Ugh....it's all gone :(

KAikens318 · Jan 1, 2011

I feel so lost right now. I had all my photos backed up on an external hard drive. My dad bought me a bigger one for Xmas, and I was going to give the old hard drive to my husband to use once I transferred everything. Well hubby decided that he didn't want to wait for me and tried transferring everything by himself. Long story short he deleted 6,000 of my photos including all of the weddings I have shot and all of the portraits. He then proceeded to put his stuff on the hard drive effectively killing any chance of getting those files back. I tried 2 different data recovery programs, and it found the file names, but wouldn't open the files. I cried...a lot. That is my entire portfolio from the last 2 years...

Has this happened to anyone and were you able to get anything back? I have a program that is going to try and get stuff out of his recycle bin since he cleared that out after too, but I don't know if that will work.

UGHHHHHH Horrible way to start the new year.

Light Artisan · Jan 1, 2011

If it was your backup, where are the originals?

AaronA1 · Jan 1, 2011

Whenever you delete anything it "deletes" it all. BUT, having said that, ask somebody that knows a good amount about hard drives and computers, because when you delete it, it doesn't actually all get deleted. It usually will show you that everything is "gone", but somewhere in there, they are there. If you can find the file names, then you should be able to get the pictures. My computer just had a virus not too long ago and I lost EVERYTHING, but a friend recovered it all. That's usually how it works though, but I could be wrong.....

psyclop · Jan 1, 2011

If the file are only deleted and you can still acces the drive, this should fix it
EASEUS Data Recovery Wizard - Recover deleted, lost or formatted files and more...

I 've recovered 90% of a drive formated by mistake with this software, it's user friendly.

MohaimenK · Jan 1, 2011

Light Artisan said:
If it was your backup, where are the originals?

I wonder if she's using the term "backup" meaning saving it in an external HD rather than her comp HD? Hmm I'm wondering the same question

itf · Jan 1, 2011

Bring it to a computer store, they might be able to recover most if not all of the files. It's worth a try.

marth5 · Jan 1, 2011

itf said:
Bring it to a computer store, they might be able to recover most if not all of the files. It's worth a try.

Try this.

KAikens318 · Jan 1, 2011

That hard drive was where all my originals are. My dad bought me the new one because I didn't have enough room on my computer to store them all, so I only had those one copies. Most of the best ones are on my website and on Photobucket, so I still have those, but all the best ones of my son that I loved are gone.

I brought it to Best Buy but they wanted to charge me $200 to try and find the files and I just don't have that much on me.

bluetibby1 · Jan 1, 2011

Oh my that's no good. Keep us posted on if you get them recovered.
Blue

MohaimenK · Jan 1, 2011

KAikens318 said:
That hard drive was where all my originals are. My dad bought me the new one because I didn't have enough room on my computer to store them all, so I only had those one copies. Most of the best ones are on my website and on Photobucket, so I still have those, but all the best ones of my son that I loved are gone.

I brought it to Best Buy but they wanted to charge me $200 to try and find the files and I just don't have that much on me.

Back up doesn't mean only copy. Back up is back up. If first one fails you have your back up copies to save you. I hope you recover them but in the future you want to get two hard drives and make copies of the same files in both of them. So if one fails you have another copy.

G luck.

itf · Jan 1, 2011

You should try other computer stores. Bestbuy is known to overcharge. Find some local computer guys. If the pictures are really important on you, price wouldn't be a problem.

DecadentDashes · Jan 1, 2011

I'm not sure what your level of tech experience is but I previously accidentally deleted a main folder of pictures and videos while transferring data to a new computer. about 150gb worth. I definitely wanted to cry, but I was able to regain most of it back using NTFS Undelete (its free) It took me awhile to search them out but I saved most of it. I'd say about 15-20% of the files I recovered ended up being corrupted, but it was better than nothing at all. Just google for free recovery tools and look around for something. As long as you don't write to the drive you shouldn't lose anything by trying to get them back yourself.

KAikens318 · Jan 1, 2011

itf said:
You should try other computer stores. Bestbuy is known to overcharge. Find some local computer guys. If the pictures are really important on you, price wouldn't be a problem.

They are that important to me but if I don't have the money...what am I going to do? Rent and food for my son is a tad more important than photos.

The last program didn't bring up many recovered files and none that it brought up worked so I guess I will have to see who is around for local guys.

Light Artisan · Jan 1, 2011

I deal with this stuff all the time at work, no matter how much you preach it - nobody understands until it happens to them.

Let this be a lesson, and I hope you learn from it so when it happens again you can just go to your (DVD, alternate drive, online backup, etc) and restore your work.