Total Catastrophe - On Old Puter Now

[Classic Finn]

You are not alone my freind. My MB went out 2 weeks ago.
I bought one of the external USB drive boxes and it worked like a charm. I just put the hard drive in the box, plugged in the USB and it saw it as a mass storage device. Just like a flash drive.
I bought a HP media Center and am very happy with it. I couldn't build one cheaper than I could buy one.
I even found out I like Vista. Lots of features. And the media center streaming to my home entertainment center is awesome.

Hi Steve

What does your computer look like or what is the model number?

Is it this one?

HP Pavilion Media Center TV m8156.sc -tietokone (GJ330AA)

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/fi/fi/ho ... 28374.html

Heikki

[Mike B]

No one seems to have mentioned a program called Spinrite, available at http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm for 90USD. It can restore a damaged disk to working order, but once it's done, you should copy all the disk contents to another disk drive, since the disk is still bad.

It will work with just about any disk drive, including drives connected to a USB port.

Mike
Hayden Lake, ID

[Classic Finn]

No one seems to have mentioned a program called Spinrite, available at http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm for 90USD. It can restore a damaged disk to working order, but once it's done, you should copy all the disk contents to another disk drive, since the disk is still bad.

It will work with just about any disk drive, including drives connected to a USB port.

Mike
Hayden Lake, ID

Hi Mike

Thanks for that info.. Now can anyone tell us what the service center meaning that the screen is about to go? Showing red ? I didnt notice that..
Can that be repaired.. these service people here are bad, for explaining anything.

Classic Finn

[toypusher]

No one seems to have mentioned a program called Spinrite, available at http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm for 90USD. It can restore a damaged disk to working order, but once it's done, you should copy all the disk contents to another disk drive, since the disk is still bad.

It will work with just about any disk drive, including drives connected to a USB port.

Mike
Hayden Lake, ID

Hi Mike

Thanks for that info.. Now can anyone tell us what the service center meaning that the screen is about to go? Showing red ? I didnt notice that..
Can that be repaired.. these service people here are bad, for explaining anything.

Classic Finn

Not sure what they might be talking about! But, if you buy a new system, most of them come with monitors and nowadays lots come with LCD displays. I have a 19" LCD (ViewSonic) and just love it.

[subtearanean]

If you want a Linux (UNIX "clone") machine, why not go one better? Get a Mac.

My wife drives a 500MHz G3 iBook, 5.5 years old now. No repairs, running the latest Tiger Mac OS 10.4.11.
My older daughter (16) has a first generation flat screen iMac. Now 5 years old, no repairs.
My younger daughter (11) has an eMac, now over 3 years old. No repairs.
Our "main" computer is an 7 year old 450MHz G4 Apple Cube. No repairs, but I have upgraded the hard drive from a 20GB to an 80Gb, that was 3 years ago or so.
I should also mention my 12" Powerbook, 3 years old, slightly bent from a 4 foot fall, still works fine, no repairs.
Oh yeah, and my most recent purchase a 6 month old Intel MacBook. Again, no issues.

I only take care of the Cube and my own two laptops. My family takes care of their own equipment (maybe I've answered a few questions here and there, but that's it).

Sorry to bore you with all this info, but here's what I'm leading up to:

I don't run any anti virus applications, nor do I run any anti spyware applications (that includes any Microsoft applications). For all the time I've had these running. I do not "act carefully" with my browsing habits. I have people send me known virus laden emails on purpose, just to see how they're constructed (this helps me with the PC support side, knowing the enemy is 90% of the battle). High speed DSL wireless network set up at home, open to all that want to attach, no password restrictions. Again, no problems.

For a living I support a higher educational site, both PCs and Macs (also network, phones, etc). I've been doing this for years, and have always had better experiences with the Mac side of the world.

All that said, do have recent backups. Do them often. Things do break.

[Classic Finn]

You are not alone my freind. My MB went out 2 weeks ago.
I bought one of the external USB drive boxes and it worked like a charm. I just put the hard drive in the box, plugged in the USB and it saw it as a mass storage device. Just like a flash drive.
I bought a HP media Center and am very happy with it. I couldn't build one cheaper than I could buy one.
I even found out I like Vista. Lots of features. And the media center streaming to my home entertainment center is awesome.

Can you show me what that USB external drive box looks like or is it the one our friend asianflava shows above?

Heikki

[subtearanean]

Can you show me what that USB external drive box looks like or is it the one our friend asianflava shows above?

Heikki

Something like this will work fine (I have a couple) to use for getting the data off the drive.

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?InvtId=2020&cpc=RECOM

Or this. You'll need to make sure whether you need an SATA or IDE enclosure.

http://www.cooldrives.com/usbenclosures.html

[Sonetpro]

Here is the one I got.

http://www.rocketfishproducts.com/pc-66 ... osure.aspx

Here is one for a Laptop drive.

http://www.rocketfishproducts.com/pc-65 ... osure.aspx


There are several manufactures of them. This was the easiest thing to do. I just stuck my old drive in there and plugged it in. Alot simpler than slaveing it to another machine and recovering it like that. This one plugged in and there was all my files, operating system and everything.

Since I have recovered my files I put a 400 GB drive in it and now it stays plugged in a usb port. It keeps a full backup of my new computer on it. It has a button on it to do a backup at anytime. Or with the software you can schedule it.

If you are looking to replace your laptop look at the sony's. I bought my daughter a Vaio for college and she loves it. We have had it for a year now without any trouble with it. It seemed to be the only one we looked at that wasn't made in china.
My company gave me a Dell for my company laptop and I have had nothing but trouble with it. 5 hard drive crashes, 1 motherboard , 1 memory module and the bluetooth went out twice in 3 years. My company IT guy said that is what you can expect from the cheap chinese crap they build them with.

