[Leica] Computer help!!!

[robinson at sfsu.edu (Gib Robinson)]

Tina,

What an aweful situation! Painful, frustrating, grim. 

To speak more practically about your situation, it seems to me that
something doesn't add up here. Six hard drive failures from a reputable
drive manufacturer leaves me thinking something else is happening. Brian
mentioned electricity, humidity, & temperature. They are all possibilities.
So is the Dell machine that all the hard drives are attached to. Dell is a
good company but they make consumer-level machines that are not always as
reliable as those designed for mission-critical applications. On the other
hand, in reasonable weather with a good power source, Windows machines from
Dell running XP pro are quite reliable -- perhaps not as reliable as Macs or
high end server-level machines from companies like IBM and HP, but MANY
people rely on them and don't have six hard drives fail. That, in my view,
suggests something else is wrong. 
        What I wish for you at this point is solid, professional, local
support -- someone who could come out, check your configuration, run some
diagnostic tests, and figure out what's happening. It seems to me it would
save you lots of anxiety to have access to someone who could set up the
system and would know how to maintain it. Right now it sounds as if you are
trying to be your own IT person. That's difficult, time consuming, and scary
for most people. There are lots of "Tips" one could give to users that might
work for you to find your drive, but most require that you work your way
through the Drive Maintenance utilities in XP, check resources like
interrupts to make sure there are no device conflicts, etc. These are not
steps you want to routinely go through yourself. It seems to me you have
made good enough hardware choices to deserve reliability and ease of use.
I'm sorry it's been so tough to get it. 

--Gib