Computers are so helpless

Unplug the hard drive, and all they can say is "operating system not
found". You'd think they could be made to at least notify the user that
the Hard drive is not connected.

You'd think the memory inside the computer would at least be able to say
something meaningful, as to why the OS is not found.

Sometimes I wonder why we even need the computer, when the hard drive
seems to do all the work.

On 2017-11-26, wrote:
Unplug the hard drive, and all they can say is "operating system not
found". You'd think they could be made to at least notify the user that
the Hard drive is not connected.

You'd think the memory inside the computer would at least be able to say
something meaningful, as to why the OS is not found.

Sometimes I wonder why we even need the computer, when the hard drive
seems to do all the work.


You can boot from something else... from something, anyway..

--
press any key to continue or any other to quit...

On Sun, 26 Nov 2017 04:22:12 +0000 (UTC), Melzzzzz
wrote:

On 2017-11-26, wrote:
Unplug the hard drive, and all they can say is "operating system not
found". You'd think they could be made to at least notify the user that
the Hard drive is not connected.

You'd think the memory inside the computer would at least be able to say
something meaningful, as to why the OS is not found.

Sometimes I wonder why we even need the computer, when the hard drive
seems to do all the work.


You can boot from something else... from something, anyway..

Thats true, I have booted from a Windows install CD, and of course
floppy disks on the old computers.

wrote:
Unplug the hard drive, and all they can say is "operating system not
found". You'd think they could be made to at least notify the user that
the Hard drive is not connected.

One would think that the user who is being informed that the computer
which is looking for an OS after the BIOS/UEFI is done and doesn't find
one would be sufficiently aware of which OS opportunities it is looking
to find weren't there.

(If) The user didn't provide an OS in the USB port or the optical drive
so something must've happened to the hdd one too. Doh.

Computers are helpless in that they expect the user to provide them with
the necessary ingredients, power, a monitor, some kind of keyboard/input
device, some working ram, a cpu cool enough, such as that.

--
Mike Easter

wrote:
Unplug the hard drive, and all they can say is "operating system not
found". You'd think they could be made to at least notify the user that
the Hard drive is not connected.

You'd think the memory inside the computer would at least be able to say
something meaningful, as to why the OS is not found.

Sometimes I wonder why we even need the computer, when the hard drive
seems to do all the work.


Computers aren't helpless.

Find a motherboard with Splashtop in it.
You can be browsing five seconds after the
power comes on. No hard drive.

https://www.engadget.com/2008/05/15/...-motherboards/

There were two versions. A lame version where Splashtop
was stored on the hard drive or usb stick or something,
as well as a version where a flash chip on the motherboard
had it.

It would be the flash chip version where the motherboard
wouldn't be "helpless". With all peripherals disconnected,
the flash chip would boot up to a browser. The flash chip
version was only available on the expensive motherboards,
and in effect you were paying for an excess flash chip.

Splashtop can mount a FAT32 or NTFS partition, if storage
devices happen to be available.

You can see a picture of the "desktop" screen for Splashtop here.
You click the left-most "web" icon to start the browser.

https://techgage.com/article/ces_200...vms_splashtop/

And really, any tablet with eMMC flash chip is roughly the same
thing, as there's no hard drive and the OS is stored in
a soldered-down flash chip. If you pull the motherboard
from such a tablet, the OS goes with it. Needless to say,
data recovery in such an environment, is a challenge. If
the eMMC stops responding, you're screwed. Be happy you have
a desktop, where you plug in a new hard drive and off you
go on your next adventure. Fixing a tablet eMMC requires
soldering.

Paul