A scary story

20 Nov 2011 13:50:05

Graham Caves

Hello Folks,

This Sunday morning I was removing files from my Mac and external hard drives and somehow I confused myself and dragged the wrong items into the trash!

The file I thought was empty I left on the desktop and the one with everything in I trashed by mistake!!!

I was trying to be clever which is always fatal isn't it?

I then emptied the trash without checking what I had placed in there and then went to find files I needed!!

I had only trashed everything since owning the Mac and 3 years worth of music, pictures, videos etc etc all gone!!!

LUCKILY everything was backed up to Time Capsule so I am going to spend the rest of Sunday restoring all my files.

Two lessons here for me

1 Be very careful what you place in the trash and always check before you empty it

2 BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP everything on your Mac because one simple mistake like I did today or a drive fails - everything is gone for ever.

It just shows that Euan nags us for ever to back up but be honest how many of us really do it well......

I was very lucky today.

Re: A scary story

21 Nov 2011 20:38:59

Lionel Ogden

A salutary tale, thank goodness for time machine.

Re: A scary story

22 Nov 2011 14:11:36

Euan Williams

Time Machine is a wonderful (but interestingly complex) system facility. What would you do if Time Machine, for all its very apparent perfection gets corrupted -- perhaps by a disc read-write error that goes unnoticed?

Please also keep straightforward backups (drag and drop) of your important documents on a separate drive or drives, and don't forget the advantage of keeping a clone in the background too.

Re: A scary story

22 Nov 2011 20:27:46

Eric Jervis

Wouldn't it be nice if, when we clicked on 'empty the trash', instead of asking us if we'd made a mistake, the trash opened automatically but did not empty for ten seconds but displayed a large CANCEL button?

Re: A scary story

3 Dec 2011 02:57:05

Gordon Clyne

No.

Re: A scary story

3 Dec 2011 03:03:16

Gordon Clyne

No, no, no. It would be really annoying after the first time you saw it, which is why there is a check box for turning off the stupid empty trash reminder, because 99% of humans know what they are doing, and the other 1%are on drugs.

In other news....
Clarkson has a right to free speech, by the way, bloody hysterical outcry by the unions though, he's a paid E N T E R T A I N E R, not a voice of the nation!, I want ringside tickets to the next live performance of top gear!

Re: A scary story

3 Dec 2011 13:04:22

Eric Jervis

Into which category does poor Graham fall?

Re: A scary story

6 Dec 2011 19:37:05

Gordon Clyne

By Graham's own admission of measuring poorly and continuing to cut off the limb he's sitting on, with all due respect, he's definitely in the 1% .....!!!! But I'll buy graham a pint just for the laughs he created! Cheers Graham!

Re: A scary story

7 Dec 2011 22:44:06

Michael Corgan

I'd be petrified if I kept "3 years worth of music, pictures, videos" in one file (did you mean folder?) Sort of leading with the chin!

Re: A scary story

8 Dec 2011 20:05:13

Graham Caves

I have been trying to think of a witty reply to Gordon but I have not been able to come up with anything worth putting here but....

I must admit to nearly making a huge mistake that day but I salvaged the day using time machine and everything was ok in the end.

All the technology worked as it was meant to despite the operator doing his best to put a spanner in the works but most importantly I learnt a great deal that day.

1 If it is not broke - don't try to fix it

2 Using time machine to restore

3 KISS - keep it simple stupid

I had read about restore in books and forums but doing it for real was really almost an eye opener to learn.

No doubt experienced people could do it blindfolded but it was a good day in the end.

1 pint of Newcastle Brown ale please Gordon.....

Re: A scary story

8 Dec 2011 23:56:46

Euan Williams

And a quiet reminder from the past while you are all carousing:

Time Machine is a wonderful (but interestingly complex) system facility. What would you do if Time Machine, for all its very apparent perfection gets corrupted -- perhaps by a disc read-write error that goes unnoticed?

Please also keep straightforward backups (drag and drop) of your important documents on a separate drive or drives, and don't forget the advantage of keeping a clone in the background too.

It is better not to be unrealistic about our wondrous technology as well as our wondrous human failings.