MAJOR Computer Problems

[Manitoulin]

Can't save your outlook or links?

Something wrong there. If he has not yet formatted your hard drive, don't let him do so. Unless the HDD is toast, I am 99.9% sure I can recover those for you.

Let me know.

Joe

 

[bolly]

hey Joe, I think it's too late, should be picking up the machine tomorrow...

 

[bolly]

the newer machine is faster, better than the old one, but I lost all my emails/contacts :sigh:

 

[Strawman]

With hard drives being so cheap, I'll just do a complete Ghost backup to another drive 2 or 3 times a year. That way if you have a problem, virus, corruption, you just copy the whole drive back. Then again, I've been preaching "backing up" for over 20 years. It's not a matter of if you crash, it's a matter of when.

 

[bolly]

good advice steve, I guess its about time I learn what makes these 1's and 0's do their tricks!

 

[wineslob]

Bolly, just went through the same thing with my wife's comp. Her MB bit the big one so I ended up giving her my old comp and (sigh) building myself a new one!
On the really bad side she got a keylogger on her comp so that someone hacked her WoW account, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!, stole everything on her "toon", and we, just to be safe, wiped BOTH comps and started fresh.


ps, I never buy pre-made computers anymore, it's too easy to build one 5X better than what the "big boys" make for 2/3 less.

 

[john_w]

ps, I never buy pre-made computers anymore, it's too easy to build one 5X better than what the "big boys" make for 2/3 less.

Absolutely the way to go. I usually research all components, pick out what I want, and have some shop that's been around a while who specializes in building custom systems throw it together for me. There are several of those around here, and it is a lot cheaper than pre-built. Much less overhead.

You do have to watch what they're throwing in there for power though. I usually don't get picky about that and I paid for it in a big way last time. Ended up with a chain reaction that destroyed my I/O service bus as well as my video card. Tried a new card, and ended up frying that one too because of a short. Ended up with a whole new motherboard, video card and supply. It was still worth the cost of repair in that case but a lot of these situations pretty much turn the machine into a boat anchor.

 

[wineslob]

Just to give you all an idea of just how inexpensive it can be, my last purchase (last month):

Epox MB $57.99 (will support up to a AMD 4700+ CPU/dual core and 4 gigs of RAM)

7600 GS 512 mb PCI express Nvidia vid card $79.00

500 watt power supply $39.99

3400+ processor $55.99

Rosewill heatpipe heatsink w/fan (fancy) $ 39.99

Plus I got a $10.00 discount for the MB/CPU combo.

grand total $264.00

If you wanted to, you could shop for less expensive power supplies and coolers, I decided to get some well known units, it would be pretty easy to knock off another $20.00.