Report on Trip to US

[Rocky]

Format the hard disk is another way of saying...
"I have no clue what I'm doing".

That's my thinking as well and what are the odds that the motherboard dies and the hard drive is no longer usable in the state that it was in?
Please send me by PM the name of the tech your PC went to Ken.
I don't want this thread to turn into a PC tech bashing session.
As for partitioning the hard drive, I still don't get what that does for you when the hard drive crashes and simply won't work.
How would partitioning help that?

 

[Rocky]

Gout???

I have the same problem and always thought it was a gout crisis.

What is that??? I've been hearing about gout since I was a kid and I still don't have a clue what it is.

 

[Ken]

Why did they format your hard drive? Replacing motherboard and CPU have nothing to do with HD???

Don't know. I can find my way around the internet, but know nothing about the technical side. Think Robert probably right in his analysis.

 

[Ken]

I have the same problem and always thought it was a gout crisis.

Very interesting, La Mariposa, since doctor said one of the few things that could cause the internal inflamation without evidence of an infection was gout, except he said my case did not appear to be typical gout. Besides, I have never had a gout attack or an abnormal reading on the uric acid report.

 

[Rocky]

Is your ankle getting better?

 

[drtampa]

I had the same thing when I returned from POP in January. My lower left leg and upper portion of my foot swelled and was red. This sometimes happens after a flight. My physician checked my lungs for a possible clot ( no clot ). The diagnosis was stasis dermatisis. I kept my leg elevated as often as possible. It went away in about ten days. I have gout, but this was not gout related.

 

[Rocky]

I kept my leg elevated as often as possible. It went away in about ten days.

Now that you mention it, that's what my sister does as well. It usually only lasts 3 days for her.

 

[drtampa]

Mine probably went away in about three days after I went to my physician. The first seven days of the swelling were while my wife complained about my not going to the doctor to find out what was wrong.

 

[Ricardo900]

As for partitioning the hard drive, I still don't get what that does for you when the hard drive crashes and simply won't work.
How would partitioning help that?

Most drives fails from various viruses and corrupt files that may get into your registry and prevents you from booting and running aps. When you partition your drive, let's say from one 40GB to a 10GB & 30GB, the important files can be placed in the 30GB section, so if you download a corrupt file in the 10GB section or Drive C, you will be able to reformat just the 10GB section while still preserving the 30GB or Drive D. Now if you drop the entire drive into your bathtub, of course all drives will unfortunately be lost.

In addition, it is still possible to pull info from a totally crashed drive.

 

[Ricardo900]

re-install OS

Don't know. I can find my way around the internet, but know nothing about the technical side. Think Robert probably right in his analysis.

You just needed to re-install the OS unless you wanted to change the partitions. The Drive was already formatted. Your new motherboard's hardware can be found by Windows and resolve conflicts in the system, such as conflicting IRQs and unrecognized hardware.

 

[Ken]

Is your ankle getting better?

Better today than yesterday, thanks. Keeping it elevated as much as possible, though.

 

[HOWMAR]

Very interesting, La Mariposa, since doctor said one of the few things that could cause the internal inflamation without evidence of an infection was gout, except he said my case did not appear to be typical gout. Besides, I have never had a gout attack or an abnormal reading on the uric acid report.

Gout can be very hard to diagnose. You can have an attack of gout with normal serum (blood) uric acid levels. A trauma to an area (such as the big toe joint or ankle) can cause the uric acid to crystallize in the joint and bring on an attack. Or, if the kidneys don't excrete the uric acid from the body fast enough, an attack can occur. Uric acid is increased by eating foods high in purines such as pork, shellfish, caviar, liver, etc. Red wine is also high in purines.
To absolutely diagnose gout you can take Colchicine 0.6mg, one pill every hour, until either nausea, vommiting or diarhea occur. This indicates that you have enough Colchicine in your system. If the pain subsides within 2-3 hours, then it is gout. If the pain remains, then it is not gout. Colchicine only relieves gout, nothing else. If the pain returns there are other medications to prevent and treat gout. Isn't it amazing what you can learn on DR1.

 

[Rocky]

Gout can be very hard to diagnose. You can have an attack of gout with normal serum (blood) uric acid levels. A trauma to an area (such as the big toe joint or ankle) can cause the uric acid to crystallize in the joint and bring on an attack. Or, if the kidneys don't excrete the uric acid from the body fast enough, an attack can occur. Uric acid is increased by eating foods high in purines such as pork, shellfish, caviar, liver, etc. Red wine is also high in purines.
To absolutely diagnose gout you can take Colchicine 0.6mg, one pill every hour, until either nausea, vommiting or diarhea occur. This indicates that you have enough Colchicine in your system. If the pain subsides within 2-3 hours, then it is gout. If the pain remains, then it is not gout. Colchicine only relieves gout, nothing else. If the pain returns there are other medications to prevent and treat gout. Isn't it amazing what you can learn on DR1.

Thanks for the very gout explanation, I mean good explanation.

