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

[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.