"reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key"

[pete smout]

On 21/08/13 08:24, Colin Law wrote:
> On 20 August 2013 23:46, Qiubo Su (David Su) <qiubosu at gmail.com> wrote:
>> ...
>> it is a seagate 500GB HD made in china manufactured in 2008. i used it as a
>> linux 24x7 server for the past nearly 1.5 years. the server is in the office
>> room and its temperature is from 10 C to 25 C, ventilation is good, not
>> dusty. the server was stably sitting on the desk without physical collision.
>>
>> what could make it got such problem in 1.5 years time in such a OK
>> environment?
> 
> Things break for no obvious reasons.  That is true of all electronic
> and electro-magnetic components.  Possibly a poorly soldered
> connection, possibly a faulty bearing on the disc, a faulty capacitor,
> a cosmic ray through one of the chips, many possible causes.
> 
> By the way it is preferred not to top post on this list.  Please
> insert your replies inline in the previous post as others have been
> doing.  Thanks.
> 
> Colin
> 
I have been watching this thread with great interest, and as an outsider
(with little or no server experience) it seems to me than the HDD has
died. as they are one of the few electronic components with moving parts
in common use these days, optical drives being the other that springs
immediately to mind, they remain the weak link, which is why all experts
say backups are so important.

I wish I could find the webpage I found about 2 years ago when a
government 'expert' said that if data is not stored on 3 separate drives
it may as well not exist at all! (seams like the perfect bit-torrent
defence to me;))

Having said that I am guilty of not practising what is preached and have
not backed up my data on this laptop for over a year now.....i think
perhaps it is time!

Good luck to the OP, and if the drive is gone the running hirens can't
do any more harm and may well enable the OP to recover the data!
(depends on the fault, if it is a damaged 'magnetic disk' it might help,
if it is mechanical failure then no software can put that right!)

Regards

Pete S
The lesson here is storage is relatively cheap now so there is no excuse
for not backing up at least the important stuff.