Friday 2nd April 2010
Reinstigated project Ta-Da! (And about time too.)
Unfortunately, the person I had to call on was out, and one of the conditions
of surprise visits is you can't call and check beforehand.
Saturday 3rd April 2010 (late morning)
Uncorked my secondhand XP start disc.
Previously, I had dragged my feet on the whole reinstall issue, mainly due to
difficulties transferring such a large fileset and keeping the functionality
intact. However, with a HDD nearing the end of it's useful life, a much
easier solution emerged: Add a second HDD, fresh install onto that, copy the
files directly across. (Then reinstall everything, etc.)
Slight complications include that the new HDD is in a different machine and
has confidential data on it, and the potential of viruses. For both reasons,
I have to wipe it before moving it, and I can't wipe it in the target machine
because of the danger of wiping the wrong drive.
Fortunately, you can set boot to CD from the BIOS, and format the HDD from
the start disk, without ever entering the previous owner's setup.
If the start disk was a DVD, I could still format/wipe using a FDD start
disk, but tests on the RPC (and copyings of documentation) show the XP Home
start disk is a CD.
3D (the local IT service centre thingy place) say 160Gb is the minimum new
HDD sold these days. My reference book from the library about fitting second
HDDs into PCs says the maximum drive size for ATA connectors (probably the
type the old HDD uses), is 127.5Gb. So I've decided to try with the
it-was-to-but-scrap-but-it's-virtually-brand-new Landlord's brother's HDD.
During the course of this, it'll be reformatted (the long way, to mark bad
sectors,) and entirely overwritten several times. As a side-effect, this
process will securely delete any existing material beyond any possibility of
recovery, even that using government techniques.
Unfortunately, the old drive is 14Gb, and the LB drive is 10Gb. And I would
like a new larger HDD, and the motherboard of the PC is recent enough to
possibly have SATA connectors anyway... So I'll use a hybrid method:
Reformat the LB drive in the LB PC.
Stick identifying coloured labels on the LB drive and my original PC drive.
Put the LB drive in my PC as a second (slave) drive.
Copy across recent files to the LB drive.
Copy older files, in blocks across, compress them on the LB drive, transfer
to USB sticks, there to reside in a "midway archive", ie archived instead of
being backed-up, but to come back later (ideally with a larger drive) and
sort through into true archive and reused (context area) material.
Mark material archived by prefixing the old files (directories) with "xx" or
something. (Because deleting large blocks of material from the old drive
corrupts it because windoze tries to move the remaining material across
damaged sectors.)
If I can fit a new drive to the current PC, then take the LB drive out and
store in a padded jacket someplace, or maybe temporarily back inside the LB
PC (where it was safe enough before), and do a fresh XP Home install onto the
new drive, fitted as a master, with the current drive temporarily
disconnected.
Then re-connect the current drive as the slave, and copy material directly
from it to the new drive, using the LB drive as a fallback backup.
If I can't fit a new drive:
Buy a new secondhand PC, I suppose. I was going to write something more here,
but then I left it too long, and explanation this is long enough anyhow.
Once as much midway-archived as possible, copy the remaining stuff
(compressed) to USB sticks, then wipe/install to the slave drive, and copy
back.
These rather complex "Tower of Hanoi" swapping procedures are to ensure there
is always at least two copies of vital data, and that it is impossible to
accidentally wipe the wrong drive.
As an additional (another one) complication, some of small portions of data
(probably only one though) on the current drive have been corrupted (by being
moved onto damaged sectors (by the idiocy of windoze)), but have ZIPped
backups available, so they an be recovered from. However, this means also
copying the ZIPped interim backups, in order to do this, which means renaming
those (prefix with "rc" [(recovery)] or something), and taking up more space.
Previously, those interim backups were destined to be wiped after new backups
were made from existing data. Now it is no longer safe to do so.
I got the library book because with RPCs, you just pop open the case (no
screws), slide into the drive, possibly connect cables, and close the case. I
have a feeling PCs aren't like that.
microsoft say, if [you find] you have a pirated OS, buy a replacement OS
start disk from them, and reinstall. What they don't say is they've made it
virtually impossible to buy one from them, particularly if you don't want to
install their latest product. It took me six months to track down a true
secondhand license package. It's not easy being legal.
