At 01:20 PM 11/9/2004 -0800, you wrote:
>Last night the hard drive on my work-issued laptop bit the big one. Yes, the
>sound of wind chimes emanating from a laptop is not a good thing.

Yeah, but it's kinda Zen.... =)

>Thankfully I am a records manager that actually practices what I preach. All
>my documents and work files were saved to my personal network share or to
>our legal team network share. I did not loose anything important. New hard
>drive in place,  I have been restoring my settings and fussing with other XP
>particulars off and on this morning.

Consider a Mac?  =^)

>My laptop is an IBM Thinkpad about 3 years old. Our tech person told me that
>they are experiencing many hard drive crashes lately as 3 years is about the
>lifespan of one of these drives. I don't know if that's a typical lifespan
>for a well used hard drive in a laptop - I am guessing the answer is yes.

You're right, it's a matter of spin cycles more than time, but 3 years is
about it... and I'd find out if there is any "controller hardware" involved
in the operation of the hard drive.  In desktop PeeCees, there is typically
a Hard Disk Controller Card, a piece of hardware that speaks to the hard
drive... if there is a similar chipset, etc in the laptop, it may be a part
of the problem and likely should be considered for replacement as well.

>So along the lines of hard drive destruction is hard drive preservation. I
>think it is prudent to back-up all data regularly. This is the first time
>I've ever had a crash like this in all the years I've had PC's. I assume
>I've been lucky.

Now the $64,000 question.  What happened to that hard drive that crashed?
=)  Content may still be recoverable from a crashed drive... rumor has it
I've got "a big shillelagh I call a cane....", and I'll wallop it for less
than $14.99!!!

Larry

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