Old HDD failed (mechanical) -- repair/specialist recs?

[fastbilly1]

Any who, be sure to remove as much or all air from the ziploc before freezing it, don't want any condensation on that drive.

Typically I double bag just in case of that. Pulling as much air out of both.

[pakopako]

Not clear, congrats if it worked out. Can you post the steps you took, did you get back all the personal data on the new drive?

Ah. Well, in an earlier post I said the broken drive was causing issue with the working one when connected to the same IDE cable, even as a Cable-Select or Slave device.

I connected the broken drive to the 2nd IDE cable (removing the optical drives that were normally on that cable). The head-clunking still occurred, but the boot-sequence went off without a hitch.

I managed to view the contents of the broken drive and copied the needed files to the working on, as well as a flash drive and two floppy-disks. One day I'll probably be asked to burn all the floppies he's amassed. (If they still retain their magnetic charge, because I know I still keep working 3.5" drives.)

Given that the broken drive had three partitions (FAT32 / NTFS / FAT16), and the files I wanted to recover were on the middle partition, I probably could have copied the entire partition over if I didn't have a huge catch-22 deal with the working drive (it was originally solely a FAT16).

Still a little taken back that freezing a drive is a tried and true technique. But hey, I can't knock proven results.

[Hazerd]

Sorry but this is kind of lol to me, 12 year old 8gb hdd, o man....

If someone isn't playing games or watching movies, an old PC might be just fine for the needed use. If it is being used to to write papers, it would be perfectly adequate as long as it is working. Unfortunately age based failure crept in.

If grandma mostly goes to the grocery store and church every week then her 1982 Chevette does the job as long as it is in working order. She doesn't need a V8 Suburban with a trailer hitch on it.

I wouldnt compare computers to cars, as computer speed doubles every 6 months and cars well... yeah...

also you can get some really cheap computers now a days if all your doing is emailing and looking up cooking recipes with a decent hdd, but an 8gb hdd, your just asking for fail.

[fastbilly1]

also you can get some really cheap computers now a days if all your doing is emailing and looking up cooking recipes with a decent hdd, but an 8gb hdd, your just asking for fail.

My girlfriends father uses a Sempron box that is clocked at like 1.25 ghz. It is terrible slow, but all he uses it for is email and the occasional youtube video at home. That said, we found at Walmart of all places a AMD E350 nettop with a 22inch LCD monitor for $400. You can guess what he is getting for Christmas this year. With the recent fall in price of hardware, it is hard to not upgrade people, even if they dont use it that often. The e350 is a powerful little pc and more than powerful enough for his uses.

[Hobie-wan]

I wouldnt compare computers to cars, as computer speed doubles every 6 months and cars well... yeah...

Just like Guile's theme goes with everything, cara analogies work for everything if you do it right. At work if I have to explain to an end user that their PC or Windows is broken, not our software, I often resort to car analogies. Most of them barely know how to use a PC and they aren't exactly car people either, but I can usually craft a car analogy that makes them understand.

[Hazerd]

I wouldnt compare computers to cars, as computer speed doubles every 6 months and cars well... yeah...

Just like Guile's theme goes with everything, cara analogies work for everything if you do it right. At work if I have to explain to an end user that their PC or Windows is broken, not our software, I often resort to car analogies. Most of them barely know how to use a PC and they aren't exactly car people either, but I can usually craft a car analogy that makes them understand.

And ill give you this then lol

Code: Select all

At a computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated: "If GM had kept up with the technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon."

In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release (by Mr. Welch himself) stating:
 
If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:

1. For no reason at all, your car would crash twice a day.

2. Every time they repainted the lines on the road, you would have to buy a new car.

3. Occasionally, executing a manoeuver such as a left-turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, and you would have to reinstall the engine.

4. When your car died on the freeway for no reason, you would just accept this, restart and drive on.

5. Only one person at a time could use the car, unless you bought 'Car95' or 'CarNT', and then added more seats.

6. Apple would make a car powered by the sun, reliable, five times as fast, and twice as easy to drive, but would run on only five per cent of the roads.

7. Oil, water temperature and alternator warning lights would be replaced by a single 'general car default' warning light.

8. New seats would force every-one to have the same size butt.

9. The airbag would say 'Are you sure?' before going off.

10. Occasionally, for no reason, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key, and grabbed the radio antenna.

11. GM would require all car buyers to also purchase a deluxe set of road maps from Rand-McNally (a subsidiary of GM), even though they neither need them nor want them. Trying to delete this option would immediately cause the car's performance to diminish by 50 per cent or more. Moreover, GM would become a target for investigation by the Justice Department.

12. Every time GM introduced a new model, car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.

13. You would press the 'start' button to shut off the engine.

Your anologies are flawed!

[Hazerd]

also you can get some really cheap computers now a days if all your doing is emailing and looking up cooking recipes with a decent hdd, but an 8gb hdd, your just asking for fail.

My girlfriends father uses a Sempron box that is clocked at like 1.25 ghz. It is terrible slow, but all he uses it for is email and the occasional youtube video at home. That said, we found at Walmart of all places a AMD E350 nettop with a 22inch LCD monitor for $400. You can guess what he is getting for Christmas this year. With the recent fall in price of hardware, it is hard to not upgrade people, even if they dont use it that often. The e350 is a powerful little pc and more than powerful enough for his uses.

THANKYOU! omg like if you have a 12 yr old computer, you need to do one of 2 things: LEAVE YOUR CAVE, GET A JOB.

[pakopako]

Code: Select all

In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release (by Mr. Welch himself) stating...

The irony is that the automotive industry is closer to what Mr.Welch was satirising.

• While most new cars won't fail to start suddenly twice a day (disregarding that several idiots on the road can crash two cars in one day... *sigh*)
• Car ads want people to buy new cars as often as they buy new socks (of course sock ads want you to buy enough socks to support an army and army ads.. I actually miss the BAYCB slogan.)
• Despite the advances in manufacturing, cutting corners for profit margins means engine wear is more imminent.
• Because many systems inside a car are computerised, a restart may actually fix stuck windows, a non-responsive mirror, or a wonky radio.
• Some air-bags still have trouble deploying at the right times.
• They're making single-seater bubble-cars now. (Though they probably will only run on 5% of the roads.)
• Have you tried to sit in some models? It's why they sell custom seats.
• When did the rules of the road change from 10-and-2?
• You really do press the 'start' button to shut off the engine.

THANKYOU! omg like if you have a 12 yr old computer, you need to do one of 2 things: LEAVE YOUR CAVE, GET A JOB.

While I do agree with that statement on some level, asking someone who looks to be 100 to get out of their cave or get a job or learn to chew their food before talking is not an easy battle.

And if they do listen to you, it becomes another series of "OMGWTF what does this do how do I fix this?!"

Although to bring in another car analogy, I do like restoring old models.
Why pay $400 when you can get one at $20 a pop that can perform just as well? Or I'd recommend a $200 slate if the person just wants to toy around.