Hardware malfunctions

[drscott]

I spent a chunk of yesterday trying to get Mike's PC working after his hard disk started clicking and failing. When that happened the day before, I restarted with the diagnostic disk and tested the drive -- no problems. Scandisk found a few faults and fixed them, and the machine worked perfectly. This time no such luck -- it rapidly became useless. Research showed that this drive (an IBM Deskstar) has been known for early failure with exactly these symptoms, so I ordered a new drive. Mike, naturally, has never made backups; a few months ago we discussed his need to and copied a few critical files, like his multiyear personal journal, so nothing critical has been lost, but as usual it means more work for me -- I expect it to take a half work day to reload and reupdate everything.

Meanwhile, a few days earlier his Intel Pocket Concert mp3 player's volume control stopped working. The unit is completely sealed and I wasn't even able to get it open. So I ordered a new mp3 player for him, a Sandisk 512K. His old one had 1/4 the capacity and was much heavier, so this is an upgrade. It's about the same price as the new Apple Shuffle, but it has a screen and lets you play a particular song when you want to.

Mike wasn't too excited with a replacement mp3 player and harddisk as his birthday presents, but it's what he needed. :-) His birthday dinner (chicken Marsala at Pezzella's Villa Napoli) was delicious and he topped it off with a mocha chocolate truffle. After dinner, he left to visit a friend and Paul and I watched the rest of Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle. The movie had moments, but Dorothy Parker's writings are best read on paper.

Paul and I are planning to go to Palm Springs or somewhere else warm for the President's Day weekend, so no IBR for us.

Comments

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

There is a reason why that drive is called the Deathstar.

Seriously, anyone using this drive WILL eventually experience a unrecoverable crash. What happens is over time the head will begin to wear into the magnetic media on the glass platters and literally strip the platter clean of the magnetic surface. Your data becomes a fine powder sprinkled about the interior of the drive.

[ciddyguy.livejournal.com]

Thanks for mentioning this.

I have an IBM HD, a remanufactured 17.1G drive I bought in 2001. Don't know if it's the same model or not. I'll have to check and if so, look into replacing it first before I do anything else.

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

Make sure you make regular backups. These drives were a victim of their own technology. IBM pioneered the use of a ceramic glass as a material to make much more stable platters than the more common aluminum. Apparently the softer aluminum had more 'give' to it and absorbed the head impacts that happen during startup, spindown and occasional jostling. The head is usually made of a very hard ceramic or ferrite compound, and combined with glass platters, this puts the magnetic media literally between a rock and a hard place. Newer drives have improved on the technology.

Besides, backups are a good thing. ;-)

[dr-scott.livejournal.com]

Backups are great, but Microsoft hasn't included a simple backup utility that can write to CD or DVD, so no normal user has the ability to do real backup. The other solutions (using a portable harddisk) also require installation of software that is beyond most people's abilities, and making a bootable replacement (which would be ideal) is very difficult.

Which is why most people don't.

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

That's one thing that peeves me about MS products. There is a rudementary backup function built into XP and 2000, but it's mostly hidden, awkward to use, and very limited. I'm spoiled by using my LAN here for handling backups, and even then I dont make backups as much as I should. Even so, these are data backups, so if my OS tanks, I gotta reinstall. At least my work is saved. Reinstalling apps is a royal pain.