Lost 10 Years Of Work Thanks To MS

[gman5250]

As some of you may know I just rebuilt my primary workstation/flight sim computer. Stats below.

As part of the build I needed to create a thumb drive installer for Windows 10, so I went to the MS page and downloaded their Windows 10 Media Creation Tool. In preparation for the clean install I had previously condensed all of my data, about 4TB to an external storage device. I normally keep two copies of my data on two separate drives, but I intended to wipe and re-format my two spinning drives for use in the new build.

The timeline:

I did the build and ran into some WHEA issues on the first Windows install, which I did from an older (outdated) but trusted thumb drive. While running this OS I did all of my prep to reinstall with the fresh Windows download. After confirming all of my data was safe on the external, I ran the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool and went through the menus, including selecting a USB thumb drive as the intended location for the Windows installer. The menu clearly showed the Kingston thumb drive, nothing else. I ran the tool and it proceeded to download Windows.

After the process ran, the tool formatted the thumb drive and finished. I went to check the thumb drive...it was empty. I went to my external drive and found that the tool had selected the external drive rather than the Kinston drive it was directed to. The tool then re-formatted my external drive that was the repository of my complete body of work. I've attached an image below.
As the image shows, the drive space not used by the tool was converted to un-allocated partitions.

As of today, 4TB of work representing approximately 52,000 man hours of my labor is now locked on those partitions and essentially lost. I understand that recovery is possible, but if the file structure is destroyed the data is useless. Imagine going into a law library and tearing every page from every volume and dropping them from the sky into a big pile. The pages are numbered 1,2,3...etc. to near infinity. To re-assemble the pages into volumes would be a staggering undertaking.

That is the status of my data...as I understand it.

At this point I must regretfully inform this community that all of my works in progress, both past and present are essentially lost and I will not be able to re-assemble the jigsaw puzzle. It would take years. This is a devastation to me and to my wife who has supported and tolerated my 100 hour work weeks for our entire married life. I will not subject her to that again. Along with the loss of my development work, nearly twenty years of research and documentation is destroyed. Photos and bitmaps are probably recoverable, but hundreds of geo data tiles are useless without a file structure that catalogs where they go along with the thousands of autogen files that are associated with specific files. Anyone who has done scenery development knows what I am referring to.

The same goes for aircraft modeling. Each part is associated to one or more hand painted bitmaps, which all use similar naming conventions. Sorting through hundreds and hundreds of bitmaps to re-assign to thousands of scattered model parts is unrealistic. The animations are another story entirely.

I would be most appreciative if any one of our technically brilliant members could point me toward a data recovery modality that can recover data, and file structure. Without that I'm cooked and permanently out of the development game.

In My Humble Opinion

I frankly find it outrageous that Microsoft does not have a simple safety feature built into it's Media Creation Tool that recognizes it has made a mistake and is on a huge storage device, not a thumb drive, and present a "Are you sure you want to format this drive?" message before wiping out a persons entire life work. Simply mind boggling.


Thank you for reading.
I am most sincerely sorry to disappoint you, my friends.

Best to you all,
Gordon

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4901/47353112432_1c35a06378_o.jpg

[Priller]

Check your mail please Gordon!!

[gman5250]

Check your mail please Gordon!!

Will do. Thanks mate.

[mal998]

Gordon, sorry to hear of your bad luck and data loss. A few years ago I accidentally wrecked a WD External drive by moving it while it was running. I had all my pilot manuals on that drive and they became inaccessible. Although it cost me a pretty penny, I was able to retrieve most of the data by taking that drive to Best Buy and giving it to the Geek Squad. They sent it to a retrieval unit in Kentucky who were able to reconstruct most of the data. Perhaps they could help you as well. Just a thought...good luck.

[Penzoil3]

https://i.imgur.com/VCBdAI1.jpg

[blanston12]

Gordon I am very sorry to hear about what happened. With all the problems you have it seams like there is a conspiracy try to stop you from working.

I think mal998's advice is good. If you have not started to use the the disk you may be able to recover it, you even be might be able to 'unformat' it. I would remove the disk from the machine and send it to a service that specializes in data recovery, it may not be cheap but you can start a go-fund-me account, I will contribute.

[gman5250]

Gordon, sorry to hear of your bad luck and data loss. A few years ago I accidentally wrecked a WD External drive by moving it while it was running. I had all my pilot manuals on that drive and they became inaccessible. Although it cost me a pretty penny, I was able to retrieve most of the data by taking that drive to Best Buy and giving it to the Geek Squad. They sent it to a retrieval unit in Kentucky who were able to reconstruct most of the data. Perhaps they could help you as well. Just a thought...good luck.

I appreciate your post, thank you.

My first move was to de-power and unplug the external storage drive. I've researched two candidate software for data recovery, and I'm confident that I can recover the basic files, even if they are not in my original file architecture. What will happen is different file types can be directed to dedicated folders. For instance all of my 3D Studio Max files can be tasked to a dedicated folder. Same for all other file types. Once I have Max files segregated I can retrieve a specific file which I am confident will retain the mesh, and more importantly the animations. I know you will understand how big a deal that is.

From that stage I can query the model and it will/should remember the bitmaps attached to it. If I organize all of the bitmaps in a bulk file, the query will isolate a group of candidates i.e."fuselage" and I will recognize the artwork. Of course, all of my 3D Studio material libraries will need to be reconstructed.

This brings up another point. If I intend to rebuild the model for FSX, each part right down to shimmy dampers on a nose gear will need to be re-applied to every part on every model. That's a huge task. If, on the other hand, I intend to move forward into Prepar3Dv4 PBR modeling only, then all of those parts would need to be re-painted in PBR anyway. No net loss, only a commitment to PBR.

The scenery projects are a different story. I can recover the huge archive of geo data satellite images, and locate them by the GPS data inherent in their title. The autogen files are a different matter entirely...that may be a total loss, and that represents hundreds of square miles of hand annotated trees and individual buildings. Reno alone was complete with a hand placed house, model or building on every footprint. The logistics of connecting the autogen .bgl file to each specific tile are staggering. I'll need to put on my thinking cap for that one.

