Disaster

[quietrob]

My blue light is no longer blinking but it's slow going transferring files. So far, I'll transferred my Texture, Material files, Face Files and a few character files that I spun myself. Lights should be pretty small in comparison the 880 Meg of Material files. I'll try that next and then go with camera's. No one makes camera files that aren't included in the offering. Truform is amazing. His models are amazing. He includes zero camera's. For the record. I like camera's.

What is the true correlation between Texture and Material files?

Simply keeping this record because I gol dang guarantee you that someone else will have a drive go belly up. They'll be glad this thread is here. I hate looking for answers and the best google can come up with is something from 2012.

Didn't they know the world ended in 2012?

 

[StudioMartillo]

It's good to hear from you quietrob. I was starting to get worried you were all depressed or something.
Nice to know how you're doing this. Maybe the data is slowly getting fixed because of error correction for the blocks.
Whatever, even if it's slow getting files back is great.

 

[Deleted member 325]

I remember the war of the apocalypse in 2012. Good times.

 

[quietrob]

Yes. It was the last time I lost a drive. I blame the Mayans and Nostradamus. How can he predict the end of the world but not the end of my hard drive?

@KageRyu Did we win?

@StudioMartillo Thank you. It's nice to know someone is pleased to hear from me! I was depressed, but it's not like I need therapy yet. Getting this hard drive to transfer it's goods is just a matter of patience and luck. Out of thousands of textures, so far only six vendors were lost. Thank goodness J.Trout corset made it through! Pretty3D would be a problem as they (he? She?) didn't answer my last site mail. Luckily Rendo has a copy and I probably have it backed up somewhere as well.

Thanks for keeping my thread alive.

 

[StudioMartillo]

This is my favorite Mayan glyph. Used to be my avatar. It's authentic I swear!
Check this dude, is he wearing a headset or what? Where did those Mayans see headsets? Think about it.

 

[Deleted member 325]

@quietrob it was a close game, but the Aliens from Dimension X took victory 12 to 11. They wiped the memories of most of the survivors (a few of us escaped and now lead a secret underground against our alien oppressors).

 

[quietrob]

@StudioMartillo One of the main themes of Ancient Aliens is that things like Mayans wearing headsets is repeated over and over again in different parts of the world. In a recent dig in Egypt, this original photograph, taken at the site and had been hidden for 150 years was found, restored, digitized to improve quality and colorized for modern consumption. Miss B, sorry for the run-on sentence.

Why is the Sphinx wearing a headset? Did he get it the same time as the Mayan's? Was the Pharoah a DJ with slick killer riffs? More evidence is needed.

@KageRyu The Tentacles always make the Aliens from Dimension X a tough opponent. They can be beat. We just need better draft picks or better pods containing young metamorphs that we can groom into Superstars the next time the world ends.

Took a night off from transferring files. It's so nerve wracking to see the drive humming along then the transfer stops, the drive is no longer recognized and I have to go through my "Restore Drive back to Life" dance before I can start again. I'm at the letter T when it comes to transferring files. Almost done then I can back to Geometries. I stopped at the Letter M. Luckily the files that were corrupted were from a vendor named Mytilus. All that I bought from him/her is stored at Rendo. By the way, when CP stops charging for storing files, I'll go back to shop. Right now I just spend my 5 bucks of a birthday voucher there.

I was able to get most of my camera files, materials, face and lights. Character files will take a bit and it just might be easier to recreate them than to try and transfer them. Does anyone know where DAZ keeps it Injection Files for Vicky and Mike? The big file not just the morphs.

 

[Miss B]

One of the main themes of Ancient Aliens is that things like Mayans wearing headsets is repeated over and over again in different parts of the world. In a recent dig in Egypt, this original photograph, taken at the site and had been hidden for 150 years was found, restored, digitized to improve quality and colorized for modern consumption. Miss B, sorry for the run-on sentence.

You're apologizing to the wrong person Rob. Working for lawyers for so many years turned me into the Queen of the Run-On Sentence.

 

[Hornet3d]

My blue light is no longer blinking but it's slow going transferring files. So far, I'll transferred my Texture, Material files, Face Files and a few character files that I spun myself. Lights should be pretty small in comparison the 880 Meg of Material files. I'll try that next and then go with camera's. No one makes camera files that aren't included in the offering. Truform is amazing. His models are amazing. He includes zero camera's. For the record. I like camera's.

What is the true correlation between Texture and Material files?

Simply keeping this record because I gol dang guarantee you that someone else will have a drive go belly up. They'll be glad this thread is here. I hate looking for answers and the best google can come up with is something from 2012.

