The Great Photo Migration: My 22-Hour Quest to Rescue 19,241 Memories

It’s noon on 19 January 2026, and I’ve just declared war on digital clutter. The mission? Transfer 19,241 photos from my phone’s gasping SD card to the safety of a backup hard drive.

It all started with a warning. My phone, in its infinite wisdom, suddenly switched to saving new pics to the internal storage. A quick check revealed why: the trusty SD card was down to its last 10.3 GB. It was time to evacuate.

Plan A: The SIM Ejector Pin Fail

My first move was the obvious one—pop out the SD card and use a reader. Simple, fast, done. Or so I thought. After jabbing fruitlessly at the tiny port with the phone’s ejector pin, I admitted defeat. That little tray refused to budge. Was it sealed shut by time? Dust? Pure stubbornness? We’ll never know.

Plan B: The Cable Lifeline

Undeterred, I pivoted. USB-C cable to the rescue! A direct lifeline from phone to hard drive. I connected everything, selected the mountainous DCIM folder, and hit Transfer.

The initial estimate was… optimistic. “2 hours and 50 minutes.” I could live with that. I made coffee, mentally patting myself on the back for my efficient digital housekeeping.

Oh, how naive.

I checked back an hour later. The estimated time remaining had ballooned. The progress bar was crawling. My computer, faced with the sheer scale of 19,241 moments—from blurry pet photos to vital screenshots—was having a existential crisis.

Current Status: 22 Hours Remain.

That’s right. What began as a sub-3-hour task is now a day-long saga. We’ve moved from a quick coffee break to a “check on it tomorrow” operation.

So, What’s the Takeaway?

1. Don’t Wait Until the Last 10 GB. Future me will definitely back up in smaller, more frequent batches.
2. The SIM Tray is a Fickle Beast. Maybe clean it once in a while, or have a backup plan (thank goodness for USB-C).
3. Time Estimates Are Fiction. Computers look at 19,000 files and make a wild, hopeful guess. They are almost always wrong.

For now, the transfer chugs on in the background, a silent digital marathon. Each ticking hour is a lesson in patience and the surprising, immense weight of memories we carry in our pockets.

By 1.07 pm, left 6 hours and 10 minutes. However my laptop battery left for 45 minutes for 27%.

At 1.13 pm, have successfully copied 6,180  pictures. Which is 32%.

Need 2 hours 40 minutes after continue back transfer copy by 3.03 pm.

Need 2 hours 50 minutes when continue to transfer back copy by 11.07 am, 20 January 2026.

By 11.19 am.

Cancel transfer by 11.54 am. As laptop Lenovo battery left 7%.

By 5.33 pm of 20 January 2026, I get free space of 105 GB in my SD card.

Glad for being able to safely transfer all my pictures from my SD card to my external hard disk. Until then, make sure to remember to back up and clear up your phone storage💪.

Cara kemas kini aplikasi Google Meet dalam Play Store

Ini diambil pada tengah hari 15 April 2025. Tempat saya membuat ilustrasi langkah demi langkah tentang cara mengemas kini aplikasi Google Meet di Play Store untuk ibu saya yang berumur 60+ tahun.

Syukur dia dapat mengikut arahan yang diberikan. Kemudian saya segera mengujinya dengan membuat panggilan video melalui Google Meet. Di mana ia direkodkan dalam gambar seperti yang ditunjukkan di bawah👇. Ini berlaku apabila Mak saya mempunyai seorang anak perempuan yang lulus ijazah Kejuruteraan Komputer dan juga jenis orang QA/QC 🫣. Semuanya diuji dan didokumenkan dengan baik. Di mana boleh dikemukakan sebagai bukti kepada mahkamah apabila perlu untuk digunakan untuk tuntutan kelak.

Sehingga itu, semoga dipermudahkan urusan dalam membuat langkah beserta ilustrasi untuk warga tua.

My picture after edit with Studio Ghibli effect

This is taken on the morning of 30 March 2025. Where I successfully edit my picture with Studio Ghibli effect.

It does feel nice to be able to edit picture in such way. 

Until then, have fun in editing your picture. 

