And that's all she wrote

[danceswithgary]

My laptop is dead. Non-responsive. Can't recover with the Windows CD because it can't find my hard drive to run Setup. Every forum I've checked agrees it's a goner since it's running XP and the hard drive specs required some fancy fortwork by Compaq to make the thing work in the first place and isn't that a wonderful thing to find out.

My last backup was April 13th - with the exception of a quick snapshot of my own fic files last night. I've lost all the SV and SGA fic I've saved (and categorized) since the backup - which is a lot of files.

I have Gary's laptop for now, but when he returns this week, he'll obviously want it back, so I guess I'll be buying a new one since it's rediculously expensive to take it to be 'repaired'. It's not a huge expense since all I do is write in Word and check my mail and LJ, but it'll pinch since I'm disabled and not receiving any disability payments.

It's appalling what these malware producers can do to a system.

And I'm sick to my stomach every time I think of everything I've done for the last few weeks that's lost. At least all my completed fics and manips/icons are up on LJ and my website.

I'll just be over here feeling sorry for myself.

ETA: Some good news - I was able to manage a command prompt and pulled the files I wanted to keep onto my flash drive and they're all on Gary's laptop for now. Next up Ill buy the 32GB flash drive that will hold everything and back it all up, then I can breathe a little easier. Still need to either completely rebuild this laptop or buy a new one.

Comments

[roguebitch.livejournal.com]

Oh no! *hugs you* Can you not bring it in to someplace and have the HD recovered or anything?

God, that's the worst. I am so sorry.

[danceswithgary]

I thought about jumping through hoops to try to recover the files, but since the system is mortally infected, whoever worked on it would have to fix that first - presuming they could. The cost of that is more than half the cost of a new laptop. If it was anything more important than the fanfic files (and screencaps) I'd saved, I'd consider it, but I truly do very little with it.

Like I said, my writing files are safe. Losing all my in-process work would have sent me to my bed sobbing instead of just sniffling on the couch. :-(

[danceswithgary]

Some good news - I was able to manage a command prompt and pulled the files I wanted to keep onto my flash drive and they're all on Gary's laptop for now. Next up Ill buy the 32GB flash drive that will hold everything and back it all up, then I can breathe a little easier. Still need to either completely rebuild this laptop or buy a new one.

[roguebitch.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank goodness! I'm glad there's *some* good news at least.

[arianstarr.livejournal.com]

*hugs* I'm sorry to hear about that, hon.

[danceswithgary]

Thanks - it could be worse. It's not like my house burned down or I crashed my car. Silly to be so depressed. :-/

[danceswithgary]

Some good news - I was able to manage a command prompt and pulled the files I wanted to keep onto my flash drive and they're all on Gary's laptop for now. Next up Ill buy the 32GB flash drive that will hold everything and back it all up, then I can breathe a little easier. Still need to either completely rebuild this laptop or buy a new one.

[rosy5000.livejournal.com]

*hugs* I'm sorry to hear about your laptop. That really sucks. :(

[danceswithgary]

Thanks. *hugs*

[drkcherry.livejournal.com]

Oh that totally sucks. I had to put my laptop in the shop once, and I felt so lost without it.

I'm so afraid I'm going to get a bad infection, and I always say I'm going to back up my files, and I never do, until something happens. I'm so lazy.

[danceswithgary]

If it could have held on one more day - I was going to spend today refreshing my backups. At least I had a feeling last night that it was going bad so I did a quick backup of my writing files. I would have screamed if I lost the 50+ pages of notes for the story I'm in the middle of writing.

[danceswithgary]

Some good news - I was able to manage a command prompt and pulled the files I wanted to keep onto my flash drive and they're all on Gary's laptop for now. Next up Ill buy the 32GB flash drive that will hold everything and back it all up, then I can breathe a little easier. Still need to either completely rebuild this laptop or buy a new one.

[tasabian.livejournal.com]

What a drag. So sorry about your lost projects.

[danceswithgary]

It's the hours of re-reading fics (not that it's a chore) and the categorization that hurts. I use that for answering fic searches on the SV and SGA comms. I didn't lose my own fics. *swipes brow in relief).

Although rebuilding all my bookmarks is going to be a pain. I lose things every time.

[mella68.livejournal.com]

I had the same problem with my HP Compaq last month. When I tried to boot from the rescue disk it said it didn't find the harddrive. A friend of mine had a rescue programm and started it new. But all my files were gone.

[danceswithgary]

Some good news - I was able to manage a command prompt and pulled the files I wanted to keep onto my flash drive and they're all on Gary's laptop for now. Next up Ill buy the 32GB flash drive that will hold everything and back it all up, then I can breathe a little easier. Still need to either completely rebuild this laptop or buy a new one.

[lapetite-kiki.livejournal.com]

*big hugs*

[danceswithgary]

Some good news - I was able to manage a command prompt and pulled the files I wanted to keep onto my flash drive and they're all on Gary's laptop for now. Next up Ill buy the 32GB flash drive that will hold everything and back it all up, then I can breathe a little easier. Still need to either completely rebuild this laptop or buy a new one.

[mahaliem.livejournal.com]

*hugs* I had a scare not too long ago about losing everything on my computer so you have my complete sympathy.

[danceswithgary]

Some good news - I was able to manage a command prompt and pulled the files I wanted to keep onto my flash drive and they're all on Gary's laptop for now. Next up Ill buy the 32GB flash drive that will hold everything and back it all up, then I can breathe a little easier. Still need to either completely rebuild this laptop or buy a new one.

