Yeeeaahhh... Windows 10's insistence on creating a recovery partition can really create havock on a system that already had custom partitions. I don't even use Windows as a main OS - I have it one machine for games, and it screwed up the Linux install (the primary OS). I was at least able to fix that because Linux > Windows, but holy crap, annoying. I hate that with Windows 10 Microsoft seems to just "assume" they know best about every setting and option. Even when you specifically turn shit off, it turns it back on again after a major patch.

On the upside though, in recent years WINE on Linux has become so good at running games that once that one system is retired and replaced with a new one, I won't be using Windows anymore at all. Stupid, stupid OS that it is. :/

You may be able to boot into a LiveOS Linux of some sort (Mint or Ubuntu, for example) to get access to the hard drives and get your stuff off since Windows is being retarded about it.

No I had to reformat them both so whatever was on it is lost.

I just can't access disk 2 at all anymore.

Should not have had to format them. :/ Windows install would have told you that (because Microsoft's solution to any disk problem is just to format it) but certainly was not required.

For the other disc, you need to likely add it via the disk manager. Hit the Windows Key + R, or right-click on the start button and click on the run command. Enter "diskmgmt.msc" - that will show you available drives. The second one may simply not have a letter assigned to it, which you can do with this. If it's unformatted, you'll have to do that first, then assign a letter. Hopefully that fixes it.

I also highly recommend you download and grab this tool: https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10

It can shut down most of the creepy call-home behaviour of Windows 10 and notch up most of your privacy settings.

I am really beginning to like this idea of switching everything over to Wine. Only got one of my machines running Win 8 and I'm not a fan. (Well...the machine runs slower then a snail, too. So no big loss on wiping the drive, there.) I can't even imagine what 10 is like.

However, I suspect that many sites out there on the main stream will evolve their code to run exclusively on Win 10 style browsers. So, Wine, being a community supported option...might adapt? (I'm guessing. Just makes sense.)

Hard to say. Windows 10 is a real mixed bag. It's certainly less annoying to use than Windows 8, and definitely faster and more efficient than Windows 7 (especially if you prune it down to essential services only). BUT... it's also annoying automated and by default assumes you love apps, hate privacy and that you trust anything/everything Microsoft wants to do. Now, you can disable all that stuff with tools like the one I linked above, along with some registry tweaks - and then it runs nice and quiet and smooth until a consolidated update turns it back on again. So that's the thing - you want it to stay working well, you gotta stay on top of it.

I don't think that the games will go the app direction though - games are actually going a bit more in the direction of Linux now with Steam really pushing it, and WINE sure has come a long way. A decade ago, I remember I could barely get Morrowind to function on WINE. Today, most games seem to work just fine. I once kept Windows around only to continue running/supporting some games, but it doesn't look like I'll need to bother anymore, which is great. And yeah, WINE will adapt. Plus stuff like PlayOnLinux does an amazing job of customizing Wine prefixes to work just right with just about any game or program. :)

what does this mean for commissions?

All commission info is saved to my email. I lost some WiPs though. I'm going to have to reconfigure all my brushes and stuff too. I have about a week and a bit before my vacation starts.

I'll do what I can. Trello is done, also. Will be posting it.

yeah the windows 10 upgrade is mandatory now unless you have gone through the long winded process of disabling it from the inside. You may want to find a techie to help you repair the damage.

Not surprised in the least.

I have heard that M$'s master plan is to have all machines (that they can gain access to) into having Win 10 and they never plan on making a Win 11.

I am thankful that M$ isn't a sole monopoly on everything computing. Mac for the pricey. Linus for the techie. CP/M for the fossils. Android for the rest.