Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?
This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.
Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
In defiance of the typical advice to avoid making any decisions for a year, my husband's desktop died while I was getting a backup of the data.
I have gotten the external raids mounted on another system to get them backed up. That leaves me with the internal drives. I don't see a raid card in the machine but I could be wrong. The symptoms of the machine are getting stuck in a boot loop. It dies/restarts at different points so I think it's the power supply. A drive enclosure is significantly cheaper than a replacement 825w power supply. It could be memory, but there's only one module so I can't do the easy test of swapping out memory/sockets to see if the problem goes away.
I don't exactly want to decide to let his system be dead. He was a gamer & also did tons of graphics processing and he babied this thing. But neither my daughter nor I have his use cases and resurrecting this just to shut it down after I get a backup seems pointless. If the internal drives are in a raid my decision is made for me. But if they're not...
This is why they say to not make major decisions for a year. Not just because it's too easy to decide something in the throes of madness, but also because your ability to think just flat out goes out the window.
So. Would you rebuild it? Play one last game of Half Life 2 since he'll never get to play 3 (like there will ever be 3) with his daughter? Or focus on the data and get backups of his photos and digital art and leave the hunk of metal dead like its owner?
If you're only trying to get the data off of it, just get a SATA to USB adapter and call it a day, or find a friend who is willing to tie up his PC for a couple days in exchange for a free hard drive. What you're describing could be any number of things and I wouldn't just start throwing parts at it if you're not going to keep the machine. The only caveat here is that you might be able to resell it if it's working, which might not be a bad idea if you consider an 80 dollar power supply a major decision. Also, what's on here that you need? I understand wanting to save his work, but unless you think you're going to look at it from time to time in remembrance, there's a good chance you'll just transfer the data to a new hard drive that will sit in a drawer for the next 50 years.
Edit: I would add that I've had two power supplies fail on me and neither of them did what you described. The machine would start to boot, then shut off. I think. It's been a while, but I don't remember any boot loops. That could still be it, just letting you know my experience.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link