Computer crash

Wordy

The morning we were due to go on holiday, ten days ago, the computer chose to crash. I was unable to do the backup planned but fortunately had backed-up a few days earlier as I always do one after downloading photographs. Unfortunately the company who supplied the computer have since gone into liquidation and their rescue disks were on line ones so not sure if we can even retrieve the old machine.

Since our return I have been spending an hour a day using a library computer but the time seemed to flash by with little achieved. I did discover that an editor had requested I email him the photos to go with and article I had submitted but have yet to manage that.

Having bought a laptop yesterday - a planned purchase brought forward by necessity - I am now trying to catch up. I am hoping to submit the photo by linking the external hard drive to the new computer but still struggling with Vista verus XP and sundry other changes including mastering the scrolling mouse.
Have really missed the chat on here but had other prioroties during my library sessions. Good to hear all the news again, especially the successes both in the magazines and the wider publishing world.

Carol

Sorry you've had problems Wordy, but good to know you're slowly getting back to normal.

Alik

Bad news Wordy, I have kittens when mine plays up! :-)

Woll22

So do I have kittens when mine goes doo lally, in fact I confess to being as miserable as sin and resemble a spoilt child according to my Mum, that cannot get its own way so my commiserations are with you. I am now keeping my fingers crossed with regard to my tower which lost power two months ago and then my floppy drive stopped working and had to be replaced. I had to get rid of a whole lot of non essentials to speed it up

Tessadragon

That is awful luck especially that the computer's company went into liquidation. Which company was it?

Wordy

Thanks, Tessadragon. It was Evesham. This was our second computer from them and their service used to be great. The guarantee was for 2 years home visit and third year return to store for any problems. We had a home visit with our first machine when there was a problem with the graphics card and they were prompt and very pleasant to deal with. When we phoned this time we were put through to a call centre where they simply offered us a one year contract for telephone support with no guarantee anything could be done so now I am relying on a couple of relatives with more computer knowhow to hopefully restore the machine using recovery disks. Thank goodness almost everything was backed up otherwise I really would have nightmares. Besides the writing there are well over 10,000 digital photos.

Carol

Wordy, was the two year home visit guarantee with this computer or the first one?

Wordy

The guarantee was with both the computers we had from Evesham. The computer that has the problem is three months over that period but would still have been eligible for a return to store solution under the guarantee in place when we bought it. At least I have been following advice ofte given here to keep things backed up.

Stan2

Sorry to hear of your computer problems, Wordy.

Carol

I think you should ring them back up and ask to speak to someone else. Your contract with the company at time of purchase was return to the store for problems in the third year. That is binding unless the company has been taken over or gone out of business.
Can you contact anyone at the store, or does it automatically put you through to the call centre?

Wordy

The company has gone into liquidation, Carol, and this was a call centre dealing with calls on behalf of the administrators. The first thing I was told was that the guarantee was now invalid. Otherwise I would most certainly be following your advice.

dorothyd

Wordy. sorry to read about this. It's everyone's nightmare in the first place, the computer crashing but not having a company to go back to is even worse!

Soobdoo

Wordy sorry to hear this.
Computers are a total pain in the ...

I need my computer for my writing and for Talkback etc but get annoyed that I have to spend so much writing time sorting out problems, backing up and doing general maintenance.

It crashed this morning, turned out to be a problem with the printer.
Changes to XP mean that the printer drivers needed to be updated.
It makes me so cross. AHHHHH.
:)

Carol

That explains it then Wordy. It is one of those consumer nightmares, company goes out of business and the customer is left in the lurch.
Might be worth asking friends if they can recommend an independent repairer.
(We have a local small business that does repairs, sorts stuff out and does some second hand equipment.)
Hope you can get it sorted soon.

Neph

Wordy you have my sympathies, my computer died on Saturday, the hard-drive finally giving up the ghost. Fortunately it had warned me so all my stuff was backed up, but its still a nightmare re-installing software, oh and getting used to Vista!!!

Carol is right, try to find out if there is a good local repairers, I am lucky as hubby is technoman - without him I would still have no computer, its still not healthy but at least its working.

mcbemused

My thoughts are with you, Wordy! I bought one of the last 'Tiny' laptops - just before they went bust... Of course, now it's not working, no-one has parts to fit (the major problem with laptops - at least with tower units you can mix and match components). I get it out now and again and take it apart, hopefully, thinking perhaps I will spot something obvious that I missed the last time that just needs a spot of solder or a tweek. Have to say I have been happy with Dell (it's replacement) and they have been around for a long long time.

Wordy

Thanks for all the messages of support and sympathy. I am only glad I had backed things up as recently as I had and should only have a few days worth of material lost if I can't use the machine again.

mcbemused

Another thought, Wordy - when I had no joy with the Tiny, I took it to a local repair centre and they were able to copy the contents of the hard-drive to CD which was marvellous. Worth a try, though as you say, you have been wise enough to keep back-ups.

Wordy

Having had many messages of support I thought I would update on progress.

I have today emailed the photographs to the editor who requested them and received a prompt reply which was encouraging. I was able to link the external hard drive I use for back ups to the new machine and deal with that. I also discovered my last back up had been more recent than I thought so I have probably lost no work as such. I am told that it is possible to buy a hard disk holder very reasonably and place the hard drive from the old computer in that and access things rather like an external hard drive so may invest if it looks as if much is missing. I wonder if this is what professionals use when they rescue people's documents for them. Not very computer savvy so only guessing. Anyway things are nothing like as black as they looked a week ago and I think I can now start on some new work instead of worrying about the existing pieces. Thank you again for all the supportive messages.

dorothyd

glad they were of help and really pleased you got it sorted, Wordy. Nothing worse than losing a load of work.

Carol

Good news Wordy.

