Hiya

I have an Athlon 750 thats starting to have system trouble. It comes up with illegal operation errors all the while, is quite slow, and won't write CDs or to the printer. So, I've decided to wipe the C: drive and start afresh. Trouble is I have a shedload of data like MP3 albums and stuff I haven't backed up yet and I've now got no easy way of shifting them now the CD R/W software is u/s.

Then I remembered I have a spare 30gig HD in another PC, so if I were to attach it to my troublesome system, copy the data across, will all the data be there if I then re-attach it to the same system (post wipe) or to a brand new system. (Rob ) Any help to ease my worried mind.

Yeah, if it's on a separate disk that you don't format, all the data will be preserved just fine...

Rob.

Jason, in short, yes.

Just remember to set the second drive to be a 'slave' (no, no need for chains).

There'll be a jumper (no, not woolly) near the IDE connector, and the drive normally comes with a little pic somewhere about how you set it to slave.

Slap it in on a spare IDE connector and away you go. Just remember not to format that one when you do your wipe down!!

Its remembering not to format when installing the "back-up" hard disk then. I bloody hope I make sure I don't! I know all the slave (not wooly) jumper techie stuff. It should still be set on slave because that's what it was last used for...

..............And given all the problems you've had, build the new disk isolated from the copy, install your virus checker, then connect the copy and virus check it straight away, just in case. In fact, I'd run the newly built machine for a while, to make sure you haven't got a hardware fault.

Just my 2p-worth.

Phil

Well...as a safeguard...put the second HDD in, put all the data on it, then turn it off, remove 2nd HDD, perform reinstallation, switch off again, stick second disk back in...

Rob.

Well...as a safeguard...put the second HDD in' date=' put all the data on it, then turn it off, remove 2nd HDD, perform reinstallation, switch off again, stick second disk back in...

Rob.[/quote']

He's not wrong!

The only thing I'd say is that if the illegal ops are random, it might be worth checking that the fans are all still running and not clogged up with dust because excess heat can cause these symptoms.

:iagree:

Phil

PS I just went looking for that smiley. How many are there in the list now? Talk about one for every occasion! :clapclap:

The only thing I'd say is that if the illegal ops are random, it might be worth checking that the fans are all still running and not clogged up with dust because excess heat can cause these symptoms.

Very un-random. When I crank up photo editor, it normally does its illegal thing then works fine for the 2nd attempt and 3rd and so on. I may break open the tower tonight and take a peek inside.

Hiya

I have an Athlon 750 thats starting to have system trouble. It comes up with illegal operation errors all the while' date=' is quite slow, and won't write CDs or to the printer. So, I've decided to wipe the C: drive and start afresh. Trouble is I have a shedload of data like MP3 albums and stuff I haven't backed up yet and I've now got no easy way of shifting them now the CD R/W software is u/s.

Then I remembered I have a spare 30gig HD in another PC, so if I were to attach it to my troublesome system, copy the data across, will all the data be there if I then re-attach it to the same system (post wipe) or to a brand new system. (Rob ) Any help to ease my worried mind.

[/quote']

Jason don't want to be the messenger of bad tidings but Athlon chips are not overly relaible. In comparison with a real intel chip the athlon runs very hot, which in turn means it has a shorter life than a celeron or Pentium X. Hopefully however it is just some damage done to the system files by something you have downloaded. It might be worth reinstalling Windows with out formatting first to see if that helps.

Jason don't want to be the messenger of bad tidings but Athlon chips are not overly relaible. In comparison with a real intel chip the athlon runs very hot, which in turn means it has a shorter life than a celeron or Pentium X. Hopefully however it is just some damage done to the system files by something you have downloaded. It might be worth reinstalling Windows with out formatting first to see if that helps.

Well - I bought this Athlon 750 when it was almost the fastest CPU of the time. I think it was July 2000, and it's been good to me ever since. I'm not sure that a modern Athlon would last four years...? I should also say that the CPU isn't broken - it's just having some old-age troubles. Time to buy it a calostomy bag. Once windows is reloaded on to it, I reckon I may sell it off cheap and get a better system from somewhere else.

