HD life and Win MCE

[fwfell]

Hello,

I'm a relative noob to this forum, and to video (both analog and digital) on my pc. The expertise that I've encountered here is impressive, if a bit daunting.

I bought an HP desktop with win mce. I have networked it to another pc ptp, but since my tv is so old I have not explored the av features of win mce. How old is my tv? Well it's about 15 to 20 yrs ( a Sony 27"), does not even have composite video input, hence no win mce pvr for now. But those LCDs keep droping in price!

My first question is compatibility with win mce and dvd ecryption, compressing and burning. From reading a great deal on the Green Button ( a very impressive win mce group), win mce is a very demanding program. It seems video cards, tv tuners and various codecs that have problems in mce can make using mce pure hell. Is there a concern in using some of the dvd products recommended by board members here with win mce?

I've also learned since purchasing win mce pc that there are program alternatives that do almost everything that win mce can do. Can carefully selected programs work better, and in a more stable, perhaps simpler manner than mce?

Sorry to be such a long post, but my second topic is hdd longevity. My hdds seem to last about 6 years before a failure and consequent reinstall of the OS and all programs (ugh). What sort of life do you get/expect in a hdd? Do you replace on a schedule or look for signs of catatrophic failure and then replace?

Thanks for any input or comments you might have.

[RFBurns]

Hello,

My hdds seem to last about 6 years before a failure and consequent reinstall of the OS and all programs (ugh). What sort of life do you get/expect in a hdd? Do you replace on a schedule or look for signs of catatrophic failure and then replace?

Thanks for any input or comments you might have.

Howdy!

Well, Im not sure about the win mce stuff, but the HD longevity issue can be debated.

Ive got a pc I built back in 95 that is still running win95b on its original HD, a Segate drive still working fine today. That pc was primarily built to function as an audio stream server for my internet radio station. It spooled programs loaded onto the HD as well as from CD-RW discs when program content changed from day to day, but all other material....ie commercials, announcements etc came from the HD. That pc ran 24/7 for 3 years serving as the stations primary program source and stream server.

Today, that pc is still running fine. After its use on the radio station, I began using it for games, mostly running old DOS games since I had that machine configured for dual boot, either Win95b or MS-DOS 6.0 and 6.22. My grandson uses that machine every day, and it is still running with no HD problems whatsoever.

Of course not everyone is so lucky with HD's lasting that long. I would postulate that most HD problems occur due to overheating, and over-fragmentation of files, which causes the HD heads and disc to read and spin more sporatically than it would if the HD was de-fragmented on a regular basis. Making sure your pc's fans and vents are in proper order can contribute to longevity of any component inside your pc cabinet.

Regular maitenance is also a plus. Things like opening the cabinet and using either compressed air or a weed/lawn blower to blow out dust buildup on the air vents and fans/heatsinks can be a major step in preventing heating problems, which will make the lubricants inside the HD become weak, thus you end up with a noisy HD, and that leads to HD head crashes and disc platter motor failures.

(rf taps on wood)...I have not had a single HD fail on me yet, and I have 5 units of which 2 of them are DOS machines built in early 90's and the one built in 95. Even though I had no problems with HD's, I always performed backups every week on each machine, and when CD burners came out, it made backing up a breeze and more reliable. I still have all of my archive CD's from those years including hundreds and hundreds of floppies from earlier backups, to which those are now on CD as well.

Long live the HD!!