The totally off-topic thread

[anat0l]

Wow, some of those methods are very extreme. Might wipe the hard drive, then run over it with the car (wearing gloves, face mask and using a long pair of tongs to chuck it in the bin). :shock:

Be careful - no idea what it might do to your tyres.

Yeah there are some extreme ideas there. Usually the hammer works best, but you do have to watch out for little components flying about, plus they are strong magnets...

 

[TomVexille]

Looking for the 'intense dislike' button  ( I'm assuming you didn't mean a Flames dynasty! )

You know I'm talking about the best team in the salary cap era. And the team than has lifted the Cup 3 out of the last 6 years





I do have a soft spot for the Flames as that was the logo of the team I played in as a child

 

[Pushka]

Next time he can try to do it himself.

Funny that. I just clicked on here again to give him the recipe to make it for us tonight.

 

[robd]

Be careful - no idea what it might do to your tyres.

Ummmm, are you being serious?

 

[anat0l]

Ummmm, are you being serious?

Half yes, half no. I have no experience in this regard - I haven't destroyed a hard drive before, nor ran over one. But I see metal and metal shards so *shrug*

 

[medhead]

Our council claims hard waste electronics go to recycling. Destroy the HDD. My BiL has great fun checking out computers he picks up from the dump.

 

[QF WP]

Unfortunately not his swimmers.

or his bad taste in dressing himself...

 

[TheRealTMA]

It was fine. I think my desktop has XP on it but the harddrive is full so it doesnt run anymore. Netbook has 7 I think. Looking forward to trying out the current version (8?).

Probably a partially dead HD. Reboot from your original XP disk and do a repair. If that fails, throw it away, buy a new Surface Pro and use this to access your backup personal documents from the old machine. Buona fortuna.

 

[Foreigner]

or his bad taste in dressing himself...

Flamboyant. I feel he thinks he can walk on water.

Interesting personal website here:

http://www.geoffedelsten.com.au

 

[blackcat20]

Probably a partially dead HD. Reboot from your original XP disk and do a repair. If that fails, throw it away, buy a new Surface Pro and use this to access your backup personal documents from the old machine. Buona fortuna.

The xp computer turns on fine, it's just too full to run any programs and it's not used anymore anyway. The laptop on the other hand is a mystery.

 

[JohnM]

I've always had Toshibas and been very happy with them. The only failure I've had (touch wood) was when my PhD laptop lost its boot file; fortunately all of my work was recovered the the computer wiped and reloaded.

But you had a complete multiple data backup of course.

 

[SeatBackForward]

I'm writing this on my newish Dell XPS-13 - an ultrabook that has Windows 8 and all my other software in a package that's almost as compact and light as my ipad Air 2. It is now my carry-everywhere laptop, has backlit keyboard, is dead silent and a beuatiful sharp screen. Highly recommended.

I have a collection of old laptops - Compaq, Acer, Asus, Alienware, etc. (about 6 I think) as a result of three boys going through secondary school. Several languish in cupboards - too old too slow too heavy, whilst three have been pressganged into workstations at work; whilst their battery life is short due to their age, they remain on main power all the time and are a compact solution on our vital overcrowded bench space.

Good feedback, I had ordered one, Dell stuffed me around with delivery dates, and I ended up walking out of a store with a Surface Pro 3, which I thought would be a toy. Has now become my workhorse, and the Dell will be a bonus if business does well enough.

I am however getting a Dell 4K monitor to enjoy soon.

 

[blackcat20]

But you had a complete multiple data backup of course.

Nope. Back then a tiny usb drive was over $100....

 

[clazman]

Wow, some of those methods are very extreme. Might wipe the hard drive, then run over it with the car (wearing gloves, face mask and using a long pair of tongs to chuck it in the bin). :shock:

then put on a drill press and add 10 nice holes ......

 

[coriander]

Good feedback, I had ordered one, Dell stuffed me around with delivery dates.

That seemed to happen to a few people, according to posters on Whirlpool. I must've been lucky: I ordered mine on the Ebay 20% off technology promotion on the Sunday and had it on the Thursday after. A support person at MS logged into my old and new laptops remotely and moved Office 2010 from old laptop to Office 2013 on new Dell. Photoshop CC works a treat; unfortunately MS Train Simulator doesn't <sigh>.

 

[Austff]

then put on a drill press and add 10 nice holes ......

Friends & I have added nice holes to them which has definitely put them out of action (used them for target practice)

 

[JohnM]

Nope. Back then a tiny usb drive was over $100....

But there were other options - even a string of FDs. Dicing with death IMO if you had all your PhD data/thesis chapters not backed up :shock:.

I know a guy who was I think quite well into his PhD many years ago (before PCs) where, very sadly, a fire in the building destroyed his office and everything in it. He did resurrect it, but how I do not know.

 

[OATEK]

But there were other options - even a string of FDs. Dicing with death IMO if you had all your PhD data/thesis chapters not backed up :shock:.

I know a guy who was I think quite well into his PhD many years ago (before PCs) where, very sadly, a fire in the building destroyed his office and everything in it. He did resurrect it, but how I do not know.

I had a PHD student come to my IT unit one day saying that 3 years of field data had been lost when his PC Hard Disk failed. In between gulps and tears I told him to bring the unit in from Nyngan for attention. We found that the hard disk had not crashed, but rather a component on the controller board was causing the problem. Took a board off a similar HDD and got all his data back.

Made sure we backed it up before he left the building.

 

[JohnM]

I had a PHD student come to my IT unit one day saying that 3 years of field data had been lost when his PC Hard Disk failed. In between gulps and tears I told him to bring the unit in from Nyngan for attention. We found that the hard disk had not crashed, but rather a component on the controller board was causing the problem. Took a board off a similar HDD and got all his data back.

Made sure we backed it up before he left the building.

VERY LUCKY. But it does raise the fundamental question: does someone who doesn't back up their data deserve to be awarded a PhD :shock:. I mean, it's PhD for Dummies V.1(beta) .

 

[vetrade]

I notice a trend here that I noticed in some employees over the years - oh for the days when being intelligent and being smart were one and the same thing.