After Tuesday night’s adventure with the spiders, I just wanted a quiet day Wednesday.
That was not to be. First thing Wednesday morning, an alert revealed the 500GB secondary hard drive was dying. I had been expecting the failure for a while. You don’t trust a drive with important data that is 6+ years old, it was used mostly for temporary files while working on videos. It had just started having some minor issues. So, a cursory check with the smart-drive software revealed the main 1 TB drive, that came with the computer 6 years ago, was showing “pre-fail” for three statistics. It too is beyond safe life limit. So I need to give up, and replace the two drives. Actually, I just need to plug up a whole new computer to the monitor.
screaming noises
Sitting there pondering crawling under the desk and removing the drive, the office light decided to turn on by itself. I looked at the switch, and it was in the off position. After about 10 seconds, the light went back off. This occurred twice while I watched it. Wonderful! That indicates a short, which could cause an arc, which could cause a fire, you get the picture. I hate working on house wiring, I always get shocked somehow. I can work on most things, but I have a mental block for house wiring. So I spent the morning checking YouTube videos. Had it been a simple switch circuit no problem. But no, it wasn’t. When I cut the power to the room, the small UPS, which was purchase about 8 years ago, but tested fine a week ago when I moved the office around, decided to start making screaming noises, and beeps. The “replace battery” light was on. The buzzer/beeper sounded like someone had it by the throat. Still, not bad for a UPS with an 8-year-old battery, to have passed the battery self-test a week ago. I silence the alarms on both UPS units.
The light switch in the wall was shot, it was a shallow mobile home one piece unit. There were 4 spare new switches in my parts box, not a single wall box to mount the switch in. So, a trip to Walmart was in order.It’s starting to get quite hot in the office.double chirp starts on the large UPS… Getting back home, the new switch box was too big, so I enlarged the hole with the jigsaw. Once I tried to install it, there was a 2X4 wall stud behind it liking only another 1/8 inch to fit flush.
So I started a new area to mount it in (at least I was working with thin paneling). Halfway into cutting out the new hole, the jigsaw decided this was its final day, I finished the hole with a pocket knife. While attaching the wires, firmly I might add, the screw driver slipped, and I stabbed a nice star (Phillips head) shape in my left hand. Michelle patched me up.
double chirp starts on the large UPS…
Time to restore power to the office. The smaller UPS resumes its weird gurgled scream when I turned it on, then silence. No power on the UPS side (battery) so I transfer the plugs to the always-on side. The larger UPS comes on fine. All three computers and other items for the internet come on okay. I’m 20 minutes into working on a program, and a double chirp starts on the large UPS… Early warning that the battery probably has 2 weeks of life left. At least it’s Friday!
Comments welcome,
That was a bad day!
Yes, and (knock on wood) nothing so far has happened today. Or maybe I should keep that to myself!
Your computer woes make me shudder. I hope you can make everything happy so that you can continue to write. Good luck!
It’s time for some of it to wear out. I’m just glad I can work on it. The hard drives are cheap now. Of course cheap is a relative term depending on your income haha. I paid $125 for that 500GB drive long ago. Now I can get one for $21. I have a secondary computer that was a hand-me-down. It was just cluttered with tons of stuff. I turned it into a nice computer running Linux.
Always a pleasure Anne, I hope you have a great weekend.
All that electrical jargon might as well be a foreign language to me, Ron. Not only do I know nothing about electrics, I fear them too, after receiving a big shock, in the late 1970s. I would have to dig into the savings, and pay someone competent to do it.
Furthermore, our house insurance requires a ‘qualified person’ to do any such repairs, and they want to see the paperwork, in the event of a claim.
You have me worried about failing hard drives now! I have a six-year old PC, a Hewlett Packard, running Windows 7. But I have only used 35 gb of the 1 tb hard drive, as I save most photos onto a Buffalo 500 gb portable hard drive.
Best wishes, Pete.
I don’t mean to come across as a brainy-smurf, I’m certainly not. I know what you mean though about jargon. My son is an electrician and can make me dizzy, I have no idea what he is saying. I knew I could handle the lightswitch. Take one wire offat the time, and put on the other switch. Except the switches were a different make, so I turned to the Internet. Larger things here require a licensed person also. Major roofing, plumbing or electrical.
It’s hard to say not to worry, but it’s just the nature of the beast with electronics. Hard drives have gotten better over the years. You know us consumers, always wanting faster. The older drives, and some new ones operate at 5400 rpm. For faster data access, they developed 7200 rpm later. Faster naturally can mean faster wear, more heat.
I have had a drive fail, two weeks after buying it. A true fluke. I have seen drives last 10+ years. Most recommend replacing a drive after 4 years. After that keep an eye out for strange problems with the drive. Failed copies, errors running programs etc. Mine had started saying it was unable to backup to the external drive. Couldn’t read from source drive (the internal). That was two months ago. But when they decide to die, many times, there is simply no warning.
I recommend not trusting a drive after 5+ years with critical data, always keep a regular backup on another drive as you are doing.
My complete sympathy. My IMac just decided to go to sleep and not wake up! I had a great talk with a young man who,had me try everything I had already tried. Tomorrow I’ll see what can be done.
I hope you can get it going Elizabeth. Those are great computers.
Good grief… I only understood one thing in your saga: the ‘star scar’ on your hand. For which you have my complete sympathy. And please tell Michelle I admire her patching skills. Glad you’re ok. Again. 😀
P.S. – why do I have to sign in every time I comment? I don’t need to on other bloggers’ sites. Hmm.
I’ll check on that sign in problem. Once you have made a comment and it was approved, then you should never have to sign in. Is it wanting you to sign-in or just asking for your email each time (which it shouldn’t have to do).