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I am not sure how precisely it works or not works, but perhaps try zazzle or some other place like that, where you can sell some of your art on mugs, shirts, prints, mousepads etc? It might not be much and may take a long time to get anything at all, but could also be a little extra on the side. Might be worth checking out if nothing else :)
I do sincerely hope that you recover the things that are in that hard drive, and I'm glad that someone was able to help you with that gift card too!
*hugs*
from tweaks.com:
"
With Windows 7 you can easily mount a VHD file for offline editing in Disk Management.
Laurie
FWIW, I bought a 4tb, 7200 rmp drive (HGST) earlier this summer for less than 100 bucks on Amazon. It's at this very moment happily grinding away in my 4 bay hard drive enclosure. I also bought a 4tb 7200 rpm Toshiba drive (which is the same drive as the HGST drive). Same price. Both good drives. There's an HGST on Amazon right now matter of fact that is exactly the same as my drive except that it has a 64mg cache and mine has 128mg. TBH, I have had very few problems with an HGST drive - I have a 500gig drive that I've had for over 10 years and it still works. :)
Laurie
I've figuring in a couple years 2TB SSDs or less will be $225 or less so I will upgrade my current laptop or new desktop to use mirrored 2TB system drives. Already a 1TB SSD can be had for $150. Once I offload all those public domain Looney Toons, Car 54, and other old shows & movies to an exteral 5TB USB drive that's enough with plenty of room to spare, even with the tens of GBs Unity projects take up.
I don't know if this is an appropriate comparison, but if Spielberg had waited until he got a fully functional shark, we never would have gotten Jaws. There were a lot of scenes from the screenplay that he didn't even shoot because they couldn't make the mechanical shark look convincing. Then he had Robert Shaw do 50 takes for a single scene just to keep everyone busy and distracted from the fact that the shark was broken that day. How you run your shop is up to you, but all I can say is you make the art you can with what you have.
Sorry this happened to you. Bro Hugz!
I am in a similar situation with Disability and extremely limited funds. The MyBook and MyPassport external drives help me by automatically keeping the last 3 versions of ANY/ALL files I cahnge without me even thinking about it.
You are a known and valued member of this community and I dare say if you chose to start a smart GoFundMe aimed at data recovery or a new backup system, you would get some assistance.
3 suggestions, first as others have said publish serially or do a prequel of your story. As soon as an item is "published" you gain the copyright automatically. Go look at the website InstaFreebie for some help.
Second, start a Patreon and make a tiny bit of money, slowly dripping out WIP. This also helps you protect and preserve and creates a living archive.
Lastly consider saving different bits and pieces to DIFFERENT cloud backup systems. Others have mentioned settings, test files, charcter studies, morphs, scene files and more that can be backed up this way.
Besides once you have a prequel or WIP published, no one will want to USE your stuff because EVERYONE knows it is yours. Only secret/hidden assests/ideas are free to be stolen and used. Once you say "hey I am doing this story with these characters and they are gonna do this" you just SECURED everything for free.
Good luck!
Thats awesome news that the drive rail / trays are the same. Somehow I didn't think the designers would've re-invent the wheel so to speak when it's more cost effective to re-use a design/template for many of the parts when possible between case models.
Also looks like your motherboard has 6x Sata-II 3gb/s ports so yeah, you really just need those hd brackets now (and don't forget the sata cables, you might need pickup an extra one for the 2nd drive unless your board came with extra) to populate the drive racks. Internal is always nicer when you have the option for it vs cables and external clutter.
As for case lighting - never cared for the side panel windows as the case does get dusty over time even with the grill filters. I don't mind the LED fans as I can color code red for hot exhaust air and blue for cool intake air.
All in all, at least some things are starting to look up and brighter one step at a time. :)
...yeah but he had a major studio's scene shop and the budget to make the fixes needed.
