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Lost 10 Years Of Work Thanks To MS

Here's the update after today's first run in the recovery software.

At first glance it looks like all of the bitmap art will be salvageable, but only in a massive lump with my work mixed in with every photo ever taken and my wife's art, which by the way, makes my work look entirely insignificant. There are no file names...just numbers. It's not good for the 3D Studio files, just lumps of mesh with no architecture at all. I can't even separate mesh elements. Looks like a total loss for the re-formatted back up disk.

I was hoping that the 3D Studio work would retain some syntax, but that does not appear to be the case. What is recovered is a very large file size that will not open, import or merge into Max. The preview shows an image, but that is a simple thumbnail, not a model.

All of my backed up purchases are, of course, available from the vendors but I spend 99.999% of my time flying the dev work. Bottom line, all of the scenery and aircraft modeling are grey goo. The original work I did for ORBX is a total loss, along with my five sceneries...KBIH, KMMH, KNFL, KRNO and KNZY North Island. If you count Tippela and Squamish it's seven.

That's lot of work...about 52,000 man hours by my math.

The only ray of hope is the system image I did back in September. I backed up the entire system using Acronis, so there may be intact data on the desktop there.

We had a fire here a couple of years ago. A power line blew down in 100 mph wind and the ensuing fire tore up a canyon, devastating an entire community in minutes. People were loading their horses and driving WFO down the single, winding mountain road in zero visibility to get out. Two days later, the community looked like a war zone. One member of that community was the local newspaper editor, who has been kind enough to grace me with an occasional byline. Ted fled his home as it was being consumed and returned to a single chimney surrounded by smoking ash. In that ash were accumulated twenty five years of printed articles, sources, stories and bylines that represented the sum total of his work. What remained was a sea of gray, smoldering fog punctuated by sculptures of iron pipe and ghostly silhouettes. Ted went on to rebuild his newspaper.

Life is a curious thing.
 
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gman5250 said:
Here's the update after today's first run in the recovery software.

The only ray or hope is the system image I did back in September. I backed up the entire system using Acronis, so there may be some intact data there.
Click to expand...

The Acronis image is one file. It will have a first letter changed to OS-unreadable but will otherwise be intact and can be recovered by the Acronis rescue media.
The data will be intact...providing the work files were included in the first place. [the work was the drive backed].
With a functioning Acronis and C drive you should be also able to access the image via browsing....without going through the process of restoring the image.....and that is a far safer first step.
Copy/paste every folder you can locate into a separate drive - even before attempting an image restore...;)
 
gman5250 said:
The only ray of hope is the system image I did back in September. I backed up the entire system using Acronis, so there may be intact data on the desktop there.
Click to expand...

Hey Gordon,

Check your mail please. The data in the image is intact and can be extracted seperately without having to install the whole image on some drive.

Cheers,

Priller
 
I went in to the Acronis image file and searched the files. I had removed all of my development work files to the external storage device before I imaged the system. There are a few peripheral files on the desktop that would be helpful for the development work, but those are more or less useless if the dev work is gone.

Unfortunately, I had updated and condensed the sum total of my work to the backup disk anticipating the new build. The work would have been copied back on to the desktop when the new system/OS was active. I was vulnerable for a few minutes out of ten years. That's when the Windows Utility installed itself to the wrong drive. It's ironic, Windows is constantly telling me I don't have permission to move one file to another on my personal property, but it didn't ask me for permission to overwrite a lifetime.

I will contact Autodesk and Adobe to see if there is a solution for situations like this, but at this time the data appears to be irreparably damaged. I'll contact a few forensics specialists as well, but my optimism is fading to be completely honest. The long term ramifications, as they apply to my future are something I will need to deal with privately over the course of the next few months.

Again, I must thank you all for your concern and offers of support.
 
gman5250 said:
At first glance it looks like all of the bitmap art will be salvageable, but only in a massive lump with my work mixed in with every photo ever taken and my wife's art
Click to expand...

That's a given. File names and such are stored in the partition table. You're only working with very raw data. If the recovery software doesn't know about a particular file format, things will be more complicated.

It's not good for the 3D Studio files, just lumps of mesh with no architecture at all. I can't even separate mesh elements.
Click to expand...

That's odd, as MAX files are basically self-contained archives with a lot of additional metadata. Unless you mean the old 3DS format.

Are all the vertices and triangles bof the meshes in place?
 
