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Credit card notification on a Friday afternoon it was being used. Okay, try and get hold of any help on the weekend, not happening. It's through my bank so I stopped in Monday morning to see what they could find out. Dozens of ten dollars charges were being constantly added to it constantly. Why ten dollars? The date and the security code isn't required if the purchase is under ten dollars. Same reason for the Friday afternoon beginning of the hits. They had the card number but not the security numbers or the date. Had to be a card scanner that hit me as the security numbers and date aren't scanned when the card is scanned. Those MUST be manually entered.
Back up two days to Wed when I had issues with my computer. I had tried going back on "restore" older and older times and it was failing to fix the errors. I had several of them and none were curing the problems. Not a problem but it will take a lot longer to reinstall it all with "recovery drive disk" I had built via MS click and make a recovery drive. Oh YEAH! this is supper rich. I trusted MS to make a recovery drive. Just how gullible and stupid can one be?
In my case really stupid and gullible. It recovered alright, wiping all my personal files, all the extra non MS programs and reinstalling the latest and greatest MS nightmare.
Instead of an hour of my computer doing a recovery it took two hours for it to quit loading extra MS nightmare I didn't want and I spent eight hours scrubbing all the s^%$ off and adding new update blockers to every MS program. There are a bunch of them. With the new Win I am greeted with MS announcements on my initial boot about MS Edge, MS Cloud and several other MS programs and how good they are for me. They are NOT running on my computer as they share too much of my life with MS.
Why this diatribe. Because after several attempts to reload several of my programs on Windows 10 again, MS Support answers was to upgrade to MS latest and greatest rent by the year programs. My response was I wasn't updating, I didn't need or want their latest. It has been over sixteen years since I stopped building computers from the MB up and writing programs. I had no idea what MS Whiz Kids had managed to write into MS Windows but if I had to, I'd bite the bullet and go back MS DOS to force an install. This was never going to happen again. When I got MY COMPUTER back to where I wanted it, I was going to make a clone of my drive. I would never depend on MS Recovery to get my computer back after a glitch. I have over twenty thousand dollars worth of programs that run on windows and if I had to I was going back to Windows XP
It became extra quiet on their end. I guess that was the end of MS Support? If you are depending on Recovery to get YOUR computer back after a serious fault or it has been compromise you are as dumb as me. Do yourself a favor and "clone" your HD. If you have a crash or lose your computer to a virus, all you need to do is wipe the HD with a "deep format" check for a virus with a root virus killer from a jump drive or disk so you don't have one in your bios boot sector and recover. It not as easy as clicking on MS Recovery but it will still be your computer and your personal data and your programs. I also urge you to write all your passwords down in a notebook (physical not electronic) because if you use MS Recovery and sometimes even MS Restore all those can be wiped clean. If you thought it was HELL getting your computer back, wait until your start trying to get all your contacts and places where you have posted a couple dozen different passwords when they are no longer on your computer files.
It's been over a week since I used MS Recovery. I'm still working to get my life back. By this time next summer I may have reclaimed most of it. It will never be what it was.
I beg all of you to NOT be as stupid as me and to clone your HD.
Hugs Nunan, Erin, Joyce, Piper and everyone who came to my rescue. All the ladies and lads on BCTS are awesome.
Barb
Life is a challenge. No need to do stupid things to make it even more of a challenge.
Comments
Note books
A note book for passwords doesn't cut it.
I use a 5"x3" card index. I have a card for each of the hosts known to my system - Yikes! I just counted them.
38 local hosts, although several are not active at the moment. 8 of those which can be active are wifi hosts known to the system, including friends and family, nothing gets in unless I okay its MAC. Several are (hack - ptoo!) alleged Internet of things, er, things, including the hedgehog cams, routers, switches, etc.
There are also 84 other cards, each one relating to a website one of us uses or has used. That includes credit and debit card details. It has the website address, user name, password and email address used, together with any other identification required (CC#, mother's maiden name, etc.) Many of these are now defunct but I hang onto them because I just know that if I bin them, I'll get an email the following day wanting me to do something about it. Every single card has a different password on it.
