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Spazzle · Joined: 21 Oct 2024 Posts: 76 Location: Sunny UK

Hi all, I need a computer whiz to help me sort out my home network.

Basically I have a 500gb network hard drive that lives nextdoor with my hubby (we're neighbours) and its connected to my laptop by a really long ethernet cable that runs through our lofts. All has been fine for months and then today it stopped letting me on with the error message:

The drive or network connection that the shortcut 'Target.Ink' refers to is unavailable. Make sure that the disk is properly inserted or the network resource is available and try again.

some things to mention:

It was the first thing we checked and theres definitely no break in the wire and its recognizing the hard drive fine. everything is switched on correctly and working.

My hubby reset all the network settings, manually configured the ip address and restarted the laptop several times with no luck

I have a really long cable instead of wireless because the thought of so many waves passing through the place freaks me out and doesn't seem healthy - so i try to go wired when possible.

The answer isnt simple cuz my hubby makes computers for a living and has no idea whats causing it. It happened to one of his computers and stayed that way for a few months until it randomly started connecting again. His theory is an XP glitch.

I don't want to wait for it to correct itself, anyone got any ideas?

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The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious - the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. - Einstein

Royal · Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2024 6:26 am Post subject:

Maybe you need a new wire. Not all computer wires are really designed to be outdoors for long periods of time. Try testing the wire on another comp, if you can. Maybe get some weather tape to protect it.

But, since you have xp, it could be a glitch. Try looking up some patches.

I'm not a very computery person, but my ex was. I can ask if you like?
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I'm here to kick ass and play card games
...and I'm all out of cards

Spazzle · Joined: 21 Oct 2024 Posts: 76 Location: Sunny UK

That would be great if you could ask, its driving me nuts! We live nextdoor in a block of flats so the wire doesn't really get battered in any way. Ive searched all over for the target.ink error and there were lots of people asking but no one had an answer. I get the feeling it is a xp error because according to the connection wizards and checks my hubbies end theres no reason at all why it isn't connecting - its just got shortcut issues! Might be worth mentioning it was working fine until last night when i ran out of electric and let the laptop run until the battery was completely dead. Thats the only thing thats been odd in the past few days. Thanks for the help Royal
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The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious - the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. - Einstein

silver · Posted: Sun Nov 04, 2024 9:45 pm Post subject:

dare i suggest system restore?
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...create pointless acts of beauty.

Spazzle · Joined: 21 Oct 2024 Posts: 76 Location: Sunny UK

Looks like its going that way Silver - may as well format it and re-install windows i spose but i absolutely hate doing that, installing all my software again takes forever and then there's backing everything up -the whole process drives me bananas!

Your right tho, for now ill start with a restore and see how that goes...
_________________
The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious - the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. - Einstein

silver · Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2024 12:48 pm Post subject:

colin has a nice trick that i keep meaning to get him to explain again, it involves partitions and images, he keeps a clean image of his os/programs partition and just reloads it every now and again(i guess he updates the image occasionally)
takes away all those tedious hours of putting your software back together
_________________
...create pointless acts of beauty.

splinter · Joined: 23 Dec 2024 Posts: 54 Location: Dublin, Ireland

how bout trying a different laptop to localize the issue. if you still get the issue it isnt your computer... may save you a un needed restore?
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"If you roll a pencil is it still stationary?"

Spazzle · Joined: 21 Oct 2024 Posts: 76 Location: Sunny UK

Hi Splinter, that unintentionally happened today actually when my b/fs computers also lost the network. Becoming clear the hard drive is the problem - good job it came with a 3 year warranty. Havn't had my music collection for days now and it really sucks
_________________
The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious - the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. - Einstein

Royal · Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2024 6:49 am Post subject:

Ah is it? Cause my ex told me to tell you to check the hard drive...
_________________
I'm here to kick ass and play card games
...and I'm all out of cards