[Irma]

Hi.....

Yesterday morning when I was working with a picture I hit my cup of coffee, as a reaction I strechted my leg and hit my CPU... It went to one side slowly and landed in my two external disks....
The blue screen appeared and I had to shut down my computer...


So far I don't know how much I lost in C ... I had there all my programs, my pictures from the last 6 months and all my LR and CS3 presents, gradients and so on....


D that it is in my computer too, as far as we have seen is there but we haven't seen if there is a huge damage. I don't know if I lost my pictures 2008-2009... I know I have a backup but I haven't been able to see anything yet.

So I will be out for few days repairing my computer....

Hope to give you better news soon.

[Keith Alan]

Irma, I just rebuilt my computer last night after my harddrive failed.
I only lost 2 sets of photos that were not important, but I never backed-up my music files so that's where my biggest losses happened.

I understand your pain and hope it all comes together for you.


Must admit that starting fresh feels good in an odd way.

[shuttertalk]

So sorry to hear that Irma..

Hopefully it's not the hard drives that are damaged - perhaps some other components are damaged and you just need to replace them, or at worst case move your hard drives to another computer.

Anyway, hope it goes well - keep us updated.

[Toad]

If you have the patience and lack of techno-fear, you can maybe save some of this stuff. Take everything apart piece by piece and wash any sticky parts with isopropyl alcohol and cotton swabs. Dry them with a hair dryer set to cool. Repeat as necessary.

I also have a history of this kind of thing - I spilled a beer on my eeepc and the keyboard would go "crack" every time that I pressed a key. It may be that the liquid has caused a short circuit that can be cured. The hard drives are the worst problem - as they are not really self maintainable.

[Irma]

Thanks all for the advice and support

Things look promising..

Yesterday Juergen made a CD with many programs to start the computer from that CD. Many didn't find C but there was one that showed all I had in C. So I could copy many of my pictures that had no error. I also copied my mail acount and mozilla files in the hope I can get my email addresses and my favorites. I also could copy my file with plug-ins and presets in CS3 and LR ... The program didn't say they had errors.

The program could read D, and I copied all. So far the external disk were the CPU landed looks fine with no problems.

Today we will replace C and install windows and make some test if there is no other problem. I hope we can finish today.

I never thought about making a backup of my files in C. I have learned so much from all this. One and the most important is to have a good and organized backup system.

Toad, the coffee never reach the keyboard... that was also a good thing...

I will let you know tomorrow, how things are going here. Hopefully I can post from my computer...

[Keith Alan]

I hope it went well, Irma.

[shuttertalk]

Good to hear that you were able to get your data Irma... that's the most important.

Rebuilding a computer is a hassle, but if you still have your data, that's all that matters.

[Toad]

Rebuilding a computer is a hassle, but if you still have your data, that's all that matters.

Quite right. Hard drive: $100. Motherboard: $150. Artwork: Priceless.

[Wedding Shooter]

Trust that you will be up and running again soon.

[nia]

It was so sad but now as I understand everything went fine dear Irma, I am glad to hear this, yes, back-up is important!

I hope and wish everything to run again as always,

Blessing and Happiness,
with my love,
nia

[Irma]

Thanks all for your support and concern, I really appreciate it

My update after two days working:

(and I keep thinking it could have been worse)

My mayor loss was in 2008. I lost LR catalog and backups and many original pictures.
2007 and before is intact.

From 2009 I lost many of my pictures from the last half of the year. My distortion
series was nearly wiped off, my studio portraits are all gone. There were many
files I copied from C but many of them were empty.

I have by year a file with sub-files with all pictures I work with in web size. I keep
it as my photo diary and I only had backup of 2007. From 2008 and 2009 may of those
sub-files are empty.

It was frustrating at the beginning, but thinking positively... well, I lost a basket
of fish, but still I have my tools and I know fishing...
It will go fishing again and get that basket back!


Things that I have learned by mistakes I did and things I have seen:

Working with LR, it is best to work with small catalogs, from 5 to 10 thousand pictures
in one catalog is a good size It is still manageable. I didn't know that my LR catalog backups
where in the same folder with my catalogs. I think this is by default.

