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Post by Mereel Ma'viin on Nov 21, 2011 1:25:14 GMT 1
Update -
Upon further research, I believe that my problem may in fact be mechanical. Based on what I've read, the issue sounds like it might be the printed circuit board that controls the drive. If that's the case, then my data should still be alright. I've also discovered that an internal HDD can be placed into a case that will convert it so that it can be connected to another computer via USB, in which case I would be able, depending on how bad the problem is, either to simply copy my files over, or to run a data-recovery program on the crashed drive.
Either way, it'll probably be awhile before I'm up and running again, and I won't know for certain that my diagnosis is correct until I can actually try to work on it.
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Post by Jos Nelsh on Nov 21, 2011 2:16:40 GMT 1
... d**n, I was going to say "Tell me it's not a Western Digital". I have bad experiences with those, and with Seagate drives as well.
My guess is your (crashed) HD is probably still set as Master, which is why it tries to boot from it. Set the jumper to Slave if it is on Cable Select or Master.
EDIT: Oh, didn't read your last post. In any case, the jumper tip still stands.
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Post by Mereel Ma'viin on Nov 23, 2011 2:41:58 GMT 1
Well, the thing is, I did do my homework before I bought the drive. The problem that I'm having is that it's impossible to find an HDD that consistently rates well on reliability and performance. Everything that I've read about any drive, from any manufacturer, has been 'love it' or 'hate it', with nothing in between.
Having said that, I've been going over the time leading up to the drive failure in my head, and I think it might be my fault. Shortly beforehand, I made several attempts to install a game, each of which caused the computer to freeze up. The last time, after trying all of the normal, relatively safe ways to shut down (and failing), I killed the power at the surge protector. It didn't cause any immediate problem, so I didn't think anything of it at the time, but now I find out that one of the things that can cause a PCB to go bad is a power surge.
*sigh*
So, now I've learned (the hard, expensive way) not to do that again. Unfortunately, that doesn't help. HDD prices are skyrocketing thanks to flooding in the area in Thailand where a lot of companies have their production facilities, and supplies are limited, so even if I can find decent new hard drive, it's going to cost an arm and a leg.
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Post by Jos Nelsh on Nov 23, 2011 15:47:31 GMT 1
Yeah that might do it. =\ Hm, let's see. You could go with a smaller (and thus cheaper) HD for now. Then later when you have the bucks you could buy an extra big one and install it as second. It's better to have separate physical drives anyway. (Instead of just relying on partitions)  |
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Post by Mereel Ma'viin on Nov 27, 2011 2:54:00 GMT 1
Well, I managed to find a new drive that wasn't too much more expensive than the first one I bought, so it's on order now, and could arrive by the end of next week. After carefully assessing my options, I ended up getting another Caviar Black, this time a 750GB, mainly because it was the only one that I could find that had all of the features that I wanted, while not being ridiculously overpriced. It seems that the hard drive supply issue isn't likely to be solved for at least six months, so I thought I should probably go ahead and replace the old drive before prices got completely out of hand.
At the same time, I ordered an SATA-to-USB docking station, so that I can connect the old drive to the computer and, hopefully, recover my data from it. If I've evaluated it correctly, all I should need is some good data-recovery software, and I should be able to retrieve most, if not all, of what I lost.
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Post by Jos Nelsh on Nov 27, 2011 6:45:35 GMT 1
Hope you can work it out! |
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Post by Mereel Ma'viin on Nov 29, 2011 3:44:44 GMT 1
One bit of good news - I just discovered an up-to-date copy of my story on my old computer, so on that at least, I'm still in business! ;D
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Post by Jos Nelsh on Nov 29, 2011 15:13:34 GMT 1
Wow... that must be a relief! ;D
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Post by Mereel Ma'viin on Dec 6, 2011 2:32:57 GMT 1
Well, the computer's up and running again. Hopefully I can manage not to screw anything up too badly this time  |
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Post by Jos Nelsh on Dec 6, 2011 4:25:13 GMT 1
Yay! Whatever you do, don't keep the Death Star plans in the main computer! ;D
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Post by Mereel Ma'viin on Dec 18, 2011 1:24:08 GMT 1
Well, it's been two weeks now, and the computer is still up and running. Next step is to try installing a few games. I'll let you know how that goes.
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Post by Jos Nelsh on Dec 18, 2011 16:27:09 GMT 1
;D
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Post by Mereel Ma'viin on Dec 25, 2011 18:03:35 GMT 1
SWBF2 is installed and running perfectly! ;D
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Post by Jos Nelsh on Dec 30, 2011 15:22:11 GMT 1
Wow, great! No sound issues?
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Post by Mereel Ma'viin on Jan 1, 2012 3:07:57 GMT 1
Nope, nothing. Oddly enough, this computer doesn't even seem to have the option that fixes the sound issues. I've looked, but I can't find it, and since I'm not having a problem, I guess I won't mess with it.
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