This index lives in the room where I usually work and which has most of the equipment in it. It is never removed. There is one card which lives elsewhere, that has the Zoom password on it since that host is downstairs and connected to the TV.
I have often thought about turning that lot into a database but then wondered where I could put it that was safe, for different values of safe. I think it is rather likely to stay as a card index.
I had to buy another pack of 100 cards today, as it happens, since I am running out of spares.
Penny
PS Microsoft. Just say no. I said no in 2001 and never looked back.
wish I were as smart
I'm not the shartest tool in the shed nor the brightest color in the crayon box but I can learn. I love you system, Penny. Because index cards can be shuffled in the order your system is a whole lot better than a notebook. I'm probably going that direction. Sadly, belatedly.
Hugs Penny, love your stories
Barb
Life is a gift, treasure it.
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
Backing up your computer.
I used to be great at that. These days, alas, I have a lot of trouble trying to do anything that I don't do on a daily basis.
When I do back up I try to not rely on Microsoft. I tried it once briefly years ago and decided, no. I try to use some system that will do a complete backup that can be restored from, plus incrementals. My biggest problem these days is I just don't have the discipline to do this. My second biggest problem is trying to remember how to restore the back up. I really need to print that info out.
I'm glad you are up and running again.
back ups
I don't keep much on the C drive of my computer any longer. With the "upgrade" to windows 10, I made the move to a 120GB SSD drive for the C drive (I already had two 1TB and one 2TB internal drive for storage) so there isn't a need for a lot of room on that drive for other stuff.
While I haven't gotten around to it, I will be setting up a clone drive for the new SSD drive so that when (not if, as I don't trust SSD's) it fails I'll have easy access to a means of restoring the C drive.
A lot of the files I use I have set up automatic backups, scheduled to run at certain times to two external drives (In case of fire or something of that nature I can grab those drives and run)
We the willing, led by the unsure. Have been doing so much with so little for so long,
We are now qualified to do anything with nothing.
It gets worse.
For some unknown reason, the computer vendors have set the systems full of pirated software up so the ONLY way to get the restore system to work is to use an external hard drive. burning the data to cd / dvd isn't supported.
and yes, if you do not have the original install disk for the version of windows and every other program they bloat the computers with, you cannot prove legally that you did not pirate the software. So any computer that does not come with original install disks for the software is loaded with pirated software.
Stupidity is a capital offense. A summary not indictable.
Difficulties in the Computer Ether.
Microsoft has spewed out an update in the last two weeks. I addition, Google got sued by the Government, so they reloaded so many things. I discovered that to fix Google I needed to sign out and log in again and that seemed to do it. Last night I signed in to watch a movie on YouTube and it did not take my pass code. Hmmm. I wonder how that has affected my Bank, or IF. My passwords have not been online in many years, and there seem to be many of them hidden away in a way that I won't speak of. I've had bloody awful luck with Patreon also, though that could be my fault because I am a computer bottom feeder. Amazon seems borderline trustworthy, though I ordered a Doll for my Granddaughter, and got one to my house, and two to my daughter. Yay !!! I have my first Doll. :)
My heart goes out to you Barbie
Been there, done that (far too many times), got a drawer full of T shirts.
The problem is (IMHO), that you don't own your computer any more. Sure, you might own the title to the hardware but anything with an MS label on it is only there with the permission of Microsoft Inc. The only software you own is the software you wrote.
MS giveth and MS taketh. You will do things their way or face a world of pain. That has been the case since W10 was released and if anything, it is getting worse.
After three episodes just like yours in 2008, I hauled up the white flag and surrendered. While I dove deep into MS Server Operating systems for my job, at home it was a disaster waiting to happen. Since then I have not used Windows at home. Let me qualify that. I have not used anything but Server editions of Windows at home. Strangely the Server version of their OS suffers very little from their domestic madness.
I wish you well recovering and getting your house in order and woe betide anyone wearing an MS Staffer badge setting foot on your property. I hope you have the buckshot ready.
