🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Aug14.104706.6067@iscsvax.uni.edu> kraai4712@iscsvax.uni.edu writes:
>HELP!
>
>I'm using a Mitsubishi MS-DOS compatible computer whose hard disk has crashed.
>I'm using it to control a POWER PLANT, get the magnitude of the problem?
>It's real important that I recover the software on it as I probably can't
>replace it.
>I've got Norton Utils, but when I boot from floppy, I can't access the hard
>drive (doesn't recognize its presence).
>
>Thanks much in advance.
>
>jim kraai
>kraai4712@iscsvax.uni.edu
>319-268-0320 or 319-273-5555
If you say "Oops", your boss will forgive you! :)
Seriously, some ideas:
- check your setup - is the hard disk type info. gone due to dead battery?
- if that is correct, check disk cables, try to replace the controller card;
  if you're lucky, it's one of these, and not a fatal disk crash!
- if these don't help, and Norton doesn't help, carefully remove disk and
  find a disk recovery expert, or your vendor/manufacturer and let them try
  to rescue your data.
- Good luck!

Once the crisis is over, why not have a redundant PC, with a mirror of the
hard disk, and tape back-up?  Sounds like controlling a power plant is too
important a task to not spend the extra $1-2K!! 
Can you let us know how you resolve this? I'm also curious about how you're
using the PC to control this power plant, what type/size plant, and what type
of customers (residential, industrial, university, etc.).
Any info. you can share would be much appreciated.

---
Greg Sroka, Design Engineer and part-time MSEE student (S.U.)
Raychem Corporation, Menlo Park, CA      

Thanks to everyone who responded to my posting about the Mitsubishi PC. Here's
the rest of the story:

I'm a software support person for a university that deems campus beautification
more important than hiring instructors to fill vacant positions.  I'm
responsible for about 1500 MS-DOS compatible PCs on campus.  I only have so
much time in the day to preach backup theology.  I've got the software set up
for a "mandatory" daily backup which fails when they learn what "Abort, Retry,
Fail?" means.

I was operating with the information that they had given me and I knew that I
couldn't get over there to check the situation out for about a day.

They have a Mitsubishi monitor with an Intel PC.  I asked what kind of computer
they had and they told me the monitor manufacturer ... I should've known not to
assume ...

They hadn't been backing their machine up, but the software company will
download all they need via modem.  Evidently they didn't have any important
data stored on the machine.

Their hard drive head crashed in such a way that it began cutting grooves into
the disk itself.  They ran some extensive tests on it and effectively ruined
the whole hard drive instead of just the boot sectors.  Sounds like fingernails
on a black-board when it's spinning.

While they were running the tests, they fiddled with the CMOS settings and
hence the computer wouldn't recognize the hard drive.  Which resulted in not
being able to run Norton Utils on it.

At one point early in in the conversation, I asked if they had had any power
surges that might've messed things up, and they said yes, but it didn't matter
because when they happened, the PC wasn't on (but it was plugged in).  Two
things come to mind:  1)  Is there a correlation between the PC not being up
and the power surges?  2)  I've seen powered-down components, including
computers, get fried by power spikes right through surge protectors, don't they
understand electricity well enough to know that this type of thing happens?

They're ordering a new hard drive.  I got the contradictory impression that
they desperately needed the computer to run the power plant, but it didn't
mattter that they might have to wait a couple of weeks for funding and shipping
of another hard disk.  Do they run it manually?  I didn't ask, I was kind of
frightened by the whole thing.

Thanks again,  --jim

In article <1992Aug14.104706.6067@iscsvax.uni.edu> kraai4712@iscsvax.uni.edu writes:
>HELP!
>
>I'm using a Mitsubishi MS-DOS compatible computer whose hard disk has crashed.
>
>I'm using it to control a POWER PLANT, get the magnitude of the problem?
>
>It's real important that I recover the software on it as I probably can't
>replace it.
>
>I've got Norton Utils, but when I boot from floppy, I can't access the hard
>drive (doesn't recognize its presence).

	Just for the record: is your boot floppy, perchance, DOS 3.30 or
	less?  If so, and your hard drive is >32M, that might explain why
	you can't access it.

>
>Does anyone know any back doors into the system (like Zenith's
>control-alt-insert, anything like that?)  Any device drivers that I can load
>from floppy to help it recognize the hard drive?
>
>Thanks much in advance.
>
>jim kraai
>kraai4712@iscsvax.uni.edu
>319-268-0320 or 319-273-5555


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