Bottom line, the modeling and animations are very likely going to be recovered intact. I'm hoping that this is the case. Skinning the models will be arduous, but I very likely will not have to repaint hundreds of individual skin components.

The infuriating part is this was avoidable, and I didn't F up. This was an anomaly in the MS software, and it cost me dearly. It surely does not improve my already less than glowing view on Microsoft and Mr. Gates.

[falcon409]

. . . . .I would remove the disk from the machine and send it to a service that specializes in data recovery, it may not be cheap but you can start a go-fund-me account, I will contribute.
Ditto here Gordon, I'm sure the community would rise to the occasion with financial support when needed. Just say the word.

[Jafo]

Gordon...yes, it is an MS problem....and it's maybe unfortunate you hadn't encountered the issue earlier on a 'less' mission-critical machine.
It's become 'best-practice' when doing an install/format a new MS OS to only ever have the specific required drives attached....like the USB and intended Boot/Install drives.[C].

First thing....don't power up or attach the mangled drive to anything until you've got it to a recovery expert/co. It'll cost a few bob...but way less than doing it all again.
Formatting only rewrites the first letter of the file names to something the OS is designed not to recognize ....like wingimage.bmp becomes %ingimage.bmp [sort of], and data recovery people can usually reverse-engineer the process....takes time...ergo...takes money.
I know it's useless to your current situation but also the best procedure with dealing with any data retention is redundancy backups that reduces the potential for losing it all....actually making it essentially impossible to lose.

My heart goes out for you....and I hope it works out OK...;)

[Josh Patterson]

I will also contribute to a go fund me if you go that route Gman. I can't imagine how infuriating it would be to lose a decade worth of work!

[Jafo]

I will also contribute to a go fund me if you go that route Gman. I can't imagine how infuriating it would be to lose a decade worth of work!
Missed that bit.....count me in too...;)

[Priller]

Ditto here Gordon, I'm sure the community would rise to the occasion with financial support when needed. Just say the word.

Count me in too!!

Priller

[ColoKent]

Count me in as well...your work is marvelous.

Kent

[gman5250]

I know it's useless to your current situation but also the best procedure with dealing with any data retention is redundancy backups that reduces the potential for losing it all....actually making it essentially impossible to lose.

I always have my data backed up in two locations, usually three if I include the desktop folders I actually work out of.

I had rearranged/condensed the data, specifically for this build and clean Windows install only, with the intention to go back to redundant systems after the build checked out as fully operational. The redundant systems approach has served me well for years, at least until this moment of vulnerability. Indeed, I will not make the mistake again.

[TuFun]

Windows 10 is kinda scary deal at times especially MS updates. I have an internal and external HDD for backup. Sometimes the power goes out while working in PS6 and when I boot back up its been backed up in SSD memory as a backup file with no loss of work. It's like it's in suspended state. It amazed me the first time that happened. I thought I lost hours of work.

[jankees]

jeeez, that is really bad news! I feel for you, I lost quite a lot of paintwork with an external HD that went awol once, but this is on another scale. Let me know if I can help!

Jan Kees

[Wings of Gold]

I have a copy of your latest NI. Let me know any other way that I can help you.

Bill

[DC1973]

I'll be in for a GoFundMe to help recover your files, if possible, GMan. My brother works in IT and once managed to recover a family's wedding images from a corrupted hard drive that had, incredibly, been sliced in two. We're in the UK but if nothing else works for you PM me and I'll ask him about it, see what he thinks.

[mal998]

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.

[gman5250]

I have a copy of your latest NI. Let me know any other way that I can help you.

Bill

Bill, If you could zip that up and put it in the Drop Box it would be a life saver. Much appreciated.
BTW, I'm in the process of restoring Skype comms. :encouragement:

[gman5250]

Ditto here Gordon, I'm sure the community would rise to the occasion with financial support when needed. Just say the word.

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.

[Wings of Gold]

Gordon,

Check our dropbox.

Regards,

Bill

[Wings of Gold]

Hi Again Gordon,

Looking forward to Skype contact.

Bill

[gman5250]

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.

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.

[gman5250]

Gordon,

Check our dropbox.

Regards,

Bill

Will do Bill.

[Javis]

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

[Bjoern]

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.

[gman5250]

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.

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:

[TuFun]

With that kind of fortitude I believe you will succeed! :encouragement: Great men are made of stuff like that.

[Jafo]

With that kind of fortitude I believe you will succeed! :encouragement: Great men are made of stuff like that.

What doesn't kill you leaves you with a limp...;)

[gman5250]

What doesn't kill you leaves you with a limp...;) Wallet...?

[gman5250]

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

[Jafo]

Sounds like a plan...;)

[BendyFlyer]

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.

[scotth6]

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!

[Dimus]

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.

[alain0568]

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

[Craig Taylor]

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.

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.

[Bjoern]

My first reaction was exactly that Bjoern.
Actually, my immediate reaction was to run up to town and purchase a bottle of Vodka.

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:

*Sigh*
I know that too well.

[Penzoil3]

:applause: Hang in there. It will be worth it. You know you can't resist a challenge anyway...
Sue

[gman5250]

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.

[Jafo]

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.



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...;)

[Priller]

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.

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

[gman5250]

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.

[Bjoern]

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

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.

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?

[Mach3DS]

So sorry to hear of this Gordon!!! I know that you're resilient. You will overcome to victory my friend.

[Switchblade408]

I still have the model of the B-26K you sent me, if that helps any.

[Josh Patterson]

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. 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!)

[modelr]

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.

[aeronca1]

I was really looking forward to the Buffalo. As such, I would be happy to contribute to a GoFundMe project.

[FlyingsCool]

I'd totally contribute to work to attempt to recover data. I can't imagine how upset you must be.

[gman5250]

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?

