TOG looses our photos :(

Hard drive failures can be retrieved, if she needs any help then please do let her know.

A few years ago I had transferred all my family photos on to a new Hard drive and two days later the hard drive failed, it took me a few days using software but I got it all back.

Also now this depends on how many times she has used the memory cards but you can retrieve the images on the cards as well but as I said if she has used those cards since your wedding then it will be harder to get any back. Sorry I cant be any more help but as I said if she needs help let me know.

Your tog needs to contact someone within the IT community. This can all be retrieved

Kind regards

Oh no, I feel for both of you!

I'm guessing she would have contacted a company who can try and retrieve the info before telling you but it might be worth an ask just in case?

She has already tried to get the files recovered by a professional firm who have said it's unrecoverable
She has offered to do the shoot again, but the weather is terrible (we had a lovely sunny autumnal day) I spent a fortune getting my hair and make up professionally done, and the boys were all in hired suits!!! But apart from all of that it just won't be our day, that is now lost forever.

Oh no!!! I feel bad for you, no wonder you are devastated. Did she not back up the files in numerous places? My Tog does that during the meal and after the wedding just in case, so I assumed that was common practice for Togs?

Perhaps ask her to get a second opinion from elsewhere, you never know, someone out there has to be able to fix it!

Good luck!

This ^^^^ and the post before. Ask her to get a second opinion or even a 3rd, never known a hard disk not recoverable, if anything send it back to the manufacturer.

I see all to often photographers saying they have lost the clients photos, I really do feel for you as you say re doing it is a nightmare but can be done, she is insured? then claim off of her and re do the shoot. I have re-shot a few weddings where the original photographer lost the files, one of the couples got married in July and I re shot her wedding in January, freezing cold it was and she got back close family for the re shoot then I took the couple off for some couple shots.

I am so paranoid about losing wedding photos that all my cameras shoot to 2 memory cards at once then as I'm leaving the wedding they are backed up to a portable system, so by the time I am leaving I have 3 copies of the wedding. Then as soon as I get back they are copied to 4 hard disks and one hard disk then goes off site to be backed up elsewhere.

I really do hope she gets someone who knows what they are doing when it comes to hard disk recovery.

It should be common practice if it isn't. Then again not all togs may have much computer knowledge, and people don't often realise how common HDD failures are.

I'm very surprised no data is recoverable though (even is a head damaged a platter). I don't know what company she used, but it should be possible to take the platters out the hdd and then read the data off them. There are specialists for doing this. This isn't something your generic local IT guy could fix.

It's a little expensive but probably cheaper than refunding your wedding and probably a few other couples.

Oh no!! im sorry to hear this x

I feel absolutely awful for you.

I know it won't be the same but don't rule out a reshoot, especially if it's covered by insurance (yours or hers). In years to come, something will be better than nothing.

TFT xx

So sorry to hear this

I agree with previous posts - it rarely happens that the hard drive can not be recovered. It certainly is worth asking 2 or 3 different companies. It can be difficult and expensive, but usually it's doable.

It's strange that a wedding photographer doesn't have a backup. Does she have professional indemnity insurance?

Good luck! I hope she will be able to recover something eventually.

Get a second/third opinion! My dad recovers hard drives as he works in a computer shop and iv never heard of him having any problems. I'd take it to a local computer shop

Thank you all so much for your kind and useful words
Yes I agree ref. a backup? Not entirely sure what has gone on there and didn't think to ask when we were told the awful news. We have received our full refund of £1400 but tbh I would spend every penny of that money at a specialist data recovery company (or two) trying to recover our photos from our beautiful day

I use to back up a selection of images to the internet either in privet files of through email so if the worst came to the worst (Ive had 2 major crashes in the past where I lost everything) then there is always something to work with... isn't that common sense

Oh sweetie, so, so sorry to hear that :-( agree with all the comments so far, get other opinions, and if you have insurance (yours or hers) get everyone together and get some photos done. It won't be your wedding day but you'll still look beautiful and you deserve some pictures x

This is awful.

All photographers should have their files backup up somewhere else.

Always.

Hard drives can be recovered unless they messed around with the drives themselves. Ask for a second opinion for sure.

There are several reason why drives fail. Any drive that has a platter should be recoverable. Its not cheap, although it is recoverable. If the drive through is a solid state one, then recovery is less hopeful. Ask your tog which drive type they used.....

The original memory cards used by the tog may well still have some images on. Formatting drives does not delete images, despite what many believe.

If your tog wants to contact me regarding recovery, please do so as I know some decent companies. I had a double disk failure a few years ago (the one time I hadn't triplicated my back ups) and they recovered all my lost images.

