just a horrible day :(

Archives
#1

For the past several months (actually, it’s been about a year now) my PC in my room has been acting up; giving me weird messages and randomly restarting when I go to save something or plug in my iPod.

A couple weeks ago, I went to turn it on, but it gave me a black screen and told me to “Insert boot disk, press any key and restart.” I restarted it and it booted up fine.

Today, however, my computer completely kicked the bucket on me. :cry: It won’t boot at all.

Everything that’s important to me is on that computer; including my extensive collection of scanned artwork. Although most of it is saved onto a DVD and my iPod’s hard drive, I know there are things on my computer that I would hate to lose that I haven’t backed up.

For now, I don’t know if the hard drive is still intact (that is, all the info is still on it - but the computer is just not booting). I would really, really like to know this, but my uncle - who is a computer programmer - is extremely busy and I am not sure when I’ll have the time to talk to him about it. (I need a Mac, is what!!! :`-( )

The tower has had 2 hard drive upgrades, but no RAM boost; I’m unsure if it can support it. I’m suspecting that is why it died.

On top of that, I had a horrible piano lesson because my mind just wasn’t there. Thankfully, my teacher said some stuff to me that really lifted my spirits … plus, I got a capucchino afterwards, which always cheer me up. :unamused:

Buuuuut anyways. Anyone else had bad days similar to mine…? Let’s make this a place to vent next time the day just goes rough. :stuck_out_tongue:

little chef

#2

Well sorry that your laptop isn’t working. :cry: When my computer isn’t working I go to the library, and use their computer. :smiley:

#3

I’m so sorry to hear that! Sometimes, the computer tech guys can save any files, but it usually costs a nice chunk of money. Hopefully you’ll have some luck and won’t lose any files!

I had a similar experience. Last January my macbook hard drive crashed. I had most of my files backed up, but not all. I chose not to have the computer guys rescue my files. I just redid the project as I was in the middle of one for a class at the time. It is a gut wrenching experience to have your computer die and files lost. For me, the computer is pretty much my life; all my projects and photos for school and personal. So I completely understand how you feel.

#4

I’m sorry that you had such a horrible day, little_chef_eva! :frowning: It’s an awful experience to have your computer kick the bucket. I hope that you can get it to boot long enough to save those files. One of my friends said that he took his drive out, and hit it a couple times (lightly) and he was able to get it to boot long enough to backup his files. I don’t know if that’ll help, but it’s worth a try…

  • [Mac-influenced] Yet another reason that I love Leopard is the inclusion of Time Machine. I don’t know if anyone’s like me, but I never really used to backup my files. Now, I really don’t have to worry because everything is backed up all the time. [/influence] But luckily, I’ve never had a hard-drive failure. My friend has and he says that as soon as you start having weird problems, they are warning signs that your drive is about to die.
#5

crosses fingers for good luck for you I really really really hope the files can be saved, little_chef_eva09! I know a similar feeling, when I wasn’t sure I trusted the USB…but when the crash comes unexpectedly…that’s just insanely terrible. I can feel your pain. I hope a solution comes- fast!

#6

Wouldn’t try that unless you’re 100% sure it’s the hard drive. Even then, I think the freezing method is preferred (that is if you don’t want to spend hundreds on a data recovery service) . If you have another PC you could plug the hard drive into to see if it functions. Could be a Power supply going bad. Overheating, perhaps due to a dead fan or dust build up. Ram. Motherboard. There’s plenty to go wrong.

You say it won’t boot so I guess it at least powers on?

#7

That’s the one thing I don’t like about technology…It’s never 100% secure. But hey, things could be a lot worse. :slight_smile: Hope everything works out for the better. :smiley:

#8

Actually, I kind of knew in the back of my mind that this would happen. That’s why it was my saving grace to back up everything seriously important only two days prior to “it” happening. Although… now that I’m remembering… there were some videos I had saved on my computer that have long since been erased off of their DVD-RW discs… :cry: Funny vids, too. (I remembered that when I looked back at my screen capture under the “Wallpaper” thread. :cry:)

I’m not going to touch the internals myself; noooooo thank you. I’m not skilled enough in that area to even want to try it out. :open_mouth:

Fett101: I’m pretty sure it did not overheat. It’s been running fine for years… I’m thinking it might have to do with RAM or something; like, maybe it couldn’t handle all the info I was processing on the computer. I would leave it on all day, but that shouldn’t have affected it.

I do have another newer tower, but it runs on Windows 2000 (my PC was a Windows XP Professional Edition SP2), so I don’t know if a hard drive transfer would work. :confused: Like I said, it brings up the opening screen, sits there for about 10-15 seconds, then shows me a black screen that says “insert boot disk…” blah blah blah. I was like, !!!#&^#$%#!!! (ok, haha, not really xD)

Remy14: I used to have an external hard drive, but that crashed, too. It wouldn’t let my computer boot, and so I turned it off, but when I turned it back on, it had wiped everything. :frowning: How reliable is the Apple TimeMachine, do you know? I would invest if I knew it had a good record of reliability; although you can’t trust any computer anyways. :unamused:

JF: Thanks. :wink: I’m hoping for the same. :smiley:

BDD: I hope so, too! If I had about $2,203.95 in hand right now, I would instantly buy myself a refurbished MacBook Pro. No questions asked.

