Digital Pictures MIA

Plugging in…

The vacation was incredible, she said. More than 300 photos captured just some of the majesty. The pocket-sized Casio camera temporarily housed those memories. Back home, the transfer of the photos finally made the to-do list several weeks after returning to the world of ho-hum. Camera in dock, transfer cable in place, software responded as expected. The photos flew onto the screen, one after the other. The camera was turned off, cable unplugged and my client sat back to view a terrific slideshow of the whole adventure. Except, uh, there were only 35 photos of the entire trip! The rest of the pictures were MIA (missing in action).

Searching in earnest began, followed by an overwhelming feeling of dread as not only were there only 35 pictures transferred, but the ENTIRE digital media memory card in the camera was EMPTY. Ugghh (polite word substituted here).

Ring, ring - Computor Tutor (CT)? A quick explanation was followed by making an appointment with CT to see:

1) were the pictures really missing on the hard drive,
2) could the pictures be recovered from the digital media memory card.

Yes, the pictures were not on the hard drive anywhere, not hiding, not mis-filed, not there, period. And yes, the digital media memory card was empty. Why? GOK (God Only Knows)! The good news? The camera had not been used to take any additional pictures since the transfer took place.

A bit of searching on the vast world wide web provided CT with a free recovery product, specifically designed for digital picture recovery. And the recovery software worked, just as described. The vacation photos were recovered and saved on the computer and the recovery software was left on the computer just in case this little missing photo caper occurs in the future.

Although the resurrection of these photos doesn't compare to some losses that others incur in their lifetimes, I felt like a minor heroine, being able to restore these photos for someone who was deeply distressed at the thought of having lost them forever. This is why I love what I do - I may not be a health care provider, the Red Cross or a firefighter, but I do my part to restore order to computer chaos.

ALWAYS REMEMBER: before calling for help - is it plugged in, is it turned on?

Unplugged