Checking the capacity of bought pendrive

This is taken on the noon of 16 July 2024. Where I used 1 software to check capacity of the bought pendrive through online platform. 

It took me 7 hours and 40 minutes for pendrive with capacity 128 GB. I start from 10.30 am till 6.10 pm.

Well it is time worth spend. As it is proven the capacity is as per order.

Until then, have fun in testing your bought pendrive through online platform. 

Back up and cleaning up my 128 GB SD card

This is taken last morning of 12 August 2023. Where I get 106 GB free space from 128 GB after clean up content inside each folder in path D:\Android\media\com.whatsapp\WhatsApp. This is after I have clean up pictures in DCIM and Pictures folder. But only get up to 19 GB free space.

That is why it is important to keep on backing up and cleaning up both of your phone internal memory and SD card as weekly or monthly basis. At the same time, you will be able to back up important data and information inside both of your phone and SD card.

Until then, have fun in back up and cleaning up your SD card.

My microSD card left 3.9% after 9 months and 28 days of usage

This is taken last 27 July 2023. Where I notice that my microSD card left 5 GB plus from 128 GB capacity. 

Putting clock and date on home screen of my Samsung Galaxy phone

This is taken on the morning of 11 August 2023. Where I managed to put clock and date on home screen of my Samsung Galaxy A34 phone. 

The look of the clock and date on my home screen. 

Installing music app on Samsung Galaxy A34

This is taken on the morning of 9 August 2023. Where I noticed there is no music apps to be used to play music in Samsung Galaxy A34 phone. After some search, below is the steps.

1. Go to Galaxy Store icon in your Samsung Galaxy A34 phone. 

2. Type music.

3. Choose Samsung Music from search results. 

4. Then you can access the music from your folder in your phone.

Until the, have fun in enjoying good music in your phone.

Resolving issue of unable to connect to wifi at home using my Samsung Galaxy A11 phone

Notice that my Samsung Galaxy A11 unable to connect to wifi at home since 22 May 2023. After a thorough check in the evening of 23 May 2023, it is actually unable to connect for the past 30 days. After spending around 40 minutes looking and trying for ways to resolve the issue, finally able to resolve it.

Steps taken:

1. Reset network.

2. manual key in IP address of wifi network. Which I am able to get from my Huawei Y9 Prime 2019 phone. 

3. Then successfully connected to wifi network.

No need to do software update or do factory reset.

Hope this helps others. 

Until then, take a good care in trying to resolve issue of phone not connected to wifi. 

Finally able to access my 250 GB IDE hard disk

This is taken on the morning of 19 September 2023. Where I managed to test the reader bought for my 250 GB IDE hard disk. After start looking for solution early this year.

The look of 3 partitions inside my 250 GB IDE hard disk. 

The look of its existing casing that I have bought and used with it since earlier.

Charging my AAA batteries

This is taken on the morning of 19 August 2023. Where all 4 unit of my AAA batteries fully drained when using it on my 0.1 gm digital scale. So I end up have to charge all 4 of them. Fortunately my AAA battery charger able to accommodate all of them in 1 charge time.

The look of my full internal phone memory in the morning

This is taken on the morning of 31 October 2022. Where my Samsung Galaxy A11 phone internal memory left only 36 MB from 32 GB. I have to manually clean up and transfer the content of the internal memory to SD card. Regardless it is a tedious work, it is still way cheaper than buying a new phone. So need to be patience and move on. 

Until then, be patience and carefully transfer files from your phone internal memory to SD card.

Reason for me no longer looking for my power bank

This is taken on the noon of 27 September 2022. Where I finally realize why I no longer looking for my power bank these days. As my current power bank did not have fast charging capability. And I am using a fast charger of 35 W. Which easily charges up my phone up to 30% less than 15 minutes time. Just need to remember to take the charger and phone before leaving the premises I charged up my phone. Best to combine using it with an extension. Which I see minimum should be 2 meters long. Refer to the below example. Would be more comfortable if used 3 meters to 5 meters long.

I normally ask permission for the premises before using their available wall power ports.

Until then, have fun using a fast charger to charge up your phone while resting in the dining area.

