Plan for Andy Schatz
by Andy Schatz · 06/03/2005 (3:28 pm) · 13 comments
Well, my fancy, top-o-the-line Dell had a physical hard drive failure in the boot sector on Wednesday night. I was able to remove the harddrive and hook it up as a slave on another machine, which saved 95% of the new data since my last backup. But WHAT A PAIN!
I went to Fries to upgrade my backup equipment, and they told me to stay away from Maxtor (which is the brand of hard drive), as they had been getting a ton of returns. Believe me, I will.
Luckily Dell support was very quick about getting me a new preloaded HD only 36 hours after my original support request, so now its just a question of setting things up and redoing about a day's worth of work. All things considered, it could've been a lot worse.
And since plans are no good without pictures, I'll bombard you with yet more pictures of Wildlife Tycoon: Venture Africa. Notice the vultures. They are fully controllable, and they fit right into the ecosystem of the game. They are not just for show... ;)
I went to Fries to upgrade my backup equipment, and they told me to stay away from Maxtor (which is the brand of hard drive), as they had been getting a ton of returns. Believe me, I will.
Luckily Dell support was very quick about getting me a new preloaded HD only 36 hours after my original support request, so now its just a question of setting things up and redoing about a day's worth of work. All things considered, it could've been a lot worse.
And since plans are no good without pictures, I'll bombard you with yet more pictures of Wildlife Tycoon: Venture Africa. Notice the vultures. They are fully controllable, and they fit right into the ecosystem of the game. They are not just for show... ;)
About the author
#2
Such is life with tech, I suppose.
Your game, which I have been following the development of quite closely, is looking sexy as all hell. Quite an inspiration to those of us just starting out. :-)
06/03/2005 (3:40 pm)
I still have an aversion to Seagate drives from problems I had with them in my teens (like, 15+ years ago!), though I understand they're now quite good. Maxtor, ironically, had my loyalty for many years because they were so reliable, and now they've gone into the crapper.Such is life with tech, I suppose.
Your game, which I have been following the development of quite closely, is looking sexy as all hell. Quite an inspiration to those of us just starting out. :-)
#3
Nice screenshot btw :)
06/03/2005 (3:41 pm)
i had a hard drive failure the other week as well! Its a right pain, i still cant get my files out of it even tho we are trying everything humanly possible. Nice screenshot btw :)
#4
I back up my hdd once a month onto an external drive I keep in the trunk of my car in the event of a fire or robbery. I also keep all core project files on external ftp/cvs/etc servers. I tempt fate by using an old surge protector and cheap computer parts, so backing up is a necessity :)
06/03/2005 (3:49 pm)
nice screen andy, looking good! boy the detail is so high in that screenshot you can even see a mouse ;)I back up my hdd once a month onto an external drive I keep in the trunk of my car in the event of a fire or robbery. I also keep all core project files on external ftp/cvs/etc servers. I tempt fate by using an old surge protector and cheap computer parts, so backing up is a necessity :)
#5
06/03/2005 (4:23 pm)
Sucks when hard drives fail... afew months ago one of my drives went pop so it's 100% dead along with 20GB of files :(
#6
I just set up my auto backup to my external and now I'm gonna set up an automated once a week backup to an offsite location. Not taking any more chances with this thing.
@Everyone- Thanks for all your positive feedback on the game! I hope I don't bore you guys with screenshots that look similar. I'll have a good one soon of the HUD though... it's gonna be pretty.
06/03/2005 (5:35 pm)
@Tim- the new external I got was a Seagate. The Fries guy said Seagate and Western Digital were the most reliable. I've had a few maxtors, and I've had two of them die. No more Maxtors for me.I just set up my auto backup to my external and now I'm gonna set up an automated once a week backup to an offsite location. Not taking any more chances with this thing.
@Everyone- Thanks for all your positive feedback on the game! I hope I don't bore you guys with screenshots that look similar. I'll have a good one soon of the HUD though... it's gonna be pretty.
#7
06/03/2005 (5:45 pm)
Oh my God!! Looks so cool! 
#8
Strange, that's been my identical experience! I swore off Seagate after losing $300 on a really crappy *cough*120*cough* meg drive ("If you can send us the old drive at your own expense, we can send you a replacement for $300 plus shipping and handling, sir...")
So I was fond of Maxtor for a while (and Western Digital), but my latest drive failure was a Maxtor. Of course, I knew it was failing for about six months (weird noises, gradual slowdown, and it was an old, secondary drive), so I had plenty of time to replace it. Didn't lose any data, either. So as failures go, it was a pretty painless one.
06/03/2005 (8:30 pm)
@Tim:Strange, that's been my identical experience! I swore off Seagate after losing $300 on a really crappy *cough*120*cough* meg drive ("If you can send us the old drive at your own expense, we can send you a replacement for $300 plus shipping and handling, sir...")
So I was fond of Maxtor for a while (and Western Digital), but my latest drive failure was a Maxtor. Of course, I knew it was failing for about six months (weird noises, gradual slowdown, and it was an old, secondary drive), so I had plenty of time to replace it. Didn't lose any data, either. So as failures go, it was a pretty painless one.
#9
The terrain looks a little too pointy to be in a desert, but overall the game looks incredible.
06/04/2005 (11:48 am)
Wow! Looks great!The terrain looks a little too pointy to be in a desert, but overall the game looks incredible.
#10
06/06/2005 (12:20 am)
Simply awesome. 
#12
06/06/2005 (7:36 am)
Nice to see this kewl picture ! I wish you all the best with this title ! Keep up the right work :)
#13
06/06/2005 (4:20 pm)
To quote Napoleon Dynamite - "SWEEEEEEEET"! 
Torque Owner Chris Byars
Ion Productions