Technological Disasters #01 - The Dogged Approach to an Affordable Rescue

" I beg you take courage;

the brave soul can mend even disaster."

Catherine the Great

This is a tale of a disaster that looks as it may have be rescued. During the process to transfer my files from a  smaller external drive to a much larger capacity one, the process crashed. The crash caused the older external drive to cease being recognised by Windows. The files were rendered at the time "lost". After trying various rescue attempts, with the help of my Brother-in-Law at one stage, it looked liked a hopeless case.

Off to the local computer guru, who confirmed it was a hopeless case, unless I chose to go for the forensic lab approach and pay 500-1000 EURO for an attempted but possible useless indepth rescue. No guarantee it would work. I paid the 36 EURO service fee and left, feeling rather despondent as well as weighing up my options. Surrender was not one of them.

Not one to allow something like this to make me more miserable than I already was, as this was the drive that help over 10 years of digital photos among other things, I decided to go for broke. I had nothing to lose, as I had already "lost" as I was told, all the files. Undertaking a little research and testing some software, I found a number of options, including a program called iCare.

Testing the iCare program seems to have paid off for me. The lost drive was recognised as having files and not as a device, which is how it now appears in Windows. Investing in the basic program for a grand total of 70.74 EURO, I am now recovering the files, albeit slowly. It was a gamble, but when I think of the forensic computer lab costs, this is a bargain.

My second option from my research, which was something to consider, if iCare didn't work, was using the ubuntu OS from a DVD to boot my system. Of course, I am hoping that it wouldn't come to that point. According to the forums I explored, ubuntu more often recognises drives that Windows and Mac cease to, when those little and MAJOR (as my case) disasters happen. Maybe the ubuntu solution would have been quicker, but even while this girlie is tech savvy enough for this rescue, I am still struggling with trying to figure out exactly how to boot this OS from a DVD. Studying up on it now.

So even if this solution doesn't work for you, do some research, even if like me you aren't that tech savvy. I won't guarantee you will find a solution for your particular "disaster", but it is worth  exploring the options, when the case looks dead in the water. You could save yourself a small fortune to boot.

This experience has lead me to the conclusion, I could have remained totally miserable like I was before and after the service check, thinking I had lost precious and sometimes miraculously awesome photos, along with other file types, but I decided to leave no stone unturned. Those files where just too important to me. 

Additionally I have decided that another new external drive will happen and the double up of all the files will be the only option for the future. Now if anyone can tell me whether, I can format my "unhappy" crashed external drive to make it recognisable to Windows again, it would be appreciated. :)

On a final note, I CARE, that it seems I can save something so precious as my digital archive of the last 10 plus years. On a small aside, I also care that I am starting to put this poor abandoned blog to use again. Stay tuned for more blogs and photos. You can also catch my more "regular blog" here at The Celestial Poet. I can also be found on Facebook and Twitter under both blog titles.

When Nature does something extraordinary - the Polinik, January 3, 2009 circa 1317 hrs

Once in a lifetime, once only photos. Only 3 people took any notice of what was happening with the Polinik. My Father, me and someone who I have still have not met, only heard that they saw it as well but without a camera at hand!

Just lucky I always have a fully charged camera with me. Unfortunate about the AWB. Also incredibly lucky that my Father looks at the mountain every time he gets up off the sofa! I am glad we shared this between us and no one else.

I kept zooming in. It was unfortunate that I didn't switch to video.  I just didn't think of it at the time. My sister commented on it after we told her of the event!

This was the best the zoom could do on my lpoor ittle camera, but if you look closely you can just make out the cross on the peak. My Father and a group of friends worked on this in 1950, hauled up the sections and placed it on the summit. It is a memorial to those men who didn't come home after WWI and WWII. One side reserved for each conflict.

What is even more interesting about that the silhouetted shadow, is the fact that the sun,   at this time, generally has the Polinik's shadow thrown into the valley in front of the mountain, not between it and the sun from the back. I also find the first cloud formations amazing.

* The images are copyright and any requests for non commercial use or gain may be considered. Thank you - AME

Hopenhagen

Next week commences the most important Conference facing one of the most dire issues affecting our planet.

Please Seal the Deal and at the same time why not get yourself an environmental passport. I just did by going here:

Snap!

They gave me a camera, which resulted in a huge accident - SNAP! So it begins...