Disaster...
I'm gonna keep this short because I feel like absolute crap right now.
A few days ago, one of my hard drives decided to just die on me. Thankfully—by the power of friendship—it wasn’t my Honey Select 2 drive, which holds all my in-game work: character cards, designs, renders, Ren'Py scripts, and coding.
So, phew, right? Nope. Not even close. What I lost was just as bad—if not worse. My Unity/DAZ3D drive, the one with all my custom mods and assets for the games, is gone. We’re talking nearly 1 terabyte of stuff I’ve collected, built, and poured my soul into over the last four years. Not just my own work, but also assets and mods I created for other devs I’ve helped along the way.
"But Nii! Don’t you back up your stuff?!"
I do—for my HS2 drive, which alone takes up 2 terabytes, maxing out my external backup. But this? I never saw it coming. That drive was barely a year old, showed zero signs of failure, and then bam—I boot up my PC, it freezes, and suddenly, BIOS doesn’t even recognize the drive anymore.
At first, I thought it was my OS drive, which wouldn’t have been a big deal since it’s nearly three years old and doesn’t hold anything important. But nah, of course not—it had to be one of my newest drives, one of the two that mattered most.
I tried every trick in the book to recover my data, but nothing worked. Sure, I could take it to a data recovery company, but the cost is insane. At that point, it’s just not worth it.
Now, I’m stuck with a mountain of work. Tons of assets still need to be ported for the next update, and to top it off, I have to rebuild my entire modding tool from scratch. Some purchased assets can be redownloaded, but the ones I made myself are forever GONE. And I have to somehow remember and track down all the tools I used.
Is this a setback? YES. A massive one. Not just for game development, but for my sanity. The sheer evil in me just wants to slam my head into a wall and scream.
Going back to the intro—I feel like absolute garbage. I don’t even know where to start rebuilding all of this.
And as for the update? I don’t know. I’m not in the right headspace to answer that right now. The good news? All my development progress is safe. The bad news? I need to drag myself out of this mess and somehow piece everything back together.
Right now, though? I’m just a pile of stress and regret.
Comments (64)
That sucks donkey dick tbh! Just have to take it one day at a time and don't let it overwhelming you. Obviously this is not ideal, but it could have been so much worse. As for the work and the update. We can wait, your work is worth it so don't stress about it too much. Take the time you need to remake and require what you need and you will feel a lot better. Keep you chin up my dude and I hope you have a better week this time around 😎❤️
I so compassionate you bro, I once had a flash drive die at work with 64 GB of important data, so to some extent I understand you. However, to lose hundreds of gigabytes of earnings... this is certainly terrible.
Does it mean that this will not be updated in the future, only siace will be updated?
Aw yea that’s definitely a major heart hurt. I’ve had it happen once in my lifetime with the same type of sentimental content.
hey don´t beat yourself up over it i hope you can get yourself out of this depressing mindset and won´t lose the interest in the games through this ... if you open a fund i am sure there will be plenty of funds for the recovery of your hard drive
I'm sorry to hear that... but it's okay, we'll always support you!
There's gotta be about 30 guys around you that can help possibly get that data. Heck, I've been known to buy an identical drive and swap boards on the drives to get my data back, and that works, provided you get the exact model number--unless the drive motor itself is horked--then you need a clean room. Good luck man! Life happens and we learn to back up everything, multiple times, in multiple locations--should a be deduction as you're protecting intellectual property.
Hey OP message me I dont think its a total loss I think i could walk you thru how to repair it
Don't blame yourself for this, bad things will always happen no matter how prepared you are, and you couldn't have expected this. It will get better, and in a little while we'll all look back at this and realise it wasn't the end of the world. <3 we're all here for you!
Come on, I hope everything goes well, and I look forward to your next update.
We love you NiiChan. We'll see you through this together my friend.
Sorry, my dude. Just a suggestion: Maybe consider a GoFundMe or creating a donation page through Ko-Fi or something? I am sure your patrons (and others) would be willing to come together and pay to have your drive recovered.
I believe you will get through this difficult time, don't lose heart, keep going!
Dear game developer, I have just started playing your masterpiece. I want to know if the characters played by players in these two games will meet? Or will these two stories intersect? How is the plot connection between these two games arranged?
