Computer Questions Not Worth Their Own Thread

[lndm]

80-90% is a 1.27 times increase, 90-100% is 1.23 times. However there are various extraneous issues that affect the results.

For example, The human ear's sensitivity to sound (which is also logarithmic) will at different sound pressure levels display varying sensitivities to a given frequency in a way that doesn't seem logical, and is related to its physical construction.

Another issue is the whistles and such that may only resonate at higher wind speeds, for whatever reason.

Then there are bearings, that get unduly noisy with a certain amount of pressure (lubrication issue or whatever).

 

[Genocidicbunny]

80-90% is a 1.27 times increase, 90-100% is 1.23 times. However there are various extraneous issues that affect the results.

For example, The human ear's sensitivity to sound (which is also logarithmic) will at different sound pressure levels display varying sensitivities to a given frequency in a way that doesn't seem logical, and is related to its physical construction.

Another issue is the whistles and such that may only resonate at higher wind speeds, for whatever reason.

Then there are bearings, that get unduly noisy with a certain amount of pressure (lubrication issue or whatever).

The sensetivity makes more sense. The pitch does increase quite a bit. One of the things I think it may be is that at 90% and below, the air can get out through the grille relatively well, but as soon as the fan goes above that, there is such an increase in resistance, the volume goes up a lot more than the numbers would predict it to.

 

[lndm]

Well, that's two more points I didn't think of. The turbulence will cause a buffeting noise as you suggest, and a reduction in the effective air flow and a back pressure on the fan, which may increase the pressure on the bearings.

The other is the pitch. We have a varying sensitivity to pitch. We are very sensitive to a typical higher pitched human whistle, for example. Here is a curve that demonstrates it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fletcher-Munson_curves

 

[Turner]

How do you mount a windows 98/fat32 hard drive into a winxp/ntfs machine? I've got to pull some data off, and this older computer is being very resistant to mounting. It shows up in drive management, but xp won't let me access it.

 

[lndm]

Is this a separate drive from another computer? Is it on its own on an IDE cable on the secondary IDE port? Is it designated hidden? Did it work on the other computer? Can you install it as the primary and only drive and boot from it? Do you have the geometry set up right in the BIOS (large/LBA etc)?

I have seen cases where the wrong geometry will show a partition but not a file system. XP knows how to do FAT32.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

edit: oops wrong thread

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

If you download ISO images meant for a CD, will it work if you try burning it to a DVD?

 

[Turner]

Is this a separate drive from another computer?

Yes

Is it on its own on an IDE cable on the secondary IDE port?

Yes. The drive is also set for cable select. I'm assuming it's the secondary, as my machine is SATA.

Is it designated hidden?

I don't believe so. I didn't see anything about hidden in the drvmgmt program. It shows up as healthy and active.

Did it work on the other computer? Can you install it as the primary and only drive and boot from it?

It is the primary on the other system. I will not be installing it as the primary on mine. I'm really leery of setting up a gateway primary fat32 partition on an HP desktop. Especially when the HP is seven years newer. I've had problems at work with the same brand computers getting imaged to a different model number. I'm not wild about trying to install it as the primary on my machine.

Do you have the geometry set up right in the BIOS (large/LBA etc)?

I'm not quite sure what that means. I've never heard of geometry set up in the bios...

I have seen cases where the wrong geometry will show a partition but not a file system. XP knows how to do FAT32.

I was pretty surprised that xp wasn't picking up the FAT32. I have a portable hard drive that I formatted as a 20gb FAT32 partition to hook onto his machine...

I'll take it into work. We have an IDE/USB interface there, and hopefully that'll work. If worse comes to worse, I'll install Win2k on one of the extra machines we have and see if it reads it then.

 

[Cutlass]

Have you tried making sure you have permissions on the disk? I don't think that should matter with a fat32 partition, but it's something to look at. It's been a few years since I installed an old HDD in a pc to copy files, but that was a problem for me once upon a time. You have to take ownership of it and give yourself admin privileges over it.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Also, assuming it shows up in the drive management, maybe you can pop in a Linux Live CD see if it shows up there? (If it does, you could probably copy it to a USB storage. Wouldn't recommend copying to NTFS unless the specific live-cd supports it)

 

[lndm]

@ aimee: Rumour has it that Nero will do it. Select your image then use a drop down box to select dvd over cd.

@ Turner: If your BIOS is not set up correctly with the drive then the OS you use is irrelevant (unless it is a *nix system).

The w98 machine might have wanted 'Large' access and your current machine might be defaulting to LBA addressing. Enter your BIOS setup and find your drive on the first or second screen (the one that lists the drives). Select it and change the addressing method/access mode. Try each of the available modes, each time booting windows to see if it works.

 

[Turner]

Thanks, all. I'll try those.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Is it true that a brand-new computer, fresh out of the box, is more likely to fail then one that's been used for a few months? (The bathtub curve.) I know this is true for hard drives, but is it also true for other hardware?

 

[Cutlass]

Statistically, I don't know. But if you've been using it for a few months, odds are that none of parts has a manufacturing defect and that it is assembled correctly. So there is very little likelihood of a failure at that point that wouldn't have shown up immediately. So if there is something wrong with the way it was built, you are more likely to see it immediately than in a couple months.

 

[Ulyaoth]

Typically, larger drives are faster. However, drives within the same family (such as these two might be) probably differ only by the number of platters and so are probably identical in speed.



Bear in mind that some of the money tied up in a good case might be in the drive quick release mechanisms or internal lighting/fannage or whatever. Thought I'd mention that in case you only want something sturdy that will keep things quiet.

Well I'm getting the 640gb now, it's only $7 more, there's no reason not too.

About the case, I found the CM store selling refurbished 690s for $50, with $30 shipping, and I found the Antec 300 at Staples for $60 free shipping, so $20 difference, I'm leaning towards the 300 for the more exhaust(that's more import than intake right?) so the only issue is if it's big enough really.

Now I just have to wonder why it seems every single DVD drive sucks ass according to reviews on Newegg, everyone is loud, doesn't do something it's supposed to, and is slower than advertised.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

I have this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106266
Its not loud unless you have a dvd or cd in it burning.
There's also this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106288

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I had a Lite-On on my old computer. Don't take my case as a single deciding factor, but it was a bit noisy and I got a few coasters but not enough to worry about.

 

[Cutlass]

I've never had a hard drive that was loud enough to be heard over the cooling fans. My dvd drive is pretty loud though.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I've never had a hard drive that was loud enough to be heard over the cooling fans.

I'll take that to mean you've never had a Maxtor.

Sorry, couldn't resist...

 

[Cutlass]

I had 1 Maxtor. No problem with it.