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my HP just crapped out on me

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my HP just crapped out on me
I was watching a DVD movie last night and started hearing this odd alarm clock sound but I couldn't figure out where it was coming from. hit the switch on the KVM to go back to my desktop to visit a web site for a minute, only to find that my primary master (60GB Samsung) was reporting immenent failure and to back up soon. when I rebooted, all I get are "press any key to reboot" messages. I can't even get the piece of crap to boot from CD or RAID card (even though it's set to do so). So I'm going to assume somehow the whole motherboard is effectively dead.

on the upside, there wasn't anything on the hard drive that I need. I'd installed XP Pro on my old Maxtor two months ago and moved my important stuff already. The Samsung was just wasting space as it wsa more-or-less still the default HP bloatware installation with XP Home on the primary partition and had the recovery image on another. I can send in for a CD anyway. I save backups of everything I download to a pair of Seagates, and those are backed up to CD's occasionally. it was a $1k pc that I got for $300 back in March to use as spare parts (monitor, ram, hard drive, processor, etc. worth at least $700) but was eventually forced to make it my primary pc after an accident with my dual cpu board.

ah, and thank the pc gods that I have enough spare parts to cook up a temporary pc. I'm running my old FIC with a 900MHz Duron, 1GB PC133 RAM, an CD-ROM, and a 100MB Zip drive for storage. I'm running DemoLinux from the CD-ROM since the one thing I don't have is a spare hard drive. it runs a little slow considering the whole OS is essentially loaded into the RAM, but it gets the job done.

going to head off to the computer shop this afternoon and pick up a Gigabyte GA-7N400 Pro2 and some RAM. with any luck everything will be up and running in a couple hours.

Philip
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Limecat is not pleased.
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Re: [fuzzy logic] my HP just crapped out on me In reply to
Got me worried. The only backup I have is a CD backup of some critical data directories on the HD. So I started looking at external storage devices (I'm tending towards the IOGear external HD) to backup my entire HD. However, they are all now USB 2.0, and my system is USB 1.1. Ugh. Luckily they can install a USB 2.0 card (with 2 ports), and for only $30.00 (CDN). Then the IOGear 80GB HD for $250.00 (CDN).

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Cheers,

Dan
Founder and CEO

LionsGate Creative
GoodPassRobot
Magelln
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Re: [dan] my HP just crapped out on me In reply to
I just purchased and received today an IOMEGA external 80G hard-drive (USB 2.0 and Fireware compatible). I can't wait to play with it...it comes with Norton Ghost as well, which should be a good tool for backing up my primary hard drive.

Does your HP have Firewire capabilities? That may be another route you could look at. Or upgrade your USB driver to 2.0.
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Buh Bye!

Cheers,
Me
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Re: [Stealth] my HP just crapped out on me In reply to
I don't run HP, I run a Dell. No firewire capability, but I'll be adding a USB 2.0 card so I can hookup the external HD. Then I'll have some peace of mind. In the 15 years, I have never had a HD fail. But there's always a first time, and I'd hate to be caught with my proverbial pants down =)

----
Cheers,

Dan
Founder and CEO

LionsGate Creative
GoodPassRobot
Magelln
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Re: [dan] my HP just crapped out on me In reply to
Agree...

That is why I invested in the external hard drive. I was getting tired of backing up data to multiple CDs, then multiple DVDs, much better with a large external storage unit, although I will still probably do weekly backups of critical data to a DVD to be on the exteme save side. :)

I'll have fun tonight installing the external hard drive...hope it works well with my USB hub, but from what I've gandered from other hardware related forums, I may have to use one of my other USB ports, I have four of them, all 2.0, oh, and I have a Dell as well. :)
========================================
Buh Bye!

Cheers,
Me
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Re: [Stealth] my HP just crapped out on me In reply to
The extHD should be Plug-n-Play so you should be okay. I also have 4 USB ports, but all 1.1 and all in use. So having an extra couple ports (especially 2.0) fits the bill =)

----
Cheers,

Dan
Founder and CEO

LionsGate Creative
GoodPassRobot
Magelln
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Re: [dan] my HP just crapped out on me In reply to
drools over new motherboard...
onboard IDE RAID, SATA RAID, USB 2.0, FireWire, 6 channel audio (optical & coaxial), 1Gb LAN, and I can turn on my computer with my mouse now Tongue

Philip
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Limecat is not pleased.
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Re: [fuzzy logic] my HP just crapped out on me In reply to
Last laugh is on you. You just drooled all over your mother board, and now it's ruined ;=) I've got a 8086 mother board lying around somewhere in case you need one in the interim =) I was in the 90th percentile with my existing system, but have slipped to around the 50th or so two years later. But I'll back with a vengence next year when I upgrade. So don't get too full of yourself =)

----
Cheers,

Dan
Founder and CEO

LionsGate Creative
GoodPassRobot
Magelln
Quote Reply
Re: [dan] my HP just crapped out on me In reply to
wouldn't that suck, heh? fortunately I still have an old Commodore 64 at my parents' house as a fourth tiered backup :-)

I just got to figure out what the hell happened that's making those drives unbootable but accessible if I boot from other drives.

Philip
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Limecat is not pleased.