Windows 8

Johnmcl7

nickcc wrote: »

Thanks John. Unfortunately I rarely carried out a backup just copied my photos to DVD disk, buried head in sand and never expected to loose all my old data when downloading Windows 8. Will try file recovery as I've not used my laptop since installing 8.

If possible, get the hard drive out and hook it up to another computer (via a USB to sata adapter or similar) and run the recovery software on the other PC as the more the machine is used, the less you are likely to be able to recover data. Also make sure if you do manage to recover any files that you recover you put them on a separate drive.

In terms of backup I'd recommend a USB 'portable' or USB hard drive, these are reasonably small and unlike desktop hard drives they can be powered entirely from USB which makes them much more convenient. There are applications available that can make it quick and easy to keep backed up like Synctoy, it's a free tool from Microsoft where you set up folder pairs that allow you to sync between them at the press of a button.

Back on the subject of Windows 8, a couple of tips in case anyone isn't aware. You can set the size of the tiles by right clicking them or dragging down slightly, you'll get the option to make the tile larger or smaller so all those pointless double tiles can be shrunk down to a single tile. When you pull in the 'charm' bar at the right there is a settings option at the bottom, the lower half of this settings option is for system settings (wireless, volume, shutdown etc.) but the upper half settings are specific to the application. I was raking around the Mail application trying to find how to manage the accounts and then realised that they were with the system settings.

John

Richie-from-the-Boro

Apps & Win8

The app's on 8 are dismal and they know it, they're years behind the curve and desperate to get developers on board. Microsoft are offering a fixed 70% of the apps selling price and 80% if it rises to 25kUSA, Android already pays 70% and Apple has just raised its developers to 70%. Just last week MS offered developers a [ bucksheee] Lumina and surface tablet an and 100GB of cloud and cheepo developers registration fees merely for simply attending a conference on MS Apps.

gildius

I agree about the apps - my Store app seems to have given up connecting to the internet, and I uninstalled the skype one because I prefer it on the desktop. I'm more or less using it on the desktop, occasionally popping back to the start screen when i want to view pictures or videos.