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 Post subject: Any computer guys ar
PostPosted: Thu Oct 02, 2008 8:21 am 
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Tulsa Talons
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I figured in a fake football league for a game that has no graphics there has got to be at least a couple computer nerds (me being one of them- just don't know how to troubleshoot something)- My hard drive on my desktop computer has been making some funny noises lately, it sounds like its surging- it speeds up, slows down speeds up slows down and does this almost consitantly all the time...thats the best way I can describe it. I also noticed my computer is starting to run pretty slow. I built the computer myself so no warranty or anything like that, so any work I'll probably also do myself. Any suggestions on what this could be? Could it be a hard drive going bad? If that is the case- how difficult is it to install a new hard drive, and transfer all the information onto that drive.

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 Post subject: Re: Any computer guy
PostPosted: Thu Oct 02, 2008 8:49 am 
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[quote173b137="Doug5984"]I figured in a fake football league for a game that has no graphics there has got to be at least a couple computer nerds (me being one of them- just don't know how to troubleshoot something)- My hard drive on my desktop computer has been making some funny noises lately, it sounds like its surging- it speeds up, slows down speeds up slows down and does this almost consitantly all the time...thats the best way I can describe it. I also noticed my computer is starting to run pretty slow. I built the computer myself so no warranty or anything like that, so any work I'll probably also do myself. Any suggestions on what this could be? Could it be a hard drive going bad? If that is the case- how difficult is it to install a new hard drive, and transfer all the information onto that drive.[/quote173b137]

If it's the hard drive it isn't difficult if you get the data before it crashes. Back that crap up now!

Are you sure it's the hard drive? Sometimes a heatsink fan can make some hellacious noise. If it is surging and acting all funny it could be doing a poor job of cooling your processor and result in a perceived slowing down of your machine. I'm not saying this is your problem but it is a possibility.

Have you confirmed the noise is your HD? If so, go buy one ASAP.

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PostPosted: Thu Oct 02, 2008 9:18 am 
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If you don't already have all your data backed up... Stop everything and back up your data NOW. Do not power the machine off until you have backed up your data. It is running so don't take the chance that it won't boot after a shutdown. Do it NOW.

Most likely a hard drive but (as TT states) it could be a fan or a CD/DVD drive.

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PostPosted: Thu Oct 02, 2008 9:27 am 
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Hard drives are the most likely component to fail in a computer.

If it is the HD, get everything backed up, go buy a new HD, remove the old one, install the new one, install your OS on it and then (if it is still running) install your old HD as a slave (is the drive IDE or SATA?) and copy the data off the old one onto the new one. Not hard.

This shows how important a backup strategy is. If you use computers long enough you WILL have a HD fail on you. It is just a question of when.

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PostPosted: Thu Oct 02, 2008 9:35 am 
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[quote6ee9d39="Castlerock"]If you use computers long enough you WILL have a HD fail on you. It is just a question of when.[/quote6ee9d39]

Even Macs? I mean they wouldn't have that happen to their awesome machines would they? Because they are the greatest thing since porn and high speed internet met.


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PostPosted: Thu Oct 02, 2008 10:01 am 
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I've had one hard drive fail, though it happened slowly enough that I was able to get everything off of it without any problems. It didn't make any noise, though. I just got a lot of errors, especially when moving files around.

My first thought was also fans speeding up and slowing down, but my computer has some noisy fans, so that'd be the only thing I could hear. Weird stuff happens when your power supply starts to go, so it could be that as well.


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 Post subject: Re: Any computer guy
PostPosted: Thu Oct 02, 2008 10:56 am 
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Huntington Beach Wolfpack
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[quote5d2cdfd="Doug5984"]I figured in a fake football league for a game that has no graphics there has got to be at least a couple computer nerds (me being one of them- just don't know how to troubleshoot something)- My hard drive on my desktop computer has been making some funny noises lately, it sounds like its surging- it speeds up, slows down speeds up slows down and does this almost consitantly all the time...thats the best way I can describe it. I also noticed my computer is starting to run pretty slow. I built the computer myself so no warranty or anything like that, so any work I'll probably also do myself. Any suggestions on what this could be? Could it be a hard drive going bad? If that is the case- how difficult is it to install a new hard drive, and transfer all the information onto that drive.[/quote5d2cdfd]

1 TB External hard drive.

Buy one now and back up everything.

