How do you solve a problem like a crashed computer...

So, my faithful Acer 2480, Windows XP Media Center Edition, kicked it on me. On Monday, I pushed the power button, and unfortunately, I got the lovely Acer splash screen, however, after that, nothing but the black screen of death. I am probably too self-reliant. I like to fix things myself. Computers included. If I don't know how, I will go and figure it out.

So, I embarked on a mission. This mission included, but was not limited to, buying Avanquest Fix-it Utilities, external hard drives, trying to repair with XP recovery console, loading Linux and trying to rescue my files, all sorts of stuff. I got everything safely off of the D, but the C (which for a long line of reasons is not backed-up) had screwy file allocation, which I think--now that I've sorted through a lot of online info, and played with the computer-- is probably what caused the inability to boot up anyways. There are many, many things that I must rescue from said C drive, so after a successful rescue mission on the D drive, and all that info now living safely on an external hard drive, I decided that I would load windows onto my D drive and then hopefully be able to fix the file allocation of the C with my D up and running.

I still don't know if this will work, because when I loaded XP, I learned that my product key wasn't working. Who knows why! So, after about 45 minutes on hold and getting transferred from one Microsoft call center to another, I was informed by a foreign call center (by the sound of it), that my product key was a valid product key, however, if it wasn't working, it wasn't Microsoft's problem. I would have to contact the company from which I purchased the software. I didn't purchase this software, my dad did, back when Caleb was building his own computer and bought a couple of extra licenses for reloads and what have you. So, now, I'm trying to figure out where Dad bought this thing, and why it's not loading. Once I do, I probably won't be able to fix the file allocation anyways (that's just a bit too advanced for me), and unless I want to wipe my C and reload XP there (which I DON'T because everything I've ever written in my creative writing life--everything since from the ages of 11 to the present--is stuck on there. Hundreds of thousands of words of the only creative thing I know how to do) I'll probably end up getting the Geek Squad. Oh, how great this has been. Many, many, many hours, only to surrender to the guys with pocket protectors.

I will back-up from now on. It's not that I didn't believe in backing up files, I just never did it for a long strand of reasons which I will not share, because I get passionate about all the terrible things that happened to me. Really, if I get all the files out of there, that's great. But really, all I will not surrender to wiping is all my creative writing, and my journal. That's it.

My mother says I'm having a slump in my life. That's why I shouldn't climb stairs at the moment. I'll probably break something.

Comments

p said…
If you've got a bad FAT probably the best you can hope for is to read out the drive in the shape it's in then patch files back together manually.

But it's probably more than just a bad FAT. That disk is old and is dying. It will have lots of bad sectors and quite likely parts of your files are lost.

Norton Disk Doctor may recover a chunk of it. You might also try freezing the disk for an hour then quickly booting and recovering files. This requires you to take apart the computer and you'll probably want some longer patch cords to connect with it in the freezer ideally. This sometimes helps.

See more at
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/how_to_detect_a_faulty_hard_drive_and_recover_data
June 5, 2010 at 9:08 AM
p said…
Oh. don't expect that disk to have any useful life once you recover data. Dump it NOW and replace it immediately.
June 5, 2010 at 9:10 AM
Hannah said…
Yeah, I eventually surrendered to the Geek Squad, and the Geek said it was probably just breaking down and corrupting files. So, the files weren't recoverable with what they had there, and they're running diagnostics to see where I need to fix it.
June 5, 2010 at 6:08 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Over-analyzing Disney Movies: The Little Mermaid--Why Eric is White.

Image
I have recently noticed a trend of just purely over-analyzing Disney movies.  In this category, I also include the fascination with photoshopping Disney characters to swap genders, races, or eras, as well as making princesses have "realistic" body shapes (which is something I could write a whole other post about, and it wouldn't be pretty.  Spoiler alert:  I find it to be one of the most unempowering trends of recent years).  However, I sometimes wonder at how much people are reading into Disney movies.  Today, I'm going to over-analyze their over-analysis. I recently read that the fact that Eric is a white prince is a representation of how we white-wash racial expectations for our children.  I'm not even sure what that sentence means.  It seems to have a lot of buzz words.  But I'm going to show you today, using evidence from the film, why Prince Eric is, in fact, the correct color. (I will, however, say that Eric is the only Disney prince wh...
Read more

Derevaun Seraun! Derevaun Seraun!

James Joyce is my kind of guy. He made puzzles that I like to think are just for me. He was a great lover of languages, and he is sometimes called the father of a literary technique called polyglotism. This is when you insert other languages in there. Just 'cuz. So, in James Joyce's wonderful story, "Eveline" there is a phrase that nobody knows what it is. Even to this day. "Derevaun Seraun! Derevaun Seraun!" Many people believe it to be corrupted Irish Gaelic. Needing a break from homework, I have approached this by taking the words and then transliterating them into Irish Gaelic, trying to create Irish Gaelic that would be spoken by someone of this status in this time in Ireland. Nationalist, but not educated enough to actually understand all the ins and outs of the language. I came up with two possible phrases that I find very probable. And I'm not pretending to solve the mystery. If Joyce experts over the years have not discovered the mean...
Read more

What does it mean to be a Russell?

Image
As many know, most European families (not all, but most) have a coat of arms, a crest, a motto, all that good stuff. So, I decided to look a bit into what being a Russell means. And maybe I'll do the same for Hatches, because I am a Hatch too. The last name Russell is Scottish and means "Red-headed" and derives from the Norman name of Roussel. The Russells are a well-respected Highland Scot clan, complete with Scottish crest and tartan: The motto on the crest "virtus sine macula" means "Virtue without blemish." As Scotland incorporated more and more into England, the Russells became nobility in that world as well, and were thus presented with a coat of arms: And yes, the motto written on that one is "che sara sara." You've got to admit, that's pretty gosh-darn cool. It really does mean "Whatever will be, will be." And in honor of that:
Read more