Please help if you are good with computers

[MrsJoeMcIntyre]

We appear to have lost all of our videos and photos of dd. Every one since she was born. We had them backed up on our laptop and also on a CD. The laptop has completely conked out, so we bought a new one today and put the CD in. Nothing.

Is there anything we can try? We are completely freaking out.

[saint2shoes]

it it the right kid of cd for the pc. I once had this trouble with dvd's turned out it was a - instead of a +

[gigglewitch]

do you have any idea what format you stored them in? - was it jpegs, gifs - or am i baffling you (sorry)
perhaps try putting it in your dvd at home and see if there is anything to see?
and what software are you trying to use to open the images from the cd? that might be the issue

[gigglewitch]

if you are absolutely desperando, there is a good chance that your local computer geek could rescue them off the demised laptop - depending on how it met its end, of course

[NorkyButNice]

Worst case, you should be able to get someone to retrieve the pictures from the hard drive on your old laptop (unless it's been corrupted).

[MrsJoeMcIntyre]

But we've managed to restart the knackered one and now the CDs that dh reckons they were on are still showing as blank.

• know there's awful stuff going on in the world but I'm heartbroken.

[pavlovthecat]

Take it to local small computer shop, off the main high street ones, they will be able to locate your files from the old laptop for you. We had this done, cost us about £25.

[pavlovthecat]

x-posts - they might still be there on the laptop even if you cannot find them, they are often stored on the hard disk even if they appear wiped. Could it be the wrong disk?

[MrsJoeMcIntyre]

No, they said we needed a new hard drive.

I want to kill dh with my bare hands.

[pavlovthecat]

Oh dear, take it it was DH who broke it? Or who screwed the disk up?

Larger orgs like PC world etc would not bother to look for you, unless you got a particularly nice person. Did you talk to a small time or larger org.

Even if the hard drive is screwed, does not necessarily mean they are lost from it. When our macbook blew up before xmas I was also upset as our photos were on. The guy explained that blah blah blah of the hard drive was damaged, but it might not have gone into another part, if this part was ok, the photos were ok, and luckily although it needed a new hard drive, they could retreive the info we needed as that bit was not damaged (phew).

[gigglewitch]

honestly and truly, i would still go for the hope that they are still there somewhere. Being married to a geek has proved this over and over with various bits of paperweight-value computer equipment from which he has managed to extract documents, photo's all sorts. Agree with the others that the local computer repair small business is the best bet, much better (and cheaper) than the large sharks chains.

[MrsJoeMcIntyre]

Thanks ladies. I just trusted that he'd backed them up onto the CDs. If he didn't know what he was doing he should have said so.

[gigglewitch]

don't suppose he did any of the clever stuff and uploaded them to Flickr or some such

what area are you in?

[MrsJoeMcIntyre]

North West. No, I'm pretty sure he has no clue.

[futurity]

dh who knows about these things says that sounds like cd was never written to.a local computer shop be able to recover data from the hard disk by plugging into another pc. Worst case the drives manufacturer which is printed on the drive should be able to restore the data for a fee.

[onager]

If the original hard drive still exists a shop might be able to get stuff from it. Even if it was damaged.

If you are using a new hard drive then the software could be different so it might not show it.

For example if you used Nero to save the files you might have used the InCD software.
That would have allowed you to keep adding extra files to the same CD one at a time (does that sound familier?) If so you may need software installed to read it back

[MrsJoeMcIntyre]

Will discuss all this with dh once he's a bit calmer. Thanks for giving me a ray of hope.

[MrsJoeMcIntyre]

Onager - yes we kept adding to it every time our camera was full.

[onager]

ok it's still a long shot because I think XP is suppoed to tell you when it encounters a CD like that so you know what it is.

"InCD Reader 5" is just for reading those kinds of CDs without having to buy/install the whole Nero suite.

I'm trying to find a link but the Nero Home page is sending me round in circles.

[MrsJoeMcIntyre]

Thanks onager.

[onager]

Okay found it. This is INCD Reader from Nero

Don't build your hopes up, but it's possible it could be that.

[MrsJoeMcIntyre]

Onager its worth a try. I can't look at it as I'm on my BlackBerry but I'll forward the link and get dh to look.

Thanks ever so much.

[gigglewitch]

MJM - email me, it's on my profile I am also in the north west of england lol! if you are anywhere close and would like the geek DH to poke the knackered laptop or suggest where to take it, then give me a shout