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My laptop is getting old. There's been a green line on the screen for a couple of months now, but it's only one pixel wide and it's off most of the way to the left, so it's not too bad.
There have been some other flaky things, though, and the whole system is getting outdated.
Meantime, the price for a good system has really come down in the last few years.
So... I ordered a new one. Should be pretty spiffy, and it cost half of what this one did.
But I did something stupid. I used the laptop (as opposed to the even older -- but with less wear and tear -- family desktop) to order its replacement.
Guess what happened the very next day?
The HDD started going wonky. Once I boot up, it's fine. But 9 times out of 10 (literally. Probably less than that, even), the comp won't recognize the drive during the boot process. The system will even hang when coming back from standby.
Once I get a successful boot, the drive is fine. It scans clean. I can keep using it with no problems. Until I shut down or standby again.
Tried upgrading BIOS, but that didn't do anything.
Tried opening up the comp to look at the drive, but couldn't get the casing to open no matter how many screws I took out. (Did manage to clean some dust out from underneath the keyboard, though.)
I figured it wouldn't be a big deal. I can get it to boot up sometimes, and the new one should be here soon.
Think again. The order was put in over a week ago. Processed and accepted last Tuesday. Yesterday, a week after the order went through the processing dept, the assembly dept still hadn't started on it. Just now, I got an email saying (with no reason given) that the order will be delayed, and that it probably won't be shipped until the end of the month, if then.
The warentee ran out at least a year ago, and I haven't had the greatest experiences with tech support. Especially after everything started being outsourced.
Not sure what to do now. I've turned off standby mode. Gonna see if XPlode can manage a week of uptime (and if I can once again learn to sleep with the sound of a comp's cooling fan). If that doesn't work, I'll probably give up, leave it off, and try to work as much as I can with the desktop. (Except that all my files, including emails and GE stuff, are on the laptop...)
Should back the thing up, but Norton Ghost requires a reboot to work, and I'm afraid to do it. Not sure about trying a manual backup. Probably should one of these days.
*sigh* I just hope the new one isn't delayed any further.
There have been some other flaky things, though, and the whole system is getting outdated.
Meantime, the price for a good system has really come down in the last few years.
So... I ordered a new one. Should be pretty spiffy, and it cost half of what this one did.
But I did something stupid. I used the laptop (as opposed to the even older -- but with less wear and tear -- family desktop) to order its replacement.
Guess what happened the very next day?
The HDD started going wonky. Once I boot up, it's fine. But 9 times out of 10 (literally. Probably less than that, even), the comp won't recognize the drive during the boot process. The system will even hang when coming back from standby.
Once I get a successful boot, the drive is fine. It scans clean. I can keep using it with no problems. Until I shut down or standby again.
Tried upgrading BIOS, but that didn't do anything.
Tried opening up the comp to look at the drive, but couldn't get the casing to open no matter how many screws I took out. (Did manage to clean some dust out from underneath the keyboard, though.)
I figured it wouldn't be a big deal. I can get it to boot up sometimes, and the new one should be here soon.
Think again. The order was put in over a week ago. Processed and accepted last Tuesday. Yesterday, a week after the order went through the processing dept, the assembly dept still hadn't started on it. Just now, I got an email saying (with no reason given) that the order will be delayed, and that it probably won't be shipped until the end of the month, if then.
The warentee ran out at least a year ago, and I haven't had the greatest experiences with tech support. Especially after everything started being outsourced.
Not sure what to do now. I've turned off standby mode. Gonna see if XPlode can manage a week of uptime (and if I can once again learn to sleep with the sound of a comp's cooling fan). If that doesn't work, I'll probably give up, leave it off, and try to work as much as I can with the desktop. (Except that all my files, including emails and GE stuff, are on the laptop...)
Should back the thing up, but Norton Ghost requires a reboot to work, and I'm afraid to do it. Not sure about trying a manual backup. Probably should one of these days.
*sigh* I just hope the new one isn't delayed any further.
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Reinstalling windows with the disks I have would almost certainly require wiping the drive. I am definitely partitioning the new drive.
The drive itself is 30 gigs. An external drive might be a pretty good thought. Thanks! :)
DVDs are not an option. I've got a CD-RW drive. The new comp has a DVD burner, but that doesn't really help.
The comp is a Dell. I'm not sure why I can't get the casing open. It should have worked, but it was still caught on something, no matter what I did. I didn't want to risk breaking it. So... I don't know how to get at the drive itself.
OTOH, I do have a dusty old pcmcia card designed to transfer data from one laptop drive to another. ... But I don't have a drive I could transfer it to, really.
Seems like CDs or external HDD are the best option. I'll have to think about that.
Thanks for the thoughts/help! :)