Idiocy

Have you ever accidentally deleted a bunch of important files on your computer? It sucks. I feel sick. Last weekend, I bought a new laptop and then had a great idea to make a clean copy of the OS before any changes were made. As soon as I had some free time, I found my 1TB SSD external hard drive, connected it to my new laptop and then used the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool. Rather than create an ISO file, I choose to create a bootable USB. I did pause for a few seconds though. Thinking it would create a new directory for the boot files and not delete everything, next I selected the drive and then, within a few minutes, done. Once I opened the drive, my heart sank. I knew exactly what had happened.

Typically, Microsoft provide a warning before some stupid person (“ME”) makes a stupid decision like formatting a drive and deleting everything on it. But, the Media Creation Tool fails to do so. You could say that I should have known, especially since I’m computer literate – at least, that’s what I like to think – and maybe I would have known had more thought been given to the meaning of “bootable USB”. I definitely know now.

I’m upset at myself for losing many of my important files, but I feel sick to my stomach about losing thousands of pictures and videos. Over the last few days, I’ve desperately tried to recover the deleted data using, and even purchasing, data recovery software. It was able to recover some of the data I didn’t care about, but hardly any of the data that I cared about. $89.99 wasted.

My drive is being re-formatted by my new computer as I write. This time it had given due warning that everything would be deleted should I choose to continue. Go fuckin’ figure. Though I’d guess the disk management tool is more mature than the Media Creation Tool and the same person didn’t develop both. Nothing more can be done, I’ve decided to move on. Another full scan would have taken another day and, after more than four already plus some partial scans, I’d just prolong what I already know – it is what it is. 19% complete.