Possible Absence

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Thu Aug 02, 2012 6:39 am

derekdarling wrote:While you are indeed correct about the iced tea, all may not be lost. The safest way is to take the HD out of the old computer, and install it in a different computer (with the same type of connectors). Then you should be able to access it from the running computer. Do your backups first (ideally copy to the working HD, assuming it is large enough. If not, install a new, blank HD to copy to). This will hopefully save your data, but your settings may be lost. As well, any installed software may need re-installing to be useful.

After doing this, get a new PC (with a warranty), and restore the backed-up data. Oh, and BACKUP often!

While there is an enormous satisfaction in restoring old machinery like the ShopSmith, there is only heartache trying the same thing with old computer equipment!

The problem here is that I am suppose to know what I am doing. I am not a beginner at this.

The computer has been acting weird lately; freezing for not apparent reason other than possible thermal sensitivity. It is not running cool.

Having dodged a bullet on the thermal issue, I decided I better make sure everything was good and everything was backed up. I think this is when my current problem started. I believe I had a backup running and I interrupted it. Now the second hard drive is causing problem.

I have the operating system and all applications on one hard drive. The second hard drive is data only.

With both hard drives connected, the system boots but hangs while loading Windows.

If I disconnect the second hard drive, the systems boots and loads. That is the situation right now. I am here online with the suspect machine running on just one hard drive.

I would pull the data hd to check it on another machine but it is a sata drive and this is the only computer I have with a sata interface.

I am trying to think this through this time so that I don't blow the whole thing which I am capable of doing.

bffulgham · Post by **bffulgham** » Thu Aug 02, 2012 9:23 am

Dusty,
There's an adapter available to connect a SATA or IDE drive to USB. I use these to transfer/recover data regularly..... a lot when customers first started getting systems with SATA drives. Here's one I found on Amazon:
SATA/PATA/IDE Drive to USB 2.0 Adapter Converter Cable for 2.5/3.5 Inch Hard Drive / Optical Drive with External AC Power Adapter
They look pretty Rube Goldberg when you get it all hooked up, but they work. You may be able to find one if you have something like a Best Buy or Radio Shack.

Bud

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Thu Aug 02, 2012 11:07 am

bffulgham wrote:Dusty,
There's an adapter available to connect a SATA or IDE drive to USB. I use these to transfer/recover data regularly..... a lot when customers first started getting systems with SATA drives. Here's one I found on Amazon:
SATA/PATA/IDE Drive to USB 2.0 Adapter Converter Cable for 2.5/3.5 Inch Hard Drive / Optical Drive with External AC Power Adapter
They look pretty Rube Goldberg when you get it all hooked up, but they work. You may be able to find one if you have something like a Best Buy or Radio Shack.

Bud

Thanks. I'm going to get one of those.

I have lost three hard drives in this computer and I don't really believe any of them are bad.

backhertz · Post by **backhertz** » Thu Aug 02, 2012 10:02 pm

Those adapters are great and allow you to connect to virtually any hard drive from the tiny notebook drives to the larger ones.

A regular cleaning is also essential to the operation of the Mark V... Two screws to take off the motor cover...yadi, yadi, yadda. It seems we all know this but it's amazing how quickly fun flies anymore...

lightnin · Post by **lightnin** » Thu Aug 02, 2012 11:00 pm

dusty wrote:Thanks. I'm going to get one of those.

I had to get one when my old drives no longer fit newer computer worked great.

derekdarling · Post by **derekdarling** » Fri Aug 03, 2012 12:20 am

bffulgham wrote:Dusty,
There's an adapter available to connect a SATA or IDE drive to USB. I use these to transfer/recover data regularly..... a lot when customers first started getting systems with SATA drives. Here's one I found on Amazon:
SATA/PATA/IDE Drive to USB 2.0 Adapter Converter Cable for 2.5/3.5 Inch Hard Drive / Optical Drive with External AC Power Adapter
They look pretty Rube Goldberg when you get it all hooked up, but they work. You may be able to find one if you have something like a Best Buy or Radio Shack.

Bud

Yup, what he said....

skou · Post by **skou** » Sun Aug 05, 2012 2:11 am

dusty wrote:Thanks. I'm going to get one of those.

I have lost three hard drives in this computer and I don't really believe any of them are bad.

Dusty, look at other components in your rig. There is one device that has wires going to EVERY other part, the power supply. If it goes out of tolerance, it can DESTROY every other part, and, in most cases PSUs are the weakest part of any rig.

Oh, I used to volunteer at the old Abit Forum, and have seen firsthand, cheap PSUs ruining someone's brand new toy.

Whenever I see someone having new issues (like you've had) I tend to suspect the power supply (PSU).

Let me know if you want some one-on-one help.

steve

skou · Post by **skou** » Sun Aug 05, 2012 2:13 am

derekdarling wrote:Yup, what he said....

Yup, what both of them said!

I've got 2 or 3 different versons of the same device, works as advertised!

steve

nil · Post by **nil** » Sun Aug 05, 2012 5:17 pm

Dusty,

If your computer hits thermtrip, I wouldn't worry. You will only lose what you had unsaved. It's just a thermal fuse and will reset when the system cools down. Depending on the model of processor, it's likely you could go as high as 80-100C before you hit that, so you still had some margin, even with all that dust inside.

If your hard drive dies, that's another story. I hope you are making backups regularly. Once you get that external USB sata enclosure, you should probably take some time every week (or month) to clone your hard drive to a blank drive.

Have you looked at putting some of the files you don't want to lose on google drive? I hear you get at least 5GB free... and for most people that would save almost everything but photos and music and videos.

In my case i've gone all out and gotten a netgear ultra6 that sits on my network filled with 2TB drives so I can automate backups, but I'm probably more paranoid than most about losing data... Especially given that I'm considering buying a backup ultra6 for my primary ultra6.

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Sun Aug 05, 2012 6:13 pm

I really appreciate all of the comments. I am moving slow at this point. I don't want to crash the one remaining hard drive.

I also hesitate to connect in the suspect drives because I don't understand what is happening when I do.

As you can tell, I am up and running. I just don't have any of my previous data files (word documents, excel documents, pdf files, etc). I do have a 14GB flash drive that I can save to if I have something show up that I want/need to save.

If, however, I connect what was my D: drive to the computer - it will boot but will not load Windows. I don't understand that because there is obviously nothing on that drive (D:) that is required to load Windows. If there was, I would not be able to load Windows without the drive being connected.