So my computer crashed... (Help would be much appreciated! ^^)


I would use boot-dvd/usb of windows and start in recovery mode, let it repair your windows installation. See if that helps, if it does you can boot linux via usb again and repair the dual-boot.
Currently I have Ubuntu running with win10 as dual-boot, I did install win10 first and use the Ubuntu special win10 dual-boot option, as manually making partitions didn't work.
You can get win10-upgrade for free here: https://www.microsoft.com/nl-nl/accessibility/windows10upgrade
Uh, sorry, I won't update my PC to Windows 10 for various reasons. But thanks anyways! Also, I don't have a Windows DVD, so I guess I also have to burn it to a stick? I don't know, my computer came with Windows 8.1 so...
 
So, what should I do?
Don't trust software that claims to "shrink the drive no matter what, and move unmovable Windows files safely"! ;)
If that were such an easy task, then why would you get "SuperDuper Shrinker 42" in the first place instead of using just any other tool?

If you're not going to switch to Win10 anyway, then you'll have to abandon Redmond at some point or another. So why not do it right now? The best way to learn swimming is to jump in at the deep end.
Oh, and start making regular backups! I know it's not a popular topic, but if you even have to think about rescuing your data from a borked system, then you need to rethink your backup strategy.
 
Don't trust software that claims to "shrink the drive no matter what, and move unmovable Windows files safely"! ;)
If that were such an easy task, then why would you get "SuperDuper Shrinker 42" in the first place instead of using just any other tool?

If you're not going to switch to Win10 anyway, then you'll have to abandon Redmond at some point or another. So why not do it right now? The best way to learn swimming is to jump in at the deep end.
Oh, and start making regular backups! I know it's not a popular topic, but if you even have to think about rescuing your data from a borked system, then you need to rethink your backup strategy.
That regular backup thing... If it didn't take more than 3 days, I would do it. I also would love to use Linux as regular desktop, but I have lots of software that won't work on it.
 
Uh, sorry, I won't update my PC to Windows 10 for various reasons. But thanks anyways! Also, I don't have a Windows DVD, so I guess I also have to burn it to a stick? I don't know, my computer came with Windows 8.1 so...
You can get the installation iso for USB on the microsoft site if I remember correctly. And I didn't see that much difference between win8.1 and win10, I use it on my pc/tablet, it wasn't 'good' to start with and it didn't get worse really.
Sure it contains some questionable stuff to but so does any online service, most people also use IOS/Android and those do the same stuff. Only difference is that Microsoft joined the club for online analytics.

You should look into the backup software you use, I think most can do iterative backups so you only copy what changed. If you download gigabytes a day then it will take a while, otherwise it will only take a few minutes. In windows there is a build-in option to have files synchronized, so it stores files on a network and have them available off-line to.
Other options are to have 3 partitions, one for linux and second for windows, third is for you files. You can format either of the OS partitions without losing personal files. Keep a directory for you application installation files to, so you can reinstall quickly if you want to.

So, in the end Win10 update is still FREE ?! XD
They want to push win10 to users, you didn't really think they want to say "No" to people that want to upgrade without paying :)
Having it cost money was just a reason to have a massive upgrade moment, if it was always free you would just wait until upgrading was necessary.
So the official free-upgrade stopped and it is now more hidden, but works the same. The win10 upgrade works for virtual machines to, if you want to run it with KVM.
 
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The windows 10 upgrade is still working for free but it will not work in this case. The computer needs to actually boot into Windows to upgrade. You can't boot off of installable media and upgrade. You can only do a fresh install that way. Use this to create a Windows 8 USB stick. You can run the repairs from there.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows8ISO
Thank you! That will be the first thing I'll do after my backup finishes copying.
 
So what are you going to do after MS stops supporting Win8?
Well, it's been a while since I disabled auto updates (you know, that privacy thing) so I don't think it'll change THAT much for me.
[doublepost=1476043409,1476039414][/doublepost]Also, my computer's been running, copying stuff and being plugged-in non-stop for 2 days or so. I hope it won't damage my computer much.
 
Well, it's been a while since I disabled auto updates (you know, that privacy thing) so I don't think it'll change THAT much for me.
Don't get that wrong, but if you care for privacy, then I consider running Windows a no-go - automatic updates disabled or not.
The thing with closed source software is, that even if you set all the privacy options, you never know if that actually does what you expect it to do. If the default settings violate your privacy then you should not assume that changing these settings will make a software respect your privacy - unless you can prove it with source code (or the independent code review of someone you trust).

It all boils down to whether you trust your OS provider or not. If you do, then enabling automatic updates should be mandatory, because usually the people maintaining your OS will be more familiar with security problems than you. If you don't trust your OS provider, then you shouldn't try to cripple its harmful aspects by disabling more or less random "features". Instead you should abandon it altogether, because lack of trustworthiness cannot be fixed.

Also, my computer's been running, copying stuff and being plugged-in non-stop for 2 days or so. I hope it won't damage my computer much.
An old laptop of mine currently has an uptime of more than 100 days, mainly seeding Debian torrents with no problems.
 
@sulu I would love to have much more privacy, but I really need Windows for some of my tasks. So, not professional-level privacy.
 
There isn't much privacy if you are on-line, but that doesn't mean you can't try to stop over sharing. An over sharing OS doesn't help of course, but you can stop some with adjusting settings, blocking some DNS and having some tools to tweak hard to change configurations.
Starting to use such an OS is a choice and I switched to Ubuntu as main OS (although Ubuntu had the amazon-thing to), but if I start steam I see 25% of my games so I play those mostly. If I want to play any windows only games I start win10 and run them there, and for steam/origin you need to be on-line to (sure you have off-line mode, after being on-line). Guess privacy is gone to when starting those services, same for other automatic-update services (Chrome/Flash/Adobe-reader, which I don't have installed on my private computer btw).
 
There isn't much privacy if you are on-line, but that doesn't mean you can't try to stop over sharing. An over sharing OS doesn't help of course, but you can stop some with adjusting settings, blocking some DNS and having some tools to tweak hard to change configurations.
Starting to use such an OS is a choice and I switched to Ubuntu as main OS (although Ubuntu had the amazon-thing to), but if I start steam I see 25% of my games so I play those mostly. If I want to play any windows only games I start win10 and run them there, and for steam/origin you need to be on-line to (sure you have off-line mode, after being on-line). Guess privacy is gone to when starting those services, same for other automatic-update services (Chrome/Flash/Adobe-reader, which I don't have installed on my private computer btw).
Maybe you'r right...
Anyways, I was able to fix my computer! chkdsk did the job with some parameters to force it to do. Thanks for all the help!
 
FYI, I tried to shrink my drive again :)P) and I noticed that the 37 GB cap was increased to 182 GB. Interesting.
 
What software are you using to shrink? Easeus usually works for me in this situation
 
What software are you using to shrink? Easeus usually works for me in this situation
The software that crashed my computer was EaseUS :p I wasn't able to shrink my drive more than 30 GB using Windows' own tool, so I tried EaseUS. But when I recovered from the crash, it let me shrink a lot more than I need.
 
That's funny. I've shrunk servers with that software(didn't want to) and never had an issue. Glad you got it done. Is your dual boot running now?
 
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That's funny. I've shrunk servers with that software(didn't want to) and never had an issue. Glad you got it done. Is your dual boot running now?
Yes, it is running perfectly fine. Thanks for all the help guys! ^^
 
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