jaymen

Hello to all. We had a rash of power outages locally and the last one killed my computer for good. It was down for a week, I fixed it, and a week later the power browned out and it died alltogether. So, unless I want to spend a bunch of money on recovering my files from the old hard drive, I have lost all my e-mail, files, and contacts, address book, and most importantly to me: all the files on the JBR reproduction Ace Clone Receivers.

Anyone who has tried to contact me by my home e-mail is therefore not going to get a response, as I can't access it. We are getting a loaner lap top from a friend, but it has Vista on it, which I'll be cursing at for sure, and I probably have a huge backlog of unanswered e-mail from all of you. Please be patient, and if you need to just call me at 949-699-0439.

I have all the repairs and orders processed, we are up to date on that, just not able to do e-mail at this time. I anticipate having a new computer system by the end of the month at which time we will resume e-mail correspondance, until then, call, or snail mail me.

Jay Mendoza
22801 Alturas Dr.
Mission Viejo, Ca., 92691
949-699-0439.

iflyj3

My Feedback: (7)

Jay,

I lost a system a while back and replaced it with a Vista machine. I call Vista the "Same old women with a different shade of lipstick" Meaning as far as I am concerned, it is no advantage to me.

Anyway, Keep your old hard drive and get a hard drive to USB adapter. I bought one on the net for about $15. You attach it to your old hard drive and plug in to a USB port and it becomes another hard drive on your system. I was able to recover all my data.

It is called USB 2.0 to IDE cable. I don't remember where I got it, but a search will find them. Get one with it's own power supply.

Laird SS

Be sure to install a battery backup unit between your computer and the wall plug. It could help you in times of a brown-out or power failure. It helps to keep the power level constant and will give you several minutes to shut down your system in the event of a power failure.

bb

Walt Thyng

My Feedback: (9)

Welcome to the "I forgot to do a back-up club." )-: You may want to look into an automatic back-up system, especially if you are running a business. You could certainly back up your address books and bookmarks list on a separate disc.

Walt (I forgot to back-up)Thyng

jaymen

I got too buisy building and fixing vintage electronics, then my computer took a one way trip into cyber-space...I consider them a necessary evil, and have no other interest in them other than as a tool. They have yet to standardize them, after over 30 years, they still keep changing the game, so I'm unwilling to invest any real time learning them because it takes so much time and room in your head, only to become obsolete right about the time you finally "get it". I find it more useful to invest my time on learning skills I'll be able to use for many years and not have to keep re-investing in just to tread water.

Thanks for the tips guys, I'm having Zel Ritchie do exactly what you all suggested, and this time I'm having a spare drive for back-up, a boot, and repair disc, and copies of all the programs so I can re-load if needed.

I have had hand me down computors for years, never bought one new. My uncle Bob was on the developement team for the the first IBM PC, and as such I had early ATs and XTs he gave us, they were some of the first ones. Back when the Pentiums came out however, I still was using a 386 IBM. Everytime someone upgrades, I get their used system, and my stuff goes to the LA unified school district for use in their classrooms. This time Zel is going to set me up with a clean XP install and only the programs I need, no other manufacturer loaded pop-ups and spam programs like HP, Dell, and Gateway used to put on there.....Mr. Space Control is my hero and savior, I knew fixing those old radios for him would pay-off someday!

jaymen

Thanks Dan, that trick you told me about worked, we recovered everything and the computer is back up. Thanks everyone else for the advice, it all helped and we are back online...yes

billmod12

My Feedback: (1)

Jaymen, When you had your computer down I trust you replaced the tubes and the two 22.5 volt batteries and wound the rubber band on the hard drive motor. Glad to have you back!! Cheers Bill

iflyj3

My Feedback: (7)

Glad you are back on line.

John 38

dan,

re using the hard drive via the USB port, can you use a seperate operating system on that external hard drive??

I run 2 internal hard discs to provide both data back up and also the ability to switch between operating systems - XP and 98 - the latter needed to print model plans on an old bubble jet continuous paper printer.

john

iflyj3

My Feedback: (7)

That I do not know. I was only interested in recovering the data.

How do you switch between the ones you have? Is it a switch to change the master slave on the disk or software?

jaymen

Never beleive me, but it was a blown out 1U5 triode tube

Have a couple nice improvements we made to the Ace Clone, including a great open collector NPN driver for escapements that can handle low resistance coils of 9 ohms or so, and simplified versions for driving Galloping Ghost actuators that have their own switcher(Rand GG and Dual Paks) for 3.6 volt operation.

We restored a Min-X AstroMite VI for Bob B., and he has flown it successfully down in Orlando, way to go Bob! An HPI receiver and modern servos worked with only minor modofocations, it's the best of both worlds, old and new.