Just Dropped My Laptop

*sigh*

Well, for the first time ever...in nearly 2 years.... I set my laptop down on the arm of the couch and watched helplessly as it slid off and landed on the carpeted floor.

*groan*

For whatever reason, it shut itself off... automatically.

So.... I restarted it, and it immediately went into CheckDisk.

Everything 'looks' ok, and it seems to be working...

Tomy question for all the smart guys out there...

What do I do next? Any measures I should take to double-check for harm to the hard drive?

The case isn't cracked... the only issue I noticed on start up was that the icon showing that it was charging didn't immediately switch to the little lightening bolt when I plugged it back in, but it did eventually, and seems to be charging ok now...

I have an Acer Ferrari 4006 WLMi.

Mike in Kuwait

 

At this point, if you haven't done so already, I'd make a sector by sector image of the entire hard drive to an external usb/firewire drive using Acronis or similar software.

That way if your laptop HD craps out all you have to do is order a replacement laptop HD of the same capacity (or larger/faster as may be available if you've owned your laptop for a year or more), do a switch, install a bare OS and image your data back from the external drive to the new internal. I bought a 500gb 7200rpm laptop drive for less than $100 US from newegg.

I have done this a number of times and the physical replacement process takes only 5 minutes. Instructions are available on the net.

Good luck!

 

Excellent idea, Don.... thanks for that....

Mike in Kuwait

 

UPDATE

Sending this from work because.... guess what...

about 30 minutes after "The Drop", I got a blue screen that only stayed up for a minute, but started out with:

(something like) There is a kernal error ....

and, now nothing... it starts to boot up, but I get a "Disk Error, Press Any Key to Restart" message...

So, off to the guru this morning....

*Sigh*

Mike in Kuwait

 

Grab a SSD instead of a spindle drive...they are far more tolerant of small drops.

http://www.intel.com/design/flash/nand/mainstream/index.htm

 

Excellent idea... however, in Kuwait the largest SST available is 30 gigabyte...

We're a little bit behind times here...and to order and ship it in would cost a minimum of $100, plus having to wait two to three weeks.

Even FedEx overnight here, locally, takes 4 days. it's all just part of living here.

Mike in Kuwait

 

Ouch, sounds like the hard drive got hurt, if it had been turned off and not spinning it might've stood a chance. Even if it won't boot you might still be able to get your files off. You could try using a Linux boot disc like Slax and boot into that and copy your files onto a USB stick, or plug the drive into an external enclosure and try plugging it into another computer.

 

Just got off the phone with the tech...

Yep.... hard drive. Unrecognized...

(crap!)

AND, I can't upgrade to a 500gig because it's an 'old architecture' (IDE or something).

The largest available locally is 160gig... so, going from a 120 to a 160.

Now... the big question... should I go ahead an upgrade to 64-bit Windows 7?

Opinions, anyone?

I've been using XP 64...and Office 2003. I have Office 2007, and will probably move to that.

Comments?

Mike in Kuwait

 

How old is the machine? Might consider going to a new one.

Beyond that, XP64 really sucks and W7 does not...provided the computer has 2GB+ ram.

 

laptop is about 3 years old, now that I really think about it.

It's loaded up with RAM... I think 4 gig... whatever it is, it's at the maximum for the machine

I have looked at new ones... and am REALLY considering the 15-inch Macbook Pro... but at the same time, if I can get out of this for under a $100 for a new hard drive and the $150 for Win 7, I'm ok with that...

Even after getting it fixed, may move into a new one this summer...

Mike in Kuwait

 

Mike -

Since you're starting from scratch, may I respectfully suggest perhaps an iMac? I don't want to open a can of worms on Fchat, but my switch to Mac from PC has been really very enjoyable. No loss of productivity whatsoever.

 

Daniel,

Bought the daughter a Macbook day before yesterday, and I'm impressed with it...

Would you say your transition was 'seamless' ?

How steep was the learning curve going from PC to Mac?

Mike in Kuwait

 

Yoda,

Thanks for the input...

I talked to the tech, and mentioned that... he was already doing it...and had just started to pull the data off... not REAL concerned about it as I do weekly backups on my home server anyway...

Mike in Kuwait

 

You won't be unhappy with a Mac, especially going from XP64.

 

My transition was fast, but not seamless. It's hard to 'undo' years of mouse and keyboard habits. Within 48 hours, all my critical applications were up and running just fine. I still fumble with odd keystrokes, but get faster all the time.

The backup/recovery of Time Machine is quite amazing compared to previous 'technologies' I used. All of the networking on the Mac is simple. Call me anytime (you have my cellular number, right?) and I'd be happy to chat. It was the best money ever spent on a tech item. Mac's are not for everyone -- and I admit that. For me, it has been the right tool for my day-to-day business. All my hadrcore database applications, web development tools, and shipping programs had Mac versions that work just as I'd hoped.

