Have you ever done someting this stupid?

[Bullworth]

So I was getting ready to reinstall Windows and had my HD divided into 3 partitions. As usual I put all the files I wanted to keep on another partition.
This time, for some really stupid reason I still can't explain, instead of just formatting the drive partition I used the erase utility that came with it. Alot of the files I don't mind since I can get them back but the biggest loss for me was 6G worth of MP3s alot of them back from the Napster heyday. I only had about half backed up, most of the hard to find ones, but it was just too all the time it took to dig up all that stuff that I really regret. What's been your worse data loss, your fault or not?

[AND1]

Instead of replacing my windows 98 OS with 2000 i accidently added another OS. This was pretty stupid because the coputer i had was really old and had no space at all on it. It was 4 Gig hard drive- pretty old huh.

anyways my new computer is 120 gigs

sucks you lost all those mp3 its a pain in the ass trying to get them back.

[tgpo]

Dumbest thing I've ever done: I once owned a PC......with WINDOWS!!!

[MOVIEGEEK]

Dumbest thing I've ever done: I once owned a PC......with WINDOWS!!!

Yea and I love those new MAC commercials..........NOT!
MAC is to computer as beta is to vcr.

[Faustus]

Ok now... time to sort this out again. As a user of PCs and Macs I can clearly say this.

PC = Awsome... so long as you know what your doing... they should be hobbiest equipment only if you ask me...

Mac = Uber! = If only apple would drop the dependency of those stupid Motorolla CPUs and switch to doing what they do best... (IE software) and do it on the x86 platform they would own all and MS would have some serious competition on its hands for once.

On another note.... I lose something major everytime I reformat... no matter how careful I am.

[tgpo]

PC is to Blue Screen of Death as a Car is to a automachanic. You see it way too often and it always seems to be at the worst times.

[Faustus]

Blue screens are rare if you know whats your doing... and when it does crash you fix it... thats why I say PCs are still very hobby like machines, therefore ment for people who can fix them... yet now they are shoved down peoples throats as the end of be all of computers.... when 99% of the general public would be fine with a Mac. That other 1% of the general public has to be reminded hourly to breath else they'll die.

That of course does not mean that the PC suck... just that I think they should be left to those who know what they are doing with them... but then prices would go up so throw the whole arguement out alltogether.

I like my little imac... but for the price it is rather slow reguardless of what Apple would like you to think... but in general what the Mac makes possible with finess, the PC does with sheer power. They are both great platforms to me... neither "sucks"

[devinemi83]

From what I have seen, macs are excellent for rookies and pros alike, since now it has UNIX at its core.



Windows has so many people hating it because they dont know how to really wield it properly. I have 98SE and I NEVER get a BSOD. Hardly ever crash. Most of the people I know that cuss out their machines are the ones who if you ask them whether they have an AMD or INTEL cpu will look at you like you're speaking japanese. It is more complicated than things like the Mac.


I see ease of use in 3 levels
1. Macs
2. Windows
3. Linux



EDIT: One time I was experimenting with a video capture card that was really messing up my system and I could tell it really trashed windows, it gave me BSOD every 1 of 3 startups. I knew I had to use my recent restore disc. I intended to back my data off onto a cdr. But......I didnt feel like doing it that night. I figured "one more night aint gonna hurt it". So I turned it off. The next day I turned it on and it just sat there Couldnt go into safe mode, tried to restore the reg....everything. Nothing worked. I had to use the restore disc a little early. I lost a good bit of stuff. Nothing critical just annoying to spend 4 hours reinstalling all my stuff and copying files. Now even though the machine runs better than ever, if I have data I really want to keep, I back it onto cdrw BEFORE the machine ever turns off.

[mrtristan]

Like flaystus, I usually lose a few files, evertime I clean install.

One of my hard drives recently crashed and I lost about the same amount of mp3s. I'm too defeated to even start rebuilding my collection.

I didn't even bother to load the backed up files to my computer.

