On Thurs, 2nd Jun, went stupid with my PC. Deciding to switch the existing #Linux (#antiX) to a larger partition, began to consolidate and clean up existing files.
Everything went fine till the time came to merge the existing Linux / (root) and /home partitions (5 GB each) with the Win D drive. The idea was to increase the D: by 10 GB and install antiX Linux in a new partition carved out of E: with 10,1,10 GB each (/, swap, /home). If you don’t understand what it is all about, read the nice write up at control-escape [http://www.control-escape.com/linux/lx-partition.html].
Now the D: has the ‘My Documents’ folder and it contained all the downloads, work in progress, documents, manuals, photos, videos and what else. Since I am take good care of the PC by keeping it virus & malware free and also monitor the hardware, I had lost the habit of taking backups. Added to it was the confidence (? pride ?) that the data can be accessed with Linux even if the OS fails, a disaster was waiting to happen.
And it did happen. Instead of moving or copying the ‘My Documents’ folder to another drive and then merging the drive, I attempted to merge them with the data intact. Even worse, I did not attempt it in Windows partition managers, but with the built in GParted program in antiX.
In spite of all the penguin lovers boast that Linux is crash proof, it does happen, once in a blue moon. To be fair, it might not have been a software related crash, but due to hardware.
:-/
Anyway the GParted gave up midway and crashed the system - after waiting almost an hour, I had to reboot and Yaah! - all of My Documents had vanished. The D: drive had been taken over by a Linux drive with all the Linux folders sitting pretty.
:-(
Thus all the work of the last 7 years or so have been lost. It is as if my digital life has been wiped clean and I don’t have a single document, file or record of my digital presence - except for what has been posted in the blessed blog.
So here is a quick recap of what was lost:
A lesson has been learnt and one more job to be added to the weekend routine backup the data files and once in a while backup on a DVD. Although it might be a few months to accumulate such data.
So what has it do with hating Linux? The Windows partition tools would have refused to merge a Windows NTFS partition with the Linux Ext3 partition - unlike GParted, which has no such problems.
That refusal message would have jolted me out of the doozy and given my distrust of Windows to mess around the partitions, would have impelled me to copy or move My Documents.
For the present, just shed tears.
Everything went fine till the time came to merge the existing Linux / (root) and /home partitions (5 GB each) with the Win D drive. The idea was to increase the D: by 10 GB and install antiX Linux in a new partition carved out of E: with 10,1,10 GB each (/, swap, /home). If you don’t understand what it is all about, read the nice write up at control-escape [http://www.control-escape.com/linux/lx-partition.html].
Now the D: has the ‘My Documents’ folder and it contained all the downloads, work in progress, documents, manuals, photos, videos and what else. Since I am take good care of the PC by keeping it virus & malware free and also monitor the hardware, I had lost the habit of taking backups. Added to it was the confidence (? pride ?) that the data can be accessed with Linux even if the OS fails, a disaster was waiting to happen.
And it did happen. Instead of moving or copying the ‘My Documents’ folder to another drive and then merging the drive, I attempted to merge them with the data intact. Even worse, I did not attempt it in Windows partition managers, but with the built in GParted program in antiX.
In spite of all the penguin lovers boast that Linux is crash proof, it does happen, once in a blue moon. To be fair, it might not have been a software related crash, but due to hardware.
:-/
Anyway the GParted gave up midway and crashed the system - after waiting almost an hour, I had to reboot and Yaah! - all of My Documents had vanished. The D: drive had been taken over by a Linux drive with all the Linux folders sitting pretty.
:-(
Thus all the work of the last 7 years or so have been lost. It is as if my digital life has been wiped clean and I don’t have a single document, file or record of my digital presence - except for what has been posted in the blessed blog.
So here is a quick recap of what was lost:
- Photos and Videos
- irretrievably lost - all the memories, locations and antics.
- Statutory documents
- lost; but than God that statutory bodies still require hard copies - I still have them
- Documents
- lost; all records, references, shortcuts, tips, notes, et al, gone.
- Files
- lost; scripts, tools, how-tos, et al, written for specific purpose and work and kept to myself, gone.
- Manuals
- lost; an extensive collection of technical manuals, most of which cannot be reacquired anymore; some manuals digitized by me for personal use; annotations, comments and notes on them, clarifying the quirks in the manuals or equipments, all lost forever
- Software
- lost; but not of any concern at all, because I use almost exclusively Open and or Free or Freeware software and all are available on the net. The very few proprietary software that I use are safely tucked away in their CD/DVD cases.
- Projects in progress
- lost; and lost along with it is a lot of professional pride.
A lesson has been learnt and one more job to be added to the weekend routine backup the data files and once in a while backup on a DVD. Although it might be a few months to accumulate such data.
So what has it do with hating Linux? The Windows partition tools would have refused to merge a Windows NTFS partition with the Linux Ext3 partition - unlike GParted, which has no such problems.
That refusal message would have jolted me out of the doozy and given my distrust of Windows to mess around the partitions, would have impelled me to copy or move My Documents.
For the present, just shed tears.
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