I broke my puter :(

[-FA- ManiacalClown]

Yeah, so like whenever I turn it on, it says DELL in big happy letters and proceeds to try to boot, but can't load anything from the HDD so it asks for a boot disk. Only disk I have that's close is the DELL diagnostic floppy. So I put that in, run the tests. First it says it can't find something, which I fear is the HDD, and then it says my A drive is just fine, which I knew already. Then it exits to the DOS Prompt at A:\. First time I did this, I could go to C:\ and, after a longer than usual wait, show the directory and move around in the files. On subsequent tries, the machine is no longer recognizing the C drive as existing. I've pulled everything out and checked to make sure the ribbons are properly connected, and everything is fine. I even pulled the HDD out to give it a look. Only thing I noticed was that it was quite hot, which makes me think it overheated and might work after an extended cooling period, although there might me some irrerperable damage. In fact, after I'd pulled it out and let it cool down a bit, the drive actually responded to the computer being powered on, but the only thing it did was make some horrible clicking noises. Basically, this is a last ditch effort to see if it'll magically come back to life, otherwise I fear I'll have to replace the thing, whether any of the data is recoverable would remain to be seen.

All of it boils down to this: Been fun so far this month, but I think I might have to take a bit of a vacation from the server until I can get the system working again. I'll check back in as often as I can to let you know how it's going.

[LA_MERC_Spark]

:eek:

[LA_MERC_Cowboy_From_Hell]

bummer....good luck Clown.

Scott

[LA_MERC_LaTech]

Click of death is a bad thing. Just FYI. Usually, you can't get it back from that point. Good luck though.

Man, I sure do sound positive today...

[Death-Speak]

Time for new hard drive my friend. Is it under warranty? You should be able to get out cheap either way.

bummer man....

[LA_MERC_Onji]

clicking is bad. If its a western digital, they usually come with a 3yr warranty direct from WD. I really dont know about other brand's warranties.

[-FA- ManiacalClown]

I fear for my 1200+ Pearl Jam mp3s.

[LA_MERC_Spark]

backup...backup....backup!!!!!!

[SnAkEbItE]

Ok clown you hd is dead dead dead if you hear click then your dead. You can call Dell and give them your serial number a 4-5 digit alpanumeric number back of computer usually on a white tag stuck to computer. If it's under warrenty they will either just send you a hd or send someone to install it. If it's not goto best buy and get a new one.

[-FA- ManiacalClown]

We're dealing with it. I think we've got a mobo issue on top of everything. We've got a new HD in there, and this morning we powered it on after installing Windows yesterday and got the same request for a boot disk. Hit Ctrl+Alt+Del and it boots normally. That problem has since corrected itself, but there's no telling if it'll happen again. Now Windows can't seem to figure out how to allow my profile to use the DSL connection without being an administrator.

As for the backup, we used to do it. But then my dad started going on business trip after business trip and never had time. I would be perfectly willing to do it, but he's anal retentive so obviously the way I would do it would be unacceptable. Therefore, it hasn't been done since we purchased this system 2 years ago. (Used to have a tape backup system for the old PC, but it wasn't compatible, nor was it big enough for a 60 gig HD.)

I still don't know when I'll be back on the server playing. It's a shame, really. I was playing better this month than I ever have before. Being around players better than you tends to help you pick up your game a bit. I'll surely be back to full operations by next month so look out. :)