Raptor Crash

[floppybootstomp]

One of the 74Gb pair listed in my sig crashed on me this morning, effectively wiping Vista.

It was manufactured in Oct 2006 so I should get a new one under warranty but still...

I had noticed Windows Vista going a bit flaky over the last few weeks and thought it was Vista but it would seem it was one Raptor slowly dying. I lost all my e-mail account passwords within Outlook at one stage, sometimes the system refused to boot to the full desktop omitting the sidebar, the mouse froze a couple of times and I suffered a couple of BSOD's.

Fortunately I had backed up all the most important stuff and lots of stuff was stored on the storage disks but I've realised I no longer have my IE favourites; up to date profiles for CoD 4 & 5 (although I did back these up about 2 weeks ago so not too bad), several save game files including FEAR 2 and Wolfenstein and all my e-mail.

Ho-hum, I guess having a hardware system crash is a higher risk with RAID 0.

As Win 7 is now less than two months away I'm going to run a temporary setup for now and then re-evaluate my Hardware when I take delivery of Win 7. Depending on price, a pair of SSD's may be an option.

At the moment I'm transferring files and folders to my media machine (lots of room on that) from the 2 x 250Gb storage disks via one of those slot-in tray caddies (very handy little devices) and once I've finished this will be my new configuration:

The pair of Hitachi Sata II 250Gb HDD's will become my new primary drive of 500Gb in a RAID 0. Slower than the Raptors, it will be interesting to see how noticable is the difference and I shall post an ATTO test result for comparison in the thread I started recently.

My current Samsung 1Tb SATA II backup drive will become the storage drive for my new system.
I am taking out the Asus sound card and fitting it to my media machine and using the P5B's onboard sound for now.

I will be getting a good sound card very soon so I shall probably fit that as soon as I take delivery and disable onboard sound.

I will also be purchasing another 1Tb drive to replace the backup drive I've put in my main machine.

It's a shame I have to do a fresh install of Vista after 20 months of use when Win 7 is so close but there you go, crap happens

It will be some time before I finish all this, so rather pleased it's Bank Holiday.

 

[Alf]

Ack that a shame - but since you backed up most of your data, looks like data lost was at a minimum.

 

[captain zed]

Sorry to hear that Flopp's...i know the feeling only too well. Is there no way you can recover the data from the disc at all??

The reason i ask is...i bought a hot docking station a couple of weeks for my gf's HDD and got all the info she wanted from it.
Here's the thing....do you remember she knocked over my 1TB external HDD and it wouldnt work or my pc couldn't pick it up....well with the broken HDD on the hotdock my pc can now see the damaged hard drive so i might just be lucky enough to retrieve everything although when using the hotdock my pc is saying the disc needs to be initialised before formatting and i'm not sure if it will wipe the disc clean. I just havent had the time lately with one thing or another.
I wouldnt but any more HDD's until i had tried everything if i were you

Also, did your vista come pre installed or did it come on a disc?

 

[floppybootstomp]

Zed:

When one half of a RAID 0 array goes down the amount of data recoverable is.... bugger-all

Did my Vista come pre-installed?

You having a laugh or what?

 

[captain zed]

Hi Flopp's,


I was of the impression that having a raid set up was great as you could up back each drive to the other. I'm not sure where i read it now but it looks as if probably read it wrong anyhow.
Only 2 and a half hours of this shift to go thank god and then its home to bed. These night shifts are killing me.....roll on monday morning

 

[floppybootstomp]

There are several forms of RAID array, the most common being RAID 0 & RAID 1.

Closely followed by RAID 5.

Briefly (more info Google or Wikipedia as I've been down this road many times ) RAID 0 is 2 disks working as one (which I was using) and RAID 1 is one disk permanently backing up the primary disk.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Update:

I now have everything backed up and have transferred all relevant files to the 1Tb disk.

The pair of 250Gb's are wiped and formatted and all three are fitted into one cage within the Antec 900 ready for use.

