Laptop 2, Mankind 1

After mentioning the crap my laptop is pulling, Peter offered to come on over, take a peek and see what he could do. Well, it has stopped with the "Operating System Not Found" lark, and is now just sticking on the Windows XP Bootup. We tried Stuarts plan, but the CDROM appears to be missing from the BIOS, so bootdisks are out.

One to the laptop.

Next step - Pete decides to pop out the harddrive, take it away to save my data before wiping it for a new install. Simplicity in itself. Hold that thought. Out come the 11 (Yes, eleven!) screws in the base. Still firmly closed. Out comes the battery and two more screws. Then the upgrade slot for another. Then the four on the back. Still nothing. Clips, stickers, random keyboard keys - off they come and still firmly held in place. With the aid of screwdrivers, we prod, pry slice, and even though we can SEE that it should slide apart, it's having none of it.

Another to the laptop.

So now Jo is in on the case, while Gemma looks on in true Non-Geek mode, holding Amy and shaking her head. So now we've all had enough - this is almost an hour later. Me and Pete are forcing the bastard (laptop) open while Jo stabs at catches, hooks and random bits of plastic. With a disgruntled sigh, the computer finally splits open, revealing its guts, allowing Pete to pull the hard drive from it's lower intestines.

Score one for mankind.

So now we have to see if Pete can save the data and wipe the drive - and fingers crossed we can reinstall the laptop. If not, well, there's a nice new paperweight sitting on my desk... No doubt this story will be continued at a later date, but damn that bloody machine!

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