I lost everything

Trying to upgrade the biggest piece of trash os in history, Vista, and instead of upgrading it wiped my computer! Everything gone, and most sadly beersmith, along with my first 9 ag brews, gone.

Hold up there - did you slave the drive over to see if any of the data is still on there?

when you say gone do you mean you cant find it, or the disk was formated? sometimes when reinstalling / upgrading windows it creates a new "documents and settings" folder if the disk wasnt wiped you may just have to look around to find your old files. If the disk was wiped you may still be able to recover data but youll likely have to bring it to a professional place and they charge a lot.

wildwest450 said:

Trying to upgrade the biggest piece of trash os in history, Vista, and instead of upgrading it wiped my computer! Everything gone, and most sadly beersmith, along with my first 9 ag brews, gone.

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Yikes!

BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP. I cannot say that enough.

If you have a second computer and can slave the drive to it, then you can verify if there's any data structure on the "trashed" drive. If there is, you can pull files and folders to the working PC as a crude backup - data intact, you still need programs to get at it - - -

If it's a laptop drive, you can always pick up a kit that allows the drive to be mounted as a USB HD on any computer - I have one I use to clean up my "mistakes" from time to time

Let me know if you want me to post the kit I bought, so you know what to look for -

EDIT: I forgot to say "Vista Sucks." That's why microsoft just extended the shelf life of XP and stopped development on Vista. THey already decided to move on to the next OS.

All my info is on external drives for that same reason...only programs on my HDs.

Sorry about your loss...

putting all your data on an external drive is only part of the solution-- after all, much of the time it is failed hardware or a corrupt data table that is going to cause your data loss-- both of those happen as often to external drives as internal ones.

Use the data locally, back up externally regularly. Avoid the single point of failure.

Desert Monkey said:

EDIT: I forgot to say "Vista Sucks." That's why microsoft just extended the shelf life of XP and stopped development on Vista. THey already decided to move on to the next OS.

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Linky? That sounds like it's almost got to be an exaggeration.

FWIW, the old people I know who do basic computing tasks have reported that they think Vista is great, as compared to XP. Though- and this is important- we are not talking about early adopters here, but rather people who've bought a vista computer recently, with good specs, and started using it for normal-type functions.

I suspect it's all the IT geeks who know XP who are frustrated that Vista is different and requires them to learn new stuff. But what do I know? I am just a basic computer user... so I use Linux.

Sir Humpsalot said:

FWIW, the old people I know who do basic computing tasks have reported that they think Vista is great, as compared to XP. Though- and this is important- we are not talking about early adopters here, but rather people who've bought a vista computer recently, with good specs, and started using it for normal-type functions.

I suspect it's all the IT geeks who know XP who are frustrated that Vista is different.

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Here at the office we have our programmer types SCREAMING for Vista. We spent thousands replacing PCs out of cycle to give them new machines to take advantage of Vista.


*shrug* Seems a perfectly competent OS to me. When I replace my home rig, I'll be getting vista.

Your problem was going with Vista. Downgrade to XP and you'll be much happier. I've been using Vista for a while on one of my desktops at work and while it's not as horrible as everyone thinks that it is, XP is a much more viable option IMO.

kornkob said:

Here at the office we have our programmer types SCREAMING for Vista. We spent thousands replacing PCs out of cycle to give them new machines to take advantage of Vista.


*shrug* Seems a perfectly competent OS to me. When I replace my home rig, I'll be getting vista.

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OK... hypothesis #2. Maybe it's incompetent computer users who blame their incompetence on whatever OS they happen to be running at the time.

Can't get the printer to work because the manufacturer's drivers suck (or you don't know to DL the most recent driver from the manufacturer's website)? Blame Vista. Can't find the picture from Aunt Lucy's wedding? Blame Vista. Running 6 programs and your computer is running slow because you cheaped out and only bought a half a gig of memory? Blame Vista.

Sure, Vista is a resource hog, but it offers a ton more features out of the box than Linux does. So, if you're opting for Vista, you should know that you need a more powerful computer. Bought the wrong computer for your intended OS? Blame Vista.

I found a folder marked Windows old that had my files in it. I still lost all e-mail, along with all online receipts, and my good homebrewing and equipment links. Not the best thing to have happen, but i'll survive.

Sir Humpsalot said:

Sure, Vista is a resource hog, but it offers a ton more features out of the box than Linux does. So, if you're opting for Vista, you should know that you need a more powerful computer. Bought the wrong computer for your intended OS? Blame Vista.

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Name 1 feature vista has that lin doesn't

See what happens when Microtheft tries to keep up with Apple?

Vista is just another feeble attempt to copy OS X, and they will never get it right.

MrShake said:

Name 1 feature vista has that lin doesn't

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Third party driver support.

Wanna come over and make my Canon 4-in-1 printer/scanner/copier/fax work with Linux? Come on over. Homebrew is on me.

PeteOz77 said:

See what happens when Microtheft tries to keep up with Apple?

Vista is just another feeble attempt to copy OS X, and they will never get it right.

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Just because they tried to make the GUI look pretty, doesn't mean they are playing catch up to Apple. Besides OSX is just a customized BSD kernel. But you never hear saying that Apple is just copying *nix.

You have your health.

Vista has worked really well for me so far.

Though I am more literate in Spanish than computers

I don't speak Spanish.

Tenchiro said:

Just because they tried to make the GUI look pretty, doesn't mean they are playing catch up to Apple. Besides OSX is just a customized BSD kernel. But you never hear saying that Apple is just copying *nix.

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Steve Jobs said it himself in the very first keynote where OS X was announced in Jan 2000. It's no secret that OS X is just a pretty shell on top of Unix. It's just that it is a VERY PRETTY shell, and it works....VERY VERY WELL.

Vista has not been approved for use in most of the schools I work with in the NC Community College system.

A large number of corporate customers aren't migrating to it either, and the whole "Vista Ready" debacle was a huge black eye to MS.

Windows 7 will be the next OS out of Redmond, and it really isn't going to be that long.

Think of Vista as WindowsME for the 00's. Microsoft didn't really press the developers to do more than try to meet a specification for new drivers, and they aren't going to let that happen again with 7. The call for compliance has already been put out and hardware manufacturers that aren't already working with beta versions of 7 are going to be sorry.

ETA: Another link about Windows 7 and drivers.

PeteOz77 said:

Steve Jobs said it himself in the very first keynote where OS X was announced in Jan 2000. It's no secret that OS X is just a pretty shell on top of Unix. It's just that it is a VERY PRETTY shell, and it works....VERY VERY WELL.

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Exactly, because it is Unix which has always been a solid OS.

Don't get me wrong Apple did good by it's customers when it went to the new OS. I worked there when System 7 was just ending and OS8 was new, and both were as embarrassing as their hardware design when it came to stability.

Apple followers have always been very evangelical about their choice of products, but that doesn't mean they have ever been better than the competition. They aren't always worse either, just different.

(sorry for helping to hijack the thread )

I should say I am not a fan of Vista or of Windows in general. I find use in a couple of OS's and use them regularly.

All right mods, lock this b*tch up. I wasn't trying to stare a os flame war.

Nah,

What about aluminium vs. stainless steel computers?