I could scream!!!!!!!!! And cry!!!!

[Mel B]

AAAARRRRRGHHHHHHHH!

 

Does anyone know how to exact a suitable revenge on a stupid *&£*%&*"* computer geek who wiped my work PC hard-drive this morning when he re-imaged it and put the new XP and Office 2007 software on - means I've lost over 10 years' worth of work!!!! :'(

 

The idiot took no notice when he was told I had a partitioned drive (ie in 2 sections) and over-wrote everything!!!! Absolutely cheesed off. He didn't want to know ... ruddy job's worth! Going to put in an official complaint, it'll take me at least a week just to reproduce from scratch some of the stuff I did in the last 2 weeks, never mind the rest of it! Some will be lost forever probably. :-( His boss wasn't any more helpful. 8o|

 

Managed to find someone who is willing to have a look at it on Monday and see if anything can be retrieved but not holding out much hope.*-)

 

AAARGHHHHGHGHGHGH!!!!!!

 

Sorry, just needed to get that off my chest! :D

[michele]

You telling us thatin 2008 in an office the tit didnt think to back up ?

[howie]

Always here to help you get things off your chest Melanie. xxx

[Randonneur]

There are STILL computer users who do not do any backups. Most of them are home users but these days computers in workplaces should be automatically backed up. Stupid people.

 

You could be lucky, Mel, because when updating to a new version of XP it will save the old version. It depends on what he has actually done.

[ROON]

sorry bout your bad luck, Mel. Can't offer anything positive as I don't have a clue about your computers and I didn't understand what he had done that he shouldn't and not done that he should, but obviously he has left you in a pickle.... I hope you can get it sorted with as least hassle as possible. hugs, Joy

 

sorry that shuld have read ANY computers, Mel, not just yours.

[davenewellhome]

Sorry to hear of your misfortune Mel but the nerdy one isn't entirely to blame is he? You should have had all that data backed up ages ago.

 

I fell into the lack of backup trap last year when my business PC hard drive died and I didn't have a backup copy so I know first hand how devastating and time expensive it can be. It cost me £45 to just get some of my accounts recovered from the bummoxed drive :-( .

 

D.

[bootbags]

Mel B - 2008-08-08 5:01 PM

 

AAAARRRRRGHHHHHHHH!

 

Does anyone know how to exact a suitable revenge on a stupid *&£*%&*"* computer geek who wiped my work PC hard-drive this morning when he re-imaged it and put the new XP and Office 2007 software on - means I've lost over 10 years' worth of work!!!! :'(

 

The idiot took no notice when he was told I had a partitioned drive (ie in 2 sections) and over-wrote everything!!!! Absolutely cheesed off. He didn't want to know ... ruddy job's worth! Going to put in an official complaint, it'll take me at least a week just to reproduce from scratch some of the stuff I did in the last 2 weeks, never mind the rest of it! Some will be lost forever probably. :-( His boss wasn't any more helpful. 8o|

 

Managed to find someone who is willing to have a look at it on Monday and see if anything can be retrieved but not holding out much hope.*-)

 

AAARGHHHHGHGHGHGH!!!!!!

 

Sorry, just needed to get that off my chest! :D

 

So sorry to hear what has happened, even losing small amounts of data can leave you feeling exasperated. You say what can you do - NAME & SHAME comes to mind!! I am not a computer expert, but I am told that you can always recover lost data and that it never really truly leaves the hard drive. Live in hope that all is not lost.

[Syd]

Sorry to hear it Mel, you have just reminded me to do a backup NOW

[colin]

Gates, horses, shutting, etc, get an external hard drive with back up programme, no need to even think about backing up, does it automaticaly.

