A night of terror....

Well. . . today started off really well. I wrote an analog integrated circuits exam, and got a 98% on it. Finish my lab up this afternoon and had enough time to tighten up assembly code (stay with me, I am building it up).

Slack Space 1613 This topic was started by ,


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757 Posts
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Joined 2000-10-14
Well...today started off really well.
I wrote an analog integrated circuits exam, and got a 98% on it. Finish my lab up this afternoon and had enough time to tighten up assembly code (stay with me, I am building it up). Anyways, I am building a computer for a buddy in my class, and we were gonna compare the two, in 3dmark2001 and sandra just for kicks.
 
So, I install all the parts no prob. Compared to my system, it dont have raid, where mine does, has a gf2 pro, where I have an ati radeon 64 ddr, and his has a 1.4GHz tbird, and mines 1.2. So i figured this could be an interesting comparison.
 
After installing the new det's for his card, I start thinkin I am gonna have to juice my computer up. So I start with the tweaks, driver updates, and finally I do a defrag with diskeeper 6.0 SE. I defrag all my partitions, and as the last one is finishing, I leave my bedroom and head out to watch tv and have a cig. Upon my arrival, Ive got a nice bsod with a kernel dump msg. Odd i think, but ill just reboot and hopefully XP will take care of any files that were harmed in any way. So I reboot. Hmmmm....same error.
 
So....now I start getting angry, cause I dont wanna repai/re-install XP. But I decide to do so. SO i wip out XP and for some reason, its taking for ever to logon, ever after initial boot. So, I reinstalled again. THis time way snappier. Nows the time for a little background. I have 2 - 30 gig maxtor drives in raid, with 2 partitions, a 10 and a 50 gig partition, as the array is striped. So as I said, the second install is going tickity boo and the boot up is quicker. In my haste, I noticed that the larger of the partitions was unformatted. Odd. So I try to format in NTFS mode in windows xp, BAM....lock up completly. No three finger salute, nothing. So...I delete raid array. Format each drive seperatly, and throw it back into an array. Re-partition, reinstall XP and its still really really slow.
 
As you can guess, by this point I am almost crying. I have assignments due on monday and I need my computer all weekend.
 
So, I say "screw-it" and delete array again. I then power down, remove my raid card and picked basiclly a random IDE cable from the controller card end to throw into the mobo IDE slot. Start formatting, and take off to watch swordfish. Come back.....its stuck at 68%. Ooooooohhhh CRAP!
 
So, to make a long story short, I lost a hard drive tonight, and in that hard disks failure I lost about 40-45 gigs worth of files. Having a good time.
 
So, I reach for my bill as I do one last reboot and pray to the boogie man of the east...SMART Drive has predicted that drive will fail, backup immediatly.....hmmm.....would if i could. And as I am reading this, I am reading my bill of rhte parts I bought in mid May this year. Apparently, I am only covered for defective products for 7 days after purchase. Having FUN! So I reach for maxtors "handbook" I recieved with my HD. It says there is a 3 year warranty on its products. So now, I gotta get into contact with store I bought from, see if they will cut me a break. And if that fails, send drive back to maxtor for god knows how long.
 
 
Just thought I'd share this exp with all of you...I am lucky I have a 20 gig that I put really sensitive data on (ie:school crap since I started, the all important ICQ db files, and some appz. Saved my *** on that one.

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Responses to this topic


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3857 Posts
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Joined 2000-03-29
That sucks a$$ bud. I hope your warranty process goes better than your install process went...
 


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Joined 2000-10-14
OP
Thnx clutch
 
Well....I just woke up. I was up super late last night getting everything ready to go. I am happy to report everything is working ok, but is a little sluggish from being used to ide raid.
 
Called the place I bought HD from, they said they would have to send it to manufacturer (maxtor), but they said all I ahve to do is drop it off. So....I am hoping everything will work out.

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Ouch! 8) I can feel your pain, except for the hdd going, but I did have to reformat C:, meaning i still have to reinstall everything.
Hard drive failure is a beeeatch!