I screwed up my computer, had to reinstall Windows and lost EVERYTHING. :(

[Saint Frankenstein]

Why am I so dumb when it comes to computers? I don't have an external drive (they usually cost too much, at least until recently) so that's about 700gbs in the garbage. Now I have this awful VGA resolution until I figure out the driver situation. This sucks.

On the plus side, I haven't had this much hard drive space in years.

 

[psychoslice]

Yea bloody computers', there great while there going, but a pain in the butt when not.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

Oh, and Microsoft won't accept my product key. Figures. I hate Microsoft. They're as bad as Apple. Just money-hungry corporations. Really considering switching to Linux. Now is the best time since I already lost all my data. Lol.

 

[psychoslice]

Yea I actually hate Apple also, I could never work out why its so popular.

 

[Rival]

Linux all the way. Go Tux.

 

[Jumi]

You could give Linux Mint a try, it's free:

Download - Linux Mint

But if you just want to use Windows, you need to download drivers for your graphics card. Probably AMD or Nvidia.

 

[Mequa]

Ahhh, the joys of computer problems. I've seen many of those over the years.

I'm getting my primary desktop PC collected later on today for repair. It does run, but slooooooow due to various hardware faults (a dodgy CPU fan for one) and has many crashes.

This beast is over 4 years old now and has seen frequent heavy use, so it's in much the same position as a car - needing a good service and parts replaced.

The software side I can handle myself, although that sure can be time-consuming. I'd like to get the hardware in good condition prior to upgrading to Windows 10 later this year, to ensure it runs stable - Windows 8.1 currently throws a fit with my dodgy CPU fan, as does any Linux distro - only Windows 7 actually runs usably at present.

I'm still keeping Windows 7 though which it came with, and also running a Linux distro too (multi-boot setup).

 

[philbo]

Currently getting really frustrated because my works laptop fan is dying and it keeps overheating & turning itself off - doubly frustrated because it's not mine to fix & support department keeps forgetting..

Something oft quoted: a computer expert is someone who took a backup just before the hard disk died.. though a techie friend of mine was saying how great CrashPlan was as a cloud-based backup, and he had 1.5TB backed up safely on the Web. The downside was that when he needed to restore, it was only downloading at a few dozen kB per second, meaning a restore time of something over a year...

 

[Treks]

Linux Mint is a fantastic distro and really quite easy to install and use.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

iMac

 

[roger1440]

Why am I so dumb when it comes to computers? I don't have an external drive (they usually cost too much, at least until recently) so that's about 700gbs in the garbage. Now I have this awful VGA resolution until I figure out the driver situation. This sucks.

On the plus side, I haven't had this much hard drive space in years.

What happened that your computer got “screwed” up? There are a few methods available you probably could have used to retrieve your data. One method is a Parallel Install; another is converting your internal hard drive to an external hard drive and then copying the files to anther computer temporarily.

Of course anther method would be attempting to fix the existing operating system.

 

[Ouroboros]

Why am I so dumb when it comes to computers? I don't have an external drive (they usually cost too much, at least until recently) so that's about 700gbs in the garbage. Now I have this awful VGA resolution until I figure out the driver situation. This sucks.

On the plus side, I haven't had this much hard drive space in years.

About a year ago, I upgraded my Dropbox account to the pro version, which is 1 TB cloud drive. I've been putting all my files, family pictures, music files, school material, everything on that drive. I can now get any file I want to any computer. I can lose my computer and still have all my files. It's easy to get a new computer, just sign in and have it sync the files to the new one. My three oldest kids are doing the same now. No need for a backup drive, except to keep the OS and the apps with configuration and installation, and such. I even put the install files on the dropbox for most of my programs, and even the license files.

Oh, and dropbox works on mac, pc, and linux. And photos on my phone are automatically uploaded when i take a picture.

So whatever OS you choose, I recommend you consider this. Google has a cloud drive too, and Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, and others. Amazon stopped supporting the sync program for Mac some year ago, and started again, so I stopped using them. Google is a reasonable alternative to Dropbox, and perhaps cheaper (haven't checked lately).

 

[Wirey]

I just replaced my computer. I realized a month ago that I had bought it in 2005 on sale. It was a little on the slow side.

 

[GoodbyeDave]

There's an old saying that the data you don't need is the data you don't backup!

I've never had a computer with Windows on it -- have I missed anything exciting? Although I haven't done any recently, I've been testing reviewing Linux distros for some years -- 114 to date! My current recommendations are Mint or PCLinuxOS for modern computers and AntiX for old relics running Windows XP.

 

[ChristineES]

Why am I so dumb when it comes to computers? I don't have an external drive (they usually cost too much, at least until recently) so that's about 700gbs in the garbage. Now I have this awful VGA resolution until I figure out the driver situation. This sucks.

On the plus side, I haven't had this much hard drive space in years.

It's happened to all of us. Since, about 10 or so years ago, it happened to me, I started making back-up disks for everything. Now I have an external hard drive to back up all my "stuff".
I wish you the best in figuring out the drivers and resolution and all that. Here, we have the "geek squad" to come and help people with their computer troubles, do you have something similar. They can help.

 

[Smart_Guy]

I suggest making 2 partitions, one for system only and the other for storage. Better 2 different physical hard disks, but that costs more.

And don't feel bad bro, I remember like 10 years ago I formatted a beefy hard disk and lost tons of stuff, and until now I do not know how did that stupid move happened

 

[outhouse]

Nothing Is lost.

Don't do anything with that hard drive and we can save everything unless you have formatted. Then I can still save 60-70% using software.


You can plug that HD into another computer and pull your info, unless the HD is bad. If it is bad freezing it for a half hour in a ziplock will often work to pull small bits at a time.

 

[Smart_Guy]

Wait, what happened exactly?

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Oh, and Microsoft won't accept my product key. Figures. I hate Microsoft. They're as bad as Apple. Just money-hungry corporations. Really considering switching to Linux. Now is the best time since I already lost all my data. Lol.

Yes, come to the Dark Side! Release all your anger, all your frustration, curse your OS overlords, chill with some penguins, and become your own SO overlord!

 

[oldbadger]

Nothing Is lost.

Don't do anything with that hard drive and we can save everything unless you have formatted. Then I can still save 60-70% using software.


You can plug that HD into another computer and pull your info, unless the HD is bad. If it is bad freezing it for a half hour in a ziplock will often work to pull small bits at a time.

It reads as if Saint carried out a full-destructive recovery.
Presumable that's a format?
I reckon he's lost the lot.......