Officially HATING myself since 2005

[von Ryan]

Well, some of you may have noticed that last week I had 5 hrs of HL2 in my X-Fire profile. I was the most played game of the week. Today, I haven't played games for a week. And I'm on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

Well, first of all, it was my fault, I think. I have a 120GB hard disk (100Gb for windows xp sp2 and 20Gb to Mandrake Linux 10.1). So I thought: "Well, I haven't defragged my HD in a while, why don't I leave it defragging while I study for a invigorating physics test?" So, I left Norton Utility defragging and went study. I come back, and the defragging had finished. Wee, my computer is a nano(insert measure unit here) faster. Shut down.

The next day, I come back from school and turn on my computer. All appears to be normal, except for a slight delay to start LILO (boot manager). "Normal", i think. Suddenly, an error message: "DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERTR SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER". (insert $eu_crey$$on's photo w/out hair). As I am precaucious, I insert Windows' emergency boot diskette. Doesn't work. (/me runs around in panic).

Finally, I boot by windows' cd and put in the repair console. "format c: /fs:ntfs". Nothing. Boot by mandrake's cd. Format HD to install linux (I had already separated a partition for windows, that I was goiung to install later). "Disk not accesible".

/me calls the computer guy. I've always considered this a last resort option, but... So, he comes around, and, because he doesn't have time, I just give him my 3-months-old, R$400,00 HD.

I just hope he treats my baby well...
I don't want to have to install all my games, all over again... And then I have to re-install my whole security system... Re-download all my applications... Get to the point I was in HL2 (YES, I'm still playing, I just got my copy on my birthday! (March 6th))...

And the worst part is... I WAS JUST GOING TO MAKE A BACKUP COPY OF EVERYTHING! :'(
The 1st one ever...

I hate myself and I wanna die. :-/

[TruB]

hate when things like that happend.. like updating windows.. major error.. darn i didnt backup..


my new comp.. like 2 mounts old.. the game sound stops.. and then the computer makes strange noise.. thought it was overheating signal or somthing.. i have the pretty low.. 65 something.. also.. it starts when ever it feels to.. sometimes when the comp standing next the new one starts. i guess it wanne play to,...

good luck with yours though,, shit happens..

[Lethal]

Yep hate that. installed windows xp on my 250gb hard drive, copied my files on to the pc. Restarted after installing drivers, prepairing to install service pack 2. Failed to extract hal.dll.
Great. How was I supposed to know that Windows didn't support partitions over 130gb until service pack 1.
Lesson Back up what is most vital to you.
Since backing up everthing is tedious.
Unlucky with your hard drive failure.
By any chance did you overclock?
My younger brother messed around with his clocking on the aa8 duramax and it sometimes failed to recognise the hard drive(SATA), until I reduced the speed to a more sensible setting.

[von Ryan]

Originally Posted by Lethal

By any chance did you overclock?
My younger brother messed around with his clocking on the aa8 duramax and it sometimes failed to recognise the hard drive(SATA), until I reduced the speed to a more sensible setting.

Nope, no overclocking... And my HD is IDE (ATAPI).

[Whistler]

actually I never "defrag" my HD as I don't think that's necessary... also Windows 98's "defrag" tool takes too long time to done

PS. I'd advise using GRUB instead of LILO and don't install it to the MBR

[HangFire]

Yeah, defragging is over-rated. Its allright to do it once every two or three months, but any more and its just unneccesary wear on the drive.


And backuping up data isn't too much of a pain, just have a DVD burner and pick up a pile of cheap DVD-Rs. Due to the large volume of data that I keep piling into my HD, I have to backup another DVD roughly once every week or two.

To the best of my knowledge, DVDs are the best way to go for backups. They're large, relatively cheap, and quite fast to burn. Also I've heard good things about their longevity, 7 years I think they're good for.

[Lethal]

I use o&o defrag prof 6.5, better than diskeeper crap that treats you like an moron.

[Pierre-Marie Baty]

Never defrag. Ever. A well used hard-disk is not a hard disk where all the files are chained one with the other, a well used hard disk is a hard disk that lets enough space after each file to ensure they will still fit in one single block would they want to get bigger some day.

I am not surprised that it fucked up your boot loader. Windows always assume it's the only OS installed on the machine. And don't use Norton products, they-do-not-work.

The best solution is to have networked machines, or better a server, and back stuff up everyday. I know pretty well how it feels when your hard disk dies without a backup at hand

[TruB]

norton antivirus works fine for me..
i know alot bash on norton.. but as i said.. it works for me..

[FrostyCoolSlug]

I've never really defragged my machine.. hell, i'm more likely to re-format it first (Which i probably do FAR too often, and i mean full format, not quick format)

Originally Posted by Whistler

PS. I'd advise using GRUB instead of LILO and don't install it to the MBR

I'll be honest and say i've never had a problem with installing Grub to the MBR, Lilo wasn't so pleasent though, but you just call up the recovery console and type 'fixmbr', so long as nothing else on the disk is damaged, windows will kindly put its boot loader back :p