My Way of giving back to the community...Need Computer help? post here!

[FNFZ4]

Great! I need some polishign with Linux

[Wesley Crusher]

Hi Alfred,

Hoping you can help me out... The HDD on my aunt's computer crashed and she lost all of her saved images (about 9000 of them). She had her iPad synced to her computer so all of her photos are on her iPad. She gave me her iPad so I could save all of her pictures for her, but I am having a hard time. When I connect her iPad to my computer, the only photos that I am able to see are the photos in the Camera Roll folder on the iPad (about 10% of her entire library). All of her other of her folders are not showing up.

I am stumped.

Her Camera Roll photos, I'm guessing, are photos that she took using the iPad camera or pictures that she saved from the internet. All the other pictures that aren't showing up are ones that she had on her computer and that she synced to her iPad. Do you have any idea how I could get my computer to recognize these pictures so I can transfer them? I don't believe she had any saved to iCloud.

Thanks for your help!

Wes

Edit: It seems like these pictures are metadata? I downloaded a program that would recognize these files and it did so I'm happy about that. I will purchase the software if I need to, but is there any way to get my computer to recognize these files without special software?

[BNA/LION]

Very Cool Alfred! You clearly know your stuff. I hope I don't need your help anytime soon!

[FNFZ4]

Hello Wes,

First, I am so sorry to hear that. In my 15 years in Information Technology, I cant stress enough the importance of backup. Luckily, Technology has evolve so much that online backups are now simple and there are free solutions. Allow me please to give you some options. Like they say, an ounce of prevention is better than a ton of cure. However, my knowledge might not be up to date anymore since I have been full time with the watches for a year and a half.

for a free and cost effective online backup, I like to use google drive. Its not an automatic backup solution but it does the job quite well for me since i can access the data on any pc and my iphone, ipad and android devices. They give 15 gigs of free storage and i believe 100 Gigs is only 1.99 per year. Next is dropbox but they are getting out dated.

Sorry for that long intro. I wanted to get it out there to help others avoid disaster. Now to answer your questions....

Depending on the type of hard drive failure, data is still recoverable from your drive unless it was a magnetic failure in which case the 0 and 1s on the hard drive can not be read anymore. There a tons of professional recovery services that charges 100-300 depending on what needs to be done to the drive. Is the drive still detected? There are free softwares out there if you are still able to detect the drive and set it up as a slave.

I wonder what happened to that iPad. it should show all of the photos that were sync to it. Did you check her iCloud account? It might be there or there might be a backup of those photos in iCloud. In any event, I suggest bringing the iPad to any apple store and they will help you out. apple has one of the best customer service out there.

What software are you using? there a many freewares that we use before when i used to own a small IT firm here in Los Angeles.

[Wesley Crusher]

Hey Alfred,

I fully understand the importance of backing up important files. A few years ago, my HDD crashed and I lost all of my music. Now I back up my things many different ways so I am good to go. My aunt, unfortunately wasn't prepared. I think a lot of people don't think about backing up their stuff until it is too late. What's sad is that my aunt had just bought a Time Capsule, but she couldn't figure out how to install it. She bought a new computer (hers was getting old anyway) after her HDD crashed and I set everything up for her so she won't need to worry about backing things up manually. I haven't really looked into what actually went wrong with the HDD. I know that recovering the data can be costly so I think she has already written the HDD off as a loss given that her pictures are saved onto her iPad.

Now, back to the iPad. Like I said, the pictures in her Camara Roll are being detected by my computer, but her albums that were synced from her computer are not being detected. I am now fairly certain that those pictures are saved as metadata (I hope this is the right word). The metadata saved onto the iPad cannot easily be viewed (or can it?) without some special software. The program that I downloaded that recognized all of her pictures is TouchCopy. I looked into some freeware, but nothing that I saw can do what TouchCopy does. I'm wondering if there is a way to view the metadata on my computer when I have the iPad connected to it. I see the files containing the pictures from the Camera Roll, but nothing else. I've allowed the computer to view hidden files, but that didn't do anything.