[jeex]

I have 98SE and I NEVER get a BSOD.

i find that very very very hard to believe.. i used to get them all the time, and i had my machine running lean, clean and mean.. it just happens sometimes.. eventually resources would run low, the machine would crawl.. i'd try to restart, and most of time time i could avoid one, but sometimes it'd happen while i was trying to restart..

the only way you would never get a BSOD is if all you did was play solitaire...

but now i've got windows xp, and man oh man is this puppy light years ahead of 98se..

if i had to choose between using a pirated version of 98SE or pay for the full edition of windows xp professional, i'm pulling out my wallet..

[Faustus]

My secrets to getting no BSOD (or as few as possible), by Flaystus:

Only run certified drivers.
Load no software that is unneeded.
Keep machine clean of scumware. (recent addition in the last few years)
Good quailty ram always... never the cheap stuff.
And the last one everyone thinks I'm crazy but... Good Powersupply!
Oh yeah and Win2k! Or failing that an patched upto date XP.

you'd be surprised how often repeated hardware failures are due to horrible power... OEM machine can be very bad about this. Use a good quailty PS such as a Enermax and a UPS with power conditioning. If the hardware is in tip top shape then the software can use it correctly.

Also! if you smoke around your computer clean the inside once a month at least.

Using those steps I've never had many crash problem under any OS... be it DOS, Win3.1, 95, 98, 98SE, 2k, or XP. I leave ME out because we all know how much it sucks.

Of course individual program have bugs sometimes that cause them to crash... but there is nothing that can be done about that other then find another piece of software.

I will also point out that in almost 10 years I've never had a virus... even though I installed my first virus scanner only a few months ago when a small mailing list I was on asked everyone to as viruses (virui? sp?) were out of control over it.

[mrtristan]

flaystus - I think you and I could share a computer. I pretty much follow the same set of guidlines that you do. My computer has the dreaded ATI AIW, Creative Soundblaster Live!, and Abit KT7A combination of death, but it's been running smooth for two years.

I had some problems with Windows 98se. Windows 2000 Professional runs great.

[devinemi83]

98 works great for me. I only have 64MB ram but I almost never run out of resources. And I run my machine between 6-12 hours a day. I use, vb6 ent, wmp,tmpg,virtual dub,kazaa,home written software,word, pictureit,20/20,nero almost daily. All day long. And my machine is VERY healthy. Very rarely do I freeze up, and it usually goes away within 20 secs.


My resource level at 10 hours is usually around 55-60%. A little slow but still fast enough.

[Ducatti20]

I never lost more than a couple hundred meg, but as a custom computer builder/upgrader/repairer... I've seen some major data dumps. I had a very nice young mother bring me her pc recently, with twin 120 GB hard drives under the hood. She's a wedding photographer/video recorder. She had just captured the batchlor/bachlorette party, wedding, and reception, plus some others in between.... 14 hours of data.... then her 4 year old formated the drive... 182GB data!!! she left the computer on, he clicked his way into a full format (IE low level!!). Fortunately for her she still had the tapes....

[tenders]

except for maintainence,mine is on almost 24/7. i've only ever had 1 bsod,and that was from an installation of a incompatable program. fortunately i have a program called "go back",which enables me to revert my hard drive back to what it used to be.

[double7007]

Dumbest thing I've ever done: I once owned a PC......with WINDOWS!!!

Yea and I love those new MAC commercials..........NOT!
MAC is to computer as beta is to vcr.

ok its not the windows/mac crap its the beta vcr thing. Beta is way better...it offered better quality for its time, and vcrs were smaller thats why people loved em. i have to admit, beta was too bulky and when your 14 and you arent a body builder, carrying around a betacam was like trying to carry fat bas*ard after hes dead drunk. So all in all, for quality, its beta, for size and ease of use its vcr.

[Greg12]

For WIndows OS's based on the Kerneral32 Core, those MAC commericals r huge exagerations.

[legionpc]

I usually just burn all my folders to CDR before formatting, so I've never lost any important data

[vitualis]

I've personally crashed computers running Win98, WinXP, Linux and MacOS with relative ease... 8)

Nothing's perfect.

Regards.

[The Maynard]

A MAC/PC debate.... LOOK! A dead horse! Let's beat it!

[tgpo]

I see someone revived a dead topic. I love Mac/PC debates. They are always fun.