Post Your Biggest Storage Mistakes

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Installing Windows 10 onto an ssd, then realizing I didn't know my Windows 7 key because it was an old hp computer. So I was stuck with an unactivated Windows 10.

Contacted Microsoft and they gave me a free Windows 10 key and activated it:)
Easiest way to move Windows from HDD to SSD by far
 
Windows 98 era.
Wanting to delete everything off a drive or partition.
Select ALL, Delete.

Oops....that was the C drive.
Windows got about 1/3 way through before I saw what was happening.
Oh well, reinstall.
----------------------------------------------------
About 5 yrs ago...
Seagate 2TB external drive.
Sony laptop.
Blink, the drive disappears.
Blink, it's back.
Blink, it disappears again.
PANIC...dying drive! Or maybe the enclosure.
Destroy the external case getting the drive out, so I can get the data off it.
Plug it in....copy the data to another drive.
All is good.

No, the drive wasn't dying. Nor was the USB enclosure.
The USB port on the laptop was dying, causing random disconnects.
Still using that drive in my HTPC/house server today.
 
Bought a 3 TB drive because it was on sale and why not, installed it into my system and was confused of why it wasnt working, i figured it was dead... NOPE just forgot to partition the drive :/ back from when I just started computers.
 
Always check your drive specs before going nuts:
Bought USB 3.0 flash drive,
started to transfer files, couldnt understand why it was going so slow..
checking if USB 3 drivers were installed, yup
checked the files size/format, yup
checked using the usb 3 port, yup
started going nuts, opens up the case, checks wires, front usb 3 ports connected with proper cable, to proper port, ofc yup
everything ok in bios, yup
starts to gets desperate.,
unplugs and reconnects all cables secure, flashes bios, wipes drives and make sure to install usb3 drivers from intel,
boots up, transfer files.. still..slow..stoneage speed...

wonders... looks up flashdrive specs online... yup.. bought the wrong drive.. 15MBps write max speed...
sigh...
such hassle could have been saved... DOH!
 
I remember when I got a 1TB Hard Drive and about 6 months later ( I had about 600gb on it) I did something ( no clue) but it kinda corrupted. I gave up and wiped it clean and started over. Now ( 7 months after that I now had 700gb) I sold my computer to a friend and the hard drive can't "find a bootable device." Let's just say I kinda want to burn it in lava for screwing my twice...
 
I bought a SATA disk to my ATA only PSU.
Realize what I bought is incompatible.
Instead of replacing it with ATA disks or buy new PSU I chose to cheap out buy ATA>SATA power cabel
Fried the disk PCB board within a week. It goes with sparks as it dies.
It was a 500GB WDC Black.
Myth on the net has it, if I somehow acquire a new PCB board with some exact number as my disk was it could be revived.
It was 3 years ago.
I bought a new PSU because of it.

Don't buy ATA-SATA power adapter.
 
30 years of computing = lots of mistakes.
Backed up hard drive to floppies. Kept floppies near monitor.
Backed up to CDs. Didn't have a boot CD, nor any way to access CD drive from floppies.
Updated backup software, then made new backups. Didn't create boot CD with new version of backup software.
Ran out of drive bays, so I installed new drive sideways. Heads slowly shredded the platters.
"hot swapping" before hot swapping was a thing.
Backed up to network drive. computer crashed. Couldn't access network until I installed OS. OS would not allow restoration to overwrite it.
Then there's the myriad ways I'm managed to use Fdisk to F disks up. Hsect and Hpart - same thing. Thousands of ways I've sent needed files straight to heck.
providing wrong head/sector/cluster information - shredding all data before realizing my mistake.
 
I built my first PC when I was 10 and I during the hard drive installation, I noticed that the hard drive had two power connectors with the molex connection plugged with a plastic cover. Genius 10 year old me thought that plugging in both the SATA power and molex would make the hard drive run faster and therefore better.
Completely fried the hard drive's PCB and ended up having to buy a new hard drive that day
 


LOL, that's just too funny 😉, but hey at least you didn't accidentally delete the administrator...
 
while windows was updating my brother pulled out my psu plug. You can guess what happened...

My SSHD was half wiped. Fortunately, while i couldn't recover the somehow encrypted data I got my parents to get me an SSD. Two days later I told them the SSHD was still working. 😉
 


Again, wow I had the same problem but mine was a HP laptop. Difference was HP paid for my windows 10 instead of Microsoft .:)
 
got tricked by a pc repair shop(still a complete pc noob back then) bought a more expensive 500gb toshiba hdd instead of a cheaper 500gb hitachi model for my laptop, what's the difference? nothing,except brand and money that goes to their pockets, and infact my toshiba drive died even though it has 100% health in hdd sentinel, compared to my hitachi drive that is older and has 86% health on hdd sentinel and still running strong in my pc today
 
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