Sunday, April 26, 2009

When Incompetence Pays Off

I just re-installed my OS in order to fix some obnoxious glitches on my computer. Before I did this, I saved all my important files to blank CDs. When I put the first disc into the computer (this disc being the one I put most of the really important things onto), I discovered that I had failed to fully close the session, meaning my computer couldn't read the disc at all.

FUCK.

That was all I could think. I was screwed. Then.... I started restoring my iTunes library (backed up to a million blank DVDs) and realised my computer was running out of space. That didn't seem right! So, that's when I discovered that I hadn't deleted or even replaced all the old information on my computer. It just happened to get pushed into the "Windows.old" folder instead of the new "Windows" one. I did a little digging, and found every single file I thought I had just lost.

GLORIOUS!

So... I guess the moral of the story is that when things look like they've gone wrong because you were being an idiot (like me), just hold out a little longer before getting upset. Chances are your idiocy will be found elsewhere in a way that actually helps you.

Or something.

3 comments:

  1. I wish my computer inadequacies would have such happy results.

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  2. Day one after buying a terabyte external harddrive, my wife transferred all of her files to it in preparation for reformatting her rig and reinstalling an OS, etc. She left the external hard-drive plugged into a USB port, and immediately after putting all of her files onto it, reformatted her PC *and* the external hard-drive.

    She panicked for hours until I retrieved the files by replacing the file structure and extracting the still-present but unlinked files. Got everything back.

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  3. Some call it "failing" ... I prefer the term "alternatively learning".

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