SUPER IMPORTANT- need help, may have lost all of my files
Added 2020-07-19 13:24:28 +0000 UTCedit: thank you so much for all the help and/or support darlings, I'm super grateful TwT sorry if I couldn't get back to everyone yet but I'm hella busy here trying to make things work (and crying lol) ---but thanks a LOT, will reply asap!
it's getting kinda late here and I haven't resolved anything yet...most I've managed was getting some very old WIPs back from an old desk computer, but they're 2+ years old and only half of the 1000+ files I had...
I've decided to bring the laptop to a technician tomorrow morning anyways, so I may be without it for a while! If I'm not active online that's why! Thanks again to everyone, you're angels ♥
-----------
I'm having a super panic attack right now so excuse if this is probably very messily written...and not only I'm not really tech savvy but english is not my language, so my apologies if I'm using the wrong english terminology;;;
Today I booted up the computer to an automatic update of windows, which afterwards prompted a OneDrive popup asking me to clean my files because it didn't have any more free space. I've cleared my music folder first, one I wouldn't mind if it got deleted, to check if it would also delete the files on my computer or just those online. All safe, the folder and its files were still in my computer. So I give the go ahead and let OneDrive clean by deleting its stuff.
This is where the fuck up happens.
For some reason, my Pictures folder is still there, but completely wiped of ALL my .sai and .psd files.
From a quick glance, the images themselves are still there (tho some may be missing, idk, but they seem to be all there), but every single .sai and .psd file has been wiped. They're not in my trash bin either, and I've checked both the computer's and OneDrive's online one.
I started hyperventilating and having a bad panic attack. ALL of my work is in those files, not only the ones in the works owed to you guys but also all my almost finished adopts, ideas for future adopts and ychs, personal designs and illustrations, the bases I had purchased, years worth of work and ideas, hundreds of files, everything. I'd be completely LOST without them.
Thankfully my brother was with me and helped me through the panic attack, looking into a solution with me, we first tried a system backup to no avail (since thankfully the system had as last backup point yesterday, because of the automatic update), until he linked me a backup program called Wondershare Recoverit.
The program actually has found my lost files, which made me feel incredibly better. Thankfully I had still around €100 in paypal, so after making sure it had really found all of my files, I quickly purchased a license (€60+, ouch) and recovered the files.
But it seems it's all been for nothing...
I've tried opening my files and it always gives me the "Opening Canvas Failed" error on SAI, and Photoshop won't open the .psd files either. I've tried everything that worked in the past with such errors, like making a copy of the file and then renaming it, changing file extension (from sai to psd), changing file location, nothing. When I try opening any file, it doesn't even show the little image preview of it.
However, when I check the file properties each of them has a lot of memory to them, and all different (like 17mb, 45mb, 61mb, etc.) so that must mean the file still has the drawing inside.
I'm desperate, I don't know what to try anymore. If anyone has any clue on how I can save my files, PLEASE let me know...I'm truly, completely ruined if I can't save them.
Of course I can provide more info and screenshots as needed.
Needless to say, I won't be able to keep working on commissions until I can retrieve all my files. I'm so, so sorry.
Thanks in advance to all of you reading this....I'm in tears right now. I don't know what to do.
