Gather 'round, my Geeks...

[Rolex]

and may of been what caused the "one with twenty wires" (Which is the 24 pin ATX) to come out. They do have a habit of coming out, as I've yet to find a motherboard with a decent connector that makes a satisfying click when it's in all the way...

That is SPOT ON!! No tabs or locks on that connector, whatsoever. Slide in, slide out. All the wiring is internal to the computer, so nothing outside it could cause it to come loose. Possibly 4 years of vibration or moving the unit, or maybe just age causing a bad contact on one or more pins.

I've also just realised that this is the third thread he's made with the same title, all within January or November each year from 2011, missing 2014..

That's funny. You're right, and I just re-read and re-lived them all.

 

[olds97_lss]

I was going to mention pulling the PSU plugs off the MB and reseating them. I had that happen on an old PC that I had offline for a while. If this was your daily runner, you should closely inspect each of the contacts in the connectors and plugs. I'd guess one is corroded and not making a good connection.

 

[Rolex]

I did a thorough dusting inside it last night with the blow gun and vacuum, and before I button it up today I'll be pulling all the connectors and re-seating them. This was an awful lot of work for something so simple as a loose connection.

 

[ninnon]

I did a thorough dusting inside it last night with the blow gun and vacuum, and before I button it up today I'll be pulling all the connectors and re-seating them. This was an awful lot of work for something so simple as a loose connection.

Got any pics?

 

[Rolex]

I have to wait till I get it hooked up. I need that comp to process my photos.

 

[Rolex]

I got pretty lucky this time around, but I can't take any more chances. I absolutely MUST mirror my hard drive.
What do you pros recommend?

 

[hamz9561]

A RAID Controller Card and Mirror set (RAID 1). Basically it rights the data to 2 hard drives at the same time. It's the one we used most on servers at Dell for critical OS Files. You'll need a pair of Identical drives for this as well as the RAID Controller. I used this all the time for my dad's workstation because he never remembered to back his drives up and kept turning his computer off at night negating a scheduled back-up.

It isn't intrusive once set up and is the easiest to use.

 

[ninnon]

I got pretty lucky this time around, but I can't take any more chances. I absolutely MUST mirror my hard drive.
What do you pros recommend?

EDIT: READ WOODIES POST.
RAID on second thoughts is no use, if 1 file gets corrupted, so does the mirror of it.
Like hamz said, there is a thing called raid- it goes from 0-10, 0 meaning that you split the data across two drives, meaning that you get faster access times but a higher chance of failure, and if one drive corrupts, you lose half of every file- ruining all you data. Raid 1 means you mirror the drive. Raid 2-10 use various ways of slicing up the data to achieve the safest backup. However, you do need a raid card like so, this controls all the hard drives and the data on them:

Here's a great video explaining it all, if you're interested:

 

[WoodiE]

@Rolex, the first thing you need to know is RAID is NOT backup. Setting your computer up in a RAID wouldn't have stopped a loose connection either... in fact if anything it would have cost you more money because you would have thought the drive was bad then replaced a perfectly good working drive with a new one.

RAID has is purposes, but acting as a backup is not one of them. RAID is for greater up times or higher performance or in some cases a mixture of both, but again - backups it is not. We use RAID 1 on the RCNT server, it's purpose is for redundancy - if one of our SSD drives crap out we can still stay online until that drive is replaced. I run RAID 10 on my home NAS for higher performance out of my spinning disks while also providing protection in case a drive bites the dust. You also probably do NOT need a RAID controller card as many newer motherboards already support RAID natively so check your motherboard manual before buying anything.

If data protection is your concern then what you need is a good backup solution - not RAID (have I said that before?). My recommendation, and what I use myself, would be to use CrashPlan.

For $60 a year or $5.99 a month you can get a CrashPlan unlimited storage plan on one computer. The interface is extremely easy to use, you can simply pick the folders that you want to protect or tell it to protect the entire computer. It does it's work in the background so it's a set it and forget it type operation really. They also don't charge you to restore files, like Amazon Glacier does and restore is also very easy. Speaking of restore and backups, Crashplan will keep "versions" of your files too (you decide how many) which is perfect for that nasty trojan that goes around and encrypts all your data then demands a few hundred or thousand to get your files back. Simply clean computer, restore previous version before encryption and you're good to go.

