Data Loss again...

[Rahb]

2 years ago I stored everything on an External Hdd, then that ext Hdd hit the ground while plugged in, dat loss (idiot, should have backed up)

Salvaged SOME jpgs from previews in Lightroom,but all files gone.

Last night, working with an ext HD,need to back these files up so I don't lose anything. Heck, let's back all photos up in 3 places!

This morning I get to my final batch of photos. The most important is say. Everything I shot in Hawaii. Let's organize them first using Lightroom, looks like they are in 2 locations.
Lightroom: merge files?
Me: ok
Lightroom: error renaming folder
Me: okay....no problem, I'll just back up manually then figure this out. Let's see....where's the fold from Hawaii.......

Yup, gone. No longer exists on ext HD, not in trash can on the Mac, not in any folder locations I comonly use with Lightroom, just gone and files are no longer synced. Apparently it tried to move the files from my ext HD a emerge with files on my macbok pro, errors, and they evaporated. All gone. Any raw file I didn't already process and make a jpg...GONE. All because I got a wild hair to back things up more consistently this weekend. I kept hoping I would find the files in some random location on my computer, but no luck so far. Angry, even though I'm already happy with the jpg's I produced, I just always wanted the negatives.

BE INTENTIONAL ABOUT BACKING UP, even IF it's just a hobby.
(Rant over)

 

[SquarePeg]

Ugh. I don't know LR so can't help you there but if you still have that external HD that died, you can probably get those files. I was successful in getting files from both a dead laptop and a broken external HD using a HD reader that I ordered from amazon. It was pretty simple and not that expensive. What about drop box or something for external cloud storage?

 

[Rahb]

hd this time still works last time was a complete failure. I did salvage jpg last time also though.

the folder removed itself to merge and is lost in the abyss

 

[dennybeall]

Most likely just the index listings are gone so file recovery software may get them back but you can't use that drive until you run the recovery software.

 

[Rahb]

Any ideas on a good file recovery software?

 

[W.Fovall]

Lowcostrecovery - Data recovery services starting at 199.

 

[Austin Greene]

I've never really had an issue with backing up, partly because I never keep RAW files outside of Lightroom's build in catalogs. Even with a 1TB hard drive standing by, it just takes too long to back up.

What I do instead is incorporate all of my solid images, those I actually show the public, into my Flickr. I upload the full-res edited jpeg files, and Flickr will hold up to a terabyte of them for me, ready to be downloaded show anything happen. Flickr doubly serves as the central node for any links I put out on the web for my images, outside of my website or 500px.

In fact, I just recently wiped my entire laptop hard drive as I was upgrading my OS. Years of raw images, gone, and that's perfectly fine with me. What doesn't make it out of lightroom wasn't meant to see the light of day anyways.

My suggestion: keep less raws. At most, keep the TIFFS if you want a bit more editing freedom. In the event that you lose those, the smaller filesize of jpegs is much friendlier to recovery software out there (there are some great free options).

 

[Rahb]

Yeah, if I had lost any of the other Raws I'd have been fine. In fact most of my favortie shots had been exported. But there were a few I wanted to look back through and see if I can make something out of them. If nothing else, for the experience of getting better.