As the Asus sound card is no longer in there I have the floppy power connector free and the floppy drive is now active again which is just as well as I will need to load the RAID drivers from floppy disk during installation.

But that will be later as I'm off to see me Mum now

 

[captain zed]

A busy bee today Flopp's...i dunno where ya get your drive from....i'm still tinkering with the laptop lol.
Keep us posted.
I'd like to hear about your raid adventures.

 

[Alf]

As would I!

 

[floppybootstomp]

As of now, 20:00 hours...

Vista 32 Bit Home Premium installed and activated
Antivir installed
Vista SP 1 & SP2 installed
Canon G9 Camera software installed
Office 2003 up to SP3 installed
Photoshop 7 installed
Gadgets AppLauncher; Weather; Slideshow and World Clock installed
Latest Nvidia Graphics Drivers Installed
Router configured
IE Favourites from machine # 2 installed
Onboard Soundmax latest drivers installed
Real Alternative Player installed

And that's about it so far, still quite a ways to go.

This machine is absolutely flying compared to how it was, which surprises me as this is Vista.

It's either the fresh install or SP2 made a lot of improvements. I wasn't able to install SP2 in my previous install for some reason but I could this time around.

I think that also this time around I'm going to disable all those annoying popups, the UMC thing, they seem more intense with SP2 installed or maybe it's just my imagination.

A few pix, the RAID 0 setup, the start of the install showing the RAID disk and the innards of my machine showing the 3 hard disks:

Once I've finished I'll do an ATTO test to show the 2 Hitachi 250Gb's in a RAID 0 performance compared to the two Raptors.

I also have a question. Either Vista didn't give me the chance to name my network during setup or I missed the prompt. My existing network, as configured on the Router and other computers, is called 'CYRIUS' and Vista has named it the default 'WORKGROUP'. How do I change that? I can't figure it

 

[muckshifter]

Start button ... Right-click Computer, Left-click Properties, Advanced System Settings, (press continue ) Computer Name, Change, Workgroup Name, change it to whatever, Reboot.




more info ...

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727037.aspx

 

[floppybootstomp]

Start button ... Right-click Computer, Left-click Properties, Advanced System Settings, (press continue ) Computer Name, Change, Workgroup Name, change it to whatever, Reboot.




more info ...

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727037.aspx

That done the trick, thank you Squire, I wondered where it was hiding

Nearly there now, just Crap Cleaner, steering wheel software and Outlook and WS_FTP to configure and I'm done.

Plus all those games to reinstall of course, I've installed Wolfenstein only so far.

I've almost used up my ISP's allotted bandwidth (25Gb) for this month but tomorrow gives me a fresh 25Gb so I shall wait until tomorrow before installing Steam, that will be a huge download.

 

[floppybootstomp]

And to wrap up...

Have just rma'ed failed Raptor to WD at Housnlow, cheapest way to send it signed for was £3.45.

My initial elation at Vista's speediness was short-lived, after installing some games it's back to it's usual self.

It's still not too shabby though, the only real slowness is in opening the storage hard drive.

Have so far installed thse games: MS Flight Simulator Ten; CoD 5 WAW; CoD 4; The Orange Box (all HL2 stuff & Portal); Left For Dead; Flat Out; Half Life/Blue Shift/Opposing Force/Team Fortress Classic; Wolfenstein; Halo 2; Bioshock.

One annoyance is that Vista loaded CoD5 straight to the Games folder without putting short cuts in the main start menu which means I don't have seperate options for single and multi player. This means I have to have the DVD in the drive to play multi-player, Grrrrr.

CoD4 did load both options and I've stuck those in the Quick Launch menu.

Only other software I haven't installed yet is Foxit.

I will keep this setup until Win 7 comes along and then decide whether to use the pair of 74Gb Raptors as my primary drive; the current pair of Hitachi 250Gb's or a pair of SSD's. I shall see what the situation is come late October.

