Losing Almost Every Precious Things in Hours

Recently I've been discouraged about how desperate I am. The problem is, the 13th December has reminded me that my desperate acts have led to a total devastation of my computing passion. It is because I've reinstalled Windows 7 and 8 on my HDD due to Win7's problem and that I didn't have so many time to just backup ALL the (precious downloaded) contents in my Win7 partition before I took it to the technician and have it reinstalled. I know I should've just ask the technician a solution for this problem and not reinstall everything at the same time. And eventually, it resulted in losing most of my precious files.

So how do I lose everything in one day?

THE START

It all started when suddenly, the morning of the day in question, my Windows 7 didn't start as expected. It loaded past the "Starting Windows" screen, but that's it. It takes longer than usual and eventually it loaded a lower resolution version of the Win7's welcome screen's wallpaper. Yup, there were no users accessible within that state, and it turned out that it was loading something called "Automatic Repair". Yes, instead of run-of-the-mill Win7 loading, it went to Automatic Repair rather than loading the users. Startup Repair didn't affect anything, and System Restore was... faulty, as in inaccessible. There were no System Restore points because whenever I tried to make one, the partition won't let me to. Sadness begun at this point, leading me to try Windows 8.

While I also am fond of Windows 8, the reason why I keep it hanging on my second partition out of three partitions inside my 1TB harddisk (remaining two are Windows 7 and my precious files' folder, whose capacity is half of the HDD's size) is that I'm afraid that it'll run my favorite games and that it would give me issues whenever I try to play them. However, as I test them on Windows 8... no problems. Turbo Sliders run as usual on Win 8, so does GeneRally, and tons of games, even though I hung my hopes to oldschool ones like Sega Rally 2 and Michelin Rally Masters. In other words, Win 8 feels probably the same, but with the Metro skin in place of Win 7's Aero and has Metro tiles and apps.

And this is where the going got tough; that afternoon, I left my laptop at my technician's place, and I didn't forgot to backup ALL my precious files. Since Win 7 is inaccessible, the technician prepared me a USB flash drive with MiniXP in it. There, the backup commenced. After that, I went back to college for a meeting held by my friends. Given I thought that the technician hasn't made his move of reinstalling the Win 7, I went back to the technician's to cancel the reinstall as I wanted to spare the reinstall for not only a Windows 8 run but also a double treatment where it'll have its components cleaned. However, only the storekeeper who was there, and not the technician. She, the storekeeper, said that the technician have brought my laptop to his house and the Win 7 reinstallation was complete just before I wanted to cancel the whole thing.

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And this is where the sadness commence. No, the Five Stages of Grief to be exact. I tweeted that I was angry that I was too rushed in making quick decisions that I didn't double-check, was heartbroken, bargained, and depressed, all done when I went to the barber shop to get my haircut and that I thought about  double-checking the files in those folders I backed up and I received a message from the technician saying that the reinstallation is complete. It is really annoying because most of my files weren't backed up due to TeraCopy or whatever its name inside MiniXP unable to copy some of my copied contents.

The next day I went to the technician's once more to collect my laptop. Sure it now has Windows 8 as default boot OS, but at that time I was still saddened. This sadness is carried that I don't bother to touch my laptop. Alas, the next step HAS to be taken...

MOVING ON AND RESTORATION

This phase is brought to you by Lowe Guele, the Astray / Junk Guild extraordinaire :D

While I can't recall some apps I've installed before the reinstall, those apps I couldn't recall is due because I don't use them very frequently. Fortunately, I could recall most of the apps, let's say 80%, and download most of them the day I lost everything. Granted that most of these apps' installers are still lying on my third partition, so I'm a bit relieved. Though the drivers are lost, thus I have to hunt for drivers in what can be called as every computer user's gold mine: manufacturer's website. Given that I still *am* using Satellite L740, which was initially a 32bit machine with 2GB RAM and 300GB HDD when my dad bought me and is notoriously known for its overheating tendencies, it's Toshiba's website that I see its drivers download page as a gold mine in question. Due to the fact Windows 8 is my MAIN OS, I can no longer install both its eco Utility and PC Health Monitor as it gives me errors of their own. Other than that, the going is smooth albeit the mentioned errors.

The most notorious one is where I have BSODs of IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL error caused by athrx.sys (pictured and Twitpic-ed), which turns out to be an Atheros driver. This only happens on Win 7 partition and occurs when bluetooth is active and I am browsing internet. This sure is a pain in the ass for my bluetooth driver because as soon as this happens, the bluetooth RFBUS driver will go problematic and that everytime you try to add a new BT device, the BT won't be ready even if you turned it on. Not only that, my "movement" gets slower because I won't be able to transfer my phone's content(s) via BT. Strange because things like this didn't happen before this reinstall happens...

Nevertheless, here's the history of my desktop then and now. Didn't took the desktop screenshot since my 32bit days though...

My old state of my desktop before it's reinstalled. Attack Ride! Wallpaper! Take note that since this wallpaper is posted, my installed apps and shortcuts have changed radically.

Compare it with my new desktop. Yeah, a series of Ferrari wallpapers is a placeholder for whatever my wallpaper would be... :|

WINDOWS 8 POWAAAH~!!! MY WIN 8 GOES ORANGE! *SLASH*

Though the desktops for both my Win 7 and Win 8 are different, I give both OS equality for installed apps, so the apps I normally install in Win 7 could be installed in Win 8 too, though I will be selective with the app selections so I won't drain GBs in both partitions.

So if it is included as part of that Five Stages, this IS the acceptance phase. No matter how bitter it is, as long as you have a fast, unlimited internet / wi-fi connection, you move on and try to regain yourself, recalling everything you've installed. And then you promise that the next time you're afraid that this problem happens to you, always prepare secondary partition(s) or a big external memory if you're a download addict like me. Plus, make sure that everything IS copied; double-check whenever you're going to backup your files in your "damaged" partition (and somehow I wanted to say "ONORE TERACOPY!!!" in Narutaki's voice). If you have only ONE partition, MiniXP would be your only best bet, but still, you need an external HDD.

So, will I continue being productive on both making game stuffs and some other stuffs? I don't see why not. I have Tsukasa Kadoya's blood after all...

~[R]