 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Peter
Date: 2003-01-05 01:34
I am about to scratch my wrists (I'm too chicken to actually slit them!)
My "Music" computer just fizzled, smelled like burning electronics and died about two hours ago. Just sitting there by itself, without touching it and without any sign that it was going to do that.
There are/were more than 45 gigabytes of music in the D Drive and I've spent years moving my music collection into it, including pieces written and/or played by friends and acquaintances in and out of the music business that were never published, many irreplaceable.
Some 40,000+ pieces of music starting just before the turn of the 1900s. Not to mention the programs in the C drive.
And I still have two bookcases and various boxes of music that were destined to go into it.
I haven't had the courage or the will to take it apart to asses the damage yet, I guess I need to come to an acceptance of it before I do.
Oh, well, the luck of the Irish! (And I'm not even Irish!)
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Author: Clarence
Date: 2003-01-05 01:42
Peter,
The harddrive may not be bad. Take it out of that computer and change the jumper to the 'slave' position. Connect it to the hardrive cable of another windows machine and you may be able to see your files.
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Author: Willie
Date: 2003-01-05 01:49
Arrgh! Thats enough to make you commit hari-kari with a dull spoon for sure. I too am loosing music from my collection of old 7" reel to reel magnetic tapes stored up in the Texas hill country and away from the coastal climate that destroyes all things man made. During my last visit up there, I got a couple of these tapes out and the sounds are now much weaker and waning. I now have to find a way to record from analog tapes to a digital CD if I'm going to preserve all this old jazz music. The men who made this music (my sepfather included) are all gone now and so is the type of style they used.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2003-01-05 02:04
You <b>did</b> have a backup, right? If not ...
Hard drives are so cheap that I use them as backups instead of tape drives.
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Author: Peter
Date: 2003-01-05 03:06
Mark,
There is an old Spanish saying, "In the blacksmith's house, they use wooden knives." For someone who works with computers, LANs and, especially, WANs, I can be pretty stupid with my own equipment.
All my other specialty computers are backed up, not into back-up files, but into other complete computers with multiple hard drives, etc. We have been about to build another "Music" computer for a couple of years now, and...
I have nobody to blame but myself.
Willie,
Several years ago, I had an extensive collection of original cartoons on cellulose (regular film.) It was stored just as your tapes are stored. Apparently, something happened to the climate control in the building where they were stored and by the time I saw them again they smelled like amonia and the cellulose film base was brittle.
We lost them all. Even Walt Disney's original cartoons from when he worked for... I can't remember if it was WB studios. Steamboat Willie, Mickey Mouse's officially accepted first cartoon was there, and a couple more of the mouse that eventually became Mickey Mouse, which predated Steamboat Willie.
I don't learn.
What I'm trying to tell you is: Don't let it go any longer than you absolutely have to, or you might be sorry some day. Like me!
I, too, am hoping the D drive is O.K., it well might be. I've seen things like this happen before and it was O.K. in the long run, I'm just trying to build up the courage to find out!
If it's O.K., I'll not only rebuild "Music 1," but before I even plug it in with that D drive aboard, I'll build "Music Too" and the first task of either computer will be to back up the music files.
DUMB S--- that I am!
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Author: Ginny
Date: 2003-01-05 04:26
I have suffered the deaths of several computers and learned to back it up back it up back it up (I put everything important on zip or CD twice a year, plus between back ups.) Just got through most of my 2003 back up.
I recall that in my area there are many places that will extract data from hard drives that may or may not be dead. I am sure you can search for such a service and mail the darned thing out somewhere if you don't have one near you.
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Author: Peter
Date: 2003-01-05 04:47
Hi Ginny,
I know you are right, and I should be ashamed. I have a pretty good reputation among a small, but select clientele for computers, wide area networks and the RF communications systems that link corporate computer systems nationally and internationally, which makes my own stupidity even worse!
Actually, most hard drive manufacturers will do that copy service for you, especially if the hard drive is still under warranty when it dies. Most who do it, do it as a free service.
But while I'm thinking about it, let me say that Maxtor has had the best customer support of all we've worked with, so far, and we often go out of our way to use their hard drives.
All my other computers are continually being backed up into another computer, and my main computer (I have a bank of five computers on a wrap-around desk that I use every day, sometimes at the same time) is continually being backed up into a main server and into a "spare" computer at the same time.
I can't begin to tell you why we didn't set up the "Music 1" computer the same way originally.
Oh, and Clarence, we have a spare Dell Optiplex that we are going to try the hard drives out on when my youngest son (the future music teacher) gets home tomorrow afternoon. Keep your fingers crosssed for us!
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Author: Bob
Date: 2003-01-05 19:45
Willie: I'm no expert on the subject but I dubbed my reeltoreel tapes to cassette and then transferred the cassette content to computer and hence to cd. Easier to hook up the cassette deck to the computer than the RtoR. Not the greatest sound quality but at least it's on cd now. I even transferred some 8track to RtoR while the 8tr was still working....but don't ask me why!
