Well shit. Computer is dead.

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Dave

Dave

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I'm typing this from my iPod as my computer is now reader than yesterday's fried chicken. Looks like my hard drive just gave out & it won't boot. So no more working from home, no WoW, no Civ V and there goes all my files - including all the VoiceOver work I just did for an RPG. Wonderful.
 
Espy

Espy

Yeah, plugging the HD into another computer would be a good test. Has it been making any noise lately?
 
SpecialKO

SpecialKO

Can you boot to safe mode or a CD-ROM? Or slave it to another drive and access your files that way? Hopefully, if it is hd-related, it's just the boot sector that is screwy.

Either way, that royally sucks, man. Really sorry to hear that. :(
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
PCT said:
Can we start a fund drive for a new pc now?
Click to expand...
Nah. For most stuff I hope the wife will not mind that I commandeer her laptop. But there's no other PC in the house with a graph accelerator so games are out of the question.

I'm going to grab either a new HD and stick it in or see if I can get this one to read on another comp. But retrieving files professionally is very pricey and I won't go that route. Only real thing of value I think I lost was the VoiceOver stuff and I can record those again.
 
FnordBear

FnordBear

If possible when you get the drive replaced get a second one as well (or an external drive) have one smaller primary drive that just has the OS installed on it and have the secondary drive be for all your data. That way if the OS goes harakiri or the drive explodes you still have your data on a secondary drive you can slave in to another machine.

Also for replacement drives I recommend Seagate brand. I have been in love with those since the day I was in the lab and saw a seagate drive fall out of a test box, smack on the bench, and keep working without skipping a beat.
 
M

Matt²

Driversavers can get stuff back (documents and files) for between $900-2300. (yeah, not cheap... and that IS the cheaper of their services)

If it's been making ANY kinda clicking noise, DO NOT TRY TO POWER IT UP! ... let a pro try it. For God's sake, do NOT take it to Best Buy!
If not, you can try hooking it up as a slave.. if the computer doesn't boot past the bios (or times out) then yeah, the board on it is fried.
 
Krisken

Krisken

Next time your computer dies and you decide to swear a lot at it, do it on Skype. I know someone who loves that :D
 
@Li3n

@Li3n

And that's why i back up all my important data... which reminds me, i need to the new pics backed up...
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
I attached this to another PC last night and it isn't even being recognized as being a drive. Bodes not too well. Booted up my external backup drive and it showed the last successful copy was....April. No error messages. So I thought this whole time I was doing backups, which is why I didn't panic and didn't curse too loudly. I expected to buy a new HD and restore everything. And now that seems to be out the window.

To quote Woody, "This is a perfect time to panic!"
 
M

Matt²

Dave said:
I attached this to another PC last night and it isn't even being recognized as being a drive. Bodes not too well. Booted up my external backup drive and it showed the last successful copy was....April. No error messages. So I thought this whole time I was doing backups, which is why I didn't panic and didn't curse too loudly. I expected to buy a new HD and restore everything. And now that seems to be out the window.

To quote Woody, "This is a perfect time to panic!"
Click to expand...
Yeah, the board on it is fried. I would like to know, what brand is it, size?

If you're VERY exact, and I mean you gotta match EVERYTHING, model, series, size, etc, you can get an exact drive and swap circuit boards over and then attempt recovery, but that also is risky.. still, it's the cost of a hard drive.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
Matt² said:
Yeah, the board on it is fried. I would like to know, what brand is it, size?
Click to expand...
Yeah, I figured that. I'm going to go pick up a new HD today and if I have enough $$ a copy of Win7. It's the Win7 that's going to be expensive. The problem is I found my Win7 upgrade disk but can't locate my Vista disks. So I would either have to pirate something (which I don't like to do) or buy new - which I don't like to do considering.

Really the only thing I hate is the fact that my backup has been saving 0 byte deltas since April and I never bothered to look at it because I was getting a backup complete message.

Math242 said:
Dave, sometimes i wonder why "god" hates you so much
Click to expand...
I do, too. If there is a God he's a jerk.
 