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.

[Bjoern]

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.

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.

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:

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/

[AussieMan]

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.

[Priller]

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.

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

[gman5250]

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.

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....

[n4gix]

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:

[joneseric]

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

[MZee1960]

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.

[wombat666]

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

Why would that happen now? :pirate:

[DaveQ]

Just to add my own condolences on what must be a horrific loss through no fault of yours. Unlike others I've been very lucky with my data, only once coming close to loosing a hard drive many years ago now. But the feeling was sickening so I can't imagine what you and your family are going through right now. I sincerely hope you get thought it OK.

All the very best, friend.

DaveQ

[cavaricooper]

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

I had a rather unfortunate encounter with AussieMan a couple of years ago (in my Annuschka thread). He later attributed that to humor. Let's hope he does the same here.

The loss is catastrophic, unforeseen and devastating. I will help any way feasible should a path forward resolve. Gordo has done SO MUCH, for SO MANY and I remain obliged.

Best- C

PS- If you go, we go.

[Fibber]

. Greetings, I am not a participant in FSX (yet) but have been following your thread and have sent you a PM. Hope it helps.

[heywooood]

This is a terrible situation. I hope a reasonable outcome can be attained. Gordon has been a strong contributor to FS and this community for a long time. This is just a disaster given the parameters.

[AussieMan]

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....

Gordon, my apologies if I have stepped over the line. I may have misread your OP and for that I am sorry. You contribute so much to the flight sim community both with freeware and payware that it horrifies me that you have virtually lost a lifetime of work. Hopefully all or most of it can be retrieved.

[gman5250]

Gordon, my apologies if I have stepped over the line. I may have misread your OP and for that I am sorry. You contribute so much to the flight sim community both with freeware and payware that it horrifies me that you have virtually lost a lifetime of work. Hopefully all or most of it can be retrieved.

Spoken like a true gentleman Pat. I am sure you meant no malice.

Apology accepted sir. :very_drunk:

[PRB]

... probably I will now be banned...

Again..? :pirate:

Ok, we've all made mistakes. Just like in aviation, accidents are never caused by one thing. They are caused by a "chain of events". Break one link in the chain, and the "event" does not happen. Having a backup not connected to the computer being formatted is just one. We can all learn from this thread!

[gman5250]

So that everyone can learn from this.

Be advised...I was not formatting a drive. I was working on a brand new, fully installed system with five formatted drives, an operating OS updated and with all of my software installed. It was a fully functioning system. The outdated OS was throwing hardware codes that I could not correct with updates. I decided to re-install Windows using the current version.

I went to the MS website to download the Media Creation Tool. I had purchased a clean Kingston thumb drive for the download. The procedure should have been a routine download of an executable to a specific device. I had no reason to anticipate any sort of problem or to disable my internal and external drives. We don't do it for aircraft or scenery...right? It's an executable. Watch any tech video on the procedure. You don't see the tech gutting their machine to download the Media Creation Tool. They tell it to go to the thumb drive. I selected the Kinsgston thumb drive, I know that because it said 'Kingston Thumb Drive".

The intended procedure, assuming that I would have had a bootable thumb drive. This is where it is important to disconnect peripherals.

1. Power down, unplug and disable EVERYTHING, removing power and data cables except for the intended installation drive, in this case the onboard Samsung M.2 SSD.
2. Boot in via the BIOS and direct the boot priority to the thumb drive.
3. Allow the machine to boot and follow the Windows installer procedure. In this case it would also be necessary to delete the partitions from the previous install.
4. Complete the install on the blank partition, in this case partition 0.
5. Disable all of the bits you don't want Windows to "help" you with, name the computer, password...yada yada yada...DISABLE CORTANA!!!!!!
6. Complete the install.
7.Re-boot and install all of your drivers then update the drivers if you have a LAN connection. Once all of the drivers are current, update Windows. This can take three or four updates until all hardware is recognized and current. Now shut down.
8. Plug in all additional drives including SATA and USB, then power back up.
9. Go to the Drive Manger and check all of your drives. I my case they should pop up as they were originally tasked in the previous install. My peripheral drives are already formatted so everything would pop up in the Disk Manager ready to go to work.

THE ONLY FORMATTING WOULD HAVE BEEN ON THE SAMSUNG SSD I INSTALLED THE OS TO DURING THE INSTALLATION BOOT.

I don't want to harp on this, but it is imperative to me that the details are clearly understood so that others can use the information to avoid potential data loss.

[AussieMan]

​Thanks Gordon. That clears up any misunderstandings I originally had.

[gman5250]

​Thanks Gordon. That clears up any misunderstandings I originally had.

No worries Pat, I figure if I document the process from here forward we all end up smarter.

[gman5250]

Here's the most current status.

Right now I'm running a full scan with the recovery software, about a ten hour process for my rig. Once the scan is done, the software will save out a macro file of everything it has retrieved from the unallocated space that the Windows Media Creation Tool placed on the 5TB external.

The data will be organized into macro folders containing every file type searched by the recovery software. It's a comprehensive software, so all of the important file types will be recognized. The important bits are Photoshop, 3D Studio Max, 3D Studio, BMP, JPEG, Targa, TIIFF, Zip and a few more. Once I have the full scan and recovery I can determine if I have recoverable data, most importantly my 3D Studio and Photoshop files. If the recovery software does not produce usable files I'll need to look into the option of a forensic specialist. I've been researching a few, and I've had input from members here and friends. If a specialist can guarantee full recovery of the data I will look at the cost/benefit of the procedure.

I really appreciate everyone's support and offers to help. I'm working the problem using a pragmatic, systematic method. I'll know more today and post up for those interested.

[thunderstreak]

I’ve been following this thread with much interest. I’ve suffered a few data loss incidents myself, both on my sim rig and at work, but nothing of this magnitude. My paranoia now forces me to keep multiple backups of everything!
Gordon, I sincerely hope you get this sorted and retrieve what was lost. Best of luck and thanks for all of your contributions to the flight sim community.

