Ramblings: Hard Drive Woes – July 3rd, 2010
It’s been a while since I did a Ramblings. Here we go…
Last night I went to record some of July’s Day in Tech History episodes. The audio was lagging – when I stopped processing, it would sit and think. I was able to save the recording, but it took a good 5 minutes to catch up. I finally got it to work better by putting the cache files on another drive.
Uh oh…
This is the first time in 15 years of PC computing that I have had a hard drive even start to falter in a production machine. Not a good feeling. At least I have good backups.
I was able to pull the data off the drives. It just took a while to do. I still have to run the Seagate software, but the bigger question is if the drives are still under warranty.
Seagate drives come with a 1, 2 or 5 year warranty. Of course, if it’s not a manufacturer defect, you will have to buy a new drive. That could mean I am stuck getting new drives.
I still have to determine if it’s not a simple corruption issue. Therefore, I’ll run the Seagate software, reformat the drives and put everything back on.
I also run a 2-drive system (striped). Therefore, I don’t know which drive is having problems. Hopefully not both.
Although it’s not a great time for this to happen, I am not upset. I had a good year with this system and it’s done the job. I have multiple backups so my data will never be lost.
HP Tech Forum
Andy and I have been pushing out HP Tech Forum videos. We had a spectacular time and worked on some new process. The Steve Wozniak videos came out great, although at first I thought I missed the opening part of Andy’s interview. I just realized that we were running the Kodak Zi8 cameras in the back – one I had connected to the sound. Therefore, I will have to re-issue the video with the full conversation between Andy and Steve. Definitely well worth it.
1 year Day in Tech History
I am fast approaching 1 year on DITH. It’s been a tough 365 days and hopefully this will start to get easier…. HA! The plan will be to switch to a video format. That should really be fun!
New Lights
I got some new LED lights. You’ll never guess how I got them or how much I paid.
$40.
They are technically LED grow lights, but they throw about 250-300W of soft light. I am replacing the energy efficiant bulbs on clip on lights with the LED panels. Hopefully you can see the difference in this week’s 5 Tech Things.
Happy Independence Day
I only have one music gig this weekend and I don’t mind. The summer is starting to go fast, so it’s nice not to have to rush out to a gig. The shows will pick up in the next couple weeks. But for now, I get a small break.
Very small…
Summer of Podcasts II
The contest is underway. We have a long way to go to Sept. 30th, but there is some great opportunities to win prizes. I have to draw for June 30th, but with the computer issues, I have gotten a touch behind.