ohh... Crap.

[JackAlexander]

Well, I don't how she wiped out the computer memory. By deleting, formatting or system restore? As far as I know there are many data recovery programs that can do the job and find your lost things back. Like Recuva or PC Inspector. Also, if she accidentally deleted the things or Shift+ delete, use deleted recovery programs. If mistakenly formatted the computer and found everything gone, use some format recovery programs. If all those recovery programs can't help and you really want your lost files back, I am afraid you have to send your computer hard disk for special data recovery services. Usually that will cost you a lot.

 

[Polyphony]

Im Furious. Totally ropable!
Mum managed to wipe the computer of ALL its memory - Like it was brand new again. (She put it through recovery mode)
I LOST EVERYTHING!!
All my photos ive ever taken are gone! Sure I have a few on my blog and on Facebook (But like thats any help with their crappy photo hosting...)

Is there ANY way of somehow getting these back? Has anyone had this happen before?

<-- Thats how happy I am right now.

They're surge protected and everything, the only way to kill what's on it is to enter your security information that you've setup around it or to light it on fire and throw it off the roof.

I get your point but just to be accurate: Data can still be recovered from a burnt hard drive.

 

[Eventer]

Try this Recuva - Undelete, Unerase, File and Disk Recovery - Free Download. I have used to countless times to get back photos I have accidentally deleted. Taking it to a Data recovery expert will cost you thousands of dollars. Once you download the program. Pick the folder you want it to search, it will find anything that has been deleted. If it has been written over it will still find it, but it will probably not be recoverable, or only some of it may be. Like others have said STOP using the computer. Do not save anything new to the hard drive. The more you save the more you lose.

Here is a little guide to help you Recovering files from damaged or reformatted disks - Piriform Docs

Thanks! hope this works! - Downloading now

 

[Eventer]

Oh damn eventer!!!! I hope you can get them back. A workmate had a an external drive pack a sad and it had their wedding photos and pics of their young kids/babies on it, $2k (physically damaged drive) later 97% recovered.

My advice, Step1:recover what you can.
Step 2: Go to dick smiths or Harvey Norman and buy at least one external HDD ($100 will get you 640GB-1TB) and do regular backups. I keep copies of my "important" files in several places so any major failure/theft/damage or user error is limited.

I Definatly plan to get a external Hard drive once i have my laptop - Because this is a shared family computer (That and a computer illiterate mum) ive been slowly putting my photos on a a USB- Unfortnayly i hadnt got th far, The onyl ones i managed to svae were some horse ones for a photography at school.
oh wow! 2k - thats ALOT of money!

 

[j-dogg]

Some photographers make it part of their everyday habit to store/backup their stuff every day, and also to do a quick review/classify/tag the same day. Makes life easier in the long run when you're looking for something and all you have to do is a key-word or tag search.

I am borderline obsessive about this. I lost all of my portfolio up to 2004 in a hard drive crash and vowed to never let that happen again.

I have a RAID of 17 server grade 36 and 73gb 10k rpm SCSI disk drives + 2 500gb SATA drives on my main. between 3 systems, every 2 or 3 drives have the exact same data on them. backed up on multiple drives and multiple systems, one system is not only double redundant but is powered on once a month and backed up three times, shut down and unplugged. It contains 7 of those drives. I almost need an EMP to lose everything.

 

[Eventer]

Well, I don't how she wiped out the computer memory. By deleting, formatting or system restore? As far as I know there are many data recovery programs that can do the job and find your lost things back. Like Recuva or PC Inspector. Also, if she accidentally deleted the things or Shift+ delete, use deleted recovery programs. If mistakenly formatted the computer and found everything gone, use some format recovery programs. If all those recovery programs can't help and you really want your lost files back, I am afraid you have to send your computer hard disk for special data recovery services. Usually that will cost you a lot.

Well Actually to be honest im not entirly sure WHAT she did. The computer went mantal and just wouldnt turn on, keept coming up with jibberish stuff on the screen - So she put it in "recovery mode" which according to her said it was going to re-format the computer? Hmm i dont know.
Unfortunaly I chose a bad time fo the day to go ride my horse and leave her with the broken computer alon - Bad idea...

Im puting the recuve thing through and it says 1423 files found so far with 5 hours remaining!! I put the simple one through before and it just picked up my USB which was in the ccomputer but hopfully its not recovring files...

