Computer Crash

[Visit Thailand]

As webmasters we must rely on the tools we use the most important being the hardware.

Today one of our computers just crashed for no apparent reason, would not start and every piece of software, data and even the Windows 2000 were all deleted.

Has anyone come across this as I have not found anyone that can give a good explanation, and therefore no idea for a prevention in the future.

[backus]

power spike wiped the hard disk?

[Visit Thailand]

That had strangely crossed my mind. Here in Thailand we get more spikes than most but the comp is connected to a Power Supply Stabiliser (are they called UPS) so that should have protected it and also it was just the one computer.

[backus]

What about office cleaners? My dad had an awful problem with the cleaners, they used to bang the computers etc, many a time pressing reset etc...

Also look at the fact that something fell on the M/Board, burning out the drive.

Drive failure? How old is the drive? How hot is it there? Could the drive have over-heated? Common problem in hot countries...

[Visit Thailand]

I did wonder about the cleaner whether she had perhaps dropped water into it somehow. As for heat yes it does get very hot at the moment we are at 31-5 degrees or so. But we have aircon and a computer fan internal and external.

Does anyone use Symatec Ghost ? I believe but have never used it that it can back everything up onto a CD rom with just a few clicks ?

[DaveN]

yes, norton ghost as saved my butt a few times and it's dead easy to use.

DaveN

[Reflect]

Yeah, just make a boot disk with it on it (the exe). I make mine with network support (drivers) so I can ghost to a network drive. This is my backup scheme for all my home based workstations (6).

Brian