Cheers, Bernard

[cavaricooper]

Gordon-

You've been on my mind, and I'm hoping that you will have some good news to share soon. Please know we are with you, and grateful for all you do/have done for us.

Do drop us a line when time permits.

Best- C

[Ganter]

So that everyone can learn from this.

I don't want to harp on this, but it is imperative to me that the details are clearly understood so that others can use the information to avoid potential data loss.

It's a tragedy, definitely but YOU need to learn from this.

Never, ever, ever, leave backup drives (or any drives not necessary to the task in hand - whether OS House-keeping or deep simming or whatever) - connected, when working "under the hood" with Windows - It WILL find a way of ruining your day - or in your case your decade.

I learned that the hard way about twenty-five years ago when I lost pretty much everything from over five years of graphic design in Windows '95. I have never trusted MS since. And I haven't suffered the catastrophic loss you have as a result.

You have made many posts about hardware/ software, etc - It's a bummer but, quite honestly, you should have known about this.

Luckily, these days - data is retrievable to a much greater extent than it was when I lost my data so it's a pretty straightforward process.

[Penzoil3]

Jeeze Ganter, kick him when he's down, why don't you. Gordon knows he made a mistake.

[FlyingsCool]

It's a tragedy, definitely but YOU need to learn from this.

Never, ever, ever, leave backup drives (or any drives not necessary to the task in hand - whether OS House-keeping or deep simming or whatever) - connected, when working "under the hood" with Windows - It WILL find a way of ruining your day - or in your case your decade.

I learned that the hard way about twenty-five years ago when I lost pretty much everything from over five years of graphic design in Windows '95. I have never trusted MS since. And I haven't suffered the catastrophic loss you have as a result.

You have made many posts about hardware/ software, etc - It's a bummer but, quite honestly, you should have known about this.

Luckily, these days - data is retrievable to a much greater extent than it was when I lost my data so it's a pretty straightforward process.

You may want to follow the advice in your signature....

[Jafo]

Ah.....foot-in-mouth disease...;)

Anyone who has NOT had an issue with Microsoft's [lack of] competence probably uses a Mac.

[Priller]

It's a tragedy, definitely but YOU need to learn from this.

Never, ever, ever, leave backup drives (or any drives not necessary to the task in hand - whether OS House-keeping or deep simming or whatever) - connected, when working "under the hood" with Windows - It WILL find a way of ruining your day - or in your case your decade.

I learned that the hard way about twenty-five years ago when I lost pretty much everything from over five years of graphic design in Windows '95. I have never trusted MS since. And I haven't suffered the catastrophic loss you have as a result.

You have made many posts about hardware/ software, etc - It's a bummer but, quite honestly, you should have known about this.

Luckily, these days - data is retrievable to a much greater extent than it was when I lost my data so it's a pretty straightforward process.

And there I was thinking that AussieMan's comment was bad... I was wrong. Your comment is heartless and above all ignorant. Maybe a wee course in comprehensive reading is in order here.

I wonder, is that a chip on your shoulder, or just a huge piece of dandruff? You sir, are a horrible piece of work.

Priller

[gman5250]

Luckily, these days - data is retrievable to a much greater extent than it was when I lost my data so it's a pretty straightforward process.

I'll refrain from comments on your opinion, except for the "Pretty straightforward process" bit.

Straightforward:

The full scan returned 1,239,000 files in 10,596 file folders.
201,959 files were corrupted or unrecognizable by the software.

A partial list:
3D Studio Max 3,590
3D Studio 353
Photoshop 6,250
Bitmaps 111,968
Targa 400
Zip files 2,521
Cab files 1,697
.bgl 43.320

The 3DS Max files are recovered in a format not recognized by my version of Max. To read the files requires I purchase a different version of Max, once I find out which version the files are saved in

The Photoshop files are recoverable, but require I open each one, determine what it is and save it out to a new file structure.
The bitmaps are a bigger pile of the same.

The Zip files are corrupted, requiring that I re-download every zip I ever purchased or acquired.
The purchase records were lost along with the serial numbers.

Ancillary point:
My research is a total loss. I retain most of it in memory, but when engaged in a debate with someone like yourself who is less acquainted with facts I prefer to be able to point to data. Most of the research I do requires obtaining data before it is purged from the internet. Case in point, a forensic study by Mark Skidmore a Michigan State University PHD in economics and his team of graduate students who documented $21 trillion (above the $22 trillion official US debt) in un-adjusted expenditures by the Department of Defense and HUD in the US. I was able to link to and download the actual financial reports from .gov sources before they were purged three days later. The Skidmore study prompted an official response in the form of a bit of quiet legislation, FASB56 eliminated transparency in DOD spending. That didn't get purged BTW, so I downloaded it to christen my new research databank.

Back to the straightforward part.
To re-assemble my data I would need to cross reference every recovered file to every other recovered file of the 1,239,000 files scanned. Doing the math that's a really big number, probably around the 21 trillion I referenced above. The alternative is to hire a DOD level forensic team to run their recovery algorithms to recover my data intact. That runs about $3,000 an hour, depending on who one hires.

I've spent the better part of the week going through the Photoshop files. Luckily I am retrieving a large percentage of my original, layered work intact. I've done about two thousand files...only four thousand to go. I can also retrieve much of my mesh and bitmap work from my published work, but those will require reverse engineering and much re-building to create my 6 aircraft projects, five scenery projects and scenery library models which number in the thousands. The autogen and vegetation models are another huge project...thousands more.

The rest of the million plus files...well, I'll get to those down the road.

In My Humble Opinion
I find it mildly ironic that a company with the market cap of Microsoft cannot provide a data recovery service for the tens of thousands who have suffered catastrophic loss as a result of their software. The former Chairman, Mr. Gates has topped the 100 Billion mark, along with Mr. Bezos, and dedicates his philanthropic work to farming medical mosquitoes and pumping heavy metals into the atmosphere. He does not maintain a foundation for victims of the monopolistic business practices of his former company. I have however, taken comfort over the course of the week in the fact that I have received no less than five notices from MS congratulating me on the MS bonus points I recently "earned" that will allow me to acquire a viking helmet, or perhaps some other trinket to highlight my status as a loyal Windows "user".

