Hell I'm Down

[suggsy89]

Totally gutted tonight lads...

I had had Ubuntu installed on a second partition of my PC, which i no longer wanted installed as i wanted my 300gb partition back for data.
So i proceeded to delete the partition forgetting that the boot-loader was also on that partition.
There was no way of getting that back, so i run DISKPART to extend the C: drive but it wont let me due to it being an Extended Logical Drive.
I had an idea, ill boot up a Windows 7 repair disc and do it that way, because the drive will not be in use then and hopefully it will let me extend the drive.
So i decide to download Windows 7 again ready to burn to a disc just in case this all goes tits up.
Well i download the ISO, no problem, but... i have no DVDs... great, ill get some DVDs in the morning ready to burn it after work.
Then for some strange reason i decide to de-frag my main drive, my only logic is because my PC was running a little slow anyway, so i left that do its thing overnight.

Come back to it in the morning.. great all done, forgetting about what i had done the previous night i shut down my PC..

BIG BIG mistake....

Due to my boot-loader being on the second partition i had had Ubuntu installed on that i deleted i was left with a nice message on boot up... I cant remember what it was, "Grub..Something"

My PC will now not boot at all and i have no way of rescuing it because i have not got a repair disc or installation disc..
Oh shit i think, how will i get around this... hitting my head against a wall.
I go to work and speak to my colleague who is a big PC gamer and asks if he has a Windows 7 disc, great he has, so i borrow that off him.
I get home eager to sort my mess out, load the disc, click repair.. Setup tells me there is something wrong with the start up path, "yes, i know i say" deciding not to run the repair straight away.

I run a command prompt and load DISKPART again, thinking this time i can delete that pesky partition.
What do i go and do... select the WRONG partition and end up deleting my C: drive with everything i have downloaded in the past 2 years, firmware i have made, pictures, music, movies, the lot. I had lost everything.

So Ive just spent the last 3 hours installing Windows and drivers etc, what a pain in the ass

Oh and i have now also configured a backup to run every day Paranoid as **** now haha

Moral of this story....

"Always make a backup kids"

I should follow my own rules huh ?

[Trashcooky]

I know how you feel Suggsy - ironically though I suspect that like most of us who have lost the lot that when you get up and running again you realise that not everything you wept about losing was really needed anyway. Plus it keeps the old mind on the go trying to remember ancient code that probably can be replicated with something half as difficult as the original.

Presumably you still have all that you put on SkyDrive?
When you had your dual-boot (I have Win XP and Win 7 on one machine and have been unsuccessful with Ubuntu and Win 7 dual boot on another) with Ubuntu and Win 7 which did you install first?
I tried with with 2 x 500G partitions on C: drive and ended up wiping Windows clean out so I gave up with Ubuntu in the end.
I do however run it (Ubuntu) direct from disc when I need it but this is not really satisfactory.

Sorry about your woes but as I say I am sure a new beginning will make you much more organised and careful like it does with most of us. Perhaps you should get one of these: Western Digital 4TB Black SATA 6GB/s 7200RPM 64MB 3.5" Hard Drive

[suggsy89]

I had Windows installed first, but installed Ubuntu on a second partition created using the Ubuntu installer, i think i also had a swap file, windows didn't recognize the partition (presumably) due to the file type..

I wish i could afford that drive, its a beast isn't it im looking to build a mini server for myself now with scrap parts, i may need to purchase a few things, im thinking a RAID setup at least, with 2 x 2TB drives, i have an old Quad Core CPU and a nice compact Gaming Case, just need a Motherboard and a PSU (Modular) oh and nice GPU for my main PC then i can swap the graphics card, although it wouldn't really be needed.

[Charlie]

Sorry to hear about your PC problems suggsy89 - I must say that remember that RAID is for redundancy and NOT for backup!

Hope you get back up and running at full speed soon.

[JCB]

Sympathy

I have been losing data from disc drives for over 30 years, so now I have 3 hard discs I rotate for weekly backups and 3 USB sticks for daily backups on my PC ...

