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Unlock the past!
By Chris | July 16, 2007
In 2001 I had a Compaq Presario (Presorryass) something or other that I bought when I worked for OfficeMax on a special employee pricing thing. It was a great computer, until you tried to do anything with it. I was still in the USAF and I was in the process of retraining from C-17 maintenance to C-17 aircrew. A portion of that training was 90 days in Altus, OK at Altus AFB. Since the time was so long, many students brought their computers, and I did the same. I packed up all that in my 1999 Dodge Stratus and drove the approximately 2000 mile trip out there.
It worked fine when I got there, and throughout the whole time I was in training. While out there, I traded the Dodge for a 2000 Chevy Silverado (I loved that truck), and when I left I loaded all that crap back up into the new truck and drove back to Charleston. Shortly after returning, the computer broke. Dead. ‘Hard Disk 0 Not Found’ Odd. I opened up the computer as I was apt to do when I had problems (did you expect any different?) and discovered a charred chip on the PCB attached to the drive. Turns out it was a common occurrence with the drives (it was a 20.4GB Quantum Fireball lct drive).
I removed the drive and replaced it with another, bought a fresh copy of Windows XP and plodded on. The drive has lived on my desk and in drawers or boxes for the last six years and recently decided I want to try and get the data off of it. I found that I can get a new drive for $26 (plus a rape-me fee of $10 for shipping), and I plan on swapping the PCB’s on the drives to see if I can get the new one to spin up long enough to pull the data off of it. It’s been successful from what I’ve read on the web.
I think it’ll be interesting to see what’s on it. I know it has Windows ME on it (one of my favorite OS’s). It’ll be like looking back to what I was up to and doing back then (as far as the computer was concerned).
Speaking of computer stuff and OS’s….I’ve been researching trying to buy several copies of XP Pro for the fire department. I think a volume license would be best, so I can have one disc and install it on all the FD computers as needed. The problem is that XP Pro is being phased out and I have little desire to deal with Vista. Many of our computers have a pirated W2K on it that the previous network person put on it, and I’ve no disc with which to reinstall it, and our computers are at the point where they need to be reformatted and a fresh clean install done on them. Some of the computers also have XP Home on it which doesn’t work with the domain I have set up on the network (Windows 2K Advanced Server). Since it’s a home version it doesn’t join the domain, so there’s no security on it. I also want the FD to buy managed anti-virus software so I can administer it from the server. Currently most of the computers have the AVG free program, but there are a few that don’t have any on it (shhhh!). I think all told, they’ll have to drop a couple grand to get the AV software, as well as an OS package. I also want to see if they’ll buy two or three new desktops to replace the aging POS’s that we have now. It’s a battle for the money but I figure I can sell it to the board if need be.
I think I may go to bed now… 
Topics: Fire Dept, General, Home |
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