Comments
Ohmygosh Desi I am so sorry I really hope you can find everything back! ; - ; This happened to me a while ago and I got so scared but I was able to find all of my lost files...I can't remember how, I only remember it was a problem with One Drive and some Winows Updates..It was a real mess..but I TOTALLY understand you omg ; ^; I really really hope all the files will be back in your computer! è.é Sending good vibes, I'm sure it will be okay <3
Mimi - ria
2020-07-21 13:06:56 +0000 UTCIf you are still having trouble opening your files, it might be worth trying to open them in another art program that can load PSDs (and/or SAI files). If you have a licensed copy of SAI, you can download SAI 2 for free and apply your license to it. (Link for convenience: https://www.systemax.jp/en/sai/devdept.html ) You can also try free, open-source art programs like GIMP ( https://www.gimp.org/ ) or Krita ( https://krita.org/en/ ) to see if either of them can open your lost PSDs. If your files have data, then that's a good thing. Just gotta figure out how to get the files to pull all of the data back together again. I hope you find some solution 💜
EriJeann
2020-07-19 19:50:49 +0000 UTCI only have one last idea: Someone on the internet said that Paint Tool SAI saves the path to the file and not the actual file itself and that if you move the file, which seemed to happen, the path won't be correct anymore. So what if you go to C:\Windows\Windows\SystemApps and you open the "Microsoft.Windows.FileExplorer_cw5n1h2txyewy" (without ") sub-folder and start the FileExplorer.exe then go to your desktop, create a shortcut on there to "explorer shell:AppsFolder\c5e2524a-ea46-4f67-841f-6a9465d9d515_cw5n1h2txyewy!App" (without ") and try opening the files that way? Does that work?
Voyd
2020-07-19 18:33:44 +0000 UTCI'll try to talk some of my tech peeps if you haven't figured out what happened yet. One is outside right now and if he can't figure anything out I'll go to the other one.
Cynder
2020-07-19 17:53:24 +0000 UTCAnd just when I mentioned you should get a backup solution in the other thread... Most things seem to have been said but I would strongly advice against adding any files to your PC while you're still not sure you've salvaged the files. The issue with recovering deleted files is that while the data is technically still there, it's location is marked as free. So when you put new stuff on the drive with the files you want to recover their areas could get overwritten which would then definitely corrupt them for good.
XorUnison
2020-07-19 16:46:28 +0000 UTC@Desi - I hate to beat a dead horse, but I would still see if OneDrive Customer Service can restore your OneDrive to what it was yesterday. I know you said before that the files would have been too big to end up on the OneDrive, but I'm thinking they're only as big as they are now due to the process Wondershare used to restore them. I legitimately think that if they can, you'll find the sai and psd files on your OneDrive. Please let us know what you can find out with that as well!
Jaki-Kun
2020-07-19 15:43:41 +0000 UTC@Voyd - I don't think renaming the file extensions is the solution, unfortunately. The issue is that what Desi shared is still an oversized file for what it actually appears to be. The image's dimensions are 187x220, and it's 64 megabytes. To put it into perspective as to what a jpg of that scale should normally be, I exported it with no compression and it was 5 *KILO*bytes. That's why I'm thinking what Sai is opening is actually the thumbnail for the image. It's possible the Sai file with all the layers and whatnot is still tucked away in there somewhere, but if it is I have no idea how to reach it. Alternatively, I have no idea how to remove the parts of the file that don't seem to belong there, to make Sai recognize the file the way it should. Hopefully Desi can run another Wondershare recovery without the repair option enabled, if that's what caused this to begin with.
Jaki-Kun
2020-07-19 15:37:12 +0000 UTC@Desi - No need to apologize! I'm just happy to be making some progress, haha. I think I've made some further discoveries, but again, don't get too excited just yet. It was really curious to me why the file size for what you shared with me was so big for such a small jpg, so I tried renaming it to some other extensions to tinker with it. I renamed it to .rar and tried to extract the files, and lo and behold, I actually got some things from it which I'll link below if you're curious. https://sta.sh/01qvklsxv6st To be completely honest, I have no idea what these are doing in the file. It's amazing to me that Sai is able to even open it when renaming it to jpg if it's not "just" the image file. That said, it also might explain why it wouldn't be able to open it even if it *is* the Sai file. I don't know if it's related or not, but I found the below post on Wondershare's website: https://recoverit.wondershare.com/file-repair/how-to-fix-corrupted-images-online.html Tool 2 is named "Onesafe", which is the same name as the Drive Monitor I found in the files for what you linked me. What it appears to be in Wondershare's context is a JPEG recovery tool which attempts to recover corrupted JPEG files. I'm wondering if maybe it's attempted to "repair" the sai files even though they weren't broken, then extracted the thumbnail image while maintaining the file size/contents, and also adding in the parts of the program that I extracted. This is just my surface level theory though, and it all may be a wild goose chase. I don't know what kind of options Wondershare gives you, but maybe see if there's an option that lets you retrieve those files without "repairing" them. Please let me know if that's an option or not, and I'll keep seeing what I can find out on my end!