Take your time bro .. You'll find a way soon .. just don't lose hope .
Damn, I have been there. Lost months of work because of a flood. (Had backups but both in the same place) It's hard, but gotta soldier through it. It starts feeling better once you begin rebuilding it.
Have a look at the controller board on the drive. If the BIOS isn't recognising it, it's likely the controller board has shat itself. You can find replacement controller boards on Ebay without too much difficulty for drives that aren't that old. And they're pretty simple to replace - no soldering just a few screws. You might be able to get it back working again for $20-$30. You'll need to find the right controller board make/model/version indicated on the board though.
take the drive to be recovered and since its def within warrenty u can go via the manufacture and cost should be covered coz it was a defective product know your rights and use them then build a NAS and do backups on unraid 4 drives 2 paraity and 2 data so if a drive fails again u dont loose anything again hope things get better <3
Feel better and learn the lesson from this, always have a backup!
I feel terrible hearing this, it's okay niichan, take your time, we've been waiting for you here
Send it to that one YT'r that recovers data, or find someone that can do it. I know its possible to recover a good chunk of the data if its just the reader. Unless its a SSD but even then they can recover a lot of the data
You could try to replace the reader in the hard drive 💾.
Ps sorry to hear about your drive failing you.
Have you thought of going to an expert see if they can recover anything from it?
3-2-1 Rule. 3 copies of your data. 2 on-site, 1 off-site. It’s brutal to learn this way. It’s your livelihood. Get Backblaze.
Actually it's 3-2-1-1. The last "1" being the "offlined" copy (on a detached device), that CANNOT be maimed by a cryptoblackmail trojan.
I feel your pain. Over the last couple decades I've lost 2-3 terabytes of data. Thankfully most of it was rips from physical media like cd or dvd(that I own the media), but still it was thousands of hours of work gone poof.
Sorry to hear this! Take the time you need to get it together, this is no small issue and shouldn't be taken lightly. I'm sure i can speak for most, if not all of us, that we'll give you all the support we can 💜 Hang in there my man and take the time you need.
Damn man, I can SO relate to all of this - having lost data myself that took me forever to get back, rebuild, etc. I wish I could help you in some way but I doubt there is anything I could do, you're miles ahead of me technically with this stuff. Hell, you've helped me on several occasions. I hope you can pull it together my friend and if there is some small task that I could do to take some load off, please let me know. Love you brother, hang in there.
Damn, that sucks so much. 😔
I'm sorry to hear that happened. Take a break, and then when your ready re-approach. Heree's to things getting better for you. :)
I'm sorry this happened man. You'll bounce back🙏
Ooof...so sorry to hear that. I hope you can salvage whatever you can to make your life easier when you will recuperate what's been lost, IF possible. *hugs*
just relax and try to clear your mind the solution is behind the corner :)
Echoing what others said - it sucks, really, really sucks. I get it - it's about feeling like you've lost all that time and effort you put into your work, not really the machinery or the assets themselves. I had the same crappy feeling when my PC with the novel I was writing got stolen. Wish you all the best in dealing with this and thank you for the games.
The data is most likely intact on the platters, and the read / write heads are probably not damaged. If the HDD model is still being manufactured, it may be worth your time, and money, to purchase one ( the exact same model ), and another HDD as a new target ( same size or bigger ). Use the identical HDD and remove the PCB from the back and use it to replace the PCB on the failed drive. If it does work, then copy that data to the second new HDD you purchased as the one that failed should not be considered reliable. Once done remove the good PCB from the failed drive and put it back on the new drive and use it as a local backup target. If it doesn't work then you should only be out the time invested and the cost of the extra drive as I am assuming that you would need to purchase a replacement drive regardless. Hope this helps.
Sorry that happened to you! You sadly never know when hardware will fail. Take a day to sleep on it and then decide what the best path forward is. If it's an HDD and it doesn't make rattling sounds, the repair might just be switching the drive controller and end up being "relatively" cheap.
It was a SATA SSD. Well... this is also a huge "lesson learned." INVEST MORE ON A BACK UP.