With 3D CG, it would mean modelling and texturing something to fill the need, and my skills in that arena are, well, "laughable" is a polite term. With Hexagon finally more stable (not crashing every 10 - 15 minutes which really puts the brakes on learning a highly technical process) with bug fixes and going 64 bit, I've actually been at best, able to get something a toe hold on the process but it's still a long, long road ahead before I will be able to create something up to the level of say Stonemason, DZFire, Aave Nainen, or Polish.
...longer than what it would take to save/scrape up the funds up to get the content I need when I can.
This is the reason I put a moratorium on buying a lot of new "shinys" (like G8) so I'd only focus on purchasing what I actually need that is already on my wishlist when I have the funds.
I'm not sure I got my point across clearly. No matter what kind of money he was able to get, the production team couldn't get a mechanical shark working at 100%, especially dealing with the heat, humidity, weather, etc where they were filming. The film was actually supposed to have a lot more shark footage, but Spielberg chose not to include it because it would have looked like crap. And in the end, the movie turned out better because of it. It added to the suspense, not being able to see the shark in most of those scenes. Also, James Cameron said he originally wanted to include the liquid metal terminator in the original movie. Obviously that would have been a total crapfest given 1984 technology.
On a sidenote, I know everyone's talking about crowdfunding to help you get your data back, but do you really need it? You'd be better off recreating those characters with Genesis 3 or whatever you're currently using. I've taken one of my G1 characters and recreated her with G3, she definitely looks better and it took me less than a day to do. Just looking a the size of this 2 day old thread, you obviously have a lot of people willing to help you. I don't think it would take much for people to dial up some new characters based on whatever renders you have. I'd be willing to help out. As long as people only use the same content you already own, it shouldn't be a problem, license wise. Plus, you said you haven't released anything yet, so the public wouldn't notice if your characters were a little different anyway. I mean, it's not like you're trying to switch Darrens on Bewitched or cast a new Lionel on The Jeffersons. Ok, I'm starting to show my age. Anyway, think it over. Good luck, whatever you decide to do.
...just a note, I look at services like GoFundMe & such as more important for dire and "life critical" situations, like not being able to pay medical bills or needing a life saving procedure that your insurance won't cover, Rebuilding a home damaged/destroyed by fire, a natural disaster or vandalism, or for a business startup that provides a necessary service in an area where it is needed.
I'm not really looking at starting a business of my own as I tired doing that years ago and was stung by taxes. I do not have good business savvy and only look at doing this as an "on the side" venture. All I want to do is tell a story (well a couple but have to do so one idea at a time), not make a living at it. I understand what a "meat grinder" the mainstream publishing industry is and am looking at alternatives to playing that game. Net based publishing has its pitfalls, namely that anyone can simply "right click" to steal things like images. Also reading text on a screen is very tiring. particularly as most computer monitors are oriented wrong for displaying a full page. I realise it will not be an easy road, which is why I am looking to create high art quality art prints based on the work to display at Sci Fi/Fantasy conventions & such, in a sense as a "physical portfolio" to show around.
Due to the nature of this storyline, there really is no "prequel" that can be written as past events which affect the central characters adn setting are part of the primary storyline and presented as flashbacks. It wouldn't stand well on their own (for example, who would want to read a book about Leela and her family during her childhood before the invasion of her nation where there was little if any major struggle to deal with?).
I'm so sorry the see this. Glad that the initial shock has subsided and that you are figuring it out. I cried the first time I lost my custom category system. It took me months to put it back together. I am really really familiar with my stuff now though. Its stories like these that finally convinced me to start backing up my stuff. I did lose a hard drive shortly after i starrted in Studio but I didn't have years of work invested. If it happened now I would be utterly heart broken. I do hope that you are able to continue to enjoy the process even though you may have to start over.
That's cool. I'm just throwing ideas out there. Do your thing. If you know exactly what you want to do, go for it.
You Dont have to have Published anything publicly to get started on your rendering.
Also waiting for the technology or assets to become more advanced, typically becomes an excuse to never actually start producing anything IMHO.
