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Thread ID: 116029	2011-02-14 05:00:00	What a DAY!!!!	Billy T (70)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
1178116	2011-02-14 05:00:00	I guess there's nobody around PF1 who doesn't know by now that our daughter is off to Oz soon (Wednesday evening in fact) so there is a lot to do and I'm still adding stuff to the laptop. She wanted me to load on her archive of work dating from the time she first got her old computer over 10 years ago, and make an extra back-up copy to keep here, because taht archive charts her personal growth, her musical and educational progress and achievements, and in fact is literally a summation of all that leads her to the airport in two days time. No sweat I said, I'll have it for you in about 10 minutes. Famous last words! Try 5+ hours!! Backtracking to the computer, both she and Billy Jnr were bought second-hand W2K computers about 10 or more years back, and with a bit of TLC they've performed quite adequately for the task. After I bought them, both were set up with a separate data drive (in two partitions, one for data, one for backups) to ensure data was kept well away from OS problems and I cross-linked them over our home network. That system fell down a while back now when her computer would not see the network, and since she wasn't bothered I left it at that. No need to go looking for extra work around here! Son recently bought himself a new computer so I pulled the two HDDs and dumped the rest. When the laptop arrived she was no longer using her computer either (because it wasn't on line) so that was scrapped a few days ago as well and the HDDs kept. So, I went to get her archive, which was in a pile of 8 HDDs, popped the one labelled V-D & F into my external USB enclosure, confidently plugged it in to my computer and zippo, nada, it didn't come up. Put another disk in, same result??? put in a third and was finally convinced that the USB enclosure had inconveniently dropped dead. :badpc: That stumped me for a bit, then I remembered that my old W2K comp was still hidden under my desk. The disks had been removed but that was OK, I only needed the OS disk. I popped in the disk connected it to my KVM switch and it booted up OK (thanks again Speedy!!). I always had my data disks in removable cassettes so that they could be stored securely if we were away from home for any period of time, installed her data disk [D & F) rebooted ( I never connect live!) went to D: and everything there was from my son's computer. Okay, so I labelled the disks wrong. Dummy! Swapped disk for D & F from son's old computer .......same data WTF???? :badpc: Rechecked a couple of times but sure enough, both disks had pretty much exactly the same data, none of which was hers. Searched both F drives, no good, checked my son's portable backup drive which contained everything off his old computer so should have her back-up back-up data......Goneburger! :badpc: In the middle of all this, the old computer got huffy and the screen started jittering as if the PSU was going to die. It was just a 250 W "Power Man" and after 10+ years daily use it was certainly suspect, so I replaced it with a nearly new one kept from my son's old box, which fixed that problem, but when I rebooted the computer it stopped at the first screen (Press F2). :badpc: OK, no keyboard, said some rude words about my carelessness, swapped the KVM plugs around and rebooted, away it went. Next reboot, same again, swapped them back again and away it went. No, I don't know either, and I'm not going to ask or investigate! I then searched the C/E and D/F drives from both computers and they were virtually identical, by some mysterious means (probably involving my son) both computers contained exactly the same data, all of it his. :eek: There was a happy ending though. Never say die, just swear louder! Hidden deep in the depths of the data disk from my old computer I found a back-up copy that I must have made at some time as insurance, and since only the latest stuff was missing there was enough to make daughter smile again. I have no idea how two fixed disks in separate computers, not interconnected, could end up written over with the same 4+GB of data, especially when one of the two has been off-line for 2-3 years. I blame John Key, it was all OK until he took over and sold the farm. Cheers Billy 8-{) Oh yeah, forgot to mention, that's why Monday Laughs was late!	Billy T (70)
1178117	2011-02-14 06:33:00	IT is fun isn't it. Naturally it heard you say 10 minutes.	pctek (84)
1178118	2011-02-14 06:51:00	@ Billy T. That is great! Wish her all the best! I know what it was like to see our baby girl go all the way to America and she is still there, graduated from West Virginia with PHd and married a NASA rocket scientest! Be proud, be very proud! LL	lakewoodlady (103)
1178119	2011-02-14 07:16:00	IT is fun isn't it. Naturally it heard you say 10 minutes. And you do this voluntarily for a living?? You gotta be out of your mind! I seem to go round in ever-decreasing circles getting more and more frustrated until I finally work out exactly which part of the instruction set they left out this time! I find it quite nerve-wracking sometimes when I have to press 'enter' to proceed, but I have absolutely no idea of what to expect, and if the magic word 'deleting' pops up I have to restrain myself from leaping onto the escape key. Why can't they say things like: When you click enter, xyz things will happen and the computer will appear to be dead for oh, somewhere between six minutes and several weeks...... Then I'd at least know what to expect and how many pills to put next to the glass of water. I'd also like to know how you get the multi-pin connector plug out of the socket on the disk without pulling on the cable. I've tried easing each end up alternately with a small screwdrive blade and that seems to work but if you try too hard there's a 'crack' and little bits of black plastic shoot off. Then the araldite comes out again! You think they'd include an extraction tool or a loop of plastic string or somesuch to pull on. Cheers Billy 8-{) :help:	Billy T (70)
1178120	2011-02-14 08:20:00	Know how you feel! HP, for one, have pull loops on their data cables! SATA fixes that, though!	linw (53)
1178121	2011-02-14 18:41:00	And you do this voluntarily for a living?? I'd also like to know how you get the multi-pin connector plug out of the socket on the disk without pulling on the cable. I love it. What cable? The case to MB connectors? Just pull it.	pctek (84)
1178122	2011-02-14 20:36:00	basic rules of IT - a 5 minute job will take 1 hour. A 1 hour job will take 6 hours. A 1 day job will never get done because of all the 5 minute jobs you end up doing. Simple really.	Barnabas (4562)
1178123	2011-02-14 21:17:00	Billy T, seems as tho the son is to blame! probably when you have been engrossed in the "Monday Laughs" !!. Wish your daughter well in Aus. hope her lappy doesn't fall over either after all your troubles. Lurking.	Lurking (218)
1178124	2011-02-14 21:58:00	I love it. Yep, like John Conner said in Terminator 2 "Its easy money!"	Gobe1 (6290)
1178125	2011-02-15 07:34:00	Billy T, seems as tho the son is to blame! probably when you have been engrossed in the "Monday Laughs" !!. Wish your daughter well in Aus. hope her lappy doesn't fall over either after all your troubles. Lurking. It had better not, but it is going a dream and most (actually all) of the problems were really due to me getting too far ahead of myself occasionally and straying outside my comfort zone. Last task was a C drive image via Paragon, one copy on DvDs, one on her new USB WD Elements SE mini 500GB drive, partitioned into F & G. Made the boot disk for recovery etc and put everything together ready to go. Finished by getting Skype up and running, we'll do a live test tomorrow and perhaps that will help Mrs T get over it all, quite naturally she is very upset at present. A huge thanks to all at PF1 who have helped with the laptop and other accessories, we couldn't have done it without you, and I for one wouldn't have known where to start if I hadn't been a constant lurker and reader of all posts computing. I must have absorbed something along the way! Cheers Billy 8-{) :thanks :thanks :thanks	Billy T (70)
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