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I can safely say that there’s probably a 50-50 chance of successful data recovery. From what I gather (Internet as well as friends), the harddisk is dying and I’ve to get the data out ASAP. Luckily, I’ve done one round of backing-up about a month ago - where a large portion of my jpeg files was burnt into DVD-Rs. So the ‘data loss’ this time around (touchwood) is not that critical, I guess. That said, there are still files and folders that I’d want to keep (which I’ve not backed up), so I hope I’ll still be able to recover them. Last night’s Windows Automatic Update was real, after all - It’s got nothing to do with the harddisk failure.

I’ve just removed the harddisk from my notebook, and I plan to use an IDE-USB interfacing cable to access the harddisk, using another computer. By the way, I am currently using Sis’ desktop. Last night’s entry was published using my phone - the phone that many people consider a close contender of the iPhone (although you shouldn’t really compare the two side-by-side).

I decided that I won’t do that again (tapping on the numeric keypad, manually inserting symbols in tags such as <img src=”Picture URL”… />), because it’s not at all a fun thing to do! The photo taken was resized using the phone’s installed software. Anyway, let’s go back to my laptop. Right now, the harddisk is sitting on my laptop, (almost, maybe) lifelessly. Tonight, after hooking it up with another PC, I’ll try to salvage whatever I can. It’s strange because according to Bernard, Hitachi drives are considered to be reliable. I’ve not dropped my laptop or anything.

He added that once there are strange noises heard from the harddisk, it’s unlikely that data can still be recovered from it. Anyway, I’m keeping my fingers crossed. I’ll be sending Mom & Co. to Bukit Jalil stadium for Emil Chou’s concert before proceeding to kautim my harddisk. I can also forget about checking out this year’s Bon Odori Festival - Sis and I planned to go and have a look-see actually. Now no mood lah. This whole misfortune started last night - and I couldn’t think of a better reason than it being Friday the 13th!

[Update@14th July, 1500hrs: Apparently, it was not a software problem - neither was it due to a malware (malicious software - a common term for worms/viruses). It’s actually a hardware problem - my harddisk is failing! More about it in my next post.] Earlier this evening, just before I wrote my previous entry, my PC was running very slowly even though I didn’t fire up any processes. My ZoneAlarm prompted me that some program pertaining to Microsoft’s genuine check was trying to access the Internet. I denied the connection, but somehow, about 20 mins later, I saw something strange when I opened my Task Manager to see why my PC was still lagging terribly. I saw a running process named something like MTD.exe, if I’m not mistaken (can’t really remember). All caps, with three letters, and starts with an M, of that I’m sure. Quickly, I ended that process.

However, moments later, I was prompted a dialogue that says my Windows had just finished downloading and installing some updates - much like how the real Microsoft Windows Update works. It says I must restart my PC, and gave me a choice of either to restart immediately, or wait til the progress bar finishes loading. At that time, I didn’t think much about whatever happened, because it really seemed like a real, ordinary update. I restarted my PC, and everything was fine until I returned from the gym. My PC crashed, and the harddisk area (just below the keyboard, to the left of the touchpad) was emitting some loud clacking noise I’ve never heard before. I knew that something was terribly wrong. I tried to bring up the Task Manager but even that couldn’t come on. I then force-shut down my PC.

And walla, I can’t boot into Windows because it says some file is missing. I can’t even boot into Safe Mode. The furthest I can go is the BIOS menu area. I tried again and my PC says ‘Primary hard disk drive 0 failure’. Below it, there was ‘No boot device available’. Basically, I think I’m screwed.

I snapped the pic with my phone, and wrote this entire entry using the same phone. No, no QWERTY keyboard, just a numeric keypad. My thumb hurts real bad now. I’ll try to use the linux-based Knoppix to access my files and back up the important ones. Looks like a reinstallation of Windows will be inevitable…

Damn it. I’ve never been infected with a malware/virus/worm this badly! I thought I had sufficient protection. Sigh! There goes my happy weekend.