Laptop Problem Away From Home

[jyl]

I arrived in Manhattan this afternoon for a 4 day conference, got to the hotel, and my work laptop won't boot. The Windows Boot Manager tells me my winload.exe file is missing or corrupt. I also got a message saying the registry is missing or corrupt. I've run the HPQ test (hit ESC during bootup) and they claim my system is fine. Arrrgh.

The Bootup Manager invites me to insert a system disc and repair, but naturally I don't have one.

I tried booting to safe mode or last known good configuration but get a message that I need a password for BitLocker, whatever that is. Some sort of disk encryption I guess.

I have a call into IT support who is trying to track down someone who can do something. They don't sound hopeful of fixing this remotely. Maybe they can overnight me a new laptop - I dunno - that would solve my problem. I can struggle through the conferemce using just my iPhone and taking notes on (!) paper (!) but I have to do a dog and pony show on a client conference call on Thursday, and I need access to my network files and applications to prepare for that. Not good.

Any ideas? Can I hunt down a Vista disk at this hour in Manhattan?

[jyl]

O, fudge. I ran the HDD self test from the H-P boot menu. Self test won't run, reports "read failure". Okay, sorry to bother you guys, I believe I am hosed unless IT gets a FedEX package my way.

The data on the laptop is not important - everything is stored on the company's servers anyway. But jeez - this is the third HDD failure I've had in the past year (two at home, now this).

SSDs are sounding better every day.

[Eric Coffey]

Originally Posted by jyl

SSDs are sounding better every day.

Been down this road as well. The newer Samsung 470 series SSD's are a nice balance of performance and reliability IMO. You can find the 256GB models for under $400 if you search a bit.

[jyl]

A typical corporate laptop, in my business anyway, only needs a 60GB drive. Most everything is stored on servers and you VPN in to get it. No video or media files, just spreadsheets etc. I never use more than about 30 GB of the notebook's drive. Wish they'd pony up the extra $50 for a 60 GB SSD.

[slodave]

Thank you for testing the HD.

[jyl]

Anything for you. Would you like me to drop this laptop out my hotel window too? :-)

[slodave]

Only if you take video...

[jyl]

Sorry, loaner laptop being sent out in AM, so apparently they want this POS back to repair - I can't extract my revenge on it.

Damn, I will have to handwrite for two whole days. Gonna be a workers' comp claim from this.