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turtle
Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
 
2007-11-04, 22:49

My SME Server died tonight. The power supply took out the battery back up with it so I'm not sure what in the box is worth saving. I was at work when my wife text messages me telling me that the server was making some really bad noises and squeals. The power light and other lights were flashing and doing "weird" things.

Since I wasn't at work I couldn't do anything about it until after work. Once I finally got home after work and church I looked into the matter. I found the battery back up was in constant alarm status even under no load. Not a good sign to start with. I plugged my media center into another power strip and it powered right up.

My server on the other hand didn't respond as well. When I turned it on the power light flashed once and I heard the sound of a cap discharging. I then pulled the cover off the computer and could smell the smell of fried components. You know that unmistakable scent that just tell you it's going to cost you money to fix this one. Yeah, it was that smell. The board "looked" fine, but that's not very reliable.

So if I were to replace the power supply in this I think I might find more dead components and then realize that I'm spending more to fix this machine that I would have spent getting a new one. I looked into a Mac Pro with OS X server, but it's not in my budget right now. SME is free and very functional for my needs right now. Plus I can put it on any x86 system.

I'd like to stay under $500 total for this and not loose my data. The problem I'm having is not knowing Linux and how to pull my data off of the server once I get the drives pulled out of it. I had two 300GB drives in a RAID 1 configuration to minimize loss. In a case like this it ups my chances that one of the disks survived the fault.

Any ideas? Any one here familiar with SME Server enough to help? So what kind of system should I buy in order to drop my drives into and be able to "pick up where I left off"? My now dead system is an Athlon 64. Can I change over to something like an Intel Core 2 Duo without loosing my data? If I just go with all new gear, can I pull the data off of my old system even if I go with a clean install?

Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
Visit our archived Minecraft world! | Maybe someday I'll proof read, until then deal with it.
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Gargoyle
http://ga.rgoyle.com
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: In your dock hiding behind your finder icon!
 
2007-11-05, 15:43

If the drives are OK, you should be able to drop them into a new server and it will just boot up - In my experience, Linux has never really bothered too much about what hardware it finds from one boot to the next.

The only one that has stumped me in the past is when the HD's are not recognised under the same name (sdb1 becomes sdc1 or something like that).

If you have a friendly computer shop, they might have a similar motherboard that you can test your RAM and CPU in, if they are still working fine you should easily be able to pick up a new mobo and PSU for under £250.

If your main concern is to just get it up and running again, try and get an exact replacement motherboard (if that is the faulty component).

OK, I have given up keeping this sig up to date. Lets just say I'm the guy that installs every latest version as soon as its available!
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kieran
@kk@pennytucker.social
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
 
2007-11-05, 16:01

I have no idea about the actual problem here, but there was one thing in your post that bothered me turtle.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Google "lose v. loose"
Lose vs Loose

A lot of people are mixing up lose and loose. In particular, a lot of people are writing loose when they really mean lose. Here are the definitions of the two words from my Penguin dictionary:

loose [lOOs] adj not fastened or pre-packed; not tied up or confined; able to move freely; not tight, not firmly fixed; not close-fitting; careless, inaccurate, vague; dissolute, immoral; not closely woven; flabby; (of bowels) inclined to diarrhoea; l. box stable or van in which an animal can move about; at a l. end uncertain what to do next; unoccupied ~ loose adv in a loose way; play fast and l. behave rashly or unscupulously ~ loose n release; on the l. free from restraint; on a spree; ~ loose v/t untie, undo; release from confinement or constraint, set free; detatch; fire (gun); shoot (arrow); (eccles) absolve.

lose (p/t and p/part lost) [lOOz] v/t and i no longer have; be deprived of by accident or misfortune; mislay, fail to find; fail to get or win; be too late for; be bereaved of; waste; be defeated or beaten; suffer loss, become worse off; fail to hear, see or understand; cause or allow to perish; (of clock or watch) go too slowly; (refl) miss the right path; become absorbed in; l. one's head become flustered, panic; l. one's temper grow angry; l. one's way fail to find the right path; l. out (US) be defeated after a struggle.

