Category: Geeks r Us
My old, decrepit desktop is making a loud, high-pitched beeping sound for about 7 to 10 seconds at 4-second intervals, a sound clearly indicative of acute distress. I don't want to turn it off, because most of my files are on this computer, a couple of which would be catastrophic if lost. What on earth should I do?
Thanks,
Becky
probly the blondest question I ever asked but do you have an external drive? Next, I would back the date up on an external drive and then shut it down so you can find a friend or computer shop to see what the problem is currently with your old faithful desktop.
google now or siery should be able to aid you in hunting down a computer shop pending you have an android or Iphone.
Yes, get something a backup your files.
Probably the fan, but just in case it won't start again?
Also, you'll need to take it someplace to get it repaired, so another good reason to back up files.
lastly before I leave this alone, becky, if you leave the computer on while its got hardware issues you can create more damage in the long run that becomes even more costly.
short story those long series of beeps means something is deffinly up with your hardware.
depending on how the beep goes wil tel you what is wrong. Google should be able to help you.
My HP desktop started doing that last year. I backed up my data as quickly as possible and bought a new computer. lol When it would do that, I would also get a blue screen with lots of text that I couldn't read and only doing a hard shutdown and reboot would help. Hope you get it figured out quickly but most importantly, I hope you're able to harvest your data first.
yep always back up data that you find important
preferably in more than one backup location. external Hard drives can get bad sectors etc too
Hey guys. This is the first time I've actually had a chance to look at this board. But on the day my computer went crazy, I got in touch with a friend of mine who's a genius when it comes to computers, and he told me a lot of the things that have been posted here. He's also planning to come here for a weekend and help me recover my data and, he says, fuss at me for not having backed it up. lol, Yeah, I really should've done that by now. Thanks for all the info!
Becky
Awesome. I'm glad you found someone to help. Good luck.
it's usually a motherboard issue.
Also what I would suggest to cut the cost of getting an external backup salution, get a drive that's never been put in an enclosure, then get a drive dock, rather an enclosure, so that way you're able to take the drive out of the dock and put it in a safe place. You'd be able to get a decent docking station for under thirty bucks if you just get it USB rather than the extras like firewire.
i think you should also have a backup solution f offsite, in case the drive fails.
You can also do dvd backups. You're able to get four and a half gigs of stuff on a single dvd. It may take a few dvd's to do it, but it's cheaper to buy them in bulk anyway.
thanks. I heard my hard drive is on the verge of failing anyway.
i have an internal clone that even keeps the master boot records)
it has saved my ass.
my external i plann to by an offsite backup solution. i'm not about to put 500+gigs with expantion to 3TB and more on DVD.
What solution would you recommend?
Portable hard drive. They have come down in price with the newer 3.0 drives available.
that's what i have. its failed.
so no longer wil i depend on that as my only solution.
i plann to try crash plan, but not sure how wel it'll work with jaws.
what is crashplan?
back up solution offsite.
You can always manually copy your files to the external drive as well.
Windows will also do it for you, and this is accessible with screen readers.
You can set it up on a schedule even, or just do that manually too.
what brand of external hard drive would you recommend?
Western digital is good, because they were the first ones to manufacture the harddrive. Stay away from lacie drives as they're extremely proprietary.
thanks.
I'd say buy the one with the best warrentee. 3 years is par now for many companies.
If the drive goes out, and that happens no matter what brand, sometimes, you'll want to know the company will not only support the recovery of your data, but replace the drive as well.
If it is something you carry around often, or use portable, you might wish to invest in a rugged drive. These are built a bit sturdier, so can stand dust, some banging around, and such things. Even water to a point.
Like if you worked in a club, or a place the drive might get a mishap.
thanks for that suggestion;should I go for standard ones or solid state drives?
That is a money choice. Smile. Solid states are going to cost more, but will load faster.
My personal opinion, if I didn't have access to USB 3.0 and was just using the drive for storage, I don't need the speed advantage.
I have not seen any set rule that a solid state drive would outlast aregular drive, even though, that should be a factor, sense solid state drives have no moving parts.
I like solid state drives for internal use, because of the speed, heat savings, but for a storage unit I'm patient. Once I've got all my data on the drive, I'm not in to much of a hurry to update it, because that can be set to work for me without my having to do anything but check on it, or remove the files I wish to discard now and again.
i agree with Byran. Western digital is good. i still dont think you should rely on an external as ho your only sorce for data, especially if it is a m micanical hard drive.
thanks. I've been talking to mom about a new drive, but as I stated in the topic about jaws 15, she doesn't want me blowing my SSI just for a new hard drive.
I got a 1 tB western digital drive portable under 100 at wal0-mart, not the best place for tech gear but it works. Just giving you an option hear as well if someone wants a TB drive under 100.
I got one under a hundred at microcenter in colorado, and that was without it being in an enclosure. The bulk of the cost of a drive is the company name you end up paying for, when all these external drives are is an internal drive in an enclosure. But like I said above, stay away from lacie drives, because they designed their stuff to work with only their equipment.
well if that is the case why does apple sell lacy drives?