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This a real shame Kyoto Kid. I wish it hadn't happened to you.
I recently read a book by an author whose fiction I really appreciate, Steven Pressfield. He wrote "The Gates of Fire" and one more people know, "The Legend of Bagger Vance". But this book wasn't fiction though, it was called "The War of Art" and it was essentially advice for creative types. His whole point was that we all experience what he refer to as "resistance" to making art. Most of that is internal. We tell ourselves we don't have time, we aren't good enough, nobody will like it, et cetera. And resistance is why most people who wish they could write a story or paint a scene or build a sailboat simply never do. His point is simply do the work. Don't worry about perfection, don't let the voices that tell you it's too hard or can't be done or won't be perfect stop you. Just do what you can, consistently, and you won't have that regret of never having done it.
I've struggled with it. I want to write stories but my ideas are always not quite good enough. Or too derivative. Or I don't have time. Or people won't like them. Or ... excuse, excuse, excuse. I know I should just write, if it's trash then it's trash but it's nothing until I write it. My only point is that maybe just focusing on what you can do and then doing that is your best way to stay creative. Maybe that means writing the story without the illustrations for now. I don't know. But whatever you decide, best wishes.
If the BIOS doesn't recognize the drive, that's not the FAT failing. That's the controller interface on the drive, or the cable.
Most File Systems have redundant FATs, so that even if one fails, the drive data is recoverable.
The person suggesting getting an identical drive and swapping the interface cards on it is correct. The trick is finding the same model drive that works to act as the 'donor'.
*hugs* I'm so sorry to hear that!
Have you tried restoring the backup? Maybe you were lucky, and the data that was backed up is the data that contains your figures, or at least, part of it?
Maybe all is not lost.
But even in the worst case scenario... please don't give up! You have a wonderful way of telling stories with your images. Yes, you maybe won't be able to recreate an exact likeness of the characters, but who knows, they might just look even better when you can approach something without restrictions and limitations of 6 years of work. And you have the big adavantage, that you already have developed the story, and know what you want to see in the images. If you appreach each image as you prepare for rendering it, you can rebuild slowly what you lost, and improve on it with your knowledge of today.
*hugs* I really hope this will turn out well for you.
I have like everyone else on Earth lost much in my life, people as well as things
life is ephemeral
mourn by all means, it is normal and expected but then move on and create new, like people losing their whole life history in bushfires in Australia, most are battlers who rebuild create new histories and learn from the past, your story can now take any direction you want, you might reimagine the characters in a new way that seemed fixed before and expand upon them, nothing is written in stone so there is potential to go beyond what you did before and FFS back it up!
KK, I hope you get the best possible outcome going forward.
Regarding a restart of your stories, I would echo Griffin Avid's post from the first page. https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/4024341/#Comment_4024341
OOUUUCCCHHH! Oh man o man! Wow. So sorry you've suffered this loss. Ive lost huge amounts of information before. but not everything at one time. Luckily for me most of my stuff is curiosity driven not finished art content so as long as there's still something new to explore in a technical manner just try to focus on the future, and getting better at the things I used to do whil adding new skills.
As far as producing your story, you must certainly do so. Your newfound wisdom will seem like an indispenable asset going forward.
I truly believe you can move forward without too much sadness. You can reproduce in a matter of weeks now that which would have taken you years before you had the understanding you have now. You're at a whole different level than you were when you started. You can work much faster and smarter.
The hard thing about losing the previous work is that you no longer have your "educational record" to review; to see how far you've progressed with 3d from where you started. But this scrap book of pictures while compelling to you, may not have really been all that important in the long run. Unless you regularly reivew your work from 10 years ago, you probably dont NEED it.
After each of these data loss heartbreaks, I find myself moving forward faster than I expected, and not actually missing the stuff I lost all that much, because I come to realize that a lot of the technical aspects are still in my mind, and will only take a bit of time to recreate, and that the recreations will be light years better than the originals I was pining after previously.
You will come through this, I truly believe so.
All the best bro! All the best!!!!!
I'm sorry you've lost everything from the last six years Kyoto.
To everyone who doesn't do backups: why the hell not?