You sir, know precisely nothing of my situation and are in possession of no knowledge that entitles you to tell me what I should or should not learn. Your remark is wholly reprehensible and inappropriate. I attempt to conduct myself as a gentleman on this forum, but I do have my limits.

[Ganter]

You sir, know precisely nothing of my situation and are in possession of no knowledge that entitles you to tell me what I should or should not learn. Your remark is wholly reprehensible and inappropriate. I attempt to conduct myself as a gentleman on this forum, but I do have my limits.


Gordon, my apologies I spoke both out of turn and after a few at the pub last night - never a good time to come to the forums.

I guess what happened was I read the thread and all the anger and rage which has never quite abated from my own data loss all those years ago came flooding to the surface and out.

If I was having a go at anybody it was the young man that was me when I stupidly reformatted that hard drive of mine and lost all the contents of my early graphics work - that was five years work - not ten, but it felt equally momentous at the time.

I apologise again, I was lashing out at myself - not you.
I hope you continue to recover those files and wish you well.

[gman5250]

Gordon, my apologies I spoke both out of turn and after a few at the pub last night - never a good time to come to the forums...I hope you continue to recover those files and wish you well.

Your apology is accepted sir, of course.

Your accounting of the circumstances of your post should be a lesson to all of us that we are indeed human and prone to an occasional Momentary Lapse of Reason...to draw upon one of my favorite poets. I had a room mate when I was in my thirties, just picture Bruce Willis. When we went at it we would empty a construction site, but at the end of the day we would go out to the pub and leave trivial matters behind.

It's a sound philosophy. :ernaehrung004:

[Ganter]

Your apology is accepted sir, of course.

Your accounting of the circumstances of your post should be a lesson to all of us that we are indeed human and prone to an occasional Momentary Lapse of Reason...to draw upon one of my favorite poets. I had a room mate when I was in my thirties, just picture Bruce Willis. When we went at it we would empty a construction site, but at the end of the day we would go out to the pub and leave trivial matters behind.

It's a sound philosophy. :ernaehrung004:


Thanks Gordon,

Much appreciated and humbled.

As I said, best of luck with the retrieval of your hard work.

This has inspired me to dig out that old drive - I've got a big box of HDDs from through the years - and see if I can grab any of that data using today's software.

:ernaehrung004:

[cavaricooper]

Gordo-

Just an earth bound misfit I...

Here's hoping that "some" of your incredible work can be salvaged. Do let us know how it goes? I think of you in the same frame as Alex Metzger, Manfred Jahn, Uncle Milty, Bernt Stolle, Jan Visser, Ted TuFun et al. The sheer joy you have provided me as a past pilot is priceless. There's no sensation to compare with this. Suspended animation, a state of bliss...

If at some point contributions would aid in your restoration- I (and many others) stand ready.

Best- C

[TuFun]

Gordon, your practical wisdom is truly inspiring and hope all goes well!

Thank you for not lashing out like others have done.

[gman5250]

Gordo-

Just an earth bound misfit I...

Here's hoping that "some" of your incredible work can be salvaged. Do let us know how it goes? I think of you in the same frame as Alex Metzger, Manfred Jahn, Uncle Milty, Bernt Stolle, Jan Visser, Ted TuFun et al. The sheer joy you have provided me as a past pilot is priceless. There's no sensation to compare with this. Suspended animation, a state of bliss...

If at some point contributions would aid in your restoration- I (and many others) stand ready.

Best- C

You are too generous sir, in your assessment of my work. The above mentioned designers are icons in our community, and well worthy of our gratitude and respect.

BTW, Now I will have the song in my head all day. I had done a video a couple of years ago on the Dak from team MJ/JV, featuring that very song. I could not share it publicly due to copyright policies.

Moving on from the excitement of the posts above, there is always a balance of light and dark in all things. I thought I'd share a shot highlighting the performance on the new system, featuring some of the data that has been returned to me from friends. In my recovery efforts of this week I can happily report that I have recovered all of my Photoshop files containing the master art and skins for the DAK. This shot is over my KMMH scenery...and right out my real world front door.

I have locked frames at 60 for video synchronization, but unchecked the system will cruise along at 150 FPS over this monster scenery in a complex model. The stats speak for themselves.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7829/47448805502_ae0acb64b5_o.jpg

[cavaricooper]

Absolutely stunning. I for one cannot wait until your scenery is available for purchase. I find two dimensions of simming most appeal to me. The airliners high and fast, and with exposure to SOH- the round engines, warbirds and bipes, low and slow (although sometimes not so slow) with ultra detailed scenery.

All that I have seen of your WIPs have definitely piqued my interest, and I shall await the first release with eager anticipation.

With gratitude for all you have done for us, and all that is to come- C

[gman5250]

This has inspired me to dig out that old drive - I've got a big box of HDDs from through the years - and see if I can grab any of that data using today's software.:ernaehrung004:


From what I can ascertain from the recovery attempts I have done, you have a very good chance of recovering your art, so I would have a go at it. If you were using large format PSB, you won't get those back but PSD files are recovering well with layers intact.

I'm using EaseUS.
https://www.easeus.com/

To be honest, I think the program is a bit of a hype and over rating their estimates of recovery probability, but for bitmaps it seems to work. Hope this helps you recover your art.

[gman5250]

Getting Back on Track

So, let's agree that we will not assign blame nor render opinions about what I should have done from here forward. It doesn't fricking matter...it's done. The point of this discussion, at this stage, is to share my experience in my attempt to recover lost data. That said....


Using the EaseUS recovery software.

