[BlueOnyx:10778] Re: Blue Onyx 5106R Crash

[Chris Gebhardt - VIRTBIZ Internet]

Bill Hicks wrote:
> 12. Start server - HD not found. What - Wiggle IDE cable - start again - OS 
> not found
> 13. Move cables, HD not found, on s9ome reboots, OS not found on others, 
> changed cable, OS not found consistantly and when I run the rescue mode I 
> get continous errors and then it says the it doesnt have a Linux partition
> 
> So what should I conclude here, Is the server bad, is the cable bad, could I 
> have had 2 bad HD's in a row. Could a bad cable cause it to have exihibited 
> these problems? Or could it be the server? What about memory? Could a memory 
> failure cause this? It has never crashed or rebooted in the months I have 
> had it like other bad servers I have had in the past, it has never given me 
> any grief other than this.

Hi Bill,
Ouch.  If it were me, and that was my box, I'd toss it in the recycling 
pile right away.   What you're explaining sounds like a drive controller 
gone bad, and that's likely on the mobo, right?  Also, you mention "IDE 
cable".  That tells me the server is VERY old, and therefore it 
shouldn't "owe" you anything more.

Sure, it's possible you could fix it, but I really start to wonder about 
the reward for all the work you'll be doing on it.  At best you end up 
with an old server that you can "maybe" trust for a while.  If you're 
just playing around with a hobby, then perhaps that's an option.  If you 
have any customer data on it, I'd just skip the heartache altogether. 
Replace that physical server with a VPS somewhere, or if all of your 
servers are of similar/same spec, then you might consider dropping a 
couple/few hundred dollars on a system that you could replace all your 
boxes with and virtualize everything.

But that's another decision... what you have immediately asked about, 
well, it's probably just a sign of age.  Capacitors breaking down, 
soldering-points failing, or other failure.  The fact that it's 
intermittent is ugly in itself.  It's unlikely to be RAM.  Do yourself a 
favor and scrap that hardware.

-- 
Chris Gebhardt
VIRTBIZ Internet Services
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