Laura Seabrook's Ramblings

Just when I thought I had it sorted out, I'm getting weird problems. The screen's been blanking out and nothing except a reset button works. Got the following msg when I rebooted:

"Windows was temporarily unable to read your hard disk drive. We don't know the exact cause of the problem. In most cases, this type of condition is momentary and doesn't indicate a serious problem, but sometimes it means that a hard disk is failing.

Common causes of this problem

Aging or failing hard disks. To prevent file corruption and data loss, we recommend that you back up all of your important files and folders immediately. See step 1 in the section below for more information.

Large file transfers from secondary media, such as an external hard drive, to a local hard drive.

Loss of power to a hard disk drive that causes inconsistent data sectors.

Hard disk-intensive processes such as antivirus scanners.

Recently installed hardware that might have compatibility and performance problems."

Well now, I just backed up and swapped over the hard drives. This one is supposed to have SMART Problems (to do with againg)  but it can't be a coincidence that that I've had trouble on the same PC, with drives on the same socket. Maybe it isn't just the drives, but the controller. Of course the issue then becomes, do I replace the hard drive, or the PC?

I had K put together a 1 terabyte external Samsung SATA/USB drive for my Windows (XP) PC. SATA is a format different from IDE, which is what the motherboard defaults to.  Anyway he built it into an external case, installed the plug into the back of the PC, and the first time it booted it connected fine. But when attempted to set up partitions and so on using Manage Computer things froze. When I rebooted the drive had become invisible to the PC (and no, it doesn't run under DOS)!

But it gets weirder. When I boot Ubuntu it can see the drive fine and I can even run GParted on it. And after I installed an Windows update XP started to see the drive some of the time, with a v-e-r-y l-o-n-g boot time. Strange. When I go into manage devices and rescan it mostly finds the external drive, but the details never seem to stick.

Very frustrating. I had this set up so that when I have a a whole bunch of 300 dpi print files for the graphic novels, I can just take the drive with me and get the thing printed. And in theory the thing should be a good form of backup as well. But something is obviously wrong here.

• It won't read the SATA drive installed in it;
• It won't connect to the home network;
• I can't get sound; and
• I can't get it to display on the TV (had a dual monitor set-up before).

So I officially declare the whole thing fucked until Kevin gets back. The heat is just too much to work in. If it were cooler I might stand a chance.

When I left to go out, Linux was installing itself. When I got home it seemed done, but when I rebooted I got just this on the screen:

Tue

33°C | 23°C

Wed

30°C | 21°C

Thu

24°C | 21°C

Fri

25°C | 19°C

That was the furthermost I'd got with a USB stick trying to insall Win XP. It actually started the WIN set-up program. But I got aBLUE SCREEN OF DEATH message which probably couldn't be corrected with my level of expertise. So, now officially to PLAN B - I'll attempt the same thing with LINUX.

Next attempt is creating an Ubuntu 9.10 USB stick using UNetbootin (which is probably what I should have done ages ago). 

Bugger, everything I do (in trying to fix the media PC), just doesn't work.. I tried creating a bootable USB drive when the CD-ROM didn't work. I've tried swapping in IDE drives but they're not recognised properly. I have a bad headache. I've phoned Kevin (finally) and really, without him here it doesn't help. I'm living it until they get back (whenever).,

I've been using a "free" copy of ZoneAlarm for the last year or so. However, as the trial period was over I decided to use some other software instead. I don't have a credit card and renewing ZoneAlarm was expensive and hard to do. I tried renewing it by joining SnapFish but even there, I can't get "free" photo prints without a credit card (so no Zone Alarm renewal).

At the moment I have bot Avast! and Comodo installed. There's a bit of overlap and potential for them to fight each other - Comodo, which I installed second, found all the quarantined stuff that Avast! had already moved, and wanted to move them again! I got Comodo because it has a proper firewall, but maybe I don't need to run the anti-virus component while I have Avast! running.

Any ideas on this? Which Free anti-virus and Firewall would/do you run under Windows XP, and why?

Have been talking to Kevin about putting together a media pc for me. Looks like I get one made for just under $600. It would:

• receive record digital TV (especially with FreeView coming in next year);
• play DVD/CD/MP3 media;
• be connectible to the local network (and thereby the net), which means
• I could record stuff on it and watch/copy/play it on my study pc, or vice versa
• watch youtube and other Internet TV (like iview), and/or play streamed media (like DIG or Shoutcast)
• move my existing DVD player and VCR into my bedroom to connect with the TV there; and
• burn stuff I've recorded for later access.

Been thinking about this idea for a while, since the cheap set top box I was using died. TiVo and DVD recorders had their attractions, but this seems like the most flexible arrangement I could have. I might watch a lot of TV (I'd be lying if I said I didn't) but I'm selective about what I do watch. This would give me many more options as well.

I'm going to check out the Computer Markets today at Broadmeadow.

Normally I end up at the other markets, in the Basketball courts, as they tend to be be more heavily advertised (and each is a week apart from each other. However, these markets have a higher proportion of Software sold at them, and I shall hunt Painter.

On the way back, I'm going to buy four new water containers and replace the existing ones by the side of the house. If Hallie did drink something that disagreed with her (Kevin suggested that maybe some spray had contaminated them), then better to be safe than sorry.