To make the rest of you feel even better, my Christmas Story:
So, I did get any presents or money. I lost an irreplaceable piece to my contest build. And, my hard drive crashed(wiped out three years of research). Almost forgot. I didn't see any of my family for the holidays.
I mean, c'mon Santa. I wasn't THAT bad this year.

Sorry about the hard drive.
All I can say is-- BACK-UP-------BACK-UP------ BACK-UP........ I learned this the hard way also.

As I'm off to do a back up now!

Wow, Matt, sorry to hear things have been bad. You may want to check out a computer recovery service to retrieve the contents of the HD, since the data is rarely truly irrecoverable. (But you'll have to decide how much it is worth...)

As for the missing part, try posting a "Looking for" ad on the buy/sell/trade forum - you never know!

Hope things improve,

Tom

A good portion of what I lost was online pages I had marked. I'm working on trying to move my saved documents to my new account, but I'm worried that I may, accidentaly virus my current account. This thing is vicious. It went straight for my virus protection program. After it infected that, it attacked any files I tried to open, including my system restore.

Try booting with a Linux (Ubuntu most likely) running directly from a DVD. That way the virus at least will not execute. Granted, this may not work if your disk uses NTFS as a file system but some older boxes still used FAT per default so you may be lucky.

Do not copy any executables or Office files (Macro Virus) and you have some element of safety. IIRC there are also Linux based Virus scanners so run them on the recovered files

If you can still boot up at all, your online bookmarks are actually saved as text files in your "favorites" folder in "my documents", so you could just copy them out by hand to re-type into the new machine - that way no virus can be transmitted. Best of luck regardless of how you go about it! There are some nasty bugs out there, including the aweful Bankerfox virus my son keeps getting on his laptop. (I'm a dab hand at killing that one, but he's just as good at getting new infections...)

Tom

***Edit: sorry - they are under the UserFavorites folder if you use Explorer to see your C drive - just looking at the "My Docs" area they are hidden.

Tom: Thank you. I'm not sure that I can access my documents. Even the most basic processes are keeping me locked out.

Yes, it will cost money to retrieve your data, but unless you fragged every thing (and even then) you'll be able to get your data back. You need a blowtorch to take out a hard drive these days.

Matt, sounds like you got hit by the same virus I did. I got hit around the 19th of December. It wiped out 2 years worth of Humvee research and document collection. I certainly learned my lesson about the importance of file back-up.

Matt

sorry to hear about your issue. Have you tried booting into SAFE MODE, sometimes virus are in services that do not start in safe mode.

Also, not to say I told you so, but a good virus software, I use Bitdefender, and BACK UP BACK UP, also it is good to create a System disk.

Hope you are able to get some of it back.

Kevin

My laptop is nearly an antique. The harddrive is failing the self diagnostic, during its' boot process. I'm taking it to a computer tech and having my lost files retrieved. Then, I'm buying myself a new one for Christmas.

A guy who lives not so very far from me woke on Christmas morning to the sounds of his house burning down.

He is in hospital with 3rd degree burns to 60% of his body, his wife and three lovely daughters are incinerated.

Count your blessings I'd reckon

I'm not the most religious guy in the room, but I was going to mention something very similar.
Joel Osteen (Google him if you like) had a very good sermon last week about this topic. A man walked in to talk to his minister complaining about how terrible things were.
The minister suggested they make two lists- one with the bad things that had happened, one with the good.
He started by telling the man he was sorry about his wife's pasing, and the man said "But my wife isn't dead, she's healthy."
The minister said "I guess we'll add that to the 'good' list."
He then said it was a shame about the man's house burning down. Again, the man said his house was fine, which of course was added to the 'good' list again. And so on...

I just looked it up, he can say it better than I. I don't know why someone would post to Youtube and leave the ad in the beginning, but if you can get past it, it's worth it. Funny joke first, and then an uplifting message. By the 10:00 mark you'll have a different outlook, I hope.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y3WR4keb5U

Sorry to hear about your misfortune, but it 's all a matter of perspective.
I for one am glad I spent this Christmas at home, not in some far away place where people wanted to kill my ass.