Colorado Ken Saved the Day!

Think I'm co-dependant on you fellas.

'Bout two weeks ago, we could tell that we had a machine that was just about ready to head south and leave us hangin' up in the trees around here, so I broke down and ordered a new computer, because due to the nature of the business we are in, we just cannot be down. Ever.

At that time Ken told me I should fix it myself. Yes, but trouble is, it would have to have been hot-swapped as it runs all the darned time. But, for some silly reason (must have had a sixth sense, ‘er something), I took his advice and also immediately ordered a replacement drive right after I read his post.

Okay, then the darned headaches started. This thing is getting’ sicker and sicker by the minute as time goes on. :>(

Now, after droppin' $4K on a darned new unit, I kinda figure maybe the blasted thing is gonna be here in a hurry because I've bought a heck of a lot of stuff from Gateway and they've never, ever let me down before..... .....WRONG! Parts on backorder and all I get the next day is one monitor and that silly replacement hard drive. :>(

Long story short, yesterday at 2:30am, the machine is on it's last legs. It is not gonna make it 'til the new computer gets here and it is breathin’ it’s last. Will hardly even pull itself and will probably quit by the morning crunch. So, I was forced to momentarily shut it down to do the swap. I quickly ghosted the darned thing and up and away we go again; promptly forgetting all about that new computer. Only had 4 mad clients on the horn complainin’ in the middle of the night, which I thought was pretty darned good (ya gotta be around doctors to really understand their attutude). :>)

Anyway, I finally get an email this morning and Gateway has put the gizmo on a truck 12 days out from the order! I should have done the hard drive thing to start with and used that money to buy another old tractor, I guess. :>(

Thanks Kenny, ya saved my bacon once again.

Allan

I've repaired a bunch of those low end family PCs over the years. I think they are pretty much all alike regardless of name brand.

Started buying the big boys in '96 and have never looked back. The only Gateway that I have really been disappointed in was this one P3 I have setting in the closet.

That thing sure didn't get too far away from it's beer-can ancestory. :>)

Allan

I'm trying three 250 Gig W.D. SATA drives in a RAID 5 array and mirroring them so the backup is always there. Of course I have been working on making the system work since last November. I gave up on the Raid 1 and bought the card for RAID 5. Since the whole system is new there are oodles of driver issues.

I think my eyes are permanently crossed and have new cuss words for Webster if they need any.

Yes, we also use the RAID mirrored drives on our audio end of things prior to the files being exported and compressed. Those guys are pretty darned nifty aren't they? :>)

This particular machine that decided to go belly up was on the return side and we only use one drive apiece in these units.

We can usually count on 3 years of non-stop use out of a machine without worry. Dumb me, I was trying to save a couple of bucks and let this one go for a little too darned long.

But, all's well that ends well I guess. :>)

Allan