Occasionally I'm callous and strange.

Willow ,'The Killer In Me'


Buffistechnology 3: "Press Some Buttons, See What Happens."

Got a question about technology? Ask it here. Discussion of hardware, software, TiVos, multi-region DVDs, Windows, Macs, LINUX, hand-helds, iPods, anything tech related. Better than any helpdesk!


§ ita § - Mar 16, 2008 6:04:09 pm PDT #5173 of 25501
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

I'm guessing it's a dying drive. I'm not sure what the right answer is here. I guess I'd replace the failing drive and restore the backup. Uh, which I don't have.

This is so not going to be fun. I have that uncharacteristic My Documents setup that I'm not even sure where it is. Ugh. Tedious.


§ ita § - Mar 16, 2008 8:20:56 pm PDT #5174 of 25501
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

Yup, that's it. She's no longer recognised by the BIOS. Which is even more tedious than I'd thought--I figured the essential files would be corrupt, not that the whole thing would be kerfluey. It's a pretty new drive too, now that I think about it.

I should have kept records.


Pix - Mar 16, 2008 8:21:37 pm PDT #5175 of 25501
The status is NOT quo.

Fuck. I need help. My laptop was working fine this morning, but now the screen won't turn on and the harddrive keeps spinning up over and over. Am I completely screwed? Can anyone help me? I have at least two months of un-backed up data that would really hurt to lose. (This is a new hard drive, btw, ND installed it for me in January.)


Kevin - Mar 17, 2008 4:08:28 am PDT #5176 of 25501
Never fall in love with somebody you actually love.

It might not be the hard drive at fault. Can you try taking the hard drive out and see if the screen comes on? It should power on regardless. You might find the system board is screwed, or the power supply.


DCJensen - Mar 17, 2008 4:53:05 am PDT #5177 of 25501
All is well that ends in pizza.

What Kevin said, The drive may be fine, the controller might just be trying to access it a lot.

If it is the HDD maybe trying to boot up with an OSX CD/dvd might work.

Insert cd/dvd, turn it off, turn it on, hold down the letter C, see if it tries to boot.

The genius bar you mentioned in Bitches might be a good way to go.


Miracleman - Mar 17, 2008 5:00:27 am PDT #5178 of 25501
No, I don't think I will - me, quoting Captain Steve Rogers, to all of 2020

We had one of those! My brother and I used it to carry our James Blish books of adaptations of Star Trek episodes.

tommyrot, my brother in geekwadiness.

I still have my James Blish Star Trek books.


Ginger - Mar 17, 2008 5:03:20 am PDT #5179 of 25501
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda

Me too.


Dana - Mar 17, 2008 5:03:28 am PDT #5180 of 25501
I'm terrifically busy with my ennui.

Me too.


Miracleman - Mar 17, 2008 5:04:30 am PDT #5181 of 25501
No, I don't think I will - me, quoting Captain Steve Rogers, to all of 2020

We should start a club!


Pix - Mar 17, 2008 5:13:30 am PDT #5182 of 25501
The status is NOT quo.

Thanks, guys. It's not the hard drive, I don't think. Sean and I determined last night that it's probably the optical drive or some such. I can't find the os CD (ND has it stashed somewhere in his office. Anyone who has seen ND's office understands.), and since there is now a music CD in the drive that doesn't want to come out, we're doubly screwed. (Yes, I put it in there to see if distracting the drive with a shiny CD would help. What.) So I have a genius bar appointment for 2 today. Thankfully I took today off for Byron's surgery anyway.