Like people who are waiting for all of this amazing, "AI" driven experimental animation Alphaware to become a reality and then they can finally start animating characters with near zero effort or knowledge
In a multi year,solo project,using externally provided 3D assets, there will be noticable jumps in quality over time unless you force yourself to the standards that existed when you started.
I started My Feature length film project with only poser and Maxon C4D on one mac computer
NO Daz animate2,GraphMate , keyMate NO genesis figures ,
NO(windows only) Iclone Pro,
NO ability to model ,my own custom clothing.
Yet I manged to get over ten minutes of finished film completed.
When I got a new Win7 PC and Migrated to Daz studio 4.XX for characters , and Iclone pro For animation, I began replacing the films early poser characters with
pre-animated Genesis figures exported from Daz to C4D as /obj/MDD.
As this particular project is a non commercial "fan film" I am not concerned
that there will be noticable improvements in figure appearance& Character
animaton. quality,after the first ten minutes.
I corraborated on a project with a person of that type. Three years later it still isn't done, and it's the type of project I complete in two months. Nothing is ever "Perfect"
A friend gave me a copy of BeyondCompare which is pretty good and gets faster with each update. I think it's up to version 4 or 5 now.... I'll check out Copywhiz
KK, I'm SO SORRY this happened to you. There seems to be some good advice here but if your strapped finacially you need a money fairy to come to your rescue. If you find that fairy then make sure and wish for a backup drive as well. I keep my DS backed up twice in case of a drive failure. I'm sort of lazy about backing up on a regular basis but at least I have MOST of my works, projects and market projects backed up. I also keep my GoZ project folder for ZBrush backed up pretty extensively as it's just as important.
HUGS and Wishing for you the help you need and desire!
Oh tell me about being sick. I remember before I got into the back it up twice mode I had a huge crash a decade ago and lost all of my Photoshop paintings, all of my Xara vector works... all of them huge projects. I did this painting of Phoenix from the XMen that was luckily printed out but it was a masterpiece of mine. I cried for about a month off and on and then went into the "beat myself up" period for being so negligent on backing up stuff. It was a horrible couple of months for me, just horrible.
Enterprise drives are recommended for long life. I have two hair clients that work for companies that make those and that's all they use to make sure that client archival stuff and important files are safe. The commercial drives are really not as good and both clients, that do not know each other, had the same info. Drive failure happens more often using drives like that. I have a drive I bought off of Amazon that has great reviews, solid, from folks that know their stuff about drives so I'll post the link here in case you want to go check it out...
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00E262AHO/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Well, I can't say I've ever been in a situation comparable to what you're going through, but I have the feeling that hanging out at the pub more, watching sports and YouTube, will only make you feel worse. I definitely understand the urge to just sit back, but leaving behind your only creative outlet I'm sure is guarenteed to make you more miserable than you are now. You have to do what you have to do, and if you don't want to restart your project from scratch and can't afford to get a data recovery (maybe bundle the drive in bubble wrap and put it in a fire safe, you never know what the future may hold), then that's the call you have to make (or made for you in the case of money). But don't give up on artwork. Maybe turn that graphic novel into a written work if you don't want a total loss, but definitely start something new. Giving up on what you love doing if you can do anything to do about it just blows.
..again, this is why I froze character development with G3. and have not bothered with G8.
As I mentioned when I first became involved, Gen4 had no teen characters and only near the end were there child characters. Furthermore clothing fits were a total pain in the bum as one was limited to the clothing for that particular figure. I couldn't put K4 clothing on a V4 or S4 character and most of the adult clothing was unsuitable for younger characters. Converters like WW and XD were hit and miss, particularly adapting male clothing to female characters (t-shirts, slacks, shorts, jackets, etc). Most adult female clothing would crumple badly in the chest area on very small breasted or flat chested figures (took me nearly a year of trial and error to finally wring a "passable" teen out of tall lanky buxom Vicky) which looked absolutely terrible. This is why the Genesis platform was such an improvement. ad it allowed for mixing of different shapes and much improved transferring clothing between characters. So yes sometimeswaiting is worth it as it helps streamline the workflow.
