Wedding Photographic Society

Guys,

I bought a brand new computer with a terabite drive and a mirror drive. I also have 3 externals for backup. I came home from a holiday event (not a wedding, thank God) and uploaded the event to the computer. The next morning, windows had become "corrupt" somehow. I took the cards and the computer back to Intrex and they ran a scan to try to retrieve the event, since it was the ONLY thing lost. It is like it never happened. Just gone. I mean GONE! I am so upset and DO NOT want to tell the clients! Should I move to California, or face the music? Has anyone else ever had anything like this happen? I need some support here! I am freaking out!
Thanks!

Hey Gina!

Have you shot over the cards yet? If not, DONT!!! Don't touch em!

First and foremost, are you a member of PPA? If so, they have E&O insurance which can cover you against losses such as this - both for the recovery of the data and possible litigation. If you aren't, I would HIGHLY recommend joining as insurance is automatic for wedding photographers.

Second - the data can't just "disappear". The data is stored in magnetic form and the FAT table on the drive is, essentially, the directory that tells where everything is on the disc. If your FAT becomes corrupt, then it jsut can't locate the data.

Call me and I can give you some options to go thru. I wouldn't advise the client (I'm assuming I know her) until you have exhausted all options. (919.414.0869)

Brian,

Thanks! You give me hope! I have been so freaked out. When is a good time to call?

Anytime Gina! I'll be up late editing!

And what card did you shoot on? I know for a fact that you can send them back to the manufacturer and they may be able to pull up your info. Like Brian said, don't shoot over. Call the memory card peeps and best wishes girlie.

Oh, and do yourself a huge favor . . . . buy a MAC!!! PC's suck big time!!

I agree -- if you haven't shot over the cards, everything should be on the cards. Even if you have partially shot (and re-formatted the cards) the data is likely to be partially there.

If you aren't a member of PPA it will be too late at this point, but join right now anyway.

But yeah, Brian is totally spot on, the data is there.

The info is on the card. I have had this happen a couple of times and sent it off to be recovered.
It is stressful but stay calm and trust that the information is there.

If nothing else, I have just learned to never erase the cards until I have them loaded and checked on at least the computer if not the backup HD.

In reference to the Mac comment above. Macs are not impervious but they do come close. I am still pushing a 2003 Powerbook 1.25 GHz with 80 GB HD. (1 aTB Ext, 1 500 GB Ext, and 3 250 GB Ext hard drives keep me going for now.) The only failure I ever had was a hard drive failure. Luckily it was not a sudden catastrophic failure and I was able to get a new HD and transfer everything.

Do let us know how this comes out.

Hope it worked out and you were able to retrieve the event Gina! I have been in similar situations a couple of times over the years and knock wood I have always recovered my data. My PPA membership saved me a couple G's 2 years ago recovering a brand new RAID array that had a just shot wedding on it. Because it was a brand new computer I was still figuring out some back up work flow and murphy's law kicked in and my system got corrupted before I attempted to backup the data. I considered leaving the country for an early tropical retirement. Drive Savers saved me from becoming a beach bum in Costa Rica.

Do you have Insurance?
You should if you are shooting professionally, Send it to drive savers,