Author Topic: going to put my foot through my computer (Read 20027 times)

Listener · **on:** June 29, 2007, 06:10:19 PM

My HD has decided to crash. Worse, it's a laptop HD. I'm trying to move my data, since the backup utility won't work, but half the files cause the move process to stop and sometimes even crash the computer. Every time I think I've got it going, it goes splat.

I swear I'm going to put my foot through this thing.

I've resigned myself to having to reinstall every single one of my apps and figure out what all my plugins and settings were, but if I can't at least get the data off I'm going to go crazy.

And of course this happened the first weekend that I had time to do a backup (the last two have been too busy for me to sit down and set it up), just before I was going to run the backup.

Argh.

slic · **Reply #1 on:** June 29, 2007, 06:19:17 PM

That bites hard! How are you moving the files? I find the thumbdrives are the "safest" quickest way to move files (fewer parts have to move) - if you are buring to CD or DVD, that can hit the part of the drive that is causing trouble.

Listener · **Reply #2 on:** June 29, 2007, 06:35:19 PM

Quote from: slic on June 29, 2007, 06:19:17 PM

That bites hard! How are you moving the files? I find the thumbdrives are the "safest" quickest way to move files (fewer parts have to move) - if you are buring to CD or DVD, that can hit the part of the drive that is causing trouble.

From the lappy HD through the CPU to my other external HD. It's a 320 gig drive... kind of like a really big thumbdrive.

Michael · **Reply #3 on:** June 30, 2007, 04:05:43 PM

I had both my personal and work Dell laptop hard drive fail with 90 days of each other, and talking to the tech guy at work, he was replacing about three laptop drives a week--he said it is mainly heat, but they only have a drive life of about 1-1.5 years. I bought two of those external drives and try to dump stuff weekly... I have a copy utility that only copies changed or newer files so it really doesn't take that long.

That would be the big thing I would advise--find something that will only back up what you are missing from your current backup, not try to read the whole drive.

Bdoomed · **Reply #4 on:** July 01, 2007, 04:37:03 AM

the best, easiest, but not cheapest way to go is to just take it to a local comp store. Most stores have things to transfer files. Just take it in, tell em whats wrong, theyll do their stuff, and youll pay... i dunno how much. and then of course a new hard drive if ya need one, if its completely dead.

FNH · **Reply #5 on:** July 01, 2007, 12:28:16 PM

A serious suggestion, http://www.grc.com/intro.htm. Their recovery software is good!

Listener · **Reply #6 on:** July 02, 2007, 02:30:52 PM

Quote from: Bdoomed on July 01, 2007, 04:37:03 AM

the best, easiest, but not cheapest way to go is to just take it to a local comp store. Most stores have things to transfer files. Just take it in, tell em whats wrong, theyll do their stuff, and youll pay... i dunno how much. and then of course a new hard drive if ya need one, if its completely dead.

Well, our IT guy at work is pretty sure the drive is dead, and I have had it almost two full years, so I went to the store, picked out a drive, and dropped off the computer. They charge $40 for putting in the new HD and putting the OS on it, $60 for transferring over all the data via clone/ghost and making it like nothing ever changed, plus $110 for the HD. I figure that's still better than spending $750 for a new laptop and then $100 on XP (I hate Vista).

They've had the lappy for three days now. I really hope they fix it by the time I go away on vacation.

Russell Nash · **Reply #7 on:** July 02, 2007, 06:09:03 PM

My 5.5 year old laptop was making some of the strangest HD noises and a couple of times wouldn't boot up. I switched out the HD just in time. The old one rattles like a morocca.

Mr. Tweedy · **Reply #8 on:** July 02, 2007, 06:27:23 PM

Quote from: Listener on July 02, 2007, 02:30:52 PM

I figure that's still better than spending $750 for a new laptop and then $100 on XP (I hate Vista).

Best $1300 I ever spent: apple.com/macbook/macbook.html

slic · **Reply #9 on:** July 03, 2007, 12:39:18 AM

Keep telling yourself that, Mr. Tweedy. I have two boxes downstairs been running for 4 years, and no problems ever, and a third that doesn't get used to often, but I've had for 7 years and boot up fine every time. And they even get to run software that is worth having

Macs are good computers, but they are no better than the same quality PCs. I really love those Mac vs PC adds, very funny, but quite misleading. "Macs don't get viruses", they imply. Patently untrue, and besides why would some hack looking for notoriety bother with such a small group?

