[digiKam-users] 5.6.0 crash-pictures gone-drive space still allocated

[rutile]

I am travelling, and have a 'new' laptop with Digikam 5.6.0 on Ubuntu 17.10

Short Version:
After a Digikam glitch, Digikam has restarted as a new installation, and all
my pictures located in the /Pictures folder on the internal SSD card are
missing, but hard drive space is still allocated to them.


Long Version:
I have my images and Digikam database in /home/me/Pictures.
I copied the subfolders in my Pictures folders to an external hard drive
(~100 GB), using the file manager.  The external hard drive was a database
connection in Digikam as a removable hard drive, originally with a separate
set of images.

After a short trip, I restarted my computer, and my original file structure
was fine, and Digikam operated as usual.  I copied the contents of an SD
card to a new folder created in Digikam, and worked with the pictures after
copying.  I then copied the contents of a second SD card to a new folder on
the external hard drive using the file manager.  (the last two sentences are
correct to the best of my recollection), while Digikam was still open.
While the files were copying to the external hard drive, I tried to use
Digikam to open an image in the Digikam database in a folder in /Pictures.
Digikam gave an error "cannot open image".  I shut digikam, and reopened it,
and Digikam started from scratch with the option to set the database
locations.  

According to the fresh restart of Digikam, and the file manager, my
/home/me/Pictures folder is empty except for newly created Digikam database
files, and a 24.6 kb cache folder (plus empty Presets folder).  However, the
available hard drive space shows only 28GB available out of a 256 GB SSD
drive, reflecting the presence of the missing ~100 GB of pictures.  

A folder on the Desktop containing pictures that was also in the Digikam
database is apparently unaffected by this glitch.

1)  Is there anyway to recover the images from my laptop SSD drive?  Is
there drive space allocated to the new "digikam trash" somewhere that they
might be hiding?  I had not backed up the Digikam database.  The copies on
the external hard drive seem to be OK, but now I'm back to just one copy of
the these once in a lifetime images, and that is making me nervous- i'd like
to recover any images from the SSD card, and am trying to limit any writing
to the disk until I resolve this, meaning new images are being only copied
to the external hard drive.  

2) if the images are not recoverable, how do I free up the hard drive space
that is being allocated to them?

Thanks



--
Sent from: http://digikam.1695700.n4.nabble.com/digikam-users-f1735189.html

[hajo]

Try e.g. ncdu in a terminal to locate your 100G data. Then back up this data without the use of digikam. Once you have a backup, you can go back to trying figure out digikam...

On Thu, Mar 8, 2018 at 3:25 AM, rutile <[hidden email]> wrote:

I am travelling, and have a 'new' laptop with Digikam 5.6.0 on Ubuntu 17.10

Short Version:
After a Digikam glitch, Digikam has restarted as a new installation, and all
my pictures located in the /Pictures folder on the internal SSD card are
missing, but hard drive space is still allocated to them.


Long Version:
I have my images and Digikam database in /home/me/Pictures.
I copied the subfolders in my Pictures folders to an external hard drive
(~100 GB), using the file manager.  The external hard drive was a database
connection in Digikam as a removable hard drive, originally with a separate
set of images.

After a short trip, I restarted my computer, and my original file structure
was fine, and Digikam operated as usual.  I copied the contents of an SD
card to a new folder created in Digikam, and worked with the pictures after
copying.  I then copied the contents of a second SD card to a new folder on
the external hard drive using the file manager.  (the last two sentences are
correct to the best of my recollection), while Digikam was still open.
While the files were copying to the external hard drive, I tried to use
Digikam to open an image in the Digikam database in a folder in /Pictures.
Digikam gave an error "cannot open image".  I shut digikam, and reopened it,
and Digikam started from scratch with the option to set the database
locations.

According to the fresh restart of Digikam, and the file manager, my
/home/me/Pictures folder is empty except for newly created Digikam database
files, and a 24.6 kb cache folder (plus empty Presets folder).  However, the
available hard drive space shows only 28GB available out of a 256 GB SSD
drive, reflecting the presence of the missing ~100 GB of pictures.

A folder on the Desktop containing pictures that was also in the Digikam
database is apparently unaffected by this glitch.

1)  Is there anyway to recover the images from my laptop SSD drive?  Is
there drive space allocated to the new "digikam trash" somewhere that they
might be hiding?  I had not backed up the Digikam database.  The copies on
the external hard drive seem to be OK, but now I'm back to just one copy of
the these once in a lifetime images, and that is making me nervous- i'd like
to recover any images from the SSD card, and am trying to limit any writing
to the disk until I resolve this, meaning new images are being only copied
to the external hard drive.

