Blown hard-drive and motherboard!
r...@small.realtomargarino.ca
amount of joy likely felt in some quarters we tackle the recovery
process with some enthusiasm. We always hated that Dell and the
only reason we bought it is because we knew somebody that worked
there. Either she no longer works there, or she no longer speaks
to us, but we are going back to our "roots" and we are actually
going to put this sucker back together ourself. And we won't be
stuffing that Dell box either. Have any of you ever seen how Dell
builds their computers? The boxes come apart easily enough but
they are totally non-standard in everything they do and I wonder if
a non-Dell motherboard would even fit in this computer.
Thankfully, the really important stuff, like the Lew Pitcher file,
was all backed up.
We are speaking from a secondary machine now, patiently waiting for
the stores to open, so we can go out and buy a new motherboard/hard
drive combo.
Anybody have any suggestions?
We are going to split the new hard drive into two partitions and do a dual
boot. Unfortunately we lost our pirated windoze 7 so we will have
to download another. The other side of the drive will be slack 13.0.
Everything simple. That's the best way to do it.
There is something enjoyable about installing an OS on a fresh hard
drive. You know that you are getting rid of years of crap, both in
terms of data and binaries. Everything feels new and there's lots
of room and suddenly, all of those little pain in the ass chores
that you kept putting off are all gone, in the garbage along with
that trashed SATA. Of course we are talking about our main home
box. If we lost other people's data we wouldn't be looking forward
to the "new beginning."
But then again, who would be foolish enough to trust "Lew Pitcher"
with their data?
cordially, as always,
rm
Douglas Mayne
> Yep, that's us. The Dell xps 420 exploded.
<snip>
> We are speaking from a secondary machine now, patiently waiting for the
> stores to open, so we can go out and buy a new motherboard/hard drive
> combo.
>
> Anybody have any suggestions?
>
I guess it depends on your budget, but personally I would go with a
GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P motherboard with an Intel E8400 Core 2 Duo CPU. Add
DDR2 RAM according to budget. 2G is sufficient for a single purpose
workstation, but add more for virtualization, etc. YMMV. For storage, a
dual 1 TB (for a RAID 1 array) will set you back about $200. Slashdot
recently featured an article about nVidia's sweet spot $100 graphic
adapter; I'd look for something in that class- I am not a gamer. You'll
probably need a new box and power supply to hold the above- say 400 to
500W. IMO, that alone precludes reusing the Dell box. To get the best
deal, I'd look online. At least here, there are fewer and fewer local
retail options because all of the bankruptcies have left a lot of empty
big box stores. One caveat: building your own box is fun, but it can be a
little bit tricky. I sometimes sweat a bit when installing the CPU and
fan.
>
> We are going to split the new hard drive into two partitions and do a
> dual boot. Unfortunately we lost our pirated windoze 7 so we will have
> to download another. The other side of the drive will be slack 13.0.
>
External drives make an excellent backup medium to hold dated backup
snapshots. As external drives get cheaper and bigger ($100/TB is an
unbelievable value), there really isn't a reason to "lose" things
anymore. Unless that is your strategy for starting over ;-)
>
> Everything simple. That's the best way to do it.
>
The "simplest" solution would be to accept whatever "hot" box that is
offered at retail and pay the asking price. That is much simpler than
building the box for yourself. You can get down to some real work right
away. It will most probably come with W7 Home, etc., and it will have
everything included. It is expected that the end user will never touch
the "internals" at all; let alone repartition the hard drive. That might
"void your warranty." To keep things simple, you could opt for an addon
service contract for future "tune ups" and AV scans. Antivirus infection
is the gift that keep giving at computer retail. How else are you going
to justify $70 OS reinstalls/AV scans? Then there is this sales gem:
"Wouldn't you just rather have this new and shiny box, instead of dealing
with that virus-infected tangled mess?"
So, I guess it depends on a lot of things, including your definition of
simple. I like to keep Windows locked up in VMs. IME, most people find
the "shine" coming off pretty quickly with Windows. YMMV.
<snip>
>
> cordially, as always,
>
> rm
>
Note: comments inline.
Here is my opinion on what hardware to get, even though your post is a
bit off topic for aols. At least it was mostly cordial ;-)
--
Douglas Mayne
Dan C
> Yep, that's us. The Dell xps 420 exploded.
Good.
Bugger off, troll.
--
"Ubuntu" -- an African word, meaning "Slackware is too hard for me".
"Bother!" said Pooh, as he wiped the vomit from his chin.
Usenet Improvement Project: http://twovoyagers.com/improve-usenet.org/
D Herring
> Slashdot recently featured an article about nVidia's sweet spot $100 graphic
> adapter; I'd look for something in that class- I am not a gamer.
For non-gamers, I've found today's integrated graphics solutions to be
more than adequate (i.e. decent gaming is possible). For example, the
M3N78-VM I bought my parents a few months ago supports DX10 with its
GeForce 8200.
