Yes, you read that correctly. I’m writing today about Windows error messages that are… erroneous. Actually I’m hoping that you will chime in with your own examples, but to start things off, here’s one I have run into several times in recent weeks.
You slap a flash drive or external USB drive onto a system running 64-bit Windows, either Server 2008 or Vista. This could be a flash drive or hard drive that has worked just fine under XP, Vista 32-bit, or Server 2008 32-bit. It could contain (for example) a partial server backup that you’re about to restore. But when you connect it to an x64 system, you get an immediate message stating that “You need to format the disk in drive X: before you can use it. Do you want to format it?” along with two buttons: Format Disk, and Cancel. And here’s the part I find truly unbelievable – guess which button is the default, if you just press Enter? That’s right. “Format Disk.” Some UI designer at Microsoft gets an F-minus in User Interface Design 101.
The first time I ran into this issue a few weeks ago, I came perilously close to following Windows’ suggestion, thinking that I’d inserted a new thumb drive by mistake. Thankfully, one or two of those “CAUTION” neurons fired just in time to cause me to doublecheck. I had tons of cool stuff on that drive, and it would have been toast, thanks to Windows’ inaccurate assessment of my hardware and inept choice of a default button. I haven’t been able to find any info on the Web or on www.microsoft.com to explain what’s going on here. This is the sort of thing that could ruin your whole day.
Share your dangerous Windows error message errors with us. I’ll bet you can top mine.
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