Comments on: Odd Requests http://www.willmidgley.com/2007/02/05/odd-requests/ A conquest for an expanded World View, and the Ultimate Free Lunch Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:13:45 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.2 By: GeM http://www.willmidgley.com/2007/02/05/odd-requests/#comment-811 GeM Sat, 10 Feb 2007 02:51:46 +0000 http://www.willmidgley.com/2007/02/05/odd-requests/#comment-811 You poor thing James. It has happened to me, it's a pretty damn painful experience. And, back to the main topic at hand, I think the idea of owning a bookstore's pretty awesome... How much fun would that be?! ;P You poor thing James. It has happened to me, it’s a pretty damn painful experience.

And, back to the main topic at hand, I think the idea of owning a bookstore’s pretty awesome… How much fun would that be?! ;P

]]> By: Hugo http://www.willmidgley.com/2007/02/05/odd-requests/#comment-809 Hugo Thu, 08 Feb 2007 10:29:43 +0000 http://www.willmidgley.com/2007/02/05/odd-requests/#comment-809 MacGuyver/James - first of all, a backup means you have a second "backup" copy of the data. It's not a backup if your only copy is now on an external hard drive instead of on the laptop...... seems obvious, but needs to be said. Secondly, if you used Linux instead of Mac, 1) chances are you wouldn't have had the hard drive problem in the first place, but more seriously, 2) you would have had a pretty good chance of retreiving the data with something like MondoRescue or ddrescue. Maybe try and find a PC with Linux, and ideally someone who knows how to use it, and see if you can recover some/all of your data. This will most probably only work if you did nothing destructive to the hard drive after noticing that it ate your data. Although, simple things like formatting (but not writing new files to the disk) often don't effect your ability to recover data. Using this method, I've been able to recover (some of the) data even from drives that have physically failed and report thousands of bad blocks. (Once I had to pull the platters out of a drive and put them into an identical drive to get my data back because the heads had crashed - nerve wracking...) Having said all that, I have to admit to being a hypocrite. My backup policies are abysmal. MacGuyver/James - first of all, a backup means you have a second “backup” copy of the data. It’s not a backup if your only copy is now on an external hard drive instead of on the laptop…… seems obvious, but needs to be said.

Secondly, if you used Linux instead of Mac, 1) chances are you wouldn’t have had the hard drive problem in the first place, but more seriously, 2) you would have had a pretty good chance of retreiving the data with something like MondoRescue or ddrescue. Maybe try and find a PC with Linux, and ideally someone who knows how to use it, and see if you can recover some/all of your data. This will most probably only work if you did nothing destructive to the hard drive after noticing that it ate your data. Although, simple things like formatting (but not writing new files to the disk) often don’t effect your ability to recover data. Using this method, I’ve been able to recover (some of the) data even from drives that have physically failed and report thousands of bad blocks. (Once I had to pull the platters out of a drive and put them into an identical drive to get my data back because the heads had crashed - nerve wracking…)

Having said all that, I have to admit to being a hypocrite. My backup policies are abysmal.

]]> By: Will http://www.willmidgley.com/2007/02/05/odd-requests/#comment-808 Will Thu, 08 Feb 2007 06:14:12 +0000 http://www.willmidgley.com/2007/02/05/odd-requests/#comment-808 Oh, and photos from Australia Day 2007 are up in the <a href="http://www.willmidgley.com/photo-gallery/" rel="nofollow">photo gallery</a rel="nofollow"> Oh, and photos from Australia Day 2007 are up in the photo gallery

]]> By: Will http://www.willmidgley.com/2007/02/05/odd-requests/#comment-807 Will Thu, 08 Feb 2007 02:48:49 +0000 http://www.willmidgley.com/2007/02/05/odd-requests/#comment-807 Well Pete, you are on the money. It is a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Hill_%28euphemism%29" rel="nofollow">euphemism for Hell</a> so far as I know. And major points for plugging your uncle's bookshop. Random, but amusing also! I'm still not entirely sure how Dr. Who comes into the whole picture, but maybe you were just venting Sandune? Well Pete, you are on the money. It is a euphemism for Hell so far as I know. And major points for plugging your uncle’s bookshop. Random, but amusing also!

I’m still not entirely sure how Dr. Who comes into the whole picture, but maybe you were just venting Sandune?

]]> By: macguyver http://www.willmidgley.com/2007/02/05/odd-requests/#comment-805 macguyver Tue, 06 Feb 2007 21:56:45 +0000 http://www.willmidgley.com/2007/02/05/odd-requests/#comment-805 Try this, http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-sam1.htm Try this,
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-sam1.htm

]]> By: Sandune http://www.willmidgley.com/2007/02/05/odd-requests/#comment-803 Sandune Tue, 06 Feb 2007 09:06:56 +0000 http://www.willmidgley.com/2007/02/05/odd-requests/#comment-803 The phrase "what in the Sam Hill" comes from ... something. Possibly Dr Who, but that might just be about that he had an assistant named Sam Hill. I know this because I hate Dr Who and had an ex who loved it. Incidentally, one of my good friends name's is Sam Hill. Really, genuinely. And she never had anyone mention the above to her until she was about 23. The phrase “what in the Sam Hill” comes from … something. Possibly Dr Who, but that might just be about that he had an assistant named Sam Hill. I know this because I hate Dr Who and had an ex who loved it.

Incidentally, one of my good friends name’s is Sam Hill. Really, genuinely. And she never had anyone mention the above to her until she was about 23.