Samantha
I Remember Samantha warning me a year ago
There was a discussion about going to Linux and Sam told me to pick up an Apple and start learning. Other guys and gals gave me a heads up about which Linux OS was the better of all that was out there. So much invested in Win compatible software I was loath to abandon MS. Bottom line I procrastinated doing anything. I should have cloned if I did nothing else.
There is a saying as Samantha put it so succulently. Not if but when s$%# happens and it will. Belatedly I have learned some valuable lessons. I'm going to Willow's Index Card File system for serious data. I have new, clean HDs I had for over a year or two and will clone when I get my system back. I'll probably end up abandoning Win 10 and go back to Win XP unless I can purchase one of the first Win 10 release disks. I'm running older versions of Thunderbird and Firefox. Any updates on software of any kind is locked out.
Something I failed to mention to all you computer geeks. Every HD has it's own bios or boot sector to tell it how large it is and how many sectors it has. Sometimes a deep format will erase that. I was told one could never rebuild the HD bios. It's a lie. I've done more than my fair share. You need to understand what you are doing or you will lose your HD. Be prepared if you deep format. Also a virus can reside in the HD bios, be sure and clean it too.
IF one ever "clones" the HD one is cloning to will need to be the same storage or larger. The cloned to HD will then look and act like the HD one cloned from. If it was larger storage it no longer will be. It will be a perfect clone. If you have someone do this for you, Mirror is NOT clone. Do NOT mirror your HD, clone it. If they tell you it is the same they have no idea what they are doing. The best way to save all your data is to purchase a HD. Do NOT purchase a HD if it is formatted in Shingle. Clone the HD and set it off to the side unattached to your computer. That will be you Just in Case salvation if your system gets a virus or it goes south.
One of my BFF wrote me, "I didn't understand a single thing you were talking about." I didn't tell her I didn't either.
Hugs People
Barb
Life is a gift, treasure it.
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
HD cloning
HDs especially mechanical ones are easily cloned as they are sector by sector copied. I have specialized cloning boxes where I plug them in to do so and we do it at work all of the time. There are many tools to repartition hard drives that recover what is considered unformatted regions of the HD, restoring the raw capacity lost if the cloned drive is bigger.
BIOS is strictly a motherboard thing and has nothing to do with HDs.
Now all HDs have FW, that is true but when a hard drive is cloned, the FW is not altered.
As you say
BIOS a set of computer instructions in firmware which control input and output operations.
What I know about computers, software, etc. is less than .001% of the total. The famous saying is advances double every year. We always called it the HD Bios just as the MB has a Bios and any computer chip has a Bios.Confusing? Not really.
I'm pleased to know there is software available to restore a HD basic design parameters in the boot sector. We had to write the code to do that. Good to know.
Barb
Life is a gift, treasure it.
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
I'd still argue going Mac is NOT a good alternative.
Inarguably more stable? Absolutely. But it's overpriced, and if you want to be in control of anything whatsoever on your system then it's the worst since, as much as people accuse MS of getting you stuck in, Apple is the absolute worst with their anti-consumer software tactics.
Linux is the way to go if you're at all competent with your OS.
I'm using Win10 and happy with it myself, but I'm also well aware of its shortcomings. I stick with it because I like to play computer games more than anything else, otherwise I'd be running probably some distro of Mint.
Melanie E.
I drank the Microsoft Kool Aid
I drank the Microsoft Kool Aid. I do run the latest version of Windows 10 and my files reside on OneDrive. That way, no matter which device I'm using (multiple PC's, phone, tablet, etc.), they all have access to the same files. I did have one PC go flaky on me where it got to the point that I reinstalled Windows and I didn't have to restore any files, they migrate from the cloud seamlessly. I also have too many passwords to remember. I broke down and just got LastPass. I only have to memorize the master password though Microsoft Edge and Google actually do have products that will handle passwords and back them up to the cloud. LastPass is also forging alliances with other products such as Amazon. you can regenerate your Amazon password with one time passwords from LastPass Authenticator if you've set up two-factor to use it. As far as licenses, for Microsoft products, they just use your Microsoft account to restore the licenses. Other software I use that require license files store them in the cloud for me. I just have to hope an EMP burst doesn't wipe out everything but in that case I think we'll have greater problems to worry about. By the way, if you have Samsung wireless devices, they now use OneDrive for backups if you link your Samsung account with your Microsoft account.
