Well.

No more PartixGen-Animations.
No more work on Vegetation-Includes.
Bye-Bye Worldbowl 2003 Edition.
Have fun, my old and long-used Includes.

For my HD died today. Just a few weeks ago,
my Backup CD didn't want to be read anymore,
and just today I thought: I've just reinstalled the
system, now go on and make some backups.

Well, that thought came too late.

All thats left:
========
Scenes: All ZIP files for these were on another Harddrive
"Gerberas", "Tranquil", "Love is a vow"
To be recovered from IRTC: "Worldbowl" (2002), "Iced Land",
"2 Lonely"

Include-Files:
IO-Macros, Mesh-Modifying-Macros, Bezier-Splines -
 These are on my homepage.
x_over-Include, a cross-over of Bezier-Splines and
MMM, with which I modelled a lot of the meshes, was found
in the "Gerberas" ZIP, though its probably some older version.

Aside of that, everything is lost, all codes, all scenes, all gone.

With the important POV-Stuff went all my stuff from the
University, all MP3 (most of them just my own, I've got
like a 95% own MP3 and 5% downloaded), and my games,
though that isn't so bad, they're just games.

But to lose three years worth of POV-Efforts...

Ken, would you mind shooting me? ;-(

Anyways:
<see good side of it all mode>
All crappy code is gone, I've got space for new, clean code!
<see good side of it all mode off>

Rune, if you've still got some version of my Particle-System,
you could send it to me. Don't know if I'd want to continue
working on it though. Probably move on to some new System.
Using I/O. ;-D

Enough rambling. Remember guys, make backups,
lots of em. If you're not tracing something, make
backups.

Hm. I guess I'll post a Reflective-Sphere-on-Checkered-Plane
tomorrow. My first image for my reborn PC.

Regards,
Tim

--
Email: tim### [at] gmxde
URL: www.digitaltwilight.de/no_lights

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Tim,
I can empathize. I had a similar thing happen last year. I took my computer
to a computer repair shop, and they installed a new hard drive, and were
able to recover some of my files, but not the most important ones. They said
the hard drive's bearings had frozen up from over use or over heating. I
discovered that if  I put the old hard drive in the freezer for long enough
to get it really cold, I could then hook it into my computer as a secondary
hard drive, and could transfer a significant amount of information before it
would stop working again. after repeating this several times, I was able to
recover everything I cared about. Whatever you do, don't give up!
Steve Shelby

Tim Nikias <tim### [at] gmxde> wrote in message
news:3e6025c0@news.povray.org...
> Well.
>
> No more PartixGen-Animations.
> No more work on Vegetation-Includes.
> Bye-Bye Worldbowl 2003 Edition.
> Have fun, my old and long-used Includes.
>
> For my HD died today. Just a few weeks ago,
> my Backup CD didn't want to be read anymore,
> and just today I thought: I've just reinstalled the
> system, now go on and make some backups.
>
> Well, that thought came too late.
>
> All thats left:
> ========
> Scenes: All ZIP files for these were on another Harddrive
> "Gerberas", "Tranquil", "Love is a vow"
> To be recovered from IRTC: "Worldbowl" (2002), "Iced Land",
> "2 Lonely"
>
> Include-Files:
> IO-Macros, Mesh-Modifying-Macros, Bezier-Splines -
>  These are on my homepage.
> x_over-Include, a cross-over of Bezier-Splines and
> MMM, with which I modelled a lot of the meshes, was found
> in the "Gerberas" ZIP, though its probably some older version.
>
> Aside of that, everything is lost, all codes, all scenes, all gone.
>
> With the important POV-Stuff went all my stuff from the
> University, all MP3 (most of them just my own, I've got
> like a 95% own MP3 and 5% downloaded), and my games,
> though that isn't so bad, they're just games.
>
> But to lose three years worth of POV-Efforts...
>
> Ken, would you mind shooting me? ;-(
>
> Anyways:
> <see good side of it all mode>
> All crappy code is gone, I've got space for new, clean code!
> <see good side of it all mode off>
>
> Rune, if you've still got some version of my Particle-System,
> you could send it to me. Don't know if I'd want to continue
> working on it though. Probably move on to some new System.
> Using I/O. ;-D
>
> Enough rambling. Remember guys, make backups,
> lots of em. If you're not tracing something, make
> backups.
>
> Hm. I guess I'll post a Reflective-Sphere-on-Checkered-Plane
> tomorrow. My first image for my reborn PC.
>
> Regards,
> Tim
>
> --
> Email: tim### [at] gmxde
> URL: www.digitaltwilight.de/no_lights
>
>

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I don't recall having anything backed up, although I did migrate to
a new hard drive last year, copying everything.  The oldest file on
my drive is over six years old.

