Lapis wrote:
I want it.

I know!

Lapis wrote:
Yes, I need to get some prints of my work. I am sadly very behind on this, and it is a serious issue. You, however, actually have a very nice top of the line inkjet. Maybe we will have to work "time for helping me print stuff on your inkjet....."

As long as I don't have to write a check or send a 1099 I'm all over it.

Bob Randall Photography wrote:

As long as I don't have to write a check or send a 1099 I'm all over it.

You guys are up early, lol!

Rich

Bob Randall Photography wrote:
I just lost a hard drive with about 5 years of experimental imagery on it. Most of the images were junk and won't be missed. Probably the reason they weren't back up. However, there were a few images I will truly miss and regret having not backed them up. I did make a final display inkjet print of one of the images. I now value it more than any other print I have made and as much as the prints I have received as gifts or purchased for my collection. So now the debate revolving around digital versus analog and wet process versus inkjet is over for me. I know the true value is in the picture you can hold in your hand or mount on a wall. When faced with the loss I suffered, source is a non issue. I still have my beautiful print.

This is good inspiration fro me to get off my lazy ass and print my stuff...
Sorry for the loss though, I've been there...

Lapis wrote:
Yes, I need to get some prints of my work. I am sadly very behind on this, and it is a serious issue. You, however, actually have a very nice top of the line inkjet. Maybe we will have to work "time for helping me print stuff on your inkjet....."

Will I finally see you today??
I hope so! 

Bob Randall Photography wrote:
I just lost a hard drive with about 5 years of experimental imagery on it. Most of the images were junk and won't be missed. Probably the reason they weren't back up. However, there were a few images I will truly miss and regret having not backed them up. I did make a final display inkjet print of one of the images. I now value it more than any other print I have made and as much as the prints I have received as gifts or purchased for my collection. So now the debate revolving around digital versus analog and wet process versus inkjet is over for me. I know the true value is in the picture you can hold in your hand or mount on a wall. When faced with the loss I suffered, source is a non issue. I still have my beautiful print.

What about your hard drive?  what happened to it?  is it still spinning?  Ive been able to recover data from a poooched system drive by setting it up as a slave and copying the data off from it.

This is also a good time to consider some good scheduled backup software. 
Im using acronis true image home.

Bob Randall Photography wrote:
I just lost a hard drive with about 5 years of experimental imagery on it. Most of the images were junk and won't be missed. Probably the reason they weren't back up. However, there were a few images I will truly miss and regret having not backed them up. I did make a final display inkjet print of one of the images. I now value it more than any other print I have made and as much as the prints I have received as gifts or purchased for my collection. So now the debate revolving around digital versus analog and wet process versus inkjet is over for me. I know the true value is in the picture you can hold in your hand or mount on a wall. When faced with the loss I suffered, source is a non issue. I still have my beautiful print.

One serious caveat -- a couple years ago, I updated my portfolio -- printed about 100 11x14 prints. I took them to an interview on the opposite coast, and just stuck the box of prints in the overhead compartment on the plane.

When I got home, the prints were covered with little tiny spots where the ink had been worn off by the airplane's vibrating dust between the prints. The prints were trash.

This never would have happened with conventional photo prints.

Ink jet prints that don't have a protective coating sprayed on either by the printer or by you after printing, are extremely fragile compared to traditional photo prints. Hopefully you and those reading this won't learn this the hard way, like I did.

Regards,
Paul

megafunk wrote:
There are some places with 750 flat fees. I'll try and recall the links tomorrow.

I have heard that price.
Also quoted 10 dollers per Gig for a 80 gig drive making it $800.
As far as I know recovery can be done to retrieve most things,  not so much or everything which can cost a large amount.

Go with the flat fee and recover what you can.

10k to 40k sounds like someone who will make sure even the most damaged sections are recovered.

MHana wrote:

I have heard that price.
Also quoted 10 dollers per Gig for a 80 gig drive making it $800.
As far as I know recovery can be done to retrieve most things,  not so much or everything which can cost a large amount.

Go with the flat fee and recover what you can.

10k to 40k sounds like someone who will make sure even the most damaged sections are recovered.

I told the guy at $40K that I was having surgery on my eyes and the total bill would be half of what he was quoting to retrieve data, he laughed and said that was understandable because retrieval is more like brain surgery. 

SayCheeZ! wrote:
C'mon, get with the program!!!

The 'champagne and caviar' photographers would NEVER refer to an inkjet print!   Refer to it as a Giclee!!!

Sheesh!

LMFAO
careful you'll turn this thread into a "They're different...Really they are...DANG IT listen to me...someone once told me they are different and I believe 'em!!!"

pffft

megafunk wrote:
http://www.ecodatarecovery.com/?gclid=CMTl2IyikYUCFQE9GAod7CbgFw
http://www.gillware.com/
http://www.diskdoctors.com/?source=googleppc

Shoot> save to HD> burn to optical or other backup media> rest of your day continues.

Ditto above advice:

First thimg I do when I get home from a shoot is copy everything from the CF cards to the hard drive.  Second thing I do is burn a CD set or DVD of everything shot that day--good, bad or otherwise.  That becomes my archived set of digital negatives.  Only after the archive set is burned, do I start messing around with the images.

Oh yeah, verify that you can open the files on your archived CD before reformatting your CF cards.

Miles Chandler wrote:
HAte to be another "hindsight is 20-20" person, but NO BACK UPS??? Good grief, Mr. Randall! Are you insane?? Blank DVDs are dirt cheap, and hold 4.5-9 gigs each. You shoot, you come home, put the images on your hd, burn at least one dvd back up (and if I was a commercial photographer like you I'd burn three), verify them all and then reformat your card. I can't relax until I've done that.
Oh, and hard drives should NOT be expected to last 5 years. If you have an old one, make regular backups of the whole thing with dvds. This also keeps your old images being put on newer discs (since dvds don't last forever either). In this day and age, there's no excuse for losing more than one photoshoot to media failure.
Your tragedy isn't about digital vs film, though. If your negs were all in a safe that took water damage and ruined them, I would point out that digital "originals" can be replicated endlessly and kept in various locations, in a manner that film can't. (internegatives and prints are not originals, of course, and they're expensive to make)

I generate about 30 to 75 GB of info a week depending on client load and type of work. DVD's take forever but I do back up client jobs and important info on a daily basis plus I have several LaCie 1TB raid 5 drives as a safety net while working live. The OP stated that most of what I lost was junk, however there were a few items I would liked to have saved. My comment for me puts an end to the arguement of the worth of an inkjet print. I will cherish the print I do have regardless of it's origin. Thats all I was trying to say.

Bob Randall Photography wrote:
I generate about 30 to 75 GB of info a week depending on client load and type of work. DVD's take forever but I do back up client jobs and important info on a daily basis plus I have several LaCie 1TB raid 5 drives as a safety net while working live. The OP stated that most of what I lost was junk, however there were a few items I would liked to have saved. My comment for me puts an end to the arguement of the worth of an inkjet print. I will cherish the print I do have regardless of it's origin. Thats all I was trying to say.

Ah- sorry. I didn't realize when you said "most of the contents were junk' that it was a separate matter from your daily image archiving. Your system sounds great, actually!
I don't know how far you've gone towards inspecting that old hd for recoverability, but some cheap online programs can handle the easier caes, as others have said. You can d/l them online, let them search and show you a filelist of what they've found, and then decide to buy the software key so you can recover them. I once did this, went through several programs' free testing and finally found one that found my data (not pics). Much cheaper than $750, if it works (let alone $40K!)