memorial service to be held tonight over ice cream

[listersgirl]

Next time I own a computer, would you please remind me to back up every single fucking thing, no matter how small or seemingly inconsequential?

So, yeah, my poor laptop has gone to join jacito's in the dead gay laptop heaven in the sky. Unfortunately, it looks like mine is not coming back, ever. Well, they said they could give me a new motherboard, but that would cost about as much as I paid for the thing in the first place, so I don't think so.

I just want to cry. Maybe that's why I feel so sick right now. Goodbye to my big recipe database project, to my budget (which took me so long to create), to all my half-finished smut. Oh! And my favourites! All these sites that I'd bookmarked to look at later. Thank pete I have my resume and other assorted stuff on disk, although not the most recent version, I don't think.

Oh well, it's my own stupidity for not backing up regularly.

God, now I guess I have to see if I have enough money to buy a new laptop. And then I have to actually buy one, and try not to let myself get completely screwed, or suckered into getting something more than I need. *sob* My brain hurts already.

Comments

[starfishchick]

Oh no!! This is bad, sad news!

:(

[listersgirl]

Seriously.

[linaerys.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

That totally sucks . . . did the computer store say that the information on your hard disk is a total loss?

Good luck.

[listersgirl]

I have to talk to them when I go pick up the computer (I can never understand anything they're saying on the phone - it's a very bad connection), but I'm not holding much hope.

Ouch

[gmajor.livejournal.com]

My sympathies. To lose a computer you use so much is bad enough, but to lose something you had written...ack!

Does the new computer have to be a laptop though? I know they're teh cool but you generally pay 1.5 x more and get 2.5 x more problems. Gmajorette's laptop has been consigned to emergency use only since the battery died. I'm thinking laptops, more trouble than they're worth.

You might want to look at CPUSED/PCUSED. www.cpused.com
They have lots of used PCs and Macs that might be closer to your budget, at least in the interim. Since you don't want to get talked into buy more computer than you can afford, perhaps this is the way to go. Get what you NEED.



Now, I'm a Mac person (I'm kind of like an ex-smoker in that way) so I'd always recc a Mac over a PC to anyone who asks, but I am also well aware that they cost about 1.5x as much as the average PC, however, they will be much more trouble-free, and I can help you out with some software for it too. We can talk more about it on Saturday if you'd like.

Re: Ouch

[listersgirl]

I pretty much has to be a laptop, because there's nowhere to put a PC in our apartment. Plus I only ever use the computer while sitting on the couch. :)

I've thought about Macs, but I'm reluctant to give up my comfort with maneouvering around the PC - Macs always feel a bit awkward to me. I don't know, I'll have to look around once I have saved up enough money for purchasing.

Re: Ouch

[pauliatchy.livejournal.com]

If you need something while you're looking, I have about a half dozen PCs kicking around in my apartment, you're welcome to one or more of them, as they are only taking up space at this point.

There are a lot of places that you can get refurbished laptops at great prices. Like Gmajor, I recommend CPUsed. They back everything they sell with a one year warranty (better than what ANY laptop vendor will give you). The PC part of their business is PCUsed (clever, huh?) and the pricelist is at http://www.pcused.com/pcudaily.html

Re: Ouch

[gmajor.livejournal.com]

Their sales staff are totally cool and helpful too.

I went in to buy the Air Port Base Station (Apple's wireless hub) and the girl there pointed out the 3rd party hardware that was cheaper and more flexible as far as OSes and configurations were concerned.

[kylegirl.livejournal.com]

Oh, how sucky! Is the hard drive broken, because maybe you could put it in another computer to get all your smut and recipes out of it? Good luck, anyway.

[listersgirl]

See, now, there's something I hadn't thought of. Good suggestion!

[sarcasma.livejournal.com]

Fuuuuuuuuuck.. *hugs*

Second what the others are saying about bugging the store to attempt data recovery. They couldn't get anything off my hard drive when it died, but it was like, not even posting, never mind booting. Yours wasn't quite as dead as that, was it? just, you know, everything else.

Anyway, whatever, it still SUCKS.

[listersgirl]

I'm not sure how dead it really is. :D All I would get would be start-up anticipation noises and then...nothing. But I will definitely see if there's anything they can drag off it.

[mellyflori.livejournal.com]

Oh honey, that sucks big hairy donkey balls. Don't give up on the hard drive though, there are companies out there who will do data recovery. Also, your favorite geek might know something about it.. find a favorite geek and ask. :(

[listersgirl]

That is definitely the plan. :)

[canirl.livejournal.com]

oh, hugs, that is truly horrible. I can just imagine how awful that must feel.
But just think how many people you've just inspired to go take some backups?

[listersgirl]

That's me, inspiring though stupidity!

Hee.

[marginalia.livejournal.com]

this is just the hardest way to learn the backup everything lesson, isn't it? argh. much sympathy from this quarter, let me tell you.

(and re the mac comment above - i had been an all pc girl for a few years now, but a week with my friend's iBook and i was -sold-, dude. when i have a Real Job i'm getting a desktop pc, i suppose, but a refurbished mac laptop, because that was a thing of beauty, though a bit small for a primary machine.)

[listersgirl]

Heh, yeah, I was nearly swayed to the Mac side after my catsitting adventure, which included a beautiful new iMac to play on.

[jalirious.livejournal.com]

use a notepad and an abacus.

[listersgirl]

Ooh, maybe it's time for a return to the tin can walkie talkie! Heh.

[tinkerer.livejournal.com]

I'll admit that I've only skimmed through the comments (I don't have the greatest attention span at the moment, having just finished coding a pretty elegant solution to something completely unrelated), but as someone (kylegirl, methinks) mentioned, you can still get the data off of your laptop hard drive.

I happen to have a device — purchased for just such an emergency (usually my own, though :), that would enable you to do just this. (Essentially, you plug the laptop HD into this device, plug the device into the USB port on a computer, and voilà! — the OS [preferably WinXP or Win2K to make this whole plug-and-play thing a little easier] recognizes your portable hard drive.

My schedule is a bit of a pain, but I have a Metropass, so it's all good. Let me know if you want to borrow the device in question (or, as an alternative, if you want to lend me yon hard drive... or some combination of these two...)

[listersgirl]

Hey, thanks for the offer! I have already arranged for my files to be retrieved and stuck onto a disk, though. So all is not lost.

[tinkerer.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear it!

The offer stands, should the unthinkable ever happen again down the road...