Maybe my hard drive is borked after all?

I finally got around to trying to install Xubuntu again.

Man! It was a long and convoluted process. I just have so much data, it became very awkward. I eventually ran out of DVDs, so I partitioned some FAT32 space on my Xubuntu hard drive, to put everything on (using a LiveCD), then reinstall Windows and move the data on those partitions to another FAT32 partition; this time on the Windows drive.

Blast away the old Xubuntu drive, and then reinstall. So far so good. I re-partitioned the Xubuntu hard drive space, using the GParted LiveCD (great stuff), and then chucked in the Xubuntu Alternate CD. Halfway through, all I’m greeted with is a

Debootstrap Warning Warning: Failure when installing base packages … yadiyada

Then I’m left with the only alternative; rebooting.

Second time round I tried the LiveCD Installer (Desktop CD), and was going fine until the same spot. Flicking over to another console I saw the dreaded messages I saw at the beginning of this fiasco.

ata4: translated ATA star/err 0×51/40 to SCSI SK/ASC/ASCQ 0×3/11/04

Over and over again. What the hell does it mean? Google hasn’t really provided any help. So it’s back to Windows until I work something out, that doesn’t involve buying a new hard drive.

Perhaps another distro or an older release?

A long time between drinks

Ai! I’ve been way to busy of late, and a lot of things have been going on, not all good too.

Work got extremely busy and actually stressful (first time for everything), but has slacked off in the last week. Our latest exhaust fan prototype has actually turned out much better than anticipated, and David and Philip have been very pleased with it. So much so that they have gone to our factory in Zhongshan, China with the prototype to get some early tooling costs and look for a suitable factory to manufacture a motor.

I’ve been particularly happy since the design is entirely mine, and quite a lot of money has been invested into my time and efforts. I didn’t really think about it before, but it feels really good to have come up with an idea, proved it in theory and simulation and then to finally have it in front of you and find that it really does work.

Now that this part of the project is pretty much over, I’d been testing this prototype for weeks, I can move onto some other things that have been lying in wait. Firstly, I’ve been spending quite a bit of time improving our testing procedures, to make them more efficient, as well as easier and quicker to perform. I got quite interested in the possibilities that our testing facility could provide.

I’ve also been involved in some business analysis (to clean up our service procedure) as well as some physical electrical stuff, like wiring PC controlled relays and switches. All in all, I am quite enjoying work.

My shoulder seems to be well on the way to fully recovered. It was a bit sore after lying on it for some time the other day, but has been coping with normal life (including Pilates at work, so glad I can do that again).

I also succumbed to peer pressure from Andrew and James and the guys and did register for indoor soccer. I don’t think I will plasy in the first half of the season, as it is probably too soon to get smashed again. Next year is definately in though, so that’s something to work for.

I’ve also just come out of a four year relationship, which ended in a way I’d rather have not seen it. It was quite a strange, surreal end to quite a long passage of my life.

Things have also been quite hard at home, probably due in some large part to the break, perhaps other things, like the lifestyle I’ve been leading since, also probably due to the fact that I really do want to move out of home.

Well there you go, you can see what I’m comfortable about talking about; 4 paragprahs for work, and four sentences for other important stuff.

Ah, but finally I saved all my data from my computer, using almost 20 DVDs, and have reinstalled Windows, which was a chapter in my life itself. I have lost count the number of times I’ve done it, and it never gets any easier or faster. I did however find out that Windows doens’t support my SATA drives and had to dig very hard to find the driver disks.

Tsk, tsk. Ubuntu didn’t ever have a problem. Anyway my disks look like they are not completely f-ed up, so I will install Xubuntu at my nearest convenience…

Season Finale

WPH 4-6 STA

Pretty exciting match to end our season, even though we lost.

I arrived late, with the score 4-2 in our favour. I saw some good chances upon my arrival go begging, but was mostly uninterested in the game as I was talking to Paul.

Scott was denied a blantant penalty as he was steamrolled by one of the many trucks in St. Andrew’s team.

They brought the score back to 4-3 with a crazy shot from the sideline, which dipped well over Ryan’s head. To our disbelief the scores were level minutes later, when James S. scored goal of the season from the 18 yard line, for the wrong side. I think he was trying to clear it for a corner, but instead slooted this again high and dipping over Ryan into the top near post.

At 4-4 things only got worse as we conceded an terribly easy goal from meters out after some slack defending. The final insult was when James went in hard taking out one of their players, earning himself a second yellow card, and was duly shown the red.

Good onya James!

STA went on to score yet another unbelievable goal, from a free kick miles from goal. Ryan must have been looking in the sun or something, as yet another shot dipped over his head into the top near post.

Crazy game to watch, but considering that Kenthurst beat Ryde 3-0, we would have been in for a tough game. Stupid GHFA, we should have been playing Ryde, but they re-scheduled. Bastards!

Oh well, another seasons end, and for the first time in years I’ve ended it with msot of my body intact. I’m going to give indoor a miss, at least for the first half of the season, so my shoulder can fully recover, and so can my knee, and so can my ankles, etc, etc.

Something to watch for in Windows updates

I just came across this post while getting my PC ready for a re-format (it’s pretty old now, so presumably a lot of people have already installed this crap).

A.i.’s Lounge – This copy of Windows is not genuine

Good thing I turn off automatic updates, I hate when it restarts your PC by itself.

I will make sure the uncheck the KB905474 update after I re-install Windows. This guy should go on my blog-roll.

A bit slack

I don’t think I’ve found any time in at least the last month, to try and chronicle anything I’ve done with Xubuntu.

I had quite a number fo things I wanted to look at, but just haven’t. Mostly because I’ve been lazy, partially other things, and just recently the fact that I kinda screwed my system and am going to need some serious recovery work.

Let me just say, that I can have moments of absolute stupidity. Last week just took the cake.

It all started with my old IDE hard drive, which is on the way out, and was causing me some problems both in Xubuntu and Windows. In my efforts to diagnose the problem I removed the drive, booted my PC, and hey presto! things were dandy.

With the side of my box still open and the power cable from the IDE just hanging there, I thought ‘OK, so now I’ll just plug it back in’…

…

So after being partially blinded by a rather large blue spark, I came to the realisation that that was probably a very bad thing for my computer.

Everything appears to be ok, but right now I’m furisouly filling up DVD’s with all my stuff, because I just don’t know…

Then it will be high time for a re-install of Windows (been almost a year since last format), so I will do it all again.