Jaki-Kun
2020-07-19 15:28:15 +0000 UTCThere is a bit info that need clarifications. However even with those info I don't think I can come up with solutions when 1) files are not on onedrive 2) files are not in onedrive's recycle bin 3) files are not in computer's recycle bin 4) recovered files are corrupted, except preventive steps that are too late and sound nothing but condescending at this point What I'd do is to turn on airplane mode on phone then open onedrive app on phone to check whether it has record of the files. This will only work if onedrive app is on the phone and is used frequent enough to have placeholders for the files I asked my friend who is pretty good in tech support area, i dont know if any of these would be helpful? But they might be worth a shot
Miri
2020-07-19 14:57:46 +0000 UTCIf you were able to open the files, I'd bet a thousand dollars that the files surely aren't completely broken. If I were Desi (in case Desi hasn't done it already), I'd completely re-install Paint Tool SAI and repeat the file copy, name extension change method.
Voyd
2020-07-19 14:36:46 +0000 UTCThank you so much Jaki ;w; I've just tried and sadly nope, it doesn't give any previous version;;; And sadly I don't think the OneDrive customer service could help; the thing is, as I mentioned mine was full, so it had stopped syncing stuff. I'm thinking the images that it kept on my computer were the files that it did manage to sync, while all the other files, which are wayyy too large (like the one I've sent you alone was like 60mb) never ended up on my OneDrive online. (which the begs the question of WHY they got deleted in the first place then) And dang, I'm so in a panic I've made a typo, it's MB and not GB, sorry ;w; Thank you SO much, it's crazy you've already found something!! I'm really baffled though, as that image is NOT in my file or anything; it's supposed to be one of the slots I'm working on of this YCH, so just the colors kinda match: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/36818897/ But it's exciting indeed knowing it has something! The other program I've tried hasn't even found the files Wondershare did, so am back to square one ---thank you SO so much for your help Jaki really! I'm so sorry to bother you like this;;;
DesireeU
2020-07-19 14:35:27 +0000 UTCI'm so sorry this is happening. We went through something similar back in 2017, I think? We also recovered our files (after losing an external), but they never opened again. We had to end up recreating what we could from PNGs we had sent as WIPs. The YCHs and adopts and everything else remained forever lost. We tried everything we could think of too. I want to offer advice, but we never found anything that works. So, I will instead offer our sympathies and wish you much better luck than we had ourselves. You absolutely don't need this kind of stress and deserve so much better. Sending lots of love your way. Apologies we can't be of more use in the situation.
Rancid Art Studio
2020-07-19 14:28:31 +0000 UTCI have an external drive too, but my issue is, I have memory problems, so I always forget to update it with the newest files D: the thing I like of dropbox is that it automatically updates everything, and even if I were to lose my pc, ext drive etc. I could still access the files online c,:
DesireeU
2020-07-19 14:21:22 +0000 UTCSorry to hear that Desi, but don't give up hope! Out of curiosity, when you Right Click the files and go to Properties -> Previous Versions, does it show anything? Kind of a shot in the dark, but maybe something to try before moving on to the next step. What I would try now if I were you is to see if OneDrive customer support could help restore your OneDrive to the point it was at before the update. That might be the simplest and most effective solution. I'm sure it goes without saying, but 17/9/21 gigabytes for an image is absolutely massive; I'm really questioning the contents of the files it recovered. However, you might be excited to know (that while I don't think it's everything you're looking for and it's just a start), I figured something out with the file you linked me! I tried renaming the extension to .jpg, and I was able to open it in Sai. I don't know what exactly this means, but I'll keep looking into it while you continue to try things on your end. Hopefully this helps though! File - https://sta.sh/0p220vw7r6v Picture - https://sta.sh/021vqhunzey4
Jaki-Kun
2020-07-19 14:20:39 +0000 UTCIt would be better so safe up for a external! i have 2 tb and all my commissions and bases on it. When my pc has problems i still can access to it! Really really recommending a external drive!
