I am Gonna SCREAM!! My Stupid Laptop Died!!!!!

[ChallengerGary]

Okay,m so I go to my shop today to cut a couple of sets of stripes for some customers and my laptop won't boot up.  I try for about an hour going through all of the boot options and nuthin'.  Now I am not only getting frustrated but depressed because I've got a bad feeling.  So, I go to Best Buy to see what the Geek Squad can do.  He trys several things and finally says, "It's dead.  You can try and reload Windows but you'll probably loose everything and I can't guarantee that'll do the trick.  It really looks like your hard drive is on the way out.  Cheapest way out is buy an new computer and transfer your data."  Now what do I do?  I need a computer to make the stripe kits but dagumit I just don't hae the spare cash right now.   Just spent a bunch of un-planned money on vet bills (dogs & cats & kids ended up with ring worm and so far it's cost me over $600), a new tv because our old one died and having 3 kids and no tv for 2-1/2 weeks sucked, and NOW THIS!!!!!  WTF! 


 

Sorry - rant over.  I guess I need to step back, take a deep breath and go watch the Cowboys try to stop the saints from going 15-0

[Moparal]

Gary, I am so sorry to hear that.  Tuff luck.   What is your paypal address?  I wanna send you a 30 buck donation. I am sure other will jump in here to. Even if you get a 400 buck wally world laptop or something for now, it should help you along.  Please accept this as a holiday gift ok?   You do so much for us now, that what little we give is deserving to you. You ALWAYS give us special deals


Please post your Paypal address right here...

[ChallengerGary]

Al,

I appreciate the offer.  Normally I'd say no way but I am kind of in a bind right now  - my pay pal is gjtooker@hotmail.com

Unfortunately, I've got a couple of orders that are going to have to wait unit I get a new computer...

[Moparal]

No problem. I am thinking others will chime in here to.  But you made it hard to copy and paste your email address

[ChallengerGary]

No problem. I am thinking others will chime in here to.  But you made it hard to copy and paste your email address

Fixed the email address - I got in the habit of doing it that way because of SpamBots...

[Moparal]

Well   MERRY CHRISTMAS   You got mail   And hope it helps....ALAN

[70burntorangeT/A]

Ill go ahead and prepay for the stripe kit i am going to get, ill send you the payment Wednesday probably, hope it helps

[quagmire]

What is the computer doing? Does it even make it past the POST screen?  Does it ever go to the Windows boot screen?  If you still have the Windows disk there are several Windows recovery functions that you can try to run before blanking the HD or buying a new computer. 

Worse comes to worst, you can buy a standalone SATA cable to transfer your documents from the old hard drive to a new hard drive which will be much cheaper than a new computer.  I bought a universal one for like $20 at Tiger Direct.  If the hard drive failed you are probably screwed, you may not be able to get any files off of it.

[Moparal]

What is the computer doing? Does it even make it past the POST screen?  Does it ever go to the Windows boot screen?  If you still have the Windows disk there are several Windows recovery functions that you can try to run before blanking the HD or buying a new computer. 

Worse comes to worst, you can buy a standalone SATA cable to transfer your documents from the old hard drive to a new hard drive which will be much cheaper than a new computer.  I bought a universal one for like $20 at Tiger Direct.  If the hard drive failed you are probably screwed, you may not be able to get any files off of it.

He took it in to try and get it fixed.  He needs another puter fast.

[quagmire]

I'm sure, but those Geek Squad guys usually don't know jack unfortunately.  If a PC has an issue they just push to buy a new one or wipe the thing.  I was just suggesting to try and salvage it so he doesn't lose all of his documents.  That can be crippling, especially if you don't back up frequently.  Since he owns a business, I'm sure he has important stuff on there.  Depending on what happened, I'd almost bet money he can fix it faster than it'll take to order one.

[ChallengerGary]

Luckily, I backed my stripe files up onto an external hard drive just about 18 days ago so I will not lose any of the repro stripes and not much of the custom work I do - it's still on the other drive.  Just sux because now I have to try and find my my program disks too and God only know where those are hiding. 


BTW - Alan, Thanks for your supremely kind gesture - you are one in a million.  May God Bless you like you have blessed so many others.

[dodj]

Merry Christmas Gary. You have more mail. 

[ChallengerGary]

thanks - like they say every little bit helps...Our sermon at Church today was about helping others. We have a local food bank that is 500 holiday meals short this year.  Our Pastor challenged us to meet the need.  Made me realize that although it sucks right now for me, I could have it a lot worse.  We are going to empty our pantry of the items that they need and bring them by the Church later today.

[Rare_T_A]

One little thing you should consider is getting an external hard drive to store your strip info on. That way if you puter craps out you don't loose the strips saved info. I have a 350 Gig external hard drive I store all the stuff I don't want to loose on.   

I just read you other post so you beat me to it. I need some stripes for my son in laws Ram. I send $40.00 now and when you get set up I work it out with you.

[72rtchallenger]

if its just the hard drive going bad I would replace it and load your programs to it,