DiskWarrior steps for farkled disk

[ElyseC]

Just FYI for anyone interested, as I type my Mac G5 tower is being checked
by DiskWarrior and has been in that process for the past 18 hours, with
virtually no change in the progress bar.

Seeing no apparent change in the progress bar after about an hour, I called
Alsoft to inquire if this is normal. Left a message and their tech called me
back giving me the following advice, then emailing it to me, too, so I
didn't have to scribble it down while on the phone. I'll pass along here in
case it happens to help anyone else sometime down the road. Let me add that
where DW appeared to stop was it its "step 5" and with a parenthetical
comment below the progress bar that said "(Speed inhibited by disk
malfunction)". Here are the tech's instructions:

1)
If the mouse cursor still moves during step 5, then the computer did not
hang or freeze. DiskWarrior is still working on reading the directory of
the disk.

Such slowdowns are usually the result of having bad blocks on the media.
DiskWarrior is having trouble reading data from the locations on disk
where the directory structures are stored.

Please let DiskWarrior run for as long as it takes. This can take quite
a few hours but should eventually complete. On rare occasions, it might
even be necessary to run this for a day or two.

2)
When you run DiskWarrior started up from the CD, and you select Preview
at the DiskWarrior report, your new directory and your old directory will
appear side by side in the Preview window. At the top of these windows,
you will see the name of the disk you are viewing: one will read "your
disk(original)" and the other will read "your disk(preview)".

First, compare the original and preview directories. Does it appear that
all of your files and folders are there? If so, you can now copy from
the rebuilt directory to another drive. To do this, select your other
drive in place of "your disk(original)". Now, that column should list
the files and folders in the disk you can backup to. In the other column
(i.e. the Preview disk), select items (a few at a time) and click the
Copy button below the list of files and folders. This will backup your
data to that drive.

3)
After DiskWarrior completes, the disk should be in a usable state.
However, since the "speed inhibited" message indicates hardware-related
issues, the best long term solution is to backup your files, reformat the
hard drive, re-install the operating system and restore from backup.
When you are reformatting your drive, you should choose to "Zero All
Data" (an option in Apple's Disk Utility program). Hopefully no one else here will ever need this info, but if you do....

[Mike]

Thanks for posting that. It's reassuring to know that DW can cope with even badly damaged discs (though I do hope I never need to put it to the test).

Hope your machine is back up and running.

[ElyseC]

Hope your machine is back up and running.Not yet, alas. DiskWarrior has been running for about 48 hours now.

I have emailed the Alsoft tech asking for confirmation that DW will - for sure - complete or throw in the towel and tell me there's nothing to be done but wipe it, lose all the data and rebuild from scratch. He'll probably read it once he gets to work tomorrow morning, so until I hear differently I'm just letting it run. <sigh>

[djb]

Useful, Elyse. Thanks for posting it.

[ElyseC]

Useful, Elyse. Thanks for posting it.You're most welcome. Hopefully no one else here will ever need it.

[djb]

One small correction... The correct term is "florfed" not "farkled".

;-)

[ElyseC]

One small correction... The correct term is "florfed" not "farkled".

;-)You northern folks do have your own way of saying things, dontcha now? ;-))

[Michael Rowley]

Elyse:

You northern folks do have your own way of saying things

I like the sound of 'farkled': it has a nice rustic ring to it. I can imagine imagine some ancient from down in, say, Sussex saying, 'It were right grunchy, not to say farkled; that's it, it were farkled'.

I must correct you on your notions of 'north' though: Saskatoon is at about the same latitude as Ipswich (the original English town).

[djb]

You northern folks do have your own way of saying things, dontcha now? ;-))

Whatchutalkingbout?

<http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=florfed>

The CORRECT term is "florfed.

;-P

[djb]

I must correct you on your notions of 'north' though: Saskatoon is at about the same latitude as Ipswich (the original English town).

I thought this was Bolton... That's Inter-City Rail for you.

