Fun doing Backups and Swapping computer parts

English Open Chat
#1

I spent most the day today swapping computer parts, from a dead 5 year old PC to a somewhat ancient (but still alive) older 10 year old PC. I’ve been putting this task off for some time, but what motivated me to finally get around to this was a fright on Friday when my 2 year old Intel Core i7 920 PC froze and refused to boot after a hardware reset and only booted again after a complete hardware shut down and restart.

I decided then to improve my (already massive) backups and to ensure my 10 year old sandbox PC was in the best shape possible.

I had to go walk to the PC shop anyway on Saturday (we don’t own an auto), as the computer shop phoned earlier in the week, noting that they had the replacement for my Samsung S 223 CD/DVD burner (that I had returned on warranty) ready for pickup. So while at the Computer Store picking up the replacement, I also purchased a new 2 TB external hard drive.

That purchase and replacement device gave me the energy to make this a computer hardware weekend. :slight_smile:

Replacement DVD writer (HP DVD 1270i)

First, for my 2 year old Intel Core i7, I inserted the new replacement CD/DVD drive (provided under warranty) which turned out not to be a one for one replacement of the failed Samsung SH-223Q (as Samsung have no more in stock available) but rather I was given an HP DVD 1270i 24x multiformat DVD writer (Lightscribe capable). I don’t know how that sort of replacement works with our local PC shop (without them losing money), but I assume Samsung re-reimbursed them somehow. My old Samsung was Light Scribe capable, and I still have a bunch of old Lightscribe blank cd/dvds, so having a Lightscribe replacement was a requirement of mine.

I rebooted my 64-bit openSUSE-11.3 after installing that HP DVD writer, and k3b had no problem recognizing it, and was able to burn a Linux installation DVD from a .iso file. So it passed my immediate test.

External 2TB Hard drive

I then plugged in my new Fantec 2TB Fanbox External Hard drive. It was immediately recognized by my Intel Core i7’s 64-bit openSUSE-11.3 KDE4. I then started backing up 750 GB of data from one external drive, to this new External Drive (as I try to re-organize the files on my many external hard drive storage devices). I’m looking at over 6 hours to backup that data !

Cannibalize old PC

I then cannibalized my 5+ year old PC (which has a dead mother board) pulling out the old floppy drive, CD/DVD burner, 2 external hard drives (a 160GB IDE and a 300 GB IDE), a GeForce 8400GS (PCI (not PCI-e)) graphic card, and 2 GB of RAM (on a 1GB, and 2x512MB cards). I left the old power supply in the 5+ year old PC’s case for now, as the case is a nice case, albeit the case design is > 6 years old.

Increasing RAM from 1GB to 2GB on 10 year old PC

I then shutdown my 10 year old 32-bit athlon-1100 PC and removed its 1 GB of RAM (in a 512 MB, and 2x256MB memory cards) and replaced it with the 2GB from the cannibalized PC (ie with the 1GB, and 2x512MB cards).

Adding 160GB hard drive to 10 year old PC

I then took the 160GB cannibalized hard drive, and changed its jumpers from master to slave and connected it up inside my 10 year old athlon-1100 PC, such that the 10 year old old PC now has an extra hard drive (in addition to its current 300 GB drive)).

I then closed up the case (after cleaning) , reconnected all the many external cables, and booted the PC. It worked great ! (running a 32-bit openSUSE-11.4 LXDE). The different Memory was identified. The additional (used) hard drive identified. This old PC is again a bit re-vitalized.

Then it was a big clean up, and a rest, as this sort of crawling around is murder on my back.

Still, it was nice to see no heart burn with Linux with any of these hardware changes !!

#2

It is great to hear of your success there oldcpu. I understand fully what you went through (except I have never walked to a computer store from home as the nearest store to me would be 2.5 miles away!). Just yesterday I purchased an internal 2 TB (HITACHI 2TB SATA ATA/600) hard drive for my main openSUSE PC. I had some issues restoring my software for my /home area, but got it to work. Now, I am moving that drive to my other computer (new 2TB drive to PC1, old 1TB drive moved from PC1 to PC2, where I have a 500 GB drive to come out I plan on moving to my daughters PC to replace a 300 GB drive and it goes on and on). It is good to buy new hardware, but now you remember why, besides the cost, you are not all that thrilled to do this sort of thing and how good it feels when it all works for you.

Thank You,

#3

2.5 miles ? That’s a bit far for one way. Our computer store is at most 1.5 miles away, and its just another 1/4 mile to the core of downtown shops making it worth while to then go the extra distance to also walk downtown, window show, stop for coffee, chat, etc … Its good exercise to walk there and back, and of course my wife and I enjoy the walk together. In truth, we could take the local ‘tram’ but we prefer the fresh air and exercise together.

Glad to read you had some success as well.

I’m now contemplating what to do on my old PC now that it has an extra 160 GB hard drive, and I’m thinking sometime in the next few months of shuffling all the partitions on this PC … but that is a task for another weekend.

That is SO true. A very astute sharing observation of also my feelings toward this.

