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The Joys of Starting Over

happyfilmluvguy

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,541
This may sound like a complaint, but it's just an amusing observation.

A little history. My first computer was an Apple II GS. I really only played games and watched the screen savers, did little graphic print outs, but that's about it. Fast forward to 2001. My parents have now had a PC for 9 years. I get my own PC. After years of issues having to be solved, my PC has cracked, and I have yet to pry it from it's grave. Thankfully, I have a second computer, and a much more mobile one. My Apple Powerbook. Now you probably hear or know that Macs are better than PCs. Personally they are both machines that do things alike. They share common ground. But which one has more problems?

Recently I found out my Mac had a few problems and the only way to solve it was to erase everything and start all over, reformatting is the term. I've had to do this many times with my PC, and only once had to with my Mac, which technically I had to do twice because of a few problems that day when I started over the first time around. So I back up everything on my computer, compile every software disc I have, make sure that once I do this thing, I can make it so it's as if it never happened at all.

Woosh, everything is erased. I insert the recovery discs that came with my laptop, reinstall the operating system (lots of technical terms here, huh? :p) and it's been done. I begin to reinstall everything, copy my backed up files onto the computer, do a few updates, and when I think I am home free, I realize that I still need to update the operating system. So I take out a disc with the update, slide it in, and what do you know, it's scratched enough not to take it. I don't have another copy, and the person I got it from has moved away, so I'm stuck for now.

So for those who have had computer troubles in general, just wait until you have to start all over. It's a fun ride. For those of you that have had to do this before, and whether you had done it before or not, what was your experience like?
 
Colossal freakin' pain. My brand-new still-smelled-of-paint-fumes Dell somehow had Windows corrupted within six months of delivery.

But wait, there's more! No recovery OS CD shipped, you're expected to burn your own. So here I am, draggin' a ten-pound silver BRICK with no recovery CD!

So, I message a guy in the Dell tech-support forum I've worked with before, he gives me the link and the part #s to get my disk. Another 3 days and I'm ready to go.

So, I start the reinstall, and when I initially tell it to install to C:\Windows, it says my personal files "may be lost". Based on that, I create a different install, thinking I can clean it up after I've recovered my files.

NO-GO! The files are gone...

Good thing I had copies ofalmost everything scattered between flashdrives and the Big Beige Box of Doom...

And now I'm gearin' up to do it all over again, once I get the bigger hard-drive.
 

Miss Brill

One Too Many
Messages
1,199
Location
on the edge of propriety
It is kind of liberating. I've always saved junk & have had computers crash twice and lost it all. I didn't learn my lesson the first time. Now I save stuff on jump drives, which is a pack rat's dream. I bought this computer at the start of the year & haven't made a recovery disc yet. I keep putting it off...
 
Advice on burning the disk:
[voice=Larry the Cable Guy]"Git-R-Done!"[/voice] That's the root of my current problems I posted, if I had burned the disk before even copying my databases onto the thing I might not have this problem. (I'd be choking with a near-full 100GB hard-drive for other reasons instead, though...lol)
 
S

Samsa

Guest
I had to reinstall Windows about a month ago for my parents after I screwed something up big time, and that was a headache that I never plan on repeating again.
 

GoldLeaf

A-List Customer
Messages
412
Location
Central NC
I actually had a hard drive physically die. The internal parts stopped moving. And of course, I hadn't backed anything up. I was young and foolish, and thought both I, and my computer, were indestructible. I learned the hard way!

And recently my husband tried to speed up the boot time of my computer. We have no clue what happened, but my computer wouldn't boot at all. When we recovered it, most of the stuff was there, but enough is wacky about it that it has taken me weeks to get my programs to all work properly again.

Any other gamers will relate: At least it didn't mess with my World of Warcraft! The last thing I want to go through is downloading and patching that game!
 

zaika

One Too Many
Messages
1,480
Location
Portlandia
i had to do this so many times with my poor PC. a week after my dad sent it to me...crashed. over and over again. it's in my closet now, waiting for my brother to come gut it out and start anew so'se i can play me some halflife 2!! bwahahaha.

anyway. i bought my iBook a year and a half ago. end of story. :p
 

ScionPI2005

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,335
Location
Seattle, Washington
About two years ago, my Windows XP laptop somehow got corrupted. It's not that the computer was unusable, just that a message box showed up every time windows started and I had to wait probably twenty minutes for it to go away before I could use the computer (don't ask me why). I used that situation as a reason to upgrade my hard drive from the original 40gig to a 100gig, and reinstall windows.

This is the part in the reply where I was going to talk about something resembling good fortune, but the word "jinx" comes to mind, so I'm going to shut up now...;)
 

happyfilmluvguy

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,541
RondoHatton said:
Dear happyfilmluvguy-
I SHAMELESSLY shill for my spiritualist (Mac Consultant) :
he is not a monkey gland specialist, either. Perjaps somehow
Tommy Grafman ( tommy@macmyday.com) may communicate with the aether and communicate with the dead hard drive.

Actually all I need is another copy of Mac OSX Tiger 10.4 :p

If you know someone with that, I'd be happy. :D

I called a friend and will call around more and if I don't find someone willing to spare their copy, (I have my own serial number) I'll have to buy it again.

Starting all over isn't a bad thing. Many times it brings the computer back to life. Refreshes it. You realize when putting everything back that you had so many things on there that weren't even needed.
 

MrNewportCustom

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,265
Location
Outer Los Angeles
I'm lucky. Whenever I have a problem with my PC, I call my younger brother over: This is the second computer I've had and the second one he's built for me. So, literally, he knows it inside and out.


Lee
 

Twitch

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,133
Location
City of the Angels
I have been messing with PCs since about 1988 so I'm familiar with even DOS before Windoze. I've never gotten so screwed up I've had to wipe it all out and start over but I have done re-installs of Windoze over the data.

I considered the computer a hobby and enjoyed the DOS commands which were extremely precise and specific. DOS was great for fine tuning if you didn't mide typing. I like solving problems and have somehow always prevailed in fixing little things.

Every time I got a new machine I inserted the old hard drive as a secondary in the new machine and just drag all my files to the new locations after installing programs. Makes it all very easy.

I have found XP Home Edition to be the most stable OS yet. Haven't have but 6-7 freeze ups in as many years. ANd those were times when I was multi-tasking like crazy with many, many files and programs open.

No matter what Windoze verson you have you still need some DOS commands to format discs and accomplish some other things like that.

For sure maintenance is the key to PC health. Beside anti-viral and anti-adware you need to run disc clean up and defrag regularly and clean out your browser cache. I have a couple other freeware utilities that clean up things and assist in file maintenance-space-memory usage.
comp03.gif
:D
 

Lady Day

I'll Lock Up
Bartender
Messages
9,087
Location
Crummy town, USA
I am never afraid to do an erase and install. And people whos machines I have helped I always tell them they should not be as well.

Never been fond of archive and installs. I just wipe the puppy clean and build from that.

Its a computer Mac or PC, it can fail.

I always have my files backed up on different drives. I rarely back up OS settings, thats something I can always re do, but files, thats something I will always have ridiculous copies of.

Yeah Ill have a day of incovience, like with my new Mac Pro and having to get some driver, but my files were save and sound either on my iDisk, external hard drives or DVDs.

So Happy, I feel your freustration, its not fun, but youll have a nice clean OS as a foundation and thats a cool feeling.

LD
 

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