no one should ever feel the way that I feel now

[aruan]

At approximately 9:43 this morning, the good Dell tech supporter proclaimed any piece of data on my hard drive as good as gone. Gone!

I'm sure emotion will set in about this as soon as the shock wears off.

Long story short, ran XP installation which completed then crashed in the finalization phase due to a "fatal error" (and doesn't that alone frighten the bejeezus out of everyone else, too?) and will not be coerced to finish the process no matter how I cajole it, yet the only thing it can be compelled to do upon startup is begin again. No desktop, no way to quit the program, nothing.

My computer has been reduced to a three-thousand-dollar broken record.

The only reason why I haven't spiraled into deep depression at the bottom of a bottle of amber liquid is that I backed up almost everything on the external drive before running the upgrade. So far as I can catalogue, the only things lost are my *NSYNC fic folder, which sucks a lot as I've spent the past two years building and categorizing it and quite a bit of it is stuff that's not on the Web anymore, and my internet bookmarks, which, while also spectacularly sucktastic, aren't wholly irreplacable either. My 80 gigs of media, 15 gigs of pictures, and 18 gigs of music are all snug as a bug, and how happy am I that I took the time, however frustratingly long, to make that transfer? Because there's no telling what state I'd be in right now otherwise, but it sure wouldn't have been one conducive to the Ethics test I just took.

So, yes. At least that. *sigh* And of course, what they tell me I need is another XP installation disk (as the recovery disk for my old OS is no good because XP wiped it completely during installation) that could somehow be magically made to hocus-pocus XP into repairing and booting.

And I'll tell myself that's all that needs to happen, because the mere thought of the alternative really will drive me to drink.

Comments

[digital-diva.livejournal.com]

Ouch. I'm glad you have some sort of back-up but I still feel your pain.

[gjstruthseeker.livejournal.com]

The fact that those two things weren't salvaged too are my own carelessness and frustration with the process, but yeah, still much with the pouting on this end. But you know what, as I said, anything that truly would've been virtually unsalvageable (and truly so, i.e. my pictures from, say, France and all my word documents) are safe. It's mostly that no one warned me, you know? No one told me everything on my hard drive would be gone whether or not installation went smoothly. There would've been much more in the way of preparation had that been the case.

[without-me.livejournal.com]

Argh! Thinking good thoughts for you...

[gjstruthseeker.livejournal.com]

Thanks, love. What stood to be lost was lost, but like I said, could've been worlds worse.

[halimede.livejournal.com]

*hugs* Go you with the diligent backing up.

[gjstruthseeker.livejournal.com]

And to think my Communication on the Internet TA (who gave me the installation disk) told me not to worry too much about backing things up, that the upgrade wouldn't be a big deal. I can't even deal with the thought of the alternative had I listened.

WAIT! HARD DISK RESCUE MISSION!

[halimede.livejournal.com]

The husband says that if you haven't done anything with it yet, we can maybe set up a rescue mission by phone (it must be in the air) and extract the stuff you lost before overwriting everything.

Re: WAIT! HARD DISK RESCUE MISSION!

[gjstruthseeker.livejournal.com]

The guy at Dell, somewhat belatedly, conceded that there may have been some way to do so, but you know what, by the time it came to that, I was desperate enough to just have a working computer at all to just keep going. That, and it was a moot point. *sigh* So it goes. I'd love to know what I could've done for future reference though.

Re: WAIT! HARD DISK RESCUE MISSION!

[halimede.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I can understand how you felt. And it's not something that's easy to summarize other than to say: Mobilize the local geek squad, where local is a stretchy concept. Seriously, if at all feasible in terms of complexity of the problem, we totally would have done the phone thing. :)

Re: WAIT! HARD DISK RESCUE MISSION!

[gjstruthseeker.livejournal.com]

And you would've been my very first phone call, overseas charges be damned, had I had my cellphone on me. I've never lost it before - what an afternoon to start, eh?

[ahestele.livejournal.com]

Jesus Christ that's scary.

I can't afford and external hard drive. You are the second person that's been scared that way. I should take the HIIIINNNNTTT!!!!

*wigged*

[gjstruthseeker.livejournal.com]

They've gotten much, much more afforable in the past year or so. And even if it's just a small one so you've got copies of your most essential pictures and word documents, even that's better than nothing. Seriously consider setting the money aside, it's so worth it. Otherwise though, you can just back stuff up on CD, which, while much more time and space consuming, is still a very, very smart decision always.

[trickyjazzer.livejournal.com]

That roryally sucks. But THANK GOD for your external HD. I'm starting to think that's the best way to go.

[gjstruthseeker.livejournal.com]

Indeed. That external drive was the best computer-related decision I've made in a long, long time and would recommend the investment to everyone. They're supposed to last virtually forever, are much less of a hassle than saving everything to CDs, and while nothing is foolproof, it's the best we've got, especially for people like us with so much media to back up.

[go4it.livejournal.com]

Yow, that is very scary. I'm glad you didn't lose everything.

I'm thinking the external HD may not be such a bad idea after all.

[gjstruthseeker.livejournal.com]

Far, far from everything, and that's so much better than other people's stories I've heard. The irreplacable stuff is largely safe. I just would've liked some warning that this was a possibility that could happen - everyone's made it out to be a simple matter of changing platforms, not reformatting, which is what it turned out to be.

Definitely so worth the investment. Even if it's just a small one for your pictures and word documents, don't even hesitate.

[tallories.livejournal.com]

Treat that external hard drive with kid gloves until you get your machine back up and running! ;) Thank heaven for backups, huh?

Also, I know this doesn't do you any good now, but for future reference, when you do backups drag this folder over as well:

C:/Documents and Settings/[Your Name]/Favorites

That will preserve all of your bookmarks. Good luck getting the computer back up and running!

[gjstruthseeker.livejournal.com]

Backups, indeed. I've just had too many people admonish me for not keeping a proper and current backup of all my files along the way to keep ignoring them, especially one stern Dell technician a while back, which is what finally pushed me over the edge. If you can at all afford to buy an external, even if it's just something small for your digital pictures and word documents, absolutely make the investment.

Thanks for the heads up. I would've been much more thorough had I known this happening was a possibility.

[karasevda.livejournal.com]

... then crashed in the finalization phase due to a "fatal error" (and doesn't that alone frighten the bejeezus out of everyone else, too?)

dude, totally.

and thumbs up to the back-up. I know its time consuming but I swear something like that (comp crashes and what not) are not going to freak me out anymore. lol, thank god for external drives and dvd's and cd's. ;)

[gjstruthseeker.livejournal.com]

I've had a few people get stern with me about backing my files up regularly, which is what finally pushed me over the edge for the external. It's just so convenient, and in this case, life-saving. CDs work, too, but after you accumulate a certain amount of media, it just becomes unfeasible. And there's just no price for peace of mind.