Once I'm through with this palaver, I really ought to get on and transfer
more working use to the RPC. It is what I'm supposed to be upgrading to,
afterall. I need to upgrade that to RO4.x, too.
I'm not too bothered with the urgency of backing-up the RPC, because a RO HDD
failure is unheard of (which reminds you just how crummy PCs really are), and
I'll just continue piecemeal backups of important data.
However, I will need archives & backups eventually, largely for security
purposes, and to transfer to RO4.x, so I'll have to look into that some time.
ie, Some time when I have more cash floating around. (When I get the
networking working, I can archive stuff via the PC's drives. Not very ideal,
but very cheap.)
Currently I have RO3.71, which although significantly more advanced than
windoze 7/8/9 or any linux install, is less elegant than later RO versions,
and has one serious drawback - no long filenames! Currently I run raFS in
some parts, which copes with that. If had the option to start with RO4.02
(4.20?), and I turned it down on cost grounds. I should've coughed up. Ah
well, I didn't know enough about the differences between them then, and I had
been on RO3.1 previously. Hey-ho.
Also to, er, check whether my PC's motherboard can accept SATA cables, what
those sockets look like anyway, if adapters are available, whether or not the
PC and LB drives actually are ATA, and so on. (Indeed, checking at 3D for
more options, too. And some USB extension leads; I've nicked one from a
networking adaptor to bring an RPC addition round to the front.)
Saturday 3rd April 2010 (early afternoon)
Started swapping over the KVM, which turned out to mean unplug power and
combo leads from my PC, plug into LB PC instead. The keyboard and mouse
connections fly off from the PC-end of the VGA plug.
Slight snag: The LB keyboard socket is an old-style DIN, but strangely the
mouse is still a mini-DIN. Left the keyboard unconnected and fired 'er up.
Appears to work, but no screen output. And no keyboard input. And no HDD
activity to speak of, which isn't a good sign for windoze.
So it look's like I'll be wiping the LB HDD in my PC afterall, using a
straight delete (instead of a long reformat) for safety.
I had envisaged leaving the LB PC chugging away, wiping itself today, but it
is not to be.
Instead, home for a rest, then opening, labelling, examining, noting, and
photographing (for 3D's benefit).
Possibly, see if the new drive fits, then get 3D to format it... if it isn't
already formatted.
I believe I am lacking a handy small screwdriver, so I shall have to nip down
wilkinsons on the way home.
Monday 5th April 2010 (afternoon)
Emergency backup mode... but first "count your chickens" mode.
Opened up the LB PC, removed HDD, some spare screws, and a multiway drive
cable. Photographed a few things, and made notes and sketches.
Altered jumper settings on LB HDD from master to CSEL (cable select).
Opened up my PC, inserted LB HDD in a disconnected state, examined guts,
Found that I already have a multiway drive cable, connecting not only my HDD
(apparently internally set as master but still with jumper settings), but
also connecting my CD & DVD drives, as slave (and presumably slave's slave).
This meant I can connect the LB HDD as slave without any tedious mucking
around.
During the course of this, had to pop out my (unwell) HDD, which doubtless
didn't do it any favours. This was necessary in order the photograph it, and
examine the jumper settings and documentation (sensibly printed on the
things). Then popped it back in and reconnected as before.
Also disconnected my DVD drive, which isn't essential right now, and whose
connector I will attach the new slave (LB) drive to.
Powered up my PC, looked in the BIOS (boot sequence is already CD, A, C,
which is very good). Tried altering the keyboard repeat rate, then forgot to
test that! Ah well, never mind, next time will do. Ignored automatic Chkdsk
request, created a start disk, checked everything was working, powered down
again.
Next, to disconnect my HDD, connect the LB HDD in it's place, boot from the
start disk, wipe the LB HDD. later, to do this sort of thing for the 3D HDD.
The inside of my PC is now covered with little labels, clearly showing what
bit is which (it wouldn't do to wipe the wrong drive). Fortunately, the
drives look fairly different, the LB drive is wearing a shock-absorbent
rubber coat, and my drive is (was) wearing a layer of dust.
Right then...
Now with two HDDs in, found new hardware... disk drive... Yes.