Hardware is hardware, sometimes it just stops working.

Bdoomed · **Reply #10 on:** July 03, 2007, 04:33:23 AM

i dont like macs... heh
in my opinion, they are only good for medias (video, sound) Photos/graphics i dont know about (photoshop is a great program and so is Paint Shop Pro... i believe they are for both mac and windows...)
ive used many macs, and ive never liked them. BUT for those of you who like them, good for you. have fun...

Quote from: Listener on July 02, 2007, 02:30:52 PM

Quote from: Bdoomed on July 01, 2007, 04:37:03 AM
the best, easiest, but not cheapest way to go is to just take it to a local comp store. Most stores have things to transfer files. Just take it in, tell em whats wrong, theyll do their stuff, and youll pay... i dunno how much. and then of course a new hard drive if ya need one, if its completely dead.

Well, our IT guy at work is pretty sure the drive is dead, and I have had it almost two full years, so I went to the store, picked out a drive, and dropped off the computer. They charge $40 for putting in the new HD and putting the OS on it, $60 for transferring over all the data via clone/ghost and making it like nothing ever changed, plus $110 for the HD. I figure that's still better than spending $750 for a new laptop and then $100 on XP (I hate Vista).

They've had the lappy for three days now. I really hope they fix it by the time I go away on vacation.

nice to see you've found a solution. Much more easier than fighting with it yourself. Plus its gonna come back to you and you'll never know the difference! (might run a bit faster tho if anything.)

Mr. Tweedy · **Reply #11 on:** July 03, 2007, 01:37:29 PM

Quote from: slic on July 03, 2007, 12:39:18 AM

And they even get to run software that is worth having

Bite your tongue sir! The A+ software is the primary reason for owning a Mac. I use my MacBook for hours every day while my much more powerful PC sits collecting dust in the other room. Why? Software! When I want to play games, I go to the PC because it has bigger muscles. But for anything (anything) else, Apple's amazing software blows Win-doze away every time.

(Anybody who knows a way to get OS X onto my PC will be my friend forever.)

slic · **Reply #12 on:** July 03, 2007, 03:28:18 PM

We'll have to compare bits to bytes sometime. I've found that PC software is usually cheaper, if not freeware in some cases, and since you don't seem the type to have crates of money lying around, I'm really curious what software you buy for your Mac.

I've done a fair bit of graphic work, though not in a long while (see some of my work), and I found that the OS has little to do with what I can accomplish.

It's one of the few times that going with the masses actually works for me.

Quote

I use my MacBook for hours every day

My kids can play solitaire and send email for hours too. --just teasing--

Mr. Tweedy · **Reply #13 on:** July 03, 2007, 04:07:34 PM

Quote from: slic on July 03, 2007, 03:28:18 PM

I'm really curious what software you buy for your Mac.

None, so far. Macs come with a veritable boat-load of great software; that's why they rock. Everything I use on a regular basis is either Apple or freeware. Check out my website (joshhugo.com): I did 95% of it with software that came on the MacBook, and I actually do a little freelance work with said software.

We did recently buy a baby program ($20 at Target), so our toddler can whale on the keys to make letters and funny animals fly around the screen. It's actually fairly rare that I run across software or hardware that doesn't have a Mac version (except for games: there it's a Windows world).

Quote from: slic link=topic=927.msg12438#msg12438 date=1183476498
I've done a fair bit of graphic work, though not in a long while ([url=http://www.geocities.com/stephenlumini/

see some of my work[/url]), and I found that the OS has little to do with what I can accomplish.

Dude, your stuff rocks! Can I come work for your company?

slic · **Reply #14 on:** July 03, 2007, 07:20:32 PM

Quote from: Mr. Tweedy

Dude, your stuff rocks! Can I come work for your company?

Thanks. Unfortunately, that isn't what I do for a living. Once the kids are off to University and I have more time and money (

) I'll look into trying to make this more than a passing hobby.

I did poke around your website a bit. I noticed you have played with 3D Studio Max - that's what I used, for the most part, to make those pics.

You are very handy with Photoshop. That's something I'd like to get more practice in. It's amazing for creating textures and backgrounds that I can't get as easily inside the 3D tool itself.

