Linked by Howard Fosdick on Mon 31st Dec 2012 20:26 UTC
Last month, I explained
why I use generic desktops and laptops running open source software.
They're reliable
and inexpensive. But this presumes you can fix them. I believe that
even those with no
hardware training (like me), can identify and fix most hardware
problems. To prove it, here's a quick guide. Feel free to
add whatever I've missed.
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Member since:2008-11-25
Member since:2006-01-26
Also quite obviously the drive should not be powered on when you try hitting it, the drive heads will hit the platters.
Oh? I assumed the point of hitting it was to 1) get it spinning again while powered on (this was common with older drives when the spindle motors got tired, a good thump would sometimes get them going again) or 2) to free up the actuator for the heads.
In either case, hitting it while powered should be ok, as long as you were hitting it from the side/edge, and not the top or bottom.
Of course, I would only consider such a tactic as 'desperate measures' for a disk that you had already pronounced dead.
Member since:2006-06-12
I did this time and time again, I also suggest hitting it when powered down. I found to hit it from 5 centimeter above a parallel surface from the longer side of the disk to be the most efficient method. It work when the head or the disks get stuck. It usually need to move only a tiny amount to get freed. I also confirm that if it did this once, it will usually break again soon, for ever.
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 7:37 UTC
"In NixOS, the entire operating system - the kernel, applications, system packages, configuration files, and so on - is built by the Nix package manager from a description in a purely functional build language. The fact that it's purely functional essentially means that building a new configuration cannot overwrite previous configurations. Most of the other features follow from this." Interesting approach. A Linux distribution, sure, but with some very refreshing ideas about system configuration.
Linked by fran on 05/18/13 1:38 UTC
Google added, among other features, C/C++ support to its new version of AIDE. From Android-IDE, "Now you can write parts of your app or your whole app in C/C++ on your device. AIDE supports the Standard Android NDK toolchain (GCC 4.6 + Bionic, STL, ...). No changes are necessary if you want to build an app developed on a PC with Eclipse. C/C++ development is fully integrated: Build errors appear in the error list and files can easily be navigated to with Go to file. The editor supports C/C++ syntax highlighting."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/17/13 23:35 UTC, submitted by kragil
Ars nails it: "The answer is that Google did announce what amounts to a fairly substantial Android update yesterday. They simply did it without adding to the update fragmentation problems that continue to plague the platform. By focusing on these changes and not the apparently-waiting-in-the-wings update to the core software, Google is showing us one of the ways in which it's trying to fix the update problem."
Linked by MOS6510 on 05/17/13 22:22 UTC
"It is good for programmers to understand what goes on inside a processor. The CPU is at the heart of our career. What goes on inside the CPU? How long does it take for one instruction to run? What does it mean when a new CPU has a 12-stage pipeline, or 18-stage pipeline, or even a 'deep' 31-stage pipeline? Programs generally treat the CPU as a black box. Instructions go into the box in order, instructions come out of the box in order, and some processing magic happens inside. As a programmer, it is useful to learn what happens inside the box. This is especially true if you will be working on tasks like program optimization. If you don't know what is going on inside the CPU, how can you optimize for it? This article is about what goes on inside the x86 processor's deep pipeline."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/17/13 22:15 UTC, submitted by Tom
"It was the only moment I heard regret slip into Otellini's voice during the several hours of conversations I had with him. 'The lesson I took away from that was, while we like to speak with data around here, so many times in my career I've ended up making decisions with my gut, and I should have followed my gut,' he said. 'My gut told me to say yes.'" The world would've been a much different place - Apple would have been less dependant on Samsung for its chips, which probably would've meant less money for Samsung to develop its Galaxy business.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 21:41 UTC
Glass is getting some love at Google I/O as well. New applications have been released - Facebook, Twitter, Evernote, Elle, Tumblr, and CNN. Perhaps more interesting: the newly announced Google Glass Developer Kit will allow offline applications and direct hardware access - great for hacking and expanding Glass' potential. This kit will really allow hackers to put Glass through its paces.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 17:04 UTC
"But Beck and Merrill decided that simply banning toxic players wasn't an acceptable solution for their game. Riot Games began experimenting with more constructive modes of player management through a formal player behavior initiative that actually conducts controlled experiments on its player base to see what helps reduce bad behavior. The results of that initiative have been shared at a lecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and on panels at the Penny Arcade Expo East and the Game Developers Conference." Absolutely fascinating stuff. I'm a League of Legends player, and to be honest, the community isn't nearly as bad as some make it out to be. I'm happy Riot games has the guts to employ science to address the issue.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 13:17 UTC
"Android and iOS, the number one and number two ranked smartphone operating systems worldwide, combined for 92.3% of all smartphone shipments during the first quarter of 2013 as Windows Phone crept past BlackBerry for 3rd place. According to the International Data Corporation Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, Android smartphone vendors and Apple shipped a total of 199.5 million units worldwide during 1Q13, up 59.1% from the 125.4 million units shipped during 1Q12." Windows Phone doubles from a few to twice few, iOS loser market share as its growth is slower than that of the overall market. BlackBerry continues slide into irrelevance.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 12:06 UTC
"According to the latest research from our Wireless Smartphone Strategies service, global Android smartphone profits reached US$5 billion in total during the first quarter of 2013. Samsung dominated and captured an impressive 95 percent share of all Android smartphone profits." Wow.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/15/13 23:03 UTC
"During its Keynote today, Google announced new features coming to its flagship search function - you know, that thing we all started using Google for. VP Amit Singhal spent some time discussing what Google's search functionality will eventually morph into. Google's strategy is summarized by three words: answer, converse, and anticipate. Singhal explained that many of the pieces of these upcoming changes can already be seen in products that Google has recently introduced - namely, Google Knowledge Graph and Google Now, with perhaps a splash of Google Glass, too." I hold on to my hat every time Google changes Search. It's such a vital product in my daily life.More News »
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Member since:
2006-02-15
If you get a drive working this way DO NOT EVER ASSUME IT WILL CONTINUE TO WORK. Copy anything you feel is important to you off of the drive as soon as possible and assume that the drive will fail completely soon.
Also quite obviously the drive should not be powered on when you try hitting it, the drive heads will hit the platters. As for freezing the drive: you don't necessarily have to freeze it, just lowering its temperature to near zero Celsius may work. The thing is that that when you freeze the drive to sub-zero temperatures moisture may condense inside the drive and then you're just worse off than you were before.
The reason for why these may work is if the oil on the bearings has gone bad and gotten crusty around the bearings -- dropping the temperature cools down the metal parts and shrinks them by miniscule amounts and therefore may set them loose, and a small amount of sudden force applied to the side of the drive may loosen enough of the crusty oil to get the bearings going for a moment longer. If the bearings themselves are gone, however, these won't work.
As always I recommend people to monitor mechanical drives' status via their S.M.A.R.T. health status and act before the drive goes bad. It doesn't always catch the issues, but often it does. I use Hard Disk Sentinel under Windows (not a free application) for this, don't know of any good GUI-application for this under Linux, though.