There are free options that can be used to save what is most important - maybe you'll have to prioritise, but back up something if you can't manage it all. Sometimes the ideas, notes and sketches are the most valuable.
... Just backup what seems most valuable to you.
It is an abosolute certainty, that as reliable as mechanical hard drives tend to be; they WILL fail sooner or later.
SSDs are more expensive, but when they 'fail' (or what is meant by many as fail) they become read only - so stuff might not be lost.
.... However, backup those too.
I've been through a few disasters. Forest fires let new things grow.
Words of Wisdom!
The freezer trick has worked for others in the past, depending upon the problem. Be sure to double Ziploc bag the drive to avoid any moisture getting inside. Also, do a quick Google search for drive recovery services in your area. It may be less than you think. There are also free or very low cost recovery software programs out there that may work like Recuva. Its worth a look.
There are tons of videos on Youtube dealing with drive fixes and recovery. One showed me how to fix an old laptop drive that had tons of old stories I had written. Turns out, it was a small glitch in the thing, an accidental fall feature that locked the platters in place and then didn't unlock them. The video showed me how to fix it. All I needed werre a few very small screw drivers and a hex wrench. Consider giving them a look. And, post your problem on forums like Tom's Hardware or Linus Tech Tips. Someone there will know a lot more and will be able to give you decent advice.
BEST OF LUCK! Been there, dont that, and I complete empathize.
Bob
We had a person at Daggerbay in roughly the same position. She had a lifetime of photos on a hard drive and it crashed. Like you, she is retired and cannot afford data recovery. That clicking sound you are hearing means the hardware is shot, your data likely is still intact on the drive, it's just very expensive to recover it. Basically it has to be taken to a clean room and heads that match your hard drive specs have to be found.
Your path forward depends on you. If you were planning to deliver a finished work to a publisher to make money, that probably wasn't feasable even if your drive hadn't crashed. As others have pointed out, you need to buid a following, and there are ways to do that. Traditional publishing is hurting at the moment, everything is in transition.
So if you do feal like going forward at some point, you only want to get ahead enough to make regular releases, and start publishing your story on your own. If you can build a following you can make money along the way, whether it is significant or not depends on talent and luck. There are a lot of people clammoring to be heard out there. What I would do first is take the time to learn the available avenues for your work, and how to use them. Interact with others trying to do the same thing.
I hope you can overcome the physical and monetary problems and get moving again.
Advice for everybody
1 - Backup
2 - Do backups of backups and forget you did a backup of the backup
3 - Doing backup is one thing. Doing intelligent backup is better. If talking about a DAZ library, scenefiles and presets are in most case enough.
If doing custom creations, everything should be as much as possible put in the same directory for quick emergency/regular backup
Fixing a specific directory hierarchy can always be done afterwards. There are tools to backup a list of folder content https://www.raymond.cc/blog/print-all-file-and-folder-contents-to-text-or-printer/
4 - as mentionned, cloud storage exist now. Most don't provide enough space for free, so having a smart backup strategy is the key. Otherwise some chinese cloud storage offer few TB space for free
5 - Monitor your drives for failure. Every HDD has a built in feature called S.M.A.R.T that can help predict failure. Various tool can provide that information ex https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/all-the-tools-you-need-to-predict-the-death-of-your-hard-drive/
@KK : That's sad for you but instead of abandoning, you could take it as a challenge : doing everything again from scratch but better than the first time
Datas can always be recovered. Keep your drive as is and do not touch it. Ask for quotes for a recovery at various companies and try find one that is affordable for you. Then you can plan on saving money for a recovery.
You also said that you succeed in backuping 1/3 of the HDD. If you're lucky you may have saved enough :
check if you have saved following directories
- My Library\data
- My Library\Scene
These would be goood starting point
Don't give up on data recovery, in 30 plus years I have had only 1 drive go so bad the data could not be recovered very cheaply, the drive is still stored safely so that if I come across a new way to recover the data, I will give it a try. (MBR is damaged beyond repair) (yes I think a commercial data recovery could recover it, but I am a cheap SOB)
Contact local Computer user groups, bet someone has the tools to recover for free.
