So Lynn's Sony VAIO laptop started failing S.M.A.R.T last week. I put in a rush order for a replacement drive on Newegg on Wednesday after spending a day or two backing up data from her laptop to mine and waiting on a response from Toshiba about whether they're able to replace the drive under their warranty or if I have to go through Sony.
After I got no response, I decided to just replace the drive myself. I really don't want to ship the laptop off to Sony and wait weeks for it to get sent back. My girlfriend in particular isn't too thrilled with that idea.
So Friday the new drive (a 320 GB Seagate Momentus) arrived. Yesterday morning, I attempted to clone the data on the Toshiba drive (250 GB btw) to the Seagate drive. Clonezilla refused to do this, stating that the drive was flagged for disk checking. Unfortunately, ChkDsk freezes when attempting to repair the drive. I tried cloning with Ghost, and while it allowed me to run the clone process, it froze not long after reporting the detection of a few bad sectors. Last night I fired up HDD Regenerator and began recovering the bad sectors. Frankly, I should probably have done it earlier; but this stuff ain't easy when you've got a 2-year-old running around.
So HDD Regenerator is about halfway done after approximately 12 hours. It's recovered 3 bad blocks on the Toshiba HDD. My girlfriend was frustrated last night about not having a laptop to use, so I burned an Ubuntu 10.04 CD and booted direct from CD. A little unnerving running an OS with a gaping hole in the bottom of the laptop where the HDD is supposed to be; it feels a little unnatural! In any case, by the time I'd burned the disc and come back to the bedroom, she was fast asleep. But hey, now she can use the laptop until I get her new drive cloned.
Hopefully once the drive is repaired, Ghost won't have any issues cloning the damaged drive. Once the damaged drive is copied over, I plan on pulling it apart and taking a look inside. I'll report back here on my progress. :)
UPDATE: After 24 hours of rebuilding data, I've given up. 12 hours has seen about another 1/6th of the data on the drive recovered, and even then, only about 2 out of 3 bad sectors are being successfully restored. I've copied the hidden Sony Recovery Volume to the new drive and I'm simply reinstalling from factory default that way. I've saved the most important data to my own laptop and I'll move it back after a clean install (once I've gotten rid of the Sony bloatware).
UPDATE 2: All went as planned. Killed all the VAIO crap bogging down startup and copied the important data back onto the drive. Lynn's happily using Windows once again. :)
Showing posts with label projects. Show all posts
Showing posts with label projects. Show all posts
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Mini-project: Fixed my Trackball Explorer
I don't think anyone truly understands my love for my Microsoft Trackball Optical Explorer.
I've used mice and trackballs interchangeably since the family first got a computer back in 1993. I've always preferred trackballs. There's been one trackball in particular that has served me well over the years, and it's the Microsoft Trackball Optical Explorer, known affectionately among it's cult following simply as the MTE.
I've used mice and trackballs interchangeably since the family first got a computer back in 1993. I've always preferred trackballs. There's been one trackball in particular that has served me well over the years, and it's the Microsoft Trackball Optical Explorer, known affectionately among it's cult following simply as the MTE.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
New Opportunities...
I haven't posted in a few weeks, and the primary reason is that I've had my hands full since I'll be starting a new job on June 1st!
I'll be working as a TSR (Technical Support Representative) at a Help Desk. It's kinda low on the totem pole, but the pay is a step up from my current job (working for a large home and business alarm security company) and opens new opportunities for me in the IT industry.
Hopefully I'll have a little more time to work on my blog here.
I should give you a brief update on the last two postings about setting up a surveillance system.
I've set it up, but the webcam I have is, go figure, one of only a handful of models that are virtually impossible to convert to IR without risking damaging the CCD (image sensor) of the webcam. If I can find a cheap enough cam, I'll convert it and complete my how-to.
More importantly, I've got to finish my post on how to set up the home surveillance / motion detection system using your existing desktop and integrated laptop webcams.
Yike, a lot to do; I've been slacking!
I'll be working as a TSR (Technical Support Representative) at a Help Desk. It's kinda low on the totem pole, but the pay is a step up from my current job (working for a large home and business alarm security company) and opens new opportunities for me in the IT industry.
Hopefully I'll have a little more time to work on my blog here.
I should give you a brief update on the last two postings about setting up a surveillance system.
I've set it up, but the webcam I have is, go figure, one of only a handful of models that are virtually impossible to convert to IR without risking damaging the CCD (image sensor) of the webcam. If I can find a cheap enough cam, I'll convert it and complete my how-to.
