[SWLUG] Re: Run from CD Linux

[Rhys Sage]

Thanks for everybody's help and suggestions.

The situation gets ever more interesting. The computer
that has the data locked away on the hard drive is a
Dell Dimension 1100. Today I decided to take the hard
drive out in order to caddy it in order to get the
data transferred. The first problem that surfaced was
that the case was less than easy to open. Having
worked out how to do that, I found the hard drive was
screwed in from both sides. In order to access the
other side of the hard drive it was necessary to open
the other side of the case. That seemed to have been
popped into place with lugs that were not supposed to
be opened. Having sheared off all those lugs I found
the metal in the case all wrapped around so the side
was solid metal. Thus I drilled a hole in the metal in
order to access the other screw on the other side of
the hard drive.

Having done all that I found the drive to be secured
by yet more screws - one of which was not visible and
the other was covered by a metal strut that appeared
to be spot-welded in place. I can't believe Dell
builds a computer then spot-welds it so that it cannot
be repaired!

So, I decided to try to load Ubuntu/Gnoppix from my
CD. Duly, I ported the whole contraption to one of the
few working power sockets in the good lady's home.
That's when problem 2 ocurred - the power lead for the
monitor has gone awol.

I shall, of course, be recommending to the good lady
that data needs to be backed up regularly - something
I have recommended before and installing a network
with data held centally on the server, with each
workstation network booted. I'm not sure how to do
that though.

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