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Current time: October 31, 2026, 2:26 pm

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Had to reformat and reinstall everything.
#1
Had to reformat and reinstall everything.
So over night, the night before last, my computer suddenly freezes and gives me a blue screen upon reboot asking for "bitlocker recovery key". Never seen that before. So running through all the options it was basically telling me I could only keep my data if I had the "recovery key", it wouldn't let me get on line to find it. I went through every option I could and it kept denying me to get to windows and normalcy. The only other option was to erase and reformat the hard drive but lose all my data. 

I didn't want to pay 100 bucks to some local computer fixer to keep my data. Wasn't that important. Most of my poetry is either on a thumb drive or on 1 of 3 websites. The most important data I had were screen shots of celebrities who conversed with me on social media. So I bit the bullet and did the reformat/reinstall. It took about 2 hours with all the reboots and selecting. But then I had to download my apps like facebook, and Twitter. I even had to reinstall "Malwarebites". Basically from start to full recovery was about 5 or 6 hours with getting frustrated and taking breaks as to not have  heart attack and slam my laptop on the floor.
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#2
RE: Had to reformat and reinstall everything.
We have a little shop up the street that can fix anything, I swear they can. And they are not expensive. So happy to know they are there.

Even my boss goes to them now though she has quite a drive from home to get to them...it's worth it!

Small place with a couple guys working there.

Computer issues suck!
What fresh hell can this be? - Dorothy Parker
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#3
RE: Had to reformat and reinstall everything.
(September 13, 2023 at 1:00 pm)Brian37 Wrote: So over night, the night before last, my computer suddenly freezes and gives me a blue screen upon reboot asking for "bitlocker recovery key". Never seen that before. So running through all the options it was basically telling me I could only keep my data if I had the "recovery key", it wouldn't let me get on line to find it. I went through every option I could and it kept denying me to get to windows and normalcy. The only other option was to erase and reformat the hard drive but lose all my data. 

I didn't want to pay 100 bucks to some local computer fixer to keep my data. Wasn't that important. Most of my poetry is either on a thumb drive or on 1 of 3 websites. The most important data I had were screen shots of celebrities who conversed with me on social media. So I bit the bullet and did the reformat/reinstall. It took about 2 hours with all the reboots and selecting. But then I had to download my apps like facebook, and Twitter. I even had to reinstall "Malwarebites". Basically from start to full recovery was about 5 or 6 hours with getting frustrated and taking breaks as to not have  heart attack and slam my laptop on the floor.

I don’t know for certain what machine Rage Against The Machine was raging against, but I’m pretty sure it was a computer. 

Glad you got it sorted.

Boru
‘I can’t be having with this.’ - Esmeralda Weatherwax
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#4
RE: Had to reformat and reinstall everything.
I have important stuff backed up on a nas drive and a windoze image from about a month ago (stored on a removable hard drive so safe from virus/malware etc). If it all goes wrong I can reformat and install the image then just update from the nas drive.
The meek shall inherit the Earth, the rest of us will fly to the stars.

Never underestimate the power of very stupid people in large groups

Arguing with an engineer is like wrestling with a pig in mud ..... after a while you realise that the pig likes it!

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#5
RE: Had to reformat and reinstall everything.
I have an easy system. When something goes wrong with my computer, I just yell, ‘Honey, how do I fix this?.

Works every time.

Boru
‘I can’t be having with this.’ - Esmeralda Weatherwax
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#6
RE: Had to reformat and reinstall everything.
I learned computers the hard way, first with towers. Now with laptops, which I railed against having because everything is integrated at first. But now laptops are pretty much self fixing unlike old towers where you would have to load in disks or CD drives. Mine was pretty much reformated and reinstalled online. It did most of the work itself. 

I do know this. I wish I knew what I know now about computers 30 years ago, I could have made a real living fixing them knowing what I know now. But I was so intimidated by the technology back then and felt dumb about everything. I did almost wait until the morning to bring it in to at tech, but I got tired of paying each time and said "fuck it, if it is gone, I'll buy a new one". I got lucky. 

I guess some bug got into a critical part of the startup. But as long as the hard drive and cpu are fine, and it is only a software issue, you can always uninstall and reinstall. Fact is, my computer is running even better than before this happened. It is like having a clean chalkboard with very little writing on it.
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#7
RE: Had to reformat and reinstall everything.
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#8
RE: Had to reformat and reinstall everything.
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#9
RE: Had to reformat and reinstall everything.
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#10
RE: Had to reformat and reinstall everything.
Computers are like people.

If they stop working, hit them with a hammer


Either they'll start working again or they won't and it's time for a new one.

Either way, problem solved!

Playing Cluedo with my mum while I was at Uni:

"You did WHAT?  With WHO?  WHERE???"
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