MAJOR HELP NEEDED!! Lost 6GB of photos!!!

[vision63]

sure the files have a suffix?

[hal]

drivesavers.com

you're beyond amatuer help...

very expensive, but money is no object - right?

[OWC Larry]

Actually - if anything can save the files from the ORIGINAL DRIVE they were not copied from right:

this:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/SubRosaSoft/18001822/

or this:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Prosoft%2...ing/25100/

going to be your best bet.

Unless the drive isn't spinning, no point in taking it to DriveSavers - there isn't anything more they can do.

The SubRosaSoft application for $59 is damned heavy duty. if the files are on that disk, it ought to bring them back for you.

No matter what though - the recover MUST be done from the original powerbook drive and as prior recommended, with it in Target mode connected to your QuickSilver. Do not ever recover to the same disk you are recovering from since that results in overwrites that wipe out files attempting to recover.


Hope that helps - as long as just the OS is all that you installed back on that powerbook drive - a good chance that the actual image files were not over written. And as long as not making use of the PB, good chance it stays that way.


And one more note - Get a backup drive. $99 for a 80Gb Firewire, $150 for 250GB... Easy to clone to or traditional backup - and then no lost sleep, etc from an event like this.

[blusubaru]

Well said Lar, well said.

[Mike Sellers]

I guess no matter how many time one hears "back up your data", it takes something like this to make it sink in. When it happened to me 9 years ago I was lucky and didn't lose anything critical.

[ScottG]

Just an idea- if your copied files are corrupted, it may be that the headers are unreadable. Have you tried FileJuicer on them? Sorry, I don't have a direct link, but it is on versiontracker or macupdate. It is a different approach to those suggested so far, and will do no harm (as you will be working on the copied files).

cheers

scott

[chas_m]

I have no better advice than what Larry offered to help, except to remind one and all that you SHOULD NEVER EVER KEEP REAL FILES ON THE DESKTOP.

There are four sound, logical reasons for this:

1. Too easy to "accidentally" throw away.
2. Applications kept on the desktop cannot be updated via Software Update.
3. ~/Desktop is a different class of file than "normal" folders and, if corrupted, can be VERY difficult to recover from.
4. Each non-alias icon on the Desktop is treated as a full-blown window, meaning that each new icon LITERALLY slows your machine down (the effect can be quite dramatic if you keep folders with LOTS of subfolders on the desktop)

[OWC Larry]

Probably already said... just wanted to say again - unless you are very lucky and that FileJuicer(never heard of it) or something like it can fix those files - it's more likely that the corrupted files are not recoverable... you need to recover the original files off the source drive. That is the best bet.

It's not to say you might have luck with the corrupted files... Are the file sizes at least correct with what copied - one thing for sure, if they are not, then for sure the files are worthless. image file sizes vary, but I'd suspect you have an idea of how many megs about that they should be. Fingers crossed a header change is all it takes... but otherwise, best bet is to recover off the source before new activity on the source drive overwrites those files.

Might be other options if the above all fail... but those would likely be extremely costly.

n-fin-it n-tro-p Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Unfortunately, I think most of you are missing the
> point. I have the files. They are physically
> there. I just can't open them. I don't need to
> try to exhume the files from the drive.
>
> Thanks for the tips though!

[OWC Larry]

Hey - any update?

[ScottG]

If you ever need it, here is a link to filejuicer
http://www.filejuicer.com/filejuicer/

I have not needed to try it in earnest- I downloaded it to try and recover some photos in iPhoto, which I then realised also contained no data- I had accidenatally moved some photos out of an iPhoto folder, which I realise I am not supposed to do, with the net result that the directory entry and thumbnail remained, but no actual photo. Obviously, no program can recover this sort of lunacy....

cheers

scott