[Michael Rowley]

DJB:

I thought this was Bolton

What is 'this'?

[djb]

DJB:

I thought this was Bolton

What is 'this'?


Sorry... Dead Parrot sketch kicked in for a moment.

CAPTION: 'A LITTLE LATER LTD.'

Praline walks into the shop again.

Praline: I understand that this is Bolton.

Shopkeeper: Yes.

Praline: Well, you told me it was Ipswich.

Shopkeeper: It was a pun.

Praline: A pun?

Shopkeeper: No, no, not a pun, no. What's the other thing which reads the same backwards as forwards?

Praline: A palindrome?

Shopkeeper: Yes, yes.

Praline: It's not a palindrome. The palindrome of Bolton would be Notlob. It don't work.

Shopkeeper: Look, what do you want?

Praline: No I'm sorry, I'm not prepared to pursue my line of enquiry any further as I think this is getting too silly.

[Mike]

Whatchutalkingbout?

<http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=florfed>

The CORRECT term is "florfed.

;-P


Nah. See: http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/F/farkled.html

[Michael Rowley]

DJB:

Dead Parrot sketch kicked in for a moment

Oh, that's your connexion between Ipswich and Bolton. It didn't raise any memories, because from 1967 to 1989 I was out of the country and before that we didn't have a television set.

I wondered if you were being pernickety about the latitudes of Saskatoon & Ipwich. The latter is 52.12°, and the former is only appoximately 52.5° (owing to the scale of the map). But both are well above the 49th parallel between you and the deep south!

[ElyseC]

I must correct you on your notions of 'north' though: Saskatoon is at about the same latitude as Ipswich (the original English town).Except that Toontown is still quite north (and some west, too) of me down here in Iowa and those Canajins up there do speak oddly sometimes. ;-))

[Michael Rowley]

Elyse:

Except that Toontown is still quite north

You do mean Saskatoon, don't you? I just wanted to remind you that though Canada mostly shares your awful climate, the inhabited part still extends to 49° at its southern border, which for Britons is beyond the pale.

those Canajins up there do speak oddly sometimes

Well, their English is a little odd all the time, but of course they do have neighbours that speak oddly too!

I was disappointed to hear that 'farkled' is not a term preserved from long-forgotten English, but it certainly does sound really drastic, quite unlike 'forfed', which sounds as if someone's speaking with toast in his mouth. Perhaps they're trying to say, 'farkled'.

[Mike]

Not yet, alas. DiskWarrior has been running for about 48 hours now.



Any change yet?

[ElyseC]

My awful climate? I dunno...I think it's just right here, with four distinct seasons and far milder winters than when I grew up here. We're right about 41°.

[ElyseC]

Any change yet?Nope. About 90 hours and counting. Still haven't heard back from two queries to Alsoft tech support. Maybe I'll go to their site and look for a different email address to try.

[Mike]

Still haven't heard back from two queries to Alsoft tech support.

Maybe they're trying to emulate their software. <g>

I think I'd give it a week and then pull the plug and start again.

[ElyseC]

Maybe they're trying to emulate their software. <g>

I think I'd give it a week and then pull the plug and start again.Well, here's the reply today from Marc, the support tech (sure a helpful, patient, nice guy):
There is no point in the process where DiskWarrior will give up on trying to read the data. Depending on how many blocks are damaged, the state of the data on those blocks, the speed of the computer, it is possible that this can take even longer than a day or two. However, people have allowed DiskWarrior to continue and have recovered their data after extended periods of time.

At the end of the day, how long you allow DiskWarrior to run is really based on other use of the computer and need for the data on the drive.

[Mike]

Well, here's the reply today from Marc, the support tech (sure a helpful, patient, nice guy):
At the end of the day, how long you allow DiskWarrior to run is really based on other use of the computer and need for the data on the drive.


Hmmm. So maybe my idea of waiting a week was somewhat overoptimistic then.

