Computer data destroyed<\/p>\n
Over the past seven years I have built-up an impressive
\ncollection of carefully selected commercial programs and high
\nquality children's games on my home desktop computer. The
\nprograms occupied about 800 Mb on two stacked hard disks. Very
\nyoung children could start any program from the menu, even if the
\nconfig.sys file needed to be changed. It took hundreds of hours
\nto perfect the total system.<\/p>\n
On June 2, 1995, I asked Laser Computer (Jalan Melawai Raya No
\n21 Blok M), South Jakarta, to install a sound card and CD-ROM.
\nThe technician checked all partitions, so he knew that the two
\nhard disks contained a very large amount of data, but he did not
\ntell me that the installation would cause any problems. I knew
\nthat, after the hardware had been bolted in place, it was only
\nnecessary to add a few lines to the autoexec.bat and config.sys
\nfile and resolve any hardware conflicts using the software
\nprovided by the manufacturer of the CD-ROM. The operation was a
\nsuccess but the perfectly healthy patient died. Over a period of
\nsix days the people at Laser:<\/p>\n
* Reformatted both hard disks.<\/p>\n
* Erased all my files. They did make a partial backup of the
\nfiles, but could restore only 30 percent of them, so I lost all
\nthe configuration files I had worked so hard to develop, plus my
\nextensive DOS and Windows menu systems.<\/p>\n
Infected the computer with the DH2 virus.<\/p>\n
* Didn't configure the sound card to work under Windows<\/p>\n
* Replaced DOS 5.0 with DOS 6.2<\/p>\n
* Replaced Stacker 3.0 with Stacker 3.1<\/p>\n
* Forgot to add the EMM386 command to config.sys so that,
\nunder DOS, only 440 kb of RAM was available, too little to run
\nsome programs.<\/p>\n
On the third day of this fiasco I discovered that the
\ntechnicians could only boot my computer using a virus-infected
\nfloppy disk and could not repair the hard disk because Stacker
\nhad write-protected it to prevent further vandalism. It should
\nhave been possible, according to the Stacker manual, to use
\nCHKDSK\/F to repair the damaged FAT and remove the write
\nprotection. The virus could then have been removed, the copy of
\ncommand.com destroyed by the virus could have been replaced and
\nimportant commands from my original config.sys file could have
\nbeen added. It was probably too late for such simple remedies
\nbecause I suspect that the problem was caused by Laser's
\nunnecessary, botched attempt to install DOS 6.2. The CD-ROM
\nmanual states clearly that DOS 5.0 is adequate. None of that
\nexplains why Laser reformatted the second hard disk which did not
\ncontain the operating system.<\/p>\n
Restoring the system to its former condition is slow and
\nextremely frustrating because of the condition of my original
\nfloppy disks. Some programs only permit a limited number of
\ninstallations. Some disks are damaged by fungus while others were
\nformatted on ancient disk drives which are not compatible with my
\nlatest floppy drive. Twenty percent to 30 percent of my programs
\nwill be lost forever because they are no longer being sold. It
\nwas to avoid such problems that I installed all my software on
\ntwo hard disks.<\/p>\n
It is impractical to back-up on floppy disk the very high
\ncapacity hard disks necessary for multimedia so it's wise to
\ninvest a few hundred dollars in a tape back-up system. It is not
\nonly Laser that regards reformatting of the hard disk as the
\nstandard method for "fixing" software problems they don't
\nunderstand.<\/p>\n
BOB ATTRIDGE<\/p>\n
Jakarta<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/computer-data-destroyed-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }