Lost 10 Years Of Work Thanks To MS

falcon409 said:
Ditto here Gordon, I'm sure the community would rise to the occasion with financial support when needed. Just say the word.
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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.
 
mal998 said:
When Windows 10 first came out I had a look at it and ****-canned it. Went right back to Vista and Windows7 with all their warts. Haven't had a software issue since then. Gordon set up a go fund me page. I will help and lots of others will do the same. I'm sure we can get you up and running again. Time and patience will win the day.
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Time and patience indeed.

I've spent the last couple of days evaluating the pros and cons of using a recovery program, or sending the external to a specialist.

I have shared my work with trusted friends who are gathering up those aircraft and scenery and zipping them back to me. I will then have working copies of all of those projects. In the case of the scenery it is imperative that I have the file containing the satellite imagery along with the corresponding autogen .bgl files. Having those working files in hand will resolve the autogen crisis as I have always done my annotation work in the working sim folders, only saving them out externally for redundancy.

The working aircraft files will give me a logical record of the texture files associated with each model, and something to fly when I get Prepar3D re-installed. My major concern is that the 3DS Max files are intact when they are recovered. These are high poly models representing an insane amount of time.

When I have high confidence in either of the options I'll choose the option that I think is safest.
If I do the recovery myself, I have an advantage of knowing my work intimately. A recovery specialist will most likely have limited experience or understanding of the complexities of simulator modeling and it's unique skill sets. On the other hand, they do this every day and may just hand me back a restoration of what I had before this....errrrr....event.
 
Extremely sorry to read about this very unfortunate catastrophe you ran into, Gordon ! Damn! :banghead:

Losing meticulously crafted work of that kind of magnitude could drive a person nuts! But i'm almost sure that's not going to happen this time around. Be it i won't be able to lend a hand myself ( i steer away 180 deg. from building my own rig... ), it would totally surprise me if somebody here would not come to literally rescue you and your lost data. Just keep the faith, my friend !

(mind you, i have a computershop next door, and sometime ago they managed to retrieve the most precious data on a broken drive for me. So being 'in the middle of nowhere' like you say does put it all in a different, much more difficult perspective of course. Just don't give up, and don't forget "all roads lead to Rome" , you know. Best of luck, Gordon ! )

cheers,
Jan
 
If the Media Creation Tool only deleted the original partition data table and wrote its data to a few sectors, you still have a chance with an off the shelf tool. If the formatting took a very long time, only a professional will be able to help.
Mind that, should the easy solution indeed recover the data, your original folder structure, filenames and maybe even filetypes will not be restored.


As for personal experience with the Media Creation Tool for Windows 10, it worked just as advertised.


Not sure what I would do if I lost all my files. Maybe shed a few tears, shrug, walk away and enjoy my new found freedom.
 
Bjoern said:
Not sure what I would do if I lost all my files. Maybe shed a few tears, shrug, walk away and enjoy my new found freedom.
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My first reaction was exactly that Bjoern.
Actually, my immediate reaction was to run up to town and purchase a bottle of Vodka. Then I looked at this new system and realized it would be a terrible waste if it were relegated to playing video games, which I don't do anyway.
The formatting didn't take long, so I'm inclined to have a go at retrieving my work.

The Media Tool did work exactly as advertised, it just worked exactly as advertised in the wrong place. lol

The problem with being a world class workaholic and notorious knucklehead, I lack the capacity to quit. :mixed-smiley-010:
 
With that kind of fortitude I believe you will succeed! :encouragement: Great men are made of stuff like that.
 
Before I hit my rack.

I want to extend my deepest and most sincere thanks to everyone who has offered to help, either with donations or technical help to resolve this unfortunate occurrence. Gentlemen, and lady...you are the finest people I have the singular honor to call my friends.

I spent the day downloading Prepar3D in chunks. This is cattle country out here and most comms are conducted via smoke signals or reflective mirrors. Line speed is not a priority. That said, I spent the day researching my options and taking into consideration all of the comments that have been shared on this thread. I have digested, analyzed, studied, postulated, considered and pondered while watching the monotonous progress of the download bars. As the individual comments have come in I have become deeply appreciative of you all, individually and collectively.

I will keep the option open for a GoFundMe solution, if that solution proves to be the last option. Upon reading the available data, watching a handful of relatively informative videos, and considering the probabilities as they apply to the damaged device, I have arrived at a level of confidence...approximately 67%...in favor of retrieving the data in a controlled environment, that environment being my work space and on this very capable system. I know my work better than I know my self in many ways, which leads me to take on the task of retrieving my data bit by bit until I have organized it back in to a structure that is clean, efficient and well capable of dealing with the various tasks I ask of it.

The device is de-powered and isolated from the system since the event. I have a clean 5TB spinning drive ready to receive the data as I retrieve it and construct the new filing structure. My wife is behind my decision, on the codicil that I sleep a minimum of five hours a night, and that I do not attempt to do it all in one grand sweep. I have agreed to those conditions upon penalty of the wife clause. God forbid.

Tomorrow I will install Prepar3Dv4 and FSX on the new system and do a bit of flying in my aircraft and scenery packages that have graciously been expedited back to me from my close associates. After some flying and a day of quiet disassociation from this distraction, I will begin the process of reclaiming my energy and bringing my work back to life.

Thank you all, sincerely and with deepest respect.
Gordon
 
Well GMan seems the Gods are agin you at the moment, what a run of bad luck. I could weep with you on it. ditto re support to get you going again if required. As an offgridder I can relate to all the other issues that crowd in on a major PC problem like this.

I have no technical support on this one other than to say recovery is possible but you need a PC forensic expert on this, I do know that even an erased disk can be resurrected in the right hands, various law enforcement government departments do it all the time, whether those skills are available to you in the market is another question. It may not be logically ordered but it can all be got back. I would look for someone who has done this sort of thing at the FBI or CIA you get my drift.

Good luck, yeah an Vodka out of the freezer is best! Cheers and all the best.
 
Very sorry to hear of your troubles Gordon. They in fact sound like a catastrophe, and I am impressed by your demeanour and hope. I sincerely hope there is a painless solution for the retrieval of your lost data, and from the little I understand about PCs I assume there should at least be some solution. I will be happy to contribute to a fund raiser if the retrieval turns out to be expensive as I could not imagine the anguish of losing so much work which had not yet been completed and distributed.

I wish you the very best of luck!
 
Gordon, I have been following this thread but not posted so far as I could not offer any meaningful assistance other than sympathy for this loss. I do not have any experience in retrieving data. I am really happy that you have the strength to face the problem and attempt the recovery in a systematic way. I'd be happy to assist if you need funding. Your work is inspiring.
 
Hello Gordon,

I hope with all my heart that you will be able to recover all or part of your excellent work!
With the help of the community this seems on the right track!




Alain
 
Dimus said:
Gordon, I have been following this thread but not posted so far as I could not offer any meaningful assistance other than sympathy for this loss. I do not have any experience in retrieving data. I am really happy that you have the strength to face the problem and attempt the recovery in a systematic way. I'd be happy to assist if you need funding. Your work is inspiring.
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Same here. I really appreciate your work, and your fortitude to continue. Happy to contribute anything within my means (monetarily - not really a tech guy, unfortunately) to support your data recovery.
 
gman5250 said:
My first reaction was exactly that Bjoern.
Actually, my immediate reaction was to run up to town and purchase a bottle of Vodka.
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Ah, the good old crinking (ccying+drinking).

The problem with being a world class workaholic and notorious knucklehead, I lack the capacity to quit. :mixed-smiley-010:
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*Sigh*
I know that too well.
 
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