Rikki said:
I was the stupid person with no back ups of all my work stuff. I normally do back up files
such as photos but for some reason never thought to do my work stuff, I blame to many years of relativley trouble free computer use.
I certainly wouldn't call you "stupid" rikki, and it is indeed things such as trouble free computers that build people's confidence to a point where they don't consider back-ups necessary.
I learnt too the very hard way that you ALWAYS need data in two places at any one point in time.... here's my story.....
I've pretty much always backed stuff up and kept my files on both my main PC aswell as some kind of backup media. I needed to re-install my main computer one day, so ran my usual complete backup so that everything was current, to an external hard drive.
Obviously I then wiped my main PC and re-installed the operating system. Note:- Data now only on backup drive at this point (it's only for an hour or two after all).
Next I reconnected my backup drive to copy the files back across to the newly reloaded PC. Simple enough? NOT when you connect it to another power supply with the exact same connection but wired backwards for a different make of external hard drive. OUCH!!!!
It sounded like a car reversing at 30 MPH as smoke pissed out everywhere and I realised that my data was cremated!! I'm talking wedding photo's, pictures of my kids when they were younger, past pets which have passed on etc etc etc. About 80Gb of my life, and I allowed it to be in just one place for long enough for a simple human error to destroy it.
Now, I consider myself to be reasonably intelligent, and I consider Rikki to be equally intelligent in his field of work which is why I would recommend you to anyone. We're by no means idiots, but we have to make mistakes in life to learn from them.