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Desire to be a vessel of honor unto the Lord Jesus Christ?
Join Hidden in Him and For His Glory for discussions on how
https://christianforums.net/threads/become-a-vessel-of-honor-part-2.112306/
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Drive Tests
- Thread starter Knotical
- Start date
tim-from-pa
Member
- Aug 4, 2005
- 4,716
- 435
Good question. It sounds as if you want to predict when a hard drive will crash as opposed to indicators such as POST at boot, and/or software error messages which means it already has a problem.
I don't know. But then again I am the type of person that does not deal well with break-downs and problems as the furnace will always breakdown during a Nor'easter, the boat will have a leak before that big fishing trip planned, and the kids will get sick just before that special holiday gathering. And since that's my luck, even if I hear trouble coming on, I tend to deny it and don't want to face it.
As far as I know, HD tests are pass/fail, and even if some sectors are bad, doesn't mean the computer can't find others to store data on. As for mechanically, I guess if you hear it rock, rattle and roll it probably is on its way out, but I don't know any test that can predict the life time. In that case, back up your stuff and start thinking about getting a new HD if you want to be certain.
I don't know. But then again I am the type of person that does not deal well with break-downs and problems as the furnace will always breakdown during a Nor'easter, the boat will have a leak before that big fishing trip planned, and the kids will get sick just before that special holiday gathering. And since that's my luck, even if I hear trouble coming on, I tend to deny it and don't want to face it.
As far as I know, HD tests are pass/fail, and even if some sectors are bad, doesn't mean the computer can't find others to store data on. As for mechanically, I guess if you hear it rock, rattle and roll it probably is on its way out, but I don't know any test that can predict the life time. In that case, back up your stuff and start thinking about getting a new HD if you want to be certain.
- Sep 11, 2012
- 6,201
- 1,133
- Thread starter
- #3
Oh, I am all about backing stuff up. I am just worried about the drive that my wife is using primarily for all of her stuff, including family photos. We do have another drive, which was a laptop drive I converted into an external drive with an enclosure. We keep this in our firesafe. Not only do we put the photos, but also important docs. I have also recently started using Google Drive to back some stuff up on. Problem with that is I cannot find how much space is available there.
Nick
Member
- Feb 27, 2009
- 14,527
- 464
Go into your Google Drive, and the bottom left corner should say x% full, with a link to "Upgrade Storage". Once there you'll find out that a free account has 5GB, You can pay $2.49/m for 25GB, and $4.99/m for 100GB. They also have plans for up to 16TB.
tim-from-pa
Member
- Aug 4, 2005
- 4,716
- 435
Ya know, if there's only simple storage, I use my email from my ISP. (not the mainline freebies like yahoo or hotmail type that gets hacked, however). Since we all probably pay for internet, your ISP will provide you with a certain number of email accounts anyway. Ours lets you have up to 4.
To store, just email yourself with the attachment document you want to save, and create a special folder to move that to using their web based version of email (as opposed to a local client). Your stuff is then accessible from any computer in the (hopefully unlikely) event your house burns to the ground or something you have your computer records. Most give you several gigs these days, enough for all office types of documents, small programs, zip files, important pictures and whatnot.
If you have a huge amount of pictures or videos, you can buy removable media and store it in a safe place. I never got into keeping videos because even today the techhnology is not there yet to store a lot of videos like in the analogue days due to the many, many gigabytes it uses. In that case, it would probably be better to attach an additional removable disk, but unless it's solid state media, you'll have the same problem with an attached drive eventually. Fortunately, I think most is going solid state these days, and I can't wait for the day that all computers will be that way without mechanical drives.
To store, just email yourself with the attachment document you want to save, and create a special folder to move that to using their web based version of email (as opposed to a local client). Your stuff is then accessible from any computer in the (hopefully unlikely) event your house burns to the ground or something you have your computer records. Most give you several gigs these days, enough for all office types of documents, small programs, zip files, important pictures and whatnot.
If you have a huge amount of pictures or videos, you can buy removable media and store it in a safe place. I never got into keeping videos because even today the techhnology is not there yet to store a lot of videos like in the analogue days due to the many, many gigabytes it uses. In that case, it would probably be better to attach an additional removable disk, but unless it's solid state media, you'll have the same problem with an attached drive eventually. Fortunately, I think most is going solid state these days, and I can't wait for the day that all computers will be that way without mechanical drives.
- Sep 11, 2012
- 6,201
- 1,133
- Thread starter
- #7
It turns out that the drive that we had in the firesafe is the one we are having issues with, it may be completely dead. Of course leaving it in a hot garage all summer probably did not help much.
The other drive I thought we were having issues with is still going strong, but I think I just saw a glimmer of a problem starting. One of the spreadsheets my wife has been using for homeschooling is now unable to be opened. Windows says it is possibly corrupted. I may have to check some of the other files on that drive to see if the same thing is happening.
The other drive I thought we were having issues with is still going strong, but I think I just saw a glimmer of a problem starting. One of the spreadsheets my wife has been using for homeschooling is now unable to be opened. Windows says it is possibly corrupted. I may have to check some of the other files on that drive to see if the same thing is happening.