Computer Questions Not Worth Their Own Thread II

[warpus]

So my computer crashed.. At first windows wasn't loading and now when I boot up I just get a bunch of beeps and nothing shows up on my screen.

I have been meaning to build a new rig anyway, but I want to recover any data that's sitting on this machine. I had a RAID-1 setup, with 2 300gb drives. RAID controller was on the mobo IIRC, it wasn't a software solution.. although I could be wrong about that.

What do I do to recover that data? Can I just plug one of those drives into another computer and it'll be as easy as that? Or do I need the RAID controller from my machine to work somehow for me to pull those files out?

 

[Zelig]

Yeah, RAID 1 you should be able to just plug either drive straight into another computer.

I don't generally recommend hardware RAID at the consumer level anymore though, as a backup system RAID 1 isn't, and as a redundancy system it's wasteful and unnecessary.

My standard recommendation is to have appropriate cloud (or whatever else) backups for your primary OS/application drive, and some time of software RAID (Win8 storage spaces works, I use snapraid) for data drives.

 

[warpus]

If I can just plug it into my roomie's PC and grab my data that way that would just be awesome. He's saying I might need to plug them both into a compatible raid controller though, although what you're suggesting "might" work. I hope you're right, because I don't want to lose my FM2012 save.

As for future setup, thanks for the ideas, I will deal with it when the new PC gets built. Right now I just want to focus on retrieving my data.

 

[Zelig]

What I suggested *might* not work, but even if it doesn't you should be able to muck around in software to get the disk readable.

 

[warpus]

What sort of software?

My roommate is speccing out a new gaming rig for me as we speak, but I just can't stop thinking about that data recovery.

 

[Zelig]

Not sure, probably try just plugging it in first, and then if that doesn't work, figure out the brand/model of the hardware raid and google something like "raidname raid 1 drive recovery".

 

[J-man]

Note entirely sure this is the right thread but XCOM is on sale on steam, it's 75% off (temporarily). Good luck getting through the site though.... the servers appear to be rather busy.

 

[Loppan Torkel]

Note entirely sure this is the right thread but XCOM is on sale on steam, it's 75% off (temporarily). Good luck getting through the site though.... the servers appear to be rather busy.

It's not . Strange that they haven't done anything more to the franchise after the success they had, while we're on the subject..


I've got another router question. I've never owned one or felt the need to own a router. If I got one, I could lose the cable to the laptop and be connected with two computers at the same time, if I ever felt the need for it. What other practical uses are there to routers?

I'm considering ASUS RT-N66U or AC66U, both of which have gotten excellent reviews as far as I can tell, but this is one of those things I may as happily be without. I'm not convinced, but if there's a good reason to get one - which one do you recommend?

 

[Zelig]

If you're stationary, there's not much point to wireless, wired gives better performance and you can pick up a quality gigabit switch to connect multiple computers for for $25. (Though technically you'll still need a router for DHCP, but it doesn't need to be wireless.)

The point of wireless is that you don't have to be connected to a wire...

Of those routers, the AC66U is the better model by virtue of supporting 802.11ac, but unless you have any devices that support ac, you won't see much difference with it.

 

[Loppan Torkel]

Ok, thanks! I'll leave you alone now

 

[bhsup]

He neglected to mention that with wireless comes the ability to create neato cool SSIDs to broadcast to your neighborhood.

Z'ha'dum
Lothlorien
Nord
Mead

etc...

 

[Arakhor]

"I used to be an adventurer until I got wireless broadband"?

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

Where and how do I find the saved passwords and auto-login data on my mobile phone's internet browser, and access them so I can see the passwords? I'm using Android 2.3.7 and cyanogen mod.

 

[Mise]

Unless there is an option in the browser's settings to view them all, I doubt you'll be able to do it.

 

[Loppan Torkel]

Do you know a good, free program for mac to check the security of a wireless home network?

 

[Zelig]

I don't really know what you mean by "check the security."

Enable WPA2 with only AES, set a long passkey, and you're done.

 

[Loppan Torkel]

Ok. Hackers won't rape me for not setting static IP's and such?

http://compnetworking.about.com/od/wirelesssecurity/tp/wifisecurity.htm


I saw netstumbler being recommended to check the security, but that's for windows..

 

[Zelig]

Responding to stuff on that page:

1. Yes, change the default password, obviously. If the password is good, default username is fine. I disable wireless access to router admin.

2. Don't use WEP, it's worthless. Or WPA1, if you still have any devices that still don't support WPA2 you can probably buy a replacement used for about $20.

3. Yes, do change the SSID.

4. Don't do MAC filtering, it's useless and annoying.

5. Don't disable your SSID, it has a bunch of downsides, no security upsides.

6. Do this.

7. Don't do this, it's a huge hassle for no benefit. If you want static IPs for whatever reason, just configure the DHCP on the router to assign specific IPs based on MAC addresses.

8. Built-in OS firewall is fine.

9. Not worthwhile as a security measure, but minimizing leakage picking non-overlapping channels is common courtesy to avoid wireless signals with neighbors.

10. No real benefit, though if I'm leaving town for a couple weeks or more I'll typically shut everything off.

 

[Loppan Torkel]

Okay. Thanks! I guess I'm pretty covered then. Already did the MAC-filtering though.

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

So I finally got the hard drive of my dead laptop back, for use as an external. Now, is there any way I can get my computer to recognize all the games on it without having to go through tedious install processes to re-install those games all over again?