Expert
Posts: 512
Location: Netherlands | Why a warning? Isn't everyone a hardware technician these days? Maybe, then again, I figure not all artists are. So here's maybe the bloody obvious, but I didn't know it until today.
This morning my motherboard (of my music PC) died, just out of the blue. You can still find a thread in this forum where I was about to buy that system, in 2006. Anyway, so I was doing things, I went for a shower, I returned, and the screen was frozen, mouse and keyboard didn't react. Heck, the physical reset button and on/off switch of my tower didn't even work. I had to switch the psu off to shut the system down, after which it never started up again.
So far so good, stuff dies and can be replaced. But it wasn't until in the local computer shop where I was informed of the dark clouds at the horizon. I have RAID 0 for my two harddisks, to speed up sample streaming. And in the shop I heard that unless the new motherboard would have an identical RAID chipset, I wouldn't be able to access these disks again! I'm one of the 99% who doesn't really back up things regulary, so you can see the problems. It isn't so much the sample libraries I'd have to install again (although that would take up days), it's mainly own projects, own samples (FM8 patches anyone?), documents for study, code that are at stake. In fact, I'm not sure whether reinstalling sample libraries is fun, since I didn't install them 1:1, but took bits from 'em.
At the moment I've two options: tomorrow my new system will be ready (I figured adding some more juice would make the system more future proof, and the current one was some 4 years old already - yet still capable), and the salesman at the shop offered me to check out those disks at another system, perhaps they can somehow be accessed with tools like GetDataBack. The other option is for me to hunt an identical motherboard again at the local eBay, which may not be all impossible. I think I've seen one for sale already.
So what's the lesson here? I had HD crashes before, so I know what happens when it happens. At first it starts to mess up some file names and or directory names, maybe it makes some mechanical noise, but usually it lives on for a few days. Enough opportunity to make backups. What I didn't know was that RAID relies on the chipset of the motherboard, and this is the first time a motherboard dies. So, lesson learnt, and for those who hadn't heard of this risk before: learn from me! Also, I'll introduce some kind of backup system to stick to, maybe an ext 1.5TB drive and a backup tool which clones my new 2x640GB to it at fixed times. I can actually recommend external HD's over DVD backups, I think the price per GB is ideal, and it's just more convenient.
Having said that, and to end with a positive note, my new system will be of the faster-than-a-bullet type. :-) I take RAID 0 again, this time with 2 640GB disks with 64MB cache. 4GB mem, some quad-whatever cpu -fast it is-. The motherboard supports USB3 and SATA6. Oh, and one 640GB disk is already nearly as fast as my 2 RAID drives combined, so with these 640GB combined in RAID 0 I should be able to have nearly twice the streaming capabilities. |
Expert
Posts: 512
Location: Netherlands | The slowness in the trackname typing I used to have has gone! Which is weird, as it would suggest that it was related to any of my new components (cpu, motherboard, RAM).. anyway, food for thought at the pub.
Some FM8 projects that peaked (and glitched!) at 100% on my previous system now barely scratch the 40% mark. |
Warning!
