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Termyn8or -> Next PC, and some other stuff for the technically minded (4/4/2009 9:14:23 PM)
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I am going back to an older plan. I have decided to get an extra IDE controller. My PC works right now, that drive is good. The other drive had XP on it but of course would not run as a transplant. This means this other drive rolling around here might be good as well. perhaps the problem was always in the IDE controller on this POS.
The new PC has one of those card readers, most of them are IDE right ? I don't want to really go with external enclosures, I want all of it all the time, and whenever I get a chance I'll go downstairs and do backups. Then those can eventually be burned to DVDROMs, but if I start downloading again we are going to be in the bluray realm here.
But I don't ever want to depend on one harddrive again, and preferably not the boot drive.
Geez, I just did a little mental math, if I can get a full blown quad IDE controller that's eight drives. But then the card reader is about five drive letters. That is just about halfway through the alphabet, and if I take the main boot drive and backup my Windows CD and updates on a seperate partition on it , there's even one more.
I think I like that idea. A few years ago I was getting good TIVO quality drives for like $52 to my front door. These things are very quiet and fast. I am also a firm believer in a tenet of machinery that noise is bad. The quieter something runs, the more reliable it is, as there is less wasted mechanical energy. There are exceptions of course, like a punch press. Which was under consideration for a final destination for this PC.
I am glad it worked, as much GRRRRR as it may have caused I know I did not lose my stuff. Being XP this OS is not going to boot on any other machine so, I'm OK you're OK.
However I think I am still going to use it for target practice on the fourth of July :-)
Now on the new PC, just how far can I take this ? I mean what haoppens when you go past drive Z ? Has it ever been done ?
Yes, I am a nut. When I had SCSI I bought drives until the power supply choked, and being AT form factor, it was easy, I just used two power supplies. The ATX form factor complicates it a bit but I am sure I can deal with it. If not, shoot me at sunrise.
Interestingly, if I were to get SCSI again I have this neat thing for it. A five disk CDROM changer. It fits in the normal spot in a PC case but is a bit longer. I never used it, but how it must work drove the engineer in me crazy. Note that these things are old as well.
Think of the actual radius of the CD used for data, and the extra length of the unit. The only way in hell it could work is if the laser is directed through the holes of the CDs that are not being read at the time. That would mean the spindle motor is on a rack,rather than the laser. That, while a bit tripped out, does nothing to explain how they get the desrired CD to spin.
I have two of them, and despite the SCSI interface I think they can be used as a CD player. I would like to see one actually work, and then pretty much take the other one apart. I think it's quite an engineering feat actually.
Understand that this was sort of a rant for me, although I am not really bitching about stuff. Well except for that one thing. That and the fact I ordered a new PC and monitor on Monday and they sent the monitor, but I had nothing to monit. And with this thing running, I am not TOUCHING it, not even to change the monitor.
This thing has and may again corrupt my data, so it is a simple dilemma. I don't want to leave it running constantly and I don't want to shut it off.
T
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