Woll22

Oh poor Wordy, you have had a bellyful haven't you. I actually wonder if that company was entirely kosher from the word start. They start off looking orthodox so that people don't delve then things start to go pear shaped for them as well as for you and the blemishes start to appear. Anyway, I hope all will be sorted out.

Wordy

Thanks for the sympathy, Woll22. Amongst the backed up items I found one piece of work that was just in need of a final edit so I completed that, printed it out and sent it off. A great feeling.

I am getting used to using a laptop at present and that does have its benefits, especially being able to work away from the study if I want to or somebody else wants to work there. Finding getting used to Vista after XP more of a challenge. Took me an age to discover some of the basic commands but I am sure it is logical really. Very tempted to return to XP after the trial set up on the computer runs out though.

Celtic C

Well done Wordy - clouds and silver linings come to mind :)

Interested in what you say about getting used to Vista as I have been considering purchasing it but for every person who tells me how simple it is to operate and how superior to XP, there always seems to be another who has problems adapting to it.

Kangaroo

Oh Wordy, computers can be such a pain! Hope all is well.

Neph

CC Hubby installed Vista on my machine for me after the big crash, I really am loving it. Wordy I'd stick with it takes a while to get your head around but I think its better than XP, and this si coming from someone who said she would never change.

Celtic C

Thanks NC - I think the balance is coming down in favour of Vista.

Wordy

I'll certainly give Vista a go, NC. I suspect I would have approached the challenge rather differently if the change had not been forced upon me. Getting used to a new machine and a new system have slowed me up just when I want to catch up. I need to take a step back and give things a little time. I wouldn't want to prejudice the choice of others though Celtic C.

Celtic C

Don't worry Wordy, I was just interested because I've been hearing mixed messages. At least I know when I do convert I can expect it to take time to get used to it.

Liz

Change to mac all of you! No crashes, no problems, no freezes, no viruses, no worries... just write...

Neph

Same problem here Wordy, hard drive went so had to get a new one which meant starting from scratch. So annoying. I've still got stuff missing that I need to sort out. Doesnt help that I also have a new mobile and thats taking me ages to get my head around (which isn't like me I'm normally quite good at stuff like this).

Wordy

Our daughter and her husband both use a Mac and really can't understand why I stick with Microsoft,LizB. Habit I suppose. Having recently fully retired I should have time to get my head round new things but find the time is fully occupied by others! Trying to establish a routine so that the writing doesn't get left behind. Strange, I always found time when I was working.

Wordy

Thought I should update on this as it could be of help to others.

Back at the end of April the computer gave error messages and windows refused to boot up or respond to any of the opitions from safe mode to return to last good point. Luckily most work was backed up. Daughter visited last week and decided it probably needed to be started again from scratch but everything from the hard drive needed saving first. Ordered a hard drive enclosure which arrived in time for our son to do the honours this weekend. The case was full of dust so that was dealt with and he also reseated the memory. Having checked all connections he set about booting up the machine and this time it ran a lengthy disk check, deleted several files and finally booted up properly. Having updated anti-virus and everything else we could think of he then ran another disk check and now, touch wood, the desk-top is working and I can access evrything once more and also have it all backed up to the laptop so hopefully no more crises even if this machine is on the way out. A gift of a memory stick for transferring data has also proved useful.

Thanks for all the messages of support I received and I do feel for those who have had the hard drive itself fail as obviously this process would not work then. It does seem likely this hard drive is not wholly reliable so backing up regularly is now going to be necessary but things could certainly have been a lot worse.

Now, I really must buckle down and get the part-completed articles finished off and sent out so that I once more feel free to tackle something new.

Carol

Glad it's now stable Wordy.

HPRW

If anyone has a hard drive die on them, it's worth remembering that it's usually pretty easy to peel all the information out of it if you have access to about £20 and another computer.

Buy a USB hard drive caddy (you have to know what sort of hard drive: mine's a SATA, my sister's is an IDE; £20 will buy you a caddy for one or the other, while £35 will buy you a universal caddy); take the hard drive out of your computer and stick it into the caddy, then you can plug it in via a USB port into a different computer, and retrieve all your information: files, emails, even your "favourites" list. I've done it several times now, for friends and family, and it's pretty straightforward. Just DON'T, what ever you do, reformat the drive first in an attempt to restore it--get the data off before you do that.

Wordy

That advice is good, HPRW. That is exactly what I ended up doing and have been very glad I did as in the past couple of days the desktop has again failed. Although it allows me to operate in Safe mode it is not connecting to the Internet and we just don't seem to be doing the right things to sort it. Have been through checking leads and so on. Anyway, I am now madly backing up at every opportunity and the photos are stored not only on our back-up drive but also two external sources as well. Not that I'm paranoid of course.

Liz

i think you are just wise Wordy.

Wordy

Hi Elizabeth. Still find it confusing locating things with Vista. I know it means there are many more options available to me but I was happy with those I had. On XP the commands I needed every day were clearly at the top of the page or on a simple drop down. With Vista those are hidden in favour of lots of gimmicks. Thank goodness my son has the same machine and has had it for longer. He is always my first call now when I can't locate a simple command.

Need to get started on some new work now. I have finished off all the pieces that were in limbo after the computer crash although I have not received any response from the items I sent out. Usually find hat happens just when I have got stuck into a new topic and I need to backtrack to make any changes needed. A good reason to get started on something new.

Woll22

If you recall my earlier reply, I was keeping my fingers crossed - well to no avail as it finally packed up plus a virus despite my judicious updating of anti virus software. Unbelievable. Now have a new tower, all singing all dancing and got my files all organized like a conventional filing cabinet. My screensaver is a picture of two tiger cubs, one with the tip of its tongue hanging out - aah I can hear you all say. Downloaded some piccies off the Internet via clipart