just when you think you're being smart....

[housepig]

so I got this piece of hardware to stick in my video box today, and I thought "ooo, I'll make an image of my c: drive, so if I don't like this thing and pull it out, I can just restore from the image, not hork around with removing drivers, etc..."

worked like a charm.

now, having done this, do I then do the same for my main internet / word processing / gaming / everything-except-video box?

no, I do not.

so god saw fit to punish me by screwing my Windows install, so I can't boot in anything except safe mode, forcing me to do the new hard drive / XP install I've been "planning on" on a Monday night when my wife really needed to get some work done on that box....

BALLS!!!

(the icing on the cake? my soundcard won't install under XP. GRRRRRR!)

okay, venting over. I'm feeling much better now... even though I can't stand the super-retarded-frosting look of XP untweaked...

[stiltman]

okay, venting over. I'm feeling much better now... even though I can't stand the super-retarded-frosting look of XP untweaked...

Sorry to here, I feel your pain though, since I just went through the hassle of trying to rid my machine of EZCD

BTW, I call the untweaked XP, Crayolaware...Pretty much similar to a MAC....
Must have something to do with graphic artists or something

[Solarjetman]

I feel for you housepig. I have a similar story that happened to me about 2 months ago.

At the time I had about 8 CD-Rs of all my files from the past 5 years. Stuff like school projects, program patches, music, and the like. I had just purchased my DVD burner. I think it is a fantastic idea to transfer these 8 CDs to 1 or 2 DVDs.

So, having two hard drives, one for windows and one for file storage, I copy all 8 CDs to my hard drive. Thinking I no longer will need the CDs, I throw them out (do you see where this is going yet?)

Well, I wait a few days. Then I think I am being smart by refreashing my computer with a fresh install of Windows (courtesy of Norton Ghost) before burning my DVDs I had been putting off. During this time, I am watching television and yep, I was not paying attention to what I was doing. Instead of telling Ghost to imprint my OS drive, I tell it to imprint the file storage drive!!!!!

Well, every single file I had was gone, the CDs were long since picked up by the garbage men, and I was stuck hitting my head agianst the wall. Five years of files gone in an instant because I was not paying attention.

[racer-x]

Yea man, I know where your coming from. I'm a big fan of Norton Ghost, it saved my but countless times. I dual-boot 98se and XP Pro. I have images of both OS's on a fat 32 partition so that both systems can access. I also have copies of both images on a bootable DVD+R. It comes in hand when installing new HDDs.

I use the classic Windows theme for my XP, the default really sucks out loud!

[housepig]

ahhh, I don't feel so alone now... thanks guys...

I used to use Ghost, but I just used Acronis TrueImage for the first time, love it. Very verbose - the problem I had with Ghost is that I need a little more handholding and reassurance when doing backups / restores (unlike most every other program... wizard? screw you!)

and I'm starting to figure out how to turn off the cotton candy... I had a friend who is an XP nut set up my video box, and he moves so fast I didn't see a lot of settings he was tweaking while he did it... I think I'm going to offer him a nice steak on the grill if he'll come over and school me again..

biggest thing - just found the setting for the start menu appearance, thank god.

now I just have to get the new drive off the top of the machine and actually in a drive bay, and copy all my data off my old drive... oh, and go buy a new drive for the video box... where do you get a hard drive at 7 pm on Labor Day? out of another machine

no sleep for me tonight...

[indolikaa]

no sleep for me tonight...

Yeah, but you're lovin' it. You computer nerd.

[stiltman]

ahhh, I don't feel so alone now... thanks guys...

I used to use Ghost, but I just used Acronis TrueImage for the first time, love it. Very verbose - the problem I had with Ghost is that I need a little more handholding and reassurance when doing backups / restores (unlike most every other program... wizard? screw you!)

OK, try DriveImage Pro....I use it at work, but not at home. It's REALLY good. It even supports the lastest linux kernel. Ghost, any version doesn't. It has scripting and everything. If I didn't have a license for Ghost, I'd go with DriveImage Pro

Take a look....it's worth it

BTW,I switched to DriveImage Pro just because their support team couldn't help me. I had 4000 licenses with them, boy they missed the boat. Then again if it were still owned by the original people, it'd be much better than it is now, which is basically the same as it was 2 years ago.

[indolikaa]

I finally tried the idea of making an 'image' of my hard drives by using the backup feature in B's Recorder. Worked like a charm, even with my SCSI controller.

Took about an hour to burn the image and fifteen minutes to reload it. The bootable DVD feature is really cool but won't work on either machine, since both use 'foreign' drive controllers.

However, "Just when I thought I was being smart" I experimented with using a DVD-RW instead of a DVD+RW. Dumb idea. Very dumb idea.

DVD-RW.

[housepig]

no sleep for me tonight...

Yeah, but you're lovin' it. You computer nerd.