Didn't they know the world ended in 2012?

Glad you are getting you most of your data, even if it is slow. From your first attempts I was beginning to fear it was all lost forever.

 

[quietrob]

Thank you, Hornet. One of the saddest parts of restoring my data is going back to the site where I got it from, only to find the Site is now defunct. The lastest casualty is Art Raiders. They had a fun free wheeling forum and a lot of freebies. Now I'm stuck on a file where that freebie came. I think. One memory leads to another until the truth of my search bears fruit. Still, I only need to find Syltermermaid and see if I can locate it by zip in my archives. At least it's moving, albeit slowly. A real problem is findin out the names of the texture files have nothing to do with the vendor. Why do they choose different names for their texture files vs the actual model name? Arrrgh!

Both DAZ and Renderosity are rock solid when it comes to storing files. My thanks to them both.

 

[tiggersprings]

I feel your pain. The hard drive my external runtimes were on malfunctioned in January. I plugged in the "backup" external drive to find out that it's unresponsive. I also found out at the same time that this Windows 10 box of bolts (computer) has a hard time accessing older backup discs (CD or DVD); I'm lucky if it can read one in every three. I worked a little bit on putting some of my smallest runtimes back together and burning them to DVD (for some of my least-supported toon figures mostly), but it took a couple of months to get a new external drive for rutimes (and then it was a "portable" one, not the powered ones I'm used to using). Months later, I've re-installed quite a bit of content, but barely scratched the surface of the decade's worth (or so) of the Poser content iceberg. Of course, I am custom organizing and trouble-shooting everything I'm reinstalling in my new runtimes, since I'm starting from scratch. Things are moving at a very slow pace (and I'm finding more errors than one should find in paid-for content). I'm honestly burned out and very close to walking away from Poserverse.

 

[Hornet3d]

I feel your pain. The hard drive my external runtimes were on malfunctioned in January. I plugged in the "backup" external drive to find out that it's unresponsive. I also found out at the same time that this Windows 10 box of bolts (computer) has a hard time accessing older backup discs (CD or DVD); I'm lucky if it can read one in every three. I worked a little bit on putting some of my smallest runtimes back together and burning them to DVD (for some of my least-supported toon figures mostly), but it took a couple of months to get a new external drive for rutimes (and then it was a "portable" one, not the powered ones I'm used to using). Months later, I've re-installed quite a bit of content, but barely scratched the surface of the decade's worth (or so) of the Poser content iceberg. Of course, I am custom organizing and trouble-shooting everything I'm reinstalling in my new runtimes, since I'm starting from scratch. Things are moving at a very slow pace (and I'm finding more errors than one should find in paid-for content). I'm honestly burned out and very close to walking away from Poserverse.

You really do have my sympathy, to take the trouble to backup data only to find that the backup is of limited or no use when you need it is a real shame. I tend to have multiple methods of back up the latest being on line via Amazon. I know a lot of people are resistant to this idea and I do understand that. In my case I am happy to take any risk to offset the danger of losing or having to rebuild what I have.

The loss of data is bad enough but as you have highlighted it is also the time and shear effort it needs to get back to a point anywhere near to where it was before.

I do wish you luck and hope you manage to get past this low point without walking away from Poserverse.

 

[Hornet3d]

Thank you, Hornet. One of the saddest parts of restoring my data is going back to the site where I got it from, only to find the Site is now defunct. The lastest casualty is Art Raiders. They had a fun free wheeling forum and a lot of freebies. Now I'm stuck on a file where that freebie came. I think. One memory leads to another until the truth of my search bears fruit. Still, I only need to find Syltermermaid and see if I can locate it by zip in my archives. At least it's moving, albeit slowly. A real problem is findin out the names of the texture files have nothing to do with the vendor. Why do they choose different names for their texture files vs the actual model name? Arrrgh!

Both DAZ and Renderosity are rock solid when it comes to storing files. My thanks to them both.

I have reservations with both sites but you do have to give credit where due and, as you say, both sites are rock solid when looking to re download purchased content. Another reason why I don't want to see either fail even though I believe I have a good enough back up strategy not to need them, I know the hurt it would cause in cases like this if they did go bust so I would prefer them to continue to exist.

 

[tiggersprings]

You really do have my sympathy, to take the trouble to backup data only to find that the backup is of limited or no use when you need it is a real shame. I tend to have multiple methods of back up the latest being on line via Amazon. I know a lot of people are resistant to this idea and I do understand that. In my case I am happy to take any risk to offset the danger of losing or having to rebuild what I have.

