Okay. I'll make an Ubuntu CD tomorrow on Kate's laptop and see if it loads. Will it load automatically from the drive or do I need to change a BIOS setting or something?
Okay. I'll make an Ubuntu CD tomorrow on Kate's laptop and see if it loads. Will it load automatically from the drive or do I need to change a BIOS setting or something?
You just have to make sure the computer is set to boot from CD-ROM before it boots from hard drive.
I totally misinterpreted the problem. I thought that one of the drives was not working, not all of them. The Live CD sure sounds like the way to go, but honestly, you could even put in the Windows install disc and see if you can boot to that. I would think that any sort of booting would point to a software issue.
Well, I'm posting from Ubuntu without having installed it on my drive. Read from my DVD-RAM just fine, and even picked up the other drive. Says both are working fine. Now, here's the interesting part: It's giving me warnings about my hard drive. I have an ATA Maxtor 6Y200P0, 208 GB. It says it has "many bad sectors". It has warnings on The Relocated Sector Count, Current Pending Sector Count, and a bunch of N/A's on things it didn't test. I'm going to have Ubuntu run a more in-depth self-test, but I think that a sector that has the drivers for the disks may have gone bad. It is also suggesting that I back up all my files and get a new drive, although I'm not ready to jump to the conclusion that my HD is about to die yet (although it might explain some things like very long startup, some files I can not delete, some applications randomly minimizing).
That being said, if we assume the problem is software related, where do I go from there? Would simply reinstalling the drivers work?
EDIT: Short self-test runs okay, but the extended self-test is failing.
That being said, if we assume the problem is software related, where do I go from there? Would simply reinstalling the drivers work?
The problem is now obvious. Your hard drive is dying. It's effectively dead. You should not use the drive at all, except to rescue your irreplaceable files. Then you should throw it out. Of course, that shouldn't even really matter anyway because you are a smart person who has regular backups, right?
Obviously what has happened is that system files were damaged on your drive in such a way as to break your drivers, and cause those other problems as well.
A new hard drive is your only option. Until your new drive arrives, I suggest disconnecting the old drive. Just use the Ubuntu CD and USB sticks until the new drive arrives.
Also, you only have one hard drive? You should get two. Install Windows on one drive, and put all of your program Files, Documents, etc. on the other drive. And, of course, continue with your backups as usual.
That brings us to our next item then, what hard drive to buy? I know I can get a 250gb for around $50, I just need to figure out what kind.
This is the drive that is dying. While seeking a new drive, I'm noticing lot of Ultra ATA, Sata, and several other kinds of drives. I can't seem to figure out which will be compatible with my system.
Well, it's actually going to be a little tricky to get you a new HD. Just about every drive these days is SATA. If you're still using old ribbon cables, the best drives won't be available to you. Newegg only has 7 hard drives to choose from that will work with your computer.
Also, a backup hard drive is not really enough. I mean, an external drive is a better backup than nothing, but for real backupness you want something like JungleDisk or Carbonite. Upload your important data to a safe place on the Internets.
Well, it's actually going to be a little tricky to get you a new HD. Just about every drive these days is SATA. If you're still using old ribbon cables, the best drives won't be available to you.
Also, a backup hard drive is not really enough. I mean, an external drive is a better backup than nothing, but for real backupness you want something like JungleDisk or Carbonite. Upload your important data to a safe place on the Internets.
I'm not looking for the best drive out there. I'm just looking for the best for my system.
While the topic is afoot, I am also considering new space requirements. I was initially thinking of going with a 1TB Caviar Black so I can get my photograph and recording on as well as deul boot and keep all the crap I've accumulated but now I'm thinking of getting the 500GB or 750GB and getting a network drive so I can also access the media stuff on my laptop.
I have to say I'm pretty impressed with Ubuntu's capabilities at the moment. I am currently using it to burn a DVD of all my files, it knew that I would need more than one dvd and is setting up files appropriately. While this is going on, I am also able to open another desktop and post in the forums. And i'm running all of this from the CD in the CD drive. Sweet.
I have to say I'm pretty impressed with Ubuntu's capabilities at the moment. I am currently using it to burn a DVD of all my files, it knew that I would need more than one dvd and is setting up files appropriately. While this is going on, I am also able to open another desktop and post in the forums. And i'm running all of this from the CD in the CD drive. Sweet.
