Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Computer Fail

My laptop just died... Not much chance of getting it fixed in Zimbabwe. So it looks like my blogging will be taking a hiatus. (For the techies reading this: it doesn't get past the BIOS, which I think means that the SSD has failed. It's less than a year old!)

15 comments:

  1. When you get back home, I recommend Reuven Grantz.

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  2. I don't know if this is possible where you are now, but I would use a Live CD of Ubuntu.
    You have to download the iso image, and burn it to a CD--somehow you'll have to use someone else's computer for that. Then you can boot your computer off the Live CD. You should be able to get internet from that as well.
    www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop

    Hope this helps.

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    Replies
    1. An excellent idea
      In fact he would be better served by putting ubuntu onto a flash drive

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    2. Don't be afraid of the Paypal request on the Ubuntu site--it's just a suggested contribution. You can download the .iso file for free.

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    3. This is an excellent advice. Actually! right now I am writing from a laptop which has no hard drive whatsoever, using Linux on a flash disk (I use Fedora Linux, but Ubuntu is as good as Fedora)

      -- by the way, there is no reason to believe that your SSD died. they are *very* stable and fine piece of technology. Something minor technical (like an electrical contact) from moving your laptop around a lot; or your operating system (Windows?) did not treat you well...

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  3. It may be a corrupt os, hard drive might be fine. if that isnt it, make sure you do not have any usb drives attached when restarting. Go check if one is in. if it is, pull it and restart.

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  4. Have you tried turning it off and on again?

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  5. If it couldn't detect the hard drive at all, it's likely the sata wire (connecting the drive to the motherboard) failed.

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  6. I would recommend a liveCD (or live USB) of Linux MINT, not Ubuntu. Mint is built on top of Ubuntu but comes pre-packaged with all the codecs, movie players, flash etc. that you need to do web work etc. http://www.linuxmint.com/ You can try to access your SSD once your booted up, in which case you could save your data to a flash drive.

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  7. +1 on the cable. Open up the machine and have a look if the sad is properly connected, and make sure you remove the battery. Also go into BIOS by hitting f12 during boot and see if there is a HDD being detected properly, while you are at it check the boot sequence as well.

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  8. Yehudah P.: I don't know if this is possible where you are now, but I would use a Live CD of Ubuntu.

    Had the same notion, but was thinking that he can also boot it off of a USB.

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  9. Sometimes a hard drive failure can be fixed by by putting it through a freeze and thaw cycle

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  10. This proves without a doubt that the prayers of non-rationalists are answered. :)

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