Well, ain't that just peachy.

[laligin]

Please excuse me, I'm in tears.

My trusty USB drive, which has been through so very much with me, and suffered so beautifully at my hands, has at last turned round and stabbed me in the back. Painfully.

It's corrupted a lot of my files. In various different and interesting ways. It's had a good go at my pictures, deciding not to allow me to see some, while instead turning others into blocks of translucent green or purple dashed over the actual image. But I can live with that. Most of the important stuff escaped, I think, and I had a lot on my photobucket.

It's what it's done to the Word documents that really bothers me.

You see, it's deleted some at random. Wait, hold on, that's okay, that's fine, it deleted old stuff that I backed up on the laptop (and I always thought that backing up was meant to work the other way round. Back up the laptop on the USB and all that) and hadn't got round to altering yet.

It's eaten the first half of some others - new files, at that. My Come As You're Not (the Ianto/Gwen) for example. The alternative version of part of my university coursework, for example. Both, fortunately, are salvagable - Ianto/Gwen is in full on here, and the beginning of the coursework got printed out, while the bit in the middle that's been turned into gobbledegook (of the symbols and !£^)^djhv ^£$)gd@?a variety, with a few boxes and ovals thrown in for good measure) is actually still in the secondary version and can be transferred back. That's okay. I can live with that. No problem.

However, it has turned one of my fanfic100 fics into the letter "y" endlessly repeated, for the most part. Again, the second half survives, and has been snatched away to a new, safe harbour, and I've found a very old backed up beginning of it to restore and re-re-rebeta for the second time, if I can remember what I changed about it. *sigh*

And that's still not the worst of it.

I had works in progress.

LONG works in progress.

7 thousand word plus works in progress and nowhere near the end but it didn't matter because I had the entire plot typed out in italics at the start to refer back to at any given point.

Those two are no more.

They are, in their entirety, the letter "y". I keep repeating it to myself, actually, and wonder if my USB is being sadistically mocking by writing it out so many times.

They are new files.

They had not yet been backed up.

I realise now that this is foolish, and I should be saving in at least two places after every single "$&^%(- sentence. Of course. Why did I not see this simple and obvious fact before. Truly, I must have been blind to the ways of life and USBs.

I am a little angry. You are probably able to tell.

So, dear Torchwood friends. Enjoy "Come Walk The Hub With Me". It had a very narrow escape. And mourn those two fics you'll never read, because I can't remember precisely how they began or how the plot danced its way to where it was, and quite frankly the idea of starting them again from the beginning is currently sitting down elegantly at a very posh dinner table and calmly hacking my soul into bite-size chunks.

There are words that can adequately describe this situation. But my friends and family sometimes swing by here, and they have a certain idea of my genteel and calm nature. I wouldn't want to destroy their illusions.

Besides which, I've sworn off swearwords stronger than "dang" unless it's in fic. I may have to get Owen angry. Then quote him loudly and repeatedly. That would be about acceptable.

Goodnight, dear reader. I'm going to go and sob into my pillow now.

And today was going so well otherwise...

Comments

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

I am so sorry! I pass you piles of donuts to help with your pain

[laligin.livejournal.com]

Thank you. shadowbyrd got me blackcurrant and chocolate biscuits as well, which did help for a while.

As soon as I feel like eating again, I'll get round to them.

[tripartite.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry you're in tears and that you're understandably angry.

Before you sob in your pillow have you tried something like this:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1B3GGGL_en___US225&q=free+usb+recovery+&btnG=Search

All may not be lost.

[laligin.livejournal.com]

*cautious headtilt* I'm twitching a little with that frantic desire to get my files back, but after this whole debacle I'm not too keen on downloading anything from the internet without absolute and complete confirmation that it's not going to give me a(nother?) virus...

Any particular one of those sites/downloads you'd recommend?

I'm inclined to leave it for tonight until I'm sane again tomorrow and can reasonably phone anyone I know who might be able to help and put up with the whining.

But thank you. If it looks an even better idea when I've had sleep and calmed down I may well be taking your advice there...

[tripartite.livejournal.com]

I know and that's wise. No one can give you that confirmation. However, a good virus scanner can help. I use Avast! from (I think) www.avast.com.

Nope, I haven't had to use this kind of utility yet.

Oh, absolutely. You're angry and frustrated, by all means, leave it tonight. Am I fortunate you don't have my number? ;)

You're welcome. I'm not saying it'll work, I'm saying it MAY work. I wouldn't give up just yet. If it's corrupted all this can do is delete it. No harm done. It MIGHT be able to recover your files.

[laligin.livejournal.com]

One of my friends is actually hunting out some data recovery stuff for me now - and since he's done Computing and the like properly, I'll wait for his advice on the matter.

Otherwise you're very fortunate I don't have your number, or I'd've called just to whine, 'cause you were awake at the time. :P Lucky escape.

As it sands I can fetch those pictures which have been deleted back from my emails, and if I grit my teeth and get to work I may be able to type the two missing files out again, though it'll hurt to do it.

[laligin.livejournal.com]

(And clearly that should say, "As it stands".)

[tripartite.livejournal.com]

Good plan. Having someone that knows what they're doing is always a good idea. I do it professionally as well, which is why I said it might not be too late.

