Barely missed total disaster...
by Jacob Dankovchik · 01/12/2012 (9:01 am) · 8 comments
So a few days ago, I was enjoying a day off and taking a break from my latest project (info on that one below), when I started to notice some odd computer behavior. Repeating hangups, slow loading, and the cursor kept scrambling like it was corrupt or bugged in some way. Decided to reboot, that usually helps things. When loading windows, got a blue screen saying unmountable_boot_volume.... Bad times.
Long story short, I keep trying methods to get back in to windows with no luck. I try to access the drive from the command prompt in recovery mode with no luck as well, so at this point my data is sitting there on a dying hard drive. This includes everything I've done for little practice projects, my ENTIRE Torque 3D Environment Pack (which is some 8gb worth of environment data), and 3 months of work on my latest project as well as documents for the purpose of trying to get a real company going.
In the end, good ol' chkdsk saved me. Turns out the issue was a corrupted USN journal. All is resolved and all is well. AND all is now backed up...
On to some other news. For those interested, the Torque 3D Environment Pack isn't at all dead, although it's proving harder to manage that I had hoped. I'm still working on it, but time is pretty short for me anymore and there is SO MUCH stuff to filter through right now, it's just taking a while.
However on the upside of it all, I've recently decided that the T3DEP will begin to include additional things like models and props. Wasn't going to before because, frankly, I didn't know how to do these things. I've learned a few tricks though and I think I can manage that. Also I still am sitting on a bit of a secret trick I'm going to use in future versions that should prove very, very useful... :D
And one bit of other news: I've finally started work on my first real game. I can't give details yet (well, I CAN, but I don't think it'd be the best idea) however I have a very strong feeling some of you will be able to relate to it quite well... heh.
I will however show a nice short video showing one of the models. It's for the home of a giant fly. (well, giant by fly standards. The camera zooms out to show the scale) In time I'll be able to reveal some info about the project and whatnot. I almost have a feeling a few of you may pick something up though just from this bit, at least in the back of your minds. ;)
Long story short, I keep trying methods to get back in to windows with no luck. I try to access the drive from the command prompt in recovery mode with no luck as well, so at this point my data is sitting there on a dying hard drive. This includes everything I've done for little practice projects, my ENTIRE Torque 3D Environment Pack (which is some 8gb worth of environment data), and 3 months of work on my latest project as well as documents for the purpose of trying to get a real company going.
In the end, good ol' chkdsk saved me. Turns out the issue was a corrupted USN journal. All is resolved and all is well. AND all is now backed up...
On to some other news. For those interested, the Torque 3D Environment Pack isn't at all dead, although it's proving harder to manage that I had hoped. I'm still working on it, but time is pretty short for me anymore and there is SO MUCH stuff to filter through right now, it's just taking a while.
However on the upside of it all, I've recently decided that the T3DEP will begin to include additional things like models and props. Wasn't going to before because, frankly, I didn't know how to do these things. I've learned a few tricks though and I think I can manage that. Also I still am sitting on a bit of a secret trick I'm going to use in future versions that should prove very, very useful... :D
And one bit of other news: I've finally started work on my first real game. I can't give details yet (well, I CAN, but I don't think it'd be the best idea) however I have a very strong feeling some of you will be able to relate to it quite well... heh.
I will however show a nice short video showing one of the models. It's for the home of a giant fly. (well, giant by fly standards. The camera zooms out to show the scale) In time I'll be able to reveal some info about the project and whatnot. I almost have a feeling a few of you may pick something up though just from this bit, at least in the back of your minds. ;)
#2
Bah, Steve, keep up with the trend! I do my backups via Crashplan. Unlimited backup storage for $5 a month is pretty cool. Each day it automatically backs up everything during the night. I can access all my backed up data from anywhere. The service is pretty solid too, uploads are fast, haven't had any issues so far. For the price of a smaller drive I'm set for almost two years (with file versioning - you have access to all versions of each file, even when you delete stuff).
I feel dirty for the ad, but I'm a satisfied customer, and it IS a great service imho.
01/12/2012 (10:04 am)
Very cool fly lair model, Jacob! It made me remember UFO: Terror from the Deep for some reason.Bah, Steve, keep up with the trend! I do my backups via Crashplan. Unlimited backup storage for $5 a month is pretty cool. Each day it automatically backs up everything during the night. I can access all my backed up data from anywhere. The service is pretty solid too, uploads are fast, haven't had any issues so far. For the price of a smaller drive I'm set for almost two years (with file versioning - you have access to all versions of each file, even when you delete stuff).
I feel dirty for the ad, but I'm a satisfied customer, and it IS a great service imho.
#3
01/12/2012 (11:19 am)
I can't spare the bandwidth for off-site backup, I need it for streaming cartoons and videos of kids falling off skateboards. ;) 
#4
01/12/2012 (1:09 pm)
I use XP-dev for different coding projects. I also use an external drive for backing up the machine. XP-dev is nice since it has code repositories you can use and you can add people to the project with different rights. That combines with Tortoise provides very nice source code revision solution. Also, you can just store files on there for things, so I use for documents I want access to in multiple locations. 
#5
Luck!
01/12/2012 (4:59 pm)
I can just stress the use of SVN as a backup for any indie developer. There are places in the web where you can get an SVN account for free with a very decent space all protected via HTTPs. THis will save you from a lot of pain.Luck!
#6
That fly house looks like a wasp nest to me. We get lots of those here in Florida, although not that big, but the mosquitos are pretty big down here.
01/12/2012 (9:46 pm)
I'm glad you didn't lose your data. I usually backup my important files at least weekly, but back in October I had a harddrive crash, and I hadn't backed up anything for about a month. I had added a bunch of resources to TGEA and felt like I was getting somewhere. But then after that, I decided to buy T3D at the lower price, and have now been playing with that. So maybe it was God telling me to buy T3D instead of continuing to use TGEA, or maybe I'm just stupid.That fly house looks like a wasp nest to me. We get lots of those here in Florida, although not that big, but the mosquitos are pretty big down here.
#7
01/12/2012 (10:25 pm)
I don't back up my data. But when I do, I do it on floppy disk.
#8
Yeah, it's modeled after a wasp nest. The giant "fly" is kinda a mix between a fly and a wasp itself. Plus, flies don't really have true "homes" anyhow, sooo.. it makes the most sense, overall.
01/12/2012 (10:34 pm)
Quote:That fly house looks like a wasp nest to me. We get lots of those here in Florida, although not that big, but the mosquitos are pretty big down here.
Yeah, it's modeled after a wasp nest. The giant "fly" is kinda a mix between a fly and a wasp itself. Plus, flies don't really have true "homes" anyhow, sooo.. it makes the most sense, overall.
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