After the Computer Crash

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen 

Hopefully, my experiences both before and after the crash may prove helpful to some folks. Here is what happened. In July 2020, I decided to replace my Windows 7 computer. That underrated eMachine was a workhorse, and I asked a lot by simultaneously running programs that were heavy on resources, and I ran some at the same time. It was showing its age, so I was proactive and replaced it with an Acer Aspire TC-885-UA92 Desktop.

A relatively new computer running Win10, serious crash, and efforts to restore it. Having learned some things and prepared, it was not catastrophic.
Pixabay / Gerd Altmann
Not a bad price, and it had a DVD ROM. Yes, some of us still need those things. Don't be a tech snob.

Gave it a bit more RAM, and I was off to the races.

Important Computer Precautions

Yeah, some race. I had to learn how to use Windows 10. Fortunately, I have experience with computers, including Windows all the way back to Win95 (not much with Vista, and I utterly detested Win8 on my wife's laptop). Since I already have a Microsoft account and know some of the basics of operating systems, getting online was not a problem. Then the searches began.

There is a wagon-trainload of sites, forums, and videos to answer questions such as how to make the W10 start menu work the way the user wants. I subscribe to Tech Gumbo, who often has useful videos, and I found the channel when looking for a Win10 beginner's guide, and Windows settings to change for privacy and productivity. ThioJoe has a channel with information of interest to people who are more technologically minded, but also things for us reg'lar folk such as this one on how to stop Win10 from spying. I subscribe to his channel as well.

Since internet access is important to me, I periodically back up bookmarks. It's possible to back up browser profiles to use in restoring or duplicating on another computer, but that's a new discipline I have to learn.

I don't know if it's a quirk of this new Acer (interesting that they were the last owners of my excellent eMachine, which I still haven't scrapped), but I couldn't find a partition for a system restore. Mayhaps it's in the reset/refresh options, but I saw some things about making my own USB recovery drive (lots of links available on that), so I made one and tucked it in an envelope with other computer stuff.

Making sure System Restore is switched on is an imperative, you savvy that, pilgrim? Although it didn't save my hide this time, it has many times in the past.

ThioJoe and others recommend using the built-in Windows automatic file backup system. There's a passel of cloud storage options available that people have to research and evaluate for themselves. Some are free, some are paid only, some are free but you can pay more for greater storage. Convenient and secure, yes, but what if something happens to your account or the company folds? I have external hard drives. Inexpensive and reliable, but I'm in a world of hurt if there's a fire or burglary. Decisions, decisions.

By the way, a Microsoft account includes OneDrive and 5 GB storage. It's convenient, and users can pay for 1 TB storage which includes Office 365.

Then the Crash

After getting the computer situated as a workstation, I was getting ready to burn a DVD. The mechanism was working, but nothing happened. No read, no write, nuffin. HUH? This computer is only a year old. The restore point that lets users put the setting back in time also failed. This time, it was catastrophic and Windows wouldn't even load after my last attempt.

Don't panic, and don't act in haste.

Using some tricks with safe mode, I tried to restore things that way, but the computer was not working. I thought it was "bricked". Eventually, however, I found out how to restore Windows. Sure am glad I made that recovery USB! I thought I was going to be there all night, but the operating system was restored, complete with the bloatware that comes with every new computer.

One of the most important things for me is getting online. Now, here's something that may grate on haters of the Edge browser: since I had it synchronized with my Microsoft account, I set up Edge, logged in, and bada bing! My favorites (their word for bookmarks), extensions, and so on all popped in and that one was ready to go. There were still a few adjustments to be made, but that wasn't a problem.

The Vivaldi browser has something similar. Get a free account, set up the synchronize feature, and another bada bing! That one was back as well for the most part.

Sure, I had to reinstall my other apps, and some things were gone forever (if I hadn't been in the habit of doing external backups, it would have been worse). Then I remembered the automatic file backup. I wasn't willing to use it the way it was designed because I had originally made changes that I regretted. Otherwise, things should be restored to their original locations. Using a few tricks, I was able to find and access those files as well.

The crash went from a disaster down to the level of massive inconvenience. However, this kind of thing made me think about what was really important and worth reinstalling. After a few weeks, there are still some things that need tidying up. That's mainly because I didn't focus on putting everything back immediately, having a life and all.

Interestingly, Windows updates itself after a restore. It wanted me to pull the trigger and install Windows 11. Uh, no. Let the bugs get worked out, I have to check for computer compatibility, and all that good stuff. Even so, some things were changed and I think I have a few Win11 things happening right now.

Brace for the Future

What happened to me could have been much worse. Tech people say it's not a question of if a hard drive will fail, but when. That's where people find out if they've taken proper precautions and practiced safe computing. Microsoft lets licensed users download Windows 10 as a recovery as well, and probably do that for Win11 users.

"But Cowboy Bob, why don't you use Linux?"

Although mostly free, there's a lot to learn. I'm following Liron Segev's journey, beginning with "I am DONE with Windows!", followed by "7 things you need to know BEFORE leaving Windows for Linux". Waiting for further developments, but he makes it clear that there's no reason not to have both operating systems if desired.

That's enough. I hope some of y'all got something out of this and will be helpful. You may even like the three YouTube channels I mentioned above. Oh, by the way. I never did get the built-in DVD ROM working again, so I got a USB version (surprisingly inexpensive) that did the job. Maybe there's a software thing I missed that didn't get fixed with the restore. I dunno.

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