[Leaplist] Serious computer trouble here

[William Ferguson]

It's hard for me to believe what I'm about to report.  But it's absolutely true!

I have the time on my hands since the Main computer with all my
important personal
files is out of commission.

So I thought about Tony Becker's suggestion --- on this thread ---
that I remove the new 500 GB Hard Drive
and re-install the Old, failed, tossed-in-a-Recycle Bin,  500 GB Hard Drive.

And that's what I've just done. I pulled the New 500 GB hard drive from the
computer and re-installed the old, failed, 500 GB hard drive.

Note that the just-reinstalled Old 500 GB Hard Drive does NOT itself function
but the 250 GB hard drive which had carried the load since the failure of the
500 GB Hard Drive,  does function. In other words, the computer has reverted to
functioning just as it did before I tried to install a new Hard Drive.

And, to my amazement, my computer WORKS AGAIN!
Just like it did before I had installed the new 500 GB Hard Drive.
All the files are present, intact, and available.

I have learned that the removing and physical mis-handling of a failed
Hard Drive, then reinstalling
it, does not necessarily screw up the computer's functioning.

Now I plan to attend the next Installfest and see if the men who attend can help
me install the NEW 500GB hard drive again and get it to function.

Please tell me when the next Installfest will be held.

With many thanks to all.,

William

============================================================


On Fri, Feb 19, 2010 at 9:07 AM, William Ferguson
<ferguson.william at gmail.com> wrote:
> Thanks very much, Phil.
>
> Yes indeed, I would love to bring the computer to the next Installfest.
>
> Please tell me the date and time.
>
> I've been to three Installfests previously.
> Are Installfests still held in the Church on Aloma in Winter Park?
> Starts at 9:00 A.M.?
>
> Should I remove the one side panel which permits access to both Hard Drives
> before arriving at the Installfest (to save a little time)?
>
> Now please permit a change of subject.
> Many Leaplist subscribers have had extended experience with installing
> and removing
> and mechanically handling Internal Hard Drives.
> I've mentioned that because the old Hard Drive has long been
> inoperable (many months)
> and I have believed it was electronically damaged somehow.
>
> So, a couple days ago when I installed a brand new, 500 GB Internal
> Hard Drive, I thoughtlessly
> and physically tossed the old, not-working, 500 GB Hard Drive into a
> Recycle Bin----
> a toss distance of 5 or 6 feet. The discarded Hard Drive fell from a height
> of about 5 feet.  Later, three or four other household re-cycle items
> were tossed
> into the Recycle Bin --- one or two may have struck the Hard Drive
> in the bottom of that Recycle Bin.
>
> Is there any chance that the discarded  Hard Drive would have survived
> such handling? I ask becasue the Hard Drive seems to be very heavily
> constructed in the mechanical sense. I have no knowledge as to whether they are
> made to withstand substantial physical shock.
>
> Tony Becker, on this thread, suggested the possibility of re-installing the
> old Hard Drive. Do you reccommend I do that?  If it were to work, in
> spite of the "toss," it would restore some operability to the machine
> which would permit further curative commands to be issued. No?
>
> Many thanks to everyone for trying to help me out.
>
> William
>
> On Fri, Feb 19, 2010 at 12:47 AM, Phil Barnett <philb at philb.us> wrote:
>> On Thu, 2010-02-18 at 17:29 -0500, William Ferguson wrote:
>>> Thanks very much, Tom.
>>>
>>> The machine is giving me trouble recognizing my root password.
>>> But I'll work on it.
>>>
>>> Please permit me to ask this:
>>>
>>> Two days before my problem began, I backed up all the data on the now
>>> "crippled" computer to an external hard drive.
>>>
>>> What would happen if I did a NEW Install of Fedora 12. (The "crippled"
>>> machine runs Fedora 11.)
>>>
>>> I would expect to lose all the data on the smaller hard drive which
>>> was functioning just fine
>>> prior to installing the new second hard drive.
>>>
>>> If I did a fresh  install of Fedora 12 would the installation program recognize
>>>  the two hard drives and permit me to install partitions on both of them,
>>> ---curing my present problem?
>>
>> Can you bring this machine to an installfest where we can sit down and
>> help you one on one?
>>
>>
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