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PostPosted: Thu Oct 02, 2008 11:40 am 
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One other thing to consider if the heat sink or processor is overheating, it could be that the fans are working extra hard speeding up and slowing down more often than usual. Either way I will echo the earlier comments.

[size=244af8c62][b4af8c62]BACKUP YOUR DATA AND OFTEN![/b4af8c62][/size4af8c62]


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Oct 02, 2008 12:33 pm 
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Tulsa Talons
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I'm at work, I noticed the problem 2 days ago- but have been hardly home to really mess with it. I put my ear up to it, and it sounded like it was coming from the HD... I am about to be going out of town until tuesday night, so when I get home I will get it started on a backup onto my external HD and then when I get back I will order a new 1 TB HD to install (mine is only 100GB, and I want to upgrade anyway).

Any recomendations on a good program that is easy easy to backup and restore data with? (read: I get off of work at 5, am trying to leave my house by 7, and have a lot of packing to do- would like something i can install quickly, click a few buttons and then go pack all my stuff). Good thing is, I just moved all the files from my desktop to my laptop within a month, so if it were to go out, I wouldn't lose my personal files.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Oct 02, 2008 12:42 pm 
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[quotea9bf1c2="Doug5984"]I'm at work, I noticed the problem 2 days ago- but have been hardly home to really mess with it. I put my ear up to it, and it sounded like it was coming from the HD... I am about to be going out of town until tuesday night, so when I get home I will get it started on a backup onto my external HD and then when I get back I will order a new 1 TB HD to install (mine is only 100GB, and I want to upgrade anyway).

Any recomendations on a good program that is easy easy to backup and restore data with? (read: I get off of work at 5, am trying to leave my house by 7, and have a lot of packing to do- would like something i can install quickly, click a few buttons and then go pack all my stuff). Good thing is, I just moved all the files from my desktop to my laptop within a month, so if it were to go out, I wouldn't lose my personal files.[/quotea9bf1c2]

uh, xcopy *.* /s/e

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Oct 02, 2008 1:24 pm 
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Tulsa Talons
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[quote9830dcc="TurfToe"]
xcopy *.* /s/e[/quote9830dcc]

that looks like japanese to me...

ok so to do this I need to go to dos, type in: xcopy C . E (if E is my external drive)/s/E ??

If that is the case, that seems simple enough.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Oct 02, 2008 2:15 pm 
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[quote9ad70ab="Doug5984"][quote9ad70ab="TurfToe"]
xcopy *.* /s/e[/quote9ad70ab]

that looks like japanese to me...

ok so to do this I need to go to dos, type in: xcopy C . E (if E is my external drive)/s/E ??

If that is the case, that seems simple enough.[/quote9ad70ab]

xcopy *.* will copy everything from your current path so be at the root of c:. The switches (/s and /e) are just options. The s does all directories/subdirectories except empty ones. The e copies over empty directories. You may want to throw in a /k to preserve read-only attributes, otherwise xcopy defaults to resetting those.

So if you are currently at the root of c: on your bad drive and your other drive is e:, your syntax would be...

xcopy *.* e: /s/e

The *.* (an asterisk, period, and another asterisk, a.k.a. "star-dot-star") means to copy all files starting with anything with an anything extension. The syntax is relative so if you are at the root of c: you don't need to specify the source other than star-dot-star to copy everything.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Oct 02, 2008 2:34 pm 
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[quoteac0e816="TurfToe"]
xcopy *.* /s/e[/quoteac0e816]

Or you could try:

Up up down down left right left right B A Start


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Oct 02, 2008 6:48 pm 
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Microsoft has a backup tool "ntbackup" but it is not installed by default, If you are running XP, put in the XP install disk and install ntbackup from here: E:VALUEADDMSFTNTBACKUP

I am pretty sure Vista has it or something like it but my Vista machine is at work so I can't tell you exactly what/where.

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