As I posted above, the scan returned approximately 1.2 million files from the external drive. About 20% of that data is completely corrupt and un-recoverable. The remaining data is broken into folders identified by file type i.e. Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, 3DS Max, bitmap, jpeg, TGA, DDS, Microsoft Word Document etc. From what I can see, basic file formats like PSD, MP4 or word docs recover well, but the naming conventions are lost and converted to numbered lists. It is necessary that each file be opened and saved back out with a new name, preferably the name previously assigned to it...If one can remember the names of hundreds of thousands of files.

The data I recovered consisted of my own development work which I estimate constitutes about 33% of the recovered data. The un-recoverable data actually retains the original file names so I can look at those files and document what is permanently lost. Much of that data is large format PSB Photoshop files containing all of the seasonal terrain tiles for my scenery projects. Each geo-data tile was hand altered to represent the five seasons recognized by FSX and Prepar3D. The loss here represents thousands of hours gathering the geo-data and using Photoshop techniques to alter each tile to represent the seasonal colors and snow accumulation.
Another large segment of the corrupted data is indeed 3DStudio Max files, again representing thousands of hours of development time.
The software is clueless when it comes to GMAX...so those files are wiped out completely.
The rest of the corrupt data falls into various categories listed by file type.

Another third of the data was my research, as I said above I retain that in memory but proofs come in handy when pressed on any issue.
The last third of the data was backup for purchased aircraft, scenery, programs and peripherals. Much of this was in the form of compressed files i.e. zip or rar.

When the recovery software scans the partitions it does not preserve structure.
For example, Prepar3D or FSX installers are a composite of multiple file types. Each of those file types are saved out as the various bitmaps, dds, text, dll, exe and other components that create the composite, but the result is to sort those file types out to separate folders. The recovered data is essentially useless. The same is apparently true for compressed file formats or any other structure that bundles multiple file types.

The resulting 1.2 million files represent all of the data, but broken apart and stored in a generic folder structure. It would take an infinite number of monkeys an infinite amount of time to sort those random files back into their proper structure. To my knowledge, those monkeys are presently busy in DC or pumping the rigging algorithms on Wall Street and the COMEX, so they won't be available to me at any time in the near future. Oops....sorry...my bad.

The net result as it applies to my situation.

I am pleased that I am recovering my original hand painted art and source photography. We have also recovered my wife's archive of specialized photographic art, so we are extremely relieved to have not lost everything.
My modeling remains intact in the form of .mdl, .bgl, .bmp. .dds, .xml and other files in the actual simulators. I also have a recent mirror of my previous system which will contain an archive of installed aircraft and scenery for FSX and Prepared. Some of that data will be useful in extracting mesh and bitmaps for use in re-construction of my models..if and when I decide to move into that process.

I'll go over my future plans in another post here, but for now I'm hopeful that this data may be of use to anyone who has experience a catastrophic data loss such as mine.

I do truly appreciate everyone's help, support and offers of financial energy towards recovering my data. To be truthful, I refuse to invest the donations of my friends here into any recovery effort that holds data hostage to justify ridiculous hourly rates of $1,000 to $3,000 dollars. I have a friend across the street, a former Navy Seal, whose brother does DOD level recovery. The good guy rate was so stupid off the chart I nearly laughed in the guys face, but considering his skills...I left that one alone.

For the moment I need to re-evaluate my goals and quite honestly, mastering traditional Japanese wood joinery looks more appealing and the resulting work tends to be of a more permanent nature.

[Jafo]

Unfortunately the exorbitant rates charged for data recovery is simply a mechanism to dissuade people who might have lost photos of Fluffy the cat from 'wasting their time', rather than some black art skillz that justifies the fee.

Really a demand-led fee structure. Your loss could be measured in the 'millions' so they are all going to think 'charge tens of thousands....' ...;)

[heywooood]

exactly - it's an example of capitalism based on the RANSOM scale..not even remotely based on estimated hours on the job or tech pay scale at all.

they want 'salvage pay' meaning a percentage of the material's net worth - estimated to the highest round ethereal number naturally

[FlyingsCool]

And, to us, the value of your work is worth that. Please don't feel bad about spending money I could give you on recovering your data. It's money you should have gotten in the first place but you generously gave away...
I'm sure you wouldn't be surprised how quickly our donations could add up.

[gman5250]

...they want 'salvage pay' meaning a percentage of the material's net worth - estimated to the highest round ethereal number naturally

If that were the case I could cover it for a couple of hundred bucks.
These guys have obviously never actually sold a product in our little cove in the capitalist ocean. Most products intended for our market net a few tens of thousands on average. Some do quite well of course, but on average the Japanese joinery is probably more lucrative. :dizzy:

[heywooood]

I think it's understood that it means more to YOU than the open marketplace...but in this carve-out, you are the market...and it has ethereal value represented in the time and energy spent by you to create and catalog it-

[Priller]

People,

Let's give Gordon a bit of time to get over this, shall we?

I have the honour to be able to call Gordon my friend for quite a few years now. I can't tell you people what this "mishap" has done to him and his loved ones, but it is shattering.

Let's give him the time to get back on his feet and find some balance in his life, shall we?

What happens next is his choice and his alone. Give the man some breathing space!

Priller

[gman5250]

Brief Update:

I've been sifting through the debris field that was my storage, and doing the cost benefit analysis regarding retrieving the data using a forensics specialist. Bottom line is that the expected revenue from the six retail packages that were basically ready for market would not justify the many thousands of dollars it would cost to retrieve the data. It would basically be a wash.

I've been going through my email records of all my purchases. Many are obsolete, no longer supported or dead links. Many more will require that I re-purchase newer versions of the software. That will be quite a few hundred dollars.
The viable links will take many weeks or months to chase down and re-download.

Regarding FS Pilotshop.

I am appalled that this company has undertaken a policy to de-activate my entire purchase history (including recent), requiring a $4.95 fee to re-instate links to each of nearly eighty purchases. That is nearly $400.00 to access products that I own a legitimate license for, the records of which still exist on the FS Pilotshop website. I will pay those fees under protest, and shall never do business with these crooks again. Sorry if I ruffle feathers here, I call it as I see it...deal with it.