Spend the extra cash to get 4GB of ram and a wacom tablet or better
speakers or DNS registration.
- Daniel
Martha Adams
===================================================
> Anybody have any suggestions?
Yes. Mine is, make up your new machine with one or two adapters
for removable HDs. If someday you must permanently depart
your premises almost instantly, you surely cannot carry the
whole machine with you but you probably can grab out the HD.
If you made the machine that way.
Titeotwawki -- mha [2010 Jan 13]
barnabyh
"Martha Adams" <mh...@verizon.net> wrote:
> ===================================================
> > Anybody have any suggestions?
>
> Yes. Mine is, make up your new machine with one or two adapters
> for removable HDs. If someday you must permanently depart
> your premises almost instantly, you surely cannot carry the
> whole machine with you but you probably can grab out the HD.
> If you made the machine that way.
>
> Titeotwawki -- mha [2010 Jan 13]
>
>
Good advice. But really, why would that be?
--
The general public is a bunch of morons who destroy the fun and life in
everything it collectively touches. Disney is what the public wants.
NASCAR is what the public wants. Windows is what the public wants.
(Comment on Slashdot, Monday March 28 2005, @11:02AM, Gnome
Removed From Slackware.)
Loki Harfagr
> On Wed, 13 Jan 2010 05:46:14 -0000
> "Martha Adams" <mh...@verizon.net> wrote:
>
>> ===================================================
>> > Anybody have any suggestions?
>>
>> Yes. Mine is, make up your new machine with one or two adapters for
>> removable HDs. If someday you must permanently depart your premises
>> almost instantly, you surely cannot carry the whole machine with you
>> but you probably can grab out the HD. If you made the machine that way.
>>
>> Titeotwawki -- mha [2010 Jan 13]
>>
>>
>>
> Good advice. But really, why would that be?
too many to count, fire, flood, riot, war, locusts, eruption, salesmen storms...
Dan C
Or in RM's case, the Feds breaking down the door to confiscate his kiddie
porn collection and send him to jail for the remainder of his miserable,
meaningless life.
Loki Harfagr
> On Wed, 13 Jan 2010 13:03:09 +0000, Loki Harfagr wrote:
>
>> Wed, 13 Jan 2010 12:40:35 +0000, barnabyh did cat :
>>
>>> On Wed, 13 Jan 2010 05:46:14 -0000
>>> "Martha Adams" <mh...@verizon.net> wrote:
>>>
>>>> ===================================================
>>>> > Anybody have any suggestions?
>>>>
>>>> Yes. Mine is, make up your new machine with one or two adapters for
>>>> removable HDs. If someday you must permanently depart your premises
>>>> almost instantly, you surely cannot carry the whole machine with you
>>>> but you probably can grab out the HD. If you made the machine that
>>>> way.
>>>>
>>>> Titeotwawki -- mha [2010 Jan 13]
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>> Good advice. But really, why would that be?
>>
>> too many to count, fire, flood, riot, war, locusts, eruption, salesmen
>> storms...
>
> Or in RM's case, the Feds breaking down the door to confiscate his
> kiddie porn collection
Isn't that slanderous allegations about "the Feds" being addicted to k0rnollection?
> and send him to jail for the remainder of his
> miserable, meaningless life.
this is certainly slander... or did you put a trojan camera in rm'sdent?->
(which's probably a federal crime if not in UT or a member of previously
named ligue of sleazy stag k0llektors ,-)
r...@realtomargarino.ca
> Yes. Mine is, make up your new machine with one or two adapters
> for removable HDs. If someday you must permanently depart
> your premises almost instantly, you surely cannot carry the
> whole machine with you but you probably can grab out the HD.
> If you made the machine that way.
Pretty paranoid, eh, Martha? Got a little crop goin' in the closet?
Wouldn't want to lose that customer base to the wrong hands, eh?
But we hear you. In fact, the Dell has two easily removable disk
cavities in the side and since we never leave the sides up...
Thanks to all for the advice.
cordially, as always,
rm
Dan C
>>> too many to count, fire, flood, riot, war, locusts, eruption, salesmen
>>> storms...
>> Or in RM's case, the Feds breaking down the door to confiscate his
>> kiddie porn collection
> Isn't that slanderous allegations about "the Feds" being addicted to k0rnollection?
It may be, yes.
>> and send him to jail for the remainder of his
>> miserable, meaningless life.
> this is certainly slander... or did you put a trojan camera in rm'sdent?->
> (which's probably a federal crime if not in UT or a member of previously
> named ligue of sleazy stag k0llektors ,-)
Since the troll 'rm' lives in Canada, it doesn't matter much. The
socialist bastards up there probably monitor him anyway. I'm sure they
laugh at him as much as folks here in a.o.l.s. do.
--
"Ubuntu" -- an African word, meaning "Slackware is too hard for me".
"Bother!" said Pooh, as he slipped his date a Purple Microdot.