[asianflava]

The big plus for an external HD enclosure is that it is still useful after you have done your recovery.

[Classic Finn]

Here is the one I got.

http://www.rocketfishproducts.com/pc-66 ... osure.aspx

Here is one for a Laptop drive.

http://www.rocketfishproducts.com/pc-65 ... osure.aspx


There are several manufactures of them. This was the easiest thing to do. I just stuck my old drive in there and plugged it in. Alot simpler than slaveing it to another machine and recovering it like that. This one plugged in and there was all my files, operating system and everything.

Since I have recovered my files I put a 400 GB drive in it and now it stays plugged in a usb port. It keeps a full backup of my new computer on it. It has a button on it to do a backup at anytime. Or with the software you can schedule it.

If you are looking to replace your laptop look at the sony's. I bought my daughter a Vaio for college and she loves it. We have had it for a year now without any trouble with it. It seemed to be the only one we looked at that wasn't made in china.
My company gave me a Dell for my company laptop and I have had nothing but trouble with it. 5 hard drive crashes, 1 motherboard , 1 memory module and the bluetooth went out twice in 3 years. My company IT guy said that is what you can expect from the cheap chinese crap they build them with.

STEVE or anyone is there any sense to buy new Hd for our labtop?
If we could repair this labtop with a new HD Im sure it would still work just fine. Versus buying a brand new machine?

Heikki

[toypusher]

Here is the one I got.

http://www.rocketfishproducts.com/pc-66 ... osure.aspx

Here is one for a Laptop drive.

http://www.rocketfishproducts.com/pc-65 ... osure.aspx


There are several manufactures of them. This was the easiest thing to do. I just stuck my old drive in there and plugged it in. Alot simpler than slaveing it to another machine and recovering it like that. This one plugged in and there was all my files, operating system and everything.

Since I have recovered my files I put a 400 GB drive in it and now it stays plugged in a usb port. It keeps a full backup of my new computer on it. It has a button on it to do a backup at anytime. Or with the software you can schedule it.

If you are looking to replace your laptop look at the sony's. I bought my daughter a Vaio for college and she loves it. We have had it for a year now without any trouble with it. It seemed to be the only one we looked at that wasn't made in china.
My company gave me a Dell for my company laptop and I have had nothing but trouble with it. 5 hard drive crashes, 1 motherboard , 1 memory module and the bluetooth went out twice in 3 years. My company IT guy said that is what you can expect from the cheap chinese crap they build them with.

STEVE or anyone is there any sense to buy new Hd for our labtop?
If we could repair the Hd with a new one Im sure it would still work just fine. Versus buying a brand new machine?

Heikki

If the laptop is fine other than the HD, then it makes sense to just get a new HD and reinstall everthing. Also, if you do that, try to get two HDs of the same size and then get an imaging program like Acronis True Image and keep a backup of your HD that is in the machine on the one that you can use through USB. You need to back a new one OFTEN, though for it to be truely useful.

[Sonetpro]

Here is the one I got.

http://www.rocketfishproducts.com/pc-66 ... osure.aspx

Here is one for a Laptop drive.

http://www.rocketfishproducts.com/pc-65 ... osure.aspx


There are several manufactures of them. This was the easiest thing to do. I just stuck my old drive in there and plugged it in. Alot simpler than slaveing it to another machine and recovering it like that. This one plugged in and there was all my files, operating system and everything.

Since I have recovered my files I put a 400 GB drive in it and now it stays plugged in a usb port. It keeps a full backup of my new computer on it. It has a button on it to do a backup at anytime. Or with the software you can schedule it.

If you are looking to replace your laptop look at the sony's. I bought my daughter a Vaio for college and she loves it. We have had it for a year now without any trouble with it. It seemed to be the only one we looked at that wasn't made in china.
My company gave me a Dell for my company laptop and I have had nothing but trouble with it. 5 hard drive crashes, 1 motherboard , 1 memory module and the bluetooth went out twice in 3 years. My company IT guy said that is what you can expect from the cheap chinese crap they build them with.

STEVE or anyone is there any sense to buy new Hd for our labtop?
If we could repair this labtop with a new HD Im sure it would still work just fine. Versus buying a brand new machine?

Heikki

If your hard drive quit working you could get another hard drive and use the recovery disks that came with it. Or you could load your OS and go to their website to get the drivers for it. If your hard drive crashed you might not be able to get anything off it with the enclosure. Does it spin up? or does it make alot of noise ? What kind of laptop is it ?

[subtearanean]

The big plus for an external HD enclosure is that it is still useful after you have done your recovery.

And as long as the drive is still viable that makes sense. If it is truly a hardware issue the box becomes a paperweight (until you purchase a good unit to insert).

In the past when drives were $1K per GB (not so long ago, maybe 12 years?) it made sense to try to get every bit of life out of them. I was just pricing some ATA/100 Seagate 7200RPM 500GB units for an upgrade, each come out at $119.00. What is your data worth? I usually recommend tossing drives after 3 years of use when doing client work.

[subtearanean]

STEVE or anyone is there any sense to buy new Hd for our labtop?
If we could repair this labtop with a new HD Im sure it would still work just fine. Versus buying a brand new machine?

Heikki

Heikki,

Do you have a friend that has a whiz kid for a son or daughter? Or is there a college in the area, with a computer club that meets once a month or so? You may want to look for secondary expertise here.

Or pack up the bag and head over to us. We'll take care of you.

For these same reasons I would recommend staying with either the Windows or Mac platform, heading over to Linux, no matter how polished they state it to be, could be a world of hurt. You'll want to be a tinkerer with Linux.

[toypusher]

subtearanean,

You should try Ubuntu Linux and see what you are missing. You can download a live CD and try it in any machine.