Another trick, try using a Linux OS, either boot from a dvd or usb stick, some Linux builds can read and recover stuff you think is long dead and gone.
Just don't give up, and don't quit art, I have the same issue with arthritis in my hands, you have not lost your talent, that will always be there, just using different tools.
I used to use Dropbox for all my storage needs, and _loved_ how painless it was to use.
But then I needed more than 1 TB and found the pricing went nuts above that level. Stupid dropbox.
So now I have a $65 external drive to do backups to. Eventually I want to get a second as a backup backup...
Also, I hope I don't get dinged for advertisement, but I really like Copywhiz for helping with 'only backup new/changed files.' Most other methods I've poked at look more extensive and weird.
Copywhiz has been a, well, wiz.
Carrot Cards aren't a disaster. Grandma Moses didn't start art serious until she was 78 so do what you enjoy.
A lot of great advise so far, so I can't add a lot other than to say I'm very sorry, and add to the encouragement to not give up!
I've lost a lot of work over the years for many different reasons, so I feel your pain (but probably never quite as bad what you just had happen). One loss in particular (due to possible IP concerns that I didn't want to take a chance on after the break up of a working group, even though I was the creator of the original data, funding and ideas/data came from various sources, including myself) took me about 3 months to re create the data/models, but the end product was better and more "robust" than the original. It also took less time to create than the original, because I already went through the school of hard knocks making the originals, and the tools were much better than what was available for the original. So my point is, yep, it definitely sucks to do it all over again, but your end product will no doubt be better. This also allows you to move forward without being held back by portions of your project that may have been tied to older/incompatible technology. Creating everything new will n doubt seem very daunting, but with the proper outlook it can also be very inspiring to make things better and possibly more functional than the original.
Sorry again. I hope you can find the inspiration to go forward (or the funds to recover what you have lost).
Good luck my friend!
Some have had luck to access and diagnose an inaccessible dirve with Testdisk, which is free:
https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk
Otherwise this company offers free evaluation of the drive, might be worth trying to get an idea of whether it's recoverable or not, and what it might cost, if it is.
https://acsdata.com/data-recovery/
For those who haven't yet backed up their stuff in spite of continued warnings, here's my suggestion:
Hi Kid,
If you started up a gofundme, I'd send some $ your way to help you recover/transfer your stuff. I'm sure others here would as well.
...I have very strong reservations about leaving my work on someone else's servers particularly ones that can be easily hacked. Dealt with enough "damage" over on DA years ago when there was a major art theft issue.
Keeping backups local and offline is the most secure and affordable solution though it does mean purchasing extra drives and remote enclosures (I do have one old powered enclosure in a box somewhere which I bought years ago for housing a secondary external drive for my old notebook). Not interested in setting up a RAID system ince it tends to slow processes down as it has to write to two (or more) drives at the same time.
..as I may have mentioned, I immediately pulled out an old external drive deleted what was backed up on it to backup the failing library/content drive. Unfortunately the damage must have been more severe as after several hours, the backup file on the external drive was about 1/5 of size of what it should have been and I received a message that "some files were skipped'. When I viewed what those files were skipped all it indicated was:
... basically it means pretty much everything on that drive.
The system no longer recognises that the drive is even there either in the Computer menu or BIOS (it indicates the port is "not connected" even though it was) so a downloadable recovery tool would be useless as there is nothing for it to access. "D:/" does not exist anymore.
...the drive has been removed form the case and been disconnected for a day now. As we have not experienced hot weather for several weeks now so the ambient room temperature should be fine. This also is not the boot drive it is a secondary drive. Everything on C: is fine.
I know everyone grieves differently and it's probably too soon to talk about replacing what you lost. But how many characters are you talking about here?
I use a raid 1 mirror and it works fine for me, performance wise. I have DS (and most of my other programs) on it as well as all my content and load times are pretty normal.
...I switched to new cables after which the drive powered up (it didn't before) and I heard the loud ticking noises of the heads which pretty much indicates something was seriously wrong with it. Sometimes if the FAT sector is bad teh heads will do this as well.
