[ILUG-BOM] sad and depressed - Help! system hangs, files vanish

[Krishna Dagli]

Vickram Crishna wrote:
> Hello
> 
> I am a new user, and new to this list too, although I was here a couple 
> of years back too.
> 
> I am running Red Hat 9.0 on my home PC, and the installation (which was 
> a simple straightforward home selection from the install choice menu) 
> has some troubling behaviour - namely the computer hangs from time to 
> time. The hardware is an old Compaq Celeron, with 128 MB. It lacks a 
> reset button, and in fact lacks an off switch. When the machine hangs I 
> have no choice but to pull the plug from the mains. It has an On switch, 
> but pressing this twice will not restart the machine. In fact, once the 
> switch is pressed on, it no longer has any function. When the machine 
> hangs I lose control of both the mouse and the keyboard. This happens at 
> least once a week (the machine is usually on).

What kernel version and filesystems are being used? Have you 
checked if the harddrive has any problems?
Did you check if your hard drive has any problems? What 
filesystem are you using? Did you tried alternative file system? 
Have you tried removing memory intensive applications, say 
instead of running KDE try flwm or something lighter?

For recoving files search for TCT tools. It has grave-robber, 
unrm and lazarus tools which can help you, but before using these 
tools donot rebuild filesystem.

HTH.
-Krishna.