Disappearing Photos!

[Toejam]

I never thought this would happen, but I guess it's to be expected with Digital photography. Just last weekend I was scanning my photo albums from Last year's Chi-town race. And I discover some "Blank" Thumbnails! I thought it was my computer at first, but sure enough after restarting my Mac, same thing! I haven't searched all my albums but that is the First time I've seen that!! Turns out there are about 30-40 Black Thumbnails just at that race! So I scan other races from last year, and Vegas1 last year same thing, about 30-40 Blank Thumbnails!!!! Since both of those races were back to back, I'm wondering if both of those were on the same Memory card? None of my other races from '07 had any problems nor did any races from '06! Since I know everyone's wondering Yes I did back up both albums on CD, but none of my CD's are labeled so good luck in tracking those races down. If anyone has any suggestions bring it on!

 

[Jim]

That stinks. I had a friend who took a bunch of pictures the first few days of vacation. She went to show a friend and found there were no pictures on her camera/card. Not sure if she though she was deleting one picture and deleted everything or if it was something flukey. Luckily she still had 5 more days left and was able to take a bunch more. When I went to London last fall, every night I would transfer my pics to my laptop and then upload them to Webshots. It was somewhat being paranoid, but also so I could send friends and family the links each day.

Good luck tracking down the correct CD's, I hope to god you did not loose any eyecandy shots You know those Sharpies are not just for autographs, they work great for writing on CD's

 

[Sully]

DON'T WRITE ON CDs OR DVDs WITH SHARPIES!!! The solvents in the Sharpie will etch the plastic and make them unreadable.

You can buy pens specifically designed for labeling CDs and DVDs, but don't use any other felt-tip markers on them.

 

[Greggo]

That sucks dude... prolly some good eye-candy from Vegas have disappeared. Good thing I have a photographic memory!

 

[BaldyLochs]

Yeah, I can relate to that. I had an album of photos I took for several years at the Texas Motorplex & Houston.... which got "lost" in a relationship breakup several years ago. I had some priceless Kalitta pit action stuff that woulda knocked people's socks off if you saw them today. I used to take like 4 rolls of pictures at each race I went to - all of Kalitta. And this was waaaaay before they were "popular". After qualifying when everybody in the pits would be crowding around Joe Amato or Darrell Gwynn or maybe Eddie Hill, there'd be Chris..... standing alone by the Kalitta hauler watching them pack up for hours on end!

But, I could just as easily sit here and tell you I was a millionaire back then.... but sure I ain't one today, and I sure ain't got those photos anymore either.

 

[G'ginna]

I tend to use flash drives for storage because they are smaller and easier to transport and hold more information. I only make CDs when I am mailing pictures to family (is that lazy?) One thing I do with the flash is create either a word doc to leave myself a note about the contents or an excel spreadsheet with comments that I upload to the flash drive. I only do that if sorting the pictures into folders isn't enough. I'll check with a friend of mine to see if there is any rescue for the thumbs but I kind of doubt it.

 

[Sue]

DON'T WRITE ON CDs OR DVDs WITH SHARPIES!!! The solvents in the Sharpie will etch the plastic and make them unreadable.

You can buy pens specifically designed for labeling CDs and DVDs, but don't use any other felt-tip markers on them.

Thant is nice to know. I have been witting on all my cd and dvds with sharpie. Can you buy a labeling pen any were?

 

[Toejam]

That sucks dude... prolly some good eye-candy from Vegas have disappeared. Good thing I have a photographic memory!

You kidding! That's the first thing I looked for. Thank GOD I didn't lose that!

 

[Jim]

This comes from the Sanford (maker of Sharpies) web site:

Is the Sharpie marker safe for writing on CD's?

Sanford has used Sharpie markers on CDs for years and we have never experienced a problem. We do not believe that the Sharpie ink can affect these CDs, however we have not performed any long-term laboratory testing to verify this. We have spoken to many major CD manufacturers about this issue. They use the Sharpie markers on CDs internally as well, and do not believe that the Sharpie ink will cause any harm to their products.

Sharpie CD/DVD marker has a twin tip for added versatility in labeling CD and jewel cases.
Sharpie® | Frequently Asked Questions

Of course you should not write on the Data side of it.

 

[Sully]

Strange - I must have had a bad batch of CDs or Sharpies. I wrote on several and all of them had severe data dropouts. If you looked at the data side of the CD, you could see where the ink had visibly affected the data medium. Haven't used anything other than CD marking pens from Memorex since then.

 

[Jim]

I have been using them on my music bootleg collection for years and never had a problem. You had me worried, after your warning I thought I may have missed something and was dreading have to back up all my bootlegs. Figured I would check with the source before I spent days and days making those backups.

 

[Jenn]

Strange - I must have had a bad batch of CDs or Sharpies. I wrote on several and all of them had severe data dropouts. If you looked at the data side of the CD, you could see where the ink had visibly affected the data medium. Haven't used anything other than CD marking pens from Memorex since then.

I have those HP DVDs and CDs that have a paper like cover over them. They are for printing graphics with your PC printer but I've never used them like that, I just use a sharpie on them. I got them free with a case of paper at staples one day and haven't stopped buying them.