There was already a corrupted folder on the drive, the DIM downloads backup folder, which would populate the Ready to Install tab's list when the Install manager was opened (it did so unusually slowly that evening and after a point all the files vanished form the Ready to Install list, leaving the tab blank which never happened before [I was still using the previous version of the DIM]). That is what first clued me in something was amiss. When I attempted to open the DIM backup folder in Windows, I received a message that it had been corrupted and I could not open it. This happened a day before I received the warning of the potential drive failure which prompted me to run the backup mentioned above using the old external drive.
BTW, regarding the "put the hard drive in the freezer" fix, unfortunately that's pretty much a myth, which only applied long ago with much older technology drives. Back in the day the disks had some lubrication that could fail, making the disks no longer spin. If you freeze it, hopefully the spindle would shrink from the cold and, for a short time until it warmed up, might spin long enough for you to recover stuff. With newer technology that no longer works. In fact I think any ice that forms could make things worse with newer drives.
That's why I mentioned online for the scene files. If someone did hack you and got your scene files, there wouldn't be anything they could do with it unless they went trough every scene, googling every object and texture used in the scene and buying them themselves. Which really defeats the purpose of hacking someone and would prove to be too much a hassle for someone to worry about.
And if something happened in the future, all you would have to do is download all your products from the stores again, download your scene files and you'ld be pretty much ready to go again.
So you had an unused drive in your posession, and for 6 years decided not to use it? Sorry for my lack of sympathy, but geez.
I hope this is a good lesson to those who might be putting off such a simple task as backing up, for whatever reason. It's just not worth the pain.
...this is what constitutes a major part of those six lost years. Yes I do like to look back to see how far things progressed, what worked, what didn't work. After what would be several weeks of downloading installing and rebuilding my custom library/runtime setup (that was categorised) It would probably take a year or more to recoup the lost scene and character files (the latter which were still visual WIPs as I kept improving them when I could afford the additional merchant resources to make them more unique from the base figures so someone wouldn't say oh that's just another Josie or Vicky or Mike). This is also why I held short of G8 as I have so much invested in G3 and am content with the results I have been getting. I also spent a lot of time using dFormers and GenX through it's various updates to further expand the and extend the palette for character creation which will all need to be done over from memory with no "recipe book" to work from.
__________
As to why I am doing all the visuals as one major project rather than piecemeal, it is for visual consistency and continuity. Leela should look like "Leela", from chapter one to Chapter XX, same for the other characters. Various locations need to look the same throughout the work when the storyline comes back to them. The final appearance/style of the illustrations should look the same as well. Given recent developments and new shader/rendering environment content for 3DL I was planning to re-evaluate it for my work (I had already done a couple experiments) as I have some issues with how Iray handles rendering and certain effects/styles (also, the majority of my content library is still 3DL compatible). There is still also a fair amount of content on my wishlist here and over at Rendo which I selected for use in the work that I am slowly acquiring when I have the funds.
I also wouldn't mind making a little income on the side (beyond my storytelling) with 3D art as well, which includes creating extremely high quality large format fine art prints. I need to put together a solid portfolio for showing around, and looking at the gallery here along with those on other sites. I am still learning new processes, new concepts, new techniques even after ten years at this. I want the experience of working with 3D to seem as natural as picking up a pencil, pen, or a brush was to me so I can concentrate on the subject more. All these new more technical technical concepts and techniques are a lot to digest and I'm still not to that level quite yet.
In an odd way, this would actually be more efficient and cost effective to accomplish using traditional media as the tools don't become obsolete (requiring upgrading), don't cost as much when needing replacement when they wear out or are used up, and one doesn't need a huge expensive library of mesh content.along with the technology to support and use it on.
Unfortunately that is no longer an option.
..actually it turns out to be more like 1/5th of what was on the original drive and I don't see any of those directories at all just a bunch of .xml files and a 126 GB .vhd file, none of which I can open to look at.
I've lost data in the past and it made me physically sick, so I know exactly how you feel. It's why I now take advantage of free online backup and local backup on multiple media types: dvd, multiple hard drives and thumb drives. It's a job in itself making sure you have copies of things that are really important to you, but a necessary evil when working with computers, where hard drives ALWAYS die eventually.
Laurie