PC Delight (Was: PC Catastrophe)

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My work laptop died this morning. I'd been using it over the last few months for lots of personal stuff, including FT (though that's not what killed it, some kind of bungled attempt to repair a network connection by an IT guy locked everyone out of it and means it now has to be rebuilt). This means:

- I am going to have to redo all the work I've been doing.
- I am going to get a titanic bollocking when IT discover all the non-licet programs and files on the PC. (And potentially a written warning, or even the sack, though this last is unlikely I think.)
- I am most likely going to lose all my MP3s, all my FT work, a lot of pictures, etc. etc.
- No update of FT this month (or at least a delayed one) (this is why I'm posting it here)

I am glum. :(

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 14:39 (twenty-two years ago)

the horror.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 14:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Fock.

― Alex K (Alex K), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 14:49 (twenty-two years ago)

:0<

― smee (smee), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 14:50 (twenty-two years ago)

Couldn't you tell IT that someone else put the programmes on there (a la that Soham cop)?

― Alex K (Alex K), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 14:50 (twenty-two years ago)

This happened to me with my desktop over the weekend. I had to reinstall the OS (Win98) and amazingly I lost nothing.

― Chris V. (Chris V), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 14:54 (twenty-two years ago)

I can tell them it *was* the Soham cop if I like but I doubt it'll make much difference. All they can do is complain to my manager though and she's been shouted at for the same thing herself.

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 14:55 (twenty-two years ago)

I bet it doesn't really have to be rebuilt - they just don't know how to fix it.

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 14:57 (twenty-two years ago)

Tom are you using a Windows based system?

― Chris V. (Chris V), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 15:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Chris yes but it's out of my hands - it's a work laptop, I can't say "Leave it with me guys, I bet I can fix it and oh, can I have the OS to reinstall it too".

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 15:05 (twenty-two years ago)

Ouch, well maybe they can hopefully salvage whats on there. I've have my pc here rebuilt as well and everything I had was still here when they rebuilt it.

― Chris V. (Chris V), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 15:07 (twenty-two years ago)

you'd be surprised what skilled i.t. folk can pull off. you could very well be alright.
i've also noticed i.t. folks can be some of the biggest trouble makers out there (= tight lipped) so you might not get in any real trouble.

― dyson (dyson), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 15:11 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm sorry for your loss.

― Alfie (Alfie), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 15:20 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh that sucks dude! :(

― jel -- (jel), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 15:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Tom if there is work-related stuff on there that you need, I don't see why your employers don't pony up for a retrieval job. ANY data can be recovered, provided you're willing to pay for its recovery. It's not cheap (anywhere from $200 to $1000) but compared to the combined cost of IT hours + your hours redoing things that are on there, it could be about even.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 15:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Bad news, Tom - good luck with minimal trouble and a fast recovery!

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 16:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeep! Only just noticed this. Hopefully it will all get settled for ya in as best a manner as possible...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 16:46 (twenty-two years ago)

oooh I think Tracer is OTM. Regardless, sorry and good luck.

― teeny (teeny), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 16:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Sorry Tom. You were going to get a new laptop anyway, correct? That's why I recommend an external firewire harddrive to hold all the goodness.

― Dale the Titled (cprek), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 16:59 (twenty-two years ago)

This sounds like yet another example of PC gone mad.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 17:10 (twenty-two years ago)

now on Fox!

― Chris V. (Chris V), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 17:12 (twenty-two years ago)

deepest sympathies Tom, I dread a similar thing happening to my ~~wife~~ computer

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 18:01 (twenty-two years ago)

It's also an example of the Curse Of Freaky Trigger in action - as soon as the site gets any kind of press coverage, disaster strikes. We are featured in Entertainment Weekly = the domain is gazumped. We get a nice write-up in The Wire = karmic revenge on my laptop.

Apparently I'm going to get a shiny new work laptop which is nice. And I've not lost my job yet. But then they've not finished poking about in my old one yet.

Dale - yes I need to get a new home PC soon, and now very soon, was hoping I could defer costs till after honeymoon but no such luck now.

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 28 August 2003 09:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Perhaps you could run the idea of a 'virtual honeymoon' past Isabel.

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 28 August 2003 10:30 (twenty-two years ago)

She suggested it last night, well sort of, she said we could always pretend we were on honeymoon and fake it and just stay inside with the Playstation and the rabbits. I was horrified at the idea particularly as it seemed straight out of Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, which seems more like kitchen-sink realism with every flatpack I attempt to make.

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 28 August 2003 10:34 (twenty-two years ago)

(cue tom on rollerskates hanging onto the back of a speeding double-decker bus while massed ilxors throw confetti at him)

― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 28 August 2003 10:43 (twenty-two years ago)

(please make this happen)

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 28 August 2003 10:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Hurrah! I have a spanking new P4 and apparently all my data is alive and well even the MP3s and I didn't get any kind of bollocking at all. Off to buy those rollerskates!

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 28 August 2003 11:36 (twenty-two years ago)

haha, well done.

― RJG (RJG), Thursday, 28 August 2003 11:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Great news!

― Archel (Archel), Thursday, 28 August 2003 11:41 (twenty-two years ago)

Yay!

― robster (robster), Thursday, 28 August 2003 11:47 (twenty-two years ago)

See Tom? All's well that ends with a neew computer.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 28 August 2003 11:50 (twenty-two years ago)

Excellent.

(Tom views new computer, and all is good)

(Tom makes mental note to back things up more often)

(Strongbow arrow flies through window and into side of computer)

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Thursday, 28 August 2003 12:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah I had got into the good habit of backups with my old old PC but had let it lapse for the work one cos, well, it was mostly work.

I am so delighted with the new laptop. Its screen is a black pool of goodness. I feel like I have been given a second chance in life, it's like George Best and his new liver and will turn out in exactly the same way probably.

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 28 August 2003 12:23 (twenty-two years ago)

think of it more like Jon Pertwee regenerating into Tom Baker

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 28 August 2003 12:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Are you going to download illicit software onto it and use it for nefarious and personal purposes?

― Mark C (Mark C), Thursday, 28 August 2003 12:29 (twenty-two years ago)

I can stop whenever I want to Mark.

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 28 August 2003 12:33 (twenty-two years ago)

oh well, there goes my "hilarious" spacemen 3 cover from my next set list... but good news for you...

― lolita corpus (lolitacorpus), Thursday, 28 August 2003 16:35 (twenty-two years ago)

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