Yeah, it does pretty much everything except play the hot games.
Ubuntu is giving me some trouble writing the disk. It keeps telling me that there's not enough space on the blank disc, when the dvd says it has 4.7 gigs available, and the files I am attempting to write only add up to 3.8 gigs. However, when I select the drive with the DVD in it, it says it only has 681 mb available. Any ideas?
EDIT: Ubuntu won't finish writing without giving me unknown errors. Here's a log:
BraseroGrowisofs stderr: Writing: Initial Padblock Start Block 0 BraseroGrowisofs stderr: Done with: Initial Padblock Block(s) 16 BraseroGrowisofs stderr: Writing: Primary Volume Descriptor Start Block 16 BraseroGrowisofs stderr: Done with: Primary Volume Descriptor Block(s) 1 BraseroGrowisofs stderr: Writing: Joliet Volume Descriptor Start Block 17 BraseroGrowisofs stderr: Done with: Joliet Volume Descriptor Block(s) 1 BraseroGrowisofs stderr: Writing: End Volume Descriptor Start Block 18 BraseroGrowisofs stderr: Done with: End Volume Descriptor Block(s) 1 BraseroGrowisofs stderr: Writing: Version block Start Block 19 BraseroGrowisofs stderr: Done with: Version block Block(s) 1 BraseroGrowisofs stderr: Writing: Path table Start Block 20 BraseroGrowisofs stderr: Done with: Path table Block(s) 4 BraseroGrowisofs stderr: Writing: Joliet path table Start Block 24 BraseroGrowisofs stderr: Done with: Joliet path table Block(s) 4 BraseroGrowisofs stderr: Writing: Directory tree Start Block 28 BraseroGrowisofs stderr: Done with: Directory tree Block(s) 128 BraseroGrowisofs stderr: Writing: Joliet directory tree Start Block 156 BraseroGrowisofs stderr: Done with: Joliet directory tree Block(s) 82 BraseroGrowisofs stderr: Writing: Directory tree cleanup Start Block 238 BraseroGrowisofs stderr: Done with: Directory tree cleanup Block(s) 0 BraseroGrowisofs stderr: Writing: Extension record Start Block 238 BraseroGrowisofs stderr: Done with: Extension record Block(s) 1 BraseroGrowisofs stderr: Writing: The File(s) Start Block 239 BraseroGrowisofs stderr: 0.85% done, estimate finish Tue Dec 15 03:15:07 2009 BraseroGrowisofs called brasero_job_get_current_action BraseroGrowisofs called brasero_job_set_current_action BraseroGrowisofs stderr: 1.70% done, estimate finish Tue Dec 15 03:15:07 2009 BraseroGrowisofs called brasero_job_get_current_action BraseroGrowisofs called brasero_job_set_current_action BraseroGrowisofs stderr: 2.55% done, estimate finish Tue Dec 15 03:15:46 2009 BraseroGrowisofs called brasero_job_get_current_action BraseroGrowisofs called brasero_job_set_current_action BraseroGrowisofs stderr: /dev/sr0: "Current Write Speed" is 2.0x1352KBps. BraseroGrowisofs stderr: :-[ WRITE@LBA=10h failed with SK=5h/INVALID ADDRESS FOR WRITE]: Invalid argument BraseroGrowisofs stderr: :-( write failed: Invalid argument BraseroGrowisofs stderr: /dev/sr0: flushing cache BraseroGrowisofs called brasero_job_set_current_action BraseroGrowisofs stderr: /dev/sr0: updating RMA BraseroGrowisofs stderr: /dev/sr0: closing disc BraseroGrowisofs stderr: HUP BraseroGrowisofs stdout: HUP BraseroGrowisofs process finished with status 22 BraseroGrowisofs called brasero_job_error BraseroGrowisofs finished with an error BraseroGrowisofs asked to stop because of an error error = 0 message = "no message" BraseroGrowisofs stopping BraseroGrowisofs got killed Session error : unknown (brasero_burn_record brasero-burn.c:2769)
That's the end bit of the log. I'm going to burn them off Kate's laptop, but anyone have any idea why it didn't work?
@GTMac: That's because Ubuntu uses DVD = 4.3GB which is another one of those ones where the manufacturers use one method of counting to advertise but when you calculate it properly it turns out less, similar to how hard drives and broardband are advertised.
