I am continuing the long, slow process of reclaiming my ‘lost’ computer files and saving them into my new file structure … and as I am doing it, I am discovering all sorts of stuff that I initially thought that I had copies of but that have actually gone missing.
This task is taking me much longer that I thought it would take and until it is completed, I will only be writing blog posts as and when I can. I have a couple already written in draft form, but they need tidying up and I don’t want to spend time doing that when I could be getting my computer problem sorted.
As they used to say on the TV years ago … normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.
Best of luck on your recovery efforts.
ReplyDeleteMark Cordone,
DeleteCheers! I’m slowly sorting out the problem.
All the best,
Bob
Dear Bob.
ReplyDeleteI was very sorry to read of your problems and hope that you’ve not lost too many important files. Creating a new file structure is hard work, though I do not think that you should blame yourself for having started with Microsoft’s defaults, such as “Documents” and “Pictures” as these are quite reasonable “top level” directories and, as you have pointed out, what matters is the choice of sub-directories, sub-sub-directories and so on to however many levels are required.
When looking for files I’ve found that it really helps if you use long directory names – so that there is no doubt what they should contain – and also use long/detailed file names. The latter is more work when you create files but, in my experience, is well worth the effort. Of course, this used to be impossible due to Window’s – and some program’s – limits on the maximum length of the {file path+name} but this should not now be a problem, as long as “long paths” are enabled in Windows and you are not using too old a version of a software application.
These days the “standard” advice to PC users is the keep at least three copies of any files you care about, of which one copy can, if you wish, be on a cloud system, and one should be held locally but off site (which can just be an external hard drive you keep in the garden shed, provided that you think the shed will escape when the house burns down). I strongly suspect that the great majority of PC users do not follow such advice and will lose most or all of their files if they have a drive failure, though the complaints I hear of are mostly from smart phone users who have lost years of photos due to not backing them up.
I have to admit that I find it hard to remember to update my “offsite” drive and, even if I manage to do it weekly, it still misses the most recent changes. However, using OneDrive and Google Drive with both set up to keep local copies of all files ensures that I have at least three local copies of my important files, though this does depend on the fact that we have three working PCs (mine, my wife’s and the old Windows 10 machine I keep as it has a DVD drive) and most people are probably not so lucky,
All the best,
Mike
My Del computer's motherboard died about 3 years ago, I took it down to a local computer and they recovered most of my stuff.
ReplyDelete£75 money well spent. However I lost some stuff but it was not the end of the world. Still a pain in the bum Bob, onward and upward.
Willz.
Willz,