Now I can access both HDDs. There is some stuff on the new one. I carefully
shift-deleted that (so it doesn't fumble around with the recycle bin),
deleted his Windows, pausing to nick his fonts. ZIPped the fonts, & put them
on a USB stick, to virus check at the intercafe', next time I'm over there.
Deleted all stuff off D:, which was then showing only a recycle bin, which I
switched off, but it still showed. Never mind. Went into disk options,
searched for any ultra-hidden files. None to speak of, wiped them anyway.
Accidentally scheduled a chkdsk, via "verify".
Ran a defrag, which was over fairly quickly(!)
Now is drive is empty. This still isn't good enough for me, though, because I
originally wanted it reformatted, and now I can't do that safely. The data is
potentially recoverable though, so I must securely-overwrite it. I also don't
want there to be room for anything nasty to hide.
I created (using PaintShop Pro) a 3000 x 3000 pixel graphics file, filled it
with 100% colour noise, then increased the dynamic range so it covers all
values. Then I saved it as a BMP file. This makes a 25Mb pile of junk.
Then I created a batch file to copy it to 1.bmp ... 50.bmp. That should
create over 10Gb of junk, and fill the disk. Hmmm: It's taken it. It should
have overloaded.
Only used 1.28Gb. I think I may have underestimated by a factor of 10.
Never mind, all into a directory, and copy that 10 times...
Investigated help text on xcopy... and onward...
Some pointless activity on C:, but then this is bloody windoze.
I have examined a small version of noise.bmp, and the alpha channel appears
to be randomised as well. Not that it really matters, but I like to be
thorough.
Just incase anybody is interested, the tree-copy command for copying
directories like that, is
- Code: Select all
xcopy junk 02 /s /c /i /y
ie, specifying all the common sense stuff that windoze (by default) stops and
asks about.
Okay, that's all merrily chugging away again. It may be some time...
Right - so - create a 25Mb junk file, and copy it 400 times. (And keep
copying it until something breaks.)
Then run a defrag sequence, then create the maximum size file you can to fill
the remaining space; delete half of them; run a defrag; delete the rest.
All this defragging shuffles the files around, negating the need to fill the
disk with more files and delete those again.
By the time I've done this, and cycled my backups through, all the Landlord's
brother's data will have been overwritten at least four times, which is
defined as inaccessible by our very-nosey government.
Better than taking the LB HDD out and smashing it to bits with a hammer, more
ecologically sound, and -more importantly- it saves me £50.
Wondered why the taskbar is showing C:\... for batch file running. It's
because cmd.exe is on the C: drive. Copied that to D:, and ran it from there,
then executed the batchfile from there. That works, but does it stop the
other hard disk activity? Of course not.
About 14s to copy a 25Mb file, making 10 minutes per Gigabyte, and thus about
an hour or so still to go before the drive melts.
After the previous setup's boot failures, I tried to switch it off, but it
wouldn't let me, and just flashed it's power light at me and refused to boot.
So I switched it off at the mains, which probably didn't do anything for the
ailing harddisk. This may be why it scheduled another chkdsk for itself, but
then again...
Finished doing that... formatted AND verified a floppy start disk... tested
CD drive: It work's electrically, but it isn't recognised, or it is, and it
doesn't work properly. Will have to try swapping it's connection, or (and)
maybe taking the CD drive out of the LB PC, and swapping the PC DVD drive
with it.
Will also have to try putting the CD drive into the slave cable socket,
instead if having it on the same cable as the HDDs!
Okay, copied the vast majority of files over to the second drive. Now
restarting, in order for chkdsk to do it's work. However, due to the
slowdown, shutdown is slow. At lest I think it's down to the slowdown:
Shutdown is always slow.
No errors at all on LB, although two disk checks accidentally scheduled. Tiny
number of errors on Orig, although upstairs eating for most of that and may
have missed some reports.
Some careful archiving to do... then back to the CD stuff, no maybe the CD
stuff before, prepare searches for the Orig HDD and it's jumper settings,
then back to the archiving (and subsequent deletion from both the HDDs when
transferred to USB).
Possibly/Probably buying more USB capacity.
Okay, uploaded new photos...
Can start on hunch stuff again soon, now Orig drive has suddenly decided to
behave again.
Still need to get the CD running, and nip off down 3D again...
Tired now; been at this for at least eight hours now, mainly fretting.
