life is no caberet

[hathycol]

Computer fucked. They think it's the hard drive. This is more than a little aggravating. If anyone else says 'oh, you should have backed it up!' then I will say 'I KNOW THAT I'M NOT A COMPLETE MORON YOU KNOW.' You know, just a moron that has thoroughly learnt her lesson.

I am torn between what's worse; losing the first 500 words of my dissertation (you know, that thing I have to hand 3000 words in of on Tuesday), the fact I will have to now do vast swathes of my dissertation on library computers, or that I am going to have to shell out on getting a new computer sorted.

I have a few options. Firstly, I can go to the PC clinic at the uni, and they will... well, firstly they'll charge me £30 for looking at it, and then it's £40 for a new hard drive on top of that. This is a bit shite, as I don't have any of the discs I need with me, in terms of Word and stuff. I can get these posted up, though. Also, if it's not the hard drive, they won't charge me for that, but if other stuff has gone then I could be paying who knows what. My other option is just sucking it up and buying a new laptop. Now, this would be an option I could just about afford IF I didn't, in the next two months, have to pay my rent, my MOT, my car tax, my gas and my electricity. Oh, and that Christmas thing and all. I can't borrow money off anyone since, you know, it's a bad time of year for everyone, I'm unwilling to get into the cycle of using my credit card, and there's only so far the overdraft will stretch.

Oh, and I have Glasgow Collectormania this weekend, which I would cancel going to had I not already paid for my room.

Right. I'm going to book it into the PC clinic, and if I have no joy out of that then... well, I'll still pay the £30 for them to look at it, and then I'll have to make some magic with the numbers to see if I can afford a new one. Man, I hope that I get something for conmpensation for my back because then life isn't so scary.

Dear computer gods - I promise I will buy a shiny new computer in the sales if I have any comp money coming through but PLEASE let the thing be solved so that I can write my flipping dissertation...

[eta: yep, just got e-mail confirming massive failing at civil service. oh yay.]

Comments

[shipperkitten.livejournal.com]

Oh hon *huge hugs*

[hathy-col.livejournal.com]

I have a month to write my whole dissertation. I don't want to do that in the library. Seems I have no choice, though; even if they do replace my hard drive and make Joan better again, I'll still have no word. I've lost a lot of photos, my entire music collection and all my uni work that whilst I do have paper copies of, I'd have liked to have a central copy of stuff to refer back to.

I'm just... tired, now. It's a bit too much at the moment.

[spacellama.livejournal.com]

What horrible timing! I'd beat that computer, but that would only make the problem worse, probably. Hope the clinic will be able to fix it up well enough for you to use it for a while yet. *hugs*

[logmplus1.livejournal.com]

If you can get the hard drive back off them, I have fancy hard-disk recovery things I can do to it. You'd have to post it to Oxford, but I could try and get the data back and send you a DVD or eight.

No promises, and it'd probably be too slow for the dissertation, but things like the photos and the music may be recoverable.

*hugs*

[hathy-col.livejournal.com]

I am going to go Office Space on that thing if it decides never to work again. I totally mean that.

It is officially Rubbish Timing, I agree with that...

[hathy-col.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's wonderful! Thank you so much for offering. No doubt I will continue to whine on LJ about this, so I'll let you know.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Oh, sweetheart. I do know that even if the computer is fucked, they can surgically extract the hard drive for the data on it - is this a possibility for you?

[spacellama.livejournal.com]

I am going to go Office Space on that thing

I dig this figure of speech.

[tau_sigma]

*moar hugs*

[hathy-col.livejournal.com]

Looks as though it might be; I know the dissertation is gone for good, but it would be nice to get my photos and stuff back; I hadn't, typically, yet printed off all the ones I wanted to keep and facebook quality means at least they're there, but not good...

[sevenhelz.livejournal.com]

*hugs*
on the plus side, while you might have to wait a bit, you definitely should get some cash for the crash. it'll turn up sooner or later. I got over a grand for a minor bump with a touch of whiplash. that's presumably the kind of figure you're looking at, so a laptop is not outside your reach.
x

[hathy-col.livejournal.com]

*hugs back*