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Two Scary Lessons

fotografr

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fotografr

fotografr

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Regarding interpolation programs, the one I have heard about most is probably genuine fractals, but I haven't tried it yet. Do you have an opinion or have you heard anything about Alien Skin's "Blowup", which apparently does the same thing? Which is considered better and why?

 

I have used to good effect AlienSkin's Exposure, which makes it possible to apply a filter to a file that will make the file look like various films, both color and black and white. So I am wondering whether Blowup might be as good as genuine fractals or better and we just haven't heard about it.

 

Regarding recovering files, I thought I had lost everything on an SD card a couple of years ago when I accidentally hit "erase all" instead of erase this file in a Digilux 2. The card showed no images. I called a buddy who is good at this stuff and he gave me the names of a couple of file recovery programs. Actually all you have to do is put "recover lost images" in google and you will probably find several programs you can buy and download from the internet. I tried two different ones and they both worked although I ended up losing about 10% of the files completely. The others I got back.

 

I haven't tried BlowUp so can't comment on it. I used the original version of Genuine Fractals and felt it made the images look wierd. It always showed. I stopped using it for a long time until a few months ago when I tried the latest upgrade, GF 4.0. It is very, very good.

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petermcwerner

petermcwerner

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Bought 500 GB backup disks

 

My two Seagate Serial ATA 500 GB disks died within 1 month of each other after 8 and 9 months of use. After the first one died and I lost important data (no photos though), I am making additional monthly RAR-compressed incremental backups on a 200 GB drive. Perhaps the 500GB are not as reliable as older, smaller and slower HDDs which have lived for many years without trouble in my computers.

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petermcwerner

petermcwerner

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The reason for formatting frequently, rather than just erasing the files, is that the cards can become heavily fragmented and formatting essentially defrags them. It is advisable to do this in the camera rather than on the computer, and the same goes for erasing files and folders.

 

Fragmentation can only happen if there are data on the cards. Once all files are erased, there cannot be any fragmentation.

 

BTW, I usually do not delete the files in the camera (except some bad ones if I need more space) but MOVE the files from the SD card in a card reader to the computer. That way, I am certain I do not delete anything that is not copied.

 

I have never re-formatted a card and had no card-related problems. How often do you reformat the hard disks in your computer?

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ho_co

ho_co

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BTW, I usually do not delete the files in the camera (except some bad ones if I need more space) but MOVE the files from the SD card in a card reader to the computer. That way, I am certain I do not delete anything that is not copied.

Peter--

Question of terminology. To me, "Move" in computer speak means to pick up from one place and put in another, while "Copy" means to place a duplicate in a second location while leaving the first intact.

 

With the Mac, dragging from one folder to another on the same drive 'moves' files, but dragging between drives 'copies' files. (I'm unsure how Windows handles these two.)

 

Am I wrong to assume that by my understanding, you are COPYing instead of MOVing the files?

 

Sorry; I'm just very literal-minded.

 

--HC

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petermcwerner

petermcwerner

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Peter--

Question of terminology. To me, "Move" in computer speak means to pick up from one place and put in another, while "Copy" means to place a duplicate in a second location while leaving the first intact.

With the Mac, dragging from one folder to another on the same drive 'moves' files, but dragging between drives 'copies' files. (I'm unsure how Windows handles these two.)

Am I wrong to assume that by my understanding, you are COPYing instead of MOVing the files?

 

We completely agree on terminology, Howard,

 

With Windows, too, if you drag a file from one drive to another, it does COPY the file.

 

But if you press the LEFT SHIFT key while dragging, it will instead MOVE the file, and that is what I am doing. I.e. after copying the file, the file on the source drive is deleted by the OS.

 

Peter

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egibaud

egibaud

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Lesson 3

 

get the Rescue Pro software, it comes free with Sandisk Extreme III cards.

 

I've recovered many pics after a problem similar to yours. It works even after formating the card... as long as you ahve not shot too many pictures after that.

 

Try it anyway.

 

Regards,

 

Eric

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mhoutman

mhoutman

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Some Sandisk cards come with a recovery program in the packaging.

 

PC only, but desperate times need desperate remedies... ;)

 

Andy, not really. Sandisk also have included a Mac version 3.5. (you can found it burried deep in one of the Windows installer folders.

 

btw to my surprise I got another two C1 LE licenses included with a SanDisk Extreme III SD 2GB cards. (it was advertised as only with the CF card)

 

Michiel

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Overgaard

Overgaard

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Anyone who can offer some advice on how to restore (hidden) photos from a harddrive?

 

 

I have a 2,5" harddrive for my PowerBook that went awry and couldn't start anymore.

 

I have now mounted the bad 60GB darddrive in an external USB housing while the PowerBook got a fresh new harddrive.

 

I have some JPG shots on the 60GB old one that it want to see if I can restore. So I've tried Disk Warrior 3.0.3, Data Rescue II, Photo Rescue and MediaRecover.

 

The Photo Rescue can not take such a big media and said it would only recover the first 8GB of the harddrive. But then stopped sudddenly.

 

The Disc Warrior also stopped in the midst.

 

So did Data Rescue II (no matter what kind of analysis, rescue, etc I asked it to perform).

 

I even tried Norton 8.0 (which is the last Norton for Mac) but that did not at all work on the new Mac 10.4.

 

Finally, I simply deleted the harddrive (directory) in Apple (the short one where it doesn't overwrite the data but simply deletes the directory).

 

Since then I've tried all again and can't find any software that can find old data and recover it. All the programs still stop in the middle which of course indicate a hardware error. But I still want the data!

 

Anyone know any tricks or software?

