Kaustubh Offline Upload & Sell: Off
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Lost all my photos, help me recover please | |
Update: After days of trying - I am positive I managed to recover 99% of the photos (70,000 raw files, ~1.5 TB of photos on my external HDD) - almost all in RAW format. I also recovered the latest LR catalogue backup, which means I might be able to copy edits based on date and time information (longer term project).
I used DiskDrill (you get a month of free usage if you sign up for Setapp) on Mac OS. It took me couple days to recover erased filed, but I didn't recover any photos from 2015 - present. I decided to run the scan again, in three days into the scan, it was only 50% done. I tracked the scan progress by time manually and it was frustrating to see 1% every 8-9 hours. DiskDrill allows once to save the process and pick up later on, which has been a lifesaver for me. I decided to use Disk Warrior to "fix" my external drive, but this didn't help speed the process. It did remove/fix (?) some bad sectors. Estimated time was upward of 35 hours and the progress was extremely slow. I also ensure to use this computer as little as possible as to not disturb it, I was afraid the computer might "hang" and I might have to restart. I also disconnected from the internet (to avoid software updates etc.).
The game changer for me was the make a disk image of the erased disk, into a new disk with no corrupt sectors. I wish I had done this first, would save me a lot of time and frustration. DiskDrill has a nifty function to make a disk image (.dmg), which you can mount. It took me 5 complete days to make a disk image. I ran a recovery scan - it completed in 8 hours, and most of the files seem to be recovered. Now I am recovering erased files and moving them to my LR.
Lessons:
- please back up your disk. I accidentally erased my only photo drive instead of formatting my new drive. We all screw up sometimes.
- final exports - back it up online, they are free and cheap. I backed up most photos on Dropbox, it was easy to print that way for my exhibitions, but I had recently cleaned up my dropbox and deleted all the high-quality exports. So, first back up and delete, not the other way round even if you are sure you will not lose them.
- Accidents happen if you need to recover something, first make an image of the disk. I would say get professional help, but the estimates I got to recover 1.5 TB data was very pricey. It was my last report.
- DiskDrill worked great for me on Mac OS - be patient. Just like scientist make lab notes, make a note of things you are doing and your progress. Be extremely patient, if you have a second computer, dedicate one computer solely for recover. Be careful if you are doing multiple things in the recovery computer - software updates, accidentally closing the wrong window.
- Get some sleep - the first few days I only slept a couple hours but slowly learn to let the computer do its thing.
- Stay positive.
Thank you everyone for the feedback. Kind regards.
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