Can I get my FLAs back?

[An Artist]

Do to a horrendous external hard drive crash there might be a chance I lost my FLAs!! I can't believe it!
I know I can try to convert my SWFs back to FLAs using *******. But will this convert it back 100% to the way it was previously?
Are there any other suggestions?
Thank you and Happy New Year.

[MechaPiano]

Most decompilers I've used return really messed up code. You can get the graphics back, but the code will be... weird... Sometimes even if it's really complex - it will not compile back properly.

[An Artist]

Thanks.
Any suggestions on getting FLAs that have been lost on an external hard drive? I did just convert my older SWFs with *******. It looks okay I guess. Some of the background graphic is off.

[MechaPiano]

Did you try this? http://www.piriform.com/recuva

[An Artist]

Did you try this? http://www.piriform.com/recuva

Thanks. Right now I'm paying a store to do a data retrieve for me. I found all the files but the FLAs I need. I will see tomorrow if everything will be cool.

[FlashLackey]

I would suggest putting things like that on something more stable in the future. Maybe in an SVN repository on a web-host that you know uses some form of back-up system. Or, on a RAID drive if you want to keep them local.

[An Artist]

I would suggest putting things like that on something more stable in the future. Maybe in an SVN repository on a web-host that you know uses some form of back-up system. Or, on a RAID drive if you want to keep them local.

Okay sounds good. I have to come up to speeds about these devices.

[MechaPiano]

I'm really looking forward to the day when Google starts offering hard drive backups...

[Loyal Rogue]

Why was your only FLA copies on an external HD?
Where was your C drive in all of this?

I use an external HD as a backup to what's on my C drive.
Client files, downloads, paid scripts and software keys, etc.

If one fails then I get a new drive and copy from the good one.

If you don't like being so manually labor-intensive then you could subscribe to an online backup service like Carbonite that backs-up your HD automatically as you make changes.
Yeah, I've heard of a couple of horror stories of the data being corrupted on download, but that's a better set of odds than doing nothing nothing at all... right?

BTW, just about every hosting company does at the bare minimum, once a week backups, so even if you just keep a single account or folder on your host with all your FLA's (which have stayed the same for the last 5+ years) you would be able to download and recover in a matter of hours.

If anyone needs and internet head-smack, you are it.
Cheers! and Happy New Year... here's hoping you recover your files... or I find you to give you that smack.... whichever comes first.

BTW, decompilers suck.
They make their own rules and they don't recreate your files.
Good for uncreative stealing of compressed resources... not good for recreating creativity and originality.
Also, even the best recovery of graphics are crappy recompressions.. no way to recover anything close to an original.

Good luck!