15th February, 2007 (6:51 pm)
The Day My Computer Went Tits Up
Anyone who tells me that I should have had an external hard disk will get a fucking battering.
It refuses to even load, telling me that the system is either corrupt or missing. I have no idea why. I was in the middle of replying to an email (without an attachment) and it just froze. And that was the end of that. It sounds like a virus(?) but I have no idea how it got in problem with my OS or hardware; my PC was like a fortress. Half the time it won’t even let me run legit programs, let alone anything random.
I then had an hour of trying to configure my laptop with my modem (wired - I won’t even try wireless, cos that still isn’t working), for my ISP officially uses the Worst Modem System Known To Man ™.
This means that I’ve lost all the emails recently already downloaded to my client, so if I haven’t replied to you in the last few days, I now probably won’t unless you send your mail again. I also can’t access any in my email archives. I have limited access to everything else as my life was on that machine. I just hope to Christ that it can be salvaged. We’re talking three years worth of photos of my son, my family. All my sites, my SH collection - everything.
What a fucking nightmare. What’s the point of having two hard drives if when C:/ goes tits up, the other does too?
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Comment by Ian — 15 February, 2007 @ 7:01 pm
That sucks so hard!! Having your comp go tits up freakin sucks, but all hope might not be lost. Now of course I am no computer repair person thus cannot garantee anything, but the same thing happened to my computer, one day it just didnt load up, just a blank cursor flashing, turns out it was the motherboard, but everything in the hard drive is fine, so maybe the same is true for you, maybe if you get an enclosure or something that will let you connect your hard drive to another comp, you can retreive your files.
Comment by Amy — 15 February, 2007 @ 7:13 pm
What refuses to load - the OS? Does it boot fine otherwise? It makes a difference where exactly things are dying, so I highly suggest taking it in somewhere to see if things can’t be salvaged.
If it’s just the OS, it’s likely all your files are still there. Ditto if it’s a hardware issue not affecting the harddrive itself.
You have two harddrives? What about the one without the OS? You can’t get at it right now, but that doesn’t mean that it’s broken in the slightest. You just may have to connect it to another computer. That’s the idea with having two harddrives - one for programs and the OS, the other for files. It’s safer that way. :)
Anyways, I don’t want to interrupt your righteous anger or anything (batter away), but channel it into something useful and it may not be as bad as you think. :) Computers can be irritating, sure, but try not to let em have power over you, ok? It’s not worth it.
Comment by Vixx — 15 February, 2007 @ 7:21 pm
Amy, batter the anger away. The thought of losing everything on there makes me sick so the thought of *not* losing it gives me a ray of hope!
It *seems* to be a problem connected to the OS because it just won’t boot. Not even in safe mode. When it crashed it was making a weird clunking sound and that was that.
I’m starting to think that it wasn’t a virus. There’s no reason for it to have been; I was in the middle of working on something and it was fine. It’s not like I was in the middle of an attachment download or anything. Maybe is it a Motherboard or OS failure?
Although I’m fairly certain that the programs/files were all on the same harddrive as the OS. Which is PANTS now that I think about it.
Thanks guys. :D
V xx
Comment by Amy — 15 February, 2007 @ 7:30 pm
But it gets past the original boot stuff, right? Do you see the Windows logo at all?
Can you get into the BIOS? (Normally you press Delete during the boot up.)
I highly doubt it’s a virus. Doesn’t sound like something a virus’d do, IMO. Viruses need to spread, so most of them won’t completely incapacitate a computer when they can instead use it for their nefarious purposes. No, it sounds like a corrupt OS or a hardware problem. In either case, your files, or at least some of them, are likely recoverable. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise and certainly don’t format any harddrive until you know for sure.
I lost a ton of my personal emails a while ago and it was awful (harddrive died, I had no backups). Now I’m careful to make backups of everything. It’s something you never bother doing until you realise how much it’d hurt without them. Just keep backup copies of your files on your other harddrive… it’s EASY to do and no reason not to. :)
Comment by valerie — 15 February, 2007 @ 7:36 pm
awwww, this sucks so bad. I totally know where you are. This happened to me alllll the time on the Compaq. I hope you can salvage your files!
