Temporary desktop amnesia.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Swifty
  • Start date Start date
S

Swifty

The Cause: A power cut in the night cause my system to reboot itself
when the power came back on. When this happens the system comes up
without the "E:" drive (External Seagate USB2 400Gb, which doesn't power
up automatically). This drive contains nothing but backups. The system
should be happy without it.

The Effect: I logon as "Steve" but my desktop is the "generic" one that
a newly defined user would have.

The cure: Restart the PC, this time with the "E:" drive powered up.
Desktop restored, peace reigns.

The questions:
Can anyone explain why this happened?
Was it the missing "E:" drive that caused the problem, or is that a
coincidence?
For an added bonus point, does anyone know a trick to persuade the
Seagate drive to spin up when power is restored? A motor driven
eccentric cam to poke the "On" button would be a bit "Heath Robinson"
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heath_Robinson).
 
The best idea i can think of for ye is to get a UPS, (Uninterruptable Power
Supply), that'll serve as a backup battery for it you get power cuts
frequently. It'd enable you to shut the machine down properly without
damaging it.

Ive rebooted my PC with a flash drive still plugged in, and it does the
same, it wont recognise it unless i pull it out, and put it back in again.
Its possible windows simply doesnt bother to check since its external, and it
relies on the user monitoring that drive.

Unfortunaly, since its not automatic, theres little ye can really do. ^^~
 
The best idea i can think of for ye is to get a UPS

UPS is on my wishlist - I might get to it sometime during 2009.
Fortunately, although I live in a very rural area, our electricity
supply infrastructure was recently renewed and it is usually very
reliable. Last night's incident was the exception - it affected the
entire county.
 
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