Today was not a good day.
I lost almost 4 years of photos on my (back-up!) hard-drive today. Words cannot articulate just how awful this feels. To add insult to injury, I actually had a post-it note taped to said hard-drive for the last month that said: "back-up your back-up!". And I am kicking myself for procrastinating...for ignoring that little voice in the back of my mind, telling me that it'd been too long and now I was just gambling. FOUR YEARS of photos. Of vacations, family gatherings, four years of artwork and photography projects, two weddings that I photographed (one of them being family!)...essentially, four years of everyday memories (I feel compelled to add that anyone who knows me knows that I take pictures of everything!). I had someone working on the hard-drive this morning and after all was said and done, I recovered less than 10%.
The Hubs, though incredibly sympathetic and understanding (but ALWAYS a realist and the voice-of-reason), is continually reminding me that they were just photos (honestly, things could always be worse); the memories of those moments will last forever in my heart. And while I know that in the grand scheme of things he is right, I'm still really, really sad.
So to anyone reading this, please, please, PLEASE! I implore you, learn from my stupidity mistake and back-up your back-up!
Tomorrow is a new day. A new day promises new memories and new photo opportunities. I've already prepped The Hubs to anticipate days ahead where I will be unabashedly (and unapologetically) obnoxious with my cameras.
After we buy TWO new hard-drives tomorrow, that is.
ETA: I should clarify that this photo of Grace has absolutely nothing to do with the crappiness of my day; I only used it because she has the look of how I feel: bummed. And I assure you, she leads a very happy life. She sleeps all day, is fed on command, hogs the bed and lays in between The Hubs and I at night, we clean up her poop box 3x a day and we pick up the occasional vomitous furball. Rough life? I think not.
Nooooo! Ugh. How did that happen?? I have thousands of photos on my back up hard drive....now I am thinking I need another one! I would DIE if I lost all that. Did you have any of it uploaded on flickr, photobucket, etc??
ReplyDeleteI'm so sorry!
okay- I got really nervous because i saw 'sad' w/ a picture of Gracie!
ReplyDeleteAfter reading it...UGH ANG! I feel for you- i soooo do! No words can get you your pictures back...but yes, as P said, you do have the memories!
Might you be able, when you think of one of the pictures you lost, either write about it- detailing it (as only you could perfectly do), or even paint it?
Just a thought...so sorry again!
Oh my gosh! So sorry and sad for you too! I try to upload my stuff to Shutterfly regularly, but don't always do it right away!
ReplyDeleteHubby is right about it just being pictures...but it is sooo hard.
Good words of advice. Just found your blog and I can't even remember how I found it, but I know it was through another blog.
ReplyDeleteI grew up On Kona, but now live in Colorado. No surf, but lots of beautiful mountains and lots of outdoor fun.
My 12 year old son loved the You Tube clip of Mike Love, he was walking around the house this morning singing...."permanent vacation".... so mahalo for that.
Oh...I'm backing up the back up now.
I meant ...."permanent holiday"...not vacation.
ReplyDeleteSo frustrating. . .
ReplyDeleteand doubly so since you were planning on doing it!!
Hope you had a better day today!
Deanna: UGH is right. My back-up hard drive was only a couple of years old (not ancient) and I guess it was just tired. :( I lost over 6,000+ photos. Waaaahhhhhhh!!!!! Yes, please get another back-up for your own photos. I know it's redundant, but err on the side of paranoia; you can never be too sure. I did have a lot of them uploaded to Photobucket, but many of those were just so that I could share them via email or post them on LJ or here. The rest of the photos, I just got lazy and never uploaded them. Lesson learned the hard way. :(
ReplyDeletebecki: woops - sorry. I didn't even think that the title/photo could easily be misconstrued. Rest assured, she is fine. In fact, she is passed out right next to me, sleeping (such a hard life). Fortunately, I have some of the missing photos uploaded to FB/LJ and Photobucket, but those only represented a small percentage of the ~6,000+ on the drive.
Jen: Thanks, Jen. Now go and upload the rest of your photos to Shutterfly! ;)
Susan: Aloha - thanks for stopping by! Wish your first comment was on a happier post, but nevertheless, it's good to have you here! And good job on backing-up your back-up!
That is sad! :( I hate when stuff like that happens. I need to heed your advice as I have a hard drive back up still in the package wating to be used...
ReplyDeleteOh no Ang!!!! I was really hoping that you would be able to recover more than just 10%. I am sooooo sorry:(
ReplyDeleteThat is so awful!!!! I must tell you that we lost a similar amount of photos and decided it was time to buck up and get our our Network Attached Storage. That's right, we have a full on Network server here and its been worth every penny (and there are a lot of pennies associated).
ReplyDelete