Comment by Vixx — 15 February, 2007 @ 7:37 pm
Nope. Doesn’t even get as far as the windows logo. :(
I my PC Manufacturer logo, blank screen with cursor, and then the error about the /c/programs/windows/blah/blah/system being missing or corrupt.
Should I be crying now?
V xx
Comment by Amy — 15 February, 2007 @ 7:52 pm
Not at all. Even if the OS is screwed as long as the file allocation table is intact (which is likely unless there are hardware issues on your harddrive) you can probably still recover all the files. Just get an expert to take a look at it.
As for the computer itself… it depends what place it’s actually getting to. If it’s not posting, that’s a big problem. Does your computer normally beep when you boot up? Does it beep now, or does it not beep now and it usually does?
I’m not sure how much troubleshooting you want to do on your own (none of this’d be necessary… just take the computer in) but if there are no files on your second harddrive and you have a Windows CD, try taking out your C drive and installing the old D as the master drive. Then try to install Windows on D and see if that all works. If you’re successful that means that it’s probably not a hardware issue. But it’d be quite time-consuming to do that, so you might as well pay the pros to. (Make sure the pros really are pros and won’t give up or try to get you to buy a new computer though. Some people are jerks.)
Comment by Vixx — 15 February, 2007 @ 8:08 pm
I don’t know what ‘posting’ is, but yes it’s beeping when it’s turned on and then it’s gets to the manufacturer logo and then stops and starts literally clunking - which suggests maybe a hardware issue, now that I think about it. As for changing the drives myself . . . I don’t trust myself. I’m BOUND to make things worse!
I do have *some* files on my second harddrive - a lukewarm attempt to back up several months back. Better than nothing I guess.
I think I’m going to have to take it in and try to get someone to recover what they can. My brother’s housemate builds PCs, so hopefully he’ll be able to help . . . and be less judgemental about the illegal software etc. I have on there . . .
Sob. It’s sooooo new - less than 18mts old. It was my lovely shiny machine and now it’s gooooooooone. :(
V xx
Comment by Amelie — 15 February, 2007 @ 8:10 pm
Wait, there were clunking sounds in your hard drive?
That *could* mean a head crash (read/write disk head gets stuck or something and corrupts whatever data it’s writing at the time). What happens if you try putting the hard drive in another PC (not as master, but as slave)? Can you read from the drive then, and does it still make those clunking sounds?
Don’t give up, I thought I’d lost everything when my computer wouldn’t do a thing except beep last year - turns out my motherboard was fried and needed replacing, thankfully leaving my hard drive and everything on it intact.
If all else fails, do as Amy says and take the hard drive (not your entire PC - I don’t think that’s at fault) to your local PC World or similar, especially if your PC is still under warranty. They should be able to sort it for you.
Even if your computer doesn’t recognise the data on the hard drive, you have NOT lost it. There are special programs out there that will pick up everything it can find on the hard drive for you to pick through, even if the HDD has been formatted.
Repeat: you haven’t lost all your stuff!
Comment by Amelie — 15 February, 2007 @ 8:13 pm
If it clunks every time you switch it on, DON’T switch the computer on. That sounds to me very much like a head crash and turning the PC on/off will only make it worse. Take it in ASAP and get the hard drive looked at!
Comment by Amelie — 15 February, 2007 @ 8:15 pm
Info on head crashes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_crash
See if the symptoms listed apply.
Comment by Vixx — 15 February, 2007 @ 8:19 pm
I have the best online support service in the world. :P
Yes it’s clunking so no, I won’t turn it on and off anymore. Promise! As for the master and slave thing . . . sounds good for a bit of sexual roleplay, but other than that I’m lost. :P I love how you’re both sweethearts and assume I know what I’m doing with PCs, but I honestly don’t - I’m okay as long as they’re working. Then I’m fucked. :P
I’m just so wound up. I’m off work tomorrow as both Sam and I have hospital appointments - mine is my assessment for when I have my surgery next week - and we have friends staying the weekend, which means I’m not going to be able to deal with this until at least Monday. Arrgh.
