Long LONG LONG STORY cut extremely short, I was forced to format my computer. I'm trying to get everything working starting with video drivers (typing this at... 600 X 800... or the other way around. :-? It's almost 1:00 AM where I am but I have gotten no sleep. Linux is lost, and I'm not going to be able to correct that for a while. In the meantime, nVidia's driver just finished d/ling (Using IE) so I'm gone for now. I'll elaborate later today after a little sleep and a lot of coffee.OK, forgive me for 2X posting here, but I feel I have earned a little indulgence. (Yeah, this is how I rebel. I double-post! ) I have most of the essentials downloaded and installed.

OK, what happened is that I realized that I needed space and I wasn't using Linux. I used PartitionMagic to make my drive one big happy partition with the intent of putting it back later, when I could use it. Or so I thought. Next reboot I GOT GRUB and a Error... 22? Nothing to do but Ctrl-Alt-Delete. I tried getting to recovery, but nothing could be done. I was forced - literally forced - to format. You have no idea how agonizing it was to read the message

CAUTION: All data on non-removable disk
C: will be lost! CONTINUE (Y/N)?

and know there was only one answer I could give that would allow me to ever use Windows again. The worst part of it was that I rebooted because my backup attempt locked up! Of all the...... oooh!! But it's still my fault for doing this, and I brought it onto myself. I have noone to blame but me, MAKING this all the more painful. I remember a utility that may be able to restore lost files, but I can't remember what it is. It's worth a shot, I suppose.

Anyways, I'm getting all the old stuff on there - just the essentials for right now. Spybot, Ad-Aware, the works. By now I know how to defend my PC - WHAT!?!?! I JUST FORMATTED THE ****ING THING! HOW CAN I HAVE 8 SPYWARES!?!?!?! ****! Ad-Aware just found 6 critical objects, probably the same ones. Ungh.... 1:23 AM and no sleep. And school later today. **** me.....

Sorry, I just can't believe what I've had to go through. And what's next... I know what's next: A full-system backup.Eek.

For future reference, your system was probably restorable via the GRUB command line. The only problem was that you had wiped out the GRUB config file, which was located on your Linux partition. But that needn't have been the end of the world.

You probably didn't want to know that.

Ah well, it's always therapeutic to do a complete reinstallation and end up with a pristine system. Sounds like a bit of an issue... Well, let's see... Did you connect the computer to the internet as soon as you could, even though you didn't have protection? I really hate telling people this, but the best thing to do is to just reformat that sucker once more and just throw some products on it before starting an internet connection. :-/

FlameOut of characters; sorry bout that.

I didn't need to do that? I have to ask: What else could I have done? Besides making floppies of my important files; I know that was stupid of me not to do. But I did keep that .bkf file or whatever on my desktop and I made it BEFORE all this happened. Only problem with that was: Access to "Documents and Settings" was denied. I tore my hair out. What else could I have done? Please tell me for future reference.

And in the end... this is healthy for my system and me... I'll back up all important documents from now on...Well, I know one thing... my computer is clean of malware... Sadly, I lost my work on QA0028. Maybe. What was that tool that lets you try to recover files again? Lemme check Google...The only thing that comes to mind is System Restore, but that doesn't revert files, just settings. Installations as well, but not like workd documents and such.

FlameI am doing a search in GetDataBack for NTFS. I'm hoping it can find a lot, since it's taking forever. The QA was a simple text DOCUMENT (.txt). I also had a folder full of soundbytes, but most of these were burned to CD (not as a backup, but for my enjoyment). You know what? It should be made so that you can play data files on CD and have music come out. If I could do that, I'd backup every day. 8-)