Backups == Good

oh man, that sux severly. I can remember a few months ago my computer ate my doom2 folder, took every trace of doom2 and the subdirectories in it to who knows where. I could recover none of them, all my source ports and countless TCs with batch files etc., slige, dehacked, and the "master levels" and who knows what else, gone...gone forever, but i eventually reinstalled doom2, downloaded EVERYTHING AGAIN, and got back to my feet. Even though yours is a greater loss,i can understand how you'd feel,but life goes on.

There are some expert Data Recoverers who claim to be able to restore files even off of formatted disks...You should see if you can find any of them...

There's a slim chance that you may be able to recover this data. Some companies do specialize in recovering lost data such as this. Maybe they can help. Man, I do feel sorry for you. I hope this data can be recovered. That must be absolutely devastating. Gee. :|

hmm, uhh well-(laughs), It is so damn funny to me just to hear that someone lost something worth so much, it sux to be you! HAHA!! Remember to backup your shit up on something very reliable, and if you backed up yer stuff on discs, wouldn't it still be in the storage you used to copy them to disks? Unless you deleted them, hope you learned yer lesson. I don't know who the fuck would be so stupid enough not to check if it is safe to back important stuff up! Wtf is slige??

I'm with X-blade, and Andrew on this one..... I'd try my hardest to find some expert data recoverers. Just find some sorta company on the internet, that specializes in stuff like that. I too, have heard of people who can do this....its a slim chance, but for something so important, I would try anything.. Just don't get pissed, and fuck up the disks...then your chances are over ;)

Any body working on a big project should sink some money into a CD burner. Back it up on a recordable CD then there is less likely a chance it will get re-formatted. This dude's loss is so insane that it is hard to believe it's true... Bruce Lewis (GLDoom) demonstrated to us what happens when one doesn't back up work. At least he didn't come whining to us about it. He took a kick in the groin and kept a straight face.

Just wanted to express my sympathy. I've lost similar kinds of work in the past, and I can really feel for you. I hope for the best. Remember whatever the outcome, we'll be there for support. (and for those few with the smug attitudes, there's no need for that, only makes you look bad) As others have already said, there are companies that specialize in data recovery. Your best bet is probably to look for a reputable one of those. You could try searching the net for "data recovery", "zip disk", etc. In the meantime I would just put those disks safely aside, to avoid any further damage. You also might want to avoid using the zip drive itself, as it may have something to do with the problem. You may also want to check your computer for viruses (not the zip disks though).

well in the future you can do what i do. i make several copies of my important files on free internet drives or web sites, not making them publicly available. you can garble them with password so privacy is preserved. you can never have to many backup copies.

sorry to hear about the tc I've had thing's like that happen to my levels worse still my origenal doom disks =( they only work once every now and then.

When life is this screwed up... REACH FOR A TOOTSIE ROLL!

woops. while reading this i was having flashbacks of some of my own adventures with lost data....it's not fun and you certainly have my sympathy. if i could help i would....but sadly i can't so i'll just offer this advice - the number of backups made should be in direct proportion to the cost (financial or emotional) of losing the data. then make another one just for good luck :)

... if you havent put *anything* on the discs after erasing them program like undelete and unformat might work, running undelete wont crash anyrthing as it first only reports if there are anything undeleteable, if you've accidently formatted them (now why would you do that???) unformat might work but i havn't tried that only knows it exists

Yes, I know what it feels when you lose something like that, my old 130mb HD got screwed and i lost about 1 year of work in DooM levels. You'd try data recovery programs and/or data recovery companies, I've heard about them, they say they can recover anything...

Usually when a disk is formatted the TOC is just cleared but unless you write to the disk afterwards, the data remains there. You need a program that ignores the TOC file and simply reads the raw data, breaking it up via the EOF byte. Good luck

An unformatter comes to mind.

Wow that's reallly sad and depressing. I hope that somehow you are able to recover all that hard work you did. Hey what a weird coincidence, August 20 is my birthday too.

You know what the best ever backup method is? sharing your stuff with people on the net. If you would have had atleast _one_ beta tester, none of this would have been a problem, especially since a doom wad contains about all stuff needed to continue working on the project (no such thing as source code or .map files, as in quake). I can't believe anyone would work on anything for a year or so and keep one copy in one place, not shown their work to anyone etc... you didn't have a "working copy" on your hd, besides the zip disks???