Examples:

This knot is too loose.
Please do not lose my book.
I had better not lose that file.

One way to remember the difference between the two words is to think that "lose has lost an 'o'".
Sorry, but I consider it my personal mission in life to rid the world of this occurring.

No more Twitter. It's Mastodon now.
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turtle
Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
 
2007-11-05, 20:36

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gargoyle View Post
If the drives are OK, you should be able to drop them into a new server and it will just boot up - In my experience, Linux has never really bothered too much about what hardware it finds from one boot to the next.

The only one that has stumped me in the past is when the HD's are not recognised under the same name (sdb1 becomes sdc1 or something like that).

If you have a friendly computer shop, they might have a similar motherboard that you can test your RAM and CPU in, if they are still working fine you should easily be able to pick up a new mobo and PSU for under £250.

If your main concern is to just get it up and running again, try and get an exact replacement motherboard (if that is the faulty component).
Cool then. I'll go ahead and get a power supply to see if is all that went wrong. If there's more then I'll just get another bare bones system. I'm really hoping SME is tolerant of the change though. I don't want to lose my info.

kieran23kk, did it ever occure to you that it might have been a typo and that a lesson (and major thread derailment) isn't needed when you have nothing else to add to the OP's question or content? I'm not offended, but I do think you're taking it a little to far.

Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
Visit our archived Minecraft world! | Maybe someday I'll proof read, until then deal with it.
  quote
doublem9876
Senior Member
 
Join Date: May 2005
Location: In Seine
Send a message via AIM to doublem9876  
2007-11-06, 00:54

Quote:
Originally Posted by turtle2472 View Post
kieran23kk, did it ever occure to you that it might have been a typo and that a lesson (and major thread derailment) isn't needed when you have nothing else to add to the OP's question or content? I'm not offended, but I do think you're taking it a little to far.
Listen, if you're talking about someone correcting your little typos, at least try not to make more typos in your refutation.
  quote
Schnauzer
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Arizona
 
2007-11-06, 14:17

The Grammar Police are coming, the Grammar Police are coming!!!

  quote
torifile
Less than Stellar Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Durham, NC
Send a message via AIM to torifile  
2007-11-06, 16:21

kieran and doublem: WTF? This isn't some n00b kid to the forums. Jeez.
  quote
Grammar Police
Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Grammar School
 
2007-11-06, 16:42

Quote:
Originally Posted by Schnauzer View Post
The Grammar Police are coming, the Grammar Police are coming!!!

Veni, vidi, vici.
  quote
kieran
@kk@pennytucker.social
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
 
2007-11-06, 16:44

Quote:
Originally Posted by torifile View Post
kieran and doublem: WTF? This isn't some n00b kid to the forums. Jeez.
I know he's not a new kid on the block, it's just that I knew it wasn't a typo because he used it twice.

I just wanted to point it out and just give backup as to why the usage was wrong.

That's all.

I meant no offense to anyone.

No more Twitter. It's Mastodon now.
  quote
turtle
Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
 
2007-11-06, 23:05

FYI, it was a typo. I knew the "trick" to remembering them correctly from grade school. I don't proof read my stuff that much. Be grateful it reads as good as it does on my first pass. I still take no offense but I don't like my threads derailed.

Back to the server:




Battery backup didn't fare too well at all. Seems like I should be REALLY grateful that my place didn't burn down!

All total it cost me $150 because of the replacement battery backup and the new power supply. I went ahead and upgraded the case fan too just to be on the safe side. Oh well.

My server is running fine again but it did bring up an interesting question for me. I'm thinking about upgrading my drive to 500GB and having them set to RAID 1. How would I upgrade the drive from 300GB to 500GB?

Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
Visit our archived Minecraft world! | Maybe someday I'll proof read, until then deal with it.
  quote
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