| PC Problems - Help and a warning !!!
I was always told, backup - backup and backup again but now the roosters have come home to poo on me as I ignored this well known addage !!!
I guess its about a year since I did a complete backup of all the files on this PC and I only recently did a good tidy to get the HD down to around 2/3rd full.
Last thursday I did two things before horror struck and I'm not sure which (if any caused a problem). My daughter wanted to play a net game that asked for a newer version of Java that I had installed so, since it was a site I trusted (Miniclip) I allowed it to go ahead but it asked for a restart......so I though I would also remove some used programs / games at the same time - there are some demo expired games from MSN etc that have mounted recently.
On restart - Windows did not load - the dreaded message "We apologise Windows did not load on the last attempt...blah blah" appeared BUT...it would NOT boot into any mode at all...Safe mode simply ran though a list of drivers - stalled and then did an auto reboot.
'Last known config' - simple did an auto reboot straight away as did all the others except Recovery Console, which at least mounted the drive so that I knew the was nothing physically wrong with the drive or the PC.
I've never used Recovery console before but years of DOS computing stood me in good stead. Only a few basic commands can be used and apart from seeing that all the drives were present and the boot sector 'appeared' to be ok - I could do no more.
No the dodgy bit - the PC originally came with a ligit version of XP Home but was (Ahem) 'upgraded' to XP pro - I had the restore discs for XP home but the XP pro disc WOULD NOT boot the machine, so my plan of using the repair program failed straight away.
To cut a long story - I ended up taking the PC to shop recommended but a friend who had a virus problem that they had sorted ok. He said he would try to clone my entire drive and then reinstall XP home (using the s/ware key on the PC case) and then copy all my files back over.
Three days later I collected the PC even though they did not appear to know WHY the problem occurred (but simply blamed having Internet Automatic Updates turned on ??? - I must admit however, I do remember 2 auto restarts having taken place a few days before the problems began). I fired her up for the first time - XP home with no accounts as I expected. When I went looking for the backup files. my wifes and daughters documents and folders all appear intact but mine (which was the admin account as well) are TOTALLY missing......mail, documents, music and video's etc etc etc - all gone.
A few frantic calls to the shop revealed that the backup they had taken was over written already - My hard drive had been reformatted, so no chance of getting anything back there!
The only chance they thought was that my files might be hidden as they were Admin classified - as they suggested - I booted into safe mode OK - as admin - but could not find any files of mine anywhere.
At £30 its not the most expensive lesson I've ever learned but I reckon all my files that I've lost were about 10Gb in total, including email addresses - photos - favourite music and bike videos - pdf manuals and saved web pages.
I still find it hard to believe that everything was fine EXCEPT my directory!!! But only have myself to blame really for not having a backup.
I've now bought and fitted a DVD writer so at least I can start a proper backup strategy.
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED !!!
Frumpy Frank  | 
23-Aug-2005, 20:15 
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