#4

Very nice to read that old computers are saved and operate. I am thinking to buy a SSD for my pc, because my 1.2 Tb western digital is a bit slow.

Anyway I have a old laptop which I have bought it in 2000. It is toshiba and I have it and use it today as my experimental pc. I try to find a hdd for it and a Ram but I can not. It has openSUSE 11.4 with KDE 4.4.4(very old).

Also yesterday I operate my old pc with my athlon 64, just finding a HDD 650GB.
Anyway for me it has fun creating programs and writing code.

#5

read this post with a smile, oldcpu… i have similar motivations to concoct useful tools out of what i have available. I confess that the old P4 box running 11.2 that is currently doing multiple duties on the local network is my favorite.

since this box handles lots of data, file archiving was a priority and i opted for a different type of solution than your external drive… Amazon.com: Kingwin 2.5-Inch and 3.5-Inch SATA Hard Drive Docking Station with USB 2.0 and eSATA External Hard Drive Enclosure, EZD-2535 (Black): Electronics

i couldn’t discern if the external drive you purchased was USB or eSATA (perhaps both?), but for me there was not enough time available to use USB transfer rates. I purchased a breakout kit <approx $14US> to bring one of the internal SATA ports to a eSATA connector at an empty rear panel slot, then connected the dock unit and plugged a Hitachi drive into it… bingo.

i have yet to do the work to make the device hot-pluggable, but since the SiliconImage 3112 SATA controller supports this feature perhaps it won’t take a lot of research.

good luck and long service from your projects :slight_smile:

#6

Very nice to read that old computers are saved and operate. I am thinking to buy a SSD for my pc, because my 1.2 Tb western digital is a bit slow.
stamostolias, My PC1 has an 80 GB Intel SSD drive. Once setup properly, my boot time is very fast indeed. I only loaded the “/” openSUSE partition on it though I might have gotten /home to fit there, but I prefer my present setup. /home is on my new 2 TB ATA/600 SATA drive along with Windows and SWAP. I must say that SSD’s are just so darn expensive and I had to update the firmware on the Intel SSD before it would even work with openSUSE. Everyone one is now coming out with ATA/600 rated (6 GB SATA) SSD’s and it might be worth looking for one or look to see a special deal on a 120 GB unit. I have decided that I would have no trouble using a 120 GB unit with openSUSE. I would make “/” 50 GB, 4 GB for SWAP and the rest, 60 plus GB for /home. Right now I could buy a 120 GB SSD ATA/300 for only $15 more than I paid for the 80 GB one I have now. I have a thread on the subject here if you want to read it:

Using a SSD Hard Drive with openSUSE and the TRIM Command

Thank You,

#7

Thanks for pointing out that thread. I was looking for it and could not find it.

I started my own, but I totally messed up the subject, calling it ‘sd card’ instead of ‘ssd drive’
Please share experience with SD card ‘drive’ use in Linux

#8

Thank you James it is very useful thread for me. SSD technology is also very expensive here in Greece, for example if you want to buy a SSD with 120 Gb capacity you must pay 250 euros. Anyway I have spend my money to buy the AMD radeon 6990, so I must wait for a SSD. :slight_smile:

#9

Thanks for pointing out that thread. I was looking for it and could not find it.

I started my own, but I totally messed up the subject, calling it ‘sd card’ instead of ‘ssd drive’
Please share experience with SD card ‘drive’ use in Linux
You are very welcome oldcpu and I hope the added info about the SSD’s is OK here.

stamostolias Thank you James it is very useful thread for me. SSD technology is also very expensive here in Greece, for example if you want to buy a SSD with 120 Gb capacity you must pay 250 euros. Anyway I have spend my money to buy the AMD radeon 6990, so I must wait for a SSD. :slight_smile:
So I guess I am not sure how much 250 euros might be in Dollars today, but I am sure it is a lot. The Intel 80 GB SSD ATA/300 Unit cost $200 plus tax and the 120 GB SSD I saw yesterday was a Corsair model, also ATA/300 for $215 plus tax. But, at the same computer store, I purchased a 2 TB Hitachi hard drive, ATA/600 rated, 7200 rpm and 64 mb cache for just $99. It is hard to spend so much more money on a SSD when standard hard drives offer so much more than just speed for a lot less cost.

Thank You,

#10

Yeahh it is very much, Imagine the SSD with more capacity. The price is very expensive. We have two companies which produce SSD(I mean two companies which in Greece have SSD available),
1)intel
2)OSZ
I wait for WD, because I trust WD HDD. Anyway patience is the best doctor.:slight_smile:

#11

Yeahh it is very much, Imagine the SSD with more capacity. The price is very expensive. We have two companies which produce SSD(I mean two companies which in Greece have SSD available),
1)intel
2)OSZ
I wait for WD, because I trust WD HDD. Anyway patience is the best doctor.:slight_smile:
Yes patience is the key with SSD’s at the moment. With a time frame of 6-8 months in the future, you will get a much better deal for your money I suspect.

Thank You,

#12

You are right because it is a new developing technology and as we know always something new has problems, so we must wait for it.