The loss of data is bad enough but as you have highlighted it is also the time and shear effort it needs to get back to a point anywhere near to where it was before.

I do wish you luck and hope you manage to get past this low point without walking away from Poserverse.

Well, hello, there! Thanks. So do I, because I've invested a lot of energy, time, and money into Poser (and related things) over the years. I've just been lurking in the shadows while rebuilding, because I haven't had much nice or positive to say. In my case, I own too much content--even with the installers zipped--for online backup. It would just be far, far too expensive. I haven't downloaded from Daz yet, but my 3D-related stuff from Renderosity alone came to 106 gigs. That's without backgrounds, brushes, merchant resources, tutorials, and so on. I'm going to do a second wave to download those (although I really wish I had completed it all at once now).

 

[Hornet3d]

Well, hello, there! Thanks. So do I, because I've invested a lot of energy, time, and money into Poser (and related things) over the years. I've just been lurking in the shadows while rebuilding, because I haven't had much nice or positive to say. In my case, I own too much content--even with the installers zipped--for online backup. It would just be far, far too expensive. I haven't downloaded from Daz yet, but my 3D-related stuff from Renderosity alone came to 106 gigs. That's without backgrounds, brushes, merchant resources, tutorials, and so on. I'm going to do a second wave to download those (although I really wish I had completed it all at once now).

I think most of us have far too much content, my runtimes run to 182gig and that is after archiving some runtimes such as my Victoria 3 content. Like you that does not include items that I regard as 2D Poser support such as backgrounds and image maps. I dread to think how long it would take me to download each item. My backup is generally folder based so the runtimes are in one large folder and the 2D Poser stuff in another, in theory at least all I would have to do is copy the folder back onto my computer is disaster hits. As you discovered, any backup plan is only really valid when you have to use it in anger.

If I was downloading each item I think I would have to download just the basics and continue playing with renders, downloading other items as they were needed otherwise I think I might well give up Poser rather than take on such a daunting task.

 

[tiggersprings]

I think most of us have far too much content, my runtimes run to 182gig and that is after archiving some runtimes such as my Victoria 3 content. Like you that does not include items that I regard as 2D Poser support such as backgrounds and image maps. I dread to think how long it would take me to download each item. My backup is generally folder based so the runtimes are in one large folder and the 2D Poser stuff in another, in theory at least all I would have to do is copy the folder back onto my computer is disaster hits. As you discovered, any backup plan is only really valid when you have to use it in anger.

If I was downloading each item I think I would have to download just the basics and continue playing with renders, downloading other items as they were needed otherwise I think I might well give up Poser rather than take on such a daunting task.

At best guess, I'd say my runtimes had been running at about 500-600 gigs. That's with most purchases installed, with the exception of Poser World's stuff. I tend to install their stuff as I use it. I had a very small percentage of freebies installed because I had just fairly recently killed the "Freebies - Commercial OK" runtime because it was too big and too messy. LOL

The scary thing about all of this was how much of my Poser content is now non-replaceable. DDU, PoserPros, and several other stores are now long gone. I have gotten pretty fortunate, most things that I paid for I have been able to dig up copies of. Several vendors have been kind in helping to replace "bonus" files and the like, as well. I got extremely fortunate that I had backed up my RDNA purchases several ways and even still had them download to the PC. Now I have those saved on a at least one flash drive, two microSD cards, DVDs, and the new hard drive... LOL I am thinking about finding alternate means of storage for at least the immediately irreplaceable stuff.

I'm pretty well finished with the smaller runtimes. I just finished runtimes for Apollo, Dawn, and Dusk in the last week. Now, I need to clean up the main drive and start the enormous task of the downloading and sorting Daz files so can set up all my other old friends up. I had been going to start on some of the environments and stuff (mainly by DM, Mapps, and Richabri), but I really think I need a break from rutnime reconstruction... And as much as I hate the idea of all the downloading and sorting the Daz people and their stuff, I think it's time. LOL

 

[quietrob]

I think most of us have far too much content, my runtimes run to 182gig and that is after archiving some runtimes such as my Victoria 3 content. Like you that does not include items that I regard as 2D Poser support such as backgrounds and image maps. I dread to think how long it would take me to download each item. My backup is generally folder based so the runtimes are in one large folder and the 2D Poser stuff in another, in theory at least all I would have to do is copy the folder back onto my computer is disaster hits. As you discovered, any backup plan is only really valid when you have to use it in anger.

If I was downloading each item I think I would have to download just the basics and continue playing with renders, downloading other items as they were needed otherwise I think I might well give up Poser rather than take on such a daunting task.

