Well, the DVD drive has failed on my laptop after 4 months, so I'm taking it back in to get it repaired. My problem is the hard drive though. It's got 120/140GB used, which I'm currently trying to back up. But I can't get it all backed up, it's estimated at another 40 hours :eek:

So, do I really need to back up everything? I presume I'm not going to get a totally new unit, as it's just a simple drive to be replaced, hopefully. I've all my really important stuff backed up, as I do regularly. The other thing is, there's a fair bit of warez and the likes on it, as we use the laptop to download everything. None of it is too serious, mainly music, and a few movies. Do I need to remove all of this before taking it in? I can't back it up, as I don't have time. I'm hoping to go in tomorrow morning before work (yes, I'm working tomorrow. It's a bitch ), so I only have about 5 hours to get everything I need off of it.

I'm just fairly paranoid that they're going to wipe the hard drive, damage it or give me a new one, as I do all of my work on the laptop, and it's perfectly set up as it is. Having to restore everything the way it was could take months

Sorry if this should be in the hardware section, it just doesn't seem like a hardware issue, more of a general question

Thanks for any advice, I'm fairly worried now

Back up all the important stuff that will actually take years to recover, such as music...I have over 55 GB of music for example. Stuff like personal settings won't take that long to set back up again. I admit setting up a PC from scratch is a PITA, but it really isn't that bad and can be beneficial. Just back up your documents and stuff that is irreplaceable/hard to find/lots of...

If you say you've got alotta vvarez and what not on it you've probably just got a driver/harware issue. Same thing happened to me, dvd packed in a few years back on my old Toshiba notebook and turned out to be software/virus related.

install a second OS (ubuntu) believe me it's simple to install and partition you HDD all nice GUI and all and you'll have your answer to wheather or not its a hardware prob.

...or maybe you just burned too many ripped off music.

Nah, it's definitely hardware. From the beginning, it wouldn't play certain DVDs, even though they were all store bought, and played in everything else. Just last week, games started saying "CD/DVD drive not found", and then it disappeared from My Computer altogether, left with a blank space.

I'd have no problem fitting a new one, and my ideal scenario would be them giving me a spare drive, and I could do it in an hour, rather than sending it away for a week, or probably more

Why not just buy a new drive then?

I'd say ringing them and tryin to get them to send you a drive in the post would'nt be a bad idea(in theory), you'll just have to get on the dog n' bone screaming abuse or they'll want to see it.

vvarez is bad. mkay...

Quote from Luke.S :

Why not just buy a new drive then?

Why would I spend €80+ on a new drive when it's only 4 months old?

Quote from CSU1 :

I'd say ringing them and tryin to get them to send you a drive in the post would'nt be a bad idea(in theory), you'll just have to get on the dog n' bone screaming abuse or they'll want to see it.

vvarez is bad. mkay...

I might try ringing instead, but I'd highly doubt they'll send one after a phone call. I got it from PC World (where in the world?), so I'll take it in tomorrow anyway, it's almost on my way. With any luck, if I shout loud enough (trust me, I can shout fairly loud!), I might persuade them to just give me a new one off the shelf. But then I have the issue of the warranty sticker

Warez is bad, I'm trying to cut down, but it's bloody addictive!

What do you ACTUALLY need to keep?

All I'd really NEED is my work (backed up in 4 places, one of which has gone walkabout...) and my music (all replaceable if need be) and all my apps etc could be restored from scratch if need be...

Quote from Jakg :

What do you ACTUALLY need to keep?

All I'd really NEED is my work (backed up in 4 places, one of which has gone walkabout...) .

was one of your backups your cat? i don't get it...where it gone walkies to?

Considering I do 90% of my programming on the laptop, all of my school work, all of my own personal projects, and countless other stuff that could take months to replace, I don't want to back up and restore everything. I have all of the most important files backed up, as I do regularly, and I have all my private info taken off.

I presume the technicians aren't going to wade through my personal stuff and see what I've got, are they?

Why in the world did you buy a laptop from pc world? Are you mad? Pc world stuff always breaks.

Luke, what's your point? It's an Advent laptop, which is made by the Dixons group, which owns, or is at least involved in, most of the major PC chain stores. Have you got scientific proof that stuff from PC World "always breaks"? Our first computer was from PC world. We got it over 10 years ago by now. It's still going strong. PC World stuff doesn't "always break"...