 

[err_ok]

I have a RAID of 17 server grade 36 and 73gb 10k rpm SCSI disk drives + 2 500gb SATA drives on my main. between 3 systems, every 2 or 3 drives have the exact same data on them. backed up on multiple drives and multiple systems, one system is not only double redundant but is powered on once a month and backed up three times, shut down and unplugged. It contains 7 of those drives. I almost need an EMP to lose everything.

I need to fix my backup server.. It stopped turning on earlier in the month and I haven't got around to fixing it yet! All my raids are asleep

 

[PerfectlyFlawed]

The best I can offer is to ask the question, "Are you now going to listen to all the people that have told you that you should always backup all of your important information?"

Hard drives WILL fail.... sure you can blame your mom for this happening now, but if you weren't backing up, it was going to happen sooner or later anyway. If nothing else, you should probably be thanking your mom for teaching you this lesson. You only lost a few years worth of data...if it didn't happen now, and happend 5 years from now... you would have lost a lot more.

And BTW.... you can try some of those data recover programs.... which may work. But if the drive has been formatted and has been used for a few days, the odds of you getting the data back without spending a few hundred, possibly thousand dollars, are pretty slim.

+1.
Stock up on DVD's. burn baby.. BURN! :meh:.. your pictures and such that is..

 

[err_ok]

I am surprised nobody has mentioned storing their photos online. When my backup server died I stuck everything online as a temporary measure, this turned out to be very useful because I can access everything at work as well as at home.

And let's face it a good & reliable provider online will be far more redundant than any workflow of external hard drives that you put in place yourself. It becomes a problem when you don't have access to the internet though

 

[benlonghair]

I have a RAID of 17 server grade 36 and 73gb 10k rpm SCSI disk drives + 2 500gb SATA drives on my main. between 3 systems, every 2 or 3 drives have the exact same data on them. backed up on multiple drives and multiple systems, one system is not only double redundant but is powered on once a month and backed up three times, shut down and unplugged. It contains 7 of those drives. I almost need an EMP to lose everything.

All that money and work and no off site backup??

 

[Boomn4x4]

I am surprised nobody has mentioned storing their photos online. When my backup server died I stuck everything online as a temporary measure, this turned out to be very useful because I can access everything at work as well as at home.

And let's face it a good & reliable provider online will be far more redundant than any workflow of external hard drives that you put in place yourself. It becomes a problem when you don't have access to the internet though

All of my data is backed up off site. I host a few websites for $3.95 a month, its worth it. The biggest draw back is that my ISP has my uploads throttled back, it can take 24 hours to upload a months worth of photos.

 

[err_ok]

I am surprised nobody has mentioned storing their photos online. When my backup server died I stuck everything online as a temporary measure, this turned out to be very useful because I can access everything at work as well as at home.

And let's face it a good & reliable provider online will be far more redundant than any workflow of external hard drives that you put in place yourself. It becomes a problem when you don't have access to the internet though

All of my data is backed up off site. I host a few websites for $3.95 a month, its worth it. The biggest draw back is that my ISP has my uploads throttled back, it can take 24 hours to upload a months worth of photos.

That's what a VPN is for gets around the throttling

 

[Gaerek]

I almost need an EMP to lose everything.

Fire? Flood? Tsunami? Tornado? Earthquake? Got anything off-site?

 

[Gaerek]

I am surprised nobody has mentioned storing their photos online. When my backup server died I stuck everything online as a temporary measure, this turned out to be very useful because I can access everything at work as well as at home.

And let's face it a good & reliable provider online will be far more redundant than any workflow of external hard drives that you put in place yourself. It becomes a problem when you don't have access to the internet though

Best practices say you shouldn't use on-site or off-site alone as your sole backup. One of each is best. Your off-site is in case a literal disaster occurs and takes out everything at that location. On-site is your main, quick backup in case something happens to your main copy.

You might do this, but I just want to make sure that someone who is confused about backups doesn't make the mistake of putting everything online and having no backup on-site. This is the difference between recovering from a drive crash in mere hours, or potentially days (or weeks, depending...).

I'm paranoid and currently have 5 copies of each and every one of my RAW files. 3 on-site, and 2 off-site. It would take a disaster on a continental scale for me to lose all my photos, lol.

 

[Eventer]

I think its may be case of "lesson learned" the "recuva" thing didnt pivk anything up..