RE: My Dell shat itself again..
January 26, 2010 at 2:30 pm
(This post was last modified: January 26, 2010 at 2:31 pm by Autumnlicious.)
(January 26, 2010 at 7:08 am)padraic Wrote: Thanks Adrian. That sounds really promising. I actually have a live linux CD somewhere,as well as 1TB external l hardrive on which I have backed up a lot of stuff. I currently have that hard drive attached to this PC.Get a new disc/distro.
The live linux disc is several years old. Do I need to download a newer version?
Could I use the Linux CD to do a diagnostic and repair? If,how? Please keep it idiot simple ;IE' 'turn on Pc,insert disc, press Pf (?)------
Short answer: No.
Long answer: Yes if you know what you are doing. And that means that you can't just be given a series of commands. You'd have to post on a dedicated linux forum and have them post-by-post try to help you remotely.
Suggestion:
Insert a live cd (Ubuntu), boot off of the CD drive, wait for the pretty graphical environment to launch, goto the "Places" menu (on the top, like the MacOS bar) and clicky on your hard drive. If it opens, you're in luck - the file system is not damaged and the drive still works. If not, either the hard drive is busted or the filesystem is dirty - refer to a linux forum for fsck'ing a dirty windows partition.
Insert a USB key or something, copy off your files. Reinstall windows or install linux.
