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yes I am concerned about them too. I really didn't "cut" them. I was not at home when I typed that message and just made a word error. I can't afford those services. Maybe that software you recommended I guess. I am heart broken. I have 3 granddaughters who are competitive gymnasts and the youngest one just started to compete this year and was so excited for me to take the photos so they would display on my digital frame. The were literally the next photos I was about to edit.

Phew!!! I'm not trying to be an ass, but I'm genuinely concerned about your files. As for a Canadian Data Recovery, I'm not sure. You could try and find some place local. This is what the Google AI Bot came back with:

I am truly sorry about the "cut" typo. I have never ever ever used cut. Always copy, command + c

Also, I am not in the USA so I don't really want to ship to Gillware. I don't suppose you know a good Canadian company? Or maybe I can do myself since I didn't "cut" and paste.

Sorry, command c and command p

Sorry maybe used the wrong word. Not teck savvy. I used control c and control p. Was that wrong?

That's what I do. Keep it simple. Theft, Fire and Floods are all possible. Even if that "Flood" is the busted water pipe in the ceiling that's over your computer. That's why having a simple off-site backup is part of the 3-2-1 Rule. 3 Copies of your extremely valuable files, backed up on 2 different mediums and 1 is kept off site. The Cloud is great for convenience, but that only works when the internet is running and you have power with working hardware. What happens when a Tornado rips through your neighborhood? Sure your house might be standing, but you have no power for the next 3 months. Just having a simple large EHD can really help. Just make sure it is not a Flash Media Based EHD. You want a large spinning HD. SSD Drives and the like, need to be powered on, at least monthly, to keep the memory cells intact. Traditional Spinning HDs store data magnetically. You can still do your home server and OneDrive stuff...that's fine. I've also heard of good things with BackBlaze, but read the fine-print with them. They don't want to be dumping grounds, and if you delete the file(s) locally on your computer, they are also deleted on their Servers within 30 Days. I like the redundancy of RAID, so keep doing that. The extra EHD is just an extra insurance policy if things go sideways at the worst possible time. Disaster Recovery should just be a PITA/Time-Suck, but you should be able to fully recover within a day or two. Not weeks.

That's ok. Thank you for looking into this and letting me know!

Thanks Brian! Will do everything you advised. The way I understand it for off-site backup, it would be better to just purchase a large external HDD, copy-paste all my files at home, bring it to some other place, then repeat this say every month?

I SAID TO COPY THE FILES!!! NOT "CUT." THE REASON IS, YOU ARE DELETING THE SOURCE MATERIAL WHEN YOU "CUT." IF SOMETHING WERE TO HAPPEN DURING THE DATA TRANSFER, YOU COULD LOSE EVERY FILE. Copying the files keeps the source intact, so if something screws up, you can try copying again. At this point, I'm thinking you might want to reach out to Gillware Data Recovery Services. The drive inside could be fine, but Western Digital uses the cheapest USB interfaces / enclousres and that's where the problem could lie. I'd send the EHD to them and get a quote, especially if the images are that important.

Nothing worked. I cut and pasted the primary file folder. Which I could see. I didn’t look to see if the photos populated by clicking on the folder.

I'm so sorry, there's nothing can be done to improve this.

Yes, here you go!

The first jpg and pdfs copied over. Then I tried “frame new ones”. Result is attached. Not good. I will try a couple more of the smaller necessary files and report back later this weekend. I do have a questions about the folder: My Photos. It is a huge folder with many folders inside it. Eg 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026. Then within each year maybe 30 folders. (Eg. Granddaughter #1s birthday, #2s birthday, etc). The only necessary ones are 2025 and 2026. How do I approach this large folder?

YIPPPEEEEE!!! There is hope. Phew!! I love it when I am wrong in situations like this. First, let's try something simple, like those .jpg files and two .pdf files that I see in your screen shot. Copy them over. Do not drag / cut the files. Copy only. Then paste. If that works, then we step things up to the next level by trying to copy the folders that you can not live without. Copy / Paste these folders over to the new EHD. Then let your computer run overnight. Hopefully things will work. This will probably be slow, just let it run.

main directory on external drive loaded up in about 20 minutes. I have ejected it so I can use my computer. Everything seems there at this level anyways.

We have hope! OS Extended (Journalled) old and new drives.

New disk:

old disk:

Thank you so much Brian I appreciate your help!

I will be using this to recover:

HI Brian I bought a new WD My Passport for Mac 5TB I have a number of these drives and I do believe I was doing too much, including transferring too many files at once with the old one. I downloaded the free trial for Photorecovery Professional v52. I have not done anything else. (BTW old external drive was about 20% full, so that was not an issue). Thank you for your time. I appreciate the help

Check this thread, I just answered this question after yours

Sorry, I just thought of one more question. What about a MacBook laptop with M5 chip? Thoughts?

Oh Rats!! I will try to hold off until next year but that will no doubt be my limit for this computer. I will monitor that website (thank you, btw). Thank you so much for this Brian.