I think my my hard drive is on the blink, just lately I have been getting a random crash, then on restart the PC not booting to Windows. Once I disconnect the drive my sims are on it boots normal, I cen then re-connect it and it runs, sometimes all day but I'm afrain it might just go properly soon, my question is if I put another drive in can I just go on Steam and download Train sim and all the routes to the new drive or can I just copy over from the problem drive? Col.
Thank you Vern pal, yes I was thinking same but just asking if it was easier to copy over. I built this PC in a kind of hurry, I was showing one of my grandsons how to build but being honest we did it quick and I kept saying to myself I need to re-build it better. I've ordered a couple of SSD's so thinking of putting TSW on one of those and just use it for that. Col.
I need to do something about my HD capacity, filling up at an alarming rate. I had hoped by now to have persuaded my missus it's time for a new PC but I must be losing my charm. However a new 2Tb mechanical drive should keep things going.
It's like getting a bigger apartment. You always think the new one will be plenty of space, and then later somehow it no longer is.
my SSD died all of a sudden like a month or two ago... havent had enough money to buy new one since :/ so atm I play from my classic HDD
I'm playing on a 1TB HDD at the moment, this is the one I think is on the way out, I have other stuff on it as well, like 4 flight sims plus bits and bobs. Col.
I'm personally a big fan of the Samsung SSD's. They're fast, reliable, and their free cloning software is extremely simple and easy to use.
I was just thinking back to when I had a 386 PC with DOS and I got some RAM to enable me to install Windows 3.1 I had a 40MB HDD a guy at work who was really in to computers got a 1GB HDD and I said, "Wow you will never fill that." Then a mate sold me an 80MB HDD, I thought I was the bees knees, it was then I started to learn about PC's, and still am lol. Col
also WAS a big fan, but then a Samsung died on me literally all of a sudden with pretty much no warning
I'm not trying to be Cpt. Obvious here, but you DID already backup and/or copy all the relevant documents/files to other media before this drive fades away for good, right?! That might happen soon (speaking from my own - painful - experience ... )
Yes I did, I made a drastic mistake many years ago, I formatted the wrong HDD and lost loads of stuff, I tried to recover it but I didn't know what I was doing back then so lost it all. It really got to me, it was a big loss, I didn't go on the PC for a while, it was running through my mind when I went near it, I paint aircraft textures and I had them all saved on the drive, I also tweaked lots of aircraft to fly right in the flight sim, then had photos too, all gone. Col.
The above posts made me think of people who are not too PC savvy so to speak. Things get forced on us by various websites and and providers, lots of times we don't need or want them, then we go searching how to remove them, often not just a quck click of the mouse but go to edit the register or even download another program to remove things. Most of us can handle that annoying as it is but for those who just bought a PC to browse the internet or send the odd email all this is a nightmare and they either have a PC full of junk that is now running slow and not doing what it did before or they pay for all this to be removed and to get it back to normal. How many times do you go to do something you do on a regular basis and all of a sudden the screen has changed and something new has been added that is either annoying and not needed, then you spend a few hours trying to get it back to how it was before, if you can that is? Col.
I'm a strong advocate for online safety and good tech practices, especially for people who aren't as savvy or just don't know. I FINALLY got my dad to take a senior online safety course, and had to have the same chat with my father-in-law the other day after he did a LogMeIn session with "tech support" (luckily nothing was accessed from what I can tell, but he's on high alert and I sanitized his laptop). I think one of the main issues with people who are not so tech savvy, young or old, is that they're afraid to ask people who are tech savvy and risk judgement. I look at it this way... not knowing something doesn't make you stupid or ignorant, especially if you're willing to ask. I will never demean, condescend, or speak down to someone if they have a tech question. We all have our proficiencies and we all have things that we're just not good at; it doesn't make us dumb, just human. Unfortunately, out of a lack of good tech practices you get an entire business of taking advantage of those people who just plain don't know any better, so you end up with compromised PC's, stolen information, bloatware, etc.
So True, When I was working on some shifts I was sometimes on with a mate who like me was in to computers, there were other people in the control room too and often they would say things like, "I wish you two would talk about something we could all join in on," or they would look at each other a roll their eyes sometimes saying, "Not got a clue what your are talking about." Even some basic things people look at you as though you are a genius, sometimes it's nice but they can at times avoid you. One time the baggage system at work was off for a long time because of a problem, when this manager asked what it was I said, "The Fragulater timed out and you have to wait for an hour for it to reset itself, he thanked me and made a note of it for his report. My mate who was with me afterwads was killing himself laughing. Col.
