Here's a bad one...

[John L]

As I post this I am looking at a clients computer. Operating system is corrupt to the nth degree. At first it behaved like a corrupt file system, so I thought to hit it with a CHKDSK /R. No joy, Cannot boot to the recovery console at all, Administrator password seems to have been changed.

I go into my toolkit and use the tools to reset the Administrator password...STILL no joy....grrrrrrr. SO I use another tool to try to recover the SAM files..and find the problem. The disk corruption spans the SAM files. No SAM files, no way to authenticate... anything. THat explains that whole "Won't boot" thing...system could not get permission to open the desktop.

Next, Parallel install an OS so I can move across and get to the user files to recover. Using Admin login on new OS, try to access the users files...permission denied. Stupid NTFS, still enforcing SAMS that are no longer there. Sweet. Now what??

Wait, go back in to the new OS, use a tool to reset ownership on the old user account (basically strips SAM dependecy and sets permission to equivalent of "777". Look in the folders, customers data is still there and looks to be intact. Which is nice, because when I asked "When did you do your last backup?" the response was "Backup??!!"

Users. Geez.

[paularoid]

Aren't clueless clients just wonderful? :D

Puts money in the bank if nothing else. :rolleyes:

[AceOn6]

Bought my husband an external hard drive so he could back up weekly and synch files with his home setup. Has he synched recently? No. Will I save him next time his system goes nuts? NO! He's on a first name basis with his geek from "Geeks On Call" and, from now on, he and Alexi can have the "how long since your last backup" discussion.

[janisian]

I pity you folks... I try hard not to be clueless, which is why John keeps me around. I know where the "Search" is, and the help menus, and even Microsoft's tech for techies areas. I make sure I exhaust everything before bothering John. (Well, usually!)
On the backup, I personally back up all my files and some programs up to an 80G Kanguru - had a 40 that lasted 3 years on the road, so I stayed with it. My last night at home before a tour, that's the last item on my list. It's very tedious, because there are so many artwork files, but I'm paranoid.
On the road, I keep a desktop file called "XFER TO USB", and carry a little 1G Fujifilm with a belt clip; that way I can keep everything that happens while I'm touring with me as I go to gigs and do press, in case the computer goes missing from my hotel room.
I've recently added a 4G USB so I can use the extra space for pictures, ince after about 3 weeks the Fuji is full. Bought the 4G at Costco for $39.
I've had one big, "everything's gone", crash in my life - that was plenty! Being this backed up, even if I lose a computer, I can get another laptop on the road, download programs from John's server, and go back to work with most of my files up to date.
Of course, Pat recently told me she was backing her entire computer up to a 1G Fuji, including Outlook's pst, her client files, and her accounting. When I went to look, it was all just shortcuts... so I gave her the 40G. But even then, she'd been clever enough to always dump everything vital into her Clie as well as her office laptop.
Redundancy is a beautiful thing in the current world.
Oh gosh, hope I'm not jinxing myself with this! (Anxiously looks over shoulder...)

[Chet]

Of course, Pat recently told me she was backing her entire computer up to a 1G Fuji, including Outlook's pst, her client files, and her accounting. When I went to look, it was all just shortcuts... so I gave her the 40G.
No wonder she managed to squeeze a whole computer into a little 1GB thingy - shortcuts!

Guess you're not the tech-tard in the family. And Pat probably isn't either - there's still Foster and D'roo!

[AceOn6]

Of course, Pat recently told me she was backing her entire computer up to a 1G Fuji, including Outlook's pst, her client files, and her accounting. When I went to look, it was all just shortcuts...

Must be a lawyer thing. Some of my most interesting clients have been lawyers.

[DaveM]

Hmmmm....I can remember when I could back up most of my documents and e-mail files onto one 100MB ZIP disk. Those days are long gone. Still have the thing plugged into my parallel port (remember those?) but the driver was erased by some over-confident "Clean Windows" program a couple of years ago, and I've never missed it. I have an external HD that does the job far better now....

A local computer store has long featured a display of "interesting" computers that were brought to them as trade-ins or for service. One was brought in because the CD-ROM door wouldn't quite close correctly. It turned out that an enterprising family of mice had built a multi-room nest inside the case, nearly filling it. You have to wonder about the household or office it came out of....

I miss 8" floppies. The smaller they make storage media, the easier it seems to be for me to lose it. And I NEVER locked my keys in the car until I got a keychain with a flash drive connected to it. "Need to get into your car?" the locksmith asked. "NO--I need to get at my data!" He thought I was joking, or didn't know what I was talking about, or was just being polite, or something.

[Amy in Vermont]

Dave:

My first computer that had a hard drive ( my first machine was an Apple II+ with no hard drive) came equipped with a monstrous 80 MB (yes, megabyte, NOT gigabyte) drive. On it lived DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.1. Added MS Works, and it still took me 3 years to run out of space on it!

