Well, ain't that just peachy.

[laligin]

Please excuse me, I'm in tears.

My trusty USB drive, which has been through so very much with me, and suffered so beautifully at my hands, has at last turned round and stabbed me in the back. Painfully.It's corrupted a lot of my files. In various different and interesting ways. It's had a good go at my pictures, deciding not to allow me to see

Comments

[donutsweeper]

I am so sorry! I pass you piles of donuts to help with your pain

[laligin]

Thank you. shadowbyrd got me blackcurrant and chocolate biscuits as well, which did help for a while.

As soon as I feel like eating again, I'll get round to them.

[tripartite]

I'm sorry you're in tears and that you're understandably angry.

Before you sob in your pillow have you tried something like this:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1B3GGGL_en___US225&q=free+usb+recovery+&btnG=Search

All may not be lost.

[laligin]

*cautious headtilt* I'm twitching a little with that frantic desire to get my files back, but after this whole debacle I'm not too keen on downloading anything from the internet without absolute and complete confirmation that it's not going to give me a(nother?) virus...

Any particular one of those sites/downloads you'd recommend?

I'm inclined to leave it for tonight until I'm sane again tomorrow and can reasonably phone anyone I know who might be able to help and put up with the whining.

But thank you. If it looks an even better idea when I've had sleep and calmed down I may well be taking your advice there...

[tripartite]

I know and that's wise. No one can give you that confirmation. However, a good virus scanner can help. I use Avast! from (I think) www.avast.com.

Nope, I haven't had to use this kind of utility yet.

Oh, absolutely. You're angry and frustrated, by all means, leave it tonight. Am I fortunate you don't have my number? ;)

You're welcome. I'm not saying it'll work, I'm saying it MAY work. I wouldn't give up just yet. If it's corrupted all this can do is delete it. No harm done. It MIGHT be able to recover your files.

[laligin]

One of my friends is actually hunting out some data recovery stuff for me now - and since he's done Computing and the like properly, I'll wait for his advice on the matter.

Otherwise you're very fortunate I don't have your number, or I'd've called just to whine, 'cause you were awake at the time. :P Lucky escape.

As it sands I can fetch those pictures which have been deleted back from my emails, and if I grit my teeth and get to work I may be able to type the two missing files out again, though it'll hurt to do it.

[lyore]

That's awful, I'm so sorry *hugs*

If you have the money, you could try taking it to a good computer shop - sometimes they can restore corrupted files.

[laligin]

I'll have to find one first. This is where being away from home in a strange new city has its problems... :(

Thank you for the advice and hugs, though.

[bellasianna]

OMG. I am so sorry! So, so sorry. I could cry for you.

Ironically just as I was reading this post my new external hard drive arrived by courier... Yes I will keep your painful lesson close and BACK UP EVERYTHING from now on.

*huggles and offers shoulder to cry on and gets a choc muffin and huggles more*

[laligin]

*wry laugh*

Be paranoid. It helps. I backed up fairly regularly, but when files get corrupted all of a sudden, two days after you've created it and mere hours after you last had it open, it's a bit of a pain.

*hugs back, takes advantage of your shoulder, and leaves muffin for later* Thanke.

[hellenebright]

Deep sympathy - I've had that sort of thing happen to me and it sucks.

For future reference - *never* have your only copy of anything on portable media. Save to hard drive (as these are the easiest to rescue something from) and back up to portable media at the end of the session.

[laligin]

Yup. This I've learned. Awkward, though, if you're flitting about between computers and some of them are public ones. I keep saving to USB and forgetting to copy it over. As I say, I'm only two down, and if I can pull myself together I could probably rewrite them fairly closely to how they were, since they were recent files and I should be able to remember the gist of it if I try hard enough.

Thanks for the sympathy.

[hellenebright]

*passes Lali cup of tea and doughnut*