computer troubles

[jaala]

My laptop won't start Windows, even in safe mode. My bootable Ubuntu CD doesn't work either. A linear check of the hard drive in PC-Doctor (DOS) failed. All I was doing before it crashed was drag-and-dropping an RSS feed in Thunderbird. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to do any backups since before the summer, due to my CD burner being buried in the basement; that's a lot of data, including many photos, that I'll lose if it can't be recovered.

Feh.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

If it's a harddrive failure your linux live cd would probably still work - at least, the ones I am familiar with don't touch the harddrive at all. Did the ubuntu cd work on the laptop before? Maybe try a different live cd? (Knoppix or something...).

If you can boot to dos and run Pc-Doctor all hope might not yet be lost. It'd be worth poking around in dos to see if your stuff is accessable. Don't do anything drastic, like wiping the drive or tossing the laptop into the sea.

Ian