Computer Problems- This time it ISN'T my fault!!!

[Atlan]

A while back I mentioned how I downloaded a virus onto my computer, and had to reformat. That was my fault, and I accept full blame.
First, a little background. In my house, we have a family computer, and I have a laptop.
The desktop crapped out on us at the begining of december, and the folks havent got around to replacing the Video card and the motherbord. Since I have a laptop, this only meant that I couldnt play Half life 2, and other new games.
This morning, I get up. I switch on my laptop, and I watch it start up.
The first warning sign: It took 5 minutes to get past the "Welcome to Windows XP" page.
Second warning sign: It comes up with a blue screen, and says its scanning.
The scan reveals that C/My Documents and Settings/Atlan_01 is missing, and askes me if I still want all the files. I said yes.
When it started up, everything from my user profile was gone. I still had my games, and everything from my D partion.
But my music, my favourites, my documents were all gone.
THis could have been worse- last week, I backed up 52 gb of anime. And I have the coppy of my documents from when I had to back up and format a few months ago.
But all my in progress fanfics are gone. Half a chapter of Hellfire Days and Wild Knights, 2 chapters of New Justice League, half a chapter of Growing of a SeeD, a prologue for a Ranma/Static Shock crossover. All my notes, planing, and thoughts for my fics, all gone.
Pitty me.

[Steiner]

Urgh. I know how that is x.x
Did you try one of the many data recovery programs out there? I usually bend over for Fate in case that happens and so have no experience with them, but a friend of mine lauds them whereever he can (and whenever my poor old rustbox gives in to the stress of 24/7/365 use again)

[Atlan]

No, not yet. Since it's still under warantee, I'm gonna send it off, and hope they can recover some of the data.
Update: Aside from everything being gone, now I have to keep logging back into fukufics when ever I come back, even though it's set to 'Log me in Automaticly'. That sucks. I wonder what else is wrong.

[Metroidvania]

No, not yet. Since it's still under warantee, I'm gonna send it off, and hope they can recover some of the data.
Update: Aside from everything being gone, now I have to keep logging back into fukufics when ever I come back, even though it's set to 'Log me in Automaticly'. That sucks. I wonder what else is wrong.

That's possibly something to do with your internet properties....do you have cookies enabled?
Have you cleared your history/deleted any temporary internet files/cookies lately?
It could also be a memory error....

[Cheb]

Ouch.
That's one of the reasons I never keep anything valuable in \My Documents or any other folder Win suggests by default.
Having to log in, I think, has something to do with the loss of the folder where your configuration files should be stored.

Second warning sign: It comes up with a blue screen, and says its scanning.

Unlike 95 & 98, 2k & XP have a ugly habit to delete any potentially damaged files when they repair the file system errors. Btw., didn't you, by any chance, install your XP onto a FAT32 partition? My experience says, in such case the important system files gratually vanish one by one, spirited away by some unknown force.

[WG_Writer]

Ouch... I still beat you in data loss, My desktop died slowly, it caused losses exceeding 1TB in anime >.<
*note to self, backup my documents*

[Atlan]

As of the day after tomorow it gets sent off.
That means no internet for two weeks.
....going cold turkey... after 10 years... over half of my life... no other computers in the house......a small town with no internet cafe.....

[Kura]

Ouch, that happened to me a few times. Thats why I always make an emergency account to log into with the NT system because in the other profile in C:\Documents and Settings\Whateveritscalled\
I could salvage a lot of my important files.
At least you didn't get that strange blue screen of death that flashs before windows starts up and keeps rebooting the computer endlessly. I had that once and it rendered my computer completely useless.

[crystlshake]

Our router looks like its about to kick the bucket. Getting super slow connection speeds and going down alot. Im just glad that ive got internet (albeit limited) access at work.

[Atlan]

Hallaujeh! Praise Bill Gates!
Yup, I'm back. Laptop was fixed only a week and a half after they said it would be. That's actually a lot shorter than I expected.

[Neko-]

Meh... Yesterday my IPaq kicked the bucket... Memory error... Soft-reset resulted in a hang on the boot-sequence. So... We then initiate a hard-reset, which wipes all data, restore an (old) backup, and sync it back up to speed again at home. Sofar, no worries...
Sync it at work however results in a hang again... So I have three options:
1) Reflash the ROM to see if that solves it. If it doesn't it's a hardware problem.
2) Make an appointmet with a shop about 50 miles away to exchange the mobo... Which'll cost me.
3) Buy a new one... Which will cost me, but also result in me needing to toss out the hardcase, screen overlays, cradle, and extra cables I have...
Tsk... Why now... Then again, the thing is 3+ years old and still kicking. I guess it kept up it's end longer then most PDA's ever do.

[Dumbledork]

Gratz. Were they able to recover your documents. Here's a link to a forum I always use when I have computer problems. The people are nice and know alot.
http://www.virtualdr.com

[lwf58]

(knocks on wood) Thankfully, my Toshiba palmtop is still alive and kicking, and it's about as old as your IPaq. I use it pretty much on a daily basis, and really can't afford to replace it. SD card slot is getting squirrely, though.

[Cheb]

Hallaujeh! Praise Bill Gates!

Ack! Don't mention him after the sunset! [crosses himself with a holy symbol of sacred penguin]

Laptop was fixed only a week and a half after they said it would be.

You're using a wrong approach. One should always have a weathered veteran, 3..4 generations old, to stay by your side in a state of minute readiness, with all the important programs installed [pats his own 266-MHz spare horse]. This way you'll at least be able to read/edit the texts and surf the Net.

[Neko-]

Well... The IPaq is officially screwed... HP couldn't help me (warrenty after 3+ years? HAH!). So a shop doing those things was called...
3 choices left:
1) Re-apply the ROM. If that doesn't work:
2) The mobo is probably screwed and needs replacement: €119. And if that's not what you want:
3) Buy a new one.
So... Cheapest option: Re-apply the ROM. Did so... Went to 28%. Stated it should take 10 minutes for the whole process. I left it for an hour and it was still at 28%.
Contacted HP online chat to see what I could do. But they demanded I fill in the serial and product number before even initiating the chat (bastards)... which were under the cover behind the battery in the IPaq, that was fixed in the cradle, with a warning on the screen: Do not remove the USB cable or the power from the IPaq while this update is in progress. Yes... In those nice red colors too.
I need support, I figured it was screwed already at 28% for 60 minutes, so I did take it out, filled in the numbers, and reseated it in the cradle. Somehow the statusbar at the bottom of the IPaq screen disappeared. Recommendation from HP: Pull the battery, reseat it, do a soft-reset, and it should just boot normally... which it doesn't.
I just get a nice white screan, with the blue HP logo in the center, and twice the text 1.07 at the top. i.e. my IPaq is screwed
Since I have the stylus, hard-case, cradle, cables and screen overlays for this one, and it suits my needs just fine, even the cheapest IPaq listed is still chucked in at $299.99. Which converts indicative to 230 euro's... Significanly more then the repair might cost.
So since the shop is open tomorrow (even if they are 50 miles off, I'll give 'm a call, and if they have the mobo and the time, I'll probably drive over there, get them to look at it, and possibly fix it (within reasonable pricing). That way it'll probably be fixed cheaper and faster then involving HP in the whole deal.
And if it truly is beyond repair... I'd have to consider a new one. The sync between work and home for calender and contacts, aswell as the mobile-calender ability has just proven too much to do without.
Meh... Expensive weekend... Lotsa gas (I should consider a more economic car for stuff like this, but having two cars is just too expensive), and some unknown amount of repaircosts... Great...