Laptop woes

[logansrogue]

Stress! Worry! Fear! Anxiety!

My laptop is so royally screwed right now, my Mum and I are not sure of what to do next. The thing is so buggered that it hardly runs for a couple of minutes without crashing. Mum's trying to do Vista disk recovery but she can't.

What we want to do is get my important files off the disk (novel drafts, mainly) and then reformat. I'm so upset right now, at the thought of losing the new chapters to my story, Amaryllis. If I've sent you a copy in the last month, can you mail it to me? That will most likely be my latest version.

It's the fanfic I'll break my heart to lose. My Mummy Returns fics that I've been working on for *years*. My RPG drafts. My Secret Garden stuff. Oh man, I'm just bereft.

Mum's not sure what to do now, and I'm getting actual heart palpitations at the thought of losing years and years worth of work. Lyrics to songs I've written! Oh God.

Comments

[bewarethespork.livejournal.com]

Do you have another computer, or access to one? If so, here's one thing you might be able to do:

Go online and look for "ultimate boot CD" - it's this set of tools you can burn to a bootable CD which you can then use to emergency boot your computer and run diagnostics, back up files and stuff like that. So, if you can find it or something like it, run that, back up all your stuff and that'll be one worry sorted. Other options include bootable versions of Linux (Ubuntu is the easiest to use, but really, almost any of them should do) or command prompts (don't know how good your tech knowledge is, though, so that one might not work for you).

Have you tried booting in Safe Mode? Start your computer, and before Windows loads up, hit the F8 key (I usually do it multiple times just to be safe, but you don't have to). When the menu comes up, choose "Safe Mode", and once you're in Windows, you can run diagnostic tools to figure out what's wrong and if you can fix it.

If all else fails, rescue what you can from the hard drive, format and reinstall. If it's just a software problem, this will fix it, but if it's a case of your hard drive dying, the only way of fixing that is getting a new one. You'll have to talk to your hardware manufacturer/warranty guys about that.

I hope this has been helpful! Let me know if you have any questions.

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

I'll show the message to my Mum. We have been starting in Safe Mode, and even in Safe Mode it crashes. I'm not sure what's wrong with it but it's pretty major. :(

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

I have disks for disk repair etc.
If you would like me to come over and try to get your files off, I would be happy to.

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm going to bed now but tomorrow I want to get my files off. I've gotten the stories off, but I really want to get my Sims neighbourhood off that I was working so bloody hard on. I mean I spent *hours* upon hours building that fucking thing up, and I would be majorly bummed to lose it. Plus I have a cache of Fourth Doctor episodes that I don't want to have to download again.

So I guess that's a yes. LOL. You can get lotsa hugs too!

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

Hey buddy. Just letting you know that my mobile phone is lost, so if you try to message me on that, I won't be able to recieve it.

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

OK. I have to run out and do some stuff at Curtin now, I will try to drop by later - there is a possibility that I'll not be able to make it tonight, and it might have to be tomorrow, if that is ok by you?
I will try to email before I come over, anyway.

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

Well, I wanted to reformat tonight cause I'm going crazy without my lappie, but I totally understand if you can't make it.

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

Aaargh! It's in a loop! I should have asked for your number while you were here. Anyway, it's caught in a loopie thing.

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

Ah, damn. Turn it off if you haven't done so already, and I'll try again tomorrow morning.

[hotclaws.livejournal.com]

Did you back everything up? Will you in future? I hated Vista,come to the dark side ,use Ubuntu.

[leecetheartist.livejournal.com]

Ubuntu rocks!

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

I will most certainly back everything up every month.

I would, but I spent a good 300 bucks on getting the full version of Windows 7, cause I thought that would be a more reliable way of keeping my files, I had a few options in that case. Since I spent that much on a new operating system, I may as well use it.

[sir-devans.livejournal.com]

What about that HDD enclosure I bought you? Do you still have it? you can whip out the lappy HDD and plug it into another PC as and external. Get your files that way.

[asweetdownfall.livejournal.com]

Eeeep, I'm sorry to hear that. :( Hope it all gets sorted out!