Close... Too Close

[filkertom]

I've been having more and more problems with my main external hard drive lately. Today, it took about ten minutes for my computer to recognize it. So I hied off to Best Buy, which has a Seagate 500 GB external drive on sale for $119.99, and I'm copying like crazy. There have been a few hosed and corrupted files, but nothing at all vital. I've got almost everything on DVD anyway, but I'll probably make extra copies just in case.

I also have to do a full hard drive wipe and reinstall on a Gateway laptop I got for a song (almost literally). It's all Vista 'n' stuff, and I'm going to make it an XP machine.

Any tech woes or triumphs on your end?

ETA: Oh crap. I think a lot of stuff might be hosed, on multiple machines. Not related, just all at the same time. It's gonna be a long night.

Comments

[adammaker.livejournal.com]

I'm a big fan of the maint. and recovery powers of spinrite from grc.com.
-
Hope you don't need it...
Save those Tunes!

Adam

[moquif.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking of expanding my RAM but I can't find the same brand/type that I have now. I understand that mixing brands of RAM is a bad thing so I may be stuck with what I have now.

[madamruppy.livejournal.com]

I have a vista (unclean!) laptop that I want to turn into an XP machine as well. I'll be anxious to see how that goes for you.

[archiver-tim.livejournal.com]

I bought a couple of external drives recently that my Windows ME recognize, but won't assign them a drive letter. I think it is becasue they are formated NTFS, while the Windows ME wants to see FAT or FAT32 drives.

One is portable enough that hopefully someone at ConClave can help me.

-Ryan

[sethb.livejournal.com]

Reformat them FAT32.

[hms42]

If they are formated as NTFS, you will have to refdisk the drives to FAT32. Only problem is that you will have to make partitions of about 120gb (I know the number is actually higher). Windows 9x (which include ME) only can read FAT and FAT32 partitions.

Harold S.

[barkman.livejournal.com]

I built a new pc from scratch this week and discovered i'm allergic to the thermal compound on my heat sink.

[raven-ap-morgan.livejournal.com]

I dunno - I've heard that there's a version of OS X that can be installed on a PC, and I've got a spare that I'm itching to try it on...

Raven

Linux

[moquif.livejournal.com]

One day I want to build a Linux box and use it as a media storage unit to play Second Life. I wonder which OS it runs better on XP or Linux.

Re: Linux

[mdlbear]

At the moment the SL client runs better on XP, but Linux is said to be catching up fast. And the Linux client will run on older hardware.

Re: Linux

[moquif.livejournal.com]

Thank you. SL is one of the few games (and only big game) that I know of that works on Linux. My original plan was to drag out my 4+ year old computer and rebuild it using Red Hat. But when I tried to cannibalize the hard drives, both had gone south. Now I think it the effort and frustration of rebuilding the old computer will be more than the cost of buying a new one. There's a friend of a friend who knows a lot about building computers and Linux. Maybe I can pay him to make me one. (The ones in the store make you pay for an OS you're going to delete. So why bother going that route?)

Not to thread-jack, but does anyone have a Linux box? How well does it work and what do you use it for?

Re: Linux

[mdlbear]

Been running Linux at home and at work since 1994. Does everything I need it to do, including web development, software development, typesetting, audio; you name it. The audio on my CD (see userpic; available on CD Baby) was entirely recorded, edited, and mastered on Linux.

There are a couple of fields where software on Linux is lacking; games and graphics, sadly, among them. And as for security and stability:

[steve 508] ssh -lroot gc
Last login: Tue Sep 18 07:40:58 2007 from 198.180.216.25
gc:~# uptime
 21:20:53 up 512 days,  2:00,  2 users,  load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00

Re: Linux

[killernurd.livejournal.com]

Good uptime!

Re: Linux

[killernurd.livejournal.com]

It works very well. Gaming needs a little help, as do graphics, but if you're willing to work with nVidia cards, you get spectacular graphics performance. SLI is catching up to the Windows side quickly.

Also, Linux will run on just about anything. x86, ia_64, AMD64, PPC, ARM, DEC, SPARC/UltraSPARC, you name it.

I use it for everything - graphics (GIMP or Photoshop-on-Crossover), gaming (not all games work, but most work well enough), audio (I run SHOUTcast broadcasts from my machine, as well as recording and mastering), web/software devel, and just about anything else I can come up with.

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

Tech problems? Funny you should ask...

I have Comcast. Two of the computers (my main computer and my wife's work computer) are plugged into the network while two computers (the kids' computer and my work computer) run off the wireless signal.

The main, wife's work, and kid's computer have no problems. My work computer seems to have a bouncing connection whether it is on wireless or plugged in.