Go home, get food/sleep, back for the rest. Uploads & hunch stuff later.
Tuesday 6th April 2010
Tidied up misc. things online this morning.
Nothing major though - just getting the little distractions out of the way.
Downloaded jumper settings guide for the Orig drive. The current settings
aren't covered by it, and could be mistakenly-set.
Nothing wrong with my "pilfered" fonts; I just need to diff them against ones
I already have now.
Feeling awake, did my 6-month JSA Interview, some stocking up, then felt
inexplicably bloated, and keep nodding off and jerking awake, if you know
what I mean, which was odd, because I didn't previously feel sleepy.
Then I must have passed out on the desk without warning, for I noticed this
when a steam train hooted me "awake". (I don't classify passing out as
sleeping. Sleeping is voluntary and may break contracts. Passing out can't,
because people have no control over it, and no warning.)
Just before I passed out suddenly (which I am NOT prone to), I had a little
of the office clown's cola. I must have been out for 1-2 hours.
Ate some pine nut pasta, and some cous-cous. Had a lot of black coffee (with
more cola), then a Red Bull Shot.
Opened up the PC again, swapped round the connections for the LB and CD
drives.
It seems that rather from all the drives being on one long four-connection
cable as I previously reported, there are two separate ATA cables (and a
floppy connection), just like there are supposed to be. I shall have to
reverse-trace my notes to find out what the original configuration was.
Fired up the machine again. Both HDDs accessible as before, still no CD
drive. Tried "Add hardware". It found the CD drive, identified it, and knows
what it is, but grumbles about there being no driver, and refuses to go
further.
(The Orig HDD is the only one on it's cable, so it's weird jumper settings
don't matter at present.)
It is possible the driver got corrupted by the original Orig HDD fault, which
could explain why my visible CD and DVD drives disappeared from my My
Computer (renamed This Machine) view.
So I shall take the [CD drive] description given, and search [online] for
drivers and jumper settings.
It doesn't make sense to have a driver on the HDD though, when the OS is
capable of being (re)installed via the CD drive.
I shall pop out the DVD drive, and add the LB CD drive in it's place. This
has the added advantage of having a proper caddy, and being able to accept
mini-CDs.
This morning I located and downloaded a combined Apache/MySQL/php package for
windoze (WAMP), with php5 included, and separate on/off controls via taskbar
menu, without having to restart the machine or mess around in the task
manager. It is virus-checked (clean [I haven't
ever found a virus])
and downloaded ready to be installed on the new reinstall (when I get that
ready). When this is done, I should be able to use CURL etc functions, and
take the strain out of server interactions, POST requests, and cookie
handling. In theory.
Naturally of course, neither of them say what type they are on the front, so
I will have to open up the LB PC again to read it's CD details off.
Wednesday 7th April 2010 (afternoon)
Took the CD out the LB PC, put it in my PC, took out my DVD drive to make
room for it. Come to think of it, I may have a spare 5.25" bay anyway.
I will later re-insert it, perhaps connect it up, and take out the defunct CD
drive. Well, certain remove the defunct CD drive, incase someone decides to
insert a CD and can't remove it! Perhaps I ought to leave just a power
connection in.
Disconnected the old CD drive, connected the new one. they both have
documentation printed on them, although to save time I squeezed my
cameraphone into the gap instead of removing the old one only to re-insert it
afterward.
Removed large amount of trapped dust from both machines.
Reassembled and powered up: Both the BIOS and XP recognised the new CD drive,
and I could read a disc on it when running. Next I will try booting from the
XP CD start disc; just as a test.
BIOS Says "Boot from CD." Then it whirls the CD around for a minute, then
says "Boot failure", and start's up from the HDD as normal, pausing for a few
minutes in the middle to present me with a blank screen and an
expectantly-whirling CD drive. Then it pop's up the desktop.
"Boot failure" -Vot? There's nothing wrong with that CD, nor the drive, as
far a I can tell so far. Maybe find and run further diagnostics.
Tried to open the CD on XP... It says it's not accessible, and disappears the
CD drive icon. Try the Add hardware wizard, which says the device is working
fine.
Try a RO CD, drive icon pop's back up. Number of files/bytes on RO CD = 17289
files, 1635 directories, size 626757437b, size on disc 645574656b.
