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Computers hate me! (Rant)

polycounter lvl 18
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Tulkamir polycounter lvl 18
Hey, just blowing off some major steam. Ignore this if ya want.

My computer was down to 1% hard disk space, so I figured it was high time for a reformat. Done it many times and never with a problem, this time everything went to shit. I backed up everything important (A fair amount) on my external Hard Drive, and formatted the thing. Apparently you had to unplug an external drive in order to format, because it cleared out everything on both drives. So I lost EVERYTHING I had, and now my computer is giving me some retarded error about not being able to find windows, so I basically can't install it.

And just to salt the wound it all of course had to happen at the end of my school term.

So yea, I've now lost all the 3d work I've done anywhere but at school in the past 2 months, all digital work, 10 gigs of music, a whack load of important emails, a shit load of documentation (Scripts, Design Documents, the whole shabang) and a shit load more.

In closing, FUCK!!!!

/rant

Replies

  • steady
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    steady polycounter lvl 18
    that really sucks Tulkamir, I'd suggest making some backups of important files using some DVD-Rs, thats what I do smile.gif
  • Joshua Stubbles
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    Joshua Stubbles polycounter lvl 19
    That sucks man frown.gif

    I think you had to have hit the wrong key or something, when you formated. I don't recall there being a 'format all' option. You have to actually select the partitions to format. If your external and main drive were named the same thing, that would also cause problems.

    No idea what happened, but my guess it was user error frown.gif
  • aesir
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    aesir polycounter lvl 18
    fuckkkkkkkkkk that sucks bro.

    I always put the most important shit on CDs too as an extra backup...
  • Tulkamir
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    Tulkamir polycounter lvl 18
    Steady, yea, that's a good idea, I'm gonna start.

    Vassago, it must have been in some way, however it was nothing so simple as hit the wrong key. To format I typed in "Format C: /FS:NTFS". Not much mistaking the drive. (My external was set to G).

    Ahh well thanks for the sympathy guys. frown.gif If nothing else I guess I've learned to back up my stuff better. :P
  • Justin Meisse
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    Justin Meisse polycounter lvl 19
    All the more reason for some fresh new models, get crackin!
  • KDR_11k
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    KDR_11k polycounter lvl 18
    Strange... But really, harddrives aren't a good idea for backups. Use something you can put on a shelf and forget about.
  • oXYnary
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    oXYnary polycounter lvl 18
    You might use the recovery tools that come in the windows cd.. if you backed up the os as well on that other drive it might still be there.

    You also multi partition your drives? That helped whenmy last hardrive went down. I didnt loose everything because it was spread all over different partitions.
  • Tulkamir
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    Tulkamir polycounter lvl 18
    Justin, that's a damn good point. laugh.gif Way to look on the bright side, thanks man.

    KDR, yea, I realize that now. frown.gif Oh well, live and learn.

    Oxy,trhat's a damn good idea with the partitioning, I think I'll do it now. Thanks for bringing it up. Didn't have it set like that this time though.
  • Ruz
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    Ruz polycount lvl 666
    yup, happened to em a while back. lost some work I would really rather not have lost, inlcuding my first ever skin texture from 1995(it was shit but I digress)
  • hawken
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    hawken polycounter lvl 19
    erm , if you partition that drive you will lose everything. When you format data it's simple to get it back. Especially that external drive; once you have windows re-installed buy some recovery software. Chances are you'd get 99% of the data recovered so long as you don't write anything to the drive.

    shit happens, but formatting is not as serious as people make out - the data is still there.
  • KDR_11k
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    KDR_11k polycounter lvl 18
    He used format, not format /q. A quick format will just wipe the file system and leave the data there, a full format zeros the entire drive.
  • Tulkamir
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    Tulkamir polycounter lvl 18
    Ok... so can I get it back with the mentioned software or no? If I can that'd be awesome.

    Thanks.

    And yea, Ruz, same deal here. Even though I really don't have any of good work done (The best I have done is the little demon for the contest, and it perdy much sucked too), it's still nice to have. Though there was other non-art important stuff I lost. :P
  • SuperOstrich
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    SuperOstrich polycounter lvl 17
    KDR, I don't believe any type of format actually wipes the drive. The only way to physically remove the data is to write new data over it.

    So Tulkamir, stop using that drive until you run some recovery software. The more you use it, the more new data will overwrite your old data.
  • hawken
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    hawken polycounter lvl 19
    [ QUOTE ]
    He used format, not format /q. A quick format will just wipe the file system and leave the data there, a full format zeros the entire drive.

    [/ QUOTE ]

    nah, recovery software can get even that back. Majic!
  • Tulkamir
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    Tulkamir polycounter lvl 18
    Wow, Hawken I believe you have just made my day. Actually, scratch that, you've made more than that. Thanks man.

    Any idea of where I can find this software and what ones are good?
  • sonic
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    sonic polycounter lvl 18
    [ QUOTE ]
    [ QUOTE ]
    He used format, not format /q. A quick format will just wipe the file system and leave the data there, a full format zeros the entire drive.

    [/ QUOTE ]

    nah, recovery software can get even that back. Majic!

    [/ QUOTE ]

    Well, most of it won't be recoverable. You know all those bits that were once 1s and 0s? They are ALL 0s now, so it's blanked out. Sometimes, you can recover bits and pieces, but if it just did a quick format, it basically tells the partition "Hey, when you write some shit, write it over this old stuff", and you can still recover it, as long as it hasn't been written over already.

    Typically, the programs for it are expensive, and you'll get the best luck taking the HDD, and slaving it on another comp to run the program. If you REALLY need the data, you can send it into data recovery companies, who will get ALL of your junk back, but it's pretty costly.
  • KDR_11k
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    KDR_11k polycounter lvl 18
    Hm, Wiki says there's an "unformat" command for DOS, if it did indeed quick format the drive (apparently it does that when the file system is already in place) that should work. I'm not sure what the FS option does internally, it could make format assume that it has to change the filesystem in which case it does zero the drive.
  • Tulkamir
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    Tulkamir polycounter lvl 18
    Thanks for the explanation sonic, makes a bit more sense now. I'd always thought a format wiped it out for good.

    Hmm.... can you explain that in full or link me KDR? That sounds like it could be good.

    I looked into the recovery software/houses, asked my school tech about it, he said I'd be looking at thousands, and my crap ass models just aren't worth that much to me, so if this unformat doesn't go I'm hoopered it looks like.

    Thanks a lot guys, you've been awesome.
  • Tulkamir
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    Tulkamir polycounter lvl 18
    Just like to let you all know that things have somehow worked out very well. smile.gif A friend managed to find a decent one of those recovery programs, and it is currently getting all my lost files back, and one of the school techs fixed my computer for me without charge. (He's deffinatly getting a case of beer).

    So yea, things have managed to work out, thanks again everyone. smile.gif
  • hawken
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    hawken polycounter lvl 19
    yeah you can get a good data recovery software for under $100

    from zero to hero!
  • Mark Dygert
    [ QUOTE ]
    ...and a shit load more.

    [/ QUOTE ]

    AKA Porn, which is why he is really upset. hahaha
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