!!!!!!!!!UHOIUY)(&*Y_(!Y*P@(*!&*Y!!!!!!!!!!!!!I get home from the cottage on Sunday afternoon, rushing through traffic to get back to the PIC...fire up my PC...and NOTHING!!!!!!After the first convulsion and mild cardiac, I remember this happened a while back...it would power up but no HD or video initialization...a few clicks of the power button and "beep" she would boot up. I quickly began my prayers to the computer Gods but they did not answer me.Now there is only the sound of a fan and a few clicks of the HD as the power goes through it...no "beep", no HD light flashing indicating the boot up is going along...only DEATH. I am dying a slow and horrible death, I even mowed the lawn thinking a good deed would bring about some positive PC-Karma. I heard the first seven days of an addiction withdrawl are the worst. Off to the repair shop tonight...if my HD is fried, I don't know how I am going to handle it. so much FS stuff over the last three years!Please give generously to the "Save the 856 HD Foundation".Damn.

Ketchup with your HD Rob. - Might remove the bitter taste from your mouth at present.Seriously have you backed up all your payware stuff. I have all mine sitting on a CD.Maybe Her Indoors will now allow you to get a fancy new computer, maybe like that new Dell one.

No CD burner on my PC = no back up of anything...all my freeware, payware, and stuff given to me will likely be gone.I am in a very bad place right now. I will self medicate when I get home.New PC....yep, in my dreams...maybe after the wedding like 6 months from now.I had the PIC exactly how I wanted it, sounds (customised by Haroon), panel, etc, etc...I don't know if I can recall all the stuff I have done to the PIC and FS.PC-God help me.Rob.

Dear Rob,Sorry to hear about the PC. That is very harsh.Now, I cannot send you cash, or a new puter, BUT I have an XT with FS3.0 - you wanna borrow it?DS CVA3339 / UKD149http://vatsim.pilotmedia.fi/statusindicato...tor=OD1&a=a.jpg

Hi Rob,As you surmise it does sound as if the HD has died, however you might be lucky to get something back.If you have fairly high temps wehre you live you can try putting the HD in the fridge for a while and trying it again.Some drives from a famous manufacturer have been failing because of a faulty controller, the fault usually occurs after the drive has been in use for some time and has heated up. Cooling the HD down allows it to run for maybe 30 minutes at a time, sufficient to off-load some files.I have had this happen at work twice and one drive lasted long enough to remove all files on the HD, the other was not so successful.If the drive is dead then trying this won't harm :-)Best of luck Rob.

Hi,It's a 7800rpm 20 gig IBM drive...you'd think it would last, Big Blue and all...only 9 gig on it.I'll put it in the freezer for a while when I get home. It was shut off for two days while at the cottage, but had been on for a week before that. I shut it off before I left for work this morning...will freeze it for a while, then try again.Desperation grows by the hour :-)Thanks for the tip.PS - Daryl - I have an IBM XT at home with FS2 on it...thanks anyhow...barstad ;-)

Rob!!"yeah...maybe after the wedding...6 months from now..." ???Have you not heard of pre-nuptial agreements?? Mine states:Clause 2.1.1.xvii.A.:(No activity of the aforementioned union (referred to as marriage), as specified in clause 1), shall interfere with the activities of the first party (referred to as The Husband) as they relate to recreational and personal development (defined as on-line flying)"...BASIC!!!I can send you the name of my lawyer.... :-)Roberto

Oh dear...IBM HDD's are notorious for getting off the bus at the worst possible times. Which is exactly why I've gone over to Maxtor HDD's. I lost 2 40 GB HDD's for no apparent reason :-fume :-8

I am still praying to the PC-God's that my HD will fire up for one last power up...I'll be good until the next power failure if it works...by that time I should have a portable burner and make some back up's of what I have.I can see the look on her face tonight when I put the HD in the freezer...she already thinks I am a freak for getting upset with a machine last night.Rob.Roberto - good advice from the lawyer@!

Hi Rob,if the HD is dead, it is possible to repair these things. In all likelihood it's not the actual disk that got damaged, but one of the smaller moving parts. But it won't be cheap - in all likelihood it will exceed the cost of buying a new 120GB, 8MB buffer HD. Also bear in mind, that once it is repaired, you should get a new HD anyway, just to be on the safe side. So it's really up to you to decide if it's worth it (considering the time it takes to re-download and install everything, argue with on-line vendors over replacement keys for downloaded software etc. it might actually be good value for money :)).Cheers,Gosta. http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky/images/wxrebeta.jpg

RobertoI too am sorry to hear about your PC's hard disk. I too have had bad experiences with them.I work as an IT Engineer for one of the UK's biggest NHS Trusts in the West Midlands and we had a batch of five hundred TINY PCs delivered approximately a year and a half ago and they all came with twenty gigabyte Fujitsu Hard Disk Drives. I dont know whether anybody knows anything about these drives, but I understand that out of a batch of literally thousands of these drives, there was a worldwide failure rate of a massive ninety percent !! They had Cirrus Logic controller chips built into them and due to poor manufacture and terrible quality thermal composite, the chips over heated and burnt out after about a year and a half of use.We have just about swapped all these disks out now as we get approximately fifteen to twenty support calls per week because of PC's either failing to bootup or displaying a dreaded Blue Screen of Death.My point to this rather long reply to your post is that I would seriously recommend that you store your hard disk in the fridge for a day or two as it certainly seems to do the trick for me and my colleagues at work so we can attempt to fire up the disk one last time before destroying it to obtain our IT users data files, etc. Some of which have had over two gigabytes of patient sensitive information saved on them.I'd check to see what controller chip you have on the underside of your disk and do what you said you were going to do and definately try putting the disk in the fridge for a while.Best of luck Roberto and I hope you dont loose any of your files :-) Best Regards,Lee Holland.BAW446Senior First Officer - British Airways Virtual.

Hi Gosta,Sounds like a good plan of action...problem is I did not actually "pay" for several "things" on my HD so replacing them might be tough...also the amount of time I spent tweaking the PIC sounds (which I had near perfect), panel, and FS2k2 itself is mind boggling....I get a headache just thinking about the re-install...plus all the SIDS and STARS, the CSL and VIP stuff (no longer availble)...I sorted the bad SID/STARS out and had perfect NavData/NAVaid editing...oh God I want to die.

Lee,Thanks for the words of encouragement....I'll put the HD in a plastic bad and chill it up with my beer...the drive is IBM, not sure abut the controller...if it doesn't work, at least the beer will be cold.It's not the replacement of the drive so much as the withdrawl symptoms that scare me...and her...and the cat...oh the poor cat, is he gonna get the brunt of my bad attitude tonight....poor cat. Ever heard a cat break the sound barrier before?...a cool doppler effect on the mmeeeeeooowwww!Rob.

Hi Rob,it definitely looks like you'll be best off exploring the recovery options offered by the professionals. I'd check out some of the independent repair shops that specialise in serving business customers, simply because to a company, a customer database is worth a lot more than the cost of a new HD, while individual customers are more likely just to buy a new drive. So those 'business-oriented' shops should have experience with that sort of thing and should be able to help you.Good luck!Cheers,Gosta.http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky/images/wxrebeta.jpg

If you got no POST beep, then it isn't the HDD. Could be either PSU or more likely the MB.Best of luck,Paulhttp://www.strontiumdog.plus.com/sbird.jpgOfficially licenced by British Airways plc for use of name and logo