Then again, the first inkjet printer I had cost 500 bucksand only printed in black.. and lasted 10 years!

Now we need at least 4 gig just for the damned OS...and color inkjets are 80 bucks and last a year if you are lucky!

My how times have changed!

A

[janisian]

My first computer was a monstrously big IBM I bought in 1983. I was thrilled that I could save one letter to a floppy!

[sister rose]

rotfl! That looks almost exactly like my first computer, Janis!

http://smilies.vidahost.com/otn/realhappy/xxrotflmao.gif

[janisian]

Pretty funny, isn't it? It had a desk that went with, printer stand and all. It was enoooooooormous!
Now I'm feeling very prescient, having helped with the cards on that big early computer at Columbia - or was it City College? - back in 1967/1968. But when I finally figure out how to insert a photo instead of attaching it, I'll REALLY be headed toward geekdom!

[Chet]

Mine was a non-IBM word processor made by Amstrad:

http://pc-museum.com/033-amstrad/rcm-033-medium.jpg

It was available at a special price (£299) with printer for students back in the mid 80s.

It had one floppy disk drive. After booting up the computer, you had to take out the boot disk and insert your working disk.

[Chet]

But when I finally figure out how to insert a photo instead of attaching it, I'll REALLY be headed toward geekdom!
When you're writing a post, look at the two lines above the text box. In the second line, there's a little yellow icon of a sun over a hill (http://janisian.com/forum/images/editor/insertimage.gif). Click on it, a box appears, type in the URL of the picture you want to post, click ok, then preview to see the picture before posting.

Oh, the picture must already be online somewhere on the Internet.

[sister rose]

As long as the image is hosted somewhere, you can just copy and paste the url into the little image box.
I am the queen of copy/paste...imagine my excitement when I first learned how :eek:

I remember my first pc was HUGE! I didn't have a desk, though, so it sat on my dining room table forever...taking up most of the space. The printer was extremely slow (and big, as well) and only printed black & white...

[Chet]

I remember my first pc was HUGE! I didn't have a desk, though, so it sat on my dining room table forever...taking up most of the space. The printer was extremely slow (and big, as well) and only printed black & white...
Guess I'm not as ancient as you (skips out of sr's reach), cuz that Amstrad took up maybe a quarter of the desk I had in my dorm room in those days. But then, they did give us huge desks to work on.

[sister rose]

*looks over Chet's comment....and Chet* :rolleyes:

lol...my table was decent sized, but, between the monitor (which I thought looked more like a television or something), the processor, the printer (which was ridiculous) and all the cables and cords....it took up at least half of it.

[Chet]

*looks over Chet's comment....and Chet* :rolleyes:
What? :confused:

BTW, where's your avatar?

[sister rose]

sorry.....it was a 'short' joke...:o

I'll get one up soon...just been too lazy. I think I'll make something new...

[Chet]

sorry.....it was a 'short' joke...:o
Well, if short = not ancient, then I guess Janis isn't. :p

[sister rose]

Well, if short = not ancient, then I guess Janis isn't. :p


lol...short or ancient? ;)

[DaveM]

My Commodore 128 had the OS hard-wired in, but had the dreaded single serial 5 1/4" floppy that required lots of swapping. Also a clunky Daisy-wheel printer that cost as much as my current complete system and cranked out a noisy 10 characters per second. And the "jumbo" 13" monitor, which seemed huge after working with a 9" on an Apple II for some time.

As I recall, something like one minute was require to upload one story-sized word processor file. The computer came with a CP/M disk, which for whatever reason sped the drive up by a factor of ten, but wouldn't run any software that was on the market any more (c. 1986).

My father, meawhile, invested a small fortune in a "Leading Edge 100% IBM Compatible" computer with green screen and a very loud 24-pin dot matrix printer (sounded just like fingernails on a blackboard). As I recall, he had to pay extra to get an upgrade from the standard 10MB HD to a 20MB HD.

From that I have learned by and large never to buy the latest technology, computer-wise. If they want extra for a feature now, be assured that the same package will a doorbuster at Wal-Mart next Christmas.

[DaveM]

By the way, I've got a Kaypro 16 and an IBM PC jr. sitting in the basement, both in working order and complete with software, books, you name it. Bought them at a time when I thought some true geek might want them....only to discover that no one wanted to pay to ship 60+ pounds of obsolete computer equipment.

Had to be talked out of buying two Osbornes at about the same time....I wanted tose 8" disk drives!

[dragonlady]

My dad brought home one of the first Commodore 64 computers. All I really remember about it was we played a lot of Pong on it.

My first computer I had at college was some strange off-brand that didn't have a floppy drive, it had a cassette tape for file storage. It ddn't work half the time and I very nearly threw it out my dorm window a number of times.

I like my current P4 sooo much better...

-di