Why I'm Not Sharing

SITTING HERE IN SHOCK - don't think I can explain in a way that will make sense what I think might have happened to my music files but last Sunday night, after downloading the security update a few days before, my Limewire software starting freezing and I couldn't share files. The next morning I began to burn a CD, left the computer for a couple of hours - when I returned, it was still trying to burn the CD but had stopped at 67%. Strange, so I aborted the burn but out of curiosity decided to try to play it. It began ok then all of a sudden the whole pc went blank. When I rebooted the message on the screen said "No Operating System." Thinking that was impossible, I tried 3 more times - same thing. Took it apart, put it back together - nothing.

Out of desperation, as a last ditch effort I decided to format even though I still couldn't fathom how an entire operating system could just disappear. I keep my music files on a separate hard drive and was very, very careful when I formatted to make sure I protected that drive. After I reinstalled Windows XP, my drives were switched (C drive is now D) and my MUSIC had been obliterated although the few other files I kept on that drive are still intact.

This is a waking nightmare and I know there's no way to recover them but I've been working on these files extensively for the past 5 years. It's been my life! The ***** collection, contained many out-of-print recordings, rare files which I know I'll never be able to find again. I've download itunes but I'm getting a configuration error each time I try to install and if some of these songs are no longer in print, I doubt they would be available anyway. I AM HORRIFIED. I had only begun to create compilations from these files, and yes, at one time I had many of them on vinyl or tape but they went by the wayside several years ago. I rue the day I made the bad decision to give them away (frustrated because I could no longer get a needle for my old stereo) - at that time I had no idea technology would have made it possible to transfer to CD. Many of those files date back to the Napster days and searches I've done since then do not return those rare file requests. I had much contemporary ***** music too. I had over 1,200 songs in this category alone so now it's back to square one.

Please, if anyone has ***** music they will share, can they post here? I was always generous in keeping my files open for others. I am only a 56k'er so it has been and will be again a long, slow process.

Have only posted here once before and that was last Sunday night when this whole mess started.

I am one sad person today.

Ohmanon - Lives for music

[ImSteve]

interesting case...but you didnt say why youre not sharing anymore. Do you think your hard drive got zapped by a virus or something? sounds like your hard drive had a complete meltdown. Do you think LW or something having to do with it is responsible?

[RaaF]

What a sad day indeed

I wander what made your box crash ?
Well I hope you backup your music on CD from now on, and saying that, I'm well behind myself........
You lost music from the good 'ol napsterdays....those where the day's indeed Back then I found music I was looking for for years and was no longer available in shops
Now I hope you can get most of your collection back but on a 56K... anyway the phone comp won't mind...
But here's a few tips for you beeing a 56K user.

When your using LW, after you did a search and have a few downloads going, disconnect from the network, that way you don't have network traffic and all your modem's capacity goes to your download.

Have you tried Soulseek ?
It has a central server so no network traffic, and it is good for finding those rare files.

Good luck !

Hello ImSteve,

I am not sharing because I have no files left to share. Gone - all 5,000+ in addition to my ***** music.

I do have cd's which I will need to encode into mp3 but this will be awhile since I'm back to a very basic computer.

I am so puzzled as to why this happened. The only thing I'm thinking is that recently someone on WinMx asked me to open my files - he could see them, see I was sharing but could not download. I tried several different options as I had noticed people in queue for music but the uploads would not start. I then decided to turn off the default Windows XP firewall. I think this may have been my fatal error, although after I disabled it, people were able to download my files.

Yesterday, while still trying to figure all this out, I tried finding information regarding this LimeWire security update. I posted something about my problem here on this forum Sunday night - program kept freezing. This new information said something about the security flaw and the magnet handler which I had also mentioned in that post. I am so confused I don't know what happened. I am not a pc pro but do know how to work on my own system, keep it very clean and it's always been smooth running.

I have now downloaded Zone Alarm as an added precaution but it has so many irritating popups - will have to take the time to figure out how to disable them.

Anyway, am open to any opinions here.

Thanks.

Ohmanon

[fabion]

hmmm that does really suck, to be blunt about it.

When I was over there (late 70s early 80s) I picked up a lot of Vinyls, and cassettes. Along with some live recordings from the Hilton Hawaiin Village.
Still think about Diamond Head. Lots of fond memories.

It may take me some time, but I'll dig them out and see. They are in storage.

Send me a pm with what your looking for. Alloha

[RaaF]

@ ohmanon,

Why don't you register so you can recieve PM's ?

Thank you RaaF. (Am new to forum posting so I hope this ends up in the right place - I just hit my enter key instead of submit - hope this doesn't appear twice...oh well.)

Don't know if it is possible for a drive to just crash and then work again after reinstalling an operating system. Sad day, indeed.

Ok, thank you for the tip - will do this. I notice that when I not only disconnect but also close out and restart Limewire, my connections do seem to go through faster but I never knew why. I don't have a clear grasp on how all this works, but in my opinion this is one of the better programs.

Have never heard of soulseek but will definitely try it out.

Ohmanon

[RaaF]

If your drive did crash, you probably won't be using it now, so it was something else.
A bad sector perhaps ?
It's a bit to late, but if you would have booted with your XP cd you would have found quite some repair options.

Have you concidered installing a 2nd harddrive for your media files ?
that's what I have.
You can always unplug it to make sure nothing happens when you reinstall

[ohmanon]

Originally posted by fabion
hmmm that does really suck, to be blunt about it.

When I was over there (late 70s early 80s) I picked up a lot of Vinyls, and cassettes. Along with some live recordings from the Hilton Hawaiin Village.
Still think about Diamond Head. Lots of fond memories.

It may take me some time, but I'll dig them out and see. They are in storage.

Send me a pm with what your looking for. Alloha

...and just about the time I'm starting to believe that the world has gone mad, along come good people.

I have now registered and will send you a list soon of a few of the songs I'm looking for.

I also lived there around the same time, 70s and 80s, and in addition to still enjoying all of the old music, have recently found that there's lots of new, contemporary but traditional music being done. Love it. And I was beginning to think we were in a period of musical starvation. Glad I've been proved wrong.

[ohmanon]

Originally posted by RaaF
If your drive did crash, you probably won't be using it now, so it was something else.
A bad sector perhaps ?
It's a bit to late, but if you would have booted with your XP cd you would have found quite some repair options.

Have you concidered installing a 2nd harddrive for your media files ?
that's what I have.
You can always unplug it to make sure nothing happens when you reinstall

Well, I was able to reinstall XP and both drives are now working fine. This is why I'm so perplexed. I booted with 6 floppy rescue discs and everything was smooth sailing.

I do keep my music files and pictures exclusively on a 2nd hard drive but what is so strange is that now my drives are switched and I'm not even sure which one my OS is on, C or D. Also, when I format and reinstalll, doesn't that erase everything on the system? Why do I still have some files? The only thing missing was the most important - my music folder. I don't think I will ever figure this one out.

You hit the nail on the head when you said unplug it, of course that's what I should have done in the first place. should, coulda, woulda...I have learned the hard way.