Reminds me of when I was working at Armstrongs/Esavian in Hull, was writing a production control spread sheet, I worked in several offices and carried copy of spread sheet on 5.25" discs, unbeknown to me after making some changes to spread sheet any copying to disc I ejected disc too soon, when getting back to main office I coppied spread sheet back to hard drive, wiped out two weeks work :-(

[Mel B]

What they didn't tell us was that this time they were reformatting the hard drive totally before re-installing the new staff image. In the past they've only put it on the C: drive so no problem, indeed they only asked if there was anything on the C: drive, NOT on the hard drive, if they had I would've told them not to touch the other half (D:) but this doesn't excuse them because they were told by someone else about it and when he commenced the reformatting he got a message about another drive but he totally ignored it!!!!!!!! 8-)

 

Unfortunately backing up is a problem, they only allow us a certain amount of space on the servers and it is no where near enough to be able to back up the whole of the working drive. The last time they did a re-image, the techy created a temporary 'ghost image' on the server of the contents of the whole of the hard drive before doing anything else, but this ******* twit couldn't be bothered and, even when he was made aware of what he'd done, he continued!!!! He should've stopped there and then and contacted the senior computing staff to see what could be done ... he just wanted to get finished and get off to his next job.

 

The more I think of what I've lost .... spent all morning going through my emails at home to see what 'attachments' of documents I had so I can at least retrieve something but there's not a lot unfortunately as, again, they don't give us much of a quota for storage on that either! Can't win ....

 

One thing's for sure, there's no way any of them are ever going to get their hands on my computer again. >:-)

[kelly58]

Just an observasion may I suggest you get an external HD and duplicate all files too it then whatever you can move your data wherever you need too . kelly

[Brian Kirby]

Mel

I know it's too late now, but this is a fundamental issue for whoever your employer is.  If you don't have backup, presumably no-one else does, so I assume there must be material that is critical to the organisation that is vulnerable to hard drive crashes, corruption or mere incompetence, as in this case.  Even I have a back on our home network, that backs up files on the fly as they are created or changed.  There is also the little matter of fire, flood or natural disaster.  I think I hear of an organisation that does not have a disaster plan!  The wise ensure the back up multiple, and is in a different location, possibly on rented server space.  I think someone's Chief Exec, or whatever, needs a firm upwards management (I assume you are not she?) prod.  At present, you are a disaster waiting to happen!

[twooks]

ime a lot of otherwise capable but young computer techies don't understand the 'partioned drive' bit of the conversation. I had to explain and show in words of one syllable with lots of big pictures to an otherwise ok geek last year what I meant by partitioned drive - I wanted it [the partioning] removing but had neither time nor back-up facilities to do it without a lot of hassle

 

 

B-)

[Way2Go]

Mel B - 2008-08-09 1:03 PM What they didn't tell us was that this time they were reformatting the hard drive totally before re-installing the new staff image. In the past they've only put it on the C: drive so no problem, indeed they only asked if there was anything on the C: drive, NOT on the hard drive, if they had I would've told them not to touch the other half (D:)

Can I just clarify that it's ALL a hard drive.  Its just that you have your hard drive partitioned into 2 drives C:\ and D:\.

Its quite common for users to partition their hard drive into 2 or more drives.  For example, if you have a 100GB hard drive you can partition it into a C:\ drive with say 40GB and a D:\ drive with say 60GB.

Even if they reformatted the C:\ drive and installed a new operating system D:\ would still be perfectly intact.

What you appear to be saying (as I assume you've looked for the old D:\ drive?) is that they've re-partitioned the hard drive to remove the D:\ drive, then reformatted to make one big drive again (100GB in our example) and then reinstalled the operating system etc.

Suggestions.

1. Look to see if the D:\ is still there.

If removed I'm very sorry and to make sure it never happened again would :-

2. Treat yourself to a USB pen stick (example http://tinyurl.com/67ndj2 4GB for under £10) and do your own backups.  They quite happily swing from your key ring ready for action.

3.  For home and/or work use treat yourself to an external hard drive (example http://tinyurl.com/62xjya 250GB for £55!!).  I use one of these at home to store all my documents and valued photographs (partitioned into two to also back up Mrs Way2Go's stuff).

Its probably too late but I hope others can learn from your very unfortunate mishap.  I hope that we can now all say "if its valuable to me - I must do my own backups".  After all, the devices are now available at ridiculous low prices.

W2G   

[Syd]

Hi Way2Go

Hope no one is in a hurry to get one

 

Availability: Usually dispatched within 1 to 2 months.

