My one year old Dell 8250 experinced a hard disk crash on Wednesday evening. The Bad news is that I may have lost a lot of files (digital pics I hadn't saved, etc.)and of course, the big FS Folder with my stable of planes, panels, sounds, etc. It was working so well, too. A new HD may be installed today. Supposedly, they say that they can show me a way to retrieve what's on that HD...we'll see. I certainly hope so. Luckily, I just did a save of my payware files last Saturday. THE GOOD NEWS: I get to re-install and customize FS2004 with WHAT I KNOW NOW. After flying it since it first came out, and adding everything on a whim and somewhat indiscriminately, I get to be a little more critical this time. I swear I'm going to look at everything (planes and programs) with more of a magnifying glass, and be somewhat "choosey" this time around. Well, I just want to sound off a little about this crash, and look forward to flying again within 24 hours.If you have any advice for me, I'm really open to your thinking. What is the primary cause for a HD crash anyway? Stan

Same thing happened to me. Sorry to hear about your non-fs9 files, but yes, installing fs9 from scratch did make a big difference for me...billg

Can't help you on why it happens - I was told about 0.5% of drives fail when I replaced my Seagate HDD this week for the same reason. That's the 2nd seagate thats crapped out for me.This weekend is computer geek time, as I spend _hours_ redownloading, installing & tweaking my favourite addons...oh the pain, the painLonelyplanetXO

Hey Stan,Been down that road and it does in fact SUCK :-) On a positive note, I was able to recover 100% of my data off my old drive so there may be hope for your case. Have the techs stated what was wrong with the drive? If it's the controller card on the drive, you're data's still intact.Good luck!!Mikehttp://www.members.shaw.ca/madamo/MCA_Aero_sig.jpg

Hope you are not using Seagate or Maxtor HDs. They belong to least reliable. The best are IBM and Western Digital.Michael J.http://www.reality-xp.com/community/nr/rsc/rxp-higher.jpg

I had an IT friend who always bought two identical hard drives when building a new machine. Just copied everything from the first to the second and kept it in a safe place. After a time, when the PC was replaced with a new machine and it became relegated to the game room, the second hard drive was formatted and used to increase storage on the old box. Do you think he ever had a hard drive crash? Never. It's like that guy who always travels with a bomb in his briefcase - the odds of there being two bombs on the same plane are astronomical! 8)Have a fun weekend! And save some AVSIM bandwidth for us!Best,sg

Hi Stan,Sorry for your loss, but I agree there are some positive aspects as you mentioned. I've never had a HD failure on my Dells but I'm sure it just luck. On the other hand, I've had a few times where I had to do a total reload of Windows and therefore had to totaly start my FS2xxx installation from scratch. Since I noramlly load numerious addons (mainly freeware) it was always both a pain and a happiness at the same time to reload and redo FS2xxx with my addons. Each time I learned from proir installations just what addons I wanted. Also, the reloads keep my FS experience from getting to run of the mill or boring. I found that I would concentrate of different areas with each installation.The best suggestion I could make is to keep a record of all the tweaks you've found work well for you. That's been my biggest problem with re installs. Now, I keep a log of all tweaks as well as all addons that I would want to reaload in the future.Another thing I learned (painfully) is to be very rigid and carefull in my attention to backing up files.Good luck,Howard

A good way of avoiding having to reinstall all the addon aircraft and scenery after an enforced( and usually unexpected) format and reinstall of Windows is to make ( at suitable intervals depending on how much of an "addon addict" you are) a copy of FS on another partition(preferably on another Drive).In these days when 80 + GB HDDs are common most of us have more than adequate space to do this.After the format and Windows install, install a basic copy of FS, then copy your saved copy back over the top of the new FS installation - allowing File overwrites.When you fire up FS all your addon scenery and aircraft will be there- even such things as FSUIPC will be there with your chosen settings. The only things that this won't work with are programs that run outside of FS such as Squawkbox etc - these will have to be reinstalled. I've been doing it this way since FS2000 with no problems at all.The other thing I did when I first installed WinXP( and Win ME before that) was to make a Drive Image of the basic setup once all essentials had been installed-Windows/Windows Updates,all drivers,ISP and all basic software. This,like the FS copy is saved on a partition on another HDD. After a major Windows upset neccessitating a Windows reinstall , it takes about 25-35 minutes to format and rewrite the whole lot and you're up and running again (it's quicker if you don't format and let Drive Image do that - but I prefer to do it myself then copy the image). Dave