Also at hte time I was still in the early learnign stages of this. Most of what I learned in the years of working with traditional art media, save for composition, didn't apply. Yeah, I was back in the "first grade" again and nearly 50 years of learning and experience helped little.
That aside. G3 being less "heavy" poly-wise as the earlier Genesis versions is easier on the rendering, and as it employs a better weight map structure, has further improved the workflow as it just poses so much more naturally as well as having much improved expression control (gone was that somewhat "hideous" Genesis smile). This may not be important to some but for someone like myself who for years studied figure anatomy and dynamic posing, as well as for whom facial expressions communicate a lot without words, it is very important.
This is also a very important work to me and I want the illustrations to be of high quality as well as consistent throughout. Yes it is somewhat "fan fiction" as it is influenced and loosely based on in the Shadowrun RPG world setting, though with a lot of "non canon" changes of my own. None of the game's "star" personalities are used, all characters are my own concepts and design and many "future history" events in the game have been altered to varying degrees (or not used) to create a world setting that better supports what happens in the storyline.
C4D is also a bit of a step up from hobbyist software like Daz and Poser to be teh first 3D software to learn on. It would be like myself first staring in say Modo or 3DS, then migrating to Daz (which on my income would have been impossible). Of course had I started with one of those, I'd probably have been modelling most of what I needed.
...thank you. I have a new drive (and one for backup) on the way (courtesy of a generous community member here) . As to looking for that "Money Fairy" to get the additional content and tools I need, that's a 1$ Megabucks lotto ticket every week.
...actually it is a written work (too detailed for a graphic novel) but in "storybook" style that is set up to include full page illustrations, (my narrative can get a little long winded at times). I actually am far better telling a story with images than words considering I have been involved in visual art my entire life (as I understand, I started drawing [not scribbling] not long after I could walk). Music was another pursuit where I found could do the same (from a classical base). Unfortunately that too was taken by arthritis (my right hand is so crippled I can only use one finger when typing, hence no office job either as my keyboarding speed is now abysmal compared to what it used to be which is why I retired early).
Though an old work, (one of the last I did on my old 32 bit notebook), this is still my favourite: I could barely get this to render without crashing, but fortunately Stonemason makes his sets so that you can remove items from them very easily. BTW, she is not Genesis, this is about far as I was able push Gen4 (Vicky unimesh) to create a young teen character. The only post on this was a toon filter in Gimp as back then I was considering a graphic novel.
THat's a nice picture, KK. I hope you'll be sharing more of them.
>> I have a new drive (and one for backup) on the way (courtesy of a generous community member here)<<
Heh, that was extremely generous considering you have a video card that most of us can only dream of having. We do have some very kind and sympathetic members here.
On a more related note, I think remaking your characters will probably improve them. There's likely no one in this community who has remade their characters more times than I have - I've recreated a single character at least 12 times that I can remember and have done it on V4, Genesis, Genesis 2, Genesis 3, and as of yesterday, Genesis 8 - and I do feel that she gets better with each new rebuild. I'm sure there is a lot that you lost that cannot easily be replaced, but you might get some satisfaction from remaking your original characters with the added experience and new tools/figures that are now available.
One advantage I've discovered of using the Genesis line is that because we have to buy the same essential morph sets over and over (which is not a good thing, but), your character settings can be reproduced very well from one generation to the next. Even Zev0's morphs are the same between Genesis versions, and I was able to almost perfectly reproduce my Genesis 3 character with Genesis 8 once I had everything I needed. I know you don't want to have to upgrade to the latest figure, but at the very least, writing down all your morph settings will come in handy down the line.
so sorry this crashiness landed on you, kk.
i know that budget is a real issue for you. but i do strongly recommend you check these local guys out. and please do look at their services page and rates (and yelp reviews) before you write them off as potential rescuers. for instance: they include data transfer from old HDs to installed replacement drives as part of their base drive replacement service, and if they don't have to do a ton of deep diving to recover the old drive's data, they charge nothing extra for that. their base rates are super low for the area, but their attitude toward customer service is amazing, and their kung fu is quite advanced. :)
they're good people. excellent to work with if you want someone to build a custom rig for you, too. they saved me a lot of money and helped me avoid a couple of not-the-savviest decisions when i had my box built. and they look for ways to help you afford what you need rather than upselling you, or padding bills.
