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    #1

    I made a huge mistake. Warning.

    I convinced a client to ditch Vista and try Linux because her Vista system was borked and after many hours of trying to repair it I never figured out what was causing the problem. I attached her hard drive to my maintenance computer which runs Xubuntu and copied her Documents and Settings folder to the hard drive on my computer so that after wiping the drive preparing for the Linux Mint install I could copy back all of the pictures, documents, etc, to the new install. I thought I had copied them. I did this using Dolphin. In a split frame I merely dragged and dropped the folder to a directory on my hard drive. It seemed to work fine. It did this with a amazing speed and that should have clued me to the problem. It did not actually copy the folder, it merely created a symbolic link to the folder in the directory. When I went to the new directory after wiping the hard drive, all I got was a broken link. Woe is me.

    I do have another backup I made on a DVD while I was trying to repair the Vista problem and it has everything, but now I have to find a computer running Vista to restore the backup. I don't have any computers running Vista or Win7 that I could use to do this. The backup is in a windows executable file.

    I feel so stupid.
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    #2
    Re: I made a huge mistake. Warning.

    Oh man I feel the pain! I've been dangerously close to that situation recently -- I used dolphin to copy a little bit of firmware to a USB key, took the key to the computer where I needed the firmware, and was very chagrined to find it not actually there. Happily I had not deleted it from where it came from, so I wasn't in a pickle, but I can easily see how it happens.

    Windows .exe files are actually a type of archive, and you can get the contents out of them (for such purposes as using ndiswrapper to bring a driver over to Linux, for example). I forget exactly which tools I have used to get into the .exe -- not sure whether xarchiver does that, but it's not terribly difficult.

    But I would think it better to use a Windows system to do it. That is one of my secondary reasons for keeping a Win 7 VM handy (it also makes a great printer driver for non-supported printers). It is not rocket science to set up VMware Player 3.1.4 on a Linux system -- if you can get your paws on a Vista or Win7 installation CD or DVD, I'd be happy to guide you to install it as a VM.
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      #3
      Re: I made a huge mistake. Warning.

      I already have XP running in Virtualbox, but to add to the problem, my DVD/CD drive died. Any way, I just got lucky and found a laptop running Vista and I am happily restoring the backup to a desktop folder on that computer at this time. from there I will be able to get the things in want.
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        #4
        Re: I made a huge mistake. Warning.

        Dodged a bullet that time!

        Please Read Me
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          #5
          Re: I made a huge mistake. Warning.

          Originally posted by Detonate
          I feel so stupid.
          You're not, we are human beings and prone to all kinds of mistakes.

          What you're going through is one of a tech's worst nightmares! I've had a close call a time or two myself (in a similar way) so you're not alone.

          Regards...
          Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ loves and cares about you most of all! http://peacewithgod.jesus.net/
          How do I know this personally? Please read here: https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...hn-8-12-36442/
          PLEASE LISTEN TO THIS PODCAST! You don't have to end up here: https://soulchoiceministries.org/pod...i-see-in-hell/
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            #6
            Re: I made a huge mistake. Warning.

            Mission accomplished, I now have all of the documents and pictures copied to the appropriate directory on the new install.
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              #7
              Re: I made a huge mistake. Warning.

              Originally posted by oshunluvr
              Dodged a bullet that time!
              Whoosh!!!

              I've heard Detonate's thunk, though. I worked late into the night on a client's project. About 3:30 AM the Pascal compiler gave no errors and the executable performed perfectly. Pleased with myself I began putting floppies into the disk drive, looking for one which I could reformat and store my executable on in order to take it to the client the next day. Not that one, not that one, not that one, ahhh, that one! I entered the format command in a DOS box with my usually fast typing and pressed the Enter key. A microsecond after I pressed that key I realized that I had not designated the A: but the C: drive (working on the C: drive and using it to change paths is a large part of using MSDOS) and I watched the contents of my C: drive disappear into the infinite bit bucket in the sky. My wife was awakened by my blood-curdling scream and came running into my office to ask what was wrong. She couldn't help.

              I learned a couple of valuable lessons that night.
              "A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
              – John F. Kennedy, February 26, 1962.
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                #8
                Re: I made a huge mistake. Warning.

                Believe it or not, this was not the worst mistake I ever made. Once I was working on a Windows computer that the client had a profile so large his computer was running out of memory every time he booted up. I accidentally deleted all of his Quicken files. And I did not have a backup. And that client actually still calls me when he has a problem with his computer. The upside of this mistake is that I now always make a complete backup of the Documents and Settings folder on any Windows computer I work on before I do anything else.
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                  #9
                  Re: I made a huge mistake. Warning.

                  Been there done that and still every once and a while do something close. I feel for you. I can also feel how your heart just tied up and sunk. Man I hate that feeling!

                  Surprised you didn't "Detonate"!
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                    #10
                    Re: I made a huge mistake. Warning.

                    Having been through a period in my life where mistakes could have cost many human lives, I hardly can get to the point of detonating over a computer mistake. I'm glad I no longer have the responsibility that comes from making really serious mistakes.
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                      #11
                      Re: I made a huge mistake. Warning.

                      I hear you! I agree.
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                        #12
                        Re: I made a huge mistake. Warning.

                        "To err is human; to really screw up takes talent."

                        The pain when this happens (to us) is all to real; I've felt it myself over the years. When it's a 'recoverable' FUBAR and we realize it to be so, we learn an invaluable lesson, and that is a very good thing.

                        I've learned (which isn't the same (always) as remembering) to make required backups before making major changes to my system(s). It slows the speed of getting a 'project' down, but as my sig-line in my work email attests to:

                        "It takes less time to take the time to do it right the first time than it takes to fix it the second time."
                        Windows no longer obstructs my view.
                        Using Kubuntu Linux since March 23, 2007.
                        "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data." - Sherlock Holmes​
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                          #13
                          Re: I made a huge mistake. Warning.

                          Originally posted by Snowhog
                          "It takes less time to take the time to do it right the first time than it takes to fix it the second time."
                          Truer words were never spoken. And this applies to every thing we do, not just working on computers.
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                            #14
                            Re: I made a huge mistake. Warning.

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                              #15
                              Re: I made a huge mistake. Warning.

                              Originally posted by GreyGeek
                              About 3:30 AM the Pascal compiler gave no errors and the executable performed perfectly. Pleased with myself I began putting floppies into the disk drive, looking for one which I could reformat and store my executable on in order to take it to the client the next day. Not that one, not that one, not that one, ahhh, that one! I entered the format command in a DOS box with my usually fast typing and pressed the Enter key. A microsecond after I pressed that key I realized that I had not designated the A: but the C: drive (working on the C: drive and using it to change paths is a large part of using MSDOS) and I watched the contents of my C: drive disappear into the infinite bit bucket in the sky.
                              Damn, dude, reading this made me feel like I stepped into some kind of way back machine, heh! Pascal? Floppies? DOS? A: drive? All that's missing is a reference to the Big Orange Switch:

                              [img width=400 height=267]http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5083/5358480964_fd7fd8b461.jpg[/img]

                              Someday, possibly sooner than we realize, your story might as well have been written in a foreign language
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