I had to reformat!!!

[ucubed]

I'm quite angry that I had to reformat my computer before I could save some items. I'll be spending probably the weekend to retrieve everything either off my external and/or the internet. AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! !!!!!

[white_s2k]

That sucks Kevin!

Was it a virus?

[acruce]

Be glad you had an external hd.;)

[karmaz00]

that suck man

[Cyanide]

I've had to do that before. In a typical perfect storm comedy of errors, I lost my thesis, all 5 backups of it and the hard drive one day near the end of my Masters. I spent the next week piecing together parts of files I was able to salvage doing various "bit/byte editing methods". Then I had to rewrite all the missing gaps. Made me actually cry. But, it was a manly cry.

Hope it works out for you. Hope you find your computer faster now.

Good Luck

[Darrell]

Mac users don't have these problems. ;)

Queue Mac vs. PC fight

[Ace$nyper]

Mac users don't have these problems. ;)

Queue Mac vs. PC fight

*Take's Mac side*

Then again no problems with any linux comps.

[VirtualSmitty]

Mac users don't have these problems. ;)

Queue Mac vs. PC fight

Really? (http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/22/iwork-09-trojan-infects-at-least-20-000-machines/)

[Darrell]

Really? (http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/22/iwork-09-trojan-infects-at-least-20-000-machines/)

OK, it does not happen to Mac users who don't download pirated stuff! :tg

[Ace$nyper]

Really? (http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/22/iwork-09-trojan-infects-at-least-20-000-machines/)

You mean to tell me pirated software can be risky and might damage a comp?

For shame! That is no way or shape the fault of the OS, be it any OS.

That's like I put a peanut butter sandwich in my CD drive so dell sucks.

[Darrell]

That's like I put a peanut butter sandwich in my CD drive so dell sucks.

I'm dying, make it stop. :r :r :r :r :r

[VirtualSmitty]

You mean to tell me pirated software can be risky and might damage a comp?

For shame! That is no way or shape the fault of the OS, be it any OS.

That's like I put a peanut butter sandwich in my CD drive so dell sucks.

:r Just pointing out that it does happen. Cause i'm sure no one here ever pirates software :dance::D

[Ace$nyper]

:r Just pointing out that it does happen. Cause i'm sure no one here ever pirates software :dance::D
Oh yea, I won't lie or disagree you can break any OS if you do silly things to it though, just normal usage Macs don't tend to kill them selves like a windows machine does.

It's not a perfect or fail safe OS but sure beats the pants off the boarder line suicidal MS machines.

I hated how it was just a way of life to wipe your machine clear every once and a while here and there.

This is coming from someone who's used all 3 of the major OS's and rather decent working them, no means a pro though.

[VirtualSmitty]

Oh yea, I won't lie or disagree you can break any OS if you do silly things to it though, just normal usage Macs don't tend to kill them selves like a windows machine does.

It's not a perfect or fail safe OS but sure beats the pants off the boarder line suicidal MS machines.

I hated how it was just a way of life to wipe your machine clear every once and a while here and there.

This is coming from someone who's used all 3 of the major OS's and rather decent working them, no means a pro though.

Won't argue with you there! I use all three OS flavors pretty regularly and I wouldn't use windows at all if I didn't need it to play the occasional pc game.

[Cigary]

Just get into the habit of loading important files to a flash. After having gotten burned once and then having to reformat I always save important files to my flash,,,the computer can go F itself while I just go ahead and restore everything back to basics or you can make a copy of all your drives which is a pain. Anything important goes into the flash,,,takes two seconds.

[Ace$nyper]

Won't argue with you there! I use all three OS flavors pretty regularly and I wouldn't use windows at all if I didn't need it to play the occasional pc game.
http://darwine.sourceforge.net/

You are welcome :)

[King James]

bah, never fun to reformat. Always great to backup, yet usually computer crashes just at the right time when you haven't backed up for a little bit.....never right after saving everything

[VirtualSmitty]

http://darwine.sourceforge.net/

You are welcome :)

I know all about Wine, playing games with it sucks. Big time.

[madurolover]

I have never run anything but Windows. I have also never had a virus or malware. Amazing what a little bit of vigilance can do for you. ;)

[Ace$nyper]

I know all about Wine, playing games with it sucks. Big time.Drat.

Really what games are you having a hard time with?

Sorry I wasn't able to help.

[VirtualSmitty]

Drat.