Regards,
John

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In article <3e6025c0@news.povray.org>, "Tim Nikias" <tim### [at] gmxde> 
wrote:

> For my HD died today. Just a few weeks ago,
> my Backup CD didn't want to be read anymore,
> and just today I thought: I've just reinstalled the
> system, now go on and make some backups.

A little tip: you're supposed to backup *before* major changes, not 
after.

-- 
Christopher James Huff <cja### [at] earthlinknet>
http://home.earthlink.net/~cjameshuff/
POV-Ray TAG: chr### [at] tagpovrayorg
http://tag.povray.org/

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Tim Nikias wrote:

>No more work on Vegetation-Includes.
>Bye-Bye Worldbowl 2003 Edition.





Tim, I feel with you.
About one year ago, I made similar experiences.

Interesting, after your last "worldbowl" version I thought on asking you for
the code...


Norbert

Post a reply to this message

Tim, 
Ouch. Really sorry for you.  

I will mention that there are businesses that specialize in data recovery from
bad hard drives. It can get expensive depending on how hard you want them to
try. A friend of mine got about 80% of her data off a bad hard drive just over a
year ago, but it cost her around $270 in US dollars as I remember and she had to
wait a couple weeks for the data.     
Bill P.

Post a reply to this message

It's a real shame- the images were looking very good.  I feel for your loss!
    As cheap as hard drives are these days, it makes sense to have a mirror
drive and it really does add a great deal of security to your system.  I hope
you can afford to put one in.
    I use a zip type drive to back up all my good stuff.  I also just forced my
wife to completely back her system up on CD-RWs.

Cheers!

Chip Shults
My robotics, space and CGI web page - http://home.cfl.rr.com/aichip

Post a reply to this message

In article <cja### [at] netplexaussieorg>,
 Christopher James Huff <cja### [at] earthlinknet> wrote:

> A little tip: you're supposed to backup *before* major changes, not 
> after.

Correction: backup and *verify* the backups. I recently had a similar 
accident, where the disk image that contained most of my stuff ended up 
unreadable. Fortunately, my most important projects survived.

-- 
Christopher James Huff <cja### [at] earthlinknet>
http://home.earthlink.net/~cjameshuff/
POV-Ray TAG: chr### [at] tagpovrayorg
http://tag.povray.org/

Post a reply to this message

"Tim Nikias" <tim### [at] gmxde> wrote:
>
> All thats left:
> ========
 <>
> To be recovered from IRTC: "Worldbowl" (2002), "Iced Land",
> "2 Lonely"
>
> Include-Files:
> IO-Macros, Mesh-Modifying-Macros, Bezier-Splines -
>  These are on my homepage.
>
> Aside of that, everything is lost, all codes, all scenes, all gone.

There is a Russian saying that roughly translates as
  "What you gave is yours,
   What you kept is lost."

How true in this particular case.

Tim, I definitely feel your pain; hope that you are able to recover more
than that... There were given some perfectly sane advices, notably the one
from William Pokorny; you may want to follow that...

As to the backups, I would like to recommend various USB-enabled gadgets
available these days, like flash drives and HDDs (Win2000 and XP recognize
them instantly; WinME reportedly does so as well). Apart from floppy disks,
I used to make backups to Colorado tape drives, LS120 3.5" disks etc. and
have to say that, compared to everything else, those USB thingies are just
killers. About half a year ago I bought a 120Mb flash drive, just to give it
a try, and it surpassed all my expectations as to its reliability,
compatibility, and speed. Of course, 120Mb are drastically insufficient for
backups per se, so I use it not for backups themselves, but for information
transfers between 2 desktops and a laptop (which thus serve as a RAID :-)...
But now that USB link proved itself, I am going to buy a 6Gb or so
USB-enabled HDD, which will serve as the actual backup medium this time.
IMHO, a thing to consider for backup adepts (as yours truly).

Sorry for being off-topic *and* wordy. Follow-ups set to p.o-t.

Post a reply to this message

That cheap?

Still, I've already settled to being a newborn
PC-User. Its 40GB I've lost (though the HD
wasn't entirely filled up), and perhaps it
may be a good thing to start up from
scratch again, as mentioned in see-the-good-
side-of-it-all-mode, I won't base anything upon
messy code this way.

