This is somewhat of a blog update, but this is mostly a rant about Windows 10 and why it is a hot, steaming pile of garbage, so I will give you a warning: Yes, I will use curse words in this post. While I censored myself in the title and image, the text of this post will not be censored. If you don’t like that, don’t even bother lecturing about my word usage. Just use the back button. That said …
This month, I had to deal with some computer issues. For some reason, my laptop had issues with its internal hard drive, and I received messages that the hard drive had errors. During auto repair, my stupid laptop would take forever to diagnose the problem and to restart. After days of waiting, I was finally able to log back on, but that’s not where my problems ended.
What Else Happened with My Current Laptop?
Last week, the problem got so bad that I had to reinstall Windows 10. It took forever for me to even get to the blue screen that gave me that option, but when I got beyond that page, I had two options: Either I could reinstall the operating system while saving my files or I had to do a full reinstall and lose my files. Of course, I could not do the first option.
On Friday, I did the full reinstall and used my last backup (from January 3-4, 2021, and that backup took forever to finish) to try and recover my files, but guess what: The fucking backup did not contain all my files! I think all my video files are there and all of my music was there, but not my documents?! What the hell was this?!
When I set up the stupid backup, I picked “Let Windows Choose” because I thought that it would be easier, but no, the stupid backup did not work as promised. While watching the progress on the meter during the backup, I was getting nervous because I saw all my video and music files being added, but all the documents came from that abandoned account. What. The. Fuck.
About six years ago, I had a problem with my last PC, but luckily, I did a backup just days before it broke down. After having that PC repaired, I was able to recover all of my files. I was also able to update some files because I had saved some of my progress on other media. But this fucking backup did not work like that. Instead, it managed to skip so many important files, while saving the documents from another account.
What Did I Lose?
I lost a buttload of important documents, including:
- All my research since 2017. That includes research for this blog.
- Most of the Word documents that I created during the last 3 years. That includes text for most of the posts on this blog. I also started significant work on several video series. Specifically, I wanted to talk about the #ForceTheVote drama since I copied so much text, found resources, and took so many screenshots. Now, all that work is gone.
- Many PDF files. I created some to include whole news articles and downloaded some papers and free eBooks. Those are now gone.
- Most of the Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator Files that I created over the past 10 years. This includes artwork I uploaded to DeviantArt, Behance, and images I shared here, like the image for this Write Anything Wednesday post.
- My school documents.
- Documents from my internship. That includes video and audio files.
- Documents from my freelance writing work from 2018 to the present.
Even worse, this damn computer will not even read some backup files on a flash drive, and some of those files may be incriminating for a certain person (not me).
I managed to save some of my important documents in other places, but most are gone. In many cases, I have to start over, but I am leery of saving anything on this laptop.
What Did I Do After Losing My Files?
Of course, I was livid. I screamed, I cursed, and I resolved to take to Twitter to tell people about how shitty Windows 10 and Microsoft were for foisting an inferior operating system on people.
I meant “pissed.” Fucking auto-correct.
After the initial shock, I tried to recover my files from an old backup, but I could not recover everything. Alas, that backup didn’t save everything. I only managed to save text documents and rebuild the basic file system for My Documents. In particular, I could not recover images or most of my Abobe CS5 documents.
What Is Wrong with Windows 10?
Before going through this hell, I started finding out about multiple problems that Windows 10 had. Someone I know had to reinstall his OS several times, namely because there were registry issues — and he was using a legit version of Windows 10. It turns out that many people have that same problem, as well as the problems I faced this past week.
What else is wrong with Windows 10? While this is not an exhaustive list by any means, this is what I have found out about this operating system:
- When I first got my current laptop, Windows 10’s default update system worked automatically. When the system needed to restart, it did so without warning, so I lost progress in games and on work I was doing. I had to find a solution online, go into Settings, and modify the update conditions.
- Windows 10 does not automatically backup its registry. That feature was taken away in 2018, so users have to manually create a registry backup.
- Sometimes, the operating system will have random disk reading errors with some files.
- The system may delete itself or certain programs it needs to properly function, like Task Manager or Wi-Fi.
- OneDrive, the cloud system that is pre-installed with Windows 10, may interfere with backups and it generally slows down startup. I believe the first problem may be that its existence causes dual Documents and Pictures libraries, and that was confusing when I was first setting up my laptop.
- Backup my copy some files that you tell the system not to backup while skipping over the files you want to copy.
- On some nights, the system takes forever to finish a backup, and it will go to sleep, which interferes with the backup taking place.
Only Windows Vista is worse.
What Did I Learn from All This?
This was a hard lesson, but I learned a few things from this whole ordeal, and most concern file storage:
- I will never use Windows Backup ever again. While it worked for me once, I can no longer trust it.
- Instead of using Windows Backup, I will have to manually copy my most important files to external hard drives and keep inventory. I should do this on a weekly or monthly basis. (I did not want to do this and I thought that Windows Backup was easier, but here we are …)
- In addition to using external hard drives, I will need to save some of my files on a cloud. I have a MediaFire account, but I may need another.
- Since I have Google Drive, I will have to take advantage of the free space for documents I create there to save text and research on those documents. I can also keep inventory there, as well.
- Image-sharing websites like Imgur are prime sites for saving images for the time being. Since I started this blog on a free plan, it just so happens that I saved most of my images there to save space. Other images are from Wikipedia and I still saved some images on this blog. In any case, I should download these images in case anything happens to those websites.
In short, I learned that I should not put so much trust in computer systems. As a creative, I must take greater responsibility in saving my work and making sure that I have ample backup plans.
What Am I Going to Do Now?
When it comes to my laptop situation, I don’t feel like creating or saving much on this computer, but I am stuck using it for now. If I do create stuff, I will have to copy my work to any external hard drive and use all the other options I have. I will also have to play things by ear. It took about 7 years for my last PC to break down beyond all repair, but I feel that this one is slowly dying as well. I don’t know how long it will last.
As far as this blog is concerned, I fully intend on making more posts this month and this year, but the situation with my computer has seriously messed up my workflow. (Or maybe it has forced me to adapt and improve it. We shall see …)
Before 2021 started, I fully intended on getting on a regular schedule for my Famous Sayings posts and to catch up on blog posts I should have finished last year. Now, I don’t know what I’m going to do with those posts or how late they’ll be if and when I get around to them.
Is There Anything Else I Want to Say?
Yeah, there is a lot I still want to say.
First, I want to say fuck Microsoft because it made such a shitty operating system and so many awful internet browsers, too. I don’t use Edge or that new browser that they want me to use because they suck and they do not allow users to install the types of add-ons that we all need for an optimal browsing experience.
Second, I don’t want to migrate to Apple, if that’s what you’re thinking. I will have to use Apple sometime soon for work, but I don’t care to have a personal Apple computer. Apple has inferior word processing apps, it has less power for gaming, and it’s pretty dickish when it comes to compatibility. If I needed to use a hotel computer or a computer at a library, I would not be able to take my files from Apple and edit them there because public computers generally run on Windows.
I also hate Apple because of its labor violations, its planned obsolescence, its stock buybacks (which inflated its overall value), and the corporation’s patent trolling.
Basically, users who do not know how to build their own operating systems, work with Linux, or to install other alternative operating systems are stuck with using the OS of one of two shitty corporations.
In short, I hate Microsoft, even though I will continue using its OS and Office programs. I hate corporations in general because their executives are lazy and they keep finding ways to cut corners while maximizing their profits. This is but one problem with capitalism, but that is another subject for another time.
Shmaltz and Menudo 