O/T Darned Computers!

Got a hard drive trying to fail me. That's all I need today as I've gotta run invoices. Computers are great, but I'm startin' to hate these derned things!

Trying to make up my mind wheather to drop another hard drive in the thing or go ahead and just drop another $5K on a new machine. This one is 3 years old. Groan! :>(

Hate 'em, I tell ya,

Allan

I saw that you reported the drive ended up failing today. This won't help you get data back, but I would check the purchase date on the drive--if I remember correctly, most drives have a three-year replacement warranty and you can send that one back to get a new one. No need to go through dealer--just contact the drive maker directly. You can also check the warranty status online for Western Digitals and probably others too.

Back to data salvage--if the drive is not mechanically dead--(rod knocking sounds), you may be able to resurrect it with a rescue program or drive utility program. Another option--if the drive is accessible but not bootable, you can install a temporary boot drive and copy files over to the new drive. First though, you'll need to set the jumper on your old drive to a slave and the new drive a master. Also will have to changes things in CMOS or SETUP. I used to work on computers, but haven't fooled with them in awhile.

Last comment--$5K is a bunch of money for a new computer--I could get two high-end rigs for that amount....

These machines are all set up with "mirrored" SCCIs (hope I spelled that right).

Allan

Does your system use hardware or software mirroring? If hardware mirroring, you might want to check to see whether each disk has its own controller. If so, be sure to check the disk controller on the "bad" disk as it could be the culprit. Also check your error logs (which might also tell you what's really going wrong).

Lastly, even through you're mirrored, I sure hope you're doing backups. Backups themselves often aren't enough--be sure to make sure you can actually do a restore also. Many folks only do the backup and when disaster strikes, find that the backups won't restore.

Hope this helps. I wouldn't buy a new system just because of a disk failure. Disks are much cheaper! Although, 3-5 years is about all you can expect from today's computers. Sure, they'll run longer than that, they'll just be obsolete.

At least it hasn't exploded yet! ;-)

Specter

We've had pretty good luck with these machines, all and all. They run 24/7 from the time they come outta the crate and do a truckload of work every day, but still we have to 'mirror' everything to make sure we don't loose any data.

Well anyway, I got 'er up and running; just had to throw in another drive.

Thought for a minute there, I was going to have to spend some of the wife's horsey fund (oh darn, wouldn't that be too bad). LOL!

Allan

You shoudld keep all your data on a seperate drive from the boot drive. AND- buy a USB external drive that you back up your data to.

Remember, it makes no sense to back up installed programs- only YOUR data. To re-install programs, you need the installer.

Good luck. BTW, this is all radically simpler with a Macintosh. It has gotten to the point with Windows that you need to spend a significant amount of time protecting the doggone system from outside attacks and keeping that protection up to date. Not a problem with Mac...

She just died. Oh boy, gonna be a long day around here today. :>(

Allan

Too bad no one makes a PTO driven computer. Then you could have reason for a couple more money pit...er...red tractors!

Just got done running my 2005 update AVG anti-virus software. Dug out 4 "infections" that the 2004 program wouldn't detect yesterday. Sounded just like a bowling ball in a blender while running, but sure did speed things up a bit....

Good luck with your "executive decision". (Ain't that what Yuppies do?)

Have a good one!
John (ON VACATION ALL WEEK!!!!)

Guess I can't be worried about tractors this morning. If these women don't get their money, all he!! will break loose around here.

At that point, they start calling me names that I can't repeat here and start referring to my maternal lineage in a somewhat detrimental sort of way.

Signed,

60 year old Yuppie?

Nick