The problem, I believe, is the way that Apple designed iTunes. The pictures that she had saved onto her computer were synced to her iPad via iTunes. If I understand what's going on (and I think that I do...), the pictures are designed to be synced from the computer to the iPad, but not the other way around (hence why I cannot see the pictures when I connect the iPad to my computer). I know I can get around this with third party software (TouchCopy), but what I'm now wondering is if I need the software or if I can configure my computer (I have Mac and PC so I can use whatever is easier) to recognize the metadata without the special software.

[Wesley Crusher]

Hey Alfred,

I figured everything out. I found some freeware that allowed me to access the metadata and I was able to transfer all of the pictures. Man, what a hassle!

Thanks for your help!

[daveathall]

Originally Posted by Wesley Crusher

Hey Alfred,

I figured everything out. I found some freeware that allowed me to access the metadata and I was able to transfer all of the pictures. Man, what a hassle!

Thanks for your help!

Wes, could you not have signed in to your Aunts account using your Mac, then sync her iPad with your Mac. IIRC it would have said something like "there are photos on your iPad that aren't on your Mac do you want to transfer them" (or something to that effect).

[FNFZ4]

Originally Posted by Wesley Crusher

Hey Alfred,

I figured everything out. I found some freeware that allowed me to access the metadata and I was able to transfer all of the pictures. Man, what a hassle!

Thanks for your help!

That is great news Wes. What freeware did you use?

[Wesley Crusher]

Originally Posted by daveathall

Wes, could you not have signed in to your Aunts account using your Mac, then sync her iPad with your Mac. IIRC it would have said something like "there are photos on your iPad that aren't on your Mac do you want to transfer them" (or something to that effect).

I don't believe so. I hooked up the iPad to my PC and MBP and the same thing happened both times. I was prompted to transfer to photos from the iPad to my computer, but only the photos that are on her Camera Roll folder. The photos that were originally on her Mac that she synced to her iPad are not stored on the iPad as normal files. They are stored as metadata (so basically, a copy of a copy) which is not recognized without special software.

Originally Posted by FNFZ4

That is great news Wes. What freeware did you use?

iFunBox. It's a pretty nice program. For being free, it can do a lot of things. I'm glad that I found it.

[daveathall]

Originally Posted by Wesley Crusher

I don't believe so. I hooked up the iPad to my PC and MBP and the same thing happened both times. I was prompted to transfer to photos from the iPad to my computer, but only the photos that are on her Camera Roll folder. The photos that were originally on her Mac that she synced to her iPad are not stored on the iPad as normal files. They are stored as metadata (so basically, a copy of a copy) which is not recognized without special software.

Ahh, got ya Wes, thank you, it's worth knowing.

[FNFZ4]

This will help out others in the future. Thank you Wes

[Wesley Crusher]

I sure hope so. As user-friendly as Apple products are, sometimes they make things so overly complicated. Go figure.

[zb39]

My mac is slower than slow. Also now getting pop up adds from fleabay. How can I fix this?

[FNFZ4]

First thing I would do is to repair permissions.. see if that works. Many reason why a mac will go slow. Hard disk errors permission errors. Etc etc.

[zb39]

Where do I find that? thanks

[FNFZ4]

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1452

[Runnin' Rebel]

Bump for Alfred, I have a question if this thread is still in going

[FNFZ4]

ask away buddy. always glad to help if i can.

[Runnin' Rebel]

Originally Posted by FNFZ4

ask away buddy. always glad to help if i can.

Thanks, I'll post my question tomorrow nite. I'm off to bed. Please check back.
I appreciate this thread.

[Runnin' Rebel]

Hi Alfred

This is what I have now as a lap top.





I think it's 17inch and I bought it in early 2010.

I would like to have a similar laptop without windows 8, but all I see is 8.1 coming out.

This ran good for the first 3-4 years and know has gotten slow, non responsive etc..

I don't use my lap top for anything other then picture storing, iTunes, email, printing, surfing and I'd like to be able to watch DVD, burn songs on to a CD. It's used just around the home, no traveling. I don't have a desk top.