If you've got a spare 1GB+ flash drive around, you could use the built in "USB install disc creator." to install it to the flashdrive which means you can then install updates which might fix your problem. You will also have a cool Ubuntu installation you can carry with you. Note: Make sure the drive doesn't have anything on it of importance, it will be wiped in the process.
I think that the current fix is "move everything to Kate's Laptop and then burn it to DVD". I don't want to fuss with ubuntu too much right now as it's a lower priority. I've dubbed this "The great Migration" and started it this morning.
I'm telling you, just get something like JungleDisk. It's a one-time cost of like, $20, then maybe $1 a month after that. Then you can backup all your stuff to Amazon's servers. Doesn't get much safer than that.
I'm telling you, just get something like JungleDisk. It's a one-time cost of like, $20, then maybe $1 a month after that. Then you can backup all your stuff to Amazon's servers. Doesn't get much safer than that.
Free is good for now. But in the long run, I would recommend getting something like this set up. The small cost is so amazingly worth not ever having to worry about losing data again.
Do the free solution now to get it done, but think about a real solution for the future. Hard drives suck, and are unreliable. RAIDs are OK, but they don't protect you from catastrophic failure or user error. You need multiple kinds of backups for multiples kinds of data and multiple kinds of failure scenarios.
It sucks, but computers are really like cars. You have to spend either time or money to make them work for you. Scott and I spent a great deal of time long ago, and have the expertise to just make everything work. You can either spend a lot of time now learning, somewhat less time fixing things as they break, or money.
You're putting your data on a magnetic drive in a laptop. A laptop hard drive is basically the least safe place to store data in the universe. Well, I guess an old floppy disk is worse. You have to assume that any hard drive you own is going to crash at any moment. A DVD isn't that safe either. One scratch and poot!
Also, putting your data someplace in the cloud gives you the added advantage of being able to access it at any time from anywhere.
Also, I can not recommend highly enough keeping your data on separate storage devices from your system. If your data is stored separately from your OS, then it's no big deal to reinstall OSes, switch OSes, get a new computer, switch computers, repair brokenness, etc.
It sucks, but computers are really like cars. You have to spend either time or money to make them work for you. Scott and I spent a great deal of time long ago, and have the expertise to just make everything work. You can either spend a lot of time now learning, somewhat less time fixing things as they break, or money.
^^^^THIS!!! Good god this!
Personally, I'm just not sure what I'd really need on my computer that I could put on an internet sever. I have a RAID 1 file server that stores of lot of anime, but that's much too much data to send over my dinky cable modem. Anything I really need is in my gmail or gdocs.
One good piece of advice is not to bother backing up anything you can just torrent / download for free (unless it's a large collection of small items it would take time to locate, I guess).
Also, I can not recommend highly enough keeping your data on separate storage devices from your system. If your data is stored separately from your OS, then it's no big deal to reinstall OSes, switch OSes, get a new computer, switch computers, repair brokenness, etc.
Yeap. Also, segregate your static data from your dynamic data. Some examples:
Static Data
mp3s
photos
movies
installer files
archives
Dynamic Data
config files
documents
works in progress/projects
savegames
logs
For static data, you need one backup basically forever. Pay the one-time-fee to upload it to the cloud, and keep the local copy on a NAS or large hard drive. You don't need incremental backups: just a place to get any particular, unchanged file back should you lose the storage mechanism. As long as the file exists in two independent places, you're safe. A parity RAID is a good choice, as is the cloud. Even a single external hard drive with a large dump of the data is fine. Once the files are backed up, you don't need to do anything again, except possibly add additional files to the backup as you acquire them.
For dynamic data, you need incremental backups in addition to the above. You need to protect not only against drive failure, but against user error as well. You need to continuously back the newest versions of the files up. Depending on your needs, you may even keep multiple versions of the same file in the backup. For this, your best bet is to have an external hard drive that, every night, you sync your local documents to. Store and use the files locally, but back them up regularly to the backup device.
You could incrementally back up your static data, but it's a waste of time and money. Cheaply back up your static data, and properly, fully back up your dynamic data.
