Computer completely died. No recovery possible.

Hi everyone. I just wanted to let everybody know that today my computer completely died and I don't have any money to fix it. Because of this I will be taking an extended break. The only way I can get on the internet now is with my cell phone. So my youtube channel is also not going to be updated until I can find a way to get another computer. So I'll be reading the boards once in a while but that is probably all. See ya around the boards.
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Comments

  • That's truly terrible. Happened to me at end of 2016. and I hadn't backed up for 2 months! I hope you have, and hope you can get round the money problems. We will miss you.
  • RalfRalf Administrator, ProFantasy 🖼️ 18 images Mapmaker
    Ah, that's nasty. Very sorry to hear that, hope you get back up and ruhning not too far in the future. *goes to check his backups*
  • Thanks guys. The computer decided to take a leap off of the porch and onto the concrete. I'm not sure when I'll be able to replace it.
  • Oh no!! Hope you get back up and running soon! Xmas time is coming - what a perfect time to ask for gift cards for a new laptop :)
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 40 images Cartographer
    On top of what I've already said over at the Guild, Tony, don't throw away any of the bits. If you can't afford a new one, maybe you can part exchange any undamaged bits as part of the price, and reduce the price just a bit to bring it more within your reach.
  • JimPJimP 🖼️ 280 images Departed Legend - Rest in Peace
    If you decide to try and get data off the hard drive, be careful as some external USB hard drive enclosures aren't for pulling the files off the hard drive. They partition and then format any hard drive put in them, they are used to run backup software with.
  • Yes keep the hard drive. Heck even go to a friends house and try plug it in and see if it reads.
  • Sorry to here about the computer. Maybe you can find a used one. :-)
  • DogtagDogtag Moderator, Betatester Traveler
    I'm sorry to learn what happened. That's brutal. I'm sure you'll figure something out, though. Funbatteyo!

    ~Dogtag
  • taustinoctaustinoc Surveyor
    edited September 2017
    Posted By: CharlesWayneRobinsonSorry to here about the computer. Maybe you can find a used one. :-)
    I can attest to the quality of factory refurbished Dells (we've bought quite a few at work, and never a problem). Laptops start under $200. Halfway decent (if small screened) laptops (for 32 bit machines), at least at the moment.

    (But don't assume that the one you see today will still be there tomorrow. They do sell through fairly quickly.)

    https://www.dellrefurbished.com/laptops
  • Oh, man. That's rotten news. I hope you can get it replaced, soon. I was enjoying your videos.
  • 20 days later
  • Hello again everyone. I got a new computer, a Lenovo ideapad 110 with an Intel 4405U 2.10 G processor, 6 Gigs of ram, a 1 Terrabyte hard drive and a 15.6" display.

    I've got all of the CC3+ programs installed but I only installed the CC3 with the programs that are not yet available for CC3+.

    The bad news is there was no recovery possible for the old hard drive. So I lost every map I've ever made on CC3 or CC3+.

    I also learned that Windows 10 stopped supporting Movie Maker so I'm still searching for a good free movie making program so I can continue to make the video's for my YouTube channel. Most of the free ones I've found want to put a watermark on your video for some reason, or they don't import to YouTube using mp4.

    And I have to try to re-create a map I was making a city tutorial for. Sheesh!

    But honestly I'm just grateful to have CC3+ again and a new computer that isn't broken :)
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 81 images Cartographer
    Posted By: TonnichiwaThe bad news is there was no recovery possible for the old hard drive. So I lost every map I've ever made on CC3 or CC3+.
    Sorry to hear that, losing all that hard work sucks. I know this won't help you know, but everyone, please remember to keep backups of personal files, and keep them up to date. Either a cloud service, an external driver (or even just an usb stick), or a more dedicated backup solution. Windows comes with OneDrive preinstalled, which gives you a fair amount of storage for free, and if you don't like OneDrive, Google Disk and DropBox are popular alternatives, but there are others too.
    Personally, I backup my files multiple times per day, and keep old versions for 10 years, and keep backup on multiple different locations, both local and remote. (This is probably overkill for most though)

    Good to hear you are up and running with a new computer though.
  • It actually turned out good. With a fresh start I don't have any of those maps on my mind anymore so I can just start new. This will give me lots of new ideas.

