Let me first apologize. I haven’t written a new post for quite some time. I apologize for that. You see the wind had gone out of my sails. Let me go back and start at the beginning.

I was sitting down working on pictures and I was thinking to my self. “Self you need to back up these photos before you lose any of them. I will need to get another extended hard drive to do that. I wonder what kind I could get that would be reliable. I should go and look in the latest office supply flyer to see if there are any on sale” I went to put my lap top down on, I must confess, a very cluttered table. Moving things around so I could place the lap top on a smooth surface so it wouldn’t fall. Bang goes the extended hard drive, which was operating at the time, on to the floor. Oooops. Oh well pick it up and carry on.

“Self you better check that out the extended hard drive to see that nothing serious happened to it.” I tried to go into the files on the drive but nothing showed up. I will shut it down and reboot the computer then it will work I am sure. Still nothing. Oh well, no worries, the boy (my son) is a computer pro he will be able to fix it. I brought it to him and he had many ideas on how to get it to work. Whew I knew he could work it out.

As the weeks went by and the boy kept trying I realized I better send it to the local computer store where they had special equipment for this kind of accident. Getting worried now. I better check it out with a facebook photography group I belong to. I am sure they have ideas. There was one fellow that recommended a place in another part of Canada that could help me. I will try him if local computer store guy can’t fix it. What will happen if I can’t get those files back I wondered. Worrying now.

I sat down trying to remember everything that was on there besides the thousands and thousands of pictures I took not to mention the ones I took when the children were small. There were office files which included the records kept for the tax man, family history, my mother’s stories she made years ago, trips I took over the years, and the list goes on. What will I do if I can’t get them back?!

Local computer store tech guy explains that he can’t get the material off the hard drive. He knows of a company out of Vancouver that helped a local photographer out when his hard drive crashed. But there is the fellow from the facebook group I belong to, recommended to me whom he had to use.

In the end I chose the facebook group guy’s advice. I got a hold of this company and started the ball rolling. Sent the extended hard drive disk to him. In a few days they sent an estimate for $1850. and $95 hard drive to put any files they retrieve on to. The small print also explained that this is an estimate and after they get going the costs may be more depending if it was more difficult than originally thought.

So that is the situation up to date. In between all of this I hadn’t taken many photos that I could share with you dear readers. I was feeling all out of steam trying to deal with this loss and couldn’t muster the ability to create a new blog post. But wait I also knew that I didn’t lose my camera or the ability to take photos and I came to the realization this is only a little set back. The one thing that helps me cure the doldrums is to get out the camera and go and take more photos.

The photos you see here are ones that I have taken since the accident. I also went on the Scott Kelby Worldwide Photowalk on October 5th and took some photos there. Being surround by other like-minded photographers and talking shop is a cure in itself.

So the lessons I learned were to back up, back up and back up my files over again. What a supportive family I have and when it comes down to the crunch they will always be there. The boy (my son) is going to set up a system where I can put  photos on an extended hard drive and automatically it will back up to another one. I have the money to pay for the company to recover my files but it means I will have to forget about getting that new camera any time soon. My family didn’t want me to have to spend that so they have offered to help me in paying to recover files. They have also been willing to accompany me on different excursions to take more photos. They have also had encouraging chats with me to build up my spirits.

So on this Canadian Thanksgiving Day (October 14, 2013) I want to give thanks for all that I do have. A very supportive family and many wonderful friends, a great job, the ability to do the photography I do do and living in a wonderful country, Canada. With all the abundance that I do have, how could I have room to worry about what I have lost such as the files in the hard drive.

As a follow up to this post: I have received back from the Recovery company ALL of the files I thought I lost. It cost me just under $2100.00. Please learn from my mistake and go back up your files now.