I continue to struggle with rescuing my laptop. Thankfully, the hardware is sound and my data files are intact and accessible with a command prompt that allows me to xcopy my files and their directory structure to a removable device as additional insurance. 

Unfortunately, I discovered a major flaw in a professional backup application. It appears that their “validation” function only hashes the file to be backed up and rechecks it at the end of the backup process to ensure that the file backed up is valid. What it doesn’t do is to verify the file system architecture which may be corrupt. So there you sit, fat, dumb, and happy, believing you have a good backup until the day of reckoning when you find that your file index is corrupted and will not restore.

Along the way I found that Microsoft’s restore point was unusable as was their system reset that preserves your data. 

Just when I thought things were going well - after two  hours into a process - I got another failure message. 

Todays pisser is that the fine print on a restore screen informs me that I cannot restore individual files with their “rescue” disk, but I could if I paid to use their cloud storage solution.

On to the next thing, reserving the nuclear option, formatting the disk and reinstalling all of the programs. There is some upside to that option as it cleans the system detritus off the disk and forces you to get rid of outdated programs and data. At least I am not under time pressure to perform.

I just tried another recovery and no joy! However, it did wipe out the entire disk partition leaving me with few options left.

As for politics…

Speaking of recovery efforts, I am impressed with the leadership of Ron DeSantis and his focus on the job at hand. Refusing to be baited by the media into commenting on Trump’s apparent detachment with the hurricane’s aftermath as he creates 31 videos to denigrate his fellow candidates and respond to any perceived slights. Not one word from Trump about how he plans to win the general election should he be the GOP’s nominee. He just keeps rubbing the independents and moderate Democrats the wrong way, reinforcing their negative opinion of him and the GOP.

And I especially like the DeSantis “execute or exit” approach to personnel performance. A major contrast with Trump who suddenly is promoting right-wing nut job Laura Loomer because she effusively praises him and strokes his ego. It is precisely this type of behavior that saw him hiring buffoons who help sabotage his presidency. 

Bottom line…

We continued to be screwed.

Be safe and take care of family first.

— Steve