]]> By: macguyver http://www.willmidgley.com/2007/02/05/odd-requests/#comment-799 macguyver Mon, 05 Feb 2007 12:34:08 +0000 http://www.willmidgley.com/2007/02/05/odd-requests/#comment-799 <p>For those of you who don't know me, I'm James. I take photos, use copious amounts of punctuation and occasionaly post here on Wills blog...<br /> I like to think (in a somewhat narcassitic way) that some of the photos i have taken are worth keeping. Protecting, if you will so two weeks ago I spent $305 on a large lacie external hard disk.<br /> Now I know that you can buy a hard disk and external enclosure for much less but I wanted something good, something that would protect my photos and other valuable data, So I dug deep and after reading rave reviews, spent the money.</p> <p>you can see where this is going right...</p> <p>Now after feverishly backing up my Hard disk I set about getting rid of some of the old stuff that I didn't need to carry around everyday, In this way I "found" 25gb of space on my laptop.</p> <p>Two weeks later and time for the weekly backup. Up pops an error message, Unable to read from disk Initialise/Ignore/Eject. f*ck was an understatement.</p> <p>After 20 minutes trying to get this disk to mount ("load" for you non-mac sub humans) up pops nothing.</p> <p>nothing, 320gb of plain nothing<br /> no pictures,<br /> no music,<br /> no backups,<br /> no documents,<br /> nothing</p> <p>and then it hit...</p> <p>No gearbox...</p> <p>Gone was the 1.5gb of data I had personally generated for that project. Its as if someone has cut that gearbox month out of the space time continum all I have left is the lingering taste of berroca and coffee...</p> <p>As I sit here shellshocked the harddrive just looks back at me, the little blue eye blinking as it hapily reports that nothing is wrong, no corrupt file cause there are none to be corrupted.</p> <p>just lots of nothing... and 300 dollars worth of harddisk I now don't trust.</p> <blockquote> Made more palatable by the Editor on <ins datetime="2007-06-18T13:32:54+00:00">18 July 2007</ins></blockquote> For those of you who don’t know me, I’m James. I take photos, use copious amounts of punctuation and occasionaly post here on Wills blog…
I like to think (in a somewhat narcassitic way) that some of the photos i have taken are worth keeping. Protecting, if you will so two weeks ago I spent $305 on a large lacie external hard disk.
Now I know that you can buy a hard disk and external enclosure for much less but I wanted something good, something that would protect my photos and other valuable data, So I dug deep and after reading rave reviews, spent the money.

you can see where this is going right…

Now after feverishly backing up my Hard disk I set about getting rid of some of the old stuff that I didn’t need to carry around everyday, In this way I “found” 25gb of space on my laptop.

Two weeks later and time for the weekly backup. Up pops an error message, Unable to read from disk Initialise/Ignore/Eject. f*ck was an understatement.

After 20 minutes trying to get this disk to mount (”load” for you non-mac sub humans) up pops nothing.

nothing, 320gb of plain nothing
no pictures,
no music,
no backups,
no documents,
nothing

and then it hit…

No gearbox…

Gone was the 1.5gb of data I had personally generated for that project. Its as if someone has cut that gearbox month out of the space time continum all I have left is the lingering taste of berroca and coffee…

As I sit here shellshocked the harddrive just looks back at me, the little blue eye blinking as it hapily reports that nothing is wrong, no corrupt file cause there are none to be corrupted.

just lots of nothing… and 300 dollars worth of harddisk I now don’t trust.

Made more palatable by the Editor on 18 July 2007

]]> By: Pete http://www.willmidgley.com/2007/02/05/odd-requests/#comment-802 Pete Mon, 05 Feb 2007 12:13:09 +0000 http://www.willmidgley.com/2007/02/05/odd-requests/#comment-802 lol Will, I'm assuming Sam Hill is some sort of substitute for hell or similar..... Tim's Bookshop is a bookshop in Kew and Canterbury which happens to be owned by my uncle. His name is quite predictably Tim :) lol Will, I’m assuming Sam Hill is some sort of substitute for hell or similar…..

Tim’s Bookshop is a bookshop in Kew and Canterbury which happens to be owned by my uncle. His name is quite predictably Tim :)

]]> By: macguyver http://www.willmidgley.com/2007/02/05/odd-requests/#comment-801 macguyver Mon, 05 Feb 2007 11:51:50 +0000 http://www.willmidgley.com/2007/02/05/odd-requests/#comment-801 did you install smc fan control? it may be set to 6000 minimum did you install smc fan control? it may be set to 6000 minimum

]]> By: Will http://www.willmidgley.com/2007/02/05/odd-requests/#comment-800 Will Mon, 05 Feb 2007 11:49:41 +0000 http://www.willmidgley.com/2007/02/05/odd-requests/#comment-800 Pete, what in the Sam Hill are you on about? macguyver, I think that deserves an upset call to the manufacturer! :-/ For those of you playing at home in different countries/unis than us, Gearbox is the assignment equivalent of hell...a sadomasochistic conglomeration of all that is 'wonderful' in the world of engineering. I feel your pain son. (Random note, my laptop sounds like it's about to take off, its fans are running at 6000rpm apparently. And apple spell checker doesn't put a red dotted line underneath a lowercase i...shot apple! :-) ) Pete, what in the Sam Hill are you on about?

macguyver, I think that deserves an upset call to the manufacturer! :-/ For those of you playing at home in different countries/unis than us, Gearbox is the assignment equivalent of hell…a sadomasochistic conglomeration of all that is ‘wonderful’ in the world of engineering. I feel your pain son.

(Random note, my laptop sounds like it’s about to take off, its fans are running at 6000rpm apparently. And apple spell checker doesn’t put a red dotted line underneath a lowercase i…shot apple! :-) )

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