Another home PC died...

Kaminsky

It's soooo annoying what you lose when this happens...

What I am most annoyed about is the last 4 years of photos of our 3 kids and our last years wedding photos all gone. There is a downside to digital photography. GAH !!!

The mrs is well pi$$ed that the only thing I had backed up is my entire 5 dvd Cisco directory so I could put it on the work laptop. [it is quite amazing just how much certification cr@p you end up collecting online over the years of study and never get around to actually reading and then even when you do actually read it, you don't delete it]

I used to be a pc support manager for about 6 years in a 8500+ user hospital trust but these days I really, really, REALLY detest messing about with PCs and components. So much so, this will be my 4th dead PC I have laying about the house waiting to be repaired. Guess I should stop being such a lazy git and recomponent them all and get them all going again... GDI !!!!! Kids are old enough to have their own PCs now as long as I feed them through the Nokia 360 I pulled out of the skip at work (I love that skip), just so they don't feck up my own pc again. ARG !! I really, really hate fixing PCs.

My neighbour across the road is just the same as he spent 20 years as a car mechanic and absolutely hates fixing cars.

laidbackfreak

Kaminsky wrote: »

It's soooo annoying what you lose when this happens... .

Yep and how many times do you say I will start backing up when your up and running again.

I got out of pc's a few years back now and am glad I did. I've managed to get rid of all the people who used to ask me to fix there problems too so thats a bonus.
Aside from begrudingly fixing (or not as the case maybe) the mrs laptop I stay well away.

I'm happy indulging my passion for IT in my own way without the need\desire to support everyone else.

IT bods are like other trades, mechanics etc everyone wants one as a friend to ask a favour of when in need and thats one of the reasons we get dishartened we're never off duty lol.

Stotic

So your hard drive crashed? There are tools out there that can be used to recover data. There are also several services available albeit pricey that can collect data from the disk. My mom did it when her HD crashed with a bunch of pictures.

Pash

It's a Layer 8 issue cough cough.

Kaminsky

Pash wrote: »

It's a Layer 8 issue cough cough.

not helping pash..... funny .... but not helping....

Forsaken_GA

Kaminsky wrote: »

I used to be a pc support manager for about 6 years in a 8500+ user hospital trust but these days I really, really, REALLY detest messing about with PCs and components. So much so, this will be my 4th dead PC I have laying about the house waiting to be repaired. Guess I should stop being such a lazy git and recomponent them all and get them all going again... GDI !!!!! Kids are old enough to have their own PCs now as long as I feed them through the Nokia 360 I pulled out of the skip at work (I love that skip), just so they don't feck up my own pc again. ARG !! I really, really hate fixing PCs.

I feel you, man. These days I have to grit my teeth when family or roommates ask me to fix their computers (it's especially annoying when the roommates want me to fix **** for *their* family members).

Fortunately, these days I can get out of alot of it. I simply explain that all my practical knowledge of Windows Operating Systems extends to Windows XP (which is the absolute truth) and that if they're running Vista or Windows 7, I can't help them (which might be a slight exaggeration). When it comes to hardware, I'll be happy to install any parts they need, but they have to buy the parts and bring them to me.

As for my own boxen.... I have a few backup systems in place, so when a hard drive dies, it's usually just a matter of replacing it. On my last hardware refresh, I outfitted all of my cases with sata backplanes just so that getting to the hard drives was a matter of pulling it out of the slot and changing it out. The only box I'd actually need to get into is the little novel sized box I have running as my web server, but since it's more like an external dvd rom to move around, I doubt it'll be that bad to deal with (knock on wood, haven't had any issues with it yet).

So I've got myself setup to where I don't have to touch my hardware that much anymore. I've never actually had something like a motherboard or CPU die, I tend to rotate my hardware out before that happens. Now about the only thing that can happen to irritate me would be a blown power supply (and please, o ye mighty computer gods, that is *not* an invitation to screw with me, I respect your will in all things!)

Kaminsky

Forsaken_GA wrote: »

. Now about the only thing that can happen to irritate me would be a blown power supply (and please, o ye mighty computer gods, that is *not* an invitation to screw with me, I respect your will in all things!)

Quick.. Touch something wooden.... MDF may be ok..

