Greetings from the world capital of brownouts, blackouts, spikes, and thunderstorms. Here's what I recommend, in order:
FOR FILESYSTEM PROTECTION... 1. Use a journaling file system like XFS. This, alone, would probably have avoided your problems. FOR HARDWARE PROTECTION... 2. Make sure your power outlets are properly grounded. If you do nothing else, do this. Most of the following measures depend upon proper grounding. 3. Use good quality power supplies. Most PCs today come with junk, but a good name brand supply (PC Power & Cooling make good units) will provide quite a bit of spike, brownout, and surge protection even without separate line conditioning equipment. 4. Decent power protection equipment will indeed cost you the proverbial arm and a leg. The cheap stuff is junk that is not worth buying. Before you buy, consider the specific power problems you face: * If power outages (even momentary ones) are common, you need a UPS. If they are rare, then using a journaling file system should be enough protection. * If lightning strikes or other massive surges are common, have a qualified electrician check your building's wiring with an eye to lightning dissipation. Consider a surge protector from a reputable company like Tripp Lite only if fried computers are common in your neighborhood after a thunderstorm. * If line interference or voltage fluctuations is causing problems, have an electrician check your building's wiring and major appliances. Most problems can be corrected without the need for line conditioners. After having said the above, what do I do? I use XFS, my outlets are grounded, and I have a combo UPS/line conditioner. But that's overkill for most localities. For the average installation, a good power supply connected to a well grounded outlet should do if you're running XFS. Warren Santa Rosa de Copán, Honduras El lun, 29-07-2002 a las 14:17, John Richard Smith escribió: > This may sound a simple question but what if anything can computer > owners do, that doesn't cost an arm and a leg , to protect their > equipement from bad weather. > > Here in Milton Keynes, England we have just had the mother and father of > a thunder storm, which caused a momentary cut in power, and naturally > crashed all the running computers. > Some rebooted OK , that is after lengthy file system checks, but one > refused even after this, it got as far as "loading USB interface (USB > ohci)" , and hung. > > I'm back in , but not after some nifty failsafe rebooting.
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