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| Well... Son of a Bitch!; Its blown | |
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| Topic Started: Dec 1 2008, 10:26 AM (91 Views) | |
| Eleytheria-Duo | Dec 1 2008, 10:26 AM Post #1 |
Resident Bystander
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Well... I wake up and ready myself for the day, hit the power button on my computer, jump in for a quick shower, chug a cup of coffee and come back to my desk to find-- my desktop computer isn't booting up... "Well, hum... That's strange..." Boy, I had no idea... I turn it off, try it again. No change. "Oh God, not that." Checked to see if everything was plugged in properly, tried again... Still nothing. "Son pf a Bitch!" Realizing by now something is terribly wrong with my 1500 dollar computer, not counting the nearly 700 dollars worth of upgrades that's gone into that thing, I get to work checking everything I could think of. I recently got RAM and one of the locks is busted, so I considered it suspect despite its unlikelihood, since they only work in duals and could fail to boot up if one isn't working or properly mated with the socket. I ruled that out really fast. Didn't seem likely since my Motherboard has a built-in one that'd take over if the add on failed, but I tested my graphics card anyway. Fortunately, that 300 dollar piece of gear is working as smooth as... never mind. Still, an extra sigh of relief. I move on to checking unlikely things, like power connections inside the computer itself, hardware plug-ins, sockets, etc. etc. all trying hard to avoid what appeared to be the real culprit that I really didn't wanna think about first thing in the morning... Looking at that shiny steel-plated case with a big ominous label on it "300GB - HP HARD DRIVE," I finally had to concede, in all likelihood, it had kicked the bucket. So, now I am without a desktop and forced to use my laptop (Which I usually devout specifically for Astronomy purposes,) until the underlying cause is remedied. Most likely the hard drive, but I won't know for 100% sure until I get back later today and run a more thorough check. As much as I hate to admit it, its best that it is the hard drive and not something more critical. First, the Good News: Hard Drive problems are common, hell who hasn't had one, and are quite easy to replace. They are also cheaper than a vast majority of other electronic components and I can fetch an even better one than I had for about 40 to 50 USD, and not something silly priced like 300 USD to replace a faulty graphics card. :wasclose: Now, the Bad News: The overall emotional toll is significant since years of collecting music, photos, and personal writing have gone down the drain, but just because the hard drive is bad doesn't mean there isn't a *slight* possibility I can recover whats on it. For those of you whom are techno-junkies you probably already know exactly what I am talking about. So, off I go to start my morning routine in a pissed off mood that Electronics just had to be a bitch. In the mean time, I still have my laptop to communicate with the Internet connected world. Until I get this hunk'o'junk fixed, wish me luck. Oh and... be sure to look up at the night sky on this fine Monday. Our moon will be out and straddling beside her will be our Solar systems Morning star and Jovian Juggernaut, they'll be the bright as hell so you can't miss em. Apparently its a big thing on the news, but I just like the excuse to crack out the telescope and take notes on rare events. :P |
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| New Harumf | Dec 1 2008, 11:35 AM Post #2 |
Bloodthirsty Unicorn
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Already got the telescope out of the closet and set up by my patio door for tonight! Gotta get my electronic camera lens hooked up to my computer so I can record these events as well, but I have been lazy! You happen to know what phase Venus will be in tonight?? P.S. Good luck on your computer. I hate the bastards, personally, and I have a 300 gig extra external drive that backs up everything! Worth the slight expense if you ask me. |
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| Ulgania | Dec 1 2008, 04:17 PM Post #3 |
A better Zarathustra has never rode a horse
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Heh, data recovery of corrupt HDs is possible if you're willing to look into it. This might help: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/835840 |
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| Eleytheria-Duo | Dec 1 2008, 05:20 PM Post #4 |
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Resident Bystander
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Venus is currently approaching us from (coincidentally) about a distance of 93 million miles, viewed from Earth its currently near the "rump" end of Sagittarius and will be moving through Capricornus in a few days. Thus, if we consider the same terminology for Earth's moon, waxing being more and more of the visible surface illuminated and waning less and less of its visible surface illuminated, then Venus is currently waning (gibbous.) If your gonna be viewing Venus, I'd probably use a glare filter of some sort. If your lucky, and have the right gear, you might be able to glimpse a rough look at its sulfuric clouds, as opposed to just a blindingly bright disk. Jupiter should also be interesting, all four of the Galilean moons, Ganymede, Europa, Io and Callisto should all be visible straddling alongside the colossal planet for most of the prime viewing night. Uranus and Neptune will also be out, Uranus around Aquarius and Neptune around Capricornus. Might be able to look it up if you want to aim for observing them, if your anywhere light polluted then they'll be quite the difficult target to hit. Uranus, not so much with a good pair of binoculars. Don't forget Andromeda and Triangulum galaxies will also be out, some of the easiest galaxies to hit up, and they provide one hell of a spectacular view. As for the harddrive... *sigh* I just should have been a smart little boy and backed up all my irreplaceable files. :( |
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| Quaon | Dec 1 2008, 05:37 PM Post #5 |
A Prince Amoung Men-Shoot First and Ask Questions Later
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I had this happen to me recently...actually, since it was a laptop, the whole computer was essentially kaputz. I really regret not backing some things up; there are a few things that I really wish I still had. |
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| Nag Ehgoeg | Dec 3 2008, 12:55 PM Post #6 |
The Devil's Advocate
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I'm seriously considering a terabyte media network drive to back up my data... I would recommend it. |
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12:01 PM Jul 13