good luck!
j
Yeah, I agree. A bit of a head-scratcher, IMO, considering the choice not to spend a few bucks to do even minimal backups in the last 6 years? Extremely generous. And I totally agree with Kyoto Kid, that taking funds from others (GoFundMe and so on), is far more appropriate for stuff like being a victim of Hurricane Michael when your house gets wiped out. Otherwise it's better if it's taking funds for providing a service, like Patreon or whatever.
On a side (but semi-related) note, I recently was considering selling some stuff I have lying around, including a GTX-1060 I never use, and some other stuff (it's amazing when you start realizing all of the unused stuff you have that's lying around and might be sellable...), and realized that eBay is pretty much dead. Wow. How come nobody told me? I guess Amazon Marketplace is now the replacement? In any case, for those who still haven't backed up stuff that they consider extremely important, I suggest that you take a moment to list your priorities and decide how you'd feel if you lost your work. If it really is that important to you, then maybe you should shift priorites so that you can put a little effort into backing it up.
On the other hand, if you're like me I pretty much consider the total loss of my Studio data an opportunity to start fresh with new ideas.
Especially since, if I'm being truly honest with myself, most of it isn't all that good since I'm not real talented. But I still back it all up just 'cuz. 
Amazon is a not a good place to buy a computer. Too many highly overpriced 'refurbished' (aka used) computers on Amazon.
EBay is not much better unless you want to buy a used PC that is not top of the line and willing to search for a week or two until a reasonable deal comes along which is not often for you have to set your ceiling price and purchase as soon as the minimum specs you were searching for become available. As I am definately very poor since my disability from a servere head injury and so I must save shopping and I know first hand that used computers are grossly overpriced relative to the newest models so I really have to say no to such prices. The descently capable 7 year old laptop I have now is 3rd gen intel CPU that I won at auction on eBay for $50 and then added my own RAM, SSD, HD, and OS installation to put it in service. I was very lucky because usually the CPUs contained in a laptop such as I have go at auction for at least $75 and usually $100 or more dollars. It's not really a rational market to pay those prices on used obsoleted equipment that gives such minor performace boosts. Of course, I've spent much more on DAZ 3D models but it's just like $20 - $50 a month, less than $20 most months, for a couple of years. New computer HW is not worth financing at the extreme rate it depreciates and looses value so cash for one of the sub-$500 Acer/ASUS desktop using the newest intel CPU is more sensible. Sadly, I've yet to see Acer/ASUS do sub $400 (given the lower price of the AMD CPU) or even sub-$500 entry-level AMD CPU desktop but I can hope they will in the future. Of course if you got lots of money burning holes in your pockets you don't have to worry about being thrifty.
Anyway, on Amazon, often the newest entry level computers from ACER (or ASUS as they seem to take turns per new intel CPU generation on offering the best entry level desktop deal) are bought up & resold at higher pricesthan brand new as 'refurbished'. That just happened to the sub-$500 Acer desktop I was looking at with 8th gen intel CPU. Of course at the refurbished prices you can then build your own desktop with better specs than the new but 'refurbished' ACER that was hoarded for resale.
I have SplinRite. It's worth it if you can get it to start. Unfortunately, Mr. Gibson needs to modernize the interface. He's a stubborn old assembly language coder, and I mean stubborn. He still makes you install it under DRDOS, which is completely 100% UNACCEPTABLE with today's BIOS and hard drives.
So normally I wouldn't even bother to reply. Not taking backups will usually ultimately knock those people right out of the business or activity once they had a failure. And that's that. But I respect you, Kyoto Kid, so maybe I can help a little bit.
