In Mourning for Lost Data

My computer is gone. Kaput. It died. Hardware failure. It had a meltdown. And of course nothing was backed up. That was planned for this weekend. At least all the photos were. I think we’re ok without most of our documents- nothing to important was on there but oh the pictures. All the pictures. They’re all gone now. Erased. I couldn’t save them.
The computer kept freezing after startup. Sometimes it would freeze immediately, sometimes a minute after everything loaded. There wasn’t enough time before the freeze to do anything. I tried to copy pictures but I never could get it to work. I tried Safe Mode, it froze in Safe Mode 5 times before I gave up. It’s an HP so I tried System Restore, it froze. I tried the System Recovery where it resets all apps to factory settings but saving your data- that froze. Twice. And then it had a meltdown/threw a fit. There was a noise. And then nothing. It shut itself off. (Almost wrote shit there which also would have worked.) I turned it back on and everything was gone. Even the OS. Something had fried and it had reformatted itself. It’s all gone. Recovery CDs from HP are on the way because I don’t think we made any and if we did we have no idea where they are. (That goes for a lot of things lately.) I don’t think they’re going to work.
So we’re in the market for a new computer. First thing when we get it is to BACK IT UP. BACK EVERYTHING UP. Doesn’t matter what. BACK IT UP. Thankfully some of my photos are on yahoo photos but most weren’t. Everything has to be re-done. Oh the pictures.
I’ve narrowed the choices down to a MAC Mini, Toshiba notebook, a Gateway or a Sony VAIO notebook. They’ve got some really and truly good sales and rebates going on right now and I want a good computer, not some crappy HP computer that will die easily. Of course the boy doesn’t know this yet but he will today. He still thinks we can use the computer. I don’t think so. Maybe after some expensive hardware repairs but it’s almost worth it then to buy a new one.
Le Grand Sigh.

Note: All is not completely lost, I have found programs that may help us recover data. I’m going to call a local tech company to see if they can do it as we need another computer and there’s not exactly one readily available. (Friends aren’t exactly tech-savvy.)

Update: Tech guys say too expensive. One last try is using boy's bro's computer but that means a drive out La Vernia. He's the only one who would let me install a second hard drive. Plus it's the same brand computer. Sigh. We'll see.