oh my gosh! I so wish that hadn't happened! :(
I had this happen twice and lost almost a years worth of photos. When I remember the pics I have lost, it is very heartbreaking. I was also quoted $950 for data recovery. I just ended up keeping the drive in hopes that the price may come down in the future some time and I will be able to retrieve them. I also had all of my poetry on this same drive and I have yet to try and find the paper drafts.
I hear you!
Please let us know if you find a cheaper way of retrieving the data!
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