[ctbn60.livejournal.com]

That is awful news. I remember being so obsessive over backing things up. I wound up with a MAC this time that has time machine and it does it automatically. I would be so lost without my computer. I feel for you. :::HUGS:::

[danceswithgary]

Thanks - It's just making me angry whenever I think of what I have to do now and writing is less than appealing.

[animeartistjo.livejournal.com]

Oh my goodness--It's like when I accidentally pulled my flashdrive out before it was completely disconnected and lost two class project files.

Have you thought of getting an external hard drive? They;re pretty reasonably priced now and you can get from 100 GB to a 1 TB, depending how much you're willing to pay.

[danceswithgary]

I'll be looking at a number of options when I buy the new laptop. Thanks.

[gildinwen.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you were able to save the file you wanted to save, but still that's gotta suck. I hope you can get a good deal on a laptop

[danceswithgary]

Thanks - I'm hoping it won't be too bad.

[taliosi-x.livejournal.com]

ooh sorry, I would devastated if I lost all my stuff I have 60 gigs of just pics alone!

[danceswithgary]

Thanks - I can imagine how much upset you would be considering I wasn't losing even a small percentage of that.

[lexalicious70.livejournal.com]

Aw . . . man. That is the ultimate suck, hon!! I am so sorry!

*HUGS*

Dumb machines!

[danceswithgary]

Thanks. *hugs back*

[selinamoonfire.livejournal.com]

HUGS I'm so sorry! I'm glad you got the important files back!

I bought an external drive because I feared that would happen to one of my computers and I back up all my writing onto it ever night, even the stuff I hate. LOL

Do you know what infected yours sytem?

[danceswithgary]

Norton identified it as a generic.pack.200, but couldn't fix it. I tried everything they suggested, then turned to the forums. It ultimately turned out to be a trojan.win32.fakespyware variant that wouldn't allow any of the various anti-spyware programs to either install or run or repair it and finally destroyed my boot.ini so I couldn't get it to boot beyond a useless safe mode screen. Really nasty and would require a complete wipe and rebuild which I'd do if I could get it to find my hard drive when I try. *sigh*

The once every few weeks obviously wasn't enough - I'll be getting either an external or a large enough flashdrive to backup to daily when I get the new laptop. It's stupid - they sell them with 200GB hard drive, then you end up using an external anyway.

[mahaliem.livejournal.com]

I am so very glad that you were able to save files.

[danceswithgary]

Thanks. :-D

[touchstoneaf.livejournal.com]

okay, you scared me there. i was just repairing my computer so i could come back in here and get back to reading... I know how you feel though; i lost TONS of fanart and writing when mine died; still waiting to see if it's recoverable. *hugs you*

[danceswithgary]

After what happened with my husband's and daughter's I was pretty good about backing up what I consider important, it was just that I'd been doing a lot of saving and cataloguing that I was going to lose - and didn't. I'll be even more compulsive about backing up now. *hugs back*

[fathomlessspite]

I was just about to flail in horror for you at the loss of your files, but then I read the ETA. Glad you salvaged something from it! :)

[danceswithgary]

Yes, I'm feeling better about the files, just really irritated about the expense of a new laptop as well as possibly getting the old one re-imaged by a repair shop.

Yeah it sucks...

[gryphtkai.livejournal.com]

Haven't been around for awhile but I've been keeping up with your writing. Sorry to hear about the malware. There are still a few things that can be done to try to revive it. I'm wondering if it's a boot sector virus. If you can get it to boot in safe mode there are several programs you can run. Check the F-Secure site. They also have a AV that runs from a command prompt and that can actually be better at ripping things out. Check out http://support.f-secure.com/enu/corporate/virusproblem/howtoclean/howtousefprotfordos.shtml Also check here : http://www.f-secure.com/en_US/security/security-lab/tools-and-services/rescue-cd/index.html for their rescue CD which runs on Linux. Lot of times you may be able to clear something out by booting to a different operating system. Here's the main page for tools, check out the Black Light scanner for root kits. http://www.f-secure.com/en_US/security/security-lab/tools-and-services/ yell if you need more help.

Re: Yeah it sucks...

[danceswithgary]

At this point, it's passed beyond my skills and/or patience. Stress is very bad for me, so I'm backing away from the damn thing.

My daughter's laptop is also defunct, so I'll have Gary trek them both to a repair shop he's heard about and have them completely cleaned and re-imaged. In the meantime, I'm getting a new laptop anyway (the dead one is three years old and XP) and we'll keep the others = presuming they're recoverable - as backups.

Basically, my laptop with my writing and manipping is my only hobby/expense and is what keeps me moderately sane since I'm housebound and disabled. The man with two motorcycles and a Corvette who's been traveling around the country for the last six weeks on his personal tour isn't complaining about getting me a new one.

[nerowill.livejournal.com]

*ack* That's terrible! I hope that not too much was lost--although every word hurts!

The screen on my beloved 8 year old laptop is going (the bottom half fades in and out) so I should get busy backing things up as well...

[danceswithgary]

I will be compulsive in my backing up from now on. :-D

[epeters.livejournal.com]

How is it you got this virus to begin with? Any idea?

[danceswithgary]

I wish I knew. The only sites I visited in between the last clean full scan and the one that found the trojan were Yahoo! Mail, megaupload, fanfiction.net, livejournal, and dreamwidth (and google). I really don't visit a lot of others exactly because of this type of problem. Megaupload and fanfiction.net just went on the don't visit list because of the ads that pop up despite my browser settings.

[dana-aeryn.livejournal.com]

Dead laptops suck. I've been there. And still haven't gotten over losing a lot of pictures. Glad you were able to save some files.

[danceswithgary]

It could have been worse. I was fortunate, and now I'm back up and running on my new-to-me laptop. :-D