The Bad: taps for my laptop

[roseembolism]

So naturally today after taking the kitties to the vet, I moved my laptop to the coffeee shop to work on job hunt stuff. When I turned it on, I got a scrambled screen, and then was booted into a safe mode which didn't fit on the screen, and then got the notice "Multiple Drive Partition Error". And then got nothing- noteven a blue screen, just a dimly lit screen.

So far, the advice I've received has been in the line of "there's services that can recover your data". which doesn't make me feel at all optimistic. Tomorrow I check to see if the slab is still under extended warranty, or if I've got a fancy doorstop.

Comments

[tronpublic.livejournal.com]

One of the things that I would try is to remove the hard disk and mount it as an external USB drive to a working PC. The chances that this will work are slim but it's worth a try. The problem that your computer may be having may not have anything to do with the hard disk. This will probably mean that your computer is screwed but at least you can grab the data.

Depending on the hard disk's interface, you'll need something like this:

http://www.surpluscomputers.com/store/main.aspx?p=ItemDetail&item=CRD10181

I happen to have one if you want to bring your computer over at the next social tank.

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

OK, thanks- that's worth a try if I find that the computer is no longer under warranty.

[yuusada.livejournal.com]

I'm betting it's a PATA drive.

Booting off a GParted LiveCD or WinInternals ERD CD could also help to see if your data is in fact toast. The ERD CD could also help you copy it off the drive if need be.

I have copies available if need be.

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

For what it's worth, we don't think all of my data is toast, because after being left alone for a day, when the computer wa started up we actually got it to a distorted version of my desktop, briefly, before everything went blank.

So we can try booting it off the disk, definitely.