Hard copies, data entry and hard drive failure...
I knew it was going to happen. I thought about backing up many times. It's not like I don't have the space --a couple "deck of cards" USB hard drives, other machines and a terabyte of server space. But no, I didn't simply throw my "picaxe" folder anywhere but on my lappy.
And then came the virus. Something hit my computer like I have never seen before... I could not go online as I got a "this site is unsafe" warnings the warning pages themselves prevented me from going any further. I could not run any anti-virus/spywhere software as I got a warning there too that prevented opening them. Everything merged to a constant "would you like to purchase anti-virus software now?" pop-ups. When I clicked yes, I was brought to one of the most poorly disguised, fake-AVG, phishing expedition I have ever seen. Really, it should have just said "We just stole your computer --we are not going to give it back but give us your credit card information anyway. --I swear, it asked for bank account numbers "for varification" in additon to the credit card. --As you can guess, Paypal was not accepted.
Long story short, total hard drive wipe. Reformat disc. I lost it all. Now, mind you the really important stuff is backed up, i.e. music etc. but I did loose every line of code I have ever written in both picaxe and processing and in terms of Walter, I have grown very accustomed to cutting and pasting MUCH more that writing anything new. Alas.
Now, for the punchline. WHO'S MAKIN' FUN OF MY HARD COPIES NOW, SUCKA?!?! Oh yeah, I am going to be a data-entry guy for a while but man, at least I still have it.
This post was mostly for rik.
@ Sun, 2010-07-04 18:24
Speak of the devil...
I was thinking it wouldn't happen to me either as I read this. The next day, I got hammered with an identical one. FAIL...
@ Sun, 2010-07-04 09:38
I'm feeling with you cris.
I'm feeling with you cris. that really s*cks..
I had saved all te code for yellow freak machine, and other codes onto an USB stick. Thinking it was save...
Somehow when I plugged in the usbstick, windows meshed up (you know. white screens, not reacting anymore..) and after rebooting, my usbstick was unable to be readed anymore and keeps saying that it has to format.. (never do that!)
Luckly as i was, my brother came up with some software and repaired the usbstick (i believe something with the boot thing) and i've got my data back. (foldernames are gone, but the files are rescued)
now sometimes i make a backup of the whole folder with codes, and every hour a backup program automatically uploads my code folder to an ftp server online.
Let chris's story an mine be a warning and make good backups often.
Edit: the software i used to repair the usb is GetDataBack for Fat. maybe it can help someone once..
@ Thu, 2010-07-01 22:24
Have you tried Safe Mode?
I assume you work under Windows... Have you tried powering up your computer in "Safe Mode" before reformatting the whole lot?
@ Thu, 2010-07-01 19:53
Did you try linux booted
Did you try linux booted from a flash drive to save your files? Works nearly every time, unless the virus fucks up your boot record.
@ Wed, 2010-06-30 12:44
I feel your pain, ChrisI
I feel your pain, Chris
I worked as a computer technician in Romania and there were those times when the USB stick was not invented yet (or not imported yet) and we had to transfer accounting archives on floppy disks instead of burning CDs for just a tiny file. Kind of frustrating to have to drive to a customer 2 and half hours and discover that his computer can't read the damned new floppy and you have to go back and get another one... We were saying: The one who laughed last was the one who had triple backups! Now we use Crossloop and work on the customer's computer from the office, no more driving, no more backups needed.
On the other hand, we had many computers with viruses and other HDD damage where we needed to save some important data and a Ubuntu Live CD usually did the trick, except for the accidental formatting or partition damage.
Thinking of backup, I used to use CDs or and latter a rewritable DVD until I needed it (I bought a new laptop and wanted to transfer faster the saved data) and discovered that I could not read it on any computer. So, decided to use the Dropbox to backup and a USB stick from times to times. I also post my archived code here and there, so there is not lost completely, but I would lose all the huge documentations, pictures, some movies (all related to robotics) and of course, the Bookmarks that I have collected over the last 10 years of robotics. I also have archives for all my exe files, because I had a virus that deleted all exe files and some were old programs I could never find on the net again. But I have a dual boot, I can get in Ubuntu and save most of the data anyway.
@ Wed, 2010-06-30 08:06
I know how you feel, when my
I know how you feel, when my laptop was stolen at DAGU I lost a months work. I rarely backup and just use a USB HDD when I do. In some cases my post on LMR became my backups.
Speaking of Walter, do you have any videos of him wandering around using his new vocabulary, head movements etc. It would be good to see him showing some personality. Perhaps you could vimeo it for those of use stuck behind the great firewall of China?
@ Tue, 2010-06-29 23:03
Thanks for the "Poke"
Its so easy to become complacent with regards to backup (it will never happen to me scenario - how wrong we are) -
After reading your missfortune and the comments above i decided to "Worry" a bit and make a step to secure things my end (Cheers No.1 Chris)
I was not so sure about dropbox or sugarsync (ie third party-ish)........which got me thinking why not use my own Provider/Webspace and Bingo...........
I checked with my provider and do you know what, they gave me an extra 40GB for backup (at no extra charge) just for asking !!!!- and now i have a super buffer zone i can access via ftp wherever i sit my butt ...........(Cheers No.2 Chris)
BTW (Chris) :- Now we expect your code to be 10X better than it already is ..haha
@ Tue, 2010-06-29 12:31
Hey, CtC. Did you have any
Hey, CtC. Did you have any of your code posted here on LMR?
@ Tue, 2010-06-29 09:11
Mostly - I got that
lol
@ Tue, 2010-06-29 01:41
thanks guys/ @nuumio
I appreciate the well wishes and links, friends... Thanks.
Nuumio --You hit the nail on the head. I was bummed at first, bored second (reinstalling everything) and later I was kinda happy with a like-new, fast computer. In the programming dept., I have actually wanted to get back to a bit map style of navigation and this might have been the push start I needed. Not to mention, since I have to rewrite all of my "cut and paste" codes (motor drive, sonar check, i2c set-up for eeproms, snippets to make the LCD's work, etc.) I think I might post all of them as blog posts. I could then link to them from one final Walter post so newbies can see a striped-down sample code for all of Walter's sub-systems. At any rate, out with the old and in with the new.
Thanks again for the sholder to cry on, guys.