Last Friday I tried to uninstall some beta software and install the final release on my tablet. I wasn’t able to get the software installed, I think because of the beta software. I also noticed that my DVD drive wouldn’t open with the eject button, but I had a paperclip laying around so no big deal. After mucking about for most of the day trying to get stuff installed, I decided to just run Windows Update and get all my updates taken care of.

I rebooted after the last critical update and then entered into a vicious cycle of Starting Windows…Reboot…Starting Windows…Reboot. I got annoyed and just turned the machine off. Stupid machine.

I didn’t have time to mess with it over the weekend, so on Monday I tried again. I tried to use a bunch of recovery mechanisms, from Safe Mode (wouldn’t enter it) to Knoppix (couldn’t find the filesystem) to BartPE (couldn’t run any of the commands) to Recovery Console (couldn’t enter it). I figured my laptop was hosed and found out from Toshiba that if I sent it in they’d wipe the hard drive and/or give me a new one.

Since my notes for my class are on this computer, I decided to give it one last shot to get the data off. I brought it down to Florida on Tuesday to my in-law’s house. My father-in-law has this nifty ATA to PCMCIA adapter, so I plugged my hard drive in and voila! I was able to see all my data. I pulled everything off the drive I could think off, then was free to try more data-intolerant recovery mechanisms. I forgot to bring a paperclip though, so I willed the drive open. It’s been working fine ever since. Weird.

After spending most of Thursday working on the laptop, I decided to just reformat and do a clean install. It went great and before T-giving dinner I had a working tablet again. w00t. Now to just reload all my programs…

This morning Raegan, her mother & I all went out to battle the crowds at 4:30 am. We hit Circuit City, Office Depot, & Office Max and were home before 7 am. Unfortunately, right at the start I dropped my tablet getting out of the car and broke the screen.
I called Toshiba and they’re sending me a box so I can send the screen away to get it fixed. It’s under warranty against this type of thing, but only once per year for accidental breakage. I triumphed over the software, but I can’t do anything about a broken screen.

At least we’ll have GPS/MapPoint for the ride home… maybe we’ll even watch some of the DVD’s we picked up for mere dollars.
(btw - I’m using the tablet to write this, so it’s still very much usable. There’s just a nasty crack in the top of the screen. I’ll post a picture or something.)

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