Really what games are you having a hard time with?

Sorry I wasn't able to help.

Most of my PC gaming is RTS, FPS. Rome TW, Medieval TW, Company of Heroes, CoD4, Crysis, Empire at war, pretty much all of my PC games don't work with it lol.

There is a list (http://wiki.jswindle.com/index.php/Wine_Games) of games that work on wine. It isn't very big :(

[Genetic Defect]

I have never run anything but Windows. I have also never had a virus or malware. Amazing what a little bit of vigilance can do for you. ;)

:tpd: cliches get old;)

[ucubed]

It would not boot normally, it ended up being on the blue screen of death. I started in safe mode, I tried probably at least 10 different tactics to try and resolve the situation and it did not work. Then I was going to reinstall ALL windows drives ONLY, however that part had errors and it then proceeded to reformat my entire C:/. I have a lot of stuff on my external, however I may have lost all your addresses =P

[rizzle]

Sorry Kev. If something like that ever happens to me I'm just done. I have no idea how to go in and retrieve and piece back together stuff. I'm just gonna throw my machine in the Gulf if and when it happens.
:ss

[RGD.]

It would not boot normally, it ended up being on the blue screen of death. I started in safe mode, I tried probably at least 10 different tactics to try and resolve the situation and it did not work. Then I was going to reinstall ALL windows drives ONLY, however that part had errors and it then proceeded to reformat my entire C:/. I have a lot of stuff on my external, however I may have lost all your addresses =P


For the future:

Remove hard drive.
Install new hard drive, format and install OS.
Install old drive as a slave or external.
Copy old files over to new drive.

If the old drive has no physical errors - after you are sure nothing is left on it - then reformat it and save in case something happens in the future or use as a slave/USB for daily backups.


Ron

[Ollie]

For the future:

Remove hard drive.
Install new hard drive, format and install OS.
Install old drive as a slave or external.
Copy old files over to new drive.

If the old drive has no physical errors - after you are sure nothing is left on it - then reformat it and save in case something happens in the future or use as a slave/USB for daily backups.


Ron



And get one of THESE (http://www.maxtor.com/en/external-drives/backup-and-storage-devices/).

[SeanGAR]

For the future:

Remove hard drive.
Install new hard drive, format and install OS.
Install old drive as a slave or external.
Copy old files over to new drive.

If the old drive has no physical errors - after you are sure nothing is left on it - then reformat it and save in case something happens in the future or use as a slave/USB for daily backups.


Ron

Great advice. As long as the drive is readable, you should never reformat if you have important files on the drive, rescue them first.

Another option is to have a linux live cd around that you can boot to and use as a rescue disk. Boot to cd, copy important HD files to usb, verify them, and only then do the fdisk/format.

What I also do is to clone the hard drive after all of the software and updates are installed on a clean installation. That way you can quickly get the computer up and running with very little work. I clone to an HD in an external enclosure, so a simple swap will get the computer running again.

File backups are something else, I backup modified files daily and take a backup home weekly. Old school, I run xcopy as a scheduled task or manually for the external.

I also have a portable at home that has the same software installed so if my desktop burned I would be able to work.

[rizzle]

Great advice. As long as the drive is readable, you should never reformat if you have important files on the drive, rescue them first.

Another option is to have a linux live cd around that you can boot to and use as a rescue disk. Boot to cd, copy important HD files to usb, verify them, and only then do the fdisk/format.

What I also do is to clone the hard drive after all of the software and updates are installed on a clean installation. That way you can quickly get the computer up and running with very little work. I clone to an HD in an external enclosure, so a simple swap will get the computer running again.

File backups are something else, I backup modified files daily and take a backup home weekly. Old school, I run xcopy as a scheduled task or manually for the external.

I also have a portable at home that has the same software installed so if my desktop burned I would be able to work.
Wha??
:r

[ucubed]

Well I got most of everything set up and it's running better than it was before. Thanks for the advice, but it was not needed, I was just ranting and annoyed by the fact that I couldn't fix it in time. I know a great deal about computers so I got this =).

[Old Sailor]

Know how you feel....transfered all my data to my new laptop, formatted old one and sold it.....all my addys are AWOL!!!!:fl

Today I had to reformatt desktop downstairs.

[Footbag]

It could be worse. My laptop and camera were stolen a few days after my honeymoon. I got all of the insurance money for a new laptop, but now I have this mental image of a POS thief looking through my honeymoon photo's.