Questions about soap/lye/measurment conversion calculators

[Lenimae]

Hello everyone!

My computers hard drive crapped out on me. Unfortunately I didn't properly back up my files so I ended up losing ALL of my notes/recipes that I worked so hard to create. I was a newbie & now I'm a newbie back to square one!!

I've noticed that there are a variety of calculators online. I'm just wondering where to find the absolute best & most accurate ones for cp soaping. I realize that there is a lot of trial & error when it comes to creating your own recipes but I'm searching for any resources that will help make the job a little easier. Ingredients are difficult to come by locally & I feel that they are much too expensive to waste on bad batches!! Any helpful tips & info would be so greatly appreciated...

Thanks so much!!!

 

[Relle]

http://www.soapcalc.net/

 

[melstan775]

Hello everyone!

My computers hard drive crapped out on me. Unfortunately I didn't properly back up my files so I ended up losing ALL of my notes/recipes that I worked so hard to create. I was a newbie & now I'm a newbie back to square one!!

I've noticed that there are a variety of calculators online. I'm just wondering where to find the absolute best & most accurate ones for cp soaping. I realize that there is a lot of trial & error when it comes to creating your own recipes but I'm searching for any resources that will help make the job a little easier. Ingredients are difficult to come by locally & I feel that they are much too expensive to waste on bad batches!! Any helpful tips & info would be so greatly appreciated...

Thanks so much!!!

Hi there. Are you sure you've lost ALL your files? Usually a tech can bring back just about anything. If you're willing to pay for one the going rate is around 100 bucks for a full restore. I did this twice this year, so I"m sure it's probably recoverable, unless you already asked someone. And, welcome back !

 

[lsg]

I had to buy a new hard drive for one of my laptops and the computer tech did something called mirroring to copy most of my files from the old hard drive to the new one.

 

[Lenimae]

To melstan775 & lsg..

Unfortunately my hard drive failed before I could back anything up. When I had taken my computer in to a local tech I had inquired (BEGGED!) about ANY kind of possible restore, period. I was told that HD was completely dead with no chance of recovery. A system image can only be created while your HD is still in tact. I'm an idiot for not taking the necessary precautions in preventing a total loss. Lesson learned!!

Thank you for the link Relle9! :smile:

 

[RocknRoll]

oh wow, im sorry...that totally sucks :-(
Im gonna learn from that and back my lappy up right now!

 

[melstan775]

To melstan775 & lsg..

Unfortunately my hard drive failed before I could back anything up. When I had taken my computer in to a local tech I had inquired (BEGGED!) about ANY kind of possible restore, period. I was told that HD was completely dead with no chance of recovery. A system image can only be created while your HD is still in tact. I'm an idiot for not taking the necessary precautions in preventing a total loss. Lesson learned!!

Thank you for the link Relle9! :smile:

If you ever have an issue like this again, find a tech who is MS/Apple certified or used to be a tech for Microsoft or Apple. My tech can pull stuff off a dead drive, so I know it's possible. I do hope, however, that you learned to back up your drives!

 

[RocknRoll]

I tried backing up mine last night and it kept failing. I put in a recordable cd, maybe thats the wrong kind, I dont know. It was quite frustrating. :evil:

 

[melstan775]

I tried backing up mine last night and it kept failing. I put in a recordable cd, maybe thats the wrong kind, I dont know. It was quite frustrating. :evil:

What kind of backup were you doing? A full system backup won't fit on a CD. I tend to drag my files onto a backup drive myself.

 

[RocknRoll]

What kind of backup were you doing? A full system backup won't fit on a CD. I tend to drag my files onto a backup drive myself.

maybe it was a full system back up. it took forever and kept asking to insert a disk, which i did . asked if i wanted to format the cd, i figured "ok" and they said format was unsucessful. Weird thing is it kept backing up to only 25% then would stay stuck there. I had several disks that i tried backing up on and when i put one in the drive, it came up as having info on it so I dont know. I dont know much about this computer stuff. I think i will take my lappy to my uncles and have him do it, hes good at that stuff! Thanks :???:

You said "I tend to drag my files onto a backup drive myself'. I had an option at one point to "drag files" but wasnt sure where to drag them to lol. *face palm*

 

[2lilboots]

I must be so darn old school or I don't believe in saving trees because I write down all my recipes in a notebook and then copy them onto my scheduling calender so that I have 2 copies of what I did to each soap that I have made.

