Please Help! Why did my work just disappear, where did it go ?

[SoC 0]

G'day Guys & Gals

I need help, i'm about to commit Computercide by putting my XPPC out of MY misery once and for all, after almost a month of trying to fix the viruses on the XP system i finally got my SignBlazer Elements 2007 working again, well so i thought. But i opened one of my saved files so i could modify one of the logo's for cutting, i was almost ready to send it to the cutter when  (insert Daa Daa Daaaa music here)

 

"holy disappearing dog poo batman" the 100 or so pictures that i have spent 100s of hours designing went - poof - all gone - bye bye - do not pass go - nothing but a blank workspace, except for 2 of the drawings,  I thought that's weird ? it's never done that before, so after some colourful swearing for a couple of minutes, and after spilling the steaming hot cup of coffee i'd just made all over the key board and my lap, then yelling at and kicking the dog then of course getting bitten by the dog, i started having all these "visions" of committing assault and dead battery on my PC

 

I'd somehow managed to click on the save changes to file thing, so that i could try to close and restart the program i discovered that S/B had saved the file ok except it's only saved the two pictures i had the other 100 or so pictures seem to be gone and i can't find them anywhere, please someone "tell me it ain't so". Can any of you guys tell me how to find and retrieve them, if not for my sanity, then for the future well being of my poor little XPPC

 

Cheers SoC

 

P.S. the dog part i made that up, but the burnt legs bit is true lol

[BigDon 2]

 Sorry to hear of your tragedy!  I have also been victimized by an occasional virus - but it has been quite a while. I understand the miscreants who create these bugs are becoming more and more devious in their programming to the extent they can actually lock your files and demand a ransom to unlock them. I have also heard they rarely ever provide the key to unlock your drive, so in effect, they have wiped you out and are stealing your money too!

 

Anyway, I'm sure you've already thought of this, but have you looked in the SBD folder in the root of your C: drive?  If, during your virus cleanup, you didn't delete that folder, there should be the original SBD files as well as some backups. If the originals were deleted and there are no backups, then you may have to resort to some sort of file recovery program. Although I have never had 100% success with them, they can be useful and may help you recover a portion of the files you may have lost...

 

Also, check your trash can, unless you have emptied it already. There may be some files there you can restore. If your virus removal program removed the files thinking they were - or perhaps in fact were - infected with a virus of some kind, then there is no recovery option available because of the way those programs delete the files...they don't want someone accidentally restoring an infected file and re-contaminating the system.

 

I gather from your tirade against the computer, the coffee cup, and the pooch - there were no backup files stored off-line???

 

[SoC 0]

G'Day Mate

I'd love to find out where the little geeks that make these viruses live you know, just so i could go to there place and show them my appreciation for there work.

They need to try going to a bar and try to pick up a woman instead of trying to destroy other people "who probably have girlfriends" stuff, anyway that's my sook over

I have the S/B files backed up on C/drive and a external H/drive and the file i had open and was working on (ford stuff 1.SBD) is still there, but there's only 2 pictures on the file, there should be about 100 pictures on it.

I think when i've tried to save the file i've somehow saved it with only the 2 pics in it instead of 102 ?, but surely the other pics are still in the PC somewhere ? i have checked the recycle which i did not empty yesterday and there not in there, i've thought about doing a restore but then i'd just get all the viruses back wouldn't i ?

Is there some kind of 'temp recycle type folder' hidden in S/B, or akind of holding area or anything i think i can get some of the work back by doing a restore, but then 'd have the virus crap to deal with again wouldn't i, Surely the pics are still in there somewhere .  Another question i just noticed the S/B program d/load on here is that a full working copy ?, because my sercurity mob BullGuard said they won't be supporting XP next year and i'd love to get rid of the XP system and install my Windows 7 ultimate so i can get away from all the XP issues

Cheers SoC

[skarekrow 1,842]

Here's a program (there are other similar ones out there, as well) that will look through your HD and

find all the recoverable 'lost' pics, docs, file fragments, etc.

 

https://www.piriform.com/recuva/features/portable-version

[BigDon 2]

My experience with SB is only a couple of years, so perhaps someone with more knowledge of the innermost workings can chime in. I have SB running on a Windows 7 Ultimate laptop with no issues I am aware of! There are some who have tried running it on Windows 8 and have encountered some issues.

I know when I open a SB file on my desktop a file remains behind after I save a file. I don't know if that file may contain the images you're looking for or not. I'm not at my computer right now so I can't be of much more help (if I was of any help at all!!)

Good luck with getting off of XP. It has been a workhorse for me...probably the best OS Microsoft has put out in a long time in my opinion!