You'd have called internationally to whine? I find that hard to swallow. ;) You could have whined to me in email?

Replacing lost data always sucks. Trust me, I know. I managed the world wide backups for a brokerage firm based over here. I know what it's like to lose data that'll cost you money, too. :(

[laligin.livejournal.com]

Shiny. I shall maintain a modicum of hope, then - whilst typing them out again and failing to remember how that sentence finished or where that paragraph was going...

Email is cheaper, true. And I did have my beloved shadowbyrd on hand in person to sob at...

Ouch. That sounds a little worse than what I'm dealing with. I'll try to stop sulking then!

[tripartite.livejournal.com]

Excellent, hope is always good. Perhaps you whould wait?

It is. I'm glad you had someone on hand. Crying alone always sucks. I just couldn't believe you'd call across the pond to whine. ;)

Uh, it was a lot worse, about $3,000,000.00 I think. Yeah, it sucked. I was just happy it wasn't our fault. :) I think it's good you're not sulking, life it too short to sulk.

[laligin.livejournal.com]

I can't wait - the longer I leave it the less I'll remember if it does come down to typing up.

And hey, I've done weirder things. :) Less expensive and weird, but still weird.

[tripartite.livejournal.com]

That is true, I had not considered that. I guess I just expected you to know soon if you'd need to or not. That recovery should be pretty quick if it's going to work at all.

Examples? Preferably with photos? :D

[laligin.livejournal.com]

My friend looking into reliable sources has asked his father for recommendations - and since we're all away at uni, he has no immediate reply. Should be a few days, but sentences will still fall out of my head even at that rate.

Now now. :P I have my secrets.

[tripartite.livejournal.com]

That's a bit longer than I expected. I guess you should get back to writing. If I get time today I'll poke around and see what I can find. No promises though. I think the woman has a "honey do" list for me.

I was just asking...

[laligin.livejournal.com]

Thank you kindly. :) And you'd better do that list first. She's within reach of smacking you round the head if you don't, you see... :P

[tripartite.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. :) Trust me, I know. You've seen her, she's a firecracker.

Oddly enough I think I can call your side of the pond for "free," as in I already pay for that service.

[lyore.livejournal.com]

That's awful, I'm so sorry *hugs*

If you have the money, you could try taking it to a good computer shop - sometimes they can restore corrupted files.

[laligin.livejournal.com]

I'll have to find one first. This is where being away from home in a strange new city has its problems... :(

Thank you for the advice and hugs, though.

[bellasianna.livejournal.com]

OMG. I am so sorry! So, so sorry. I could cry for you.

Ironically just as I was reading this post my new external hard drive arrived by courier... Yes I will keep your painful lesson close and BACK UP EVERYTHING from now on.

*huggles and offers shoulder to cry on and gets a choc muffin and huggles more*

[laligin.livejournal.com]

*wry laugh*

Be paranoid. It helps. I backed up fairly regularly, but when files get corrupted all of a sudden, two days after you've created it and mere hours after you last had it open, it's a bit of a pain.

*hugs back, takes advantage of your shoulder, and leaves muffin for later* Thanke.

[hellenebright.livejournal.com]

Deep sympathy - I've had that sort of thing happen to me and it sucks.

For future reference - *never* have your only copy of anything on portable media. Save to hard drive (as these are the easiest to rescue something from) and back up to portable media at the end of the session.

[laligin.livejournal.com]

Yup. This I've learned. Awkward, though, if you're flitting about between computers and some of them are public ones. I keep saving to USB and forgetting to copy it over. As I say, I'm only two down, and if I can pull myself together I could probably rewrite them fairly closely to how they were, since they were recent files and I should be able to remember the gist of it if I try hard enough.

Thanks for the sympathy.

[hellenebright.livejournal.com]

*passes Lali cup of tea and doughnut*

[mara-202.livejournal.com]

OMG. That's horrible, I'm so so sorry. *hugs*

[laligin.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Tell me about it.

See, I had two copies of most things, and it still managed to root out the few I hadn't backed up. It did it on purpose, I swear.

Thanke for the hugs.

[beccaelizabeth]

oh no.
*sends hugs*

[laligin.livejournal.com]

That about covers it. Thanks.

[shirafuzzy.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry!

I'm backing everything up come Sunday -- my jumpdrive is hiccuping on me and that's not very nice, not at all. And I've done SO much since I've last backed up, since I go from work to school to home to work to school to repeat all the time and forget to back up that I'd probably go out of my mind if I lost all of my stuff, so I know exactly what you're going through right now. I just say it a bit more ramble-y than most.

I love you, though! And that makes it all better, right?

[laligin.livejournal.com]

Yes indeedy. Shira-love fixes most anything. :)

Still working on the two I lost (and the beta job that got set back) but ebulliently happy today. I met Gareth David Lloyd yesterday. Oh, Ianto, so gorgeous even out of a suit... ;)

[lurker1860.livejournal.com]

(I know this is over a week late but...) I am so sorry!

*hugs*

[laligin.livejournal.com]

^_^' I've retyped one of the two fics I lost - I swear it's a lot shorter, but I can't remember if that's because I've missed bits out or it I had a longer story summary at the start of the file... The other one I haven't even started yet.

And I'm trying to get back through betaing yours, because that got screwed up as well. :(