Jump to content
The Dark Mod Forums

A Shocking Moment


sparhawk

Recommended Posts

I have sever installations on my machine. Two W2k and two Linux gentoo setups where I can switch between them via bootloader. Since I currently work a lot on TDM I don't bootup Linux to often, so yesterday I did once again and suddenly one of my harddrives were gone. The freak thing was that it showed up well in the BIOS bootscreen and there was no indication of a problem, but when I booted into Linux it didn't work and I could see an errormessage that teh drive was detected, but timed out during initialization. I checked the cables, and swtiched the drives, to see if this is a fault of the harddrive or motherboard or something else. Then I booted into a gentoo installation disc from CD and suddenly the drive worked fine. :)

I realized that the real problem was that I was booting a very old kernel, I still had in the bootmenu, that I used for driver development, but it wasn't updated in a long time and so this setup was screwed up. When I booted the correct kernel it worked fine. The shocking thing was that, that in the beginning I thought that the drive was giving up on me and I had all kind of important documents on this drive without a backup. Needless to say that the first thing I did was a backup. :) I was quite frustrated when I noticed the failure, and I already thought how expensive it would be to send the drive to a data rescue company for retrieving the files from it. Somehow I doubt I could have afforded it. :)

 

So I wasted a whole evening because I just had an old entry in the bootmenu. This was the first thing that I removed when everything worked again. :)

 

The morale:

Always keep a backup of your important data. :)

Gerhard

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And if you are backing up to DVD or CD, never skimp on quality - you get what you pay for, and if you want to be able to read your backup DVD in 2 years time, don't get cheapo ones. I found this out the hard way... And don't forget that most hard drives have a life expectancy of 3 - 5 years, if yours is older, think about replacing it and backing up your data big time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

LOL I know what you mean... I hate doing backups, it is so boring, I'd rather do something else with my 'puter. I have to force my self to do it, and I never do it often enough. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've been using TDK for ages, some of my TDK CD-Rs have been good for 9 years or so. Sony make some good one too... Go with the more expensive Japanese brands. You have to be careful though, because the same company will have different qualities of disc produced at different factories, so get premium ones made in Japan over budget ones made in say, Malaysia.

 

Unfortunately, the only way to find out how good a particular Brand/production run/type of disc is is to simply wait and see how long it lasts. I figure ten to fifteen years would be good, as I expect there will be more durable mass storage solutions available in the next decade or so that will replace CD/DVD as a backup medium.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Really? I have my System Shock 2 on a Princo. Should I copy it off to something else. Any brand name suggestions?

 

Well, my suggestion would be something like tdk (as obscurus says). I use those today and have'nt had a single problem yet.

 

The main problem with princo is that the hard plastic cover eventually can sorta peel off when it gets constantly heated and cooled in the dvd drive (the cooling obviously when you put it away). They're not that bad, but i have had about 3 of them stuff up on me, which did'nt make me happy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recent Status Updates

    • Ansome

      Finally got my PC back from the shop after my SSD got corrupted a week ago and damaged my motherboard. Scary stuff, but thank goodness it happened right after two months of FM development instead of wiping all my work before I could release it. New SSD, repaired Motherboard and BIOS, and we're ready to start working on my second FM with some added version control in the cloud just to be safe!
      · 0 replies
    • Petike the Taffer  »  DeTeEff

      I've updated the articles for your FMs and your author category at the wiki. Your newer nickname (DeTeEff) now comes first, and the one in parentheses is your older nickname (Fieldmedic). Just to avoid confusing people who played your FMs years ago and remember your older nickname. I've added a wiki article for your latest FM, Who Watches the Watcher?, as part of my current updating efforts. Unless I overlooked something, you have five different FMs so far.
      · 0 replies
    • Petike the Taffer

      I've finally managed to log in to The Dark Mod Wiki. I'm back in the saddle and before the holidays start in full, I'll be adding a few new FM articles and doing other updates. Written in Stone is already done.
      · 4 replies
    • nbohr1more

      TDM 15th Anniversary Contest is now active! Please declare your participation: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/22413-the-dark-mod-15th-anniversary-contest-entry-thread/
       
      · 0 replies
    • JackFarmer

      @TheUnbeholden
      You cannot receive PMs. Could you please be so kind and check your mailbox if it is full (or maybe you switched off the function)?
      · 1 reply
×
×
  • Create New...