[ElyseC]

Hmmm. So maybe my idea of waiting a week was somewhat overoptimistic then.I guess so. <sigh> I've asked Marc for clarification, whether DiskWarrior will ever go beyond the spot on the disk its been attempting for days to see what else it can recover beyond the bad stuff.

[djb]

I guess so. <sigh> I've asked Marc for clarification, whether DiskWarrior will ever go beyond the spot on the disk its been attempting for days to see what else it can recover beyond the bad stuff.

Told 'ya it was florfed, not farkled...

<d&r>

[ElyseC]

Hmmm. So maybe my idea of waiting a week was somewhat overoptimistic then.And here is support tech Marc's reply:
No, DiskWarrior will continue to try a number of different methods for reading the damaged blocks. Without the information on those blocks, the rest of the rebuild process would be useless and the data on your drive would be incomplete or unreadable.

I suppose, theoretically, yes, DiskWarrior could run for infinity, but my guess is that the hard drive would run out of breath after a couple of years! Guess I'm going to have to decide when enough is enough and hit the Cancel button, bid a pained goodbye to my data and reformat the drive. <sigh>

[ElyseC]

Told 'ya it was florfed, not farkled...

<d&r> Yeah, yeah...spit on me in my misery, won'tcha? ;-)

<sigh> I'm beginning to hate computers more every day.

[ElyseC]

And now the latest reply from Marc the support tech:
There have been a handful who have seen success after four or five days
with the "speed inhibited by disk malfunction" message. There have also
been a few up to a week. From there, admittedly, the state of the drive
has to be pretty damaged for DiskWarrior to run so long, although the
speed DiskWarrior can work is also related to the speed of the processor,
so four days for a G3 is different than four days for a G5.
<sigh> This is a G5 tower we're talking about, so I'll give it until I cannot stomach looking at it this way any longer. Ick.

[ElyseC]

Told 'ya it was florfed, not farkled...

<d&r>And since you decided to be the wise guy with that crack <g>, I'll hang this latest reply from Marc the support tech off your post. :-)
Yes, I unfortunately have to agree that on a G5, there does seem to be a
lessening chance that this data is going to be read successfully.

While it is possible that the "disk malfunction" is indicative of a
further hardware problem, what you've described in your email seems to
only be bad blocks. You would have seen a number of other symptoms if
something further were wrong.

Is the G5 under warranty? You might consider simply replacing the drive
rather than going through the process of reformatting the drive with the
"zero all data" function.

Finally, there is a program called "Data Rescue X" from ProSoft
Engineering ("www.prosofteng.com"). They have a demo available which
might help you decide if the full version can recover some/all your
files. Since Data Rescue is not trying to repair the drive, only find
files, it may be able to read enough of the bad blocks to recover some of
your information.
Do you (or anyone reading this) have any experience with Data Rescue X? I'm pretty sure I've only read glowing comments about it. It does sound like a very wise purchase for my "in case of computer disaster" kit...

[Reesho]

Do you (or anyone reading this) have any experience with Data Rescue X? I'm pretty sure I've only read glowing comments about it. It does sound like a very wise purchase for my "in case of computer disaster" kit...
I was wondering if you ever succeeded with the Disk Warrior repair operation and if so how long it took. I currently have the same problem and as of this post DW is on hour 43! I will wait a full week if I have to before I give up on Disk Warrior (3.0.3 for Tiger) because the data is that important to me.

I did try Data Rescue a couple of years ago in OS 9. It didn't work for me - maybe because I was trying to do the impossible (I was trying to recover a bunch of OE email files that I had manually deleted.) But if DW fails to get me out of this mess I will try the Data Rescue X update if I can find my old serial number.

[ElyseC]

I was wondering if you ever succeeded with the Disk Warrior repair operation and if so how long it took. I currently have the same problem and as of this post DW is on hour 43! I will wait a full week if I have to before I give up on Disk Warrior (3.0.3 for Tiger) because the data is that important to me.

