Can I vent here?  I am SOOOO mad!  Windows crashed on me today and my whole Windows partition is GONE....  All of the meshes and mats I've made are gone.  My fire.  My woods.  My glasses, waters and different textures all gone.

I could cry...   :-(

In a few months, I'm rebuilding my box and going to an all linux system.  No more MS!  No more crap...

Not much venting, but I do feel better!

Kevin

hugs..
happens to a lot of us..
back up all the time, from now on,,,,

Oh, you betcha!  I am just about sick at my stomach right now...

:-o

Kevin

I know how that feels! ;-(

yeah it blows chunks :( my 2nd drive died on Monday..ugh. I have 3 drives and spread stuff across them as I back up, but I've lost months of Photoshop brushes I'll need to re-download etc as I only back up my own projects to DVD regulalry, rest is done once in a while to different drives or if bought to DVD.

would always recommend having a good PSU, to pwoer more drives and kepe several hard drives :)

Ladies and gents

May i recommend "Second Copy" it is very easy to use and setup, works in the background, i have a complete backup of all my bryce, including mat's and stuff on my second external drive.

GreenHawke - if its "only" your win that has crached on you, you should still be able to get your bryce thingies out of there. If you're harddrive has crached, but theres still life in there, well then there are proggys to get things out of there as well. If the circuit on the harddrive has crached, then there is the possibiity to find and buy a used similar disk that may have crashed otherwise, and switch the curcuit, i have ssen other people do that trick, and the switch of the circuit are pretty easy - in fact its as easy as to plug the drive into your motherboard

Regards
Arne

Goodness,. what a bummer!
Can you use everything on Linux?

Corrie

....addition to my earlier posting. The main harddrive on my wifes computer died last spring - that is - the filesystem was suddenly RAW format - well i took the disk out and connected t to my own PC - and used "Data Recovery Wizard Professional" to get all her data from Documents and settings out - maybe you could do the same :-)

Arne - Thanks for the suggestions...  But, it's too late!  Drive was reformatted and Windblows reinstalled.  It's all gone.

Yes, peedy!  You CAN run it all from Linux.  Just have to run a Windows compatibility layer, such as WINE.  My problem right now is that AMD/AMI doesn't support my video card anymore.  I have a RADEON X-1650 Pro (w/512 mb).  The legacy drivers don't support the new Linux kernels, so I am behind a couple of versions.  I have everything working in Bryce and DAZ except "rotate", which pretty much stops me from using it in Linux.

Well, I have Bryce and DAZ3 reinstalled and working fine, so now it's just a matter of making everything I had and doing some back-ups!  :-)

Kevin

Ok,  I didn't know things can run on Linux, that way.
Handy!

Have you tried to download the latest Radeon driver from the net?

Good luck with all the things you have to do now.

Corrie

Yeah, no matter what OS you use, and no matter how new or old your hardware is, ALWAYS backup important data to a 2nd harddrive and dvd's.

Healthy paranoia today for a better tomorrow.

Healthy paranoia = Your harddrive is out to get you.

question..what happens if the external hard drive blow up? Both of mines seem to have gone mad.. either not uploading or or taking way too much time to show up. I keep back ups of allt he imp stuff on dvds, but.. but..

All hard drives die eventually, even external ones.
I replace my externals every 3 years even if they are acting perfectly.
And, I have two externals, both with the same files on it (they back each other up)

External hard drive taking too much time to show up or transfer files;

I would first suggest you get a brand new external and however slow, start moving everything over because you could have old, dying hard drives on your hands.

Beyond that I would run a scan disk and defrag on your current externals. But, from personal experience I would move those files to a new external first if you can. Better to have your old hard drives last breath to be transfering your files than trying to defrag.

Can't afford a new hard drive? Get a spool of dvd's and start burning ALL your files to disk.

Just in case...

dvd back up keep being done all the time... and now.. new external hard drive being picked up on monday..
thanks for the advice..was really pondering if I ought to reformat the external hard drives and try again. In fact..even went to a small computer store close by to check up on external hard drive prices this morning!
Won't hesiitate now.. if the bigger store is opened on Sunday ..will go pick up one then.. (i'll be sure I'll get an original there.. you can't tell out here with small stores..)
cheers

pondering if I ought to reformat the external hard drives and try again

• Worth a shot also. Other than a failing hard drive, it could just have some cure-able problems that scandisk and defrag might help. Reformatiing would do the same. ;o)

• Might also want to scandisk/defrag your C drive just to element some other variables.

• I've also ran across people who's external's case electronics failed, but the hard drive itself was fine. Something to keep in mind.

Lol..ok..will give them a shot at reformatting tmrow. I had just finished transfer stuff to dvds for fear of them stop working on me! If they don't format, will just buy a new one. My xmas pressie to myself. Was about to go pick up a wacom.. ah well.. valentine's day present.-- maybe. 

Sometimes out here..it's cheaper timewise and sanity wise to buy a new disc rather than have the computer chap work on it if I have to find out if the case electronics failed.

Defrag and deep cleaning of C drive is part of a drill that happens here every weekend. You know..dust screen et al with a soft cloth, defrag, clean up, throw away uneccesary files, etc.. give computer a hug.. etc.  :-)  I at times wonder if I don't over-clean!

Ah, when the guys' case failed I just ordered him a new (empty) case from newegg.

But, I have a couple empty ones on hand anyway, its a great tool to have when fixing pc's, so it was easy for me to figure out his case was dead, not his hard drive.

Lol..I need you here..

Will see what I can work out with the computer chap tmrow.. bat my eyes..smile at him etc.. if the formatting doesn't work..

Lol, bat away.