Reading Magnifico's journal

So.

My computer has been taken over by some sort of lesser dæmon, it seems. My hard drive's partition has, mysteriously, disappeared. And, so far as I can tell, I've lost all my data (which, Jaz, includes a couple of songs {Ikaria, Dreamer, Randläuferin, and Seven Ways to Moonfleet u_u}), which is some heinous fuckery most foul. Heinous. Most, most foul.

Terrible times.

I have a fangirl who constantly calls me, and I feel kinda bad because I can only stand to talk to her for so long before I just can't stand her anymore. I know it's mean, but who she is just really bothers me: she's very judgemental, and claims to be very gothic, but she's like a Hot Topic Goth (if'n ya catch my meaning).

Heinous fuckery.

Called up Evie, tried to get her to go to a play with a few friends. She said she was kinda busy but would call back in about five minutes. Never called back.

I swear to God, the only thing keeping me remotely upbeat is my recent acquisition of an Incubus CD (Morning View). I don't want to lose two and a half years of information because of a virus in my computer. . .

I'll believe in anything if you'll just believe in anything

Sorry to hear that. I've been there and I know how it feels.

, I've lost all my data (which, Jaz, includes a couple of songs {Ikaria, Dreamer, Randläuferin, and Seven Ways to Moonfleet u_u})

At least we can restore these few bits.

'Yeah, That's what Jesus would do. Jesus would bomb Afghanistan. Yeah.' - snowlion

This post was edited by Jaz on Aug 24, 2003.

Been there too, although I haven't lost as much.
Actually there are some programs that might help you get some data back even if the partition is no longer there. I heard "Easy Recovery" was quite good. Perhaps you know someone who's got it. (if not)

'Repent, Harlequin!' said the Ticktockman. 'Get stuffed!' the Harlequin replied, sneering.

Does the virus only delete the partition (as in, "remove the entry from MBR and Windows registry"), or also overwrite the data? Because simply fixing the partition table shouldn't be too much work.
If the latter is the case, there might still be some hope if it's an NTFS partition.
If it's a FAT partition, please accept my most sincere condolences.

When life hands you a lemon, that's 40% of your RDA of vitamin C taken care of.

Well, there are two bits of good news in this story:

Number one is that it appears, thanks to a page I found through a good friend, that it's not a virus. It's most likely a problem with the BIOS (either the jumpers being in the wrong setting or the battery dying), so it should be relatively easy to fix. The problem is finding out which of these problems it is, but we'll get it eventually. The only problem is that the battery could completely crap out before I can save anything: every time I try to burn some files to a CD or to copy 'em over to a ZIPdisk, the computer crashes again.

Number two is that I've decided that I'm gonna head over to mp3.com and buy up some of those CDs of yours, Herr Henning, so I can have a few nice hardcopies in case something like this happens again.

I'll believe in anything if you'll just believe in anything

This post was edited by Magnifico on Aug 25, 2003.

You know, judging from the problems you describe I don't think it's the CMOS battery (alone). Even if/when the battery fails, the BIOS may lose all configuration data and show an error message during POST, but once the system is running it's supposed to be independent of the battery. (Provided the BIOS is set-up correctly, whereas most computers should at least run stable with the BIOS defaults.)
Is the lost partition on the same physical drive as the system partition, or do you in fact own two harddisks?

On a side note, how's your fangirl doing? :-P

When life hands you a lemon, that's 40% of your RDA of vitamin C taken care of.

This post was edited by null on Aug 25, 2003.

Regarding the computer: I've only got the one harddisk. I think the partition problem might have been an error in judgement on my part (the computer gave a three-bullet-point list of what could be the problem, which included the partition being gone: it doesn't have to make sense, it's Windows). The computer is still under warranty, so I might just take it in to a local shop and have those guys deal with it. I am, after all, an idiot as far as this stuff goes.

As for the fangirl: I think school has sufficiently calmed her. That, or the fear of my classes and homework this year has made me deaf to the phone's helpless rings for attention. . .

I'll believe in anything if you'll just believe in anything