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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
Files have gone missing! Help!
Kevin Leas, Photographer
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Rochester | NY | USA | Posted: 6:57 PM on 03.29.08 |
->> Here's the story...can anyone help me out?
I keep all of my shoots filed in separate folders by date and assignment name. I copy all of my files with the simple drag and copy from the card (via FW reader) to their place on the hard drive. I'm running OS X 10.4.10.
Today, I accidentally dropped a set into one of yesterday's assignment folders. I quickly clicked the small "x" on the right side of the copy window to cancel the move, and proceeded to go back to the card to copy the files into the right folder. When I started Photoshop to edit the pictures, the first folder that opened up in Bridge was the old folder with yesterday's photos - except that all of those photos are now gone, and the few that I had accidentally copied from today's shoot are all that remain.
After doing a search on the hard drive, there is no trace of the old pictures anywhere. Does anyone have any idea what might have happened? Better yet, is it even remotely possible that I can get those old photos back? Thank you so much for your help!
By the way, I use sequential file numbers, so each shoot doesn't start back at 0001 - so the file numbers would not be the same from each shoot. There was never a "do you want to overwrite these files" prompt. |
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Jeffery Jones, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Gallup | NM | USA | Posted: 10:28 PM on 03.29.08 |
->> First thing - do NOT shoot anything else on your memory cards! When you delete a file from the card it is only removing the file's index. The data is still on the memory card - unless you take new photos over it.
Then run a recovery program to salvage the images directly from your memory cards. I prefer to use PhotoRescue, but there are other programs as well. These programs go in to your cards, look for files that are missing the directory location and rebuild that part of the file. I ran a deep recovery on a card for one of my staff members a few weeks ago and we were pulling images from more than 6 months ago that were still on the card.
Jeff. |
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Kevin M. Cox, Photographer, Assistant
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Galveston / Houston | TX | US | Posted: 12:58 AM on 03.30.08 |
->> Leas, correct me if I'm wrong, but the NEW files (most recently shot) are still on the computer and good to go. The problem is that the older photos are missing now. Running a recovery program might still find some of "yesterday's" photos, assuming they weren't completed overwritten on the CF cards by "today's" assignments but most likely not very many of them.
I'm not sure what would have made this happen and don't have any good ideas for salvaging the photos. There are file recovery programs you could try running on the hard drive and see what they turn up. Sandisk RescuePRO Deluxe 4 (which comes with Extreme IV cards on the off chance you have them) can scan hard drives in "Expert" mode.
My other suggestion looking forward would be to quit manually downloading your cards. Using the Ingest function of Photo Mechanic (I'm sure other programs are similar) allows you to automatically sort photos into dated folders as they download. This way you don't ever have to worry about selecting the right folder each time you download. Once setup the program will always download to the correct dated folder. |
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Kevin Leas, Photographer
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Rochester | NY | USA | Posted: 8:26 AM on 03.30.08 |
->> Jeffery - too late for your shooting advice. I'm fully aware about losing data from cards and recovering that type of stuff, but since I had no reason to think my files would go missing from my computer, I had already shot three more assignments over the stuff that's now gone.
Kevin - thanks for the ingest advice. Our computers don't have PM, and we can't install any software on them ourselves, so I'll have to see what I can come up with there. |
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Ron Hawkes, Photographer
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Rockland | ME | USA | Posted: 9:48 AM on 03.30.08 |
->> Kevin, not trying to be funny or anything, but did you happen to check your trash and see if they are in there?
I have lost photos before and "find" could not find them but there they sat in trash.
Good luck
Ron |
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Kevin Leas, Photographer
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Rochester | NY | USA | Posted: 10:39 AM on 03.30.08 |
| ->> Ron - that was actually the first thing I did, before doing a search. I thought that maybe somehow they'd gotten moved there when the file transfer was canceled. No such luck. |
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Kevin M. Cox, Photographer, Assistant
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Galveston / Houston | TX | US | Posted: 4:00 PM on 03.30.08 |
->> Leas, it looks like you could probably whip up an Automator script using Image Capture without having to install any new software. Vincent Laforet has provided some scripts and workflow information on his site here:
http://www.laforetvisuals.com/resources/script.html
Using Vincent's information and going on the assumption that you don't need anything that complicated, in about 45 minutes I came up with a simple script to download images and put them into a dated folder. I didn't get it going 100% like I would want if I using it "in production," but I bet if you spent a little time you could setup something that would take the manual drag and drop out of the equation.
One nice thing if you get it setup is that you can insert a CF card into the reader and just walk away (go right back to shooting, etc). It will automatically download and sort the card without you having to drag and drop. |
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Clark Brooks, Photo Editor, Photographer
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Urbana | IL | USA | Posted: 5:02 PM on 03.30.08 |
| ->> Kevin: Is the hard drive full or near full? If not, you probably can run file recovery software on the hard drive retrieve the old files. |
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Kevin Leas, Photographer
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Rochester | NY | USA | Posted: 8:14 PM on 03.30.08 |
| ->> Clark, the hard drive is nearly full. When I get back to the office, I'm going to see if our IT guy can install some recovery software, which I'll try to run onto an external drive. |
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