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mhoutman

mhoutman

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Anyone who can offer some advice on how to restore (hidden) photos from a harddrive?

 

 

I have a 2,5" harddrive for my PowerBook that went awry and couldn't start anymore.

 

I have now mounted the bad 60GB darddrive in an external USB housing while the PowerBook got a fresh new harddrive.

 

I have some JPG shots on the 60GB old one that it want to see if I can restore. So I've tried Disk Warrior 3.0.3, Data Rescue II, Photo Rescue and MediaRecover.

 

The Photo Rescue can not take such a big media and said it would only recover the first 8GB of the harddrive. But then stopped sudddenly.

 

The Disc Warrior also stopped in the midst.

 

So did Data Rescue II (no matter what kind of analysis, rescue, etc I asked it to perform).

 

I even tried Norton 8.0 (which is the last Norton for Mac) but that did not at all work on the new Mac 10.4.

 

Finally, I simply deleted the harddrive (directory) in Apple (the short one where it doesn't overwrite the data but simply deletes the directory).

 

Since then I've tried all again and can't find any software that can find old data and recover it. All the programs still stop in the middle which of course indicate a hardware error. But I still want the data!

 

Anyone know any tricks or software?

 

Thorsten,

 

Utils like DiskWarrior are to recreate or rescue a directory.

 

Can't you approach the harddisk with your start up DVD and repair persmissions etc. ?otherwise use an app like File Buddy 8 or 9 beta (http://www.skystag.com) to check for invisible files. keep us posted.

 

Michiel

 

btw you mentioned indeed all utils except perhaps Techtool Pro 4

 

btw 2 you also could post on apple's discussion forum here: Apple - Support - Discussions - Forum Home

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Guest stnami

Guest stnami

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BlowUp, is worthwhile. Do your sharpening elsewhere as with all these applications haloes can appear if you are not carefull, Mind you there is not much you can do with a crappy small 72dpi image except make it a shitty big image.

ps BlowUp lets you upsize layered images and 32 bit plus LAB images the others drag behind in this area, I reckon it beats Genuine Fractals and Focus Finder by the proverbial mile

 

As for losing stuff well client images is just your goddamn fault and usually a result of neglet. Otherwise don't be so precious about stuff, plenty of images to be made and lost

Relaxed photographers make less mistakes so don't get you knickers in a knot!!!!!!

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Overgaard

Overgaard

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Thanks for the ideas.

 

I just checked File Buddy 9 Beta which an only find the data that I can also see. Not the data that are 'deleted.' Invisible files seem to mean the system files that are invisible - not the invisible ones I want.

 

TechTool Pro 4 can only find the same as well - as far as I can tell. When I try to run tests it bugs midway and does not present a result. Surely something is off on the disk. It strikes me as odd that such progams designed to help faulty disks can't identify when something is off and say "ok, so far we've found this but we can't get further."

 

The "Tools" in it fails to display any disks to retrieve data from. Seems I should have used this program BEFORE something went wrong in order to get that program to find anything.

 

Anyway, I'll keep trying. And I'll also check out the Apple forum.

 

Else my dealer here in Denmark has a 200$ service where they will try to retrieve data. I know about the real expensive ones that can retrieve data from burned fingerprints and all ;-)

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Overgaard

Overgaard

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There was two helpful links in the Apple forum to VititualLab and FileSalvage.

 

ViritualLab actually seems to find stuff, but then dies before it gets to report what it found.

 

It clearly lookslike a physical damage in the 'beginning' of the disk. So I'll be sending it to the Danish Apple lab and see what they can find out for the 200$ fee.

 

VitualLab is by the way a software proveded from "TOTAL RECALL" Total Recall Data Recovery - Restore Your Life which is a wonderful name! (I would prefer a disk manufacturer called TOTAL RELAX though). They do individual recovery in Canada, US and Mixico. Interesting stuff to read about if you thought you deleted a disk 100% and threw it out. It's like a 007 story what they dan dig up from a disk.

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nemeng

nemeng

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Regarding lesson #1 - I list quite a few recovery apps in the FAQ. May be worth looking at some of them next time :?)

 

Leica FAQ - Digital Accessories & Issues

 

Re lesson #2 - this is why you always watermark any images you put online! At least that way copyright thieves have no excuse ("Er, I didn't know I wasn't allowed to download free photos from the web and use them commercially for my own benefit...").

 

Also, there's no need to use Genuine Fractals for upsizing. I remember reading a while back that a stair interpolation up-res in Photoshop works just as well, perhaps even better. Alternatively, upsize to much larger than you need and then downsize to your target size (to smooth out artifacts). Either method is free, once you've paid for PShop that is :?)

 

FWIW found the the following URLs via google:

 

Stair Interpolation (SI)

 

Workflow Contest #001 Various upsizing methods @Digital Outback Photo

 

Workflow Technique #060 two-step upsizing @Digital Outback Photo

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fotografr

fotografr

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BlowUp, is worthwhile. Do your sharpening elsewhere as with all these applications haloes can appear if you are not carefull, Mind you there is not much you can do with a crappy small 72dpi image except make it a shitty big image.

 

 

As for losing stuff well client images is just your goddamn fault and usually a result of neglet. Otherwise don't be so precious about stuff, plenty of images to be made and lost

Relaxed photographers make less mistakes so don't get you knickers in a knot!!!!!!

 

I'm sure that's true for your images. Some of the rest of us actually care about our work. In this case, the main reason I wanted to recover the image was so I could make a print for the woman.

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Guest stnami

Guest stnami

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Bret I must care about my work as I rarely lose a image once it is downloaded, can't remember tha last one. But if it is gone its gone and I just get on with the next one, it isn't precious, just as the many missed photos are not there

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