"Lady Jane" Just Killed My Old Computer

[qos]

I bought a new computer with some of the proceeds from the house buy-out, and have been struggling to transfer files all weekend. I purchased PCMover with my new laptop, but my old machine would not recognize the special USB cable, even after I worked my way to the very bottom of the online help.

So this morning I started doing it the old fashioned way, with a 6G USB memory stick. (I would have burned the data to a disk, but the CD-ROM is broken.)

All my documents have been transferred, and I've been working on my music. I had room to move my 1.5G video of Lady Jane and everything seemed fine. I left the table to give the stick time to process everything so I could "remove device safely."

Except that when I got back, the screen was stuck on a screensaver, and my computer was making an ugly, harsh clicking noise.

Ctr-Alt-Delete did nothing, so I did hard shut down and removed the data stick.

Now it's still making the ugly clicking sound, and it won't boot, saying it can't find the hard drive.

I still have (almost) all my emails on that machine (including many from Lohain), several G's of pictures, including family photos, and the other half of my music.

I am about to rouse the daughter, get dressed, and head for the PC Doctor with all possible speed.

Comments

[tx-cronopio.livejournal.com]

Yikes! I hope and trust it will something easy to fix. xox

[blessed-harlot.livejournal.com]

Argh, what a hassle! I suspect and hope your treasures can be saved, one way or another.

[oakmouse]

Oh dear. Oh DEAR. I know the situation isn't a bit funny, but the image that your header gave rise to in my mind... And I haven't read D.H. Lawrence for YEARS. *wipes away tears of laughter*

I do hope you were able to salvage the data from the hard drive...

[http://users.livejournal.com/_storyteller_/]

Let me know if you still need help, Chris and I can make a housecall.

I can probably adapt the cables to work so that you don't have to use the thumb drive, we will take a look at it when we get there if you still need help.