As to your lost data. Well, your DAZ library stuff is restorable. Restore it. Now. If you don't, you'll rue this decision for the remainder of your living days. You know I'm right, yes?
Your scenes, props, images, etcetera; those are gone, right? So what. Okay, that sounded flip. But think for a moment: How many of those props were really and truly REQUIRED for the story's accompanying artwork? A hundred? A couple dozen? Fewer? Figure it out, and rebuild only the truly needed props. And while you're at it, don't waste any time rebuilding things that are not 100% critical to your story. I've heard it said that the most important thing you write isn't what you put INTO the piece. It's what you REMOVE from the piece.
Less is more, and I belive this is absolutely true for music and graphic art, too. So why not review the whole story; you have that on other media, right? Review it and remove the cruft. H.G. Wells was a great storyteller, but in my opinion, he spent far too much time describing a room or a device. There were times when it seemed that Jim Steinman (the writer for a lot of Meatloaf songs) might never be able to finish a song, because he got all complicated and long. The same with the author Edith Wharton. Want to know who does it right? Patricia Cornwell. And Robert B. Parker's novels mostly fit within 200 pages or so.
And speaking of the story. How good is it? No, I mean it. Really, how good is it? I don't doubt you that it's good; not at all. But what I'm getting at is this:
Each of these has at its core, A GREAT STORY (some better than the acting in the movie versions!), and many many more, were made without artwork, except maybe for a cover painting or an inside cover pencil or watercolor image. Some did not even have art there.
So here's my point: Why not consider restoring your DS library and just do a couple of illustrations and then GET THE STORY OUT? If your story is begging to be told and you've already written it and spent 6 years on it, then why are you waiting? I can assure you, I'm a smart guy with a vivid imagination. So if they're really good stories, then I won't need artwork to enjoy them. Publish! Launch! Sign autographed copies at your local Barnes & Noble, so that I can have a cup of coffee with you before they go out of business! If the story is a success, then you can later issue a coffeetable version called "Artwork of the Dingo Dog: A Trilogy of Drama, Danger, Exctasy, and Tragedy". Or whatever you named your story, hehe...
This leads me to another point, and this is probably far more critical than your lost art. Oohhh, did I really say that? Yes! Please read on...
You said you have the story written on different media (paper and ink), right? What happens if you have a fire at your apartment? You need to figure out a way to back up this data too, or you could be singing "Part 2" of the "Dingo Dog Tale of Woe" just a few short months down the road, not having learned anything from the demoralizing experience you just now went through.
----
This is how I see it:
Restore, as best you can, your data. If all you can get back is your DIM library, then so be it; grab it and pull it back down before DAZ drops support for DIM.
Implement a 321 backup strategy. At a MINIMUM, you should have...
You get to figure out the "offsite" part for yourself. This may sound cruel, but "I can't afford it" is not an answer. Find a way. You're a smart guy and you've gotta at least have one friend who'll keep an encrypted backup drive in a drawer for you, right? If you're worried, you can get a small Pelikan case to keep it locked. Find a way.
Now, a few words abouts cloud backups in general, because nobody seems able to defend it here, and that's not great for so many technical wizards who can write entire dissertations on modelling, texturing, or lighting, just here in these forums.
I get your fear, Kyoto Kid; I really do. But what just happened to you is absolutely, postively an order of magnitude more terrifying than using modern tools. I respectfully suggest that it's long-past time that you put your fears aside and research better security and backup methodologies for yourself.
And anybody else who's also reading this? Yeah, I'm talking to you too!
Don't let this happen to you.
..well the card was bought used at a good price and terms, otherwise I wouldn't have it.
Well between G2 and G3 they aren't because of the change in weight map format.
...thank you, but there is probably a good chance as I understand that the backup I did on Sunday just after I received the notice of the impending failure nay have captured what I need. Not going to do anything until the new drive arrives and I can restore the backup and see if the scene and character files were indeed saved. If so then no point in paying for recovery.
Really nice to see everyone chipping in, some really good points and advice. I hope you’ll be back on your rendering feet Kyoto kid. All life is learning!