 

[Hlywud]

format?

What about carrying a spare bootable drive and dumping the clients old data on to that?

Format the hard disk is another way of saying...
"I have no clue what I'm doing".

I can agree with Robert, a good tech would have dumped the data from your HD, to make a backup. There should have been no reason to format the HD, wasted time and money. Thats like fixing the fuel injector on your car when it needs only brakes.

 

[Rocky]

Most drives fails from various viruses and corrupt files that may get into your registry and prevents you from booting and running aps. When you partition your drive, let's say from one 40GB to a 10GB & 30GB, the important files can be placed in the 30GB section, so if you download a corrupt file in the 10GB section or Drive C, you will be able to reformat just the 10GB section while still preserving the 30GB or Drive D. Now if you drop the entire drive into your bathtub, of course all drives will unfortunately be lost.

In addition, it is still possible to pull info from a totally crashed drive.

I got the picture now. This is something that has never happened to me, as I maintain & protect my PC's well.
What has happened several times throughout the years, is having hard drives simply die. Salt air corrosion and power failures damage the mechanichal parts inside and one day they just can no longer turn, or if they do, they're just dragging and making noises. Regardless, at that point, they're just good for the garbage can, so partitioning would not be helpful for me at that point.
When I run into a situation, such as you describe above, I can usually get in by "safe mode" or using a "boot up" disc, or at the very least, reinstalling Windows over the old one, without formatting, so as to not lose all my programs & files.
My guess is that they didn't even need to change the motherboard, and after changing it and realizing it still didn't work, they reformatted the hard drive, because they were dumb as stumps.
Ken, if anything like this ever happens to you again, call me up or bring it over here, so I can look at it before you give it to the technician.
Regards, Marco.

 

[Ricardo900]

Pen Drive?

I got the picture now. This is something that has never happened to me, as I maintain & protect my PC's well.
What has happened several times throughout the years, is having hard drives simply die. Salt air corrosion and power failures damage the mechanichal parts inside and one day they just can no longer turn, or if they do, they're just dragging and making noises. Regardless, at that point, they're just good for the garbage can, so partitioning would not be helpful for me at that point.
When I run into a situation, such as you describe above, I can usually get in by "safe mode" or using a "boot up" disc, or at the very least, reinstalling Windows over the old one, without formatting, so as to not lose all my programs & files.
My guess is that they didn't even need to change the motherboard, and after changing it and realizing it still didn't work, they reformatted the hard drive, because they were dumb as stumps.
Ken, if anything like this ever happens to you again, call me up or bring it over here, so I can look at it before you give it to the technician.
Regards, Marco.

How about getting a 1GB Pen drive and keeping it in a anti-static bag for storage? http://www.dvd-rwmedia.com/pendrive-1gb-usb-pen-drive.html

 

[Rocky]

How about getting a 1GB Pen drive and keeping it in a anti-static bag for storage? http://www.dvd-rwmedia.com/pendrive-1gb-usb-pen-drive.html

I use a thumb drive for transfering installers from PC to PC, but how could it help in the case of a damaged or crashed hard drive?

 

[Ricardo900]

I use a thumb drive for transfering installers from PC to PC, but how could it help in the case of a damaged or crashed hard drive?

You can use it to back up important files, just in case if your entire drive crashes. Also, it is recommended that you ghost your drive, aka photocopy, so if you have to buy a new drive, you will be able to re-install the exact same configurations and apps prior to your drive crashing, because the big pain in the a$$ when you lose your drive is that you will take hours reloading all of your previous programs, games, and apps onto your new drive. Plus it will take you hours re-updating all of the Windows Critical & Recommended updates, i.e. Service Packs, Security patches, etc...
http://www.symantec.com/sabu/ghost/ghost_personal/

 

[Rocky]

You can use it to back up important files, just in case if your entire drive crashes. Also, it is recommended that you ghost your drive, aka photocopy, so if you have to buy a new drive, you will be able to re-install the exact same configurations and apps prior to your drive crashing, because the big pain in the a$$ when you lose your drive is that you will take hours reloading all of your previous programs, games, and apps onto your new drive. Plus it will take you hours re-updating all of the Windows Critical & Recommended updates, i.e. Service Packs, Security patches, etc...
http://www.symantec.com/sabu/ghost/ghost_personal/

I know what you mean, but it's nowhere near big enough for all the files I have.
Considering how cheap a hard drive is nowadays, if you're going to take all these precautions, it might as well be on a second hard drive with a mirror image of the OS and keep all your files on that drive.
The odds are that if you fry a drive, it's going to be the one with the OS on it, as that's the one that gets all the usage.
When I fry a drive, I yank it out, make the slave drive my primary, go buy another, then transfer all files onto it....
I feel like we have hijacked the heck out of Ken's travel thread and his swollen ankles.

 

[Ken]

I feel like we have hijacked the heck out of Ken's travel thread and his swollen ankles.

No problem. Trip over and I'm back in Sosua where I belong. The discussion re computer problems has been very interesting.