Re: Friam Digest, Vol 154, Issue 18

Posted by Nick Thompson on Apr 27, 2016; 3:31am
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/Re-Friam-Digest-Vol-154-Issue-18-tp7587425p7587430.html

Hi, Michael, and others,

 

I would happily spend the money to have somebody do it for me, but I cannot give up my machine under the current circumstances for the 3 or 4 days that the services require.  I am thinking that if I follow Jack’s instructions, I can swap out the new hard drive and see if it works.  If it doesn’t, I am no worse off.  The transfer of files could be done overnight. 

 

All my data is up on Carbonite, but the last time I had to do this, it took two days to download over an Ethernet connection.

 

Nick

 

Nicholas S. Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology

Clark University

http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/

 

From: Friam [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Michael Stevens
Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2016 10:48 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Friam Digest, Vol 154, Issue 18

 

Nick,

   If you wanted to transfer only “files,” like the text of a paper, photographs, a spreadsheet, etc. there are plenty of ways to do that. (You probably know this, I’m not trying to insult your intelligence!) However, if software is involved, e.g. Word, Excel, etc., I think it’s much more complicated. What you have heard about an image is correct, but I wouldn’t recommend that as a do-it-yourself project, particularly in a distracted state of mind with family troubles. There are just too many little things that could go wrong. My advice is to hire someone. Price range would most likely be $100 - $150, but that’s only a guess.

Best of luck,

Mike Stevens

Berkeley

On Apr 26, 2016, at 9:00 AM, [hidden email] wrote:

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Today's Topics:

  1. Sober, clear advice needed (Nick Thompson)

From: "Nick Thompson" <[hidden email]>

Subject: [FRIAM] Sober, clear advice needed

Date: April 25, 2016 at 11:17:38 AM PDT

To: "Friam" <[hidden email]>

 

Hi, everybody,

 

A substantial family calamity occurred in Massachusetts on Friday, on the same day that a technician who replaced my motherboard here warned me that my hard drive is on its last legs.  I have a new hard drive sitting on my desk from HP and HP will come install it, but under my circumstances I cannot afford any break in my communication with My People in Massachusetts. 

 

Here is where I need your advice.  I keep being told that it is possible to make an “image” of one’s hard drive.  I imagine this means, I pay a hundred bucks for a black box, I plug the black box into my computer, I let it whir for a night, and then there is a copy of my hard drive on the black box.  Then, when my present hard drive dies, I have HP replace it, I plug the black box into the computer again, let it whir for another night, and when I wake up in the morning, resume my life exactly as it was. 

 

Is such a thing possible? Could it be done by a “citizen” (as Owen calls us) who is much distracted by other things. Can you recommend a particular black box.  One problem that DotFoil has suggested is that my old hard drive may have errors on it, and that transferring an “image” (if such a thing is possible) will transfer those errors, with possibly fatal consequences.  Should I perhaps run error correction software somewhere in that process. 

 

Please advise,

 

Nick

 

P.S.  Everybody’s safe.    

 

Nicholas S. Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology

Clark University

http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/

 

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