Dumbest Thing you have done distro-hopping?

I just discovered something I did so idiotic I need a stronger adjective that what is in my name.

For one of my installs, I accidentally overwrote my 1TB HDD. A few minutes ago I wanted to put back some files… and all I saw was a distro.

It confused me because I was not sure if I was on my solid state drive or the HDD.

So, those files are gone. A lot is gone. Nothing too precious, I think… It might be a tremendous fuck up.

See kids, this is why you back up. Off the computer. Oh well.

EDIT: Recovering files using Photorec. Everyone who recommended this to me is a hero. Also a hero is the person who recommended FTK, but I was too eager to use something now than to sign up to download. I still should though…

poissonDistribution,
@poissonDistribution@lemmy.world avatar

Correct. We are used to look at computers like if they’re tools. Actually they’re environments.

flashgnash,

I look at mine like they’re toys lol

popekingjoe,
@popekingjoe@lemmy.world avatar

I once nuked a 6TB drive full of Steam games. Started a full format of the drive. Didn’t realize until it was too late.

DidacticDumbass,

Wow. If I could teleport you some cake I would invite you to take it. That is a lot. I cannot imagine how long it took to redownload.

Holzkohlen,

Nothing special, I just kept distrohopping and backing up my home folder to a seperate drive each time via rsync. Eventually I messed that up somewhere, some data was lost. I think that was early this year.
Nothing to major, bit of a nuisance is all. And a grim reminder that eventually you WILL mess up. It’s just a matter of time really. So try to minimize the factors that lead to mishaps like distrohopping and be diligent with your backups.

DidacticDumbass,

Hah. That was my strategy, but manually.

I need to learn backup tools proper.

Of course, it happens when your data is at its most valuable.

mateomaui,

Reading this thread makes me appreciate Macrium Reflect and my 64TB worth of redundant backup drives even more.

DidacticDumbass,

I might need to look into building a storage server of some kind. That is super cool.

mateomaui,

Personally, I keep the redundant backup as cold storage to minimize loss. Three 8TB content or archival drives that are always attached via USB but not powered until needed, plus another on NAS for streaming, and two more 8TB each for double backup that are only turned on when I want to do a sync. So the drives get minimal wear, and whenever a primary dies, the backups get promoted and a new one is bought to be third in line. I have lost too much data in the past. As well as I can manage, never ever again.

DidacticDumbass,

What is kind of funny is that my computer has the SSD for system and home, and I only ever used the storage to copy over files from my home. I also have a little 1TB SSD That I could have used as an offline backup… but didn’t do that. I had the tools, just never thought to do it. I will look into a NAS, that would be nifty. Can’t bork that with a new install.

mateomaui, (edited )

It only takes a few tragic events before “backup frequently, often and offline” really takes hold and doing preemptive backup becomes a neurosis. You have to experience a certain amount of fear, loss and regret to get there.

edit: the upside is I haven’t reinstalled a primary OS in years. Something is fucked? Restore that last image and keep rolling.

DidacticDumbass,

Yes. I think I am closer to data paranoia… I need a system.

That sounds nice. Not having a system that becomes terminally broken after a bad decision.

rez_doggie,

Those aren’t fuckups they are learning experiences. Now you know what that does in that situation.

DidacticDumbass,

Yes! I am becoming more careful. I am definitely getting deeper in my knowledge of programs and linux. The stuff to learn is immense. But, it makes my life so much better.

Deregon, (edited )
@Deregon@jlai.lu avatar

I tried dual-booting Manjaro from my Ubuntu install, since VMs were slow on my machine at the time and I wanted to give Manjaro a try.

Manjaro wouldn’t boot (X11 sessions crashes on boot), and then when I returned to Ubuntu, I got dropped straight to the GRUB rescue shell because I had shrunk the partition from the Manjaro installer, and it had fucked up the Ubuntu install :/ so instead of two OSes I had none

DidacticDumbass,

I feel like I have done that too, but long time ago. I always got confused with dual booting. I get weird trying to calculate how much to space to give each partition.

Making partitions by hand is a pain though.

mex,

dd’ed an ISO onto the system drive instead of a USB stick. Luckily, the first partition was the Windows one, so not too important; and the rest I recovered from the GPT backup table.

DidacticDumbass,

Nice! I need to learn recovery methods. I am so used to scorch earthing an install when it goes wrong, which is not useful.

j4k3,
@j4k3@lemmy.world avatar

Wrecked my first Ubuntu install over the course of 2 years, wanted something new and tried Arch. The 4th time pacman wrecked my system I moved to Fedora at around F20 and have been happy ever since. I tried Gentoo in there somewhere, and managed to install it, but just the install burned me out. That was back when the Sakaki guide was one of the only ways to install on UEFI except with Fedora.

I would say my biggest mistake was not understanding the scope of Linux and that something like Arch and Gentoo are more for a CS grad student level of user.

I have a much better understanding of operating system design principals and architectures now, but I still prefer Fedora, really because the Anaconda system, Nvidia kernel driver build system, and UEFI shim are the best system for Linux I have encountered. The bootloader is one of the largest vulnerabilities in modern computers.

DidacticDumbass,

Something I am learning is that an install of a distro can last as long as you want it to.

Curiosity leads us to mistakes, but more often to things much cooler than what we knew before!

A computer is like a second home the more I think about it.

I am glad you learned a lot from those experiences!

Aatube,
@Aatube@kbin.social avatar

Nowadays, you have options like endeavorOS.

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