I will just put this up here: Rest easy guys. I can simply download the tools first and set up the modding tool again. It probably takes 2-3 days. Just that the rest of the data was a massive loss—that was basically my entire career's worth of collection. That two to three days is already a massive delay to me, though.
As others said,for me, I would be willing to chip in to help you get the professional data recovery service. Just get a quote and get back to work! I need the updaaaaaaateee!
I don't know where in the world you are based, but there is a Norwegian company called "IBAS" who specializes in data recovery from ... "impossible" cases. They even managed to recover the science experiment data from a disk that was aboard the Columbia space shuttle, when it "overheated slightly", and then the disk was ... stored in seawater for almost a year before it was found. Given the amount of work you are describing on recreating the contents, I'd contact them and get a quote (they handle worldwide clients and have special agreements with courier services for pickup). I know these people are ... not cheap, but they are literally the best at what they do.
Sorry to hear that，just take a little break and get a fresh start later. our support is with you til the end of the line
I am sorry to hear that you are going through this. I know you said it will cost an insane amount to get the files back but would the cost/time/sanity still be worth it. Your time and sanity might offset the cost. I imagine that you are looking at weeks worth of work to rebuild everything.
I can simply download the tools first and set up the modding tool again. It probably takes 2-3 days. Just that the rest of the data was a massive loss—that was basically my entire career's worth of collection. That two to three days is already a massive delay to me, though.
Strength Nii, these things happen... Don't burn your brain, technology is not infallible, take your time, relax and when you feel you can continue, start with everything! We wait, we have no other choice =)
Damn when you put the bottle down and ask wtf am i doing type shiii LMAO. That's when you know it's fked.
I understand the feeling and I’m with the others with you. Stay strong, this feeling will eventually pass, I hope it will be very soon for you.
That is really shit. Sorry to hear, Nii. Though maybe some recovery software can help. I had an old drive of like 20 years old from someone, who asked if I could recover files. I used DMDE, a disk editor and data recovery. After scanning it for a day and some corrupt files (which was expected), I did manage to save like 95% of all the data. Maybe that is something you want to check? Even if the disk seems "empty" at first. And it also worked for my 8TB SSD, which crashed like 2 months after using it... But I did recover all the files I needed from that too :) Of course, I don't know if it works for you or not, but hey, never know if you don't try, right ;) Anyway, breathe in and out, relax and think "It'll all be alright eventually.".
I tried that, but unfortunately, the drive is no longer detectable. I even on docks.
Try a data recovery company and ask the patreon fans to chip in. Many of us would be happy to.
It's okay. That's asking you guys for a lot. I can eventually rebuild, I just need a little time to recover myself first.
That sucks I'm sorry to hear this happened to you; but what is lost can eventually be redone at least it was just the drive and not all drives or what not; but you got this and any setbacks to development while suck are okay and I'm sure everyone doesn't mind; take a break get back to the headspace
Damn dude, that ultra sucks. Really wish there was something us fans could do for you. Hope things work out for you man
Shit... I've been there, lost a whole drive on a non raid nas I was using. Take your time to catch your breath and recoup. We can wait for you to rebuild
Backblaze. Just use Backblaze Computer Backup. $9 per month for all drives, including external ones.
I'll check it out.
Oh man I can't even imagine the stress and frustration you must be feeling right now... we are here for you and will continue to support you during this time of grief
Sorry to hear that, hope you’ll be able to recover something. I’ve had similar problems with hard drives myself, almost lost my entire anime fansub collection once. As a suggestion, maybe consider replacing the HDDs with SSD (solid state drives)
The thing is, it was a SATA SSD, which made me scratch my head as to why it died so soon and so suddenly. But I've done some hardware stressful stuff in there, so probably that?
Ah man bro that sucks. How much is it to get the data recovered. Could create a go fund me just to get the data recovered? Unsure how that works tbh...
That’s what I was thinking too I’d be willing to throw some money towards helping recover the data
That sucks and I am sorry. But I hope you find the strength to keep pushing forward. You got this no matter how long you need to take for your mental health. 💙🫂
Poor bro, to bad there nothing we could help but wish you good luck
Man, ik that feeling nei. I've lost terabytes of important data cuz my drives decided to just go poof. I feel for you man. Hoping it gets better. Take care