... which reminds me - I haven't done my daily backup for a couple of days

John

[suggsy89]

Sorry to hear about your PC problems suggsy89 - I must say that remember that RAID is for redundancy and NOT for backup!

Hope you get back up and running at full speed soon.

Is RAID not good then ? I thought it was - since the idea would be to have 2 drives together where the data is stored on both drives and if one fails i have the other drive with my data intact still..

[JCB]

Is RAID not good then ? I thought it was - since the idea would be to have 2 drives together where the data is stored on both drives and if one fails i have the other drive with my data intact still..

I find that I most frequently lose data due to my own failings, deleting or overwriting something. In these cirmunstances, methods such as RAID and disc synchonisation simply reproduce the losses. These methods are good as a quick way out of hardware failure, but backups cover you for other scenarios too, maybe malware chewing the system files, as well as finger problems.

John
(who has had plenty of time to ponder over lost data and the hair loss as a result)

[suggsy89]

What if you had a raid setup where your backups are stored... surely that is covering all angles ?

[JCB]

What if you had a raid setup where your backups are stored... surely that is covering all angles ?

It does cover more angles, yes.

I can suggest all kinds of options, and all kinds of reasons for adopting different backup methods. It is possible to go mad and in the end one needs a practical method which doesn't forget that the purpose is to have a usable computer system. The first thing is to consider what risks you might be prone to and what level of risk you can tolerate. You can never be 100% risk free. What if your house burns down? Perhaps you need an offsite backup, or maybe these days cloud storage would be a possible option. Lightning strike takes out your computer? It could also take out any other drive attached to PC or the mains. Malacious tip-off and plod nicks all your PCs and discs? Kids use base unit as table for dolls tea party? The risks are varied, but for me finger trouble is the most frequent - I'm my own worst enemy.

Never forget, if you have a single backup and your HDD goes down, the backup becomes the master and you no longer have a backup. If you have a single external HDD for your backup, and your internal HDD loses the will to live in the middle of the backup (and why not, that is the one time you access the disc all the way from block O to block zillion) you now have neither master disc nor backup.

On old mainframes we used to have hard drives with exchangeable disc packs with 6 platters on a spindle and about 40cm diameter and the entire EDS8 pack held a full 8 megabytes. It was cutting edge stuff! A big system might have several drives each approximately the size of a filing cabinet. The magnetic surface in the disc pack was open to the air while changing discs. We had tools for cleaning the disc surfaces. Imagine a head crash (not hard for me, they weren't rare), damages drive head and platter. Try a different pack in the drive, crashed heads scrape over new platter. Try pack in a different drive and the damaged platter wrecks the heads there too. A few ill considered attempts and you have wrecked all the drives and a fair few platters Fortunately I was warned before I did anything like that.

John
(hair loss down to other reasons than disc failure)

[Charlie]

Sorry to hear about your PC problems suggsy89 - I must say that remember that RAID is for redundancy and NOT for backup!

Hope you get back up and running at full speed soon.

Is RAID not good then ? I thought it was - since the idea would be to have 2 drives together where the data is stored on both drives and if one fails i have the other drive with my data intact still..

JCB has explained it very well. However I will add a few bits too. RAID can enable you to continue as your were if your main HD fails (it does not cover you for human error, virus etc as they will be replicated on the other RAID drives, so a separate backup or 2 is best to have too.

It depends on what is important, when my main PC was used for business I had RAID (to minimise down time, and loss of sales) & 2 backups at home and 2 off site. Having 2 HD's fail I was up and running as before with in minutes and when I deleted important files or had a virus I could roll back a previous backup or just extract the data from a backup, that is another thing, all my back ups were "as is" and NOT images. As you will know part of an image can not be put back or a single file extracted.

Now a days I have a single SSD in my main PC with OS, apps and games and all of my data in a NAS box in RAID 1 and backed up to 2 HDD's and keep one of those at my sisters.