Trying that on RPC (to verify)... 17289 files, 626757433b. Hmmm - 4 bytes
out.
PC Drive is 16x speed, RPC is 54x. 'Could try swapping 'em, I suppose.
PC read's CD volume name okay, abeit in 8/3 format.
XP Start CD a bit smudged on the bottom. 'Will clean.
Cleaning made no difference: Both machines can read the RO CD, but only RO
can read the XP one.
Ergo, next try swapping the RO & PC CD drives. Grrrr. (Always assuming that
will work at all.)
(Or get another start disc. (Somehow. -3D?))
Next, meanwhile, try booting the PC from FDD - while we've got it on. Yup,
that works - after a pause for the FDD to read it's half-megabyte start
sequence. HDDs and CD are inaccessible. Now, er, how do I shutdown/reset?
Look's like... Reset button: Yes.
Processed the photos, mainly for jumper settings and documentation readings.
Now, to open up the RPC/PC and swap over their CD drives...
... Opened up the RPC, the lengthiest part of which was lifting the
very-heavy monitor off the top without snagging any cables in the process.
Then I did some dusting and took some photos.
Then I shifted the PC and monitor out of the way to get some room. then
unclipped the clips, lifted off the lid, and took lots more photos.
Then I disconnected the CD drive, and found I don't have a clue how it's
fixed in. Eventually I had to reconnect the drive, pop the lid back on, and
reclip the clip-things.
'Screwless construction, you see. -Which is all very well and speedy, but the
drives presumably slide/clip in, so they must be fairly loose in there,
right? Wrong. They're more securely-held than in PCs, and I dunno what's
holding 'em in.
Time to call WAUG for help.
Just had a thought: What if the metal cases of the drives are part of the
base unit, and the drives inside simply slide out?
One odd thing that keeps happening on the RPC: Sometimes the shift will
"lock" on, yet there is no shift lock key. The only way I have found to
remedy this is to reset the machine, which burns at least five seconds.
Does anyone know what is going on? [General question]
With the help of a WAUG member on facebook (and some less helpful remarks
from female friends) Got the drive out. Two crews under the CD; reach by
taking the slice off and turning it over.
Put the RPC drive in the PC, also put in the old DVD drive in the spare bay,
and connected power to both otherwise-disconnected drives.
RPC read's RO disc well, and XP disc well enough too. Some odd pauses with
the XP disc, but no read errors found.
PC didn't want to close it's CD tray until I switched it off, and now I have
to be sharpish when switching it on... PC read's XP disc perfectly! Ah-ha, so
it was the (replacement) drive, then. -Either that, or 16x is too slow to
boot from. the PC booted from CD after prompting me if I wanted to do so. To
get enough time to open the drive door I had to temporarily distract it with
the BIOS setup area.
PC Play's RO disc, too. No apparent problems there, either. 16x Seem's fast
enough for current RO uses, so no loss... but don't think that high speed
drive is leaving with the PC whenever it is that I'm finished with the thing.
Anyway, my XP start disc now works, which was the point of the exercise.
Now/Soon I can buy a new HDD from 3D.
Thursday 8th April 2010 (Silly O'Clock)
'Looking through another letter from the HMRC. This one is a notice to fill
in a tax return, and they don't miss the opportunity to include a threat,
even though they have to threaten me with fines if I don't reply within seven
months in order to do that.
More implorisations to file my tax return online; they say it's:
- Simple
Take train to connection point, run into all problems below,
repeat as often as unnecessary, collect bonus fine for no apparent reason. - Secure
What if somebody look's over my shoulder?! - Usable day or night
Only when the connection point's open. - You can quickly amend your personal details
Not if I have to go all the way home to get a copy of them.
Finished postprocessing my photos of bits of kit an hour or two earlier. The
PC started making ringing (of metalwork) sounds whenever it went through a
burst of simultaneous drive activity, probably due to all the extra weight
inside.
Now for some food/rest, then long-overdue upload preparations.
The Archive Disc says that I don't need to reformat my HDD to run RO4.x, but
if I don't I won't be able to use long filenames (natively). I could,
however, fit a new HDD and copy everything over. It's all good. (Then I could
use the old HDD as an interim backup, like I'm gonna on the PC.)