Computers %$###$%^%

[rdb]

Disclaimer: No old PC techs were hurt in this catastroke

Me drive and processor be kaput! I Lost two days work trying to fix the crash, and only made it worse. Finally I had to go buy a new one...doohhh, poor me...lol. A nice new HP pavillion Notebook bit architected with 4g ram, 360g drive, and a lot of bells and whistles I'll never toot.

Now, it'll be two more days trying to remember all the passwords, and settings, and installing all the old applications. Some I may never get back...

I'll have to buy a hard drive insert to get all my pix and things from the old pc...if I can forensic it...we'll see.

Now, before all you jump in with couldas and wouldas, let me just say...I DO know better (insert cartoon that I can't retrieve from my old drive yet). Basically the cartoon is my favorite. It shows an Ol lady in a rocking chair, and she says..." As I got older, I thought my Patience was getting better, but as it turns out, it looks like I just don't give a s**t".

Calm has returned to the homestead, but the backlog in the shop will be brutal. It's tuff being a sole owner...

Take this opportunity to tell your Computer woes...let's commiserate. It won't make me feel any better, but it should at least make us all laugh.

[Johanna]

I feel your pain. My primary hard drive died a month ago, and now I've lost my XP Pro that everything worked with and am stuck with Vista, which I like, but it's not as functional. I'm having to send things to my laptop to get them done on XP. Let me know if you need help with data recovery from the old drive.

Johanna

[rdb]

Thanks, if anyone understood computer crashes, it would be You, for sure.

I'm pm'in you.

I feel your pain. My primary hard drive died a month ago, and now I've lost my XP Pro that everything worked with and am stuck with Vista, which I like, but it's not as functional. I'm having to send things to my laptop to get them done on XP. Let me know if you need help with data recovery from the old drive.

Johanna

[UKRay]

I feel for you RDB - I really do!

My problems are less distressing than yours but painful nonetheless: I have a cute little widescreen Sony Vaio VGN-S4XP/B which I would love to use in the workroom - It needed a good clean out so I formatted the hard drive; but as I was re-installing XP Pro I realised that I hadn't downloaded and stored the drivers. I can't find the original re-install disk so I'm stuck with half a screen and graphics that would drive anyone insane. Has anyone got one of these lovely computers and could send me an original driver disk please? I'll pay money, walk dogs, wash cars - hell, I'll wash trucks - BIG TRUCKS if I can get this thing working properly again - I really miss it!

Before you ask - yes I have been to the Sony website and downloaded their driver set but IT DOESN'T WORK!!! I have even been to the nVidia site and tried theirs but they don't recognise my graphics card - which according to Sony (and the labels on the computer) is nVidia. The frustration is extremely upsetting... What can I do?

Who's next?

Edited November 12, 2008 by UKRay

[TwinOaks]

Rdb, if you can get to a Geek Squad, they have a nifty little deal about data recovery. You pay for what they can get back. If it's unrecoverable, it's only a ~$30 diagnostic fee. When my laptop HDD died, I took it to them, and was surprised when I got a call back later the same day. I showed up and the clerk only said one word, but it told me all I needed to know. He looked at me and said, " Dude...." I'd had a catastrophic physical crash- effectively the read head pulled a Delta and there was little curls of hard drive surface wrapped up around it....I guess that explained the "horrible screeching noise" the geek squad was talking about. I had every little bit of software's original install disk, so that wasn't the problem. The problem was that I had 3 summer vactions, and two Christmas holiday's worth of pics on it- with no back up. Since then, all my keepable pics are double backed up- external hd, and cd. Wife is still ticked off about the lost photos.

[rdb]

You know what's funny Twin?, I have professional forensic applications on the drive that crashed...sheesh

UK, after all the years in the PC business, there's one thing I learned...never buy Sony...too proprietory. This time I feel Your pain!

[ArtS]

It's like I told my brother in law when he asked me if he should be doing backups at work. I told him it was an electro-mechanical device. It's not if, but WHEN, it fails.

Art

[rdb]

ArtS..when it crashed, I backed up...backed up and slammed the chair into the wall.I have 3 servers, 3 very old laptops, and half a dozen old desktops. I've been so sick of computers as a business, I haven't even started any of them up in two years. It felt good up until the crash. At least I didn't break any of your machines...hehehe. There was a time I was in charge of 30,000 users and 3000 Servers spread all around the country, you'ld think I would have done all this by instinct...but noooooo.

[ArtS]

LOL, typical of us IT guys! That's one reason I love leather work and horse back riding so much. I can get away form high tech.

Simplify! This forum is the only good thing about PCs!!!

Art

[Art]

You all have had your pain, now it's over and other than a few residual flashbacks you can go forward. I, on the other hand, can anticipate deploying 7,000 VISTA laptops to the field in 2009 to replace Windows 2000 boxes already in place. Like my dad said, it's like hitting yourself on the thumb with a hammer, it feels so good when you stop.

Art

[Johanna]

Oh, Art....I'm soooo sorry. You're gonna have 6999 problems. Which flavor of Vista? Have you considered early retirement? Tennessee whiskey? I can't imagine 7000 people complaining at the same time. Oh wait, I work here. I have had those days! At least they pass relatively quickly. Yours is going to be a prolonged agony no matter how well you plan the execution. Execution. There's an idea for the person who thought up replacing 7000 computers that work with MS Vista.

The word on the tech boards is that Windows 7 is what Vista should have been. If that drive wouldn't have failed, I would have happily waited for Windows 7. I upgraded my mom and her husband to Vista. It's a lot like the thumb hammering, but at least I can drive over there in 5 minutes and fix it myself. Trying to talk my mother through computer procedures on the phone is more frustrating for me than her.

Johanna

[Art]

Vista Business. When they complain, that's a different department.

Art

Oh, Art....I'm soooo sorry. You're gonna have 6999 problems. Which flavor of Vista? Have you considered early retirement? Tennessee whiskey? I can't imagine 7000 people complaining at the same time. Oh wait, I work here. I have had those days! At least they pass relatively quickly. Yours is going to be a prolonged agony no matter how well you plan the execution. Execution. There's an idea for the person who thought up replacing 7000 computers that work with MS Vista.

The word on the tech boards is that Windows 7 is what Vista should have been. If that drive wouldn't have failed, I would have happily waited for Windows 7. I upgraded my mom and her husband to Vista. It's a lot like the thumb hammering, but at least I can drive over there in 5 minutes and fix it myself. Trying to talk my mother through computer procedures on the phone is more frustrating for me than her.

Johanna

[TwinOaks]

You know what's funny Twin?, I have professional forensic applications on the drive that crashed...sheesh

The Geeks said they could still retrieve the remaining data...but only by basically cutting out the damaged sections and rebuilding a reader for it...I'm sute you know more about it than I do as you have an IT background. My cost would have been over a grand. I guess my wife thought the pics were worth it, but I had to douse that thought with some cold hard reality. For the more drastic measures of data recovery, it'd be worth it if I had a couple of thousand dollars worth of invoices on it, but for 60 something pics, I had to wish it well.