So sorry to hear of this Gordon!!! I know that you're resilient. You will overcome to victory my friend.
 
gman5250 said:
Spoken like a true gentleman Ed. I know you have also suffered a similar data loss if memory serves.

I would, under normal circumstances not accept help from friends, but I will give this option due consideration. Much of the work lost is intended to be freeware for our community, therefore a community effort to help restore the projects is quite honorable.

I'm wayyy out here in the south forty in Eastern Kalifornia, so finding a tech worthy of the task is unlikely anywhere close. The last time I used the local guy, it resulted in my first massive loss of data a few years back.
Click to expand...
Considering we take what you put so much hard work into for nothing except a thank you assisting you financially with the file recovery the least we could do. The modeling community is doing the same for Paul Fisher after he lost his home and workshop in the Camp fire back in November. (As I found out when I tried to order his 1/32 F7U.) A lot of people giving a little bit can make a huge difference in someone's life! (Besides, I would like to see the F7F VC finished, as would quite a few others!)
 
Just found this thread, GMan. Really hard to imagine what I would have done if in your place. I follow all your posts and projects, when I get time to read these forums.

I am more than willing to help out if you go the GoFundMe route. Just a small way to "give back" to the freeware community. Was really looking forward to the F7F VC, as well as the B-26K in all it's glory. As for the scenery, when you announced KNZY North Island my ears really perked up, with San Diego being the place where I spent the first 25 years of my life, with working at KNZY for a year or two taking care of some of the landscaping, which was done by the company I worked for around 1973-75.


Good Luck.
 
Bjoern said:
That's odd, as MAX files are basically self-contained archives with a lot of additional metadata. Unless you mean the old 3DS format.

Are all the vertices and triangles bof the meshes in place?
Click to expand...

I have/had 3DS Max and 3DS old format files in the archives. So far, I have retrieved about 3,500 Max and 150 3DS old format. I've sampled a handful and had zero success with the Max files. They show a preview, but when I attempt to open, merge or import into max I get a corrupted file message.

To be honest, I have only run a scan of about four hours and netted 359,175 files. I'll need to do a full scan...about 11 hours, recover that comprehensive data and see if the Max files still throw the message. I'll see if Autodesk has any suggestions.

The major problem is even if I recover a specific Max file i.e. B-26K, that file should have embedded memory of the textures associated to it that I can query using the eyedropper tool. The recovery yielded 3,476 Photoshop files that do have intact layers in them. The total number of bitmap files is 62,736. The files, unfortunately have no names, only sequential numbers. I would need to sift through every Photoshop/bitmap file, identify it, re-name it and save it back out to a coherent file structure.

The same applies to cross referencing 359,175 files to re-composite any semblance of the original file structure.

The same applies to re-downloading every aircraft, scenery or utility add-on I have purchased in ten years from every vendor, along with retrieving receipts and licenses.
Those number in the hundreds.


BTW, I've been researching the little bug that took a left turn into my databank. It happens all the time, there are class action lawsuits galore against MS for people who have had entire archives, systems and servers terminated by MS updates.

You can see where I'm going with this. :banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead:

I just want ten minutes in a locked cage with somebody...anybody.
 
gman5250 said:
I have/had 3DS Max and 3DS old format files in the archives. So far, I have retrieved about 3,500 Max and 150 3DS old format. I've sampled a handful and had zero success with the Max files. They show a preview, but when I attempt to open, merge or import into max I get a corrupted file message.

To be honest, I have only run a scan of about four hours and netted 359,175 files. I'll need to do a full scan...about 11 hours, recover that comprehensive data and see if the Max files still throw the message. I'll see if Autodesk has any suggestions.
Click to expand...

Googling doesn't yield much.
Do the entire scan. May you'll get a lucky break.

The major problem is even if I recover a specific Max file i.e. B-26K, that file should have embedded memory of the textures associated to it that I can query using the eyedropper tool.
Click to expand...

It's been a while, but I faintly remember that the eyedropper at least recovers basic material info. When working from imported OBJ files, texture names are imported from MTL files.
3DS files should contain such information as well.

Did you manage to recover a MAX file with an intact hierachy and part separation?

BTW, I've been researching the little bug that took a left turn into my databank. It happens all the time, there are class action lawsuits galore against MS for people who have had entire archives, systems and servers terminated by MS updates.

