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Retrieving lost photos
Apr 20, 2019 07:09:32 #
Situation: I had a external drive crash (no power will not boot up) lost 2015 year pictures . Naturally all years backed-up except this one. However in Photoshop Elements 13 they are all showing up as thumbnails with the yellow "question mark" as missing files. Does any one know if these pics are potentially retrievable from these thumbnails. I also use Lightroom and Photoshop subscriptions. Everything has been tried on the bad external and no success . Don't think it is worthwhile to sent for possible recovery through the manufacturer Seagate. By the way if you ever open a cover on an external hard drive and try to get warranty coverage on it afterwords, forget it. Would appreciate ideas on the "Thumbnail" situation.
Apr 20, 2019 07:15:08 #
I don't think you can recover the full files from the "Thumbnails," but I could be wrong. Do the pictures load into your picture viewer from the thumbnails. I'd bet that with the "?'s" that you might not even be able to view them full size. Probably the only way to recover is take it to a computer shop and see what they can do for you. Sorry about the bad luck!
Apr 20, 2019 07:28:53 #
Bison Bud wrote:
I don't think you can recover the full files from the "Thumbnails," but I could be wrong. Do the pictures load into your picture viewer from the thumbnails. I'd bet that with the "?'s" that you might not even be able to view them full size. Probably the only way to recover is take it to a computer shop and see what they can do for you. Sorry about the bad luck!
Thanks for the reply. I can open them up to larger size (full size) than thumbnail however they are extremely blurry. Also should mention the pic formats are jpeg, tif, psd.
Thanks again for your response.
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Apr 20, 2019 09:20:08 #
df389w wrote:
Situation: I had a external drive crash (no power ... (show quote)
My brother had something similar happen a while ago. He's not easily beaten and after trying whatever he could with connecting the external drive to the computer, he opened the case holding the drive and connected the drive directly to the computer; in doing that, he of course skipped the connection to the case. All of a sudden the drive showed all its content again. Apparently something wrong with connection to the case outlet.
I'm not saying that this is the case with your external drive, but you might want to check this out.
Apr 20, 2019 09:21:56 #
Have you taken the external hard drive to a computer repair shop? They might can clone all of your data from the crashed drive to a new hard drive.
Apr 20, 2019 11:31:02 #
Golden Rule wrote:
Have you taken the external hard drive to a computer repair shop? They might can clone all of your data from the crashed drive to a new hard drive.
Yes I did but drive is totally dead they cannot get the drive to spin.They tried on different equipment. But thanks for the suggestion.
Apr 20, 2019 12:03:47 #
df389w wrote:
No, because the organizer merely acts as a shortcut to the files; it has no file storage capability. ... Does any one know if these pics are potentially retrievable from these thumbnails.
The thumbnails are just a tiny snapshot of your photo file, which is why they look blurry when you try to enlarge. But the files themselves (all those bits and bytes) are stored on hard drives or external storage devices. The question mark indicates the file has been moved or is otherwise inaccessible via the organizer.
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Apr 20, 2019 13:55:09 #
This is too late for your terrible dilemma but my computer tech told me to not only use an external hard drive but to back up to a company like Carbonite. Hopefully, someone can help you extract those photos.
Apr 21, 2019 08:01:10 #
Apr 21, 2019 08:20:06 #
Morning Star wrote:
My brother had something similar happen a while ag... (show quote)
Lucky! Lucky! That's definitely worth trying. Rather than play MacGiver, the OP could by one of the many enclosures or cable sets.
https://smile.amazon.com/s?k=hard+drive+enclosure&ref=nb_sb_noss_2
Apr 21, 2019 08:25:12 #
I had the same thing happen to me not only one drive but two drives, I used Data Rescue 3 and the drive showed up on my desk top and as it was recovering my files I was transferring them to another external drive, after I got all my files I did the same process on the second drive and then reformed them and they are good as new and I got back all my files that I was sure I had lost.
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Apr 21, 2019 08:46:44 #
NCMtnMan
Loc: N. Fork New River, Ashe Co., NC
df389w wrote:
Yes I did but drive is totally dead they cannot get the drive to spin.They tried on different equipment. But thanks for the suggestion.
Did they actually take the hard drive out of the enclosure to see if it could be accessed? If not, then that needs to be tried. There are also some other things that can be tried such as swapping the electronics on the back of the drive with those from another identical drive.
Apr 21, 2019 08:49:08 #
Recovery software can’t be used on drives with electrical or mechanical problems. The platter needs to be removed and put into another housing. There are services for such issues - I have no idea what they charge. Here’s one that I found online - call and get a quote. https://www.datarecoverygroup.com/articles/hard-drive-not-spinning-heres-what-you-can-try
Apr 21, 2019 09:07:56 #
gvarner
Loc: Central Oregon Coast
They are not retrievable. Elements sees them to be on the external drive which has to be physically connected to the computer. The ? means that Elements can’t find the location of the files because it doesn’t see the damage external drive. The Elements Organizer is simply a data base that records, among other things, the physical location of the files that you Import into it.
Apr 21, 2019 09:58:28 #
df389w wrote:
Situation: I had a external drive crash (no power ... (show quote)
This why cloud backup is essential. Carbonite or similar. >Alan
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