(no subject)

[hatman]

So... HDD isn't working today. At all. No matter what I do, I cannot get it to boot.

I contacted Dell, and they're sending out a replacement drive. If that doesn't work, they'll replace the motherboard. We'll see how it goes.

But now I'm stuck. I want to set up the new comp, but I've been thwarted at every turn.

I can't transfer files directly from comp to comp if the old one can't boot up.

I can't install the HDD on any other comp because it's a laptop drive and the new comp has a different connector.

I have this handy PCMCIA card that can turn a laptop drive into an external drive... But the new laptop doesn't have a PCMCIA slot!! Instead, it's got an "ExpressCard" slot. The new up-and-coming thing, apparantly, but it's not backwards compatible and there are no adapters.

So, I figured, okay. I can deal with this. I have the handy Ghost image I spent a full day creating last week. Except stupid me was all blase about it when the CDs were created. "I'm sure it went fine. I don't need to bother checking the disk integrity." *THUMP, THUMP, THUD*

One CD has a corrupted image file. One CD. Out of the entire 28-CD stack, one CD is corrupt. But guess what? That one CD contained parts of files from all over the place. I got a handful of useful files off the image, but 99% of it is unreadable.

Now I don't know what to do. Dammit, why wasn't I more careful with my backups?

I guess I'll see what happens when the new drive comes in the mail next week. If I can get the laptop to boot up, there's a chance the PCMCIA card will let me pull files off the old drive. If not, then replacing the motherboard may get the comp up and running with the old drive.

I worked for hours on it today. Tried everything I could think of. And it's even more frustrating because I didn't sleep well last night. So I was tired and cranky to begin with. Now I'm tired and frustrated and angry and despondant and probably a bunch of other stuff.

At least I've got the new comp and it works and I can install stuff off the web and old CDs. I just don't have my files and pictures and emails and... *sigh*

I hope I can get some sleep tonight. I am not looking forward to tomorrow's family gathering, and if I'm feeling this crappy today... *sigh*

One frakking CD.

Comments

[ksarasara.livejournal.com]

*kicks Murphy into a parallel universe* Hope things manage to work themselves out sooner than later.