As for the rest of the data, I will need to replace the external storage device and one spinning drive. The damaged storage and existing 5TB spinner holding the "retrieved" data will be retired, awaiting analysis at a later time. In the meantime, I need to have usable storage space.

Regarding Future Projects

A good friend asked me the other day on Skype, what was I planning for my next project.

Friends, please understand that there will be no future projects. This product line was timed to release around the time P3D went to full PBR, but that plan has been eviscerated with the destruction of the assets.
Building a scenery project is not a matter of coloring between the lines. Every project requires an asset library of plants, trees, grasses, volumetrics, buildings, bridges, roads, boats, trains, ships, jetways, vehicles, people, trash cans, dumpsters, transparent windows, furniture, GSE, fences, ground textures, building textures, seasonal textures, LM textures, Point of Interest objects and thousands of other bits that create the composite project. Many of those assets require special animations or other parameters to control time of day, seasonal and weather related display parameters. These assets need to be built and hand painted one by one, then stored in a comprehensive archive. This is what I have been doing for the last decade. All of those assets have been wiped out along with the composited builds. The aircraft in progress represent another massive investment in time, which has now been reduced to a pile of meshes and useless code.

In addition to the assets, all of the clever bits that make a sim more efficient and unique to its user have been destroyed.

All of the accumulated skins and freeware from a decade of collecting have been lumped in with the 1.2 million other files in what amounts to a digital landfill.

This is a catastrophic loss and un-recoverable. Even with the honorable and generous offers of help, I simply cannot allow my friends to fix what amounts to a deep personal loss. I have a love and passion for this work and am doing my best to come to grips with this invasion of my Intellectual Property. In my opinion this is a criminal offense, for which there should be remedy...but there is none. My feelings about this? Unless one has worked twenty hour days, seven days a week for a decade to have it erased without any recourse, it would be difficult to experience what I am feeling. There are no words to express my anger around this event. Every hour that I am spending gathering up the pieces add to the frustration, and this will go on for many months to come. To put it mildly, I'm in leg breaking mode.

I have taken on one project that was only barely started when I lost the data. Re-launching that project will require a minimum of backtracking, so this is the one that will occupy significantly less of my time than I previously allocated to the development work. I will not be doing updates or progress reports, I'll simply complete the project and release it. After that project is finished, I shall retire completely from flight simulation and move back into my real world projects, which will make my wife, who tolerated and supported this errant venture, extremely happy.

The work I have published on this site shall remain available as my small contribution to this community who have treated me with respect and kindness over these years.

Best to all, and many thanks for the years of support.

Gordon

[falcon409]

Many of us over the years have lost data, lost projects that were aaaaalmost completed and threw in the towel. . .for about a week or so and then went back at it. What most of us have encountered as "piddlers and tweakers" doesn't come close to what you've had to come to grips with.

I am sorry this happened to you and that's little solace I know, yet beyond what financial assistance I would muster up for a good friend. . .that's all I can offer. I hope that at some point all this becomes a very bad memory, eased by knowing that it's behind you and what you decide to do from this point brings you volumes of happiness. You certainly deserve it Gordon.

If you do jump in with both feet and pursue the woodworking you talked about. . .take screen shots and let us see how the other half lives.

[gman5250]

Many of us over the years have lost data, lost projects that were aaaaalmost completed and threw in the towel. . .for about a week or so and then went back at it. What most of us have encountered as "piddlers and tweakers" doesn't come close to what you've had to come to grips with.

I am sorry this happened to you and that's little solace I know, yet beyond what financial assistance I would muster up for a good friend. . .that's all I can offer. I hope that at some point all this becomes a very bad memory, eased by knowing that it's behind you and what you decide to do from this point brings you volumes of happiness. You certainly deserve it Gordon.

If you do jump in with both feet and pursue the woodworking you talked about. . .take screen shots and let us see how the other half lives.

I'm honored to call you my friend Ed, we'll have that beer. :very_drunk:

[DC1973]

The work I have published on this site shall remain available as my small contribution to this community who have treated me with respect and kindness over these years.

Best to all, and many thanks for the years of support.

I'm fairly new here, GMan, but I just wanted to say that I'm so sorry for all that you've lost and how awful the whole thing has become for you. I'm only starting out in this field really, but if you should every choose to return, whatever assets I have built are yours too. All I can do really,

Best wishes for the future

[Sundog]

Best of luck to you GMan with all of your real world endeavors. May they proove much more rewarding and much less stressful.

Ken

[Mach3DS]

Gordon, I am totally caught up now on what happened. I did not understand that it was a COMPLETE loss. I am so sorry for this. If you should decide to change your mind regarding your complete retirement from flight simulation, I would be all for it, and would love to collaborate on a future clean sheet project with you. Perhaps not in the P3d/FSX universe. I want to publicly thank you and let those here understand what this means for this community. I reached out to Gordon a few years ago. About 5 years ago actually. I had started experimenting with repaints. But I had not the Photoshop skills to go along with the desire. Gordon shared his secrets with me. He literally took me under his wing. He literally laid it out on a clean sheet for me, step by step how to create art in Flight sim. He didn't tell me how to be creative, but he explained how it all worked. I then studied the SDK and it all started to make sense. I then came back to Gordon several times moving on to bump map creation etc. Each time he helped me. For Gordon to retire completely is a big personal loss to me, and will be to this community. I want to thank Gordon for his kindness and patience over the years. This student will be forever in debt. Thanks Gordon.

PS - If you would like to simply fly, maybe P3D/FSX is too painful to be in, I'd be happy to dart across the skies in DCS or some other sim with you! Stay away from creation and simply "hobby" for an hour or so every now and again.

Best wishes,

Rick

[TuFun]

This is heartbreaking to me. I've always had great respect for your work "G" and if it wasn't for you I would never attempt to work in Photoshop.

