IDrive. Been using them for years. Excellent pricing and options.

Calling it a "gaming" computer is just marketing. It does however, indicate that it has certain components that are beneficial for any computing that requires a lot of processing, fast video processing, lots of memory and fast hard drive access. All the same things that are required for post processing. Suggest that you look at Dell's outlet store online. You can find refurbished and discontinued models and they all come with a full factory warranty, and most of those warranties are for next day on-site repair after diagnosing the problem. You can also add additional years of coverage for a very small extra fee. I would recommend nothing less than an i7 level processor. 16GB of memory is the minimum, an SSD drive of at least 500GB and a NVidia graphics process with at least 4GB of memory. Good luck!

The cloud is nothing but huge arrays of servers with mammoth storage that each of these cloud companies setup. It isn't one big thing with a bunch of different names. I use a company called iDrive for my cloud backup. I get multiple terabytes of storage for a few dollars a month. I have my photos backed up, but also any other data files that I want to protect. The backup is set to run at a specified time or times per day to backup any new files or any that have changed from the previous backup. The initial backup takes a while to perform depending on your Internet upload speed, but only a short while to do the subsequent backups each day. If you have a large amount if files in your initial backup they will send you a portable hard drive to copy them to that you then send back to them. They will then copy those files into your account to get you started. If you just want to keep doing what you have been doing, then getting rid of all but one cloud account should not affect things. If you're still concerned, then get a large external drive to copy the files from the cloud before eliminating any of them as a precaution.

Sorry, yes he was a jerk, but he isn't the one who made the mistake. Learn from it and write it off as a good lesson in business. If faced with this situation again, just tell them that you appreciate their interest but you will need more info. Find out what size and type of print they want. Then tell them you will need to see what the cost will be and will give them a firm price for it. Print it out as a quote. If they accept it, have them sign it and give you a deposit since it is a special order. I know this sounds like a lot of effort, but this is how business people work. While you may not consider yourself a business person, selling someone your work is business. You will gain nothing by confronting him about it because you regret how it was handled.

What does it really matter unless you're trying to decide between the iPhone and a camera for a purchase? People have won awards with much "less" equipment than any available now.

Just did a search and there are multiple places to get them.

If you photograph people, then you might want to try Photo AI because it has a face recognition module in it that isn't in the others to my knowledge. I don't do people so I've never looked for it in their other apps.

Believe me I understand your frustration. I have spent over 35 years building and troubleshooting pc and networks since the first IBM PC. One thing I learned a long time ago is that even if two pc's have the same hardware and operating system there can be problems running the same program. The primary reason for this issue is the two systems may not have exactly the same programs on them. And, to further complicate things one of them may have had a program installed at one time and then uninstalled it. Unfortunately, when programs are installed the installation process places numerous files in several location and makes entries into the operating system's database referred to as the Registry. When you uninstall the application, it seldom removes all of the files and reverses the entries it made into the Registry. So these things just get left hanging around often loading pieces into the operating system when it boots up. Don't know why programmers do this, but can only guess that it's just laziness on their part. Sometimes these leftovers can interfere with another application installing and running correctly. On occasion, if you know what you are doing and have made a good backup of the system, you can manually go in and remove much of these leftovers to fix the problem. I can tell you that I have never worked with anyone support person on any software who would attempt to do this on someone's system because you can completely crash their system. So, software support people will and can only go so far in resolving problems that are beyond the typical ones that have been encountered in their normal troubleshooting and verified by the programmers above them. For the majority of times I have encountered these issues, it has usually required that the system be wiped, the operating system be installed from scratch and all of the software, various video printer and other drivers be reinstalled which can take several hours. So, the problem you are having may not actually be a result of any issue with the Topaz software. So, while this may not make you any happier concerning this, perhaps it will lower your frustration level a bit with Topaz.

That would appear to be CGI, not photography since it wasn't captured by a camera.

Try a safety cable attached to the camera's strap connection and clipped on to the tripod. If the camera and lens slip off the cable will keep them from hitting the ground, rocks, water whatever. They may get some scratches, but should prevent major damage.

I think I understand now what you are referring to. I believe you may be referring to the options in Studio 2 to "Add Filter" and "To Add Look" that are not in Photo AI. For those who use those even on a minor basis, Photo AI will not be useful for them. Not sure what the thinking a Topaz was or if they found that very few people were using those functions, but based on many of the how to videos I have seen they may have made a wrong move. I don't see why they can't include those in Photo AI. They are mostly stylized setting created by Topaz or users to make it easier for the users to do things with their pics without going through the complete process of making all the changes in the software to achieve the look. I had only given Photo AI a cursory look, but after your posts I can see what I consider significant short comings such as there is no option to even convert an image to B&W. Thank you for bringing up this subject!

Topaz basically took Studio 2 and combined it with Denoise, Sharpen, Gigapixel and added another feature to help with faces. They appear to have used a newer processing engine as well. It is a stand a lone product just like Studio 2. The difference is that you don't have to buy Denoise, Sharpen and Gigapixel to do the same thing. Photo AI isn't meant to be a plug in for Studio 2. It appears to be the replacement for it which is the reason they won't be continuing development of Studio 2. Since the plugins in Studio 2 are incorporated into Photo AI there would be no reason to have them as plugin as well. Have you downloaded and tried Photo AI?

Appears to have a newer faster processing engine and some intuitive functions as well that can be controlled manually as well. Download a trial and try it. Nothing to lose.

Well, tell your friend that not everyone has a $6,000 camera and $12,000 lens. Also, many of us who don't also don't shoot subjects that sit perfectly still with perfect lighting and no breeze to cause movement. Us older folks hands aren't as steady as they used to be and tripods aren't always an available option.

My suggestion is that you stop doing anything to the drive and take it to someone who does repairs and has a good reputation. The partition on the drive may have been damaged, and it may be possible to recover it. However, the more you try different things, the less likely it will be recoverable.