Main Area and Open Discussion > Living Room

Main hard drive in my PC died today suddenly

<< < (7/8) > >>

4wd:
I might actually purchase some separately to see if that helps, but I just wondered if anyone had any experience with this.-wraith808 (February 06, 2012, 08:21 PM)
--- End quote ---

If the SATA cable/connections are dodgy I usually get 'Delayed Write Fail' errors or an EventID of 51, 'An error was detected on device xxxxx during a paging operation.' in the Windows System Eventlog.

wraith808:
I might actually purchase some separately to see if that helps, but I just wondered if anyone had any experience with this.-wraith808 (February 06, 2012, 08:21 PM)
--- End quote ---

If the SATA cable/connections are dodgy I usually get 'Delayed Write Fail' errors or an EventID of 51, 'An error was detected on device xxxxx during a paging operation.' in the Windows System Eventlog.
-4wd (February 06, 2012, 08:36 PM)
--- End quote ---

Thanks for that!  I did a search of the event log, and sure enough, on the day that I was having a great many of the problems and decided to back up the HD, I was getting a bunch of errors like that.

I still don't see how I can have the same problem twice!  Guess I'm ordering more SATA cables!

barney:
Well, so much for backups - again!

Got the new drive today.  Immediately made one (1) system image and one(1) full backup of the other partition on the old drive.  Used Acronis for the backups and to create a bootable USB stick.  Switched out the hardware.  Booted with the USB stick.  Acronis loaded.

So far, so good, right?

Then Acronis told me it had found drives - EZ-Drive, some Windows variable drive, etc., that it did not support.  Then it quit.

Went through this routine three (3) times, then the system wouldn't boot, didn't recognize anything.  Oh, yeah, on that third effort, Acronis informed me that something was 92C and it just stopped.  It didn't like the temperature so it stopped.  Didn't quit.  Didn't shut down the system.  It.just.stopped!   l let the box cool down, then tried again a couple of times - same result.

I have no faith in Acronis, despite its reputation.  For that matter, I have no faith in backups.  Why expend the effort if the damned things don't work?  And Acronis?  It should have ignored the drives it didn't like, bypassed them, then proceeded to let me at least attempt a restore.  I dislike software that is overly difficult to use.  I detest software that does not perform its advertised function, whether I paid for it (I did) or not.

So much for backups.

Stoic Joker:
Then Acronis told me it had found drives - EZ-Drive, some Windows variable drive, etc., that it did not support.-barney (February 08, 2012, 10:56 PM)
--- End quote ---

EZ-Drive sounds like some type of DDO (Disk Drive Overlay), and a quick google seems to agree (and produces removal instructions). I've had fits with that kind of crap in the past. My first Win2k install took months thanks to the EZ-BIOS DDO ... Until I got it torn out by the root...then all was well.

db90h:
That's why I don't trust software backup solutions. I do a recursive file system copy with Robocopy (command line tool built into Windows) to external drives *and* a networked PC that functions solely as a backup provider for all data in this household. The one thing you don't want to do is freak out, as there is a way to restore your data (no I don't have precise instructions, but Stoic Joker seems on the right track).

Windows Backup is pretty decent these days, though still I don't trust it either. I just like a 'normal' copy of my stuff that I can easily access and retrieve without needing any supplemental software. I believe a Windows Backup Set could be recovered without Windows Backup, as it stores in common archive formats, but still I don't rely on it for critical data. I do use it though, just as another safety, in case my self-automated backups fail.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page