2) if the images are not recoverable, how do I free up the hard drive space
that is being allocated to them?

Thanks



--
Sent from: http://digikam.1695700.n4.nabble.com/digikam-users-f1735189.html

[Sveinn í Felli-2]

If everything else fails, I'd try PhotoRec from the TestDisk suite:
<https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec>

It can 'extract' any kind of file from 'deleted' parts of a HDD, SSD or
Flash-card. It may have to be run from a Live-distribution if the
deleted files are on the same partition as your OS.
It's quite radical, sometimes it may be able to recover the folder
structure, but sometimes the files will be dumped all in one folder.

It has saved my ass more than once, when deleting files from a card I
thought I already saved into my collections (but had not)...

BTW, anyone intending to give or sell a Flash-card, HDD or SSD should
pass those through PhotoRec, you will be surprised how much is left of
older files, even if you have deleted all and reformatted once.

Regards,
Sveinn í Felli

Þann mið  7.mar 2018 19:25, skrifaði rutile:

> I am travelling, and have a 'new' laptop with Digikam 5.6.0 on Ubuntu 17.10
>
> Short Version:
> After a Digikam glitch, Digikam has restarted as a new installation, and all
> my pictures located in the /Pictures folder on the internal SSD card are
> missing, but hard drive space is still allocated to them.
>
>
> Long Version:
> I have my images and Digikam database in /home/me/Pictures.
> I copied the subfolders in my Pictures folders to an external hard drive
> (~100 GB), using the file manager.  The external hard drive was a database
> connection in Digikam as a removable hard drive, originally with a separate
> set of images.
>
> After a short trip, I restarted my computer, and my original file structure
> was fine, and Digikam operated as usual.  I copied the contents of an SD
> card to a new folder created in Digikam, and worked with the pictures after
> copying.  I then copied the contents of a second SD card to a new folder on
> the external hard drive using the file manager.  (the last two sentences are
> correct to the best of my recollection), while Digikam was still open.
> While the files were copying to the external hard drive, I tried to use
> Digikam to open an image in the Digikam database in a folder in /Pictures.
> Digikam gave an error "cannot open image".  I shut digikam, and reopened it,
> and Digikam started from scratch with the option to set the database
> locations.
>
> According to the fresh restart of Digikam, and the file manager, my
> /home/me/Pictures folder is empty except for newly created Digikam database
> files, and a 24.6 kb cache folder (plus empty Presets folder).  However, the
> available hard drive space shows only 28GB available out of a 256 GB SSD
> drive, reflecting the presence of the missing ~100 GB of pictures.
>
> A folder on the Desktop containing pictures that was also in the Digikam
> database is apparently unaffected by this glitch.
>
> 1)  Is there anyway to recover the images from my laptop SSD drive?  Is
> there drive space allocated to the new "digikam trash" somewhere that they
> might be hiding?  I had not backed up the Digikam database.  The copies on
> the external hard drive seem to be OK, but now I'm back to just one copy of
> the these once in a lifetime images, and that is making me nervous- i'd like
> to recover any images from the SSD card, and am trying to limit any writing
> to the disk until I resolve this, meaning new images are being only copied
> to the external hard drive.
>
> 2) if the images are not recoverable, how do I free up the hard drive space
> that is being allocated to them?
>
> Thanks
>
>
>
> --
> Sent from: http://digikam.1695700.n4.nabble.com/digikam-users-f1735189.html
>

[rutile]

Thanks for the reply.

I do have a backup, copying the contents of /Pictures to the external hard
drive was the penultimate procedure I went through before turning the
computer off and separating the computer and hard drive for a ferry trip.  I
don't know if that contributed to the Digikam glitch or not.  I'll try to
locate the files using ncdu, but I was wondering if Digikam had somehow
trashed all the files before glitching and if there was a specific location
I could look for them.



--
Sent from: http://digikam.1695700.n4.nabble.com/digikam-users-f1735189.html

[rutile]

thanks for the reply.

I have used PhotoRec successfully in the past after hard drive failures,
I'll give it a try if I don't find everything on the external hard drive,
but I won't have a chance to try until I get home my little travel computer
doesn't have a disk drive or anything, and besides, i want to spend my last
couple days taking pictures.  I just miss being able to use the SSD to
process my pictures as night, writing and reading from the external hard
drive is much slower.



--
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