Approximately a year and a half ago, I received the machine I used for the "Home Server Project 2.0" from my technology teacher at school. It was an old Gateway M465-E laptop that came with 1 GB of RAM and an Intel Core Duo processor clocked at 2.16 GHz. I used to use it as a school laptop that ran Linux. It was amazing for coding and other simple tasks. It was also pretty good at running games such as Minecraft and The Ultimate Doom.
Around two months ago, I wanted an upgrade to the "Home Server Project" which, at the time, was running in a VM in the background of my Mom's desktop computer. It was a Windows XP VM with 128 MB of RAM. I needed a computer to run this daunting task on so, I picked the same machine that had served me well for school. I never did come up with a name for her. I guess I never thought I'd need to or need to write this blog post. Now that I do need a name for her, I will name her Starlow. A beautiful name for a very beautiful server. Anyway, I picked Starlow to be the machine I used for my "Home Server Project" upgrade. This project would later be named "Home Server Project 2.0" or "HOME-SERVER-1" for technical purposes. I would occasionally still run "HOME-SERVER" so, I needed a separate name for the new "Home Server" project.
Starlow ran 24/7 for days and nights on end, only to be restarted every afternoon at 3:00 PM because I accidentally flipped the time in the Windows Server task scheduler. The story here begins around 3 hours ago. Starlow was offline when I needed files from her. So, I walked over to the corner of my room she was in and turned her back on. Good as new! I start copying the files I need. However, while copying a file ("06 - Time to Dance.mp3" to be exact) to my computer from Starlow, I got a timeout error. So, I walk over and check on Starlow. Looks like a simple hard lock where the processor crashed and Windows didn't blue screen. No big deal. I thought I'd just restart Starlow and all would be good. So, Starlow passes the POST testing to begin with so I walk back over to my computer. I then get distracted on YouTube for a few hours and I don't realize that Starlow crashed again. This time however, she's gone for good. I notice before I go down to eat dinner that she is showing the signs of a dead motherboard. After I finished dinner, I tried all of the standard troubleshooting steps. I made sure it wasn't dead RAM. I made sure it wasn't the battery. I even made sure it wasn't the fan! After 45 minutes of troubleshooting, Starlow was officially pronounced dead.
Starlow was a machine manufactured in late 2006 and lived a long life of constant use before being passed down to me in 2016, when she was 10 years old. She passed away after 10 and a half years of life on the 5th of October, 2017. She was the shining glory of the "Home Server Project 2.0" and served with great purpose when she was called to do so. She died a peaceful death rather than a painful death (Which every other computer I've killed has) and she will be dearly missed. I don't know if I will revive the "Home Server Project 2.0" on a different machine or if I will simply let the project die peacefully with Starlow. Thank you for reading and I hope you were as touched by Starlow's service as I am and will forever be. Goodnight.
Around two months ago, I wanted an upgrade to the "Home Server Project" which, at the time, was running in a VM in the background of my Mom's desktop computer. It was a Windows XP VM with 128 MB of RAM. I needed a computer to run this daunting task on so, I picked the same machine that had served me well for school. I never did come up with a name for her. I guess I never thought I'd need to or need to write this blog post. Now that I do need a name for her, I will name her Starlow. A beautiful name for a very beautiful server. Anyway, I picked Starlow to be the machine I used for my "Home Server Project" upgrade. This project would later be named "Home Server Project 2.0" or "HOME-SERVER-1" for technical purposes. I would occasionally still run "HOME-SERVER" so, I needed a separate name for the new "Home Server" project.
Starlow ran 24/7 for days and nights on end, only to be restarted every afternoon at 3:00 PM because I accidentally flipped the time in the Windows Server task scheduler. The story here begins around 3 hours ago. Starlow was offline when I needed files from her. So, I walked over to the corner of my room she was in and turned her back on. Good as new! I start copying the files I need. However, while copying a file ("06 - Time to Dance.mp3" to be exact) to my computer from Starlow, I got a timeout error. So, I walk over and check on Starlow. Looks like a simple hard lock where the processor crashed and Windows didn't blue screen. No big deal. I thought I'd just restart Starlow and all would be good. So, Starlow passes the POST testing to begin with so I walk back over to my computer. I then get distracted on YouTube for a few hours and I don't realize that Starlow crashed again. This time however, she's gone for good. I notice before I go down to eat dinner that she is showing the signs of a dead motherboard. After I finished dinner, I tried all of the standard troubleshooting steps. I made sure it wasn't dead RAM. I made sure it wasn't the battery. I even made sure it wasn't the fan! After 45 minutes of troubleshooting, Starlow was officially pronounced dead.
Starlow was a machine manufactured in late 2006 and lived a long life of constant use before being passed down to me in 2016, when she was 10 years old. She passed away after 10 and a half years of life on the 5th of October, 2017. She was the shining glory of the "Home Server Project 2.0" and served with great purpose when she was called to do so. She died a peaceful death rather than a painful death (Which every other computer I've killed has) and she will be dearly missed. I don't know if I will revive the "Home Server Project 2.0" on a different machine or if I will simply let the project die peacefully with Starlow. Thank you for reading and I hope you were as touched by Starlow's service as I am and will forever be. Goodnight.