[Way2Go]

. . . . . then buy a different one.  Struth *-)

[Randonneur]

Partitioning was explained to me 20 odd years ago as being like a cake. If you mark it in sections then these are like partitions. You can have more than 2 but obviously each slice will be smaller.

[GJH]

With a background of over 30 years in Information Systems, I endorse everything said about backing up.

 

I also agree that it is the Chief Exec who needs to look closely at him/herself:

1) for not ensuring that everything was backed up

2) for not ensuring that the "geek" was properly trained

3) for not ensuring that everyone involved was properly instructed in exactly what was going to be done to the machines.

 

Before anyone suggests that the Chief Exec might not have the technical knowledge required may I say that is irrelevant because s/he should have the ability to employ someone who has the knowledge.

 

Graham

 

P.S. whilst on the subject of backups.

It's been interesting to read the various suggestions for external hard drives etc BUT

.

.

.

.

.

what are you doing about all those pieces of paper in the filing cabinets? Are the cabinets fireproof? Are there (hard or electronic) copies elsewhere?

[Way2Go]

GJH - 2008-08-10 1:21 PM . . . . . what are you doing about all those pieces of paper in the filing cabinets?

But I thought we were all living in a paperless society Graham :-)  . . . . yeah right.  

[GJH]

Way2Go - 2008-08-10 1:41 PM

GJH - 2008-08-10 1:21 PM . . . . . what are you doing about all those pieces of paper in the filing cabinets?

But I thought we were all living in a paperless society Graham :-)  . . . . yeah right.  

Wish I had a pound - paper or electronic - for every time I'd been told that :D :D Graham

[Randonneur]

When I started using computers in 1981 we had the 'cakebox' type of disk. I worked for a Chartered Accountants so the information on these disks was vital. We kept one in the office, one in a fireproof safe and one at the Bank, the latter being a weekly copy, therefore, there was only a week's worth of data to re-input if anything went wrong with either of the other two copies. This system worked really well and when the following year a PC appeared on my desk with twin 5.5" floppies (I was told to teach myself how to use this PC) I did exactly the same sort of backups.

We never had a problem in the 4 years I was there.

[Mel B]

Well ... sent PC to chap in computing this morning and went to have a shuftie at how he was getting on after lunch. He'd run one programme which had managed to find my main 3 folders, within which all my documentation was saved - great! That was the easy part! He's now going to delve deeper into them to see what he can find, hopefully I might get some bits and pieces back ...

 

He was going to set another more extensive programme running overnight as it takes quite a few hours to retrieve anything so I'm hoping I'll get a phone call in the morning to say he's found some more stuff and that it's usable ... oh I do hope so!!!!!! :-S

 

But ..... not having much luck with 'digital storage' at the moment. Went out to "The Deep" tonight, a sea-life centre in Hull ( http://www.thedeep.co.uk/ ) after winning free entry for me and 4 others (great!). Took my camera and was happily snapping away and then about 3/4 of the way round the card errored!!!! Can't get anything off it. :-( Not ruddy fair!!!!!!! Anyway, all may not be lost ... she said hopefully! Last time this happened many years ago with my first digital camera, I'd taken loads of photos of the Eden Project and my card went up the creek but hubby managed to find a computer programme that recovered it all for me ... hopefully it'll do the trick again ...

 

Now ... I'm just wondering what the 3rd 'storage' problem will be!

 

8-)

[twooks]

have a glass of red while you're waiting -

 

it'll help

 

honest

 

B-)

[Mel B]

Not if you don't drink it won't! :-(

 

You could send me some chilli chocolate instead! :D

 

Or how about a nice big bag of chips and scraps with lashings of vinegar and salt and a bit of bread and butter! :$

[Way2Go]

See if this helps Mel http://www.softwarepatch.com/software/smartrecovery.html

Its some freebie software to recover deleted images from photo cards.  If it doesn't help this time it's always a useful piece of software to have around for the future.

It's really easy to use but in case you get stuck you can always download the 'how to' wot I wrote http://www.nodarkroom.co.uk/downloads/digital_image_recovery.pdf

Hope this helps

W2G