I initially posted this in my general blog, but then thought it would be good (for me, anyway) to include the post in this blog as well, as it is appropriate.

I was feeling this feeling in my gut that I get just before something bad happens to my computer(s). I have learned to pay attention to these nagging little feelings, because they have been so foretelling in the past. This time, I decided to do something before something happened.

I have had some drives sitting around for some time, waiting for something to be done with them. One was a drive that crapped out some time ago (I am sure there is an entry in this blog about it). Another was an image copy of that drive...I THINK...as it was labeled as a mirror drive (with the added notation, "in limbo"). I have no long term memory anymore, so I do not know what the state of the drive was, exactly. But another drive that I didn't notice until I was just about done with my operation today, was a backup of my current data drive, as of January, 2006.

My operation today consisted of backing up my main computer. I took the "in limbo" drive and wiped it and backed up my 120GB data drive onto it. Goodbye original content (my current system was a descendant of that data, and I figured it had been sitting around long enough). It had previously been used in a data recovery operation, and I think I was holding on to it until I determined that the files on my current system were really intact. Well, now I know I'll never know for sure, so I decided it had sat around long enough, so not it contains a copy of my current data drive as of today.

So there.

I also had another spare drive that I picked up during a swap session at the robotics club that I never get to anymore - the last time I went was December 2005, I think, as that is when I got this drive. So I used it to back up my system drive.

So, now I have a complete image backup of my system drive and my data drive - if either drive craps out in my computer, all I have to do is drop one of these backup drives in its place and fire it up again (then immediately back up THAT drive).

MAN, it feels good to have a backup! I'm thinking of running a backup every week from now on. I used a great little piece of (FREE!) software, called Drive SelfImage, to make my drive image copies. I recommend it to anyone who is not afraid to open up their computers and add a second hard drive to save their files onto (or for anyone who simply needs to make an image copy of a drive). It is very simple and fast (well, as fast as your drives and buses are).

And, now that I have a new power supply in my media/backup computer, and a working fan in the Linux box, it is time to perform some backups of the other computers in my little network. An ounce of prevention, you know!

P.S. January 8 and 9, 2006, in this blog is an interesting read, following this mundane story. It, too, was preceded with a feeling of dread (although today's tale was quite an uneventful one - happily!). However, nothing has really changed since January of last year. Still no mirror RAID, still no regular backups, and my wife is at her wit's end with the Windows 2000 box. Funny how, sometimes, time changes nothing.

It has been a long time since I made an entry into the Computer Circus. This is a good thing. Today's entry is a success story, so that's good, too.

Just before going out of town for the weekend, the weather turned hot here in the San Francisco bay area. I also just happened to notice that the cooling fan in the power supply of my Linux box had quit. I am not sure how, or why, I noticed, because my Linux box just sits on a quiet shelf, all by itself, with nothing but a power cord and a network cable plugged into it. It has no keyboard, mouse or monitor - my only contact with it is through the network.

I didn't have time to deal with it, so I pulled out a table fan from storage and aimed it at the box and went out of town for three days.

If you look back at the history of this blog, back on February 7, 2004, you can see my Linux box (a.k.a. Web Server) in the picture. And the "New Computer" that started this blog also played a part in this new story.

A few weeks ago, that "new computer" blew its power supply. I guess I just overloaded it with too many hard drives and cooling fans. I turned it on one day left it on, and when I returned, it was dark. So, I ordered a new power supply (a bit heftier than the dead one). When it arrived, I discovered it did not have the same number of power connectors as the old one, so I had to perform some surgery to splice some connectors from the dead supply onto the new supply.

In short, that computer is now up and running again. Now, I don't know if there are additional problems, because every time that computer boots, it wants to do a scan disk on one of the drives. Yet, scan disk never finds any problems. Also, despite the fact that event viewer says the drive is corrupt and unusable, it seems to be humming along just fine. It is a phantom problem, but that may be a story for the (near?) future.

So, back to my Linux box. Today, I got out my tools and extracted the good fan from the dead power supply from the other ("new") computer and put it in place of the bad fan in the power supply of the Linux box. The bad fan was completely seized. I've never seen a fan so locked up.

What I like best about this (truly uneventful) story is the fact that my Linux box - the one that just sits by its lonesome on a shelf - had been up for 190 days, and the last time I had logged into it was December 10 of last year. And there is no telling how long the fan in the power supply had been frozen.

Try that with a Windows box.

Anyway, both computers are up and running again. So, until next time...

Keep it up!