Mr. Tweedy · **Reply #15 on:** July 03, 2007, 07:35:58 PM

Yeah, well I hope to be directing movies at some point in the (likely distant) future. You can work for me making freakin' awesome steampunk cities and star-ship battles. I've already got people lined up to do soundtrack, production and build sets. All I need is 10,000 hours to write scripts, a huge pot of gold and a couple of really good actors who won't embarrass me by appearing in US Weekly. I'm sure I can round up all that stuff in next few months.

Incidentally, Studio Max is one of the few programs with no Mac version, so I guess my chances of evangelizing you are slight.

slic · **Reply #16 on:** July 04, 2007, 01:40:51 AM

Quote from: Mr. Tweedy on July 03, 2007, 07:35:58 PM

Incidentally, Studio Max is one of the few programs with no Mac version, so I guess my chances of evangelizing you are slight.

True enough, but there is a port of Blender which is a freeware modeller/render engine. I've played with it a bit as my 3DS Max is very old (v4), and Blender is quite spectacular.

Bdoomed · **Reply #17 on:** July 04, 2007, 04:32:54 AM

ive allways wanted to try out a 3d program... so far I only do minor editing, mixing and matching with Paint Shop Pro 7... I need to learn Photoshop (a.k.a. fiddle around with it for a long time until i get it down)
slic your stuff is amazing!

slic · **Reply #18 on:** July 05, 2007, 01:38:05 AM

I only have a pasing familiarity with Blender, but everything I've seen and played with impress me greatly. Between work, kids and a special after hours project, I haven't the time to learn the new interface. However, I've read through some of the docs, including getting to Creating Models With Photo Assistance section of the wiki book - Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro, and it's well documented. And there is a great online community including contests and lots of tutorials.

It's free and very professional - well worth the time investment.

Quote from: Bdoomed

slic your stuff is amazing!

Thanks, been tooling around with this stuff for 10 years off and on - some of my early stuff is quite, ummm, basic.

Planish · **Reply #19 on:** July 07, 2007, 02:59:37 AM

Quote from: Bdoomed on July 04, 2007, 04:32:54 AM

ive allways wanted to try out a 3d program...

Try POV-Ray - http://www.povray.org/
It's free, Open Source for Windows, Mac OS/Mac OS X and i86 Linux. Comes with good documentation. It may be awkward at first using a text-based "scene description language" instead of a graphical interface, but you come to understand what 3D rendering programs are really doing behind the curtain as far as texture mapping, optical effects, lighting, construction with primitives, etc. goes.

slic · **Reply #20 on:** July 07, 2007, 09:38:50 PM

I cut my 3d teeth on POV-Ray, and while it truly is an excellent render engine alot of new users are turned off by the fact that you basically code in C to generate the picture. For others that's the total turn on

There is an excellent wire frame modeller that sits on top of POV-Ray called Moray. It hasn't been maintained, unfortunately, so newer POV-Ray features like "media" aren't supported. And some other infrastructure has fall away (like the IRTC) - though some inventive types have taken up the torch with the TC-RTC.

That's why I suggested Blender - it has a built-in wireframe modeller, a bazillion tutorials, and it's own wiki-book. Also in terms of speed, POV-Ray is a renderer in the truest sense. Apps like 3D STudio have the option for scan line rendering which is much much faster (though reflections are not as good) - not sure if Blender has both or not.

Planish · **Reply #21 on:** July 08, 2007, 01:34:42 AM

Quote from: slic on July 07, 2007, 09:38:50 PM

I cut my 3d teeth on POV-Ray, and while it truly is an excellent render engine alot of new users are turned off by the fact that you basically code in C to generate the picture. For others that's the total turn on

That's what did it for me too. F'rinstance, with some simple math expressions, loops and such you could spawn zillions of slightly different objects in the scene.

Bdoomed · **Reply #22 on:** July 08, 2007, 04:25:59 AM

yea, i took a look at it, and i'm gonna hold off on POV ray till i know C, which should be by the end of this next school year (or sometime in the middle...)

Listener · **Reply #23 on:** July 11, 2007, 08:30:03 PM

Resolution:

My computer got its hard drive replaced and the restore disk run by a computer store. Then I spent parts of Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday putting back all my data. I'm finally back to normal. Thank goodness.

slic · **Reply #24 on:** July 11, 2007, 09:17:40 PM

Oh ya, that's what this thread was about

glad to hear you're back in play, Listener...

Author Topic: going to put my foot through my computer (Read 20027 times)

Russell Nash