Files transferred, burned to DVD's, and now, miraculously, the problem with my disk drives has been fixed! Another forum I posted on gave me this link: Link! I clicked on "fix it" and after a minute of diagnosis...it actually fixed it! The guy who provided the link said the bad sectors could be due to infections, but AVG and all malware scanners come up clean, so I'm going to assume the HD is on it's last legs after six or so years. Got a new 250GB drive in the mail from Newegg and it should be here in two days. The next task will be installing a hard drive (which I have never done), windows, and getting all the software back on again.
Comments
That being said, if we assume the problem is software related, where do I go from there? Would simply reinstalling the drivers work?
EDIT: Short self-test runs okay, but the extended self-test is failing.
Obviously what has happened is that system files were damaged on your drive in such a way as to break your drivers, and cause those other problems as well.
A new hard drive is your only option. Until your new drive arrives, I suggest disconnecting the old drive. Just use the Ubuntu CD and USB sticks until the new drive arrives.
Also, you only have one hard drive? You should get two. Install Windows on one drive, and put all of your program Files, Documents, etc. on the other drive. And, of course, continue with your backups as usual.
This is the drive that is dying. While seeking a new drive, I'm noticing lot of Ultra ATA, Sata, and several other kinds of drives. I can't seem to figure out which will be compatible with my system.
Also, a backup hard drive is not really enough. I mean, an external drive is a better backup than nothing, but for real backupness you want something like JungleDisk or Carbonite. Upload your important data to a safe place on the Internets.
EDIT: Ubuntu won't finish writing without giving me unknown errors. Here's a log: That's the end bit of the log.
I'm going to burn them off Kate's laptop, but anyone have any idea why it didn't work?
If you've got a spare 1GB+ flash drive around, you could use the built in "USB install disc creator." to install it to the flashdrive which means you can then install updates which might fix your problem. You will also have a cool Ubuntu installation you can carry with you.
Note: Make sure the drive doesn't have anything on it of importance, it will be wiped in the process.
Do the free solution now to get it done, but think about a real solution for the future. Hard drives suck, and are unreliable. RAIDs are OK, but they don't protect you from catastrophic failure or user error. You need multiple kinds of backups for multiples kinds of data and multiple kinds of failure scenarios.
It sucks, but computers are really like cars. You have to spend either time or money to make them work for you. Scott and I spent a great deal of time long ago, and have the expertise to just make everything work. You can either spend a lot of time now learning, somewhat less time fixing things as they break, or money.
Also, putting your data someplace in the cloud gives you the added advantage of being able to access it at any time from anywhere.
Also, I can not recommend highly enough keeping your data on separate storage devices from your system. If your data is stored separately from your OS, then it's no big deal to reinstall OSes, switch OSes, get a new computer, switch computers, repair brokenness, etc.
Personally, I'm just not sure what I'd really need on my computer that I could put on an internet sever. I have a RAID 1 file server that stores of lot of anime, but that's much too much data to send over my dinky cable modem. Anything I really need is in my gmail or gdocs.
Static Data
- mp3s
- photos
- movies
- installer files
- archives
Dynamic Data- config files
- documents
- works in progress/projects
- savegames
- logs
For static data, you need one backup basically forever. Pay the one-time-fee to upload it to the cloud, and keep the local copy on a NAS or large hard drive. You don't need incremental backups: just a place to get any particular, unchanged file back should you lose the storage mechanism. As long as the file exists in two independent places, you're safe. A parity RAID is a good choice, as is the cloud. Even a single external hard drive with a large dump of the data is fine. Once the files are backed up, you don't need to do anything again, except possibly add additional files to the backup as you acquire them.For dynamic data, you need incremental backups in addition to the above. You need to protect not only against drive failure, but against user error as well. You need to continuously back the newest versions of the files up. Depending on your needs, you may even keep multiple versions of the same file in the backup. For this, your best bet is to have an external hard drive that, every night, you sync your local documents to. Store and use the files locally, but back them up regularly to the backup device.
You could incrementally back up your static data, but it's a waste of time and money. Cheaply back up your static data, and properly, fully back up your dynamic data.
Link!
I clicked on "fix it" and after a minute of diagnosis...it actually fixed it! The guy who provided the link said the bad sectors could be due to infections, but AVG and all malware scanners come up clean, so I'm going to assume the HD is on it's last legs after six or so years. Got a new 250GB drive in the mail from Newegg and it should be here in two days. The next task will be installing a hard drive (which I have never done), windows, and getting all the software back on again.