Hiya...
"Bob" wrote in message
...
On Sep 30, 7:32 pm, "Flying Pig" wrote:
September Surprises...
*********
bla bla bal same **** as usual above.........
+++++++++
(clipping the computer stuff, too, here, which Bob left)
*********
Skip,
Instead of spending your day in paradise with such things jsut buy two
CF 29 tough books @ $4oo/each. When one goes belly up swap it out,
open the hard drive door and send it to Panasonic for another. New one
comes in open o-ring flip door and slip hard drive in. now you have 2
computers working again CF 29 have o-ring flip door removable HDs.
Total time...... 10 min
Why are havnt you learned how to make your life more stress less.
Unless you use all your geeking as a way to fill an other wise empty
life.
Bob
+++++
Well, I've come to a different conclusion as to what I'll do about the new
drive, which has landed in the Bahamas, but onto which I've yet to lay
hands, see below.
Rather than buying 2x $400 things which are lovely to take into the cockpit,
or not worry about getting wet if you take them ashore, or their many
shortcomings as to my and Cavelamb's preferred nav station computing levels,
what's coming is a $50 500G 2.5" drive, which will generate much less heat
in a very tight space (as you'd find on a laptop, too, of course, but mine
has acres of interior by comparison), my problem is the HD, not the
computer.
So, taking the drive out and sticking it in another computer isn't the
solution, let alone having a $400 piece of gear I'd otherwise not use.
My current drive (the original which came with my computer) is doing just
fine. See below for how and why.
Since you're a geek, too, and this is relabeled rather than the original
thread, I'll share the conclusion Larry, of this group's fame, and of the
ping on the most recent computer thread, reached: HDs get hot. Their metal
disks expand due to heat. The tracks get messed up dimensionally, and the
heads can't reliably find the data which is there and just fine. After
reviewing my conversation with Larry, my supplier, a very different Bob, of
WiFi supplier fame, agreed that's a likely cause. The solution is to go to
a laptop type drive, running very much less hot, with the happy bonus of
being less watt-hungry. If it weren't for my needing more storage than was
generally available at the time I bought mine, it would have had it (a 2.5"
drive) then as all of his other computers do; likely I'd not have had these
recurrent (over the several years, now, that I've had it) problems. Back to
Larry...
He's taken presumed dead disks, refrigerated them for a while, stuck them
back in and they work find. Pull any data you want from them, get them good
and warm, reformat them, and start over. He's got a server with 8 drives
he's rescued from the dumpsters, supposedly dead, which have been running
just fine, now, after that treatment, for years.
So, not only will I do a backup when I get the drive, but short-cutting the
new drive's readiness for my use, I'll clone the current drive (recall I did
the Larry trick, getting it warm, formatting, installing the OS, and then
doing my rebuild), which is up and running just fine, to the new disk
Then I'll do your trick of swapping the drives, without having to have a
second computer ready for it. Every so often, I'll clone the new drive back
to one of my 3.5" disks (the two - original, and replacement - from my
original computer purchase), in addition to doing my backups and incremental
backups. That way, should there be an unexpected failure, I can do the
drive swap again without having to go through the whole load-the-OS, etc.,
process
Agreed that my swap isn't quite as painless as yours - but I'm adept at
removing the computer from its mount, pulling the three screws securing the
case, the one screw holding the drive caddy, the 4 screws holding the drive,
unhooking the data and power cables, and reversing the process. Probably
more like 15 minutes, screwdriver in hand to laying it down, including the
dismount/remount of the computer itself.
Belt and suspenders, there's really only three folders which are critical to
me; reinstalling the programs is merely time-consuming, should it come to
that. So, every so often, I'll make bit-for-bit backups of those three
folders, in addition to my restoration backups.
Note that I am not against Toughbooks, though, for the bells and whistles,
as covered in another thread a while back, if I were going to go that route,
I'd most likely buy an Itronics with GPS, WiFi, and, so far as I can tell,
at least as many (other) bells and whistles as a Toughbook, except that it
has a touch screen, too.
As cheap as big 2.5" HDs are, I'd get a low-capacity one, as the Itronics
resellers seem to want an inordinate amont more for bigger storage, and
stick in a larger capacity drive.
Then, too, if I weren't using it for my entire life's history, pictures,
databases, and the like, but just using it for a navigation tool, I might
spring for one of the solid state drives, which certainly would be faster,
not to mention power misers and cool-running.
I suppose, as the industry progresses, just as you can now buy 32G
thumbdrives (relatively) cheaply, the time will come when SS mass storage is
the norm. Who'd have ever believed, for example that you could put 32G of
150x memory on a 1/4" or smaller chip (microSD)??? I've not actually been
in front of a SSHD, but they look to be about the size of a credit card...
How's your commercial marine life coming along?
L8R
Skip, now in Hopetown for a change of scene, still being morning net anchor
(you could listen if you had any interest in hearing what I sound like in
RL, by clicking
http://24.244.169.130:8010/listen.pls - which will download
the player - allowing hearing the broadcast delayed by a minute or two -
about 8:15AM Eastern)
--
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
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