I'll recover some images from the newsgroups,
and some animations (especially the last Worldbowl
2003 image, I'm kinda satisfied that I've posted that
one and haven't done major changes since), but
all in all, I guess its
"Tim Nikias - The next Generation"

:-)

Hm, a smiley there. I sometimes do feel more like
crying. Three years of work down the drain... :-(

Regards,
Tim

"William F. Pokorny" felt sympathy:
> Tim,
> Ouch. Really sorry for you.
>
> I will mention that there are businesses that specialize in data recovery
from
> bad hard drives. It can get expensive depending on how hard you want them
to
> try. A friend of mine got about 80% of her data off a bad hard drive just
over a
> year ago, but it cost her around $270 in US dollars as I remember and she
had to
> wait a couple weeks for the data.
> Bill P.

Post a reply to this message

I did backup that partition, just not the
entire HD. I've done that several times,
it always worked out, Win98 is very nice
when it comes to format c: and reinstall.

Anyways, Win2000 doesn't work on this
system. The Motherboard etc are probably
somewhat too old, there may be some
specific stuff it doesn't recognize, like my
Ultra-100-Promise IDE-Controllers, cause
I had to plug my HD into a different slot for
Win2000 to find the HD...

Ah well.

"Christopher James Huff" surprises with a piece of wisdom:

>
> A little tip: you're supposed to backup *before* major changes, not
> after.
>

Post a reply to this message

I'll make extensive usage of my own
USB-Gadgets now, and my CD-Recorder,
and the Internet to post new and interesting
code etc etc etc...

Never backup just once, do it, like, thousand
ways...

"Sir Charles W. Shults III" added a nice little pat on the back to my former
work:
>     It's a real shame- the images were looking very good.

...and went on...

> I feel for your loss!
>     As cheap as hard drives are these days, it makes sense to have a
mirror
> drive and it really does add a great deal of security to your system.  I
hope
> you can afford to put one in.
>     I use a zip type drive to back up all my good stuff.  I also just
forced my
> wife to completely back her system up on CD-RWs.
>
> Cheers!
>
> Chip Shults
> My robotics, space and CGI web page - http://home.cfl.rr.com/aichip
>
>

Post a reply to this message

Norbert Kern wrote:
> Tim Nikias wrote:
> 
> 
>>No more work on Vegetation-Includes.
>>Bye-Bye Worldbowl 2003 Edition.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Tim, I feel with you.
> About one year ago, I made similar experiences.

Me too, I had a similar crash one year ago,
since then I always do backups.
Probably one has to experience this to learn
how important these are... ;-)

Sebastian

> Interesting, after your last "worldbowl" version I thought on asking you for
> the code...
> 
> 
> Norbert
> 
>

Post a reply to this message

Tim Nikias wrote:
> For my HD died today.

Ow, my worst nightmare... I feel with you.

> Rune, if you've still got some version of my
> Particle-System, you could send it to me.

I don't think you've ever sent it to me. No files with attachments from
you in my inbox anyway (and I keep all messages in my inbox). Or did I
get it from you by some other means?

Rune
--
3D images and anims, include files, tutorials and more:
rune|vision:  http://runevision.com (updated Oct 19)
POV-Ray Ring: http://webring.povray.co.uk

Post a reply to this message

Hm, I remembered to have sent you a version
once for checking the system, a few weeks before
you started you're beta of your system.

But if it's not there, don't bother. A friend of mine
has a version of 2001 somewhere, but its not about
redoing the changes and updates, its about some
of the more interesting algorithms I've implemented
there.
I'll probably do a completely new system (maybe
even with I/O), when I really want a particle system
again.

For myself, I've set to check the four recovered
include files for "clean coding", then write another one
(the one I mentioned some time ago about tracking
detail-levels of meshes, sort of a LOD-Implementation
for my Mesh-Modifying-Macros), and begin with
a very nice and complex "reflective Sphere on
Checkered Plane".

I've even thought about using a new Artist's Name:
"Tim Nikias 2.0"

:-D


"Rune" felt sympathy:
>
> Ow, my worst nightmare... I feel with you.
>

...but had to "stab" me too ;-)

> > Rune, if you've still got some version of my
> > Particle-System, you could send it to me.
>
> I don't think you've ever sent it to me. No files with attachments from
> you in my inbox anyway (and I keep all messages in my inbox). Or did I
> get it from you by some other means?
>
> Rune

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Tim Nikias wrote:

"Somebody kills me please..."

You asked for it - you'll get it.

;-)

-- 
http://www.render-zone.com

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