However, if I take my work computer to the local B&N/Borders/$tarbuck$ or the office (generally I work from home), it has no problem maintaining a signal, whether wireless or not.

Comcast, of course, says it is a computer issue and my company's tech people say it is an ISP issue.

[peachtales.livejournal.com]

I just love how it's always someone else's problem. Have you tried getting them to talk to each other, say, on a 3-way phone call? That has worked for me in a situation like that.

[avt-tor.livejournal.com]

Backing up is good and wise. Good luck.

[jannyblue.livejournal.com]

This post has reminded me that I should do this, since it's been a while...

*hunts for blank CDRs*

[bryanp.livejournal.com]

These days with 500GB SATA drives available for $100-$120 I'm a big believer in backing up across redundant (if not RAID) drives.

There's a toy I've been looking at called the DROBO. I've heard nothing but good things about it, but I haven't had a chance to really look into it. It's some sort of variant on RAID-5, but with some interesting differences. You can use different capacity drives and replace them over time.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/06/27/meet_drobo/

The current version is USB 2.0. I'm waiting for them to release the ethernet version, which should also give it enough time in the market for any problems to become known. Good luck with your recovery.

[mdlbear]

Rather than using RAID, I'm a big believer in periodic mirroring The primary mirror drive is on the same file server as the main data, but spends almost all its time mounted read-only. Every night at 3:10, when things are quiet, it gets remounted read-write and a complete copy of the main disk is made (using rsync, which only copies the changes).

Every Sunday morning I make a snapshot copy of just the important stuff (user files, and so on) to yet a third drive. The first snapshot of every month gets archived (using cp -la, which shares any files that haven't changed). This system has saved my arse more times than I can count.

The scheme may be difficult on anything but a Unix system, but Linux works really well as a file server for Windows if that's your bag.

RAID will protect you against disk failure. Mirroring will protect you against disk failure, power failure, and a great many stupid mistakes.

[killernurd.livejournal.com]

Err... that's what RAID1 is for... if you're going to mirror using rsync, it's better to mirror across your LAN to a different machine (preferably also running RAID1 or RAID5). Or at least, it's proven so for me - as they say, YMMV.

I have a couple of really big hard drives, and I write disk images from my laptop (which has a really small drive) to them every week or so.

And yeah - file serving is a primary function of Linux these days - it works spectacularly well :D

[mdlbear]

Err, no. RAID1 simply writes two copies simultaneously. It protects you against hard-disk failure, but if you delete something, it deletes both copies simultaneously. Mirroring gives you a buffer -- an hour, a day, a week -- during which you can find and correct your mistake.

Yeah; if I could afford six drives instead of three (or 12 smaller ones for three RAID5 arrays), that's what I'd do.

At some point I may move my main (daily) mirror to another machine, or I may just add another somewhere.

I don't mirror the laptops: sync what I need from the fileserver, work a little, and sync back what I've changed. Usually with version control, though it's impractical and unnecessary for audio. Hardly any permanent state.

[hms42]

hmm... Does my company finally hiring another tech so I can hand some of the work load off on them count? (I have been the solo tech (MIS director doesn't count) for my day job since mid-May.)

As for tech woes... I have a friend whom I am giving 2-3 hours in the morning repairing his computer that lost a power supply and motherboard and I get a call tonight saying "the parts are in, but a 2nd (the fastest computer in the house) went down and its NOT the monitor."

Tech triumphs...

Last recording session for a computer songs CD planned for the afternoon, tomorrow.

Harold

[stevemb.livejournal.com]

I had some weird glitch a few months back where my desktop suddenly refused to talk to the Internet; nothing but a full steam-clean and reinstall would fix the problem. Fortunately, the DVD burner wasn't affected, so getting it done without data loss was no real problem, just a lot of PITA tedium.

[vulpine137.livejournal.com]

Good luck, I suggest getting a bucket of fried chicken as a sacrifice to Shub-Internet, works as well as live chickens, and much easier to clean up ;)

[killernurd.livejournal.com]

Triumph here, actually :)

We've been working on integrating the Linux servers at work into the existing (blech) Active Directory, and I finally got it stabilized.

