Son of a bitch...

[beam me up scottie]

It never ends.

I just lost everything on my hard drive, so if you guys can bear with me, I'm trying to get back some of my files and may be in a sustained fit of rage for a few days.

Thanks to everyone for the compliments on the homeopathy thread but I had little to do with the success, it was a joint effort and much of the credit goes to Moggie for letting me know about the Guardian article.

You guys rock, in case I hadn't told you that lately.

I'll be back in a few.

Really, there aren't enough swear words to cover everything some days.

[salvorhardin]

1. That sucks

The magic healing rock sitting on top of my router will transmit positive engram packets along the internet. Hopefully this will induce sympathetic resonance in your data monopoles. If that doesn't work I've got this bottled water here... I could try immersing an old harddrive in it and then sending you the water. :-)


Seriously, good luck getting your files back. Let us know if there's anything we might do to help.

[GOPFighter]

2. BMUS. In a sustained fit of rage?

Sweet Hayzues! That's a first. :rofl:

Seriously, good luck recovering your files. Computers are the second most obnoxious objects on the planet.

[salvorhardin]

3. Now that you mention it

Maybe we should have the BMUS rage-o-meter for gauging woowooness (woowoo-ality?).

[NMMNG]

4. Damn, that bites

I hate computer screw ups . I hope you get your problems rectified quickly and without a major hassle.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

5. I'm sorry to hear that

I get my laptop blessed weekly by an Orthodox priest and a pagan druid. A catholic priest comes around and performs a monthly exorcism. All my items in "My Documents" are organised according to Feng Shui principles.

Ever since I've done those things, my computer has been totally SAFE, and it's proof that it all works!! :evilgrin:

Anti-virus programs, firewall and peer-guardian have nothing to do with it. Jesus controls my file system directly from space.

[salvorhardin]

7. Feh! I got my computer blessed by a Druid once...

Totally messed it up what with all those little pieces of trees and flowers he stuck inside it. They totally gummed up the fans and the thing overheated and the wood smoke from the smoldering greenery stained my walls. You can bet I wised up! After I replaced the CPU, graphics card and all the fans I got Granny Ocre to put a double reverse whammy hex on it. It's worked perfectly ever since -- that's proof I tell you!

[MindPilot]

6. This morning at mass, we prayed to

Binairius--the patron saint of data storage--for a swift recovery.

If you get your files back, it will be proof that prayer works.

[onager]

8. BMUS, you jinxed me!

Just kidding!

Got up this morning, turned on the PC and Windows wouldn't load.

Tried all the usual fixes, then finally did a Restore...which lost everything on my hard drive, just like you.

I just got all the MicroSuck Updates installed. Argh!

This sure put me in a jolly mood...

[beam me up scottie]

10. Sorry, dude.

It really bites, you know?

F*cking Microsoft is getting tossed out of my system, slowly but surely.

I didn't download the updates.

Matter of fact, I spent most of the first couple of days taking Microsoft, AOL and the rest of the crap OUT of my system.
Big Brother's little brother, Bill Gates, will have to spy on someone else's computer.

Let me know if you have a severe memory drain in the next few days.
I had to go through my StartUp programs and switch several to manual or shut them off.
The drain was so bad on mine, I had to keep getting off the internet and running clean up so that I could surf.

I'm still in mourning over losing almost all of my music collection, including dozens of Dire Straits/Mark Knopfler live tracks, bootleg Steven Vai and Yngwie Malmsteen and over one hundred tracks from Canadian musicians that are unavailable in the States and extremely hard to find.

Every day I think of other things that I lost.
Nothing compared to what families in the Gulf states are going through, of course.
But I've lost everything before as well, and this still hurts.

[Discord]

9. That sucks.

I wish you luck in recovering as much as possible. I hope that you can get everything straightened out before your head explodes. I've seen that happen to someone before... not a very pretty sight. :banghead:

[beam me up scottie]

11. Too late.

For the files AND my head, I'm afraid.

Lost everything.
Over two years of my life.
And that's a lot, considering that since I moved to a red state in the south, I literally LIVE on my PC.

Never again.

Can you say 'Linux' ?

[Discord]

12. D'oh

:hug:

We gotta get you relocated. :P

[onager]

13. Still searching here...

I'm glad I had backed up SOME stuff. But not a lot of fun stuff, like music.

Still rebuilding my IRreligion bookmarks...

[beam me up scottie]

21. It's VERY expensive to move.

As you know from your experience.
I would have to find a job straight away and find a better car.
My POS won't last another year, let alone a Vermont winter.
If I didn't have pets, I would sell everything and hitchhike.

[Discord]

22. Yes, it is quite expensive to move.

Having to do it twice in 3 months is just plain crazy. lol


But...

The job market is actually very good right now and for the near future. Alot of jobs open up this time of year because all the students go back to school and the businesses hire more help for leaf-peeping season, and ski season.

Can't hurt to look. Who knows what you'll find. And if you do like I tried to do... get a job within walking distance of where ya plan to live, and voila... no car needed. lol

Just a thought... ;)

[toddaa]

14. The myth of Linux invulnerabilitity

Be careful in thinking Linux is going to magically solve all your problems. Without an obsessive dedication to backing up your most valuable files, you're still vulnerable to things like hardware failures, dedicated hackers, and good old fashioned "WHAT THE FUCK DID I JUST DO!!!" Strangely enough, the last one is far easier on Linux than on Microsoft, which I learned about 5 years ago the hard way.

[salvorhardin]

15. rm -rf *

Oops. :-)

For reference: About 7 years ago I accidentally did this to a customer's web root. :scared: Good thing for backups.

[salvorhardin]

16. Good point about Linux and invulnerability

I would never recommend it for the average Windows user but running Linux is a great opportunity to learn about a lot of topics. For someone like BMUS who actually uses her brain I think Linux, especially a distro with a shallow learning curve like SuSE or Ubuntu (or Kubuntu if you're a KDE fan), Linux can be a great choice. Also, live CDs like Knoppix give people a chance to play around with and get a feel for a Linux OS without any real danger from general newbie cluelessness -- and it's a free download. Both SuSE and Ubuntu have live CDs too.
http://www.knoppix.org
http://www.ubuntulinux.org/download
http://www.novell.com/products/linuxprofessional/downloads/suse_linux

[beam me up scottie]

20. Thanks for the vote of confidence!

And thanks for reposting the urls, I was afraid I'd have to dig in my pms for them.
:yourock:

[beam me up scottie]

19. Oh, I know Linux is not invincible,

but Windows is nothing but a liability at this point.

What other company could get away with providing security upgrades that make your computer LESS safe than it was before?

Windows with an arsenal of non-MS security programs is safer than getting the Service packs and using MS Explorer.

I use Opera's browser with Firefox as a backup because it is a memory hog.

[dwckabal]

17. Can you say Mac? n/t

Windows = :puke:

[beam me up scottie]

18. Oh, I can say it,

I just can't afford it, unfortunately.
I have friends who swear by their Macs, but they are much better off financially than I am.