I don't know...

*updated below*

whether to scream or cry.   As I sit down in front of the computer tonight to work on post processing a ton of images my computer totally crashes on me and when I reboot everything and get into CS3, all the custom personally designed actions that I have created over the past 3 years to give my images my own personal look and feel are gone. GONE.  Vanished. POOF.  These are actions that I created by playing around with various elements and toning and sharpening.  Things I have NO CLUE how to recreate exactly as they were.  Not to mention SCORES of actions I had created to resize my images and add my personal copyright borders for when I post them on my blog or resizing actions to make my images smaller and which I can then send to my commercial clients in large batches....  Action upon action, hours upon hours that I have spent designing these things from scratch.  I also had numerous actions that I had purchased over the years which will only take a minute to reload so those I don't care about those, besides those are not the ones that I used the most.  The ones that I had created were so near and dear to my heart.  I am sitting here in stunned disbelief.  I have no idea what happened or how it happened and I just am in total shock.  I will be spending the rest of the night "experimenting" with some images trying to get everything recreated and my action screen re-organized somewhere close to how it was before.  It's really not the end of the world. Totally do-able but the next 4 hrs could be much better spent working on images from shoots I want to get done for my clients instead of trying to recreate what I spent 3 years creating through hours of experimentation.   I am so depressed right now.  Sigh.

It's been a long week for me so any kind thoughts sent my way are greatly appreciated, this is a setback I could have really done without...

Ok, enough whining, moving on...off to go do some creating... and you know what, that Mac computer is going to be coming much sooner than December after this little fiasco, let me tell you!

*updated: I was up til the ungodly hour of 2 am getting everything recreated, redone and reorganized, this after teaching an all day photography workshop...grrrr. Long day.  But the good news is that I no longer have actions that I rarely used anyways cluttering up my screen.  I feel 'cleansed"... ha!*

I'm thinking June (for my birthday) would be a good time to get a Mac.... :)

Comments

[Wendy]

Pascale-

Im sorry to hear that! I hope your creative juices are flowing with knowledge. Im sending happy thoughts your way!
Wendy

[Nicole Dossey]

I am so sorry. That is absolutely terrible. I completely feel for you. I know it was such hard work creating your personal and amazing touches. My PC crashed a couple months ago and all my edits from years of pictures were lost. Not sure why I didn't save them. I have a MAC now and you can do a thing called "time machine" and save your hard drive every 15 minutes on an external HD and go back to the way it was, should anything crazy like that happen. You'll be glad to have your MAC.

[Pascale]

Wendy & Nicole,
Thanks for your sweet comments ladies, I KNOW you feel my pain. I must have logged onto the Apple Store 6 times today reconfiguring my dream Mac Pro. I was going to order it today but my hubby had a near heart attack at the price tag so we have to get a game plan and see how we can make it happen. Even though I am usually not the one to make huge purchases/investment (I get nervous spending big money!), I am so tired of my PC's always crashing on me... And it's been running slow and bogging down all the time and it just can't handle my workload anymorte. It's time for a Mac. I'm going to do some serious sweet talking tomorrow! Wish me luck!
Pascale :)

[Heather Schafer]

I am so sorry ! That sucks! At least you got a little organized... sleep deprivation is the worst though!

[Pascale]

Heather,
Yeah, sleep deprivation is my enemy but unfortunately I haven't averaged more than 5-6 hrs per night since my daughter was born 3.5 years ago! I keep waiting for things to "slow down" so I can have a normal sleep schedule...maybe at some point I'll just accept that this is as good as it gets! :)
My sweet talking has gotten me nowhere yet. Grrrr. I'm going to keep at it though, I am nothing if not PERISTENT. :)
Pascale