More Dead
Things are looking even worse for the computer. I tried switching the boot order so that the CD-ROMs went first (and then the floppy, just in case). Unfortunately the computer still wasn't able to read from either CD-ROM.
So I switched the boot order back to the original setup (I'd written it down before changing it). But when I tried to start up again, something went very wrong indeed. Instead of booting up from the boot floppy, or even getting a failure message, all that it could do was finish the memory test and then go into a never-ending mechanical hiccough noise and freeze. No matter what, that's all that happens.
I don't think that the C drive is dead, but something is terribly wrong with the system. Some friends of mine are going to take the system and see what they can do with it, but I fear that the system is irrepairably damaged.
I really can't tell you how bad it is not to have a computer. It's actually giving me symptoms of depression, I think! Whenever I think about the damned thing I just want to go to sleep. It's not a good situation.
If the computer can't be fixed than I may have to save up for six months or so, buy the cheapest, crappiest computer I can afford from PC's For Everyone, and see if they can install my old drives as slaves on the system. Maybe I can recover some of my data that way, although a lot of the programs may not be recoverable. I also have lost ALL my email, ALL my addresses, and basically anything that I've written but not posted in the past ten years.
No wonder I want to turn my brain off!
So I switched the boot order back to the original setup (I'd written it down before changing it). But when I tried to start up again, something went very wrong indeed. Instead of booting up from the boot floppy, or even getting a failure message, all that it could do was finish the memory test and then go into a never-ending mechanical hiccough noise and freeze. No matter what, that's all that happens.
I don't think that the C drive is dead, but something is terribly wrong with the system. Some friends of mine are going to take the system and see what they can do with it, but I fear that the system is irrepairably damaged.
I really can't tell you how bad it is not to have a computer. It's actually giving me symptoms of depression, I think! Whenever I think about the damned thing I just want to go to sleep. It's not a good situation.
If the computer can't be fixed than I may have to save up for six months or so, buy the cheapest, crappiest computer I can afford from PC's For Everyone, and see if they can install my old drives as slaves on the system. Maybe I can recover some of my data that way, although a lot of the programs may not be recoverable. I also have lost ALL my email, ALL my addresses, and basically anything that I've written but not posted in the past ten years.
No wonder I want to turn my brain off!
