Posted on 12/03/2008 6:29:45 PM PST by smokingfrog
Backing up data is a pain in the neck. The only way to make people do it is to automate the process. Mozy does that.
Many of us have suffered a data-destroying computer crash. But some stories are better than others. Josh Diulio, a marketing exec from Monroe, Mich., left his HP laptop sitting on a ledge on the balcony of his apartment building while he ran inside to get a drink. When he came back a crow was perched on the open laptop. The crow, startled by Diulio, leaped up and away, tipping the laptop just enough that it fell seven stories to the street below—where, just for good luck, it was run over by passing cars. Then there's the tale of Duncan Mowatt, a graphic designer in Seattle, who was having trouble with an external hard drive. The cause was a mystery until one day Mowatt's girlfriend picked up the drive and saw thousands of ants and ant larvae pouring out of it. She freaked out (as one might) and threw the drive across the room, where it smashed into Mowatt's laptop and wiped out its hard drive, too.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
Did it bite her in the cheez?
Yes. Rather digitally.
So, her finger, then? I have a digital alarm clock; my wife pokes me in the ribs with her finger when it’s time to get up.
My computer died two days ago. Two and half years, and it deservers all the rest it can get.. like the other five or six computers I was able to take down in my odd twenty years with computers (well... actually seven or eight, but those were just mother boards.) One such story involves a kid (me) with an army man above my computer (which was about 8 feet up through a hole in the wall) and I was dropping him down, tried to get him up(first by long pole, and then I went down to get him I think), ended up pressing the reset button while doing so, and poof, there went the computer. This was about what happened to every computer in my childhood (I took out three computers in nine years) before. I am now forbidden to touch my Dad’s computers due to it.
One night a while ago, I had two mother boards that I was working with, and my computer. I managed to fry one (smoke came out of it due to mismatching the power box and the mother board), the other just died (would not work) and the last one (the computer that died two days ago), had it’s innards sticking out from a break on the part connecting the two pieces a wire had been broken, I touched it while it was on and there were pretty sparks...
and my finger was now burn somewhat through and black.
So this is why this computer (which is now probably famous at every Apple certified repair place in GA) which has had the screen cracked from the body three separate times, (one time for three months it was held together by nothing but duct tape and sheer will) and has other maladies (burns, restarting every time it moved, and it’s usual load of being used every second of the day that I was awake). My friends are even buying Mac’s on the premise it’s survived me this long, it’s survive them forever.
And the funny part is? I want to be a web designer.
My advice? See post #2 and find out who makes that computer.
How the heck does pressing the Reset button fry the computer? You’d think if it could do that, they’d have left it off entirely.
Might be Dolch or a Panasonic Toughbook. Those are intended for heavy service, particularly the Panasonic.
My parents still don’t believe that story, but that is how I pretty much remember it (I can’t remember if I shut it off with the pole, or saw it on and turned it off). But it never turned on again either way. I’m not sure of the reasons, but I know the other six (trying to install software as hardware, Geting the computer in safe mode and it would never ever come out afterwards, old age and deconstruction of it to learn, Illegally downloading way to much [I learn my lesson, I was thirteen] and one of the motherboards I blew up, and my last computer who lived with me and did just about everything with me). :(
But with my luck I’ve been the one to take down every computer that we have owned in my house (with the exception of one my brother destroyed).
Actually my dream job would be testing computers. If it lasted more than six months of constant use by me, I would buy it till the cows came home (well, that and I could install Mac OS.)
At most I’d end up losing six months worth of data. That’s because as a Linux user I get a brand new version every six months which I then install cleanly after backing up all my data.
I do computer repair as a 2nd job. About 2 months ago, I got one in from a fella who complained that it wouldn't come on anymore. When I opened up the case, there was so much dust clogging the innards I couldn't even see the parts anymore - just vague lumps where the hard drive and motherboard should have been. The power supply was completely caked and was fried from overheating.
Take a few minutes once a month or so, remove the case and blow it out with some canned air. It will extend the life of your computer considerably.
I know what you mean. We have 3 cats. Every hair they shed seems to get sucked in there. I was planning to put some kind of filter on the last computer I built, but never got around to it.
Bleh, lost 10 years worth of games and music that had been painstakingly moved from drive to drive when a partition apparently corrupted early in the day unnoticed, and then a power failure finished the job. Had I see the logs or the drive in time, chkdsk could’ve saved the day...as it is, ended up with several hours of digging up older drives to recover most of it.
Adding air conditioner filter material to the air intakes will also help reduce the amount of dust getting into the computer. At the very least, it cuts down on the cat hair.
My first crappy apartment in college, I had set up my desk and desktop unknowingly placed under the main inflow hot water pipe for the apartment above mine. I was sitting there reading FreeRepublic, and felt a drop of water hit my hand. A moment later the drywall of the ceiling burst open as about 5 gallons of pooled water came crashing down onto my desktop and the constant stream started flooding in.
To put it in historic perspective, once I got up and running again I went out and bought the expensive 100MB zipdrive and disks to save my important documents.
You need any zip disks? I think I have a few of those laying around here somewhere (never used).
The evidence shows that he did put it on the balcony edge. Adult beverages or not, he CLAIMED a bird landed on it (wasn't that the story?)...
Hmmm? I seem to think it was adult beverages and no bird.. unless he has a feather or bird droppings on the laptop.
My PCs fill up with pet bird down and feather particles — cockatiels are notorious for that — but it doesn’t seem conductive and has never caused a problem.
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