Power cut blew HDD. How to prevent this to new PC?

Middy

This is for my parents.

My parents had a 7 year old Dell desktop. My mum only used it for downloading CDs onto iTunes to her iPod, e-mail, internet and storing photos. They had the PC plugged into a surge protector.

My parents suffer a fair number of mini power cuts - ones that last about 30 seconds or less. One of these mini power cuts caused the HDD to crash and its unusable now. They have an external HDD and when my mum gets photos done, she gets them put onto a CD - so hopefully most of the data is safe.

They were in the process of getting a new PC as its was struggling. How do my parents prevent something happening like this again?

vuvuzela

A UPS (uninterruptible power supply) will give them a few minutes of backup power when a cut happens.

A passive one like http://www.ebuyer.com/240319-extra-value-800va-ups-great-price-ea208 (as long as they are at the PC and can manually shut down when the power is out to the building) might do the trick and is cheap.

System

i had a similar thing happen with a power cut/surge - a ups is the answer, yes they are a bit expensive but losing work/hardware/time can be more costly

edit: the one linked above is very cheap, you could give that a try!

Hungerdunger

Just a thought - as they are thinking of getting a new computer, do they really need a desktop? If they could manage with a laptop, then if there is a power cut it would automatically switch to battery power with no loss of data and no risk of damage to the hard drive.

Anthonis

I would recommend getting a laptop too. It's more reasonable and cost effective. I would also complain on power supplier, then maybe they would check who is causing those power cuts.
UPS is more needed if you really need desktop pc. Price is hell expensive, battery must be changed after some years, so its again money spending.

Gratis

I would highly recommend buying them - and yourself, too, if you haven’t already got one - a decent UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply).

The less basic ones offer a USB connection to a computer, which prompts the computer to shut itself down safely before the UPS’s own battery eventually runs out during a prolonged power outage, if you are not there to do this yourself.

Any other device that incorporates a hard drive should also be protected with a UPS. Killing the power supply to a hard drive when it’s reading or writing data causes major corruption.

The APC (American Power Conversion) 750, 1000 and 1500 units are good. They are expensive to buy new but, with patience, can be picked up fairly cheaply on eBay. “Picked up” is an appropriate phrase to use: you won’t be able to lift unaided anything larger than a 1500 and you need to find one locally that you can collect from the seller, because their weight means that they cost a fortune to ship.

All the computer setups in our house are protected by UPSs and we also have an APC 1500 protecting our AV system in the lounge (which includes a Humax FoxSat-HDR FreeSat recorder with external hard drives attached to it).

Don’t forget to plug the computer’s monitor(s) into it, too, or you won’t be able to see what the computer is actually doing. Adding a lamp with a low-energy bulb in it is also very handy is a power cut!

Fifer

Rather than a UPS, they might be cheaper buying a PC with an SSD instead of a hard drive. In a power outage, all they'd lose should be the data in the write buffer. And they'd get the daily benefit of the improved speed from their investment.

moonrakerz

Buy another external HDD.

Switch it on every day/week (or whatever ), back up your "valuables", switch it off.

Gratis

Fifer wrote: »

Rather than a UPS, they might be cheaper buying a PC with an SSD instead of a hard drive. In a power outage, all they'd lose should be the data in the write buffer. And they'd get the daily benefit of the improved speed from their investment.

Fitting an SSD to a computer will not protect the rest of its workings from the shock of a sudden power outage, will not enable the computer to power itself down safely (closing all open applications in the process), will not keep the monitor(s) going to see what the computer is doing and will not provide one with a light in a pitch-black room at night. A decent UPS will.

It’s also very nice to be able to just keep on working (or watching television) unaffected through a series of powercuts! :dance:

A UPS will, furthermore, keep one's modem and router going. And TV programmes one is recording will not be wrecked when a power outage occurs.

moonrakerz wrote: »

Buy another external HDD.

Switch it on every day/week (or whatever ), back up your "valuables", switch it off.

If a power outage occurs while you are reading or writing to your backup HDD you will be doubly screwed. It'll wreck your backup drive as well. Then what will you do? :wall:

Niv

Another vote for getting a UPS here. A laptop is not a more cost effective alternastive either btw.

Niv

karl-123

the answer to this post is a simple one for me as a pc enthusiast for ten years,
get a click free external hard drive it autobacks up imprtant information,

tatty bye from karl..............