It''s the worst feeling when the computer borks, but the greatest feeling if you manage to fix it
this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2024
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chapotraphouse
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I have a new one coming on next Thursday I was just hoping it would hold out.
Your computer: 
RIP
ugh, the way my stomach and heart dropped when I read that – can only imagine how that felt for you, I'm really sorry for your loss 
even when you just lose time and temporary peace of mind, it sucks.
do you have a recent backup?
No but also not much worth backing up. I will save the drive just for posterity but I think its fucked.
Hopefully my friend can use it and just get a new ssd
Can you select and start from your usual boot drive in the bios? If yes try that. Otherwise you can create a bootable usb drive (linux or win, depending on what you are using) on another pc and attempt to repair it or at least get important data off your pc
It's probably an issue with your master boot record. The worst part about a broken computer though is that you usually need another computer to fix it.
MBR has been obsolete for over a decade. Its probably the UEFI. But in general, yeah, need to reinstall the boot loader.
First thought was mbr too. I think modern Windows can boot into repair mode or whatever they called it but not totally sure.
it can't if it can't find a working drive tho
ah rip
that screen just unlocked a distant memory of dread from my childhood when I saw that for the first time.
And then you took the floppy disk out from the drive 
Try hitting it
Mine did this occasionally for months and then chugged on for like a few more years lol
Boot from a flash drive and try to recover any data you can, but that hard drive is toast
Have you been playing around with Linux or did windows shoot itself on you?
Windows shat itself. It's a 10 year old PC I built myself.
Hardware is probably still good then. Probably a system update got a power interruption. But it could be something dumb like windows decided it didn't like your hardware anymore.
Now is the obvious time to recommend Linux, but I'll spare you that. I will say though a Linux LiveUSB would be handy for recovering your data though. Any maybe you can have a look around then.
Go into bios and see if it recognizes the drive
If not then replace or reseat the two cables that provide power and data bus to the drive and try again.
If the bios sees the drive then use a windows environment to make sure the efi/mbr is working okay. This can be a multi step process. Medicat usb has a windows environment and here’s the Michael Dell company on the step by step process.
To recover data: have some device to put data on. Have some way to boot the computer like the medicat usb I linked earlier. Boot off your usb and pull everything from the /users/ directory. Unless you’re hiding sailor moon porno in /system32 then you’ll be fine with that.
Reply if you need help.
I have a new computer coming next week and the only important shit I have on here are some automatic account logins so once I do all that I'll be back up and running I just had hoped it would last another week. The SSD or motherboard are toast I think.
What motherboard 
Yeah, enter the BIOS/UEFI (usually like f10 or f12 on boot, depends on manufacturer of the system/mobo).
See if you can change the boot options to default to the drive Windows was installed on. I've seen this happen when the computer is set to boot to USB on priority and someone left a non-bootable usb in a port.