The Great Computer Crash of 11/20

[Mike Garrett RAA]

It finally had to happen! Totally lost my Windows 98 operating system on my main computer. Knew it was bound to happen sooner or later and had even purchased a new computer in readiness.

I spent nearly three hours on line with Hewlett Packard Tech Support at a cost of $35. The end result was....Full Recovery with loss of all my programs.

I was up until 3am trying to get my new computer up and running. This is THE MOTHER OF ALL MOTHERS!. 1.9 GIG Pentium 4 with 512 megs of RAM, 120 Gig hard drive, CD R & W, DVD, 6 USBs, and 2 printer ports. Only problem is Windows XP.

Well, to make a long story even longer. I am up and running but barely. Seems my old Pop3 email account doesn't like this machine and it keeps switching to HOT Mail which makes for lousey .pdf file transfers. All of my quick lists are still on the other computer and I don't know how to transfer them to this one. Same with nearly 300 "favorites"

I will be calling Alamode tech support in a few minutes to see if they can help me. Only lost two full days so far and it isn't over. I will most likely be pretty scarce for a few days trying to get everything running.

HP tech support told me my Laser Jet III wouldn't work in XP. Wrong....tech breath it works great! Only problem is my $114 LPT 2 printer port is missing something so I have to drag the machine over to the place that installed it. God bless computer techs who know as little as me!

This beast is so quiet, I can't tell that it's running half the time....but it is really fast! The case is about half again larger than my old 4455 but sure looks impressive on the desk next to the new 17" LCD monitor.

So far, in the past 60 days.....

Old laser III crapped out...bought a reconditioned one for $200
DC 210 locked up and won't work. Trying to buy another one on EBay.
Drove 100 round trip to do an inspection and when I got back, no pics!
4055 Crashes and I lose 2 days trying to get new puter on line.
Went out to do inspection today, got there and no disk in camera. Left it sitting on my desk. Fortunately I had the old 4 meg card in the glove box.
Got a $15 parking ticket!
4 assignments cancelled because I was too slow.
2 reports that were sent out needed minor corrections

Otherwise......You gotta love this Business!

 

[Dee Dee]

Poor Mike!
I shudder at the thought of my computer ever crashing. Try as I might, I can't keep up on the technology and when something doesn't work right it's easier for me to curl up into the fetal position and cry than to figure it out.
Hope you get everything up and running smoothly soon.

Dee Dee

 

[Stone]

Good luck Mike. I purchased a new computer in October with all the bells and whistles. It is still sitting in a box. I hope to take it out over Thanksgiving weekend, as I will not schedule any inspections for four or five days.

 

[Mike Garrett RAA]

Dee Dee Darlin...and Michael. I really don't know what is worse buying a new computer or trying to RESTORE and old one. I am now back on my 4455 since the new monster has a problem with printer ports and printer memory. Everything is working ok on this one for the time being...but now I already miss the speed of the new one. Once I have everything on this one in proper order and set upin the other room as a complete back up, I will try to get the new one working correctly.

In the mean time, my work has piled up and I get 15 calls a day...."where is my appraisal?" Just found out I can't go back to POP3 mail server anymore so I have to make some changes with my email account. Did learn one thing about getting the Adobe Distiller to work and now my files are much smaller so this may work.

Back to the grind, cya and thanks for the support!

 

[Farm Gal]

:lol:
Mike:

Sorry to hear of your travails. Sounds almost like a typical week around here :roll:

One of my investments many moons ago was a laptop, on which the entirety of what I need to keep my bidness running (sure an it's a slowpoke of a machine these days, but it works!!!) resides. It goes offsite at night.

It is also on what all my financial stuff sits, but it's main purpose in life is if the office burns to the ground I lose maybe 24 hours from last back up.

There is an additional offsite backup that rotates, so there is the chance that I'd lose a week on occasion - assuming the laptop was onsite if/when the really big disaster hit. I'd have to go get a better printer to produce to volume. It is WORTH every dime in lost in piece of mind.

Lord knows I cannot afford to lose any more pieces of my mind :roll: :wink:

hang in there buddy, I DO envy you the speed, my main machines are getting pretty long in the tooth these days.

 

[Mike Garrett RAA]

Chapter Two...took the Mother Machine back to the place where I had the second printer port put in. They fixed it in about 10 minutes and then the Techie wanted to charge me $65 more dollars! I say, not only no, but hell no......you charged me $65.00 for about ten minutes work last time plus nearly double what the port was worth. He said, well.......it's what ever the market will bear. I thought, Hmmmmm, maybe time to raise my fees too.

Anyway, no I have two computers that are up and running (for the moment, any way!) Still can't get the Adobe Distiller to work on the old machine and the 2000c is acting up on the new machine. Don't think I will accept anymore work this month. Will use the rest of the month to get caught up. Had 25 assignments thru the 15th anyway!

 

[David Mullen]

One of the best investments that I have made was in the Norton Ghost program which was part of Norton Systemworks. Also have PowerQuest Drive Image which does the same thing but is a little more user friendly in last years versions.

In the past, when my computer crashed, it took 15-16 hours to reinstall everything. Now, it is a matter of less than an hour from the crash to being back in business.

I have my programs and operating system on one partition (C: Drive) and data files etc. on two other partitions. I just create an image of the C: Drive periodically so that when the computer crashes, it is a simple matter to restore that image. It puts everything back exactly like it was at the moment you created the image.

My data files are backed up using a backup program ("Backup My PC" for some things and Easy CD Creator for others and this method uses fewer CDR disks than creating an image of the data partitions.

It is well worth your time to try these programs out before the next inevitable crash.

 

[Stone]

Glad to hear your back up again. Did you find out why you can't use your pop3 account? That is what I use, and I'm getting nervous reading about the trouble you have had with it.

 

[Richard Carlsen]

Mike

In the works of President Willie Clinton, "I feel your pain." We had a network go down and there were two of us trying to use 1 computer for 2 1/2 weeks. Bought a new 2.0Gig P4 with two 40gig hard drives and Windows XP Pro. On my old machine a 450 MHz P3 that was serving as the main computer and running the appraisal software, we paid a tech to copy the programs on our and then format the C drive. Cleaned that puppy off and reinstalled everything. Got the tech to come and make sure everything is running right. It is now running better than ever. XP Pro is so much more stable. I rarely have a program lock up anymore. We have Windows 2000 running on the 450Mz machine.

One thing I did was buy a copy of PerfectDisk 2000 and I defrag my hard drive 2 or 3 times a week. Doing it that often it is now down to defragging in about 10 minutes.

Anyway, welcome back to being fully functional.

 

[Mike Garrett RAA]

Great info from both of you....I will look into Norton right away. Lord knows I have tons of drive space in the new puter (120 gig hard drive).

My data wasn't in jeopardy, according to the tech, but all the programs needed reloading. I will back up data on cd on the new machine regularly. Guess my only concern would be what if the hard drive physically fails? If you are backed up on the drive...how would you recover?

Going to have two complete work stations after this. My Pavilion 4455 as the back up and the 761c as the main system. Only disadvantage is having to copy stuff back and forth between the two. Guess I still could network for that purpose but allow each station to work independantly.

Well it's Saturday and I am plugging away getting reports out. Watching the Air Force football game while working. At least we are operational again!