Like others have said: first try out undelete/unformat/repair utilities available on the net (making sure you don't modify the disk), then contact one of those firms that read disks at a magnetical level. --Aardappel

Just playing devils advocate here, sorry if this sounds nasty, but: for all we know "doom4" never existed. It is easy as anything for anyone to claim they had this megaproject almost done, since there is no way to prove they hadn't. (hey guys I reimplemented the quake3 engine from scratch the other day, but accidentally deleted the whole thing! DOH! ah well...) --Aardappel

Wow, thats horrible. 2 years of work, and with all the stuff you said you lost it must have been like daily. Im sorry this happened because if I finish a nice room and then windows dies, and I lose it im pissed, so I cant even imagine what youre going through. :( -mantra

My favorite tool on my computer is Gateway GoBack. It keeps copiesof the way your HD was in the past, so if you screw something up on your computer, you can go back to a previous time, or in this guy's case, before his zip drives were formatted. 'Course, it wouldn't help this guy, you would have to have had it installed before the zip drives were formatted, but you might want to have installed, for future use. The main file is HUGE (about 1 Gigabyte) but well worth the space.

terrible :( Months ago ,my PC delete mi DooM. Fortunately, i recovered it, but 2 years of work!! Man, i can understand how you´d fell :(

...and I was one of them. My dad sent in the computer, and like the RETARD he was, ignored me /telling/ him not to send the HD's with it. Well, guess what? The F***ing guy not only formated the HDs, but did it 3 times, and split the gigs into a buttload of small HDs. You know what I had on it? My only existing copy of my complete DOOM Astreal TC. Lucky for me, before this happened, I sent the practically complete Astreal to a friend for safe keeping. So now I have Astreal back. Too bad I'm not ever going to release it, but hey, it's still mine. =) Good luck to the poor dude, and try unformat, undel, or pay some nerds to fix it for ya. ;)

If this story is true, AND, if the disk was only Quick formatted, Teppic's description is true. The File Allocation Table (FAT) is the only thing altered on a quick format. The End of File (EOF) markers are still intact. <P>The FAT is a map to where all the end of file markers are on the disk. But, if it was a full format, it's unlikely that the EOF's are still there.<P> Falconer

I suffered a HD failure once. Lost nearly nothing 'cause I had it all backed up. The only stuff I did lose was a rather pathetic early sound WAD I did and a WAD that replaced the former human with my older brother (Digital camera + too much free time) because SOMEONE (*cough* my brother *cough*) neglected to include it in the zip file that did make it to the backup. Back stuff up. It helps. A lot.

I would find out the culprit (be it your bother, your mum or Bill "The Bastard" Gates) and rip them in half. Try one of those recovery disk jobbies, but don't hold your breath. Sure you could wallow in dispair, but that is not healthy. Get back on the horse and start something new if your data is irrecoverable.

For what it's worth, my birthday is August 21st. Yes, I really hope you get your game back. It's still very possible that it still exists on the ZIP disks.. But for heaven's sake, man! How it is physically possible not to back something like that up?? I'll never understand some people..

That reminds me that I must upload a backup of all my unfinished levels (over 100) to some secret web space... I had them all on DN but well... Oh and I think Sverre should fix that motherfucking hard drive.. YOUR GAME IS OUT, <B>GET WORKING</B>.

If you have done NOTHING to the disks since they have been formatted it is quite possible to unformat them and recover your data. If not, you are screwed. I hate to hear of a project like that getting killed by such a problem. Good luck recovering it, and remember to be paranoid about backups. Always do it too much. Use web space, cd burners, etc.

Zip disks are not a reliable back up. You get the click of death and you're screwed. You can't go wrong with multiple HDs on separate comps and multiple CDs. 120 MB Super Disks should also be very good, at least a lotter better than normal floppies and zip disks.

would this guy make it up? If it was for a project that everyone knew about then I could understand it if someone just said he'd lost all his work because he couldn't be bothered any more, but in this case the guy's practically announcing the project at the same time.