"Lowered Expectations" <LoweredExpectations@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote
in message news:D86F83A0-E318-4563-985A-EB571B6405EA@microsoft.com...
[color=blue]
> I did not ask for trialware Ultimate. That's what they sent us all.
> If force feeding is not evident here, then the point is lost.
> I only want my data back. If I have to pay now yet another premium price
> to
> "upgrade" to an OS version I don't want, just to retreive my data, well,
> then that's what I'll have to to do.
>
> By misinformation and confusion---which can hardly be any 'accident', MS
> is
> making money hand-over-my-ass. And everybody else's too! True?[/color]

I don't mean to start a flamewar and I'm saying this with no intent to flame
you or call you names. However, I do have to say that anybody who gets into
"trialware" knows or should know not to entrust crucial data to the
trialware, be it a beta or a RC.
It sounds like the data you were using with RC1 was the only viable version
of that data. Obviously, it's important enough data that you will pay for
the Ultimate version to get it back. But if it was that important, then
maybe you shouldn't have been using it with RC1.

I will now don my asbestos clothing and await replies.

PS: I should add that I took the risk myself and used RC1 on a "production
machine," which seems to be the term of art in this case. I backed up as
much of my data as I could before installing RC1 and backed it up several
times while using RC1. I say this just to point out that I ignored the
Microsoft warning, too, but I also took precautions.
And when I say "backed up" all I mean is that I made copies of critical
data. I didn't use a backup program of any sort, which, as I understand it,
uses proprietary formats that are only read by that particular program (and
in your case, can only be read by a certain version of Vista). I simply
copied my files to CDs and external HDDs.