Taken on the evening of February 23, 2021 at the prime focus (f/10) of a Celestron C6 using a QHY5III-178C camera. Image capture with SharpCap with processing in AutoStakkert!, Registax, and Photoshop CC2021. This is the best 10% of 10,000 frames, and...??? (all of my captures are gone!)
??? Unfortunately, I can no longer reference the original SER files since it looks like Windows decided to "lose" over 200GB of lunar images that I took last night -- the directory is still there but it is now empty.
[Rant ON -- skip the following if you're short on time]
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This is related (I think) to a problem I've had with USB SSDs on all three of my Windows computers. Whenever I move an SSD to another computer (after doing a "safe" eject) the files I just created on the first PC are always missing until I run the error check tool under the properties for the disk. First Windows says that there is no need to scan the disk because it was checked when mounted (yeah, I'm supposed to believe that since I just wrote hundreds of files that didn't appear when the disk was mounted on the second computer) and then after I select to check the disk anyway the missing directory and files "magically" reappear (happens almost every time I move an SSD between PCs, but the disk check almost always works, this may only be the second time in the last few years that the files disappeared for good).
This happens on three different PCs running different installations of Windows and on three different SSDs (all, however, Samsung T3 or T5 disks). This has been going on for a few years, after several updates to Windows on each of the systems (a Dell desktop running Windows 10 Home, a GigaByte mini PC running Windows 10 Pro, and an Acer notebook running Windows 10 Home). Tonight I wrote the files on the Acer, then moved the disk to the Dell to process some of the files (completed the below image from a 100GB source SER file), and then I did a safe eject on the Dell to move the disk to the GigaByte mini PC to do some DSO captures. Then, when I moved the disk back to the Dell the lunar files had all disappeared (but my DSO captures done on the mini PC were still okay). Oh, and I still had about 400GB of free space on the SSD, since I know that SharpCap/Windows likes to corrupt disks if you run out of space while capturing images.
So, today when the files ended up missing I just ran the error check tool and the directory reappeared but it was completely empty. I suspected something unusual was happening because normally the disk check runs very quickly but this time it took a few seconds (I guess Windows was deleting the file entries). Needless to say, MS Windows is a complete joke (I often say that Bill Gates owes the world every penny he ever made off of that #$@!!@).
With the loss of these files I finally decided to try and figure out what was happening when I move an SSD. Seems like this has happened to other users and one Windows Admin said it happens because of file permission settings (i.e. sharing), but if that is true why does the disk scan make the files re-appear? If it's a security issue then it seems that Windows doesn't have very good security since a simple disk scan can apparently rewrite a file permission setting. Then, another Admin said it happens because Windows doesn't always update the directory entries for a FAT-based SSD unless you shut down the original computer using the command-line (apparently some kind of quick start, caching issue). Could be, as with many behaviors in Windows, that no one really knows and Microsoft isn't likely to offer any solutions or explanations.
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[Rant OFF]
Anyway, at least I was able to process what was probably my best capture of the night as I still had one of the AutoStakkert! masters that was created earlier in the evening (having been copied to the Dell PC before I dismounted the SSD). I did, however, want to try processing one of the deeper stacks (like the 20% I created, but which is now gone) to see if I could bring out more color without introducing too much noise.
Attached Thumbnails
Edited by james7ca, 24 February 2021 - 02:09 PM.
