Take this occasion to think through your (lack of) back-up strategy.
Back when I bought myself a solid state drive for my gaming PC, everyone warned me to make sure to back up everything I put on it, because SSDS fail all the time, and they'll frequently fail catastrophically, instantly, and without warning. So I did! I was super good about backing up all my files to the computer's other hard drive. The computer's ONLY other hard drive.
So when the SSD did, indeed, fail, I realized that if I wanted to get the computer working again, I'd either have to install Windows on said backup drive (which would, of course, wipe my backups) or buy a new drive. Which would mean driving an hour into Munich, and an hour back, which isn't happening at the end of a ten hour work day. Especially not when basically the only reason I need that computer at all at this point is that I finally wanted to finish playing Dragon Age. And especially when I wasn't sure it really was the SSD causing the failure, so buying a new HD might turn out a waste of both time and money anyway.
So I'll just wipe the drive then, I thought. Everything really important lives in dropbox these days, anyway. What do I really have on there except for games? Okay, it'll suck to spend three freaking days redownloading World of Warcraft, but it'll suck less than driving into town when all I really want is to play the last two hours of Dragon Age.
Unfortunately, when it comes to wiping drives, one always forgets something important. So what did I really have on that drive? All 120 hours worth of my Dragon Age save files, that's what. /o\
ETA: Holy shit! Apparently Windows 7 doesn't wipe your drive when it installs! I just tried to find out how on Earth a new install can manage to take up a hundred gigs of space, and there it was, all my stuff, all thrown in together into some weird subdirectory! :DDDDDDDDDDDD
So when the SSD did, indeed, fail, I realized that if I wanted to get the computer working again, I'd either have to install Windows on said backup drive (which would, of course, wipe my backups) or buy a new drive. Which would mean driving an hour into Munich, and an hour back, which isn't happening at the end of a ten hour work day. Especially not when basically the only reason I need that computer at all at this point is that I finally wanted to finish playing Dragon Age. And especially when I wasn't sure it really was the SSD causing the failure, so buying a new HD might turn out a waste of both time and money anyway.
So I'll just wipe the drive then, I thought. Everything really important lives in dropbox these days, anyway. What do I really have on there except for games? Okay, it'll suck to spend three freaking days redownloading World of Warcraft, but it'll suck less than driving into town when all I really want is to play the last two hours of Dragon Age.
Unfortunately, when it comes to wiping drives, one always forgets something important. So what did I really have on that drive? All 120 hours worth of my Dragon Age save files, that's what. /o\
ETA: Holy shit! Apparently Windows 7 doesn't wipe your drive when it installs! I just tried to find out how on Earth a new install can manage to take up a hundred gigs of space, and there it was, all my stuff, all thrown in together into some weird subdirectory! :DDDDDDDDDDDD