LOST DATA

My computer fell in a coma a few days before we left New York, either because of that ridiculous “Antivirus System Pro” virus (the first virus in my life – which I think I got from the IMDB forums!!!?), or actually because of a bad Windows update that I installed right after I thought I had successfully removed the virus.

In the process I perhaps most importantly lost my password for my Rambler.ru email account, so anyone who has tried to email me recently at kommiekomiks@rambler.ru and hasn’t gotten a reply, please try again, but this time to tinet.elmgren@zoho.com!

I salvaged a lot of files by first reinstalling Windows without reformatting the disk. But I of course still lost all Windows folders, among them “My pictures”. (I should have known that the “My documents” folder should be the last place to put important files that are not backed up! Let alone that there should be NO important files that are not backed up somewhere …)

With the help of Uneraser I was able to recover a lot of photo originals from my camera’s memory card, but the first ones in each batch had been overwritten with new photos. From my hard drive Uneraser could only recover thumbnails of some of those photos. Here are the best lost photos from the beach in Sandy Hook, New Jersey:

We were truly jinxed with our Sandy Hook photos – Ilan accidentally erased all his photos from the trip right afterwards. I was only able to recover some of the latter part of my Sandy Hook photos in original size. And to top it off, I forgot the nice singing seashell I’d found on the beach in Ilan’s parents’ apartment! Oh noes! But at least that one is safely stored until we meet again.

Here are a few of the best lost photos from various places on Manhattan:

All my day job files were neatly backed up, so no losses there.

But I lost all the textile design files that I had been working on in New York. However, I had already uploaded the most recent versions to Spoonflower, so they are not completely lost! I just can’t work on them on my computer anymore. But if the colours come out wrong in print I can still change them a bit inside Spoonflower. Whee!
I would have liked to use the Eva pattern for print projects, too, but maybe there is a way to scan it from the fabric so it looks decent.
Or I’ll just have to recreate it. V`(oo)´V (*piggy-sigh*)

There is a lot more to report. I got a new (well, used) camera – a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi -, I designed a website for the most eminent Miriam Katin, etc. … I’ll post more photos and write more later.

Here are a few tips for myself in the future:
– Don’t use Windows (Unfortunately I’m too poor to buy a Mac that would be as good as this PC, and that would actually have more than one(!) USB 2.0 port, among many other deficiencies. I don’t have enough confidence to create a Hackintosh. And Adobe keeps ignoring Linux, so …)
– Back up EVERYTHING, ALL THE TIME.
– Never again put anything in the “My Documents” folder. Make a folder of your own on a different partition, or at least directly under C:.
– Don’t let Firefox remember your passwords unless you are absolutely positive that you will never forget them.