From the raw files I rescued all are fine, but my tif files (many of them) are corrupted.
I remember that some of them were still with layers. Actually I never flatten
my images. I have to read about this.

It is important to have a backup of presets, gradients, brushes, textures all tools
you work with.

I have at the moment a backup of all my existing pictures in a 1TB disk, and my LR backups,
and a copy of the few LR presets I had once the idea of copying them, all my bw presets and
color presets I did in the last year are gone. I might get some of them back through some of
my raw files.

I bought this big disk about 6 months ago, and since then I left the backup of my picture for tomorrow.

I have one external disk where I will have a copy of my important images in jpg and ready to print,
all this via LR.

I was missing making a backup of my bookmarks (I use Firefox and it is so easy, I never did it.
I have my bookmarks back but it was a bit of trouble).
I didn't have a backup of my email account. I have my address book back but
I have troubles getting my email account and my mails back. I am working on it.

I know how important is to have a backup program working but I want to try to do it manually,
maybe just two more steps in my work flow, but it might be faster. I have to think how and put
it into practice.

I believe I should write here also ... "not to drink coffee in the desk!" but I will not.
Drinking my morning coffee reading Shuttertalk comments is one of the best part of my day...

[matthew]

Irma, I'm sorry to hear about the photos that you've lost, and thanks for sharing your experiences. I know that I'll be changing some of the things that I do because of them.

And I have my morning beverage next to my keyboard as I write this, too. Some things are too important.

[Irma]

Thanks Matthew... I am happy to know that my experience will help others...

[nia]

Dear Irma, I am so sad to hear that you have lost your photos and works. Maybe originally you have lost but I hope you can find them if you shared them. But yes, you can make another files of photography, because you are so beautiful photographer. BUT please be sure for all your photos I mean about back-up! and be careful about drinking coffee dear Irma! My son, he is always warning me not to drink at the desk! I am same as you and also I have a cat, and she loves to be at my desk, we can make any accident here too. As Matthew says, it is too important

with my love,
nia

[Toad]

What a disaster!! Glad to see you are taking it well (better than I would).

[Irma]

nia, Toad, Thanks you are very kind....

nia... I am taking care of my pictures now... I will be finished soon...
About drinking in the computer. It is just too difficult specially in this season.
I spend my whole day here or taking pictures,
Oh! and some times doing some housework...

Toad,
I have my vaccinations already.
During my life, I have lost very important things, you just learn the best way to cope with a big loss.

[NT73]

Sorry to read about this loss Irma.

A bit like having a house fire where everything can be replaced, but only memories remain of photos and keepsakes. :/

[Wedding Shooter]

Wow - what a loss. So sorry to hear about it Irma. I am using a Drobo for my back-up. I think it is very good.

[shuttertalk]

Sorry to hear about your losses Irma... hope you are able to move forward with what you have remaining.

If there's any consolation, you can see all the photos you've ever uploaded to ST in your user profile under "Uploaded Images":
http://shuttertalk.com/forums/profile.ph...ages&id=92

Looks like you've uploaded 1415 images so far. Most likely they're low res, but at least you can have an idea of your favourite showcase images and perhaps give you an idea on how to recreate them or even improve on them!

If you want, I can work on a script to collect all those images for you into a zip file or something. Give me a couple of days and I'll see what I can come up with...

[Irma]

NT sometimes one thinks in more dramatic ways to lose things. The first thing that came into my mind was a firehouse.
I am thankful that it was not this way....

Thanks Chris for the info about your backup system. I will have a look.

Jules, This is very kind of you, and I appreciate a lot your offer. I think it will not be needed. All pictures I post in Shuttertalk I post
them first in an online gallery I have. I might be missing one or two that I could copy from the link you gave me ...
Thank you so much anyway.

I never thought I had posted so many pictures...

[nia]

nia, Toad, Thanks you are very kind....

nia... I am taking care of my pictures now... I will be finished soon...
About drinking in the computer. It is just too difficult specially in this season.
I spend my whole day here or taking pictures,
Oh! and some times doing some housework...

Toad,
I have my vaccinations already.
During my life, I have lost very important things, you just learn the best way to cope with a big loss.

I know what you mean dear Irma, actually I am same with you

Good Luck for this new start dear Irma,
have a nice and enjoyable day,
with my love,
nia