Reference:

[1] My review on 3 USB ports of 35 W fast charger last 17 September 2022 https://serinurulbeauty.blogspot.com/2022/09/my-review-on-3-usb-ports-of-35-w-fast.html

The annoying process in cleaning up my phone internal memory

This is taken on the noon of 30 September 2022. Where I have switch my SD card from 64 GB to 128 GB. Which I spend almost 1.5 hours backing the 64 GB SD card to my almost full 2 TB portable hard disk. Time consuming as I have to move few files from Partition 4 of my hard disk to make a away to 43.2 GB data from the 64 GB SD card. It is gruesome for someone like me who is already ageing a lot😒.

Part of steps taken to recover control of my laptop after being held ransom by BitLocker lock

This is taken on the morning of 26 September 2022. I have been held ransom due to a BitLocker lock on my laptop. I accidentally activate it while using my Dual Drive USB Type-C on the laptop. This is after going out for lunch break last 22 September 2022😞. 

The look of OneDrive folder after successfully login in using my UTM account. 

Despite such, I am still unable to use my laptop until 8.46 pm. I am truly grateful for my rusty recovery-up laptop skills. Basically, it took me 12 hours for today to reach this sweet stage of achievement.

Finally able to download Lenovo USB Recovery Creator for my Lenovo ThinkBook laptop.

I do spend RM 70 to purchase a 64 GB pendrive to make bootable Lenovo USB Recovery. And it is worth every single cent spend. As it saves me from more which can easily lead to RM 200 if I send it out to a professional. Which will take them less than 2 hours time compared to me. But since I am tight on money and able to spare my time, I decided to do it all myself. Me of being stingy to the maximum.

The moral of the story is please keep a copy of your work on your portable hard disk. I am still working on buying a 4 TB portable hard disk to back up all my research works. Hopes this will help others in solving their BitLocker issue. I have successfully disabled and decrypted for good from my precious Lenovo ThinkBook laptop. Enough experiencing it once. It is not fun at all.

Until then, have fun documenting your steps by steps taken to recover your laptop after the BitLocker lock.

Labeling my house keys

This is taken on the morning of 12 September 2022. Where I finally manage to make label for my house keys.

The look of pasted label on the keys. I am using font size 5. Might need to use bigger font size after this. 

Labeling my pendrives, charger and cables

This is taken on the morning of 6 September 2022. I manage to stick labels on most of my electronic appliances such as chargers, cables and pendrives.

The look of the sticker on my charger and cable.

The look of stickers on my pen drives and OTG cable.

To use spin mode in washing machine Daewoo, model DWF-772W

This is taken in the noon of 13 May 2022. Where I am using washing machine Daewoo, model DWF-772W. This time, I take my time to test and get actual menu to spin only. 

To use spin mode to spin clothes in washing machine Daewoo, model DWF-772W:

1. Press "power"

2. Press "course"

3. Press "control"

4. Press "start"

The above steps will get 11 minutes of spin time.

How I troubleshoot to make my IDE hard disk works and accessible

This is taken in the morning of 21 December 2021. Where I successfully makes my IDE hard disk usable again.

Drilling screw hole for some part using drilling machine. Need to use small fine drill bit. And this is high precision works. 

This is why service to troubleshoot is expensive. Due to the used tools, time, idea and creativity involved in the process. 

I have checked earlier with nearest computer shop last 7 December 2021. However, they are unable to help me on this matter.

Which I resorted to troubleshoot it together with my friends help. The benefit of having friend with PhD in Electronics Engineering.

Troubleshooting steps takes my time to get best solution to ensure the hard disk can be used. This is where technical knowledge, information and resources is crucial. And my basic in electronics engineering does helps on this matter.

So for those who think this work is easy and cheap, by all means do it yourself😉💪.

Till then, have fun successfully troubleshoot your IDE hard disk and use it. 

Measured blood pressure during time I saw small lights like firefly

This is taken in the evening of 16 March 2021. When I saw fireflies like symptom after finished Asar prayer.

I can see my systolic readings more than 120. And my diastolic readings less than 80. Which means I am having elevated blood pressure at that moment [1]. This is after I check the right blood pressure reading for my age and gender [1].