All the best to you and your family. -TeD

[gman5250]

This is heartbreaking to me. I've always had great respect for your work "G" and if it wasn't for you I would never attempt to work in Photoshop.

All the best to you and your family. -TeD

Funny thing TeD, among the few items that were recoverable was the "Jeep Chase" video at Tipella. Every time I watch that I nearly blow a head gasket laughing. Classic my friend.

[gman5250]

One project I had been working over the last couple of years. An "Earthship" home design, based on shipping containers and re-claimed post and beam construction. The entire structure and green houses were designed to benefit from thermal induction heating using water as heat sinks. The basic engineering was ready to send off to a civil engineer for calcs and drawings. The plan was to build the home myself at a later date. The entire exterior of the house and interior were built out for the simulator and sit on a parcel just off my KBIH Eastern Sierra Regional airport.

The site was also used as a test bed for my libraries of autogen trees, grasses, brush, bushes and flowers. Note the volumetric grasses and floating leaves on the water.

https://live.staticflickr.com/686/23187390325_73c95b2d3b_o.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/712/22850626177_31902de14d_o.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/1897/29748803567_ae2676aba3_o.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/1876/43967758974_9c4c05539c_o.jpg

[gman5250]

https://live.staticflickr.com/761/22819438279_ce894ab45d_o.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/1878/43967751534_bc17df05c5_o.jpg

[Sundog]

Now that's my kind of house. Nice work! :encouragement:

[Jafo]

When I started scribbling houses [Architecture] Computers hadn't been invented [other than the 4Tran type - main frames] so I've never got into CAD....stayed with Tee square on a drawing board....only retired 2 years ago....46 years of Architecture was enough for anyone.....one more argument with wankers-er-planners and there would have been guns involved....;)
My mate I went through Archi with got into CAD from the Dos days....ending up with Revit .... but he's since turned up his toes....and only 66 too....

[gman5250]

As if it couldn't get any worse...

So, I had done a comprehensive recovery scan of the external storage that Windows corrupted. I saved that data out to my 5TB spinning drive in a dedicated folder. I also had a dedicated folder on that same drive containing my Acronis imaged system from a few months back. I've been accessing both of those files plucking out the bits of useful data I could identify.

Friday I went to the 5TB spinner and both of those files have gone missing. The EaseUS recovery folder and the Acronis system image folder do not show up in the file explorer, only the "Recovery" folder I created to hold the bits that I had extracted and saved out. The drive tells me that there are 2.71 TB of data on the drive, but the only folder accessible represents about 73 gigs of used space. So, the imaged system I didn't lose in the fiasco with Windows, is now apparently gone missing down another black hole...along with the EaseUS data I had been sifting through. Can I re-scan the external drive? Sure but it's another twenty hours and spits out random numbers that I won't be able to reference against the random numbers I had already pulled out of the first scan.

That's just peachy.....time to find something better to do with my time.

https://live.staticflickr.com/7834/47611021461_33949d1e53_o.jpg

[wombat666]

That's just peachy.....time to find something better to do with my time.



I would think so.
There are times when one needs to cry 'enough' and take time out, even resign one's self to beginning from ground zero.
:encouragement:

[docjohnson]

Gordon, I'm sorry this crap happened to your rig and files. Needing a break from computing madness is mandatory, enjoy it. And if you miss it and want to do more in the community, come back and enjoy it as well. Your work is outstanding, and it will be missed if you decide to find a better path for your talent.

[Bjoern]

That's just peachy.....time to find something better to do with my time.


Buy X-Plane and install a Linux distro?

Or just go flying (in P3D)?

[Rami]

********,

I just wanted you to know that while it wasn't ten years, I came very close to wiping out all of my backups by accidentally doing the same thing just a couple of months ago, and not realizing it until it was almost too late. Fortunately, I do regular backups of my CFS2 work and have a box.net account for all of my mission and campaign packages, as well as what is here at SOH.

But I lost a lot of payware aircraft backups and things I couldn't replace, and using Recuva to try and find all of it only partially solved the issue. So I can completely sympathize your plight.

If I lost everything I've done for the Battle of France, I wouldn't have started over again. :banghead:

[fsafranek]

Sorry to hear about this latest WTF moment ********.

That's one problem with huge capacity storage devices (drives or memory sticks).
When they go bad or something else goes wrong there is so much data (10 years worth in this case) that is lost.
:ernaehrung004:

[FlyingsCool]

One project I had been working over the last couple of years. An "Earthship" home design, based on shipping containers and re-claimed post and beam construction. The entire structure and green houses were designed to benefit from thermal induction heating using water as heat sinks. The basic engineering was ready to send off to a civil engineer for calcs and drawings. The plan was to build the home myself at a later date. The entire exterior of the house and interior were built out for the simulator and sit on a parcel just off my KBIH Eastern Sierra Regional airport.

The site was also used as a test bed for my libraries of autogen trees, grasses, brush, bushes and flowers. Note the volumetric grasses and floating leaves on the water.

https://live.staticflickr.com/686/23187390325_73c95b2d3b_o.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/712/22850626177_31902de14d_o.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/1897/29748803567_ae2676aba3_o.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/1876/43967758974_9c4c05539c_o.jpg

That is absolutely gorgeous.

Hopefully this was some work you were able to recover?
What are these images rendered in? Is that FS/P3D?

[gman5250]

That is absolutely gorgeous.

Hopefully this was some work you were able to recover?
What are these images rendered in? Is that FS/P3D?

These images were rendered in Prepar3D and in 3DStudio Max. The year old images were retrieved from my Flicker storage account. Unfortunately all of this work was lost including the house and about 600 vegetation items. This location was my vegetation test bed.
Thanks for the compliment, I had built the entire structure in Studio as an accurate architectural rendering including all of the structural members i.e. post and beam construction.

[FlyingsCool]

Well, I wish I could make a joke about when you put it up for sale I'm interested.... So sorry you lost all that work. Definite labor of love.