[SoC 0]

G'day skarekrow

Thanks for the program link talk about quick and easy, i just ran the quick search thing great program it found almost 4000 JPEG, AI, BAK. EPS and PVW? files, but alas no SB Files showed up so i'm now running the deep scan, never know i might get lucky. I noticed it didn't list my SB/Drive when it showed the results? could it be because the SB/drive is a ghost inside a partition? 

 

I have 4 x H/Ds   connected to the S/B PC consisting of :

2 in PC case 1 normal and the other 1 is partitioned (so 3 drives in PC case) and 2 portables

G/Drive - XP = 500gb used for normal PC stuff   

D/Drive - S/B = 500gb S/B artwork plus heaps of D/loaded EPS, Vector and Ai files  

I/Drive - Port 1 = 1000gb  Portable drive used for backing up XP/PC

H/Drive - Port 2 = 1500gb Portable drive used for backing up XP/PC and my W7/PC

C/Drive - Docs = 1000gb normal type stuff and is partitioned with S/B/Drive which i think is a ghost copy of the original motherboard that blew up after getting a virus years ago and S/B wouldn't give me a new activation code so i could reinstall S/B on the new motherboard "they only wanted to sell me a new copy of S/B"  they thought i was trying to install S/B on another PC, This happened a few months after Jerry sadly left us. So the tech guy that rebuilt my PC made a ghost? and it's been running this way since then, thats why i use the 2 portables for back up. I thought the artwork would still be in there somewhere but it's been 3 days of searching now  

 

As you can see i've still got a bit of searching to do. but i don't like my luck, i'm starting to think i'll have to start again and do a restore and put or the viruses back on the PC, and hope i can find it that way,

Just a quick note: what a fantastic loving and thoughtful xmas present thanks to all the virus makers out there, maybe you guys should try this.  Get out of the little dark rooms you live in, Say bye bye  to your mummies, Then "try" to get yourselves a girlfriend "it's really not that hard"  and then you could get laid and enjoy living a normal "constructive" life 

Cheers Soc

[BigDon 2]

The PVB files are the ones I was trying to remember last evening. I seriously doubt there are anything resembling a graphic file in one of those, but you might try opening one with SB to see what is inside...

[slice&dice 2,450]

The PVW files are there only for SignBlazer to display Previews in the panels when you browse through the Open dialogue box.

 

By the way, if you ever browse folders beyond the root SBD Files folder (where your SB projects are normally stored), then those PVW files will be created automatically for every graphic it comes across  ---- unless you check the box "No Previews" in the Open dialogue.

 

And here's a little script that anyone can use that will KILL all those PVW files that end up being scattered everywhere as soon as you open any folder that contains graphics.

 

del *.pvw /s /q 

 

(Put the above into a Notepad file, Save As with a .cmd file extension, and it will run as an executable Windows NT Command Script and destroy all your PVW files within whatever folder you want to clean)

[SoC 0]

G'Day Slice&Dice

That's a cool little trick, i've tried many many times to delete them only to see them return the next time i open S/B

Do you know any tricks i can use to save my S/B files to a folder of my choice, instead of S/B choosing a place for me ?

I'm about to surrender and just hit the restore button and take my chances with the results,

 

I guess i'll just have to deal with all the time and money ive lost trying to remove/repair what the viruses have done

 and start the process all over again. I'm sure life was easier when you just painted the signs onto the job lol

 

Anyway i've got to get to bed " Cause Santa might be here soon "  So to all the great people out there in the " Interweb Surfing World " i wish a very merry Xmas and a safe New Years for you and yours " And please remember being Late is no where near as bad and Final as being, Laid to Rest

Cheers SoC

[BigDon 2]

If you have an old computer you no longer care about whether it gets infected or not - or you could rebuild easily - do a restore of your files to THAT machine, locate the files you need and copy them to a USB drive and onto your production machine! Running a restore against your production machine, even though it is to only restore graphic files, runs the risk of reinfecting it. (Those virus coders are sneaky little bas8$%ds!!!)

 

When I was using MacIntosh on my laptop, I created a virtual machine into which I would copy all files destined for my Windows machine. I downloaded them, scanned them, installed them and gave them a test before they ever saw my production Windows box. If they were safe, I copied them to a USB drive and then did whatever I needed to. When I closed the virtual machine down, any virus that may have infected the OS was deleted because the virtual machine only existed for as long as I had it running. Mac wouldn't let anything get outside the virtual machine to infect anything else. The same concept will work with Linux using WINE.

 

Merry Christmas to you and yours.  May your New Year be bright and your wishes come true! (Perhaps the virus coders will develop a perpetual case of rotting fingertips so they can no longer type!!) 

 

Cheers!

 

p.s.- Tell Santa I have been as good as I possibly could be this year - not perfect - but good, and still working on it!