I can relate. Yesterday at work, it was nearing quitting time, and the large file I’d been working on since last week was almost completed. A few more minutes, and it would be done! Suddenly the dodgy network drive made Windows close abruptly, and to soften the blow it claimed to be “saving” the file. (It lied.) When that was done, I go back to the folder it was in. The last saved date was the day before. So my work for the whole day was lost. That wasn’t all. I looked a minute later, and the folder itself was empty. So I’d lost all the work I’d done since last week. This file was prioritized “Immediate” too. :smack: They’re using antiquated equipment to run this special network on, and last week it wiped out all of the files I’d saved on the hard drive, along with all Windows settings I’d ever made. This happened to several people last week using the same network. So I’d already begun it twice over when it was destroyed yesterday. Because of last week’s debacle, I was advised to save my work in a network folder. Wrong! So accept my commiseration in your plight, Guin. At least you can perform maintenance on your own machines, while my professional work is at the mercy of demonic forces beyond my control that howl with shrieking laughter at the pathetic futility of human folly.
I had a hard drive die on me just a few weeks ago (got that bzzZZZZzzzz, knocka-knocka-knocka sound and repeated freezes). Big pain in the ass, but I just changed the jumpers to designate it as a secondary, slapped a new install of WinXP on another drive (newly designated as primary) and I’m casually copying files off the bad drive as I need them. Sooner or later, I’ll recover everything I want to keep (and learn to live without a few random files that got corrupted) and remove the bad disk, check its manufacturing date to see if it’s still under warranty, and move on. A reformat? Screw that. You shoulda asked us first.
As for irrecoverable loss, try having a few computers stolen… that sucked bigtime.
Norton can burn in hell. I use AVG, works good and it’s free. It’s not very configurable though; if I switch back to a paid antivirus I might go with Kaspersky. That one gets very high marks for virus killing, customizability, and clean unsintalling if you decide you don’t want it. Norton quite empatically does not uninstall at all cleanly, unless you go hunting for an obscure utility to do it.
Not only that, but you can’t run Norton 2007 in Safe Mode. That’s why we also use AVG at the shop. Plus, it doesn’t use nearly as many resources as Norton, so your computer will run faster (especially noticeable if you don’t have a lot of RAM).
About 70% of my job consists of removing spyware and, where that fails, backing up the data and doing a re-install.
Sorry to hear about your (data) loss, Guinastasia.
ETA: I think sturmhauke was referring to AVG Free, which is good for anti-virus, but doesn’t have a firewall component. IMO, it’s well worth the $50 or whatever to get the extra protection and pay for the full version of AVG, especially if you have broadband.
Sometimes that second drive will not show up because windows hasn’t assigned a drive letter to it.
Sometimes that second drive won’t show up because XP Home is really weird about moving windows-install drives between different XP Home installs.
If you’re using XP Home instead of XP Pro, see if you can find someone with Pro to try to read your files off.
Well, in some ways, it’s a GOOD thing-I had so much crap on there, and I wasn’t using it. AND a lot of my files are on my old computer, so that’s some consolation.
So maybe this happened for a reason.
I had a near-death-PC experience a while back, and it made me back up all my files on CDs. Come to think of it, an extra drive doesn’t sound like a bad idea, but I’m not sure when I’ll have the cash for it.
I would have tried yelling at the computer, hitting it if it doesn’t cooperate. Though some computers require gentle cooing and positive reinforcement, just depends on its temperment.
Sigh…boy you got that right. I didn’t include that in my list, but various issues with the new Norton product before the poor hard drive finally died caused a number of hours of frustration.
Thanks for the tip, next subscription time I’ll probably go with one of those.
Yup, look on the bright side! I kind of thought that too once it was all said and done and I had a working computer again.
Funny, because just a few days before “the incident”, I was thinking “hmmmm, I should brush up and refresh my rusty computer (building and geeking) skills”.
Check out BitDefender while you’re making up your mind – I tried it and liked it.