Hannahmation: The computer is my life, too. At least I have copies of all my pictures backed up - not only on CDs, but on my mom’s Vista. All of my precious stories are safe and sound on my iPod’s hard drive - thank God!!! :smiley: I have poured hours, days, years - and most importantly, my heart - into those stories, and I would be a mess if I lost any one of them. But they are safe… praise God!!!

TAMATER: Umm, this wasn’t my laptop. This was my actual PC - my “baby”. And it is dead. :cry: cries loudly haha… I’m random, so please don’t take me serious on that little bit. :wink:

#9

Not having enough ram shouldn’t crash it. It should just make it real slow. A corrupt stick of RAM would crash it, however.

They are both likely using the NTFS file system so if you plug the hard drive in it should read fine in Windows NT. Not replacing the existing hard drive, mind you, but plugging it in as a secondary drive. But I’ve no idea your comfort level with computer hardware so it may still be out of the question.

Having a mac won’t make every problem go away. My best friends wife is a teacher and her school system recently purchased new macs for them. They’ve had hard drive problems with a majority of the macbooks. (Seagate hard drives, more specifically. blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/?p=2878 )

#10

Always get Wester Digital…seagate pretty old and out of date IMO…Western Digital or the next brand…Raptors are great.

#11

“but no RAM boost; I’m unsure if it can support it.”

Ic an guarantee you it’s not the problem.

stick it in another PC and all will be fine.

#12

Sorry to hear about the computer, red! Technology can be brilliant most of the time, but then sometimes it’s the most annoying thing in the world, especially when you lose important stuff. I’m sorry I can’t be of much help here, since I’m not very good with anything more than basic technology!

I’ve had a bad day myself, having failed my driving test this morning because of not looking left whilst on a roundabout. One silly mistake, and that was it, and now I can’t stop crying about it because it’s so frustrating. Plus, it’s going to cost me another £100 to book my next test and pay for the use of the instructor’s car.

#13

Sorry to hear that lizardgirl! I understand how frustrating that must be to fail because of one small mistake. Think of it this way though, you’re not a bad driver! Just one silly mistake that could’ve happened to anyone. Don’t get too down. :slight_smile:

#14

Don’t get too discouraged, lizardgirl. Not to say that failing a driving test isn’t a big deal (because it most certainly IS!!!), but the fact is it could have been a lot worse. At least you didn’t crash the car or something; and roundabouts are hard, anyways. Yuck. I’ll be praying that you are able to come up with the money for another go at it, and I will be praying that you pass the next time with flying colors!!! :smiley:

A note about my computer - I’ve been reading up on the net about my problem, and what I’m getting out of it is this… a lot are saying that my problem probably lies in the file system, and that it is corrupted. I don’t have the disk that came with my computer, so I can’t follow their instructions of creating a new system file with the CD. :imp: It wouldn’t erase my files or anything - it would just reinstall the actual computer’s filing system. :stuck_out_tongue: but it’s still frustrated. I emailed my uncle and I’ll see what he says. What would be ideal is if he could actually look at it himself and watch it boot up; maybe he could diagnose the problem just by watching it.

#15

Sounds like a pretty intense day. Anything important to you that is located on your computer you NEED to put on a flash drive or some kind of external hard-drive. Especially your artwork!

Hopefully things turn around soon!

BTW- I failed my drivers test the first time i took it. It sucks yes, but its bound to be passed your second time… maybe third? lol

#16

Don’t feel too bad…I failed my test twice before I got my license…The first time I screwed up my parallel parking, and the second time I ran a stop sign right outside of the DMV! It looked a lot like a yield… But oh, well. :stuck_out_tongue: Hope for the best on your next try!

#17

Bah. Seagate and Western Digital are both the cream of the crop. But truthfully, all the major brands are generally good. I’ve had long lasting maxtors, western digitals, hitachis, fujitus, and seagates. It’s a crap shoot sometimes.

#18

Now is my turn to have a bad day… :frowning:

I had an argument with my dad in the afternoon, and I don’t think I can finish The Dark Droid in time for my planned release tonight. But that’s the least of my worries, cos’ now my 3-year old Mac takes the opportunity to act up on me.

I’ve been having problems with getting my MacBook Pro to recognise any CD/DVD now… it always ejects whatever CD I insert into its slot drive…

Now my Windows XP has gone kaput, I noticed it when my customised icon for its hard drive didn’t appear on the boot-up screen (I use Boot Camp, so I hold down option to choose which OS to boot up in). When I choose to boot in XP, it gives a System 32 error, and asks me to reinstall it. Good thing I can still access my stuff in OS through Finder, so I quickly made backups of my music/movies/stuff (too bad I can’t save my game programs though. I have to reinstall and start playing all over again). I browsed forums, and they suggest a clean reinstall, but now the stupid thing is that because my MBP refuses to accept CDs, it won’t recognise my Windows XP installation disk and spits it out!

This is so frustrating! I’ve tried everything, I took the battery out and placed it back again, tried to boot in Repair Mode or something and tons of other methods throughout the whole of today. Now I’m gonna take it down to Funan, the IT mall where I bought it, and see the Mac people about it. I hope to get my optical drive replaced and my Windows working again.

At least now I’m good terms with my ‘old man’ now. When I told him about my problem, he told me he needs to replace a broken key on his own laptop anyway, so he’s taking me down to the city too. :neutral_face:

#19

the games are still playble. copy the whole folder from C:\program files[game], then just copy it back et voila.

#20

Thanks guys. Feel a bit better about it now.

That sounds really frustrating, thedriveintheatre! I hope you can sort out your computer issues soon.