LastPass
The big problem with having a password management program on your computer is that.. it's on your computer. Admittedly using OneDrive may mitigate that but it does mean that someone can hoover up your master file and then spend time decoding it at their leisure.
Without the use of something like OneDrive, or whatever limited time offers the other behemoths are offering, you are at the mercy of hardware.
That's why my master list of passwords is in a 3x5 card index (see my response above).
Penny
Agreed
Another useful trick when one does write it down is to go ahead and have a pattern where certain character positions in the written down password is not actually part of the password and just get skipped or substituted with a known character or phrase when you actually use it so even if the 3x5 gets snaffled the thief would have a really hard time figuring out how to use it.
Remember Microsoft Giveth and the Taketh
They want to charge you $$$ for Solitaire? a WTF moment if ever there was one.
As for OnDrive... see title.
Spread your risk. No sense at all in putting all your eggs in one basket. The same applies to Google and Apple fwiw.
As an old fart, I distrust anything to do with 'the cloud'. Clouds piss H2O all over you given half a chance. We all know that. IT clouds are IMHO, exactly the same.
AWS and Azure have had far too many outages this year to even get to 99% availability.
Samantha
Apple
iCloud is not even encrypted. Data security and backup is a minefield as all the computer folks know.
iCloud
What was I saying about the Cloud?
My iPhone etc are backed up to my NAS (also iTunes server). I do a Time Machine Backup every day and a full one every month. The daily ones are also to my NAS. My Nas is in a separate building to my house.
If you can't control every aspect of your data then it really isn't yours any more.
I do use iCloud for photos on a temporary basis. For that it is fine but I always have a 'plan b'
Samantha
you lot
lost me
at Windows. This here ZX81 has to be coded by me, let me tell you, it takes forever! and then there's the tape player, it can take several run throughs to get Ping to load.
Madeline Anafrid Bell
I got fed up....
I decided that rather than injure myself smashing the Computer to bits, I would just sign up for Geek Squad through Best Buy.
People like me should use stone tablets.
Gwen
Microsoft
Or, as they were satirically called back in the day, Macro$loth (bloated, slow, expensive). Increasingly, the trend with new computers seems to be to ship an OEM license (which may complain if you swap out hardware), but then package "lite" versions of MS Office, antivirus and other such programs, which either a cut down versions, have certain features disabled, or are time-limited (so effectively bloated with lots of shareware). Instead of giving a reinstallation CD / DVD as in the past, a portion of the hard drive will be sectioned off into a hidden "recovery" partition, which rather than recovering basically performs a factory reset. Back in the days of Win 3, I created an alias to win.com called lose.bat - so instead of typing "win" to start the system, I typed "lose", which I felt was far more appropriate :D
Several years ago, I ditched Windows (almost) completely - after a few false starts with different distros, walked through the Arch Way1 and haven't looked back since. I now have a Win 10 VM primarily for accessing work's VPN as the version of the endpoint gateway (which checks for firewalls, antivirus etc.) they have installed doesn't work well with Linux (recent versions can, but since I'm probably the only nutter in the organisation to run Linux, it's probably not worth raising a support call). However, as I also run a dual-screen setup, I can have the VPN open in one window, and while databases are running complex queries, read tales here / listen to YouTube videos on my system on the other screen :)
However, I also have a couple of Raspberry Pis, and have found out the hard way that if they crash and you have to restart the system, that can play havoc with the filesystem on their SD cards. I initially backed up to an external hard drive - but as that was NTFS formatted, it couldn't preserve ownership or permissions. One day I'll rebuild with a connection to a ext4 formatted drive.
On the password front, I only have a couple of 'local' passwords - everything else is remote, so handled by a password manager (so allowing me to have unique 20 character gibberish passwords for most websites).
[1] Bad Linux joke - Arch Linux, whose creators' philosophy for the distro is called "The Arch Way".
As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!