So just a nice fast basic laptop with 17inch screen would be perfect.

Is windows 8 as bad as I've read about ?

Could you please suggest a decent laptop that would do what I use if for. 600-700 dollar range. I like my HP but it's really getting bad.

Thank you





Sent -3 or -7

[FNFZ4]

Hello my friend and thank you for dropping by...

youre problem is not the laptop but the Operating System. It has run its life time of use and needs to be re-installed. If you are in Florida (Weston) area I can do this for you free of charge or if you are willing to ship the laptop. just back up your important files and make a list of the programs that you have and give it to me so i may check if I have them.

There are many laptops in that range. I have a Dell discount that i can let you use if the need still arises. Sorry i dont have a discount with HP.

[Runnin' Rebel]

Thank you Alfred. It only runs on the power plug now as both batteries are done. I'll do some research and figure how to back up my pics and book marks etc..

I just buy a new one

Thanks for your help

[Wesley Crusher]

Originally Posted by Runnin' Rebel

Thank you Alfred. It only runs on the power plug now as both batteries are done. I'll do some research and figure how to back up my pics and book marks etc..

I just buy a new one

Thanks for your help

I suggest backing up all your pictures to "Photos" (part of Google+) and your music to Google Play.

[Runnin' Rebel]

Originally Posted by Wesley Crusher

I suggest backing up all your pictures to "Photos" (part of Google+) and your music to Google Play.

Thank you Wesley, I have all my iTunes sings on a CD that someone downloaded for me just in case of a crash.

[FNFZ4]

Originally Posted by Wesley Crusher

I suggest backing up all your pictures to "Photos" (part of Google+) and your music to Google Play.

[FNFZ4]

Originally Posted by Runnin' Rebel

Thank you Alfred. It only runs on the power plug now as both batteries are done. I'll do some research and figure how to back up my pics and book marks etc..

I just buy a new one

Thanks for your help

im not a fan of 17inch laptops. but if i were to get one. I would get a Dell just because I know the ins and outs of them, order parts, schematics etc etc. The Inspiron 17 5000 can be customized. and you can actually request dell to install windows 7 rather than the windows 8

[Runnin' Rebel]

Thanks Alfred. I've been looking at a 15-16 inch instead, thanks for your input. I'm so computer illiterate it's embarrassing. I'll have to back up pics, music and book marks etc. That will be a challenge for me, and getting rid of all the Junk installed with the new laptop as well.

Best buy charges like 100.00 to clean out a new one lol. I'd like a key board that lights up..
I just want to make sure no virus gets into my back up from the old to the new.

Also my router and modem are about 6 years old. I hear that they are 1 unit now
Lots of sales going on, Costco, best buy

[BisonHead]

HI Alfred, noticed your by line whilst looking at your for sale stuff. Loving the 5 Digit GMT. Drool ha.

I have a mini mac and it seems to have lost the Wifi ability. It is saying "No Hardware installed"

Looked on line and tried all the suggested stuff, to no avail. In Afghan so can't really pop to an Apple shop.

Any ideas?

Many thanks
Bison Head

[FNFZ4]

Originally Posted by BisonHead

HI Alfred, noticed your by line whilst looking at your for sale stuff. Loving the 5 Digit GMT. Drool ha.

I have a mini mac and it seems to have lost the Wifi ability. It is saying "No Hardware installed"

Looked on line and tried all the suggested stuff, to no avail. In Afghan so can't really pop to an Apple shop.

Any ideas?

Many thanks
Bison Head

Mini Mac you mean the Mac Mini? the mini desktop? can you give me the model number and what are the things you tried so far?

[jatco]

Hello Alfred...
Tho not a computer problem but a Smart phone/Android on Samsung Galaxy S7 ..where I used to get replies on TRF for new posts etc with the Hyper Link highlighted in Blue, where you would click on it and direct you to the post. Works ok on my lap top but not the phone. Other hyper links work but not with TRF now. Any ideas...??
TIA (thanks in advane..)
Thomas