Last night a Windows 10 update completely and utterly crashed my computer. Becky worked for hours to get a reinstall that saved at least some of my settings.
Alas, all my photos were gone. My own fault. There is a hard drive she gave me sitting right on the table next to me. We kept meaning to clear it and back up at least some of my material. But we didn't.
I was happy to at least have a functional computer without going out and spending a lot of money, but I was heartsick about the photos. Since I have had the new camera I have taken some that I really like. And they were gone.
And then Google would not let me get to a site that would let me redownload Picasa. It is my very favorite photo-editing program, simple to use and yet capable of doing most of what I need. Google photos is lame...won't do anything, so very dumbed down you know. And the bigger deals are either stupidly expensive or more complicated than I have time for...or both.
So I was very, very, very sad. Then I remembered that wonderful Margaret from the library, who passed away several years ago, much to all of our sadness, as we really loved her, suggested I use Duckduckgo instead of Google when doing some kinds of searches.
Found a download there immediately and had the program installed in about thirty seconds.
And somehow...all my photos were there.
Guess who is getting that hard drive working this very afternoon and who has backup to the Google cloud turned on right now....yeah me. Eh, Google won't let me upload to the cloud from Picasa, but we can probably figure that out later. For now, I am just happy to have not lost all those pictures.
Do not question what seems to be a miracle (getting all your pics back) just burn them all to that hard drive! (And, maybe, get a second just in case the first fails at some time in the future.)
ReplyDeleteI've had the computer crash on me a time or two. Nothing more frustrating. Luckily we have a guy nearby who does a great job retrieving as many files as possible at a reasonable price. I once dealt with a company in Florida that works with law enforcement and is capable of getting files from computers burned to a crisp in fires. They succeeded with mine and sent me back my laptop with a new hard drive. Very expensive but worth it. (I out grew that hard drive a year later and bought a new computer.)
Just hearing the words "Microsoft update" makes my blood run cold. So glad you got a handle on it.
ReplyDeleteI hate when my computer updates it always always creates a mess
ReplyDeleteYES! YES! YES!!! I'm singing the Hallelujah Chorus for you!! I admit to being so attached to my photos that I back 'em up regularly. But there HAVE been some close calls. Really . . words fail . . . really emotionally devastating.
ReplyDeleteI'm having a good day just thinking about how relieved and happy you are :)
Oh my God! My heart just stopped (or seemed to) when I read that you had lost your photos. Your gorgeous photos! I'm celebrating that you did retrieve them (Whew!), but boy, what a lesson! I'm going to save mine to a spare hard drive right now.
ReplyDeleteJoated, they are backed up, and I am setting up my folders in a different way so as to make them easier to copy. That forensic deal sounds pretty cool.
ReplyDeleteJan, I have paused updates until January, as the same one almost killed the computer Tuesday. However, then I guess I have to let it update. Egads!
LInda, up until now this one has come through with flying colors and we have trouble with Ralph's. This time his was fine.
Cathy, I cried when I got them back. They mean that much to me. I have lost plenty on other computers, but since I got this new camera I have taken so many better ones....plus there are hundreds of shots of Peggy on this computer. Literally. Five hundred in one folder. lol
Jacqueline, they are backed up now. And as amazing as yours are I am glad you are safeguarding them as well.