Wapsi Square Forum

The disk i keep my photos on just went Tango Uniform. {I have confirmed that it is definitely d-e-d-dead.}

I also kept a few other things there - comics i've collected, records of online payments, and the back files of my fanzines.

The comics, the photos from 2011 to the end of 2017 and the zine files are all backed up.

But i forgot to add the new photos folder for 2018 to the backup list.

I don't think that there was anything horribly important there, but... What there was there for sure was a few pictures i took of the girls' birthdays (both in mid-January).

Dammit. Time to buy a new disk.

{There is, actually, one Very Faint Chance i might get something back - but i doubt it.}

I've heard good things about DriveSavers... but the price of any disk recovery job is pretty steep. Quite a lot more than simply buying a second and third drive as backups.

Heh heh heh... I have more than one milk crate full of hard drives, but concentrating on the IDE based ones; I'm looking to get a new 1T+ hard drive and just run the older drives onto them as a backup-the-backups maneuver...

Dave wrote:I've heard good things about DriveSavers... but the price of any disk recovery job is pretty steep. Quite a lot more than simply buying a second and third drive as backups.

tell me about it

i thought i DID have backups.

======

...and i just discovered that i managed to leave 2016 out of the backup, too.

I take it that you've already looked at the possibility of finding those recent photos somewhere still on the camera you used to take them?

I've got a fairly thorough system of backing up my own important files. But even the best planned system only works if you remember to use it properly. Darned humans, being all inefficient and stuff.

Catawampus wrote:I take it that you've already looked at the possibility of finding those recent photos somewhere still on the camera you used to take them?

I just picked one year in my "Pictures" file - 2015 alone is in excess of 50 gig of photos.

2016, which also escaped being backed up, is probably about the same.

There's nothing currently on the camera, and it currently only has a 64 gig card in it.

AnotherFairportfan wrote:The comics, the photos from 2011 to the end of 2017 and the zine files are all backed up.

But i forgot to add the new photos folder for 2018 to the backup list.

Why weren't all the photo folders collected under a single folder? Then you would only need to put that single folder on the backup list.

Do you have automated, scheduled backups? And automated syncing between your camera(s) (and other smart devices) and your computer? If not, why not?

Barn door after horse, but an Idea...

Now that 32GB and larger camera cards are getting pretty cheap, I've heard of some folks using their camera to USB connect and load the camera card with their backups. Remove/replace card for next backup, etc.

Use the big cards for the full backups, and smaller 16 or 8 GB cards for incrementals. Then all you need is a filing system and a lack of squirrels to avoid eating the cards.

YMMV.

Hmmm -- I wonder if someone makes a cheap RAID-5 from camera cards? Sounds like a business opportunity....

While that make sense, esp if you have a Camera around; the modern laptop (most, except Apple that is) come w/ SD slots in them.

Adding a Multi-reader to a modern PC is a piece of cake, they fit into a blank spot on the front of the unit, like where Floppy/Diskette drives used to.

External multi-reader units can just plug into a spare USB port now that I think about it, lots of options.

Warrl wrote:

AnotherFairportfan wrote:The comics, the photos from 2011 to the end of 2017 and the zine files are all backed up.

But i forgot to add the new photos folder for 2018 to the backup list.

Why weren't all the photo folders collected under a single folder? Then you would only need to put that single folder on the backup list.

Reasons due to the way i set things up after i recovered them after the last disk crash -luckily THAT disk was still operating but the partition table had gotten borked - i was able to recover all the files to a different disk. {With Reuva, i think.}

Do you have automated, scheduled backups?

Yes. But, of course, if you leave a folder out of the backup definitions...

And automated syncing between your camera(s) (and other smart devices) and your computer? If not, why not?

No. Kill that with fire.

Atomic wrote:Barn door after horse, but an Idea...

Now that 32GB and larger camera cards are getting pretty cheap, I've heard of some folks using their camera to USB connect and load the camera card with their backups. Remove/replace card for next backup, etc.

Use the big cards for the full backups, and smaller 16 or 8 GB cards for incrementals. Then all you need is a filing system and a lack of squirrels to avoid eating the cards.

The pictures i still have come to 170 gig.

{The Nikon shoots 24 megapixel images, and we're talking six years of photos there.}

AnotherFairportfan wrote:The pictures i still have come to 170 gig.

{The Nikon shoots 24 megapixel images, and we're talking six years of photos there.}

Don't have enough 8" diskettes stashed away to store that?

Catawampus wrote:

AnotherFairportfan wrote:The pictures i still have come to 170 gig.

{The Nikon shoots 24 megapixel images, and we're talking six years of photos there.}

Don't have enough 8" diskettes stashed away to store that?

The cellulose budget for the manufacture of enough ASR33 paper tape to back up AAF's album collection, was found to be sufficient to require the deforestation of several small tropical countries.

Catawampus wrote:Don't have enough 8" diskettes stashed away to store that?

*Snerk* Wha'd those things hold, about 1.5 kb?

I remember using more than one of them to set a single table on the photocomp machines.

8 inch diskettes? OMG I think they only held 640K, didn't they?

I'll have to root around to find the name of the company, but there's a data recovery company I had good luck with in Atlanta, Georgia. They don't charge per megabyte. They have a flat fee, based on the type of drive recovery.

I figured I'd be paying the higher fee, and they ended up managing to get the drive to run without cracking it open, and charged me the lesser fee accordingly. Much better than the last two groups I dealt with.

Bookworm wrote:I'll have to root around to find the name of the company, but there's a data recovery company I had good luck with in Atlanta, Georgia. They don't charge per megabyte. They have a flat fee, based on the type of drive recovery.

I figured I'd be paying the higher fee, and they ended up managing to get the drive to run without cracking it open, and charged me the lesser fee accordingly. Much better than the last two groups I dealt with.

I'd appreciate if you could get me the name.

Are they on Peachtree Street?

jwhouk wrote:8 inch diskettes? OMG I think they only held 640K, didn't they?

They ranged from about 80K to 600K, but some could be flipped, thus doubling the storage capacity. I'm not sure they ever made double-sided 8-inch drives.

AnotherFairportfan wrote:

Bookworm wrote:I'll have to root around to find the name of the company, but there's a data recovery company I had good luck with in Atlanta, Georgia. They don't charge per megabyte. They have a flat fee, based on the type of drive recovery.

I figured I'd be paying the higher fee, and they ended up managing to get the drive to run without cracking it open, and charged me the lesser fee accordingly. Much better than the last two groups I dealt with.

I'd appreciate if you could get me the name.

Are they on Peachtree Street?

Isn't everyone?

AnotherFairportfan wrote:

Bookworm wrote:I'll have to root around to find the name of the company, but there's a data recovery company I had good luck with in Atlanta, Georgia. They don't charge per megabyte. They have a flat fee, based on the type of drive recovery.

I figured I'd be paying the higher fee, and they ended up managing to get the drive to run without cracking it open, and charged me the lesser fee accordingly. Much better than the last two groups I dealt with.

I'd appreciate if you could get me the name.

Are they on Peachtree Street?

https://www.datasaversllc.com - that should take you there. Data Savers, LLC.
Mercer University Drive.