This does raise a very good question for any couple looking for a tog...What safeguards do you have for disk/drive failure? FWIW I personally never re-use any camera memory card until I have the original files in three separate places....

Peter

Ask her if you can have the hard drive.....The company I know will recover just parts of drives too for a reduced cost........If its no good to her..........

Peter

@Peter, many thanks for your feedback. We have sent an email this evening asking for specifics regarding what has happened to the back up and details of the data recovery company she has used. We have also asked for the hard drive so we can try and recover ourselves. Tbh I think we will come to terms with this whole situation far better if we can try and recover ourselves rather than relying on someone else. Fingers crossed hey?

Samyo75, keep me up to date on this....always happy to help.......

If you get the disk, let me know and I will pass on the recovery company details...

Peter

Oh, and if good comes from this and files are recovered, you will need to ask her to "process" the files as they are still her copyright or gain a "release" for another to work on the images. No pro tog should touch this without the copyright holders permission......... I would ask exactly what the folder was called and if possible, just have that recovered and then pass back the drive to her as there will be "other" folders and files on the drive.

Peter

This is literally my worst nightmare which is why I take a very paranoid view of my backups and I literally have a backup of every photo from the moment I click the shutter until I reach home where I make two copies on my hard disk and upload an encrypted copy to an online storage/backup firm.

As others have said though, the specialist hard drive recovery places are able to perform seemingly minor miracles and can read data directly from the hard disk platters. This is all done in clean rooms with very specialist equipment.

Don't forget that if you used a professional that they will have insurance cover and I'd check to see if this cost is covered under their professional indemnity cover. I'd be surprised if it wasn't.

@Peter, will keep you informed and thank you for the excellent advice regarding copyrights - hadn't thought of that, but makes perfect sense.
@Martin, yes she is a professional and I know she is in a living nightmare about this, I am truly sorry for her she does have full insurance so hopefully if we can get the hard drive we can get all of this sorted out.

my email is ************@*****.*** if you want to pass on any info thats not best published on an open forum.....Drives are ~nearly~ always recoverable if you use the right techniques and best company.

Out of interest, where are you based? I know its *oop* north?, although the company I would suggest might be closer than you realise......

Peter

Thanks for your email address Peter, yes we are 'oop' North we live just north of Bolton.

This sounds odd to me. Your TOG has lost your wedding pictures and you feel awful ... for her?

I am a fair and reasonable person, I try to always see every side of the story and try to give people the benefit of the doubt when I can ... but if my tog lost my pictures, my tog's feelings would be very very low on my list of cares. And that's putting it nicely.

Hi Silly Wrong, I am sure that what ever has happened the very last thing our TOG wanted to do was 'loose' our wedding day photographs and for this I feel sorry for her as this is a devastating situation, HOWEVER,,, her feeling terrible will never compensate the loss, anger, upset, heartbroken way my husband and I feel right now. I feel totally helpless that we cannot fix what has been done. Our only hope is that we may get her hard drive and try to recover the pictures ourselves xxx

Aww Samyo I'm so sorry, your situation sounds awful. i understand where you're coming from feeling sorry for your photographer, can't imagine how terrible she must feel about it all! I really hope you manage to recover the files xx

The recovery company I would suggest is just over an hours drive from where you live.......

Fingers crossed you get the drive. Did your tog say what type of drive it is?? I can email you the projected costs for recovery based on this....

Peter

I cannot offer any advice or help you, but I just wanted to say how sorry I am to hear your photos may be lost, and that I have my fingers crossed that something is able to be done to recover them for you. xx

They are recoverable if taken to someone that knows what they are doing, don't lose hope.

Samyo, my assistant photographer is an IT consultant. He lives in Bradford. He recovered a drive for friends of mine who were told it was not recoverable by a high street repair shop. It contained the only photos of my friends mother, who had since died.

I think you need to be clear that there appears to have been negligence on the part of your photographer. There should have been multiple copies of your images. The failure of one hard drive will not cause total loss of a wedding unless there has been negligence on the part of the photographer.

The other possibility is recovery of her CF or SD cards. Even if she has done more weddings since yours some of the files will be there on her cards somewhere, even if she has formatted them.

I would feel sorry for the photographer but also be demanding.

If they aren't smart enough to make multiple backups of their work then I doubt they'll be completely savvy on recovery and may of taken the drive to a self named specialist called Baz who also unlocks iphones.

If the drive is busted I'd ask to take ownership of it. It's of no value to them now. If they say no to that then I'd ask myself why that was.