Computer advice? (file recovery)
Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 7:00 pm
I'm in a bit of a pickle. As mentioned in my LiveJournal yesterday, my computer decided to randomly disappear my entire collection of full-resolution "Podunk U" strips, including the colorized ones. Luckily I had started production on a potential book collection already, and thus had a Word document containing all the strips from its actual run, EXCEPT for the ones I redrew from scratch and colorized for this summer's filler feature. I could, theoretically, just go back and re-scan and recolor all of them exactly as they were, or as close as I can come, but I don't want to have to do that if I can help it.
I have managed to retrieve the files in question using PC Inspector File Recovery; however, because my hard drive is so crammed full of junk, they had already begun to get overwritten and are now corrupted to the point of being unreadable. I'm currently operating off a different hard drive for the time being, so that it doesn't get any worse, but I'm wondering three things:
(1) Do any of you bigger-nerds-than-me out there know of better programs than PCI File Recovery that might be able restore the files better? Or...
(2) Do any of you know of software that can take the already-recovered files and repair them so that they're good as new? We're talking both PSDs and TIFFs, if at all possible. And if so...
(3) Can I get said program(s) anywhere for free or very cheap (say, less than $30 total)? All the restoration programs I've found cost money, in some cases a LOT of money, and their free "demo" versions add watermarks or are limited to smaller files than these. As much as I hate to say this, pirated versions are welcome.
I have managed to retrieve the files in question using PC Inspector File Recovery; however, because my hard drive is so crammed full of junk, they had already begun to get overwritten and are now corrupted to the point of being unreadable. I'm currently operating off a different hard drive for the time being, so that it doesn't get any worse, but I'm wondering three things:
(1) Do any of you bigger-nerds-than-me out there know of better programs than PCI File Recovery that might be able restore the files better? Or...
(2) Do any of you know of software that can take the already-recovered files and repair them so that they're good as new? We're talking both PSDs and TIFFs, if at all possible. And if so...
(3) Can I get said program(s) anywhere for free or very cheap (say, less than $30 total)? All the restoration programs I've found cost money, in some cases a LOT of money, and their free "demo" versions add watermarks or are limited to smaller files than these. As much as I hate to say this, pirated versions are welcome.