Quote from Luke.S :

Why in the world did you buy a laptop from pc world? Are you mad? Pc world stuff always breaks.

Your an idiot - PC World pricematch places like Play.com, and give you 10% of the difference back... find a laptop for £400 on t'internet and £600 instore and you can walk out with it from PC World for £380 the same day (although it take a little persuading to make them realise this though).

If you actually knew what you were on about, you'd know PC world don't make laptops, they just sell them - thats why their a retailer...

OT - Waiting to hear if I've got a job there :X

Quote from CSU1 :

was one of your backups your cat? i don't get it...where it gone walkies to?

My pendrive, which has totally dissapeared from my life and I have no idea where it is - luckily I deleted my client database from it a few days before, but it's got over 3 years (aka 200mb) worth of work on it (which is all backed up).

Quote from dougie-lampkin :

I presume the technicians aren't going to wade through my personal stuff and see what I've got, are they?

just keep it all in My docs and make private, n' give them a second admin account for the day

I don't know if it's easy to do on your laptop, but you could remove the harddrive. They don't need it anyway.

Quote from dougie-lampkin :

..I presume the technicians aren't going to wade through my personal stuff and see what I've got, are they?

They obviously looked at Garry Glitter's stuff

In this case I'm glad they did

No lol, it's not anything as bad as that...a couple of movies, and a few albums

Make sure first that the DVD drive really is busted. If you have a bootable disc lying around (Windows, Linux etc.) and it boots fine, then it's probably not a faulty drive, but more likely a problem in Windows. Anyhow, replacing the drive is a straightforward job and shouldn't require the technicians to boot into the system and go through your stuff. Only to check that it works. If you're afraid of them seeing particular stuff, just do an attrib +h on the folders before delivering the laptop for service, and attrib -h when you get it back.

If you really wanna hide it, use something like TrueCrypt to encrypt the stuff.

By law, they can't go through your files, so if they do find anything you shouldn't have, naked pictures of Jakg for example, they are snookered because they can't do nothing about it.

Quote from The General Lee :

By law, they can't go through your files, so if they do find anything you shouldn't have, naked pictures of Jakg for example, they are snookered because they can't do nothing about it.

Quote from Turbo Dad :

They obviously looked at Garry Glitter's stuff

In this case I'm glad they did

The charges came after a member of staff spotted the material on Glitter's computer, in for repair at PC World in Bristol. Mr John Royce, QC, told the court that a technician tried to correct the fault and in order to see if he was successful had to look into a file. But what he found, said the QC, was "disturbing"

Quote :

I presume the technicians aren't going to wade through my personal stuff and see what I've got, are they?

Probably, working in a repair shop is like having your own fat pipe internet line - all the wares you could ever want delivered free to your workshop...

I've only once known an engineer to report a customer to the police, in this case they had a virus writing kit on their PC. Ironically their hardware problem turned out to be a number of virus'... The funniest part about that was the police turned up and recognised the engineer, it transpired there was an outstanding warrant for his arrest too.

Just to clear things up, there are no naked pictures of Jakg, in fact there is no porn at all (who stores it? that's just sick :razz. I have 6 movies, 2 TV series, and about 8 albums. Not exactly the motherload of the year :rolleyes:

The DVD drive really is busted, it's not recognised by the computer in the BIOS any more. It does pop in and out, but doesn't even spin when a disk is put in. I could open her up and take a look at it, but it has a warranty sticker, and it's well inside the warranty, so I'd like to keep it there

I've taken the suggestion to make a new, un-passworded admin account for the day (didn't get in today, definitely going to tomorrow), and also to remove sharing for all users on the folders in question.

(There is no virus writing tools as such, but there are a few "experiments" with batch files and C# :shhh

Quote from Luke.S :

Why in the world did you buy a laptop from pc world? Are you mad? Pc world stuff always breaks.

So, If I buy a Sony laptop, manufactured by Sony from PC World (as I did), it is somehow more likely to break than if I buy it from anywhere else?

Quote from Jakg :

Your an idiot

No, you're an idiot.

Quote from dougie-lampkin :

Just to clear things up, there are no naked pictures of Jakg...

Oh, you must of not checked your emails yet then.

Quote from JO53PHS :

So, If I buy a Sony laptop, manufactured by Sony from PC World (as I did), it is somehow more likely to break than if I buy it from anywhere else?



No, you're an idiot.

yes cause i'll come jump on it I put a screwdriver into your dvd drive and twisted it.