PC Dead

DCurrent

DCurrent

Site Owner, OpenBOR Project Leader
Staff member
My beautiful 64GB RAM Alienware laptop bit the dust last night. Total crash, all data gone.

Fortunately I have full backups of everything so I didn't loose too much work. Unfortunately it will be a couple of weeks before the replacement arrives.

20230628_094845.jpg


I'll still be online but more spotty until then.

@Kratus and @msmalik681, I did lose some engine stuff that wasn't committed yet, but nothing too bad. Might even have done me a favor since I'd made such a mess on my end. 😜

DC
 
I also experienced something similar 2 years ago ☹️
looking at the specs it looks like your laptop is only 4 years old? 🤔
 
DCurrent said:
My beautiful 64GB RAM Alienware laptop bit the dust last night. Total crash, all data gone.

Fortunately I have full backups of everything so I didn't loose too much work. Unfortunately it will be a couple of weeks before the replacement arrives.

View attachment 4034


I'll still be online but more spotty until then.

@Kratus and @msmalik681, I did lose some engine stuff that wasn't committed yet, but nothing too bad. Might even have done me a favor since I'd made such a mess on my end. 😜

DC
Click to expand...

I'm really sorry for you @DCurrent
What is your method of backups ? I mean you computer content... everything.
Of course I know some, and many actually.

But I'm curious to know your own saving process and methods.
 
NED said:
I'm really sorry for you @DCurrent
What is your method of backups ? I mean you computer content... everything.
Of course I know some, and many actually.

But I'm curious to know your own saving process and methods.
Click to expand...

@NED,

It depends. My Openbor and other coding work is spread out among a series of public and private github repositories.

Most of my office work, videos, photos, personal artwork and just general stuff are on a server in my hometown and also synchronized with an Office 365 account.

Lastly, I have frivolous things like RPG books and the stories I write kept on Google Drive.

For an extra layer of redundancy, there's a lot of duplication between all of those.

DC
 
DCurrent said:
@NED,

It depends. My Openbor and other coding work is spread out among a series of public and private github repositories.

Most of my office work, videos, photos, personal artwork and just general stuff are on a server in my hometown and also synchronized with an Office 365 account.

Lastly, I have frivolous things like RPG books and the stories I write kept on Google Drive.

For an extra layer of redundancy, there's a lot of duplication between all of those.

DC
Click to expand...
Thanks
I should definitely start doing like you since I'm only using external HDD to do manual saves when I remember...
And since all my projects are slow, I sometime feel lazy to make a backup just for small changes, but sure I should.

I'm not sure I can have a server, but I'll think about the best options to save more stuff, and automated process.
 
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My work was nice enough to loan me a spare while I get replacement ordered. Only need to download about three terabytes of crap into it. :P

20230628_181357.jpg
 
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NED said:
Thanks
I should definitely start doing like you since I'm only using external HDD to do manual saves when I remember...
And since all my projects are slow, I sometime feel lazy to make a backup just for small changes, but sure I should.

I'm not sure I can have a server, but I'll think about the best options to save more stuff, and automated process.
Click to expand...

I still do external backups until now 🤭 the best method for me
the rule is buy a hitachi product and never someone touch those external hdd ever
 
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@DCurrent,
aside from the data backup protection/prevention measures

do you think you could have done anything different to prevent this dead pc from happening?

from what you posted, it seems that the machine is under warranty, and i suspect only the HD went caput...
 
To answer the tech stuff, I traced the cause to a bad port replicator. Basically, it crashed and ran the GPU full throttle all night, overheating the whole machine. Burned a capacitor on the main board and fried at least one storage unit.

The storage was actually two SSDs running RAID 0, and that's just asking for it. I'm surprised I got away with it this long.

Technically it is under warranty and I'll have the components replaced, but I'm still getting another and demoting this one to crash and burn duty. The replacement will probably be an XPS. I miss having a touch screen and for whatever reason Alienware still doesn't offer one.

Also, no on Linux. You really think I'd throw away my MS certs and join the penguin commies over a hardware gaff? Not in this lifetime! 😜

DC
 
machok said:
Seriously? so the HDD will be damaged if it doesn't boot for too long?
Click to expand...

It depends. Good (that's an important qualifier) magnetic drives will last for years, and retain data more or less indefinitely. The catch is 1) pretty much any drives sold today are SSD, which do begin to lose data after a given period of disuse and 2) SSD or not, almost all consumer grade drives in the last twenty years are throwaway quality at best. Doubly so for external drives.

DC
 
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