I'm definitely going to try the games that clashed with the Asus sound card - Oblivion; Fallout 3; Call Of Juarez, I may post to say how they performed.

Well there we go then, another bank holiday, another crisis, another answer.

Ain't life grand?

 

[V_R]

Have you got the RC of W7? I'd have installed that myself. I've been more than happy with it so far. and it seems faster than my GF'f 3month old Vista lappy.

But glad your on your way back to being sorted Flops.

 

[V_R]

One annoyance is that Vista loaded CoD5 straight to the Games folder without putting short cuts in the main start menu which means I don't have seperate options for single and multi player. This means I have to have the DVD in the drive to play multi-player, Grrrrr.

Can you not make your own shortcut?

 

[floppybootstomp]

Have you got the RC of W7? I'd have installed that myself. I've been more than happy with it so far. and it seems faster than my GF'f 3month old Vista lappy.

But glad your on your way back to being sorted Flops.

I do have the RC's of W7, both 64 & 32 Bit (see other thread) and I did consider using the 64 Bit version.

But come October I'd still have to install/uninstall and I figured that as the RC is the Ultimate version I may come to get used to some features that won't be in the Home Premium version I've pre-prdered.

It was tempting though, as I'll be using my copy of Vista for my media machine which is currently installed with XP. Vista would be suited to the media machine as OS speed isn't important and I do really like Vista's Media Player.

But for the media machine I am planning to use an Antec Fusion remote HTPC case with an Asus Micro-ATX Motherboard so I will be patient and use things as they are for now.

Can you not make your own shortcut?

Sussed it

I just went into C:/Program Files/Activision/CoDWAW, right clicked the multiplayer *.exe file which gave me the option to 'Add to Quick Launch'

Sorted

 

[V_R]

Fair enough.

 

[captain zed]

I have to say Flopp's...you do keep yourself busy. Just out of curiosity, how old was the drive that failed ?

I'm getting the feeling that drive's don't last too long at all.

I'm gonna put that laptop back together now i'm off the night shift for the next week, so i may call on your expertise, if that's okay.

 

[floppybootstomp]

I have to say Flopp's...you do keep yourself busy. Just out of curiosity, how old was the drive that failed ?

From post # 1

It was manufactured in Oct 2006 so I should get a new one under warranty but still...

I'm getting the feeling that drive's don't last too long at all.

Some do, some don't. I know of a pair of 34Gb Raptors in a RAID 0 that I bought 2nd hand and are now in a system I built for somebody still going strong after 8 years and also an IBM Deathstar 20Gb drive at least 10 years old still functioning.

Luck of the draw.

I'm gonna put that laptop back together now i'm off the night shift for the next week, so i may call on your expertise, if that's okay.

Ask all you like but I do feel I've already proffered all my somewhat limited wisdom on this subject.

But Iwill always try to help

 

[floppybootstomp]

Something else worth mentioning.

I've finished my install now, latest drivers for Thrustmaster FP240 steering wheel and all.

I use the Steam client and made a few purchases online without buying a disk copy of the game. Add to that the fact that Steam updates all games installed from disk and you're talking about a lengthy installation.

Truth to tell, it all took 3 to 4 hours, I get a good download speed from Steam.

But, here's the rub.

I started the Steam update/download on 1st September which is the day my ISP renews my 25Gb download limit.

What with Steam and all the other updates/downloads involved with a fresh install of Windows, I used over 15Gb bandwidth of my monthly allowance

To be on the safe side I purchased another 5Gb of bandwidth from Zen for a fiver for this month.

I've mentioned it before but very rarely have I exceeded my bandwidth allowance, 25Gb is usually plenty.

But if your bandwidth allowance is capped with your ISP, this is a factor to consider when purchasing games. Steam are good imo, they're convenient and I am broadly in favour of them, despite some minor misgivings about having to be online to play their games.

But I've always preferred to have a hard copy of a game on disk in my hands to an online agreement with a company which realistically could go insolvent overnight.

15Gb is a lot of bandwidth for one install...