:cheers:

Well - I bought this Athlon 750 when it was almost the fastest CPU of the time. I think it was July 2000' date=' and it's been good to me ever since. I'm not sure that a modern Athlon would last four years...? I should also say that the CPU isn't broken - it's just having some old-age troubles. Time to buy it a calostomy bag. Once windows is reloaded on to it, I reckon I may sell it off cheap and get a better system from somewhere else.

:cheers:[/quote']

Much as I hate recommending them Dixons and Currys sell an American make of PC called e-machines. They are very cheap but have good spec and are quite good to look at. Also very standard inside if you need to upgrade in the future unlike makes like Dell etc.

Nah, Athlons are Ok. I've been using 'em for years. They just need a bit more cooling than the equivalent Pentium. I'm happily running an Athlon XP2000+ -and it's overclocked!

Mind you, it's got a CPU cooler bigger than my head..........

Phil

American make of PC called e-machines. They are very cheap but have good spec and are quite good to look at.

:jawsmall: They're cheap for a reason, they are built very much to budget!

Rob.

:jawsmall: They're cheap for a reason' date=' they are built very much to budget!

Rob.[/quote']

Hear Hear

Video & sound on the motherboard, and shared video/system memory. And they use PC-chips motherboards on some of their machines. :thumbdwn: :ne_nau:

Phil

Well - I guess it's down to personal choice, and Athlon is fine for me... and IF ( Rob) I upgrade I'll hapilly choose them again.

Hear Hear

Video & sound on the motherboard' date=' and shared video/system memory. And they use PC-chips motherboards on some of their machines. :thumbdwn: :ne_nau:

Phil[/quote']

I have an e-machine at home. The video is not on the motherboard, although from the case it is obvious that many of their machines do as there is a balnked out video port on the case, while the video port on my machine is on an expansion card. I have found the machine to be very much quicker than my office PC which is supposedly similiar spec only with a Pentium 4 rather than Celeron (Fujitsu Siemens).

Athlon are fine. More than fine, in fact. The reliability of a properly cooled Athlon is equivalent to a properly cooled Pentium. Any perceived reliability problems are down to people thinking,

The CPU costs less, let's put it in a system with cheap components.

no probs with athlon's here, running an XP2600 at home and that pc is pretty much on 24/7 and has been since I built the machine about 15 months ago. Using OEM cpu cooling without probs. Also now has a GF FX5900 Ultra 256MB graphics card, 2x120GB HD's in Raid0 another 80GB HD and 40GB HD + DVD writer installed without heat probs. If I get problems then I just tend to reload windows or restore from a ghost image which I tend to create weekly as a backup.

If I get problems then I just tend to reload windows or restore from a ghost image which I tend to create weekly as a backup.

Ghost? Excellent! We use it in our training room, to rebuild all the PC's -Using a Ghost server, we can build each machine in around 10 minutes. Very clever piece of software.....

Phil

I've never had a problem with either of my two Athlon-based PCs wrt heat. They also offer more bang per buck than the equivalent Intel chip (unless you need HyperThreading etc.).

I use an internal HD for my main boot disk, then i have a caddy with a removable disk for storing everything else on (mobile-porn-disk as it's affectionately known ).

No seriously it's really handy for backing up stuff from the servers at work and taking it home to work on/store as a backup etc.

Trouble is I have a shedload of data like MP3 albums and stuff I haven't backed up yet and I've now got no easy way of shifting them now the CD R/W software is u/s.

Don't know how much stuff you've got but me and SWMBO swear by those portable storage devices. Assuming you've got USB ports. Probably no way big enough but we like singing their praises anyway. Why haven't these things really taken off? Every Friday I back up all our company accounts onto something no bigger than my thumb and take it home in case the office burns down. :thumbdwn: or , can't decide. :confused:

As far as backups are concened, DVD RW's seem to be at the