Computer Problems: I'm freakin' out

[Matt Till]

Hey, my computer sucks. It's sucked for a while, but this is pretty bad. My hard drive contains all songs I've made over a period of 4 years. But my computer's A drive is complete crap, which hasn't bothered me until now. The computer won't go past the Windows boot screen, so it won't let me enter via safe mode, either. It just sits there.

Without an A drive... I can't use a boot disk which would at least let me get my stuff onto a few CDs. I know you can make bootable CD roms, but as far as I can tell, that requires a floppy drive as well. And my girlfriend's laptop doesn't have a floppy drive.

What are my options? Is this computer crap? I mean, I know I can plug the hard drive into another computer and get the files out, but I can't afford another computer right now.

 

[Matt Till]

... I'm screwed aren't I.

 

[bryan bailey]

You can take your C drive out and get the stuff out through another computer.

 

[Matt Till]

I know I can plug the hard drive into another computer and get the files out, but I can't afford another computer right now.

 

[bryan bailey]

I'm playing bass. I just read enough to get by at the moment.

 

[Tyler Hole]

You have friend's don't you?

 

[Matt Till]

You have friend's don't you?

No...


... sadly, right now... I kinda don't. And the ones I do... don't have computers. Man not having friends is a bummer

 

[Tyler Hole]

Sorry bout that...didn't mean to make you have to use the crying smilie. If I lived near ya, I'd let ya use my computer.

 

[UnsungZeros]

Get yourself a copy of Knoppix. It boots directly from the CD drive and you'll be able to access all of your files.

 

[Matt Till]

Sorry bout that...didn't mean to make you have to use the crying smilie. If I lived near ya, I'd let ya use my computer.

Your good people Ty.


Knoppix eh? So is that just a CDrom boot disk?

 

[UnsungZeros]

Knoppix is a distro of linux that boots directly from the cd-rom drive. I'm hoping that you have more than one cd-drive and that one of them is a drive that can write. That way you can move your music collection to CDs because the CD has to be in the drive the entire time. If you don't, you could perhaps use a USB device to get your collection off.

http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html

If you can't get a copy of Knoppix through the net, then PM me and I'll arrange to send you a disc through snail mail.

 

[Josh Ryan]

What OS? Do you have the CD? Are you set up to boot via CD ROM? How did you post this thread?

 

[Matt Till]

I'm on my g/f's laptop. It only has a CD rom drive. I think I might be able to run some kind of recovery program, but I think that requires booting from the floppy. I can boot via CD rom... I think, I just don't know how to make a bootable CD-Rom. Nero says it can make a bootable CD-Rom, but it needs a system disk to compare it to or something.

Oi, I'm depressed today.

 

[Matt Till]

Er. also I use windows 98... knoppix is only linux, right?

 

[UnsungZeros]

Yes, Knoppix is just linux. So the computer in question has two cd drives? One of them will be needed to run Knoppix and the other for burning your collection.

 

[Turock]

You can buy a new floppy drive for less than $20.

 

[protoz]

With knoppix you should be able to view your windows drive and use the built in burning software in knoppix to burn off your songs

http://www.knoppix.org

Linux isn't as scary as you think

 

[MJ5150]

IIRC.....you need to boot to a floppy before you can get to the Windows 98 CD-Rom.

But...I do have a fully functional floppy drive I can send to you to have. It is a standard white faced one. Let me know if you want it. If you are interested in upgrading to Windows XP, let me know as well.

-Mike

 

[Matt Till]

Ha, problem solved, the recovery disk ran via CD rom. I was crossing my fingers the whole time because it warned of the deletion of certain files, and I had to agree that they are not liable. But all my songs were there! When I get home, I am sooooooOOooOo archiving them all on CDs.

 

[Toasted]

Take it out and piggy back it into someone elses computer