losing control

themaccas

so we've been back home from holiday for a week and my budgets and debt totals are completely up the yingyang.

On Wednesday our hardrive had a catastrophic crash and I have lost EVERYTHING. All my budget, debt totals, payment tables, spreadsheets, ms money, everything has gone. We contacted Sony and they say we need to sent the pc back to them which will cost £140 then if it is a moderate repair it will cost £250, if it is an intensive repair then it will be £450. PC world wil do it for £150 but they have said it will not work as well compared to if Sony do the repairs. It was a very expensive pc bought pre lbm but paid off last July. So it is boxed up ready to send back when funds allow, which won't be until July. We are using laptops at the moment so at least we have some access.

However we tried to conect the printer to the laptop but it couldn't read the driver and we had lost the cd rom. HP online couldn't download the driver as it is an ancient printer so, as we need a printer all the time we had to buy one at the weekend - £75. Whilst putting it together and placing it on the pc workstation, the desk broke!!! Now we need to buy another workstation. This pc hardrive collapse is proving to be very expensive. I have no idea how much we owe debtwise either and feel I totally lost control with our debts, not becuase we are spending too much but because I don't know where we are with them.

On top of that I got a really terrible mark for my disertation, I passed but the mark couldn't be any lower. I am so fed up and just want to book another holiday. I knew this would be a 'dangerous' time anyway but all this is making me feel 'what the hell'.

DontDoDebtKids

I've had the same happen to me and checked around to see if i could get the hard drive fixed or at least get all the data off it. In the end, I had to give up as it was too expensive and there was no guarantee of success, in fact a very low chance that I'd get anything back.

Since then I've backed everything up religiously!

The best thing I've found recently is a free online backup service called Mozy which lets you back up 2Gb of files completely free - you'll need broadband to make it worthwhile.

Good luck!

DDDK

oops_a_daisy

awww sorry you are having a hard time. Have you got a freecycle group in the area that you live ? Im sure I have seen computer workstations / desks offered on our local one.

all the best and I hope things start to look up for you soon

Ali-OK

Welcome back from your hols..it's like losing your right arm when a PC dies. Sorry can't offer any advice on a fix though.

But don't lose heart..just take a step back, look how far you have come and you're heading into the home straight, even with the blip of the PC/printer/desk. And hope no-one got hurt when it collapsed.

You don't need another holiday really, tell yourself it's the "back to reality blues" - you need to take stock, get paperwork together again, grab a coffee and BREATHE !!!

lynzpower

themaccas

where do you live? My OH is a hardwarte engineer and his parents own a computer company and we might be able to help you out if you like?

PM me if you need us

And definatley dont fly off the wagon. A new PC table will be 20 quid MAX, get one of freecylce, or ebay or even our new one from Ikea was 12.99

angelavdavis

themaccas wrote: »

However we tried to conect the printer to the laptop but it couldn't read the driver and we had lost the cd rom. HP online couldn't download the driver as it is an ancient printer so, as we need a printer all the time we had to buy one at the weekend - £75. Whilst putting it together and placing it on the pc workstation, the desk broke!!! Now we need to buy another workstation.

Sorry to hear you have had such a rough couple of weeks!

Its worth noting, as Lynzpower says, that people are always offering printers and PC workstations on Freecycle and I have even seen ads where people have requested drivers for printers that they have lost. I would post up a wanted ad on your local one.

You may well have already looked, but some drivers are available free of charge on driverguide.com, totallydrivers.com or free-drivers-download.com.

CLAPTON

how old is the computer ? even if its out of warrenty under the sale of goods act it should be fit for purpose.. you should easily be able to argue that a modern PC should last at least 2-3 years before going wrong.


do you know anyone PC aware... changing a harddrive is easy and you can buy one for under 50 depending on how big you require.

Snaggles

Hi themaccas, can't offer any advice I'm afraid as my computer knowledge doesn't stretch very far, but just wanted to offer my support and encouragement - you have come such a very long way, this is just a little blip and you will get over it, I promise (Sorry, hope that doesn't sound too patronising ).

Hope you've had a nice holiday anyway xx

Spendless

Hi themaccas

Noticed you hadn't posted for a few days and I was getting a bit concerned it was cos you were going thru your 'dangerous time', as you said around now would be on your thread. You also said we all had to ask you to wait a week next time you went thru one of your phases.

Have you asked on the techie board about anything you can do? I can't understand half the questions, let alone the answers but DH has found on there fantastic help.

As to the dissertion I think we all need to say CONGRATULATIONS on passing to cheer you up. :beer:

Please don't fall off the wagon, I think you've only got 12 months or less to go now.

All the best.

Claudie

Hi themaccas

Rough news on the PC but well done on the dissertation - it may not be the mark you wanted but it is done and you have passed!

Perhaps you could dig out your Thomson Local and call around a few small PC places. When ours died last year it cost £70 for call out/repair parts etc and it was nice knowing it was a small firm so I could go back and see the same face to ask for advice.

Good luck

ifstar

You should look at smaller local computer firms to see if they can give you an estimate, they are likely to be much cheaper than PC World and Sony, both of whom will rip you off.

What is it exactly that is wrong with it? Does it power up but not start windows, does it get to windows but crash etc