Quote the format, nevermore
with apologies to Edgar Allen Poe

Once upon a midnight dreary,
Upgrading to 98, and oh so weary,
Whence upon mine eyes that were so bleary,
Fell an image I am now fearing.

My disk is not optimized oh so well?
Fat 32 shall correct this so please don't dwell,
The fate of my data in it's hands fell,
My format did it sent straight to Hell.

It stores much better it did claim,
Something mistrustful in it's name,
Fat 32 convertor, was I insane?
Yet I guess I am to blame.

So onward forth did I care free tread,
Images of recombined data in my head,
Lack of sleep making my eyes go red,
So with the process I went ahead.

Ready to reboot it deftly quoted,
Dreams of extra space in my head floated,
More space at no cost it softly purported,
Lordship of my data it quietly gloated.

Waiting and waiting my confidence shrank,
Watching my screen slowly go blank,
Inward into itself my computer shrank,
And for this whom have I to thank?

What doth thou mean invalid partition?
All of my data consumed by this Gryphon,
If I only knew before I would be soon be wishing,
My allocation tables I was not risking.

I knew then that my OS crashed,
Within the disk, formats clashed,
Blinking lights on my computer flashed,
Thoroughly my data it had trashed.

After several minutes I did look,
Within the holy instructions book,
It said there was no chance in what I took,
I felt as though I had been rooked.

The repair disk the book claimed to need,
Was the one the computer refused to read,
Would not repair the result of my greed,
For hard drive space that I did not need.

In my haste and wanton lust,
For hard drive space it was a bust,
Tools in which I did place my trust,
Betrayed me only to leave me lost.

In the wee hours of the morning,
If you hear a soft little groaning,
Know it is but I my hard drive moaning,
For which my format I am mourning.

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