(Fellow Fchatter "FC2" got the ball rolling for me last summer when he helped me get my family's first iMac for Luca. Huge thanks to him!!!)

 

p.s. the biggest change was dumping Microsoft Office. I would have preferred to actually run MS Office on the Mac... but instead decided to try OpenOffice for a few days and see if it worked for me. In the end, it is all the power I need and pretty simple to transition. If I were a very heavy Excel or Access user, I probably would have opened for MS Office on the Mac.

Funny how quickly we 'adjust' to new things. Now, when I boot my old PC, I feel completely ill-at-ease in navigation and some functionality. It's not better, it's not worse. It's just different.

 

Thanks for that Daniel... yes, I still have your cell phone number.

I'll send a PM to FC2 and ask his opinion on the latest Macbooks...

Hope business is good, and Merry Christmas to you and yours, and to EVERYONE who reads or responds to this thread...

It's a great time of year... I look forward to it for 11 months...!

Mike in Kuwait

 

Have you checked out http://www.neooffice.org/ ?

A more OSX native "look and feel" - Which if you're a long time M$ Office user may be a *bad* thing I guess!.....

It's still OpenOffice under the hood and I *believe* both at least come closer to supporting the "obscure/advanced" features of Excel that aren't in M$ Office for Mac. - I've never had any issues, but a few have apparently.

Cheers,
Ian

 

Oh yes they are [Sorry, I couldn't resist!....] Seriously, +1.

IIRC, you got an iMac, right? Didn't even go "all out" on a Pro....

Cheers,
Ian
PS - Aren't we just being very PC....

 

Ian,

If I end up moving to a Mac, count on a gazillion PMs from me asking REALLY stupid questions...



Mike in Kuwait

 

"No problem!" - I'm confident that won't be the case though - Sure, you'll have some Q's, but we'll "overcome". They really are easier to use (IMHO of course )

 

What is truly amazing to me is the great divide between hard core PC users and Mac users... I don't understand it... honestly I don't.

It's a computer... a tool... that is used to accomplish certain tasks...

But, apparently, it's like discussing abortion, or welfare, or conservative v. liberal... people really get riled up about it.

I wonder why....

Mike in Kuwait

 

+1 I try to be reasonably fair with my comments & criticisms but have been called all kind of names etc - I'm not a "fanboy", and as I said before, I'll stop buying their products when they cease to please me.....

You've just hijacked your own thread

My thinking/history, FWIW:

- I'm first and foremost an "old school" Unix hacker - I've worked on 'em all over the years and like what *nix does.
- I've also worked on PC's from CP/M, thru DOS all the way to XP - I've managed to avoid Vista (beyond poking at it), and am keeping an open mind on 7.
- I switched when OSX (=Unix) first appeared. My "family room" computer is a G4 laptop from around 2001, and my "main" system is an original Intel MBP from 2006 - So, I don't "upgrade" to the latest and greatest because the case changed, as some have claimed....

I *never* expected to become such a staunch "supporter", but over the years have "converted" many friends and colleagues to the platform, and not one of 'em has been disappointed.

I'm serious when I say the quality of your computing life *will* improve - They're simply "nicer" on so many levels - The OS is rock solid, they include much of the S/W that most users want and need and flat out work "out of the box" without having to spend hours removing "bloatware", downloading "updated" drivers, installing anti-stuff and so on.

They can even run an M$ OS in a VM or be booted directly to it if really necessary - The best of both worlds! - My data & video merge app is stubbornly "PC only" but only runs properly on a "true" PC (frame rates are an issue in a VM) - I use Bootcamp and I've got to say it's the best PC I've ever owned - And I've built at least a dozen PC's over the years - It's reliable and given proper precautions works great. [Apple have a distinct advantage here as their H/W is theirs and they wrote the drivers etc - The video camera, USB, wi-fi, external drives and so no just flat out work - Reliably.]

Finally, to steal from Steve, the build quality is "insanely great!" - I don't mind using one all day long. Sure, if you compare the numbers, you can get *slightly* more HP (MIPS, MFLOPS, SpecMark points etc) from an equivalently priced PC - But, so what? I'd rather pay more for the quality of the experience.

As always,, all IMHO,
Cheers,
Ian

 

Thanks for the input, Ian...

Also, thanks to "he who will remain unnamed" for the phone call. It was completely unexpected, and a very nice thing to do... I appreciate your taking the time to call.

I'm typing this on my 'dropped' laptop, which I got back an hour ago, and have spent the last hour, and will spend countless hours reconfiguring to where I can use it...

Where's "Time Machine" for PC when you need it?

The wife told me tonight, after getting it back "You just need a new laptop...you should think about a Macbook."



Mike in Kuwait

 

Well, while loading the 67 updates, and doing the obligatory defrag after each 'bunch', got a message saying that hard drive may be corrupted....and to run chkdsk /f ...

Jeepers...

Ran the check disk, no problems found...

Continuing to continue...



Mike in Kuwait