Ahhhh !  At the beginning of the month, the Best Buy Geek Squad, did a $120+ upgrade on my 3 year old Gatway lap top ...  Less than a week later, it crashed ! Catastrophic Failure ! Hard drive fried ?!?  Of course, the Geek Squad said it happens all the time ... So after calling Gateway for a $20.00 Recovery Disc, that may get here by Friday ?! The Geeks "mined" what was left of my memory/files for $100 ...  I could kick myself for not backing up my files as I was repeatedly reminded by MSN pop-ups !  So I'm using my Webtv to stay online which is Dial-up vs. my Lap Top with is DSL ... Can't load pics, can't post existing pics, etc., etc.  Look forward to getting my "new" Lap Top back next week ... Don't look forward to trying getting it back to "normal". Dealing with concerns like will there be a probelm with hooking up my DSL, like I did when I first got it ? What's left of my files ?  What I have to find again, from everything from my Desktop/Screen Saver to "saved" PDFs, etc. ?  Have to upload my HP printer/faxer and Fuji camera discs ...  I hate when technology fails and there is nothing I can do about it ...  Â Note to self - Back up Files !!!   Rant Mode Terminated ...

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Legion 4 "Cry Havoc, and let slip the Dogs of War !" ... "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."

the upgrade my have been a good idea at 120$ but after the recuvery it sound like you could have bourget a EEEPC at that cost (so in retrospect i hate like you when the cheap option is going to be the expensive one do to some sloppy tech who should have there tools striped and get the pink slip (from one tech guy to a nother))

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you must be willing to pay the price for fighting in cities to do battle there
sun tsu the art of war

Well all I wanted the Geek Squad to do is fix the "Active Desktop Recovery" error message and my Screen Saver (a Slammer M9 Cbt Car, of course) would stop disappearing ?! And I could get online faster since I have DSL ... So they fixed all that with the upgrade and other stuff they did ...  Then 5-6 days later ... Crash !!!!!    It's all a mystery to me ...  Like Star Trek Techno-babble !  I was at the mercy of the Geek Squad ... Short of them saying it was the "Flux Copaciter, Duel Plasma Manifold Injectors or Tachyon Radiation" ... They had me by the *&%#^s !  

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Legion 4 "Cry Havoc, and let slip the Dogs of War !" ... "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."

I feel your pain, brother.

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"I don't believe in destiny or the guiding hand of fate." N. Peart

Ugh, good point. I'm overdue for a backup.

That sucks Hope something gets sorted with it soon and that you don't loose your files L4!

Computers go wrong and fail so easily and regularly that a back-up every now and again really is a must.

Ideally clone the whole hard drive onto another drive (less hassle than saving particular files, plus you have your whole operating system and programs safe that way too and hard drives cost hardy anything these days), this takes a while but it's simple with copying software and you can leave it run and wander off.

Then physically remove this drive from the computer (if it's not already an external drive) and store it somewhere else, ideally somewhere other than your house - e.g. at work or a friends, that way should anything really catastrophic happen like your house burn down, your data would still be safe.

That does take backing-up quite far, but I'd hate to loose the over 400 gigs of music and photos I have these days.

...have you tried switching it off and turning it back on?...

If that doesn't work then I suggest a ten pound lump hammer...   no, no, no... not on the lap top...   on the geek squad... silly, L4.

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My head is full of War...

[img]http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk120/Warhead40k/Tyranid%20Swarm/DSC02262.jpg[/img]

sugarsync is a pretty nice back up utility... otherwise, external hard drives are very nice.

Well thanks for the condolences Boyz. I will back up my files monthly as MSN suggests ... I do have a lot of links on my webtv, which I'm on now ... So that's a "B" grade back up. And I just called Gateway and they just sent the Recovery disk yesterday ...  So it only took them 6 days ...  Believe me if this "operation" is a failure I will take more then a hammer to those Geeks !  And I may be  jaded ... but I believe that if the Geek Squad didn't do the "upgrade", my Lap Top would not have crashed ...

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Legion 4 "Cry Havoc, and let slip the Dogs of War !" ... "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."

It appears now that much of my commo is back to normal(after some jumping thru hoops with MSN, however in the end they came thru !) ... still have a few odds & ends to do ... But I should be posting pics of my Dark Angels HQ and some other things I did the "before the fall"  ... So here's to hoping my commo will stay 5-by-5 ...  

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Legion 4 "Cry Havoc, and let slip the Dogs of War !" ... "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."

Good news L4. Think of it this way, though. The time you haven't been online has given you more time to paint.

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"I don't believe in destiny or the guiding hand of fate." N. Peart

Oh yes !  And I'll post pics to prove it !!  And it appears my commo status is 5-by-5 ...  

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Legion 4 "Cry Havoc, and let slip the Dogs of War !" ... "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."