Thanks guys. You rock my world. <33
V xx
Comment by Amy — 15 February, 2007 @ 8:22 pm
Alright, I think it’s getting past the post, which with good. But clunking is very NOT good. :/ Turn it off and leave it, like Amelie said, until you can have an expert look at it. Once a computer starts making loud and weird noises, turn it off and keep it off - it could do damage to leave it on.
Comment by Amelie — 15 February, 2007 @ 8:23 pm
At the bottom of that Wikipedia article I linked above, there is a link to the sounds of a “crashed” hard drive - do the clunking noises sound anything like those sample sounds? If so, you can pretty much be certain that it’s your hard drive that’s at fault.
And LOL at the sexual roleplay thing XD I can just imagine some nice hardcore hard disk action going on now ;)
…and I have no idea what I’m doing with PCs either. I just sound like I do… Heh.
Comment by Vixx — 15 February, 2007 @ 8:34 pm
What a GREAT link. It’s definitely one of the first two noises - that’s the clunk I can hear. So it’s 95% certain it’s a head crash and a problem with my harddrive. This is not good. :(
Verdicts, ladies? :\
V xx
Comment by Amelie — 15 February, 2007 @ 11:12 pm
Don’t worry, you can still recover the data from your drive, it’s not lost. The only problem is that it might cost you a bit to recover said data… The reason being, the techs will have to take your old hard disk apart, take the actual disk part out and then put it into another (identical) disk, which will read the contents properly. Depends how much data there is and how much of it you want to recover… And also whether the HDD is irreparable. It might be that the techs can repair it enough to read the data off it and onto another disk.
All in all, get yourself down to a tech centre asap and see what they can do for you!
Comment by Alyssa — 16 February, 2007 @ 1:02 am
Oh, seriously. Your C drive AND your other drive too? I guess there’s no point in saving my novel on the other drive just in case…might as well put it on an external CD. I hope you have someone trustworthy to call for help. We always call my cousin’s husband; he’s cleaned out two viruses and gotten us loads of pirated goodies. Good luck.
Comment by Vixx — 16 February, 2007 @ 7:08 am
My novel’s on my flashpen, thankfully, and backed up onto my laptop.
As far as I know, the stuff on my other drive is completely reachable; just not by me. :\
Fingers crossed that, like the wonderful Amelie and Amy have said, the stuff on my C drive can also be saved . . .
V xx
Comment by Dave — 16 February, 2007 @ 9:51 am
I had the same issue with my work HDD once, one of the IT girls fixed it up with some program launched at boot time. Perhaps one of the sectors is damaged and a ‘disk clean’ type thing will sort it out… hard to look into it without a machine though!
Comment by maureen — 16 February, 2007 @ 4:24 pm
Just another thing to f***k up your day. :( Hope you get it sorted soon.Hugs.
Comment by Jem — 16 February, 2007 @ 5:04 pm
I think Amelie is more likely to be correct and by following Dave’s suggestion (or getting someone else to follow it) you’re likely to do more damage to your disk. Amelie is right though - the repair job is likely to be costly.
File recovering is a good business to get into because the people doing it know that you’re going to be desperate and if you want your data back have no other choice but to fork out large quantities of cash.
For future reference (no use now, obviously): the moment there’s even the slightest possibility of a hard drive issue, don’t turn it back on. Even if the problem is not an actual physical issue, you have a higher chance of recovering data by leaving the hard drive turned off. (This is particularly relevant for recovering deleted data but is important nonetheless.)
I would maybe make a small hint towards backing up, but I know for a fact that my main backup is weeks old and utterly useless in terms of files/etc so it would be incredibly hypocritical of me :P