You can see where I'm going with this. :banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead:
Click to expand...

Haven't read anything about lawsuits (as if those would work anyway), but the problem itself popped up a few times indeed, always with external HDDs.

Btw: I use RuFus and ISO files to create bootable Windows or Linux medium. It has never failed me so far. https://rufus.ie/
 
Gordon, while I feel sorry for your predicament I am amazed that a man with your knowledge and experience with computers would even think to leave an external drive with valuable data on it connected to your computer while reformatting. I usually leave my external drives disconnected unless I need them for pulling data off or running my P3D V.4 or X-Plane.
 
AussieMan said:
Gordon, while I feel sorry for your predicament I am amazed that a man with your knowledge and experience with computers would even think to leave an external drive with valuable data on it connected to your computer while reformatting. I usually leave my external drives disconnected unless I need them for pulling data off or running my P3D V.4 or X-Plane.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry AussieMan, I happen to think that your remark in the given circumstances is wholly inappropriate. Our friend just lost 10 years of work and you see fit to criticize him about that. The fault was not his, he clearly indicated to the media creation tool to use the thumbdrive and the tool didn't do that.

Kicking a man who is down because he just lost 10 years of work through no fault of his own... I hope you feel good about yourself.

You're staff here, so probably I will now be banned.

Priller
 
AussieMan said:
Gordon, while I feel sorry for your predicament I am amazed that a man with your knowledge and experience with computers would even think to leave an external drive with valuable data on it connected to your computer while reformatting. I usually leave my external drives disconnected unless I need them for pulling data off or running my P3D V.4 or X-Plane.
Click to expand...

I'm still trying to understand how 4 experienced training pilots allowed a Boeing 777 to get down to 88 knots over the fence into SFO, but it happened. Even the best of us make an occasional error.

I wasn't re-formating. I was downloading an executable to a thumb drive. If I were going to re-format anything I would unplug every frickin' thing in the box, except the drive I intended to format. I had just assembled the new box, installed drivers, updated everything and loaded Windows. The Windows version was outdated, so I decided to download the current version and re-install. I've downloaded a gozillion executables in the past and never had one detour into the wrong location...then proceed to re-format that location without my directing it to. I have, in fact, been re-downloading every single add-on I ever purchased for the last three days and so far not a one of them has trotted off to blitz any of my four drives.

That said, the world is full of people who have had massive losses because of buggy MS software. That installer was directed towards a thumb drive, instead it took the only other USB in use. Wish I could turn back the clock Pat, but I can't.

That work was not a hobby, it was the final stages of an entire product line intended to provide for my wife and myself in my retirement. The work contained an entirely new autogen technology to replace the antiquated systems in FSX and P3D. There was an entire library of vegetation objects from trees to grasses to brush for every region on the planet. The hand painted art alone represented volumes. The aircraft are another conversation, the accumulated work of one man working relentlessly for a decade

My research, which is what I actually do in the real world spanned four decades. Total loss..and irrecoverable.

This work was my Opus and it's gone. I didn't f up, other than to leave my six open for MS to push a torpedo into.

Thanks mate....
 
Everyone, no matter how brilliant and experienced, will occasionally do something less than optimal. :very_drunk:

Gordon, when I started work this morning, I went to Save a .max file to my local Dropbox folder, only to discover that the entire folder was missing. Thankfully, Dropbox's Cloud allowed me to recover the folder and contents quickly.

I could also have recovered the same folder/files from my NAS, or any of my company's team members. You cannot have too many copies.

I am so sorry to hear of your disaster, I hope that its recoverable. :wavey:
 
I went through the Win 10 saga today, a new MB forced me to leave Win 7 because USB 3.0 drivers were not available. Intels Z-390 chipset! I have to agree with Priller, say no more.

However I think there are many here will say, there by the grace of god.....; many of us will have done something similar. Normally I leave drives connected, silly yes, lazy yes, maybe I was lucky in past upgrades; today everything was disconnected apart from Drive C, all data backed to another drive.

I sincerely hope that Gordon’s data will be saved; but I dare a person (PC term!) to say he hasn’t benefited from Gordon’s terrible experience: I have!

Best wishes Gordon and I hope your data recovery is on course.


Kind rgds

Eric
 
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Gordon, I cannot imagine how you must feel, but know you will get through this. Your wonderful work touches everyone here in the sim community. My thoughts are with you.
 
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