    But I admit I am really bad about backing things up. I've got to start doing that.
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 81 images Cartographer
    edited October 2017
    Posted By: TonnichiwaBut I admit I am really bad about backing things up. I've got to start doing that.
    If you have a reasonable internet connection, just storing them in your OneDrive folder instead of a local folder is a good start. The files are still stored locally, so there is no performance penalty, but Windows will also sync them to the cloud (this advice applies to all personal files, not just maps). And since the files are still stored locally, you don't lose access to them if you lose your internet connection temporarily. It doesn't keep old or deleted versions of non-office files unfortunately, so it always only be the latest version, but it is a very no-hassle backup since you don't really have to do anything (Except saving new files in the correct location when you create them)
  • I use Google Drive the same way that Monsen uses OneDrive, except it does keep old versions of files, so I can restore to a previous version if I mess something up. It's only 15 GB for free, but 100 GB is $3/month.

    I just had a hard drive die - and die hard - two weeks ago. All the data files that matter, the stuff that changes regularly, I keep on the Google Drive, so there were zero concerns there. I use a disk imaging package (the one I use isn't free, but DiskImageXML from Runtime supports 64 bit now, and is free for personal use, though more complicated to completely automate) for system backups, which is set up to do a complete image to an external drive if I leave it on when I go to bed. Fortunately, I had done this a couple of days before the drive died. It actually took longer for me to figure out it was the drive and not the motherboard than it did to have a completely restored system.

    The set up on it was a little bit of work, but once that was done, all I have to do is leave the computer on at night. It's all automatic from there.

    Important safety tips:

    Keep your backups on completely separate hardware. An external drive, a flash drive, a cloud drive, something that won't be affected if the main computer dies. If it really matters, use portable media, keep (at least) two separate copies, and keep one of them somewhere else at all times.

    Ideally, keep it physically disconnected from the computer when not actually making a backup. A lot of malware - especially ransomware - looks specifically for backup files.

    Keep more than one backup. If you overwrite your only backup each time, and the backup fails, you have zero backups. And it isn't always easy to tell that's happened.

    Test your backups. Go in and pull out a file from time to time, just to be sure it works. Boot to the boot disk, to make sure you have everything you need. The old cliché is "Nobody cares if your backups work, only if the restore does."
  • Wow! Ok then...I guess I have a lot of research to do. Luckily I haven't started a new map yet, or put anything important on this computer except for CC3 & CC3+ and their add on's.

    Thanks guys!
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 81 images Cartographer
    except itdoeskeep old versions of files
    Seems like I was wrong about OneDrive. MS implemented version history a few months ago. Finally. Version history is limited to 30 days though, which is the same as Google. Should be enough for normal use though, although personally I prefer to keep my old files longer than that, so I am using a backup program that keeps old/deleted files in a separate directory on my cloud storage, giving me more manual control of the history.
  • Posted By: TonnichiwaWow! Ok then...I guess I have a lot of research to do. Luckily I haven't started a new map yet, or put anything important on this computer except for CC3 & CC3+ and their add on's.

    Thanks guys!
    If you're talking about research into some kind of backup solution, I'd be happy to make specific recommendations, based on a) what you want to accomplish, and b) what you want to spend. (I do this for a living. It doesn't have to be expensive, but the more bullet proof you want it, the more you should expect to spend.)
  • Welcome back Tony!! And congrats on the new computer :)
  • Great to see you back. I look forward to more video tutorials.
  • JimPJimP 🖼️ 280 images Departed Legend - Rest in Peace
    I have several external USB hard drives. Saved me more than once.
  • @taustinoc: Thanks. I'm unemployed and have no money so whatever I get has to be free. Also, I usually don't keep personal information on my computer so I'm not super concerned about security.

    @Lorelei: Thanks, now if I can just get started on a map!

    @Quenten: Thanks. As soon as I get my movie editor figured out I will start making them again.

    @JimP: You computer guys always seem to have the answers to my mistakes :P
  • Posted By: Tonnichiwa@taustinoc: Thanks. I'm unemployed and have no money so whatever I get has to be free. Also, I usually don't keep personal information on my computer so I'm not super concerned about security.
    A wise choice.

    There are two different kinds of backups. The better one (from a technical standpoint) is a complete system backup. That way, if the computer dies, you do a complete restore and you don't have to reinstall everything. Unfortunately, that takes way more storage space than anybody will give you for free. External hard drives in terabyte+ sizes can be had for under $100, but I'm guessing that's not gonna happen right now. (If you find you want to do that later, feel free to ask. Once you have the external drive, decent imaging software is free.)

    For data (only) backups, you want cloud storage like Monsen is talking about. The three best known services (and least likely to disappear) are DropBox, OneDrive and Google Drive. All are very similar.

    DropBox has a good reputation, and has been around a long time with a good reputation. But they only give you 2 GB for free.

