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

[bangdrum.livejournal.com]

I'm going to take a guess (based on experience) and tell you that your hard drive's dead. Cause I had roughly the same thing (no Windows, safe mode, backup mode, whatever, didn't work) and 50 gigs worth of lost video clips. It does suck.

Can you call your local tech support people (either Dell or whoever made the PC, or Best Buy/CompUSA/etc)? That's the best way to confirm whether it's hard drive death. If it is, you can install a new one (and then reinstall everything else, including Windows, drivers, etc). If it's something else, maybe you got lucky or maybe it's time for a new computer altogether.

Either way, hope you can figure it out (and if possible, save your stuff!). :)

[dave-t-lurker.livejournal.com]

Were you in the Uk I'd offer to help, I've had some success in pulling data off otherwise dead drives. The methods are a little drastic though, so really are a last resort where you have resigned yourself to losing everything anyway.

Hope you manage to get someone to sort it out *hug*

[forget-my-fate.livejournal.com]

that sucks! earlier this year my computer wouldn't start properly and windows kept shutting down. I took it in to a computer repair place and found out I needed a new hard drive. Somehow they managed to put all my programs and files and everything onto the new hard drive. I have no idea how they did it. They said everything was "ghosted" from one to the other. I have no idea what that means. But maybe someone can do that for you too!

[sheffieldcanuck.livejournal.com]

My hard drive decided to die a week after I got to England. It's so frustrating! You have my sympathy.

[(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