I'm so not, though... this is the nerdery that I hate - having to reinstall all my software, buy new hardware because I need it, find updated versions of all my old, comfy crap...

the main reason my machine crashed is probably that it's been overdue to crash for about 6 months, and I haven't upgraded...

[Roundabout]

Housepig & Solarjetman,
I had the same kind of experience. I had a 20GB 4200r. IBM HDD in my laptop that I kept telling the wife we needed to back up. We had at least 10 - 12GB of user data to back up, and we kept putting it off, putting it off. I think you know where this is going too...
One day about a month ago, after a crash (it was win98, not unusual) I rebooted and got the old scandisk error. I thought I'd run scandisk after bootup, so I went ahead and booted it up and it started o.k. - I went to tools and ran scandisk with surface scan. Big mistake. I came back later, since a surface scan takes hours. The screen was blank and I had to force the computer off by holding the power button. When it rebooted, it still wanted to run scandisk, and when I tried it wouldn't start.
Long story short, the HDD has gone south. Too many bad sectors, and data corruption has prevented me from getting my files and I'll probably have to send it to a recovery specialist. Since they want $500 - $2500 to restore the data, I'll be sending it overseas for recovery where it doesn't cost an arm and a leg.
I tried everything imaginable to recover it myself, every recovery utility, slaving the drive into another computer - nothing would access the data. When I try, the drive makes "shoop - shoop" sounds and locks up whatever it's hooked up to. I can see my folders, but if I try to access them, it just locks up. I finally gave up, and learned a very hard lesson. You have to back up everything. I lost 3 years worth of digital photos taken with my Kodak digital cam, countless documents, rare mp3's, and a whole lot more. Some of it can be replaced, but photos - those were the only copies I had. I'm hoping for a recovery, but who knows?
Never again. Now I burn EVERYTHING onto CD's as soon as possible.

[Faustus]

Using norton ghost 2003 or higher with a DVD Burner and a nice boot floppy with proper drivers (it needs the floppy to add the bootable info to the DVD) makes a perfect restore disc for my computers. I just custom created the image with all my video tools onboard and made sure to keep it under the size of a single disc. Its like being bullet proof.

[housepig]

Roundabout -

ouch.

at least it was just my Windows install that failed... I hooked the drive up as a slave to the new drive, and all my files are still accessable.

I think I'm going to pull all the documents off onto this box, then move the drive to my video box and use the dvd burner to back up all the video clips and mp3's I've got... oooh, and all my UT custom maps! Can't forget those....

[racer-x]

To back up files, I use an old 80 GIG HDD that was replaced by a 120 GIG drive I recently bought for $70. I just remove the side panel from PC and plug in the HDD on second IDE as slave, then transfer files I want to backup. I then remove the HDD and store it in a safe dry place.

All this talk about lost data is making me nervous. I got a new puppy in the house and have an eirie feeling he may get a crazy idea about attacking my CD collection when left alone someday. I don't like mp3s, but I'm thinking about backing them up. I have allready backed up all my Led Zeppelin to wav. It filled a DVD+R. I think now I'm gonna do the same for my Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix.

I figure about 10 DVD+Rs should hold all my music in wav format, the question is how long will they last?

[rallynavvie]

Ouch, wav files 0wnzor. I backed up my rare CDs (i.e. the ones I can't just get at Best Buy) to one of my FireWire drives, but I did it in mp3 at 192 Kbps audio rate. I tried reburning to CD and played it in my home theater system and sounds just like the original disc. wavs are just too big

I still need to get a disc imager for my home computers. About what size image does Ghost turn an 80GB drive into? And what if the drive is only half full? It'd be nice to burn to DVD but I doubt it's that small. I have plenty of external hard drives that should be able to fit it as long as it's less that 80GB. I back up all the other data on my drives so I basically just need the OS and program files.

[Roundabout]

Housepig wrote: at least it was just my Windows install that failed... I hooked the drive up as a slave to the new drive, and all my files are still accessable. <<

Yeah, don't make the same mistake I did - putting it off and putting it off. I never knew how expensive it is to recover data. I learned a lot, though. And the HDD has to be disassembled in a clean room, by someone who really knows what they are doing. Sometimes they have to get the same model HDD and take it apart and put the platters from yours into the new one to be able to get access to the data. If the platters have been scratched, all bets are off.
The thing is, it happened without warning. This HDD had no S.M.A.R.T. capability to give me some kind of warning before it went kaput. It's a 2.5 in. notebook drive that's about 3 years old. When I called one recovery place, they told me that it is unusual that it lasted that long. That was news to me, I have drives that are much older and still work fine. Maybe notebook drives fail faster due to the small form factor. No matter, the damage is done. I'm just trying to warn everyone else how important it really is to back up anything you can't afford to lose. Don't make the same mistake I did.

[flaninacupboard]

the thing that tickles me most with a fresh XP install is the first time you open my computer, and click on c: and get informed "This location contains important data required to keep your computer running. Modifying it's contents can cause system failure, are you sure you want to access it?"
or some such.
Oh, how silly