Actually. That's what I've done. One, I found where I actually backed up a LOT of my PZ3 files. I run the PZ3 files, it stops and tells me I need this or that, and I go download that file and all other from that vendor. Some vendors are insanely busy but still told me (after I provided proof of my purchase. I kept ALL reciepts in my Hillary Clinton sized Email file (I can say that. I wanted Bernie but I still voted for hero once the dust clears). They'll see what they can do. Some vendors are simply amazing...and sent me the files I lost. In some cases, for products that they no longer sell. Keep your receipts. You never know when you'll have to prove that you actually bought something. Of course, in the case of the original poser pro's or Art Raiders, or Yuridigital or RDNA...the term SOL comes to mind. It's taken quite a bit to get back my runtime even close to what I did before.

 

[Hornet3d]

At best guess, I'd say my runtimes had been running at about 500-600 gigs. That's with most purchases installed, with the exception of Poser World's stuff. I tend to install their stuff as I use it. I had a very small percentage of freebies installed because I had just fairly recently killed the "Freebies - Commercial OK" runtime because it was too big and too messy. LOL

The scary thing about all of this was how much of my Poser content is now non-replaceable. DDU, PoserPros, and several other stores are now long gone. I have gotten pretty fortunate, most things that I paid for I have been able to dig up copies of. Several vendors have been kind in helping to replace "bonus" files and the like, as well. I got extremely fortunate that I had backed up my RDNA purchases several ways and even still had them download to the PC. Now I have those saved on a at least one flash drive, two microSD cards, DVDs, and the new hard drive... LOL I am thinking about finding alternate means of storage for at least the immediately irreplaceable stuff.

I'm pretty well finished with the smaller runtimes. I just finished runtimes for Apollo, Dawn, and Dusk in the last week. Now, I need to clean up the main drive and start the enormous task of the downloading and sorting Daz files so can set up all my other old friends up. I had been going to start on some of the environments and stuff (mainly by DM, Mapps, and Richabri), but I really think I need a break from rutnime reconstruction... And as much as I hate the idea of all the downloading and sorting the Daz people and their stuff, I think it's time. LOL

Having multiple backup mediums is certainly the way to go, you might like to keep a copy of the real important stuff elsewhere, I always do in case of fire or theft. Not so important now I have some cloud backup but it it is a wise move to cover off the unexpected. It is bad enough if something that traumatic happens but even more tragic if art work and photos are lost as well.

Taking a break seems a good idea too, only you know when it s getting too much but everyone reaches a point when a break in a good idea , certainly in the long run.

 

[Hornet3d]

Actually. That's what I've done. One, I found where I actually backed up a LOT of my PZ3 files. I run the PZ3 files, it stops and tells me I need this or that, and I go download that file and all other from that vendor. Some vendors are insanely busy but still told me (after I provided proof of my purchase. I kept ALL reciepts in my Hillary Clinton sized Email file (I can say that. I wanted Bernie but I still voted for hero once the dust clears). They'll see what they can do. Some vendors are simply amazing...and sent me the files I lost. In some cases, for products that they no longer sell. Keep your receipts. You never know when you'll have to prove that you actually bought something. Of course, in the case of the original poser pro's or Art Raiders, or Yuridigital or RDNA...the term SOL comes to mind. It's taken quite a bit to get back my runtime even close to what I did before.

Glad the hear you are getting there and having some positive responses from vendors. I am not sure how I would get hold the the vendors of my early stuff as some appear to have left the 3D art scene. I do still keep a copy of the receipts though, just in case.

 

[tiggersprings]

Having multiple backup mediums is certainly the way to go, you might like to keep a copy of the real important stuff elsewhere, I always do in case of fire or theft. Not so important now I have some cloud backup but it it is a wise move to cover off the unexpected. It is bad enough if something that traumatic happens but even more tragic if art work and photos are lost as well.

Taking a break seems a good idea too, only you know when it s getting too much but everyone reaches a point when a break in a good idea , certainly in the long run.

Yeah, multiple backups didn't help me this time, but... Well, it's all one really can do...

Yep, I think I'm probably going to burn Apollo, Dawn, and Dusk's runtimes off on discs (it'll take a DVD for Dusk and Dawn and a CD for Apollo) and move them to the new drive. Then, I think I'll clean up the main drive a bit and start the Daz history download process. I want to sort stuff certain ways, so I'll be downloading manually (as always). Won't that be fun. I think there are around 6,000 things in that order history... LOL

Quietrob, have you gotten responses back from all the vendors you've contacted? I won't name names, but I've had utter silence as a response from a few...