Hi thereAs to the question what kills HDs, my guess is warmth. We've only just recently started to use 7200 rpm drives on a broad scale. Basically, a constant, stable, low temperature is essential for smooth HD operation. Greetings Jaap

I feel for ya. Been down that road, sad to say, a couple times. I didn't waste much time buying a cdburner after the first catastrophe. That's for sure. You can replace just about anything but I lost a 200+ MB 3D Lightwave model file that can never be replaced. Live and learn.There could probably be a complete forum for woeful crash stories.Adam

Hi Stan,I really do feel for you. I had the same problem - failing to back up all my precious digital images, never mind everything else. The effort involved just seemed too great. In the end the problem grew to such an extent that I was in danger of loosing sleep over it. Once that happens, believe you me my mind concentrates most wonderfully and the solution soon revealed itself.I purchased myself an external USB 2.0 LaCie 120Gig HD (and while I was at it got an 80Gig one for the wife as well). Now, once a month, it's a simple matter of plugging in the drive, running Drive Image 7.0 (Acronis True Image 6 on my wife's Windows ME PC) and both my drives are backed up in their entirety within a couple of hours. The storage methods used compact the backups so the backing up of several generations of data is possible before you have to start overwriting.Now, I sleep peacefully :)Perhaps I should mention the fact that Acronis True Image 6 is every bit as good as Drive Image and, arguably, may even be better. Drive Image 7.0 does not work with Windows ME whereas Acronis TI 6 does, and many other O/S as well, including XP. It is downloadable from the internet and is cheaper than DI.I wish I knew how to cover a Mainboard failure....groan :( Perhaps we should all be buying two each time we upgrade, or maybe three just to be sure... oh god, here I go again!Mike

Probably box overheating. It is a tower sitting on the floor?Peter Sydney Australia

I just got really serious about back-up. USB 2.0 is wonderful since it is so fast to external drives. Look at Kingwin external drives. They are outanding and super high quality. They also have three fans. (One on main unit, two in quick swap tray).Check out: http://directron.com/es2000w.htmlfor external USB 2.0, up to 120 GB. Has quick swap internal tray and on/off switch.And:http://directron.com/kf23.htmlfor internal with quick swap tray and lock.And check out extra $10.00 off on first order in coupon area.These two units both use the same quick swap internal tray which is the KF23-IPF. This internal tray (KF23-IPF) has two of the three fans in it, and works in both units. The internal tray swaps out in about 5 seconds to either and all units. And it is all aluminum (really nice.)The other "KF" series (I.E KF-21, KF-22) trays do not have the fans, which is a must. All internal units are sold separately for about $15.00... See:http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc....56&searchdepa=0for quick swap trays alone. Internal trays only come in white.This whole set-up is first class, and your back-up problems are gone forever. And you can quick swap drives at will. Don't but Bafo external units... they are total junk. I just scrapped two of them after 3 months. They are basic mass consumer oriented crap!!!! I just wrote them off to a bad experience.Now watch Office Max Sunday newspaper rebates. Last week a WD 120 gig (1-Yr.), 7200/8 meg, was $49.99 after rebates. Then this week it's the same unit with a 160 GB capacity at $59.99 after rebates. And they have lots of both of them if you get there on Sunday.I just ordered 6 quick swap trays for all my new and old drives....Set-up in XP is a snap.Bob (Lecanto, Fl)