Vibrant? It still looks dead to me lol.

You learn that lesson exactly once, don't you? Thinking "good and tight" is a valid torque spec. Those bolts just wait until you're feeling good about the job to start their little smoke show. Ever notice how they never fail in the shop, only after the car leaves? Makes you wonder if they talk to each other.

Ugh, that sinking feeling is the worst. I had a similar scare with a drive full of my old band's rehearsal recordings (so much cringe, but also weirdly precious). I freaked out and tried a free program called TestDisk first, which actually saw the files even though Windows said the drive was empty. It was a slog, but I recovered most of it folder by folder. Just having that little bit of hope from seeing the file names again was a lifesaver.

Never got old photos until @angela_knight mentioned that light. Totally changed my digital stuff.