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Author: Clarence
Date: 2003-01-05 20:13
Willie,
You can go to download.com and get a program call AudioGrabber. This is a shareware program and will cost approx 25 dollars. This program along with a patch cable (available from Radio Shack) to go between the computer audio line in and a line out from the stereo, will allow you to record any sound that can be produced by you stereo. It will record to the .wav file format and can be processed to lower the hiss and noise level with Adaptec EasyCD Creator (the paid for version). Once you get it like you want it, you can convert the .wav file to the MP3 format. You'll need a free MP3 converter such as 'Lame' that will work from within AudioGrabber. I have converted 8-track and 78rpm,45rpm records and cassette tapes to Audio CD and MP3 files.
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Author: Peter
Date: 2003-01-05 22:13
Bob,
Unless you have some complex and expensive re-mastering equipment, every step you add to the process will, undoubtedly, diminish the quality of the finished product.
If at all possible, it's better to go directly from the original output devise right to the computer.
Clarence may just have something workable, yet inexpensive for you in his last post here.
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Author: Willie
Date: 2003-01-05 23:57
Hey, I appreciate the input here as "Bill Gates" I ain't. I still have to get a CD burner for my contraption here and am currently looking at different ones. Seems they all promise the moon and stars in performance. My CD Rom just died so I may try one of those do-it-all units if they are any good.
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Author: Peter
Date: 2003-01-06 01:24
Willie,
I use TDK burners and Imation CDs. I've had very good luck with them both.
You have to be careful with many CD brands, including some of the better ones, because not all CD drives will accept them. I have never found out why this is. I have yet to come accross a CD drive that would not accept Imation CDs.
A friend of mine just returned a box full of Maxell CDs to CompUSA because neither his burner nor mine would accept them and the burners are of different makes.
24 to 36 writing speed is good, but remember that to re-write a CD or for some things you might want to do with it, it will always work slower, that's what the numbers mean, the speed at which it will work.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2003-01-06 01:48
I've had nothing but bad luck with Imation on all the burners I've used (including industrial duplicators used at work - the two times we've tried Imation we ended up with a > 30% rejection rate); however, nothing but good luck with the Fuji CD-Rs of all speeds; in fact, we can normally burn Fujis at 20% faster than their rated speed with a < 2% rejection ratio.
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Author: Clarence
Date: 2003-01-06 02:46
I have used Imation CDs with great sucess too. It is rare for me to get a bad one.
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Author: Peter
Date: 2003-01-06 04:26
While my experience with Imation has been excellent, I'll certainly try a box of the Fuji next time I need CDs, you can never know about too many things that have worked out well for someone!
Anyway, cause to rejoyce. The processor fan quit and the processor followed it. There is damage to the mother board, but the hard drives are intact and working in another casing. (Whew! Chills up the spine, uncontrollable euphoria. etc., etc., etc.)
Thank you all for your support.
I've just sent off an e-mail for two 300 gig hard drives for the upcoming new back-up computer and just for the heck of it, I'm leaving "Music 1" shut down until "Music Too" is ready to roll.
See, if you've been reading some of my recent posts in which I speak of this BB as a "family" thing, here is a ggod example.
Although this, somehow, has to do with music, it has nothing to do with clarinet, yet several of you joined in to lend support and Mark C., whom I know hasn't been ecstatic with some of the things I've said lately, was one of the first, both by post and private e-mail to lend support for my troubles.
What other BB can you go to, to get this kind of friendship and support?
Really, thank you all, your posts and e-mails made me feel much better while the issue was alive and stabbing at me.
Peter
(P.S.: I'm not going soft, this is just a temporary lapse!)
Where can you go to
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Author: Hans
Date: 2003-01-06 15:07
I was very pleased to read that your hard drives had survived intact.
Another alternative for saving music (from tape, records, etc. to CD) which I didn't see mentioned in this very interesting thread, is to buy a CD burner for a stereo system. These things allow direct copying from a cassette, record player, or anything else connected to the stereo, even directly from a radio station. There is no software required, and no Windows quirks to deal with, but special audio cds are.
What has worked well for me is copying to an audio cd-rw (rather than audio CD-R), then using my PC to copy the results to a computer CD-R.
Among others, I now have a recording of my father, who died 12 years ago, playing piano on a CD which I copied from a cassette. It should last long enough to be transferred to whatever technology comes next.
Cheers,
Hans
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Author: Mark M
Date: 2003-01-06 19:27
Well, back to the original problem of a failed computer. Chances are that if you smelled a lot of burning electronics, the power supply would be a good place to look and the rest of the machine could be OK. Power supplies are notorious at failing as they seem to be rated right at the design limits of the machine.
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