Sounds like my laptop just died...

[spacemangroove]

It's making a clicking noise and not finding the OS...  It's likely the hard-drive...  I don't have the cash to fix this kind of thing.

*sigh*  

Comments

[blackpaladin]

Yeah, that sounds like a hard drive failure.

Check NewEgg, they have pretty good prices for that kind of thing, and their shipping rates can't be beat.

[spacemangroove]

But then that bears a question: How do I get my files off my old HD?

[psywildfire]

This may involve a freezer.

Sounds bizarre, but when my college laptop died with similar problems I managed to rescue a lot of files (not ALL, but still) by throwing the hard drive in the freezer for a while (wrapped in a static bag to keep actual frost from forming and then transferring things over.

-WF

[spacemangroove]

It likely will involve a freezer, and a call to either Eric or Steve...

[psywildfire]

Yeah, they have equipment that I don't.

-WF

[hasufin]

I've got a 30 gB laptop HD I'm not using. Remind me and I'll put it in later this week to make sure it still works (and clean it off). $20?

As far as getting your old files off the existing HD:
1) Do not keep trying to use it. The clicking is the read/write heads not being where they need to be. The more you use it in its current condition, the more likely you are to damage the platters.

2) Find someone who has a converter to put a laptop HD into a desktop machine - being able to read means nothing if you have nowhere to copy the data. IF you know what files you want to copy, you might be able to do it with USB keys or the like, though.

3) Before trying to recover files, pop out the HD and put it in the freezer for an hour.

[spacemangroove]

$20 is do-able if it still works. Let me know either way.

[hasufin]

Will do. Too busy to do it tonight. Or tomorrow night. Or... well, fuck. Let me see if I can do hardware work while sleeping. Or something.

[spacemangroove]

We have a second computer so this is not precisely dire, but ASAP would help a lot.

[euriyggdrasil]

I have an adapter to use to pull data. Just let me know in advance so I can bring it home from work.

[spacemangroove]

Give it about a week.

[drquuxum]

Also ditto, in case you are coming to TND.

[severinpgh]

Ditto.

[ladysephiroth]

Steve is teh awesomeness and saved ALL of Mokona's data when this happened to her. Call him - I think it involved Norton's Ghost.

[thebaron512]

Depending on how bad the click of death, since sometimes ghost can't save the day...