9/29/08

Your absolute worst PC nightmare has just happened to me

Let me immediately say this had categorically nothing to do with a virus, I know some might jump in with this assumption.

I have just lost absolutely everything on my lap-top since April 2007. My User Profile would not load and despite 2 hours of tech support from Dell, we could not fix it. I finally had no choice but to do a PC restore back to factory settings. I have Dell Data Safe Online but typically this has also not been working correctly and so is of no help.

I had some stuff backed up on disk like iTunes, some pictures....but no word docs (hundreds), no internet favourites (which were all your blogs and hundreds of fave sites) no emails to my non web based account (which is my main one) - so receipts for purchases/memberships all important stuff etc, no email addresses apart from the older ones I have on this desktop.

Right now I don't think it's sunk in what I have lost. I guess it will only be as I need stuff I will either remember it or find it again!

So although I have this desktop for now, I am going to be very busy for the rest of this week trying to rebuild my PC life. My blog posts will as a result be minimal.

Thank god I have this and my other blog, as I actually have alot of photographs on these that I can save back to my PC.

Anyway - UTTER NIGHTMARE!

If you are in regular email contact with me please can you send me an email to either my home email if you have it, or sukie175@hotmail.com ASAP so I can save your address.

THIS MEANS EVERYONE - FRIENDS, FAMILY, WORK COLLEAGUES, BLOG BUDDIES, UK CONTACTS - I have lost you all and need you to email me at the 'pldi' email account if you have that, or the hotmail account. If you don't, then don't expect to hear from me!!

If you know that I visit and comment on your blog, but you are not in my blogroll on the right, please send me an email or reply here so I can get back to your blog and add it back to my Favourites.

If anyone has any other bright ideas feel free to share - but my PC is restored so the hard-drive is as new and nothing can be rescued. If you haven't backed up to a flash drive, online site or disk recently - do it now for me please, oh and remember to do everything - email, internet favourites etc..

I will be leaving this post top for a few days hoping that most people see it and email me.

18 comments:

Expat mum said...

God what a bummer. Bit like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted, but I have recently been using an on-line back-up service called Carbonite, which is apparently very good. It's just not worth losing this much stuff. I sympathize - (with a zee).

Jean Warner said...

Yikes. I am so sorry! You have inspired me to go run a back up RIGHT NOW. I may check out Carbonite, too. :-(

Jean W

Tess Kincaid said...

Oh, that is my worst nightmare! I'm so sorry. WT makes me regularly back up my stuff on a flashdrive. ICK!!!

Unknown said...

Yes well I have Dell Data Safe online but it had stopped backing up correctly and I had not got around to making a tech call! Just goes to show you should always fix these things immediately!

Rebuilding.....

Katrina said...

Oh my goodness - you poor thing! What a nightmare. I really hope you can gather your info quickly and doesn't cause you too much stress. I guess when there is nothing you can do about it, you just have to put your chin up and soldier on... xx

Bella Foxx said...

I had almost the same thing happen to me, I got a Trojan virus and was on the verge of reinstalling my hard drive when I finally got a program to clean it. BTW, you said if you had commented on my blog but was not on your list to comment. So that is what am doing.

Anonymous said...

What a nightmare! I really need to backup my stuff, especially my banking information. I'm getting a flash drive today!

Mary (Bookfan) said...

Sarah, so sorry this happened. Great reminder to us all, though. I need to stop at the Apple store and find out what I need to do to avoid all this.

Anonymous said...

Oh Sarah, this is awful, but then you already know that! I feel for you. Good luck getting your cyber life back.

Stacy at Exceedingly Mundane said...

Definitely a nightmare, ugh. I'm so sorry you've lost stuff. As someone who has had to send her laptop in twice in the last year (with both times, it being "repaired" and the hard drive completely wiped back to factory defaults, thereby losing all my data), I feel your pain. I don't think I've heard of a user profile being corrupted beyond repair, so that is odd.

Hope you get most of it back... hang in there!

Sandi McBride said...

Oh Sarah, I'm so sorry! I know what work this will entail and I don't envy you the job! Hope you get everything back to A+ condition soon!
hugs and sympathy!
Sandi

Lump said...

ohmygoodness. That is like losing a part of your life! seriously, so sorry. That totally sucks!! I put everything on external harddrives at home because I am so afraid my ancient laptop is going to die on me in the next five minutes. heh.

Janet said...

What a pisser. You have my complete sympathy.

About 5 years ago I had a virus attack my computer, Mick had to completely wipe the hard drive to get rid of it. I had nothing backed up, so I lost everything. Needless to say, I have a flashdrive now.

Anonymous said...

So sorry that happened to you, I know how you feel as I had the same thing happen in November last year, my hard drive just died. Lost everything!

Anonymous said...

Oh hearing stories like this make me ill. I had that happen not too long ago--the hard drive crashed and nothing was recoverable. It is so FRUSTRATING!

wanderingbtrfly said...

Oh that is horrible! I hope everyone contacts you quickly, so you will at least have that much information back.

The Factory said...

I've had that happen, and I own a Dell computer too ! Hmmm. Don't worry, you'll be back.

Veronica said...

that's just horrible! I am sooooo sorry this happened!