Computers are amazing but also a pain in the ass

[Joanne]

I am working from my laptop today and my PC has gone "tits-up". I am in the middle of reformatting the PC and reinstalling the operating system.

It is only when it goes down that you really miss a computer, it is amazing just how much we rely on them these days.

I have my fingers crossed I will be back on the PC and rattling the keyboard on it once again.

Anyone else hate reinstalling windows and all the programmes you use?

[Gyrator]

Had to do this recently on one of our PCs after the power failed while it was doing a windows update. Reverting to a previous 'good' restore point failed as did every other fix we tried. Thankfully we are good about backing stuff up so no work files were lost but the PC was a fairly old Win 7 job so it spent days doing windows updates.

At least it wasn't one of those PCs with no install DVD and the restore on a partition of the hard disk so you can't fix it if the HDD dies without getting a dodgy copy of Windows off ebay.

[Joanne]

I learnt from painful mistakes in the past to regularly back things up and so it was just a case of reformating and reinstalling everything again. I had the same problem with restore points and failure to boot.

It is so easy to end up in a muddle if you have no clear backup strategy though, I am glad that you managed to sort yours out relatively easy.

[Serpentwand]

I once lied in a job interview and said I didn’t have experience with Windows. But they said “don’t worry, looking at everything else on your CV you’ll soon pick it up”. So after the Windows Vista PC at home we went to MacBooks and iPads.

[Joanne]

LOL., I love my iPad and can often befound in the evenings checking my site, doodling or perusing sites that are definitely considered naughty

[Steveukathome]

Regular backups to 1. An internal hard drive (daily) and 2. External USB3 Hard Drive (Weekly)

PLUS - I make a disc image every month too (stored on internal and external drive - this way, even if your HDD dies, you can re-install the disc image on the new disc - all your software - everything goes back 'just as it was'

With regards to the back-ups, easy to automate them to run overnight, disc images I create manually

[Joanne]

I learnt my lesson and now regularly back things up locally and remotely as well.