Just when I think everything is working, my
new 300 gig hard drive winks out on me. Are there any geniuses out there?
Anyone with ideas?
When I first boot up, both hard drives show
up. They both work fine for a while. After a few minutes, the large drive
stops being recognized by the computer - as if it wasn't there at all. I can keep working on the other drive (which is the boot
drive). If I do a cold reboot, the other drive shows up again. Usually, if
I ignore it and don't write to it, it stays active.
I tried making the new drive into a boot
drive. It booted up fine, but it still disappears after a few minutes
(while the other drive stays fine).
Here's what I've tried so far:
1. Made sure I was using Windows XP Service
Pack 2 (which is the version needed to handle extra large hard drives
effectively).
2. Set the hard drive jumpers. Since I have
two hard drives, my husband has been careful to set the jumpers correctly.
We've tried "cable select" and various "Master/Slave" configurations on our
regular ATA drives (I know that serial ATA is better, but this is the
motherboard I am stuck with right now.)
3. Upgraded my BIOS. (By the way, I am using
an ASUS motherboard/BIOS and a Seagate and Maxtor Drive. The Seagate is
the huge, 300 gig drive.)
4. Installed new cables -- and my husband
will be doing that yet again tonight, just to make sure. Is there any
special new cable that would carry greater power?
5. I could get a card for the drives, but
it would slow them down and is not generally recommended, I've read.
If all else fails, I will have to get a new motherboard. I do not
relish that because I would be forced to do a new install without being
able to run my older installed programs as needed. Right now, I can
boot from either drive and keep all of the old programs active -- to
gradually move over. It's a massive job. (I managed to install Windows on
the new drive before it disappeared one time.)
Help! Anyone! Can this problem be solved
without getting a new motherboard?
From Wizbang, comes a list
of top blogs. Best-Looking Blog is SnazzyCat. Best Overall
Blog is Little Green Footballs.
The best humor blogs are listed here
(scroll down to view a list of the more "best of" blogs.)
My wonderful Great Aunt Vera Morey sent
copies of old family photos. They
were wonderful! My 2nd great grandfather lived to be 90 and she included a
photo of him!
Experts advise us to do this every so often
once a year or so - a clean install of Windows. I usually get a new hard
drive every year or two and do a clean install then.
I am trying this now. I can boot up off
either of my hard drives. It's a pain to reinstall the myriad programs I
have going on here, but it will create a faster system with less problems
(ideally).
I remember helping a friend with spyware. She
had been online every day and yet had NEVER used a spyware checker. We
tried downloading Ad-Aware, but a spying program would not let her. Next
we tried Spybot Search & Destroy (Microsoft's superb spyware program was not available
yet). Spybot worked. We found over 200 spying programs. Whew! No wonder her
Internet was barely crawling along.
I have a cold ... guess few folks can get
through a year without one. That constant outflow of fluids and the urge
to sleep make things miserable right now. Thank goodness for Puffs Plus
Lotion (tissues) and my brother's homemade chicken and noodles.
My cats want to keep me company. They follow
me around the house. I have a tendency to fall asleep anytime I stop
moving and they take quick advantage of the warm unmoving body. I hope they don't catch human colds easily.
What do you do when you get a cold?
P.S. My Dad sent this interesting animation.
I don't know where it originated, but I had to laugh at it. Do any of the
faces look familiar to you, too?
Our family is all gathering for a big
afternoon dinner of spiral-sliced honey-baked ham, chicken and noodles,
seven-layer salad, dump cake, Key Lime Pie, various breads, vegetable
dishes - and, of course CANDY and egg-hunting.
This comes after quiet reflection in church
on the true meaning of Easter.
Look for lots of photos of everyone tonight or tomorrow on
my
photo site. Hope you have a great day, too. (P.S. I've been
trying my hand at stitched-together panoramas. I hope to post more in the
future. Here's my first try in a
long time. (Click on
"original image" underneath the photo to get the best look.)
Adobe Photoshop makes photo stitching much easier than it used to be.
My brother and sister-in-law have been using
eBay for a long time to sell collectible items. He loves Disney World and
fantasy as much or more than I do. Here's what he is selling right now: Michael & Charleen's eBay Store.
(P.S. I am having all kinds of computer
problems. My new hard drive suddenly stopped showing up when I boot --
maybe yet another bad cable and my keyboard driver does not load 1/3 of
the time - maybe a bad motherboard.)
If soap operas are not satisfying enough, try
a site where people can
post anonymous secrets. Most other peoples' secrets are depressing - at
least they were today. And how believable can it all be? Oh well,
the entries are pretty and creative-looking. In fact, the creative
postcards make the page interesting in itself.
Just when I think everything is working, my
new 300 gig hard drive winks out on me. Are there any geniuses out there?
Anyone with ideas? 
Experts advise us to do this every so often
once a year or so - a clean install of Windows. I usually get a new hard
drive every year or two and do a clean install then.
Our family is all gathering for a big
afternoon dinner of spiral-sliced honey-baked ham, chicken and noodles,
seven-layer salad, dump cake, Key Lime Pie, various breads, vegetable
dishes - and, of course CANDY and egg-hunting.
If soap operas are not satisfying enough, try