There are other backup services out there, but CrashPlan is what I use and would certainly recommend. This sounds much more like what you need, a full, nearly real-time backup of your important files, which RAID will not and cannot give you nor is it designed to.

 

[ninnon]

@Rolex, the first thing you need to know is RAID is NOT backup. Setting your computer up in a RAID wouldn't have stopped a loose connection either... in fact if anything it would have cost you more money because you would have thought the drive was bad then replaced a perfectly good working drive with a new one.

RAID has is purposes, but acting as a backup is not one of them. RAID is for greater up times or higher performance or in some cases a mixture of both, but again - backups it is not. We use RAID 1 on the RCNT server, it's purpose is for redundancy - if one of our SSD drives crap out we can still stay online until that drive is replaced. I run RAID 10 on my home NAS for higher performance out of my spinning disks while also providing protection in case a drive bites the dust. You also probably do NOT need a RAID controller card as many newer motherboards already support RAID natively so check your motherboard manual before buying anything.

If data protection is your concern then what you need is a good backup solution - not RAID (have I said that before?). My recommendation, and what I use myself, would be to use CrashPlan.

For $60 a year or $5.99 a month you can get a CrashPlan unlimited storage plan on one computer. The interface is extremely easy to use, you can simply pick the folders that you want to protect or tell it to protect the entire computer. It does it's work in the background so it's a set it and forget it type operation really. They also don't charge you to restore files, like Amazon Glacier does and restore is also very easy. Speaking of restore and backups, Crashplan will keep "versions" of your files too (you decide how many) which is perfect for that nasty trojan that goes around and encrypts all your data then demands a few hundred or thousand to get your files back. Simply clean computer, restore previous version before encryption and you're good to go.

There are other backup services out there, but CrashPlan is what I use and would certainly recommend. This sounds much more like what you need, a full, nearly real-time backup of your important files, which RAID will not and cannot give you nor is it designed to.

You're right. I didn't think it through- if a file gets corrupted on 1 HDD, the file will get corrupted on the other. The only cheaper way to do this would be to buy a hard drive and duplicate windows and all files onto that, if you just want a backup of important files and don't need a constant backup of everything. I'll edit my post...

 

[olds97_lss]

I got pretty lucky this time around, but I can't take any more chances. I absolutely MUST mirror my hard drive.
What do you pros recommend?

The easiest thing for me was I bought an external drive dock and a second drive that could replace the system drive in all 3 of my pc's. Then, once I month, I use macrium free to mirror them in the dock and I keep them in a fireproof safe inside anti-static bags.

USB3.0 makes it go pretty quick. For my main PC, my clone is also an SSD, so it goes pretty quick. 10-15 minutes with 100G used on my main pc. My wife's is the slowest since it's a laptop with USB2.0 and the drive I'm using is it's original WD Black drive that came in it. I'm using a standard HDD for backup for my other desktop (media pc). It's not too bad since it's 7200rpm and I put a USB3.0 PCI card in it to have a couple USB3.0 ports on it.

My dock is just one of these:
http://www.microcenter.com/product/451213/USB_30_to_SATA_External_Hard_Drive_Docking_Station?ob=1

Handles sata drives only, but works fine for laptop or full size desktop drives. Uses an external power adapter.

 

[ninnon]

The easiest thing for me was I bought an external drive dock and a second drive that could replace the system drive in all 3 of my pc's. Then, once I month, I use macrium free to mirror them in the dock and I keep them in a fireproof safe inside anti-static bags.

USB3.0 makes it go pretty quick. For my main PC, my clone is also an SSD, so it goes pretty quick. 10-15 minutes with 100G used on my main pc. My wife's is the slowest since it's a laptop with USB2.0 and the drive I'm using is it's original WD Black drive that came in it. I'm using a standard HDD for backup for my other desktop (media pc). It's not too bad since it's 7200rpm and I put a USB3.0 PCI card in it to have a couple USB3.0 ports on it.

My dock is just one of these:
http://www.microcenter.com/product/451213/USB_30_to_SATA_External_Hard_Drive_Docking_Station?ob=1

Handles sata drives only, but works fine for laptop or full size desktop drives. Uses an external power adapter.

