Starting to feel a tad frustrated...

Im starting to loose my mind over this whole computer business.. actually im well and truley over it. i own 2 laptops which have both crashed latley all becasue they reckon my digital slr camera (canon 60d) is killing them. i have no idea why...i have plenty of RAM in both of my laptops. one is about 3 years old which is old i spose seen as they upgrade with the blink on an eye but the other one is only 9 months old!! anyway computer tec dude called yesterday and told me that he has to wipe that one everything gone i cried for a good half an hour thinking of all the memories im loosing all my photos gone i had photos on their of my sisters birth (giving birth to my nephew) not photos you want to loose. not to mention ALL of my facepainting pics... i have to start from scratch. now i fear that the other one is heading down the same road..this computer has all my photos of me and my boyfriend on our first dates and my school days ect ect (we were 16 years old when we first dated) i REALLY dont want to loose those either.

before you all say it... i know im stupid for not backing it up, i know that.. but it just makes me feel more terrible knowing how freaking stupid i am.

anyway im thinking no more laptops.. invest in a good desktop computer with tones of space that can handle my camera. i just dont know were to start not to mention the $$$$ *sigh*

So sorry for your loss. Hopefully you can rebuild some of your photos from places you posted them online(Facebook, Face Paint Forum, Photo Bucket, Flicker, etc).
I have everything backed up on a thumb drive(and pray I never lose or corrupt it....).

thankyou.. yeh im pretty upset. i will get the ones from my facebook thats a good idea.. whats a thumb drive?

Oh no! I had that happen to me once - lost a good 3 year chunk of photos and I was heartbroken so I sympathize with you :-( Email any friends/family you may have sent pictures to - some people save them long term. Are your sure your tech can't somehow salvage at least all .jpg, .png, etc file extensions? I would look into doing that to your other laptop especially if it is still functioning at this point. I use a couple of external hard drives and also upload to an external site. Computers don't last at all - they wouldn't make money off of us if they did!!! UGH! Good luck!

Ouch, that's awful. Losing family photos is the worst. You have my sympathy.

A thumb drive is a little memory stick that plugs into the USB ports on your computer. I have one shaped like a Lego brick. Good for taking photos to the local print shop, or saving backups on.

Desktops can fry just as badly as laptops.

I've got a whole lotta flashdrives that are bracelets - the drive plugs into the strap and you wear it. Really handy. Got them from a friend who worked at a place that had them for handouts.

I learned eons ago (1985) to back up and have external harddrives for my computers and back up pretty regularly - after a major upload of photos or documents.

I hope you can manage to track down some of your images from other sources.

Been there done that. Lost lots of pics to a dead laptop thanks to a random lightning bolt coming down and causing a surge. I now back up to an external drive...which according to my tech guy isn't enough. You need to back up your back up drive. Also if you are ever having troubles with your external drive, pop it in the freezer for a bit and it should work again. I know it sounds crazy but it is known to work.

There is no reason for your camera to be killing your computer that I can think of.

Even if the operting system is fried, they should be able to connect the hard drive to another computer and extract any image files, and scan them for viruses.

If they are saying the memory stick on your camera has a virus (unlikely) get a new stick (Sd CF or whatever it has) and that issue is solved.

If your hard drive is FULL, it can cause boot up issues because the system needs SOME space to write to when booting up and shutting down.

Here is what I do with all my sensitive business data... I have two larger external drives.... Drive A and Drive B. One is always in the safe depost box at the bank, the other is at the house. Once a month, I back up onto (For instance) drive B- then take it to the bank and swap it for drive A, which i take home and do a SECOND backup. So, Drive A and B are always mirrors of each other.

Lap tops are no better or worse than desk tops.... BUT they get subject to a lot more abuse.

If the other lap top has that many files on it, ask them to remove the drive and put in a new one before they restore the OS. You can get an external case that the drive will plug into and act like an external drive, and then you can access it like another drive and extract the files yourself. Here is an example of one such case- BUT if you are not tech savy better have someone who is do this- need to make sure you get right size and interface. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3743049&CatId=2781

NOTE- if there is even a CHANGE there could be a virus on it, Scan it thoroughtly before you access any files on it. Use AVG free virus scan.

My laptop recently stopped working, wouldn't even turn on. I took it to Staples who said it would need a new motherboard and fan, for a whopping $800! No thanks. I got a new laptop, and one of my friends put my old laptop's memory in his laptop, and transferred it over to my new one. No lost photos! Maybe you could try that?

My old (2007) laptop fried in June when I tried to update Explorer. Have to jump through hoops to get it on, then every setting I had was gone and I couldn't find my files. Took it to where I bought it originally and they located my files - all there and intact - but could not locate the problem - something got corrupted when I tried to update. So all updates were uninstalled and now, everytime I boot up I have to jump through the hoops, and then restet and find all my programs individually EVERY time I log onto it.

I bought a NEW laptop... HOWEVER... I can't load my programs as they are not current versions (Have MS Office and Photoshop CS3...) and my back-up harddrive is NO LONGER SUPPORTED so I can't simply upload my files to the new laptop... and my printer Drivers are no longer available as both my printers are OLD...

Sometimes I hate technology.

Bought a terabyte of external harddrive for my new back-up drive.
Transfer files from one laptop to the other with my flashdrives or email to myself... freakin' annoying it is.

thankyou soo much for all your advice, i think after reading all of that i am going to get a second opinion even mention a few things you have all said and see if i can steer around it. hopefully...

Oh no - my laptop is on it;s last legs - duct tape and all - lol
Me thinks this thread is an omen to get that Ipad I've been needing... erhem... wanting...

I thoroughly reccomend getting an external hard drive for back up whether for PC or Laptop. They are really small now and can be carried around with you...
think I better back up while we are on the topic!