MrsPanda
2020-07-19 14:10:29 +0000 UTCOmg I'm so sorry ;-; - hugs you tight. See that was always my biggest fear so I bought a 1tb portable hard drive but before that stuck on my google drive. I've never had that happen to as of recent anyways. I get ocd so I always make sure I have a back up, but still im really sorry Desireeu I really hope you'll be able to recover your files.
Kyvokifire
2020-07-19 14:09:31 +0000 UTCI'll definitely have to save up some money so that next time I can move ALL of my files to dropbox, so I can always have a backup like the bases;;; And gosh, thank you SO much, that's so kind of you! Thanks for contacting your friend, it means a lot ;w;
DesireeU
2020-07-19 14:08:24 +0000 UTCThank you so much! Yeah, as mentioned in the post the last backup point my computer had was of yesterday, but it didn't work...
DesireeU
2020-07-19 14:07:11 +0000 UTCThank you so much dear! Yeah, trying to calm down as panic doesn't help at all, but I MUST retrieve those files at all costs;;; thanks for the support!
DesireeU
2020-07-19 14:06:22 +0000 UTCOmg im so sorry, did u tried to install a backup from windows before that update happend? That could also help.
MrsPanda
2020-07-19 14:03:56 +0000 UTCYes, I've already tried restoring everything from both recycle bins, sadly to no avail ;w; Thank you so much for offering Jaki!! This is the latest file I've been working on (as of yesterday night) : https://sta.sh/0cichipgvkn I think it may be also worth noting that when recovering the files, I've recovered my entire Pictures folder just to be sure, and 90% of the images are corrupted (it shows only a couple top rows of pixels, I can't even upload to stash 'cause it says the image is "incomplete"), so it may have done something similar to my sai files? I'm currently trying to save the deleted files with a different program, and hoping they're in a better state...
DesireeU
2020-07-19 13:53:52 +0000 UTCYou're very welcome, and I'm glad that your base files have made it! I sent a message to a computer tech I know for when he wakes up (it's very early here still) and I'll google as much as I can around to see if the files can be fixed at all.
Angora
2020-07-19 13:51:52 +0000 UTCI'm really sorry to hear that, don't stress or worry though. Take as much time as you need to fix things, sorry I'm not tec savvy myself.
Lilith Pheles
2020-07-19 13:51:27 +0000 UTCThank you so much for your words! Not sure what the error is myself, I'm guessing that even if the deleted files have been recovered, they've been corrupted so that I can't open them;;; If you need any specific screenshot let me know and I can definitely take it if it can help! The p2u bases I've made are all safe because on dropbox, but thank you so much for offering ♥
DesireeU
2020-07-19 13:49:26 +0000 UTCHave you tried the "Restore All Items" feature in OneDrive's Recycle Bin? https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/delete-and-restore-deleted-files-99ade958-5c25-444b-9e1e-f222a8976441 If so, would you mind uploading one of the sai or psd files you recovered with Wondershare so I can try some tinkering with it?
Jaki-Kun
2020-07-19 13:40:58 +0000 UTCI'm so very sorry that this Happened D,: Without additional info about the errors I can't aid too much on that part. If you have any idea the error codes though I can see what I can find out for you. However I have several PSD/SAI bases of yours that I'm more than happy to send them if you don't have your p2u base files anymore.
Angora
2020-07-19 13:38:30 +0000 UTC