Yep. You could always make a NAS that you back important files up to every month or so, if you have a gigabit port on your motherboard and your house is wired then you could have a backup that can be accessed on other computers without any wires too. However it's not the best for stuff that can't be lost at all, as it's not fireproof or waterproof, You could use SSD's but would be bottle necked by gigabit speeds.

 

[olds97_lss]

Yep. You could always make a NAS that you back important files up to every month or so, if you have a gigabit port on your motherboard and your house is wired then you could have a backup that can be accessed on other computers without any wires too. However it's not the best for stuff that can't be lost at all, as it's not fireproof or waterproof, You could use SSD's but would be bottle necked by gigabit speeds.

I know. This is the fastest way for me to get the computer back exactly as it was. Pull the drive, put the clone back in, boot it up. Especially since I don't have the install disks anymore.

 

[ninnon]

I know. This is the fastest way for me to get the computer back exactly as it was. Pull the drive, put the clone back in, boot it up. Especially since I don't have the install disks anymore.

Sounds good. We'll have to see what rolex says.

 

[Rolex]

There's nothing on my computer that would be really upsetting to me if lost in a fire. The photos on film from my childhood on up of all the family members who are no longer around are far more valuable than the thousands of photos I have from my digital cameras.
My concern is what I went through a few months ago when my hard drive wouldn't boot. I had to buy a new drive, and of course I had all my pics backed on another external HDD, but it's days of work reinstalling all the programs and other files back in their proper places.
I'd like to know if there's a way I can copy everything, including the OS and then simply run it all onto a new hard drive that's ready to go. Any such thing?

 

[ninnon]

There's nothing on my computer that would be really upsetting to me if lost in a fire. The photos on film from my childhood on up of all the family members who are no longer around are far more valuable than the thousands of photos I have from my digital cameras.
My concern is what I went through a few months ago when my hard drive wouldn't boot. I had to buy a new drive, and of course I had all my pics backed on another external HDD, but it's days of work reinstalling all the programs and other files back in their proper places.
I'd like to know if there's a way I can copy everything, including the OS and then simply run it all onto a new hard drive that's ready to go. Any such thing?

There are many tools such as this:
http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx
or this:
http://www.paragon-software.com/home/dc-professional/
There are demo's of both, however have not tried either. The best and cleanest way would be to install windows on a new drive and then add any extra important files, as that would be a clean install leaving any viruses or messy folders behind.

 

[olds97_lss]

Yep. I use the macrium reflect free for what I do. It clones the entire drive so you can literally clone it, shut down the pc, put in the cloned drive and it will start up like nothing changed. Pretty simple to use. Easiest if the drive you clone to is the same size as what your cloning.

I have 240G SSD's in all 3 of my pc's. My mirror for my main pc is also a 240G ssd and it's as easy as starting up the program, selecting the drive i want to clone, select the drive I want to clone to, copy partition and run.

On my wife's, I'm backing it up to a 1T 5400 rpm drive. On my media pc, it's cloning to a seagate momentum 1T drive. Still very simple if you don't care about losing the space. If you adjust so it eats up all the space on the backup drive, then if you come back to the original, it can be a bit of a pain, so I have it clone just the same sized partitions to the backup drive regardless of it's size. I did the same on my father in laws laptop I built up for him. He visits a couple times a month and I have him bring it every couple of months just to clone it. This is his first computer... well, his first home pc since windows 95.

 

[hamz9561]

@olds97_lss: Remember that SSDs can lose their data if they're not powered up periodically. Make sure that you do your cloning operations on a regular basis.

 

[olds97_lss]

I can't remember something I didn't know. SSD's can lose when not plugged in? Guess I'll find a spare HDD and clone it then. I was only keeping the SSD backup because I use my PC for work a lot and if it croaked, and I had to swap, I didn't want to have to live with a HDD all day.

 

[Rolex]

Okay, so I'm now giving some serious thought to preparing a clone. I currently have a 3TB HHD and I'd actually like to go back to a 1TB since PhotoShop will not function in the larger drives. Yeah, go figure. It took me a couple of weeks fighting with the installation before I found that answer.