L
Leonard Grey
In general I seem to be able to avoid the problems that people post
about here...but I'm not immune to PC trouble.
Last night my computer did not boot. I discovered that the BIOS was not
detecting either of my (ancient IDE) hard drives.
The BIOS was fine: It was detecting my other hardware and the clock
showed the right time. I could feel gentle vibrations from both hard
drives and the cooling fans were working, so my power supply was okay.
I swapped my IDE cable for a new one...no help. Motherboard damaged?
Perhaps, but not likely, unless my UPS failed.
That left the hard drives themselves. I removed my boot drive and
started the computer with only my storage drive and - voila - it was
detected. That meant the electronics in my boot drive had died, and
since it was first on the ribbon cable, neither drive was detected.
The rest was easy: Buy a new drive and restore the old drive from a disk
image made only 12 hours previously.
So what is the point of this post, besides boasting? The point is that
even a non-geek like me can solve most any computer problem with
methodical troubleshooting and a current backup.
about here...but I'm not immune to PC trouble.
Last night my computer did not boot. I discovered that the BIOS was not
detecting either of my (ancient IDE) hard drives.
The BIOS was fine: It was detecting my other hardware and the clock
showed the right time. I could feel gentle vibrations from both hard
drives and the cooling fans were working, so my power supply was okay.
I swapped my IDE cable for a new one...no help. Motherboard damaged?
Perhaps, but not likely, unless my UPS failed.
That left the hard drives themselves. I removed my boot drive and
started the computer with only my storage drive and - voila - it was
detected. That meant the electronics in my boot drive had died, and
since it was first on the ribbon cable, neither drive was detected.
The rest was easy: Buy a new drive and restore the old drive from a disk
image made only 12 hours previously.
So what is the point of this post, besides boasting? The point is that
even a non-geek like me can solve most any computer problem with
methodical troubleshooting and a current backup.