    OneDrive has the advantage of being included in Windows 10 (assuming that's what you have). All you have to do is find the OneDrive folder and save stuff there. They give you 5 GB for free (I think, it's hard to tell, and they've lowered it recently).

    Google Drive gives you 15 GB for free, but you have to install their desktop app for it to work like OneDrive (where you just have a folder like any other, but it gets synced to the cloud). And in my experience, it's not 100% stable, though it's not really a problem as long as you know how to restart it (and rebooting always will). it has some quirks that can be annoying, but as long as you know what's going on, it's not really a problem.

    They're all very similar. You end up with a folder that you save stuff you want backed up into, and it syncs automatically. Save (or update) a file there, and it's synced within a few minutes with no further attention from you. You can access it from anywhere. Google Drive, you can log in from any computer with a web browser (and from any operating system), and access the Drive folder without having to install anything. (I suspect you can with the other two, as well, but I don't know for sure.) You can also share files with others, either by email account (and again, I suspect the others have similar capabilities) for specific people, or with anybody who has the unique URL for the file. All of them, I believe, keep multiple versions of files (though not for all that long, as Monsen mentioned).

    Google Drive accounts are part of a Gmail account, which includes a raft of other stuff. One of the other things is Google Sites, or free web pages (you have to dig to find it, but it's still there). This is an easy way to throw an image up somewhere so you can share it here (or wherever on the web). (It's limited to 100 MB per site, but you can set up multiple sites. What you put there goes towards your 15 GB total limit, though.)

    I use Google Drive, because it works well for me, and for you, it has three times the free storage of the next most generous one.

    If you have a few extra bucks, you can also pick up a flash drive. A 16 GB one is usually under $10. Best if you find one at a local store, because on Amazon the shipping is usually more than the price of the drive itself. Ideally, it's not at all a bad idea to use both cloud storage and a flash drive (or external hard drive), so that you have two copies of the important stuff that are completely independent of each other.
  • Luckily I have four different flash drives that survived the computer disaster. They didn't leap onto the cement the way the computer did. One of them is only 8 GB but the rest are 16 GB. I have my dungeons & dragons modules and gazetteers backed up on those from when I bought pdf's of them from drivethruRPG.

    I also have all three of those services as I have used Dropbox and Google Drive for years for other things, not backing up my computer files. But this is my first time with Windows 10 and OneDrive. Thank you for giving me some specifics. I appreciate that.
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 40 images Cartographer
    Welcome back Tony :D

    I've not been checking this thread till right now. Thought it had new comments only because people were continuing to express their sympathies, and totally missed the moments when your name must have been showing as the last person to make a comment!

    New computer? Brilliant! and it sounds like a mean machine :D

    Trying really hard not to think about the files of the past :(

    Looking forward to a recommencement of your mapping :D
  • JimPJimP 🖼️ 280 images Departed Legend - Rest in Peace
    Sometimes you can get good deals on thumb drives around the major holidays, particularly Christmas. I got two 32 gig thumb drives last year for the cost of one.

    Of course, I do have some small thumb drives. The first one I boguht was 128 megs. Then I got a bigger one, 256 megs.

    Be careful on external drive enclosures as some aren't for holding hard drives and copying files back and forth. I boguht one and it wiped my hard drive I put in it. The thing was for holding hard drives for that company's backup sftware. so I lost that data. Fortunately I had backed it up using my external usb hard drives. No, the box it came in didn't make that clear.
  • ScottAScottA Surveyor
    I'm glad you got a new system and are back.

    I'm far from a techie, but I personally use an external hard drive for backup (actually, I have two). Back in the day I used Carbonite, and it was good to have in a catastrophic tech event (which I did have), but otherwise, I didn't find it very user-friendly.

    As for Windows 10 and MovieMaker, no, they don't support it any longer but I installed it on my Win 10 system and still use it. There are probably similar free products out there, but for now, MovieMaker still works for what I need to do.
  • edited October 2017
    @Loopysue: Thanks :)

    @ JimP: Thanks :)

    @ ScottA: I wish it did for me. it will do still images just fine but I can't get it to edit movies. It just goes black. I've heard of lots of other people having the same problem with it.
  • Sounds like you have things under control. For MovieMaker equivalents, take a look in the App Store. There's bound to be something there that will work for you. There is a Windows 10 version of it, released this year (and windows 10 only):

    MovieMaker

    JimP: 128 meg is the same size as the flash drive on my Swiss Army knife. (Sadly, it doesn't work any more, despite how nearly indestructible flash drives are.)
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