Wiped Out!

[S']['U]

So I gave my computer to some guy to do some much needed upgrades (including more memory and a better video card) for free in exchange for a box of computer parts I had saved.
The DUMBASS formatted my HD without asking and I had nothing backed up.

I lost EVERYTHING... including my tax records, my job information and resume, every picture I ever took with my digital camera, 5 gigs of music, my entire Tribes config, all my software (including cracked versions of Fraps, AVS Video Converter 6, ACDSee 2.0 and "DVD Decrypter" (a DVD-ripping program that could beat almost any anti-piracy encryption, which has since been banned).

He then installed a wallpaper changing program with his own wallpaper pictures, his own music, his favorite game, and some damn Weather/Clock that takes up most of my tray space.
He then informed me that Google Chrome makes my computer run slow and that I shouldn't use it.

I guess you get what you pay for.
I'm in shock. I haven't even comprehended the total loss yet.
I didn't even have the driver disc for my Wireless Network Adapter, so it was a real challenge to even get back online.

I know that there are people out there that I have sent some of these programs to...
It would be really helpful if they would be nice enough to send them back to me.

I think I'm going to go cry now.

[Owner]

Free aint the way to go but yea i feel your pain and sadness.

Thanks!

Owner

[perrinoia]

I can rewrite that custom script that auto waypoints to teammates who ask for APC pickups, if you want...

I'm surprised you didn't do the upgrades, yourself. Also, those weather widgets always come with malware.

[S']['U]

I can rewrite that custom script that auto waypoints to teammates who ask for APC pickups, if you want...

I think I may have my Tribes config backed up on an external drive where I store all my demos...I'll let you know. Also I was able to download the cracked Fraps here from one of my previous posts.
I know I also uploaded the AVS Video Converter here, but I can't find that post now...I think Crow removed it.
Without it I won't be able to make any more Tribes vids.

I'm surprised you didn't do the upgrades, yourself. .

That was my intention, but I could never find a decent video card that would fit in the available slot. He had one.

Also, those weather widgets always come with malware.

That's why I removed it, first thing....along with all the other extra crap he put in.

[DaJ4ck3L]

lol always have to have back ups. i learned the hard way my self and suffered an hd crash. lost a full terabyte worth of pictures, files, and etc. this was many years ago now tho.

also there is recovery software that could probably get most of your pictures back for you. wouldn't count on much else returning in original form.

[DaRk]

You should be using online backups. I'm happy knowing that for the most part is very unlikely to happen to me. I've met way too many 'techs' who think they know how to do things, but do what happened to you instead. One of my several interview questions when I hired students for my university's help desk involved asking them how they would fix a customers computer with x problem. Screened most of these idiots out. Sorry to hear STU. I still have that copy of XP if you need it, but don't have any of the other stuff you listed.

My tribes files if it helps are here:

DaRk's Tribes Files

[KILROY]

Damn, sorry to hear that STU. I'm surprised that the person doing the work for you didn't either do a backup of your HD or even look through it and take some of the stuff for themselves. Especially the 5 gigs of music files. Hope you get it straightened out.

[S']['U]

Damn, sorry to hear that STU. I'm surprised that the person doing the work for you didn't either do a backup of your HD or even look through it and take some of the stuff for themselves. Especially the 5 gigs of music files. Hope you get it straightened out.

I was able to recover all my music by copying it from my Sony Walkman. I also found an old HD with most of my pictures, except for the last 2 years.

When I asked the moron why he didn't ask me before formatting my drive, he said "It was full of viruses and I couldn't do anything with it".
I told him if he was able to start Windows, he surely could have copied picture and mp3 files off of the HD, but he claimed it would have also copied the viruses.

Apparently this guy thought I was an amateur, so he lied to me. I had no viruses. The computer worked fine except it was
having a hard time playing videos at 720 res.
He even went to the trouble to explain to me how to change my wallpaper and defrag my drives.
I told him the reason I had XP yet was because I knew it inside and out, and there was nothing he could explain to me that I didn't already know.

The dumbass also partitioned my 300 gig drive to 111/186. Drive "D" has absolutely NOTHING on it.
WTF?
If I wanted it split into halves I would have done it myself.

[The Boloblur]

Gotta love when someone says that they know what they are doing and end up fucking with stuff they know nothing about.

[KILROY]

What an idiot, even if it had viruses, they could have been dealt with and taken care of easily with running a few clean-up programs that would have eliminated the coding and the spread of the coding that ensued. I'm glad you were able to recover some of what you thought was gone, now you just need to recover the programs you lost. I keep multiple back-ups. Some on external HD's, some on external SSD's, and even on a few RAM sticks, but I take one weekend and run checks on everything that whole weekend. Not quick checks, FULL checks. And not only on all my computer towers, laptops, and tablets, but also my phones (own 3, 2 for business) and even my modem and router get checked, coding and even the firewall setups, including my wireless printer. Now, as for any computer I use here at home, I do back-ups daily and nightly, on each one separately when not in use. This allows me to continue to use one while I take care of the others, separately.

What I don't recommend, is if you have a large HD, do not partition it to keep a back-up on one partition, keep the back-up on something external and separate. That way if the HD crashes, you won't loose everything still. I know, who would do something like this, you would be surprised what I've seen, even in the corporate world.