I just lost some of my precious memories.
On one fateful day, when I was about to publish an article about my vacation in Japan, I went to my drawers and took out my DVD where all my photos had been stored. I inserted it in my optical drive and went over my hundreds of photos in Japan. My sister saw the pictures and asked me to give her the DVD after I had finished so she could upload some of them on Facebook.
When my sister inserted the DVD to her laptop, nothing came out. She asked me if I gave her the right DVD. I said yes, and we double checked the label on the disc. It was the right disc. I tried to open it with my laptop. Nothing too. Just a blank disc. Everything had disappeared!
I was very upset. I love Japan, and it was our first (and probably last) time to go there. After the tsunami that wiped out Japan’s coast earlier this year, we treasured these photos even more. Now that they’re gone, I felt like crying. I realized that discs are not reliable storage devices. I started to research and learned that there are some websites where people can backup their files. Some sites require an annual fee for their storage services. Others offer limited storage space for free. I found a nice site- skydrive.live.com. It offers up to 25GB space for free. I signed up right away and started to upload some of the remaining photos in Japan (luckily, some of them are still stored in my camera phone). I’m loving the site so far.
From now on, I will store my photos on the internet and I will print out some of them. However, the little girl knows that photos are not the most important thing in vacations. It was the quality time spent with loved ones that matters most. The photos may have lost forever, but the little girl’s family is still here. We can create more memories and take more photos in beautiful places that we’ll visit in the future.
I am so sorry that you lost your pictures cheerfulnuts. I know how disappointed you must be. However I hope you get to go back to Japan again some day. Janine and I corresponded with quite a few pen-pals from Japan and I have had one for many years. I like the idea of backing up files, photos etc on a website. Thanks for this information! Pictures are so important. I will always treasure the ones I have. Take care.
ReplyDeleteJudy
I am so sorry for the loss of the photos :( I usually immediately upload things online whenever I return from any trip as I have always found discs to be very unreliable. I generally use Picasa and Photoshop Express but both have lesser space than Windows Live so yours is a good choice! :)
ReplyDeleteJudy, yeah, I hope we can go back there. But after the earthquake and tsunami, it's a bit scary to visit there. Before the Sendai earthquake, our family was already planning to go to Okinawa in April. The news was shocking and our travel agency canceled all their tours to Japan and refunded our payment. Our family is currently saving for something else so I'm not sure if we could go back there after a few years. It's expensive.=P
ReplyDeleteYou should try backing up your files. You've got lots of wonderful photos.:)
Btw, I'm just wondering how you communicate with your pen-pals from Japan? Can they understand English?:) You should go to Japan, too, someday!
Gautam, I was really upset, but at least I have some photos left, and I still have all my videos.:) I should have uploaded my photos online. I learned my lesson the hard way.=/ If you aren't using Skydrive yet, you should try it!:)
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