K
Karen K
After having an XP recovery disaster (following an XP SP installation) on
another of our computers about 2 months ago, I learned my lesson on backing
up data... Almost 2 weeks ago I started getting an error message every time
I tried to send something graphic intense to the printer. I decided that
since it had never been restored (or at least over a year ago), there
probably WAS a bunch of clutter laying around. I have a 2nd HD (which is E:
and had a good 45 of 60 gigs free), so I knew I had plenty of room to backup
everything I could possibly ever want... Or so I thought... I spent about 6
hours backing up every file I could possibly want including copies of over
400 audio CD's and more than 3000 MP3 files. I set out to do a repair
installation of XP. I changed my mind after realizing that over-installing
it wasn't going get rid of the trash of a year or more of application
installations. So, I bravely selected a complete recovery install. It had a
screen (maybe twice) telling me that all the data would be deleted as it
would perform a low level format of C:, etc... I figured, oh well, I have
about 40 gigs of data backed up to E:. When the recovery was done, I went
into Windows Explorer, just to look around, and all my applications were
still there! I assumed that, for whatever reason, it didn't do a complete
recovery, or all I would have would be XP and the bundled applications on
the unit. I rebooted and ran the recovery cd's again. All the stuff was
still there. I was ready to quit for the night, and I went to the other
drive to copy a file I wanted to use on another computer. I MOVED every file
I owned to E:. Guess what was there? A nice clean install of XP - and
NOTHING else. I have spent countless hours downloading and/or paying for
programs that promise to recover files, even from "low level formatted
drives" & "repartitioned drives". Nothing is going get my data back, and I
am trying to piece together all my data from old backup cd's, although, some
things weren't recently backed up to REMOVABLE media. Long story, I know,
but if I learned anything from 2 restoration disasters, it's BACKUP YOUR
FILES to somewhere/something other than the
computer your messing with!
Thanks for letting me vent!
kk
another of our computers about 2 months ago, I learned my lesson on backing
up data... Almost 2 weeks ago I started getting an error message every time
I tried to send something graphic intense to the printer. I decided that
since it had never been restored (or at least over a year ago), there
probably WAS a bunch of clutter laying around. I have a 2nd HD (which is E:
and had a good 45 of 60 gigs free), so I knew I had plenty of room to backup
everything I could possibly ever want... Or so I thought... I spent about 6
hours backing up every file I could possibly want including copies of over
400 audio CD's and more than 3000 MP3 files. I set out to do a repair
installation of XP. I changed my mind after realizing that over-installing
it wasn't going get rid of the trash of a year or more of application
installations. So, I bravely selected a complete recovery install. It had a
screen (maybe twice) telling me that all the data would be deleted as it
would perform a low level format of C:, etc... I figured, oh well, I have
about 40 gigs of data backed up to E:. When the recovery was done, I went
into Windows Explorer, just to look around, and all my applications were
still there! I assumed that, for whatever reason, it didn't do a complete
recovery, or all I would have would be XP and the bundled applications on
the unit. I rebooted and ran the recovery cd's again. All the stuff was
still there. I was ready to quit for the night, and I went to the other
drive to copy a file I wanted to use on another computer. I MOVED every file
I owned to E:. Guess what was there? A nice clean install of XP - and
NOTHING else. I have spent countless hours downloading and/or paying for
programs that promise to recover files, even from "low level formatted
drives" & "repartitioned drives". Nothing is going get my data back, and I
am trying to piece together all my data from old backup cd's, although, some
things weren't recently backed up to REMOVABLE media. Long story, I know,
but if I learned anything from 2 restoration disasters, it's BACKUP YOUR
FILES to somewhere/something other than the
computer your messing with!
Thanks for letting me vent!
kk