Reformatting sucks.

[Doran]

Just reformatted because XP is teh sucks at times.

Meaning, I have no vmf files remaining, at all. None. Zero. Zilch. Nadda. Nought.

Fun eh?

I suppose the upside to this is I'm no longer tied down to any maps.

The downside however is I no longer *have* any of them.

Comforting words of support, anyone?

 

[DJive]

i can guarantee you can remake any of your maps in about a third of the time it took you the first time...

not because you remember the layout, but because you now have better mapping technique through the hours and hours spent on making them.

=)

 

[Apex_]

Just went through the same ordeal myself about two weeks ago. My half-finished CTF map "ctf_firepower" is forever lost, probably with any chance of my procrastinating arse ever actually finishing a worthwhile map

Reformatting does indeed suck.

Edit: also seconding DJive's post. Those hours are never truly wasted.

 

[YM]

now no one will ever see how bad you were

Its a perfect time to clean up any bad habits you had and start mapping again with the right mindset

You should get into the habit of backing up your precious files, I've got all my maps on a 2 terabite raid array that dad uses for business backup.

 

[sailfin]

why didnt you just put the files on a disk?

xp is awesome i switched back down from vista

 

[Doran]

now no one will ever see how bad you were

No fair! You've seen already!

i can guarantee you can remake any of your maps in about a third of the time it took you the first time...

Closer to 1/10th of the time

Just went through the same ordeal myself about two weeks ago.

Nice to see I'm not alone

why didnt you just put the files on a disk?

I didn't consider the files important enough to back up. (silly me.)

 

[MacNetron]

Maybe it is time to partition a harddisk into C and D.
I can do instantly a "format c:" and nothing is lost, except windows.
My biggest problem is actually finding files, with 4 HD's and 8 partitions on my desktop, a shared part on my home server and a laptop. 2 TB of space to hide files...

 

[Armadillo of Doom]

For the record, this should go in off-topic. But I feel bad enough for you, I'm gonna let it stay here. And yeah, third support for DJive's comment. Consider everything you did prior to be practise mapping. Every couple of weeks I'll copy important files onto my second hdd, a brand-new 250gb beast. Words of comfort, hmm.... me love you long time?

 

[Hawk]

If I lost my map I'd probably have no motivation to completely remake it... I'd just move on.

 

[YM]

It wasn't that bad doran, i mean you had a few things you shouldnt really but nothing huge. You are pretty much on the right tracks so just keep doing what you were an you'll be fine

 

[Earl]

I upload vmf's to my webhost....

 

[phatal]

i can guarantee you can remake any of your maps in about a third of the time it took you the first time...

not because you remember the layout, but because you now have better mapping technique through the hours and hours spent on making them.

=)

You've said this before and it is so very true. I've done a few flop maps that sit with dust on them but my newest I'm working on is so much better (compared to the others anyway ) which I may probably release hmy:. Even in my current level the parts I started with are worse than my most current parts.

Maybe it is time to partition a harddisk into C and D.
I can do instantly a "format c:" and nothing is lost, except windows.
My biggest problem is actually finding files, with 4 HD's and 8 partitions on my desktop, a shared part on my home server and a laptop. 2 TB of space to hide files...

I never install a system without a partition. Big no no if you are working with data you don't want to lose.

 

[Fyfey]

Surely before formatting THE most important thing to think of is backing up files you want to keep? :huh:

 

[Jeebies]

Just FYI - another partition on your hard drive doesn't mean your data is safe. There are many ways to lose your data, the most popular by far is hard drive failure. That's when you turn on your computer, you hear this clicking noise and get a dos error message along the lines of "no boot partition found" or similar. This means your hard drive has physically broken parts in it - you're not getting any data off it unless you send it off to people who will put on space suits and take it apart and charge you thousands.

Another couple of ways (more common than you might think) to lose data is burglary and fires. Backing up to a separate hard-drive or even an external hard drive in those cases won't help you either unless you brought that external with you.

There are several on-line backup sites -here's a article that reviews a few (I just searched for this real quick so I can't attest to the info, but you can google these services)
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=198800795

I have my data backed up all over the place, now. My father-in-law has an old server of mine at his house with a old backup of everything. My house was broken into last year (I live in a nice neighborhood btw). They took all our computers, etc - including the extra hard drive that had my more current backup. I was able to get most of my stuff back from the old server, but I lost a lot too.

Now I have an external drive that I bring to work and dump a copy here like once a week or so.

It just all depends on what risk your willing to take. When you think about having a fire or being robbed you may have the attitude of "well, I'll have bigger things to worry about than my data" - but believe me - anything that you don't have to worry about when that happens helps - any little bit helps.

If your house burns down and nobody gets hurt, your data could be the only thing that you can't replace.

 

[Jeebies]

(From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_loss)

Studies have consistently shown hardware failure and human error to be two most common causes of data loss, accounting for roughly three quarters of all incidents. A commonly overlooked cause is a natural disaster. Although the probability is small, the only way to recover from data loss due to a natural disaster is to store backup data in a physically separate location.

(Theft is much more common than natural disasters of course)

 

[Fyfey]

Haha, the last thing I would be worried about in an earthquake would be my TF2 maps being backed up!

 

[Jeebies]

Haha, the last thing I would be worried about in an earthquake would be my TF2 maps being backed up!

What about thousands of family photos, wedding videos, baby's first steps, etc etc - some of us have those on our computers too. When people have lost everything, they almost always say those are the things they can't replace and miss the most - now days, they are on our computers.