Back from the Dead!
As I reported a couple of days ago, my laptop (which is about 6 years old) failed to restart when I got back to Barcelona from Rome.
I couldn’t attempt a reply until I got a key from IT Services in Maynooth. The 48 digits duly arrived yesterday. I tried a number of times to repair the disk but it kept failing. Last night I left a disk scan running when I went to bed, as it advised that several hours would be needed. When I got up this morning I found it had failed again.
I decided to try one more time, started the recovery process again and went out shopping. It was still running when I got back. I had all but given up at this point and had stopped paying attention to the screen. When I finally went to check again I saw to my amazement that it had restarted as far as the Windows login.
I logged in with fingers crossed. It took an eternity to start up and is still running very slowly. It’s probably quite ill, perhaps more undead than alive, but at least I could retrieve my files onto the hard disk I brought with me.
I have to travel to Valencia next week to give a talk and was wondering how I would manage without having access to my slides let alone a laptop to present them from…
Anyway, I’m nervous about what might happen if I have to restart again, so I’ll leave it on while I celebrate with a glass or several of wine. The Resurrection of the Laptop may well prove to be temporary but I’ll make the most of it while it lasts…
In the Dark 
June 21, 2024 at 8:48 pm
If it’s not something like drive usage stats being high enough to cause an early death, how can you trust it?
June 21, 2024 at 9:08 pm
If you can access the file (or files) for the talk, I’d recommend copying everything to a USB memory stick. You could give the talk directly off the USB drive if somebody can lend a computer for the talk, should your computer stop working.
June 21, 2024 at 9:12 pm
Yes, that’s my plan. It wasn’t easy because the wretched machine is very slow, but I’ve got it on a USB stick now.
June 21, 2024 at 9:20 pm
Good. You should be able to give the talk even if the computer dies. I hope you’ve got the data backed up.
June 21, 2024 at 9:41 pm
The important things are all in cloud storage. I mainly have documents on the actual disk. These are accessible but very slowly. I suspect this is because the disk is producing lots of errors , hindering access to the file system.
June 21, 2024 at 10:26 pm
It’s good that you have a backup of all important files.
A failing hard disc is an unfortunate issue.
My old laptop computer, much more than a decade old, is suffering from multiple hardware problems and will have to be replaced soon. Modern laptops now come, of course, with solid-state drives, which are less prone to errors.