The Mystic
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 18
Registered: 09-20-2006
IP: Logged

About few weeks ago, I had to reinstall Windows on my computer. Unfortunately, in the process of restoring my games, I discovered I didn't back up anything for ST1/ST2. Long story short: I've lost everything; stuff I've submitted, all my notes, all the monthly contest levels and templates, everything.

Does anyone have anything I've submitted over the years for ST1/ST2, so I can sort of get back to something like I had before?

Thanks in advance,

The Mystic

____________________________
Either I'm crazy, or everybody else is nuts. And I know I'm not crazy because the little man who lives on my shoulder told me so.
If people don't think there's something wrong with you, there's something wrong with you.
Oh well. Another day, another dementia.

The Mystic
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 18
Registered: 09-20-2006
IP: Logged

Thanks! It never fails; the one time I don't make a backup....

About the only things you'll find of mine are levels for SubTerra 1 & 2; I normally don't post anywhere else on these forums.

Also, I plan to check all my hard drives, burned CDs, flash drives, etc. for anything I might have backed up earlier. My file system tends to be textbook definition of redundancy; I've been known to erase files off all my hard drives and other media, only to find them years later on a CD-R I'd burned years before and forgot I had.

____________________________
Either I'm crazy, or everybody else is nuts. And I know I'm not crazy because the little man who lives on my shoulder told me so.
If people don't think there's something wrong with you, there's something wrong with you.
Oh well. Another day, another dementia.

Radiant
Level: Moderator

Rank Points: 142
Registered: 02-05-2003
IP: Logged

Well, I should have most or all of the ST/ST2 levels you put on these forums.

I also know there are some very good data recovery tools; their usefulness depends on how thoroughly you've nuked your hard drive, but a standard ("quick") format won't actually destroy data, just metadata.

____________________________
= Radiant =

The Mystic
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 18
Registered: 09-20-2006
IP: Logged

Thanks Radiant, I think that's about the best I can hope for at this point.

Before I reinstalled Windows, I hooked the drive up to another computer and had Eraser go through it twice with different 7-pass erasure methods (DIE VIRUS DIE, but that's another story). Unless you know of some truly miraculous recovery software, I'd say my chances of getting anything back are precisely nil.

____________________________
Either I'm crazy, or everybody else is nuts. And I know I'm not crazy because the little man who lives on my shoulder told me so.
If people don't think there's something wrong with you, there's something wrong with you.
Oh well. Another day, another dementia.

wonkyth
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 15
Registered: 06-18-2007
IP: Logged

Dude, that sucks!
I lost a couple of epic levels a few years back. Technical masterpieces, I shall always remember them as. :')
When I left home, I also left all the WIPs I had at the time, few as they were, and lost all my saves. Also lost any of the stuff that might have been useful to you, like templates or whatever...
D:

____________________________
"Satire denounces the world;
Wit penetrates it;
Humour accepts it;
But Nonsense Transforms it"
- Cedric Whitman
w.r.t. Aristophanes

Radiant
Level: Moderator

Rank Points: 142
Registered: 02-05-2003
IP: Logged

Yeah, I lost a game project once because I was hex editing my partition table. Hint to other users: don't hex edit your partition table. Generally, you make a mistake like that once, and then you become a stickler for backups in multiple locations.

Doing a 7-pass erasure to deal with a virus is a bit like hunting mosquitos with a flame thrower. That said, it does get rid of the virus pretty well (and no, this is way beyond any recovery software I know of to restore). I'll see what I can find on my hard drive in terms of old levels by you.

____________________________
= Radiant =

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[Last edited by Radiant at 12-25-2011 03:23 PM]

The Mystic
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 18
Registered: 09-20-2006
IP: Logged

wonkyth wrote:
Dude, that sucks!
I lost a couple of epic levels a few years back. Technical masterpieces, I shall always remember them as. :')

Yeah, I can relate. I once lost several (not my best, I admit) levels when migrating some files from a laptop to a desktop. Don't ask me how it happened, though; all I did was put the laptop's hard drive in a shell, plug it into the desktop, and copy everything.

Radiant wrote:
Yeah, I lost a game project once because I was hex editing my partition table. Hint to other users: don't hex edit your partition table. Generally, you make a mistake like that once, and then you become a stickler for backups in multiple locations.

Thanks for that warning. I'm not a big fan of hex editing in general; it can produce destructive (not to mention weird) results, even when you know what you're doing.

Radiant wrote:
Doing a 7-pass erasure to deal with a virus is a bit like hunting mosquitos with a flame thrower. That said, it does get rid of the virus pretty well (and no, this is way beyond any recovery software I know of to restore).

Yeah, I agree, it was extreme overkill on my part, but I wanted to make sure the drive was virus-free when I reinstalled, especially because it was in a supposedly "protected" file. It's kind of tough for a virus to make it onto my system in the first place, considering it has to get through two or three sets of security software, not including Windows Defender and Firewall. (Call me paranoid all you like, and I'll agree with you.)

____________________________
Either I'm crazy, or everybody else is nuts. And I know I'm not crazy because the little man who lives on my shoulder told me so.
If people don't think there's something wrong with you, there's something wrong with you.
Oh well. Another day, another dementia.