More importantly, I've got to finish my post on how to set up the home surveillance / motion detection system using your existing desktop and integrated laptop webcams.
Yike, a lot to do; I've been slacking!
Friday, April 16, 2010
Operation Fury: Revenge is a dish best served cold...
Words cannot describe the rage I'm feeling. Someone is messing with the wrong dude...
Lynn's car got broken into last night. I shouldn't really say broken into, as I left it unlocked. Part of my anger is directed at myself... but we had 2 play houses for my daughter to get unloaded the other night from her dad's car, and I was carrying the little one, so we spent a good deal of time focused on getting everything into the house, so the car was left unlocked.
My car is waiting on a replacement tire at her parents because it got a nail in the tire, so there is one less car in our driveway. Typically we take my car when we go places, leaving Lynn's car alone in the driveway. Last night was our anniversary, and instead of going out, we decided to order out.
Since my car wasn't there last night, someone probably thought we weren't home. The thief probably went up the driveway as the property is fenced in pretty well on all sides (high, wooden fence) and it wouldn't be the first time I've witnessed someone sauntering down my driveway after casing our garage (cops showed up within a minute or two with a canine unit, the guy was already gone by then).
He opened Lynn's car, went through the glove compartment, center console, threw stuff around. I haven't even had the chance to check the trunk (we found out this morning as we were rushing to work) to see if anything is missing there.
Fortunately, there's not a lot to take; Lynn says her insurance card and registration is missing, but we'll have to take a closer look after work.
It's the principle of the thing that makes me mad. People think they can walk up my driveway, go into my garage, go through our property, and take what they want?! Hell no. I'm not putting up with that shit.
Read on to find out my latest project to bait and catch the bastard using a high-tech solution.
Lynn's car got broken into last night. I shouldn't really say broken into, as I left it unlocked. Part of my anger is directed at myself... but we had 2 play houses for my daughter to get unloaded the other night from her dad's car, and I was carrying the little one, so we spent a good deal of time focused on getting everything into the house, so the car was left unlocked.
My car is waiting on a replacement tire at her parents because it got a nail in the tire, so there is one less car in our driveway. Typically we take my car when we go places, leaving Lynn's car alone in the driveway. Last night was our anniversary, and instead of going out, we decided to order out.
Since my car wasn't there last night, someone probably thought we weren't home. The thief probably went up the driveway as the property is fenced in pretty well on all sides (high, wooden fence) and it wouldn't be the first time I've witnessed someone sauntering down my driveway after casing our garage (cops showed up within a minute or two with a canine unit, the guy was already gone by then).
He opened Lynn's car, went through the glove compartment, center console, threw stuff around. I haven't even had the chance to check the trunk (we found out this morning as we were rushing to work) to see if anything is missing there.
Fortunately, there's not a lot to take; Lynn says her insurance card and registration is missing, but we'll have to take a closer look after work.
It's the principle of the thing that makes me mad. People think they can walk up my driveway, go into my garage, go through our property, and take what they want?! Hell no. I'm not putting up with that shit.
Read on to find out my latest project to bait and catch the bastard using a high-tech solution.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
How To: Cracking a boot-time Supervisor password on an IBM ThinkPad
I've been doing laptop repair for a while now, and most of what I end up doing is opening a laptop up and cleaning out a heatsink to prevent overheating problems.
I do run into a fair share of problems like DVD drives that won't close, power jacks that have come unsoldered, displays that have been cracked / have daiquiris dumped on them, (there is such a thing as partying too hard), keyboard replacement, etc.
But a few months back I had an interesting request: unlocking an older IBM ThinkPad that had a boot-time supervisor password preventing access.
I do run into a fair share of problems like DVD drives that won't close, power jacks that have come unsoldered, displays that have been cracked / have daiquiris dumped on them, (there is such a thing as partying too hard), keyboard replacement, etc.
But a few months back I had an interesting request: unlocking an older IBM ThinkPad that had a boot-time supervisor password preventing access.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Current Project: Multi-touch on my laptop touch-pad...
I'm trying to hack a set of neutered touch-pad drivers to support multi-touch again. If you're interested, read past the break...
VBA in Excel, underused?
I just wrote up an application in VBA for Excel that does about 30 minutes worth of work in about 15 seconds. The sad thing is, people have been doing this process monthly for years... it seems to me that most companies don't realize that VBA in Excel can automate a lot of mundane tasks.
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