Today I learned that MS Vista likes to corrupt iPod data. My iPod has routinely been used to copy stuff I store on my work lap top in a folder called “personal”. I back things up there. Unsuspecting of an issue with corruption I highlighted a folder on my vista c-drive. Ctrl-C. Ctrl X. Scroll down to my e drive (otherwise known as my ipod). Ctrl-V. Everything moved off my c-drive and onto my ipod. Then I started moving some files around and wierd stuff started to happen. Everything got copied a few times. I made a new directory. It should have been empty, but it was full of everything its parent directory had been full of. I double clicked on the new directory icon and it copied itself. So I double clicked some more times. It looked like it was caught in some wierd recursive method where by everytime a directory was highlighted, it made a copy of itself and all the contents in the parent directory. Weird. So I hit the system tray and tried to eject. Except that is a KNOWN ISSUE that causes ipods to be corrupted if a patch isn’t installed. Clearly my work PC did not have this patch. Knashing of teeth. Screams of frustration.

conversation on IM with sliabh about this:

Laura: there is something seriously fucked up with vista
i have my ipod plugged in and every time i create a new directory on it, it copies everithing from the directory i was just in into the new directory
i keep thinking i must be imagining it, because stuff keeps replicating, but it keeps happening!
and when i click on the new folder, it copies itself and copies everything in it
come down and have a look
i think i am hallucinating
sliabh: No, I am pretty busy here. I am trying to get the annual budget sorted.
Laura: it will onlytake a second
sliabh: By 5, with 2 quotations to go out
Laura: oh go on
Sent at 4:11 PM on Friday
sliabh: Fine I will be there in a second.
Laura: nevrr mind
it’s all broken now
corrupted
sliabh: Oh?
Laura: yip
fucking wista
vista even
sliabh: It is pants all right
Laura: i couldn’t figure out what was going on for a while. files were replicating left right and centre when i moved them
now it’s trying to fix it
i hope it can
because i just deleted everything in my “personal” folder on my work laptop to move it to my ipod
http://www.techsupportforum.com/relaxation-room/offline/138505-warning-ipod-users-vista-corrupts-ipods.html
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1653?viewlocale=en_US
Sent at 4:18 PM on Friday
Laura: what a joke. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936824/en-us
why isn’t this on our machines? this is 2 years old
sliabh: Not a work requirement?
Laura: no, but presumably, this sort of stuff is included in patches from MS
patches that we got
presumably
- what MS installation doesn’t need patches periodically
MS is a menace to society
my poor ipod
everything gone
all personal data gone
grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
sliabh: With no backup?
Laura: was moving it off my cdrive onto my reliable ipod backup
at least until vista got into the mix and made my reliable ipod corrupt
sliabh: So it is still on the C drive?
Laura: ne
no
i did a copy and paste
sliabh: Oh bugger.
Anything irreplaceable?
Laura: that is what i am trying to tell you when i say “all gone”
yes. loads of shit
sliabh: That is pants
Laura: you think?
the folder was still there until i left vista try to fix it
vistas idea of fixing is WIPE

grrrr.

Moral of the story? Don’t let your ipod come within 100 meters of a fucking vista machine.

February 27, 2009 general nonsense, tech