[markbernstein.livejournal.com]

I made the shift to a home office this week, which involved both a little new tech, and catching up on a couple of things that really needed doing, to wit:

- Finally worked my way behind the desk so I could unplug the old, shorted-out surge suppressor and throw it out. (damn thing was blowing the circuit breaker if I tried to turn it on)
- Unplugged everything from the new surge suppressor, moved said surge suppressor to a better location, and plugged everything back in in an organized fashion. ("Everything" being desktop, laptop, monitor, printer, speakers, external hard drive, powered USB hub, and phone.)
- bought a gadget at Radio Shack that allows two computers (in my case, the home tower and the office laptop) to share the same keyboard, mouse, and monitor. It didn't work with either computer. Bought a different brand of the same type gadget at Circuit City. It cost $70 instead of $30, but it worked the first time with both computers. Returned the first gadget to Radio Shack.
- Related to that, found that the neat ergonomic keyboard with the built in touchpad that I was using at home didn't work with the sharing gadget, but the separate ergonomic keyboard and touchpad that I brought home from the office do. (Yes, I prefer a touchpad. I'm weird that way.)
- Found that the wireless connection on my work laptop can't recognize my home wireless network. Luckily, my network hub is in my office, so I was able to connect with a cable. One of these days, I'll have to diagnose that.
- Treated myself to a bigger monitor, 21.6" widescreen instead of 17". The driver didn't auto-install from the CD, and everything appears to be stretched to accomodate the wider screen, but it's workable. Again, I'll get around to it later.

[mdlbear]

I find the idea that one needs drivers for a monitor... disturbing.

On Linux you just edit the size into /etc/xorg.conf if you're upgrading from an old monitor, and it's done. I understand newer distributions can auto-detect screen size on the fly, the way a Mac does.

[kinsfire.livejournal.com]

Smart man to get rid of Vista. The laptop I'm writing this from came with it.

Let me describe this situation, and I'll tell you why Vista should be scrapped:

Centrino Duo processor, 1 Gig memory. Vista native. Slow on a lot of things.

Switch to Ubuntu. Runs faster. Yay! Need Windows progs, so I find VirtualBox and install it, install XP on that, and then install the Winprogs I need.

THEY RUN FASTER IN THE VIRTUAL BOX THAN NATIVE UNDER WINDOWS VISTA!

[tomreedtoon.livejournal.com]

Well, at work they allow me two hours of overtime a week to edit some promos for shows (According to Jim and Scrubs) to give the regular directors some breathing room in getting things done. Also it's my only real chance to be creative and be paid for it.

About a month ago they switched from an old, peculiar Avid system to brand-spanking new Macintosh systems running Final Cut Pro. And despite the fact that they didn't train us on them, they didn't even have manuals for the damn program, everybody figured out how to make them work, sort of. They got an intern who had some FCP experience show us how to do a little bit of stuff, and I'm begging the bosses to buy one set of the $50-plus manuals for the system.

Only...now, the twenty terabyte server that connected all the systems, and held all the editing elements line sound, images and the raw promo footage...has gone offline. It's inaccessable. The last week was spent trying to get what was basically needed onto the individual editing systems, and getting the stuff done.

Forget getting that system working; our IT people are primarily PC only, and grouse about Mac's. Our maintenance people have been putting out fires for the last six months and can't take on anything new.

I suspect that somebody upgraded the Linux kernel somewhere. Whenever you do that, and you have to do it every week because they have a new kernel every week and you have to upgrade it, it invalidates all the software you installed and you have to upgrade that too. And then go through it all next week.

This kind of annoying Linux crapwork can be done at ISP's, where the techs have the time, but for people with real lives, it's like getting nailed to a cross. Weekly. I can't imagine how you Linux cultists do it, but then I can't understand how people can waste time to do model train layouts and bowling leagues either.

Now as for me personally; I'm ready to upgrade an old computer to a (hopefully) 2 GhZ processor. It will be used strictly to run Skype and a Skype recorder, to see if I can do better with that than by using my external Fostex recorder and my "mix minus" Rube Goldberg system for recording podcasts. None of my other computers is fast enough to run the recorder AND Skype and the other things on them, and record cleanly and without stuttering. The idea is to record a dual-track, with me and my audio sends on one track, and the incoming Skype calls on another, and mixing them together in post production so everybody sounds as good as possible.

Getting ready to whimper

[cyranetta.livejournal.com]

I recently got a laptop (fortunately, I was able to order it with XP) and am about to enter the twisted forest of trying to get it to talk to the wireless router and get to the internet. It's like entering a maelstrom -- uninstalling Norton AV and installing another AV, trying to figure out just which sequence of activities and configurations need to occur in what sequence with enough variables in software and hardware that I'm sure there's no help to be had from any help desk (envisioning a large-scale finger-pointing circle).

[ladystarblade.livejournal.com]

Well, I haven't been online for the past 36 hours because a trojan spambot embedded itself into my browser source code, infected my server, and sent out almost 100,000 spam emails through my server before my ISP shut me off. I've completely wiped my hard drive and am attempting to build back up from nothing.

GAK.