Ok, Ok, Larry, competition, the capitalistic way.  I'll do it for $14.59
per hard drive.

I bought my Compaq laptop 8 years ago, and it still runs very well.  I
do not use it too much anymore, which may be why it still works.  It was
something for its time; CD, amp, integrated speakers (could even listen
to CDs without booting it up), diskette drive, 150Mhz, 16 MB memory (I
later upgraded to 80MB), 1.8 Gb hard drive.   It still works well.


Best regards, Steve
Steven D. Whitaker, CRM
Records Systems Manager; City of Reno

>>> [log in to unmask] 11/09/04 01:33PM >>>
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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