 

[RocknRoll]

I must be so darn old school or I don't believe in saving trees because I write down all my recipes in a notebook and then copy them onto my scheduling calender so that I have 2 copies of what I did to each soap that I have made.

i keep all my notes in a journal too. But I would be devastated if i were to lose years worth of all my family pictures and things of that nature. maybe for now i can just burn them onto a disc at least.

 

[nebetmiw]

I use to use a online calculator but got tired of not having enough play with it. So I went and bought the Soap Maker progran not pro version. Much better as I can save formulas as well as different weighing options. It really is worth the money even for just doing it for yourself. But if you have plans on selling it is a must for you can upgrade to the pro version which has so much more.

 

[melstan775]

i keep all my notes in a journal too. But I would be devastated if i were to lose years worth of all my family pictures and things of that nature. maybe for now i can just burn them onto a disc at least.

Even CDs and DVDs crash often. If you want to preserve memories, get printouts or a photo printer and print your own.

 

[Lenimae]

If you ever have an issue like this again, find a tech who is MS/Apple certified or used to be a tech for Microsoft or Apple. My tech can pull stuff off a dead drive, so I know it's possible. I do hope, however, that you learned to back up your drives!

Thank you so much for the advice! My computer still had warranty so I had just taken it in to where I had purchased it from. I asked for my dead hard drive back & they wouldn't give it to me. They said that in order for them to do proper warranty work they had to send the old one in before they could replace it with a new one. This gave me an AWFUL feeling in the pit of my stomach!! :sick: I mean, that's a lot of my personal info & hard work to just hand over to somebody!! I didn't like that one bit & I wish that I had argued with them a bit more... Now I'm losing sleep over some creeper that's taken my old hard drive apart to gain access to all of my personal information!!! :shock: I'll be sure to remember this for next time. Er...ummm...sorry. THERE WON'T BE A NEXT TIME!!!

 

[Lenimae]

I use to use a online calculator but got tired of not having enough play with it. So I went and bought the Soap Maker progran not pro version. Much better as I can save formulas as well as different weighing options. It really is worth the money even for just doing it for yourself. But if you have plans on selling it is a must for you can upgrade to the pro version which has so much more.

I've looked into these programs and have really considered purchasing one of them. There seem to be a few different ones out there. Would you mind sending me a link to the one that you would suggest?? Thank you so much for your advice!! :mrgreen:

 

[AlchemyandAshes]

About 6 years ago, my pc crashed completely, and I had to send my hard drive away to a restoration company...for $1200. TWELVE. HUNDRED. DOLLARS. My husband is a programmer and very computer savvy, both hardware and software, and could not restore it. We tried everything. My second son's baby pictures were on there. Milestone pictures. Vacation pictures. Tax info. 10 years worth of poetry and writings. My apprenticeship information. All of my aromatherapy formulations and soap recipes. AHHH! To be honest, it was the baby pics that did me in...
Most everything was recovered...every once in a while, something will spark in my brain and I'll remember something that was on that hard drive that's missing, but all of the pictures and important things were recovered.
You better believe I listen to the Hubster and back up to an external drive now!

 

[Genny]

To be honest, it was the baby pics that did me in...

We had a similar problem about 7 years ago and ended up losing all of our 2nd daughter's baby pics. We have almost no pictures of her under the age of 3 :cry:

 

[nebetmiw]

I've looked into these programs and have really considered purchasing one of them. There seem to be a few different ones out there. Would you mind sending me a link to the one that you would suggest?? Thank you so much for your advice!! :mrgreen:

Here you go.
http://www.soapmaker.ca/index.php