SpecialKO

SpecialKO

There's no difference between the actual software on the upgrade disk versus the "full" disk of Win7 - the difference is in the license key. If you still have access to the vista license key on the disk, packaging, or computer usually), then you should still be able to do a "custom upgrade" (same as what you have to do if you have XP), and MS support should be able to help you if you have problems.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
Just got a 500gb for $30 from Craigslist (temporary solution) and an OEM copy of Win7 Premium.

Wish me luck.
 
doomdragon6

doomdragon6

Staff member
This thread made me have a dream.

I dreamt I was driving my car and kept hearing a clicking/rattling sound, so I wondered if my HD was going bad, or if I was dragging something.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
doomdragon6 said:
I dreamt I was driving my car and kept hearing a clicking/rattling sound, so I wondered if my HD was going bad
Click to expand...
The funny part about this is that I'd been hearing a rattle. I took the PC apart and discovered that my fan was going bad. I hadn't replaced it yet so it the HD was making rattling noises I probably attributed it to the fan.
 
C

Chibibar

Good luck brother!

I have never successfully "transplant" a HDD via changing out the board cause it is a pain in the butt to find the exact model of it :(

Now-a-days I just use raid 5 or 10.
 
figmentPez

figmentPez

Staff member
Dave said:
Yeah, I figured that. I'm going to go pick up a new HD today and if I have enough $$ a copy of Win7. It's the Win7 that's going to be expensive. The problem is I found my Win7 upgrade disk but can't locate my Vista disks. So I would either have to pirate something (which I don't like to do) or buy new - which I don't like to do considering
Click to expand...
For future reference, it is possible to do a fresh install of Windows 7 without upgrading from Vista. It takes some jumping through hoops, and possibly some registry editing, but it can be done.

---------- Post added at 02:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:15 PM ----------

Oh, and I remember when my last PC died. I spent the next week doing most of my web surfing on my Wii (with keyboard attached), I even did most of my part shopping for my currrent computer on the Wii. Such a pain in the ass.
 
IronBrig4

IronBrig4

I'm sorry man. Last month the family's computer actually started smoking (I thought we'd raised it better than that). We just replaced the power supply and everything worked fine again. Too bad you can't have such a simple solution.
 
M

Matt²

I got a computer in last night that has multiple problems:
cpu fan so caked with DIRT (not just dust) that it killed the CPU fan;
Ditto with the power supply fan, though for the moment it (the power supply itself) works but is remaining shut off until it's replacement arrives Friday;
Whatever power surge was also involved in killing the cpu fan also killed one of the sticks of Patriot memory;
Unrelated to either problem, BOTH DVD drives were sealed shut by an unknown substance that spilled into the computer (likely Sprite or similar soda), dried and sealed both cd's to the plastic "clamp" armature (not sure what it's called) inside each drive. Neither could open because the discs would not release the clamp, which needed to go down, and the manual release with a paperclip option, failed outright because of it - I had to manually disassemble both drives completely and apply goo begone goo remover to get rid of the stickiness, and also to the cd's so they wouldn't get stuck again.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

I wish it were that easy, Girlfriend, but stuff like that usually requires the services such as that rendered by Drivesavers. Usually complete, but not very cheap. Best bet is to restore from whatever backup you have, then make a new backup and continue on (making backups as you go).

Seriously, folks. Make backups. Hopefully you'll never have to use them, but having even one can make such a difference. My main Mac and PC each use a RAID1 for security, and the Mac backs up via Time Machine to a separate external RAID1. I got stuff I just can't afford to lose, and I don't intend to. Yes, throwing 4 drives at it is a little expensive (about $500 all told), but that's still less than a quarter of the price it could be from a place like Drivesavers. Money well spent, indeed.

--Patrick
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
Okay, here's what I have now:

C: - HD that has crashed and I need to recover information.
F: - HD that added.

I have downloaded Ubuntu 10.10 and have it burned to a disk, but I can't get the system to boot from this disk. I CAN get the computer to boot up using the C: drive, but it freezes after a short period of time.

So what do I need to do? Should I remove the C: drive and then try and load the .iso file from Ubuntu ad I think it's still trying to access the C: drive?

This damned thing is driving me fricking nuts.
 
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