And never store personal data on SSDs without a backup. Everything that's on your SSD should be easily retrievable again in case of a failure (like you SteamLibrary, OS, e.g.) My system is using a 1TB SSD for C:, 1TB SSD for Train Simulator, and a 4TB HDD for storage and games where loading times are not important (RDR2 for example). The most important personal data gets uploaded to my NAS. All WesternDigital, which have always been very reliable for me. (Still have a 12-year old WD HDD running fine on my second PC)
I'll second Western Digital for physical drives (not running any SSDs yet, though I have bought one which I'll install one of these days), specifically the highest-end Black line. I've bought these exclusively for many years and have only ever replaced them for size, never failure. Currently, I'm running three WD Black drives that are all a minimum of 5 or 6 years old, with not a single hiccup among them. But always keep a backup or two. For further real-world reference, a cloud storage company called Backblaze publishes quarterly and year-end failure statistics for their quarter-million-plus hard drives. https://www.backblaze.com/blog/backblaze-drive-stats-for-2023/
Well I re-built my PC this morning, moved most of it to a new case, the other one was built in a hurry and cable management was not good as well. I have now got TSW on an SSD, just tested it and it seems to be OK, I have another SSD in the post should arrive soon not sure yet what is going on that. Col.
My kids need their laptops rebuild every 6 months. For the reasons you explain well above. They don't care about what they click on or don't. It's amazing how much junk, garbage and dangerware you can inherit within a few minutes of careless internet surfing. I've installed for them all kind of ad blockers, but this won't work if they switch them off because some of the visited sites worry only about their incomes. Quite the irony: This is the generation that values sustainability and accuses me from the "old white fart generation" of being careless with the environment. Meanwhile I've just rebuild a Sony Vaio Duo from 2013, fitted a new battery and a larger SSD. It works like a charm again, even running Windows 10. Although a RAM extension would require some serious SMD surgery there, I still love that laptop (meanwhile Sony doesn't build laptops anymore). There! Yihaaaaw, sustainability ...
Aw I've restored a few lappies but to be honest I prefer to work on a desktop. I recently bought an HP laptop, reason being it has a good spec and the price was a steal (perhaps). It had Windows11 installed, I connect an external webcam to it so I can see outside anyone coming up my drive. First day it seemed ok till I notice late at night the time was about 2 hours slow, then I realised the screen had froze. Only way out was to turn it off then back on after a few seconds, then it was fine again. So I went online to see and lots more were saying same thing, some saying the Windows update, some shown various steps to stop it, even regedit, I did all those but it still froze. I took W11 off and installed W10, it seemed fine for a few days then it froze again last night, I'm wondering if it is something with the hardware, coz on the older PC I had the webcam connected it was fine no problem so I ruled that out. Col
I always feel like I'm going to break something when I work on a laptop lol. Desktops are much easier due to the larger scale and working environment. It's like the difference between working on HO and O gauge trains. I also wish more laptop manufacturers would use screws for the back covers. I keep telling myself I'm going to buy laptop panel tools but then end up using a small knife to pry panels (carefully) off anyway lol. I "modernized" my old Lenovo tower a few years ago and had a blast. New power supply, SSD, more RAM, GPU, CPU, cooler, case fan... CMOS battery lol. The only thing I didn't change was the case and the motherboard. I know I probably could have built a new PC for less and more easily, but I'm attached to my tower and wanted to try after watching LGR on YouTube restore old machines. For what I do with it, it works above and beyond. TSC is probably the most demanding thing I play on it, the rest of the games I play are either old (Star Wars Empire at War), ancient (Lego Loco, Star Wars Force Commander), or new but not demanding (RimWorld). When/if I do need a new PC, I think I'm going to build my own. It'll be cheaper and unique, and I plan on RGB'ing everything lol.
I've had PC's off eBay and upgraded them by adding a better CPU, more RAM SSD etc, I've even built a PC out the parts I have salvaged from other PC's, not fast gamers but OK for low level games and everyday surfing etc. Col.
We've got a bunch of old towers at work that I've been given the okay to take. Once my wife and I buy a house and I have space I'm really tempted to build a Windows 98 or XP nostalgia rig out of them. I know I can run DOS Box and do the same thing with my tower, but I kinda wanna go all out with a CRT monitor, medical beige speakers, etc.
Not sure of your work situation but I would get them before someone else decides to take them, can you store them at a reative or something? Col.
lol yeah, no, we don't get rid of things. They're up in storage back behind where we keep our filter overstock, and no one goes back there. It's like the land of the lost up there. Plus I'm the unofficial IT person, so they'll ask me before anything tech related gets tossed.
Stuff you don't need anymore will be happily picked up and restored by LGR https://www.youtube.com/@LGR
Hi Spike, I got some used RAM 2 x 32GB Samsung DDR3 PC3 for £40, so it's fingers crossed, the seller says they are in good working order. I know this is very cheap for what they are but I took a chance, we will see. Col.
Did you mean DDR4? Unless you're upgrading a very old system. If not, DDR3 is not physically compatible with DDR4 slots.
No I meant DDR3, I have system I built myself, it is old-ish lol. Having said that I just bought 4x 8GB Kingston sticks DDR3 1600 I build and renovate PC's so I can always use it. Col.
