Dammit......
Apr. 21st, 2005 01:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poltr1The computer fixes I worked on a few days ago are starting to fail.
The hard drive has developed some bad sectors, and there are more bad sectors developing around them. It's what I call "hard drive cancer", because the bad sectors spread across the disk the same way that cancer does: via neighboring cells. (I apologize in advance if this seems like a tacky or insensitive reference.)
And the laptop-40-pin to standard-IDE-40-pin adpater I picked up isn't working either. I couldn't get it to work with two of the laptop hard drives I had. There was power, but data wasn't being read. I was assured that the part was tested and working before it left the factory. Perhaps it's designed to work on newer drives.
Maybe I shouldn't be wasting my time trying to get old computer hardware to work.
The hard drive has developed some bad sectors, and there are more bad sectors developing around them. It's what I call "hard drive cancer", because the bad sectors spread across the disk the same way that cancer does: via neighboring cells. (I apologize in advance if this seems like a tacky or insensitive reference.)
And the laptop-40-pin to standard-IDE-40-pin adpater I picked up isn't working either. I couldn't get it to work with two of the laptop hard drives I had. There was power, but data wasn't being read. I was assured that the part was tested and working before it left the factory. Perhaps it's designed to work on newer drives.
Maybe I shouldn't be wasting my time trying to get old computer hardware to work.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-04-21 12:24 pm (UTC)It's not a waste of time, as long as there's some use for the systems afterwards. IN my experience, that means mostly not trying to revive systems with processors that are too terribly old (more than three generations prior to current are right out, and three gens had better have a good reason for existing -- I'm limiting my self to Pentium-II class machines and above at this point). I note that laptops can be a major exception to that; even really really old laptops can be useful as word processing/e-mail machines and possibly even web browsers. And, of course, older machines are excellent pkaygrounds for learning new stuff, like Linux.
Sorry to hear that the hardware is being problematic. Here's some Good Machine Karma to get those puppies healthy!
no subject
Date: 2005-04-24 01:03 am (UTC)The souped-up NCR 3180 has two PCMCIA slots, and I can run Windows 95 B on it.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-24 01:17 am (UTC)I have modem and LAN PC cards for the 3180. The only things it's missing are a built-in mouse ('salright, I can plug one in), a CD-ROM drive (but if I share one on my home network, no biggy), USB 2.0, and a FAT32 file system. So yes, I can use it as a last-resort backup communication machine if I ever needed to. But I have no plans to upgrade it beyond Win95B.
The Dell is my #2 machine; that's the one I schlep to the local coffee shops that have wireless internet, and suck on the Wi-Fi network nipple as much as I care to do so. (The biggest slurp so far was a small portion of the cygwin code.)
Now that the battery on my second UPS has been replaced, I can start tinkering with "slave" -- the PII 400Mhz I scrounged last year. I think it's time I get another copy of Win98SE (or just a license) for it. And still in the garage is a complete Packard Bell system that one of my neighbors tossed.
Good news: I found a refurb'ed 1.3 Gb drive for less than $40 online via bizrate.com. It's on its way here. And I found an external data storage case for laptop drives for $20 at CompUseless, so I can rescue the data on the drive before it becomes terminal.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-22 11:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-24 12:43 am (UTC)Sure, go ahead an interview me as well.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-24 07:53 pm (UTC)We started commenting on each other's LJ's and then he became friendlier and we started chatting outside of LJ. Then when I decided to go to New York in 2002, we decided to meet up. He showed me Jamestown and Buffalo, but when I went to NYC I met up with
Okay, questions.
1-Where and how did you meet R.? How long from that initial meeting until your wedding day?
2-Who chose Maria as your daughter's name? Was it personal preference, or a family favorite, or something else?
3-How much do you help with Maria? Do you change diapers, feed, etc?
4-If you could get a job doing anything in the world, something you would enjoy doing for the rest of your life, what would it be?
5-Where have you travelled to? Where would you like to travel?
no subject
Date: 2005-04-26 04:49 am (UTC)The answers to your questions have been posted here.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-26 08:12 am (UTC)