I'm feeling a lot sick right now. I have a Western Digital WD800 Passport which I use to back up all my photos and other important stuff. Last time I used it one of the children ran into me knocking it flying onto our wooden floor. However it was still working after its little accident so I thought no more of it... until yesterday. I had decided it was time to maybe try and sell a few of my best images rather than leaving them unseen on the computer. So I joined a stock photography site and got my WD800 out of its cupboard.
For some reason it wasn't showing up at all on the laptop and although it was starting up it was also making a strange and regular clicking noise. I tried shutting down and restarting the laptop, I tried the desktop upstairs, I tried uninstalling and reinstalling, I searched forums and websites for advice - but all to no avail. It seems my WD800 is dying.
Now, anybody who knows me knows I'm a bit of a photographer. I've been into photography since childhood and have at many moments considered taking it up as a career. I have a semi-pro camera and two great lenses and I grab every opportunity to get out there and get shooting. Usually I upload all my shots pretty much straight away onto the laptop and then now and again upload them onto the WD800 so that I have two sets of the same shots. Then hubby backs them up onto his desktop so I have another backup just in case...
Well, wouldn't you know it - I'd been so busy with my website over the past year or so that I hadn't been as careful about backing up and somehow I've managed to lose an entire year's worth of images.
Now normally, although I'd be upset about it the photos wouldn't be of extreme importance to me other than for sentimental reasons - but this batch were different. Very, very different!
You see, this set of photos included all the pictures I'd taken of my daughter's Holy Communion last year. I'm afraid to tell her what has happened as I know she'll be distraught. The problem is that the photos are the only thing we have to remember her dress by as the dress was faulty with most of the beading falling off during the ceremony. Immediately following the ceremony we brought it back to the shop where we'd bought it hoping they'd be able to offer a replacement but unfortunately they were unable to replace it in time for the professional photos. However, as I had some beautiful photos I'd taken myself on the day of the ceremony I knew at least we'd always have those pictures but Tara was broken hearted about her special dress. I felt so sorry for her but told her that at least we had lots of photos to remember it by... but we don't even have that now!
I contacted a company in the UK to see if they may be able to recover anything from the WD800 but although there is a possibility it's going to cost over £300.00 + vat! That's about five times the cost of the WD800 in the first place!!! Plus, to make matters worse, the company I contacted have warned me there's a chance we'll not get anything back at all. Aaaargh!!!!
So now do you see why I feel sick?
Why oh why didn't I just back up the photos? Why didn't I print them out? Why did I let myself lose track of my priorities?
Anyway, sorry about the grumbling but I am just so disappointed and upset about what has happened that I had to write it down otherwise my head was going to explode! I've been awake most of the night fretting about losing so much of my precious photography and I have definitely learnt my lesson.
From now on all my photos will be backed up immediately and not just onto hard drives but onto disks that will be safely stored away so I will never go through this anguish again!
I'll let you know what happens and if I ever manage to get my photos back...
Recent Comments