This post and eight beers have cheered me right up about the loss. Tomorrow I will have to bite the bullet and start figuring out what kit I need to bring the four dead PCs up to scratch. Trouble is. If I start getting that conscientious, the mrs will want me to finish the tiling in the downstairs toilet and it's still bloody cold down there.

ilcram19-2

You can pay a service online to backup your data for 50dlls a year unlimited space i just recently lost about 10-12 years of stuff i never thought that would happend to me

Forsaken_GA

Working as a sysadmin for a web hosting company taught me the value of backups. When you become responsible for the care and feeding of several thousand boxen, you realize just how frequently hard drives fail.

HeroPsycho

Mmm, Windows Home Server...

exampasser

Forsaken_GA wrote: »

I feel you, man. These days I have to grit my teeth when family or roommates ask me to fix their computers (it's especially annoying when the roommates want me to fix **** for *their* family members).

I know the feeling. I have fixed someone's nephew's computer several times(I don't know what he does to it, one time I had to reinstall Windows on it, it was so messed up), and the next thing she's trying to get me to go on a 2 hour drive to fix her friend's computer!

Kaminsky

Got practially all the stuff that cannot be replaced using great bit of freeware called Recuva. Took about 5 hours to deep scan the disk then another 4 hours trawling through what it found was recoverable and selecting it to be recovered. (2500+ files) Thanks to the factory image and Recuva, it took about 15 hours to get back to almost what I had but nice and clean.

Most of the kids photos, ebooks and music as well as docs/sheets, etc I got back. One of the most painless total crashes I have had. Either that or I have just got used to them.

Time to look at back up devices I guess.

JDMurray

1TB external USB drives are around $100. You can pick up older copies of backup software (e.g., Norton Ghost) off eBay for under $30. And automatically scheduled backups frees you from remembering to manually back anything up.

I'm just saying...

physicskid

I deeply apologize for the loss of data, Kaminsky. On top of the fact, there's other people that depended on the lost data one form or another. Nothing like those things breathing down your own neck.

I will just lightly point out for your next PC setup to consider using an online backup service. One such service I'm currently testing is Mozy. So far, it's looking very promising. That's all I'll say.

The world seems to be more convenient, improved. We got all the latest gadgets and tools that are supposed to make life simpler. Instead, it's the opposite: new gadgets demands good documentation, ease of use yet complicated enough to meet our growing demands. I think we have grown so dependent on personal computers that we forget the little stuff, such as the fact that it takes time and effort to create data, maintain it and coordinate with the PC gurus such as us to troubleshoot it. People...

Anyways, I rambled off slightly. Again sorry about the situation. I hope for the best from this point onwards!

wd40

A bit off topic.

Some days ago my wife was holding my 6 months old son near the keyboard, he did something and the PC Died!

remembering that I wish I used it as an excuse to buy a new Core i7 machine and then fix this one

Kaminsky

physicskid wrote: »

I deeply apologize for the loss of data, Kaminsky. On top of the fact, there's other people that depended on the lost data one form or another. Nothing like those things breathing down your own neck.

I will just lightly point out for your next PC setup to consider using an online backup service. One such service I'm currently testing is Mozy. So far, it's looking very promising. That's all I'll say.

The world seems to be more convenient, improved. We got all the latest gadgets and tools that are supposed to make life simpler. Instead, it's the opposite: new gadgets demands good documentation, ease of use yet complicated enough to meet our growing demands. I think we have grown so dependent on personal computers that we forget the little stuff, such as the fact that it takes time and effort to create data, maintain it and coordinate with the PC gurus such as us to troubleshoot it. People...

Anyways, I rambled off slightly. Again sorry about the situation. I hope for the best from this point onwards!

This single most important change I will be making is not allowing the kids or the mrs anywhere near my PC anymore.

I am going to get upgraded parts and rebuild the three dead base units I have and they can use those with a Nokia 360 firewall and up to date Kapersky AV shielding me from whatever they do. I have a pair of old Linksys 12 port switches the kids can each have in their bed rooms as well so when they have friends round they can lan party. They loved that idea once I explained what a lan party was.

wd40 wrote: »

Some days ago my wife was holding my 6 months old son near the keyboard, he did something and the PC Died!

My eldest did a similar thing when he reached to the keyboard as a baby but barely touched it. PC then started reading out all menu options as if I was blind.. No idea how he turned that function on but it took me nearly 3 annoying weeks to figure out how the hell to turn it off again.

Forsaken_GA

if I ever get around to having kids, they will receive one box. It will have Debian installed on it (without Gnome). They will not be given the root password, or any other login.

Once they have enough knowledge to root the box, set up their own login and install Gnome, I will consider them learned enough to be in the presence of the rest of my equipment. Whether or not they get a share on the file server will depend on how promptly the garbage is taken out.