Topic: Withdrawal symptoms!

[tim]

PC seized yesterday - in the middle of a Tesco order - several frightening messages appeared - tried all known DIY things, but had to call the chap in.

He used a diagnostical program - traced problem to a blip on the drive - coned it off & we're back!!

[Eristic]

Now that you are safely back up and running make sure that all data files are backed up safely on a separate hard drive or cd. Sectors failing is an early warning that the disc is getting tired and a failure in the wrong place could render the computer unbootable with all work lost.

[tim]

Thanks. Don't last long, do they? It's only 2 years old.
Might it be sensible to istall a new one now??

[asbean]

Hard drives arae cheap nowadays, I always keep a spare, just in case.  Depends how good you are at backing up.  I "share" my PC with my business, so everything gets backed up regularly.  I've had at least four hard drives fail over the last 20 years, the first one failed within three months of purchase.  They always fail when you're using them - like light bulbs!

They're easy to replace, takes about 10 minutes, but restoring the progs and data takes a lot longer.

[tim]

Thanks.

[Larkshall]

Although I have a 250GB HDD in the desktop, I always save important files to an external 80GB HDD. The advantage of this is that I can use it with the laptops as well, which helps prevent the laptop HDD getting filled with unnecessary files.