I did try Data Rescue a couple of years ago in OS 9. It didn't work for me - maybe because I was trying to do the impossible (I was trying to recover a bunch of OE email files that I had manually deleted.) But if DW fails to get me out of this mess I will try the Data Rescue X update if I can find my old serial number.Oh, Reesho, so sorry to hear you're going through it, too!

Well, for a variety of reasons I ended up letting DW chug away on my drive for a few days shy of an entire month. I can confirm what the Alsoft tech said, that DW will never give up trying. If your machine is a G5, I'd say that after week you can pretty much figure DW cannot repair the structure and your next step would be to get Data Rescue's current version and see what it can do for you. When you get it, don't waste time on a "Quick Scan," just use the "Thorough Scan" button that appears second from the left in the Data Rescue window.

Data Rescue got me most of the files I was hoping to get, but I don't know their health yet. I recovered them to two different places, once to my second internal, then again to one of my externals. If I'd noticed the option sooner (in one of the app menus top of your screen, forget which menu right now), I'd have used the option to also recover to a network volume and have stuck the files a third place, on either my second machine or my husband's iMac. I'm very impressed with Data Rescue; it's intelligently designed, easy to use, and a lot faster than I expected.

At the moment, I'm still not back up and running, though. Apple sent me a CIP drive, which I installed yesterday. However, when I booted up again, the secondary drive was recognized as it's always been, but the new, replacement unit doesn't mount at all. None of the Apple-supplied disks (OS install or Hardware Test) see it at all. I called Apple and have to remove and reinstall both internals again to make sure everything's seated correctly. If the new drive still isn't recognized, then I'm to swap where each drive plugs into the logic board. If the drive is recognized plugged into the other spot, it looks like the logic board is faulty; if the drive still isn't recognized, then there's something goofy about the drive or it's somehow incompatible with this machine. <SIGH>

If it's the logic board, the solution Apple's phone tech told me was that I'd have to take the machine to the nearest Apple Store to have it looked at. I told him that I really really don't want to do that, because the nearest Apple Store is a 3 hour drive away (one way) and even if I could afford the time, gasoline (well, I said "petrol" to him, because I recognized his Indian accent <g>) is extremely expensive right now. He then said that, perhaps someone could be dispatched to my location to check it out, then, given I'm paying for Apple Care. I'll believe that when I see it, but wouldn't them sending someone out be a pleasant surprise?

[annc]

If it's the logic board, the solution Apple's phone tech told me was that I'd have to take the machine to the nearest Apple Store to have it looked at. I told him that I really really don't want to do that, because the nearest Apple Store is a 3 hour drive away (one way) and even if I could afford the time, gasoline (well, I said "petrol" to him, because I recognized his Indian accent <g>) is extremely expensive right now. He then said that, perhaps someone could be dispatched to my location to check it out, then, given I'm paying for Apple Care. I'll believe that when I see it, but wouldn't them sending someone out be a pleasant surprise?Couldn't you courier it to the Apple repairer?

[Reesho]

Oh, Reesho, so sorry to hear you're going through it, too!

Well, for a variety of reasons I ended up letting DW chug away on my drive for a few days shy of an entire month.
Wow! You have remarkable patience! My heart couldn't stand looking at that frozen progress bar for that long. So what made you finally click "Cancel"?
If your machine is a G5, I'd say that after week you can pretty much figure DW cannot repair the structure and your next step would be to get Data Rescue's current version and see what it can do for you.
My machine is a G4 with a Mecury Extreme processor card upgrade (1.42 Ghz). So I imagine I'm to give DW a 2 week chance? Ugh!
Data Rescue got me most of the files I was hoping to get, but I don't know their health yet.
Congrats...I hope your files are OK and I hope I won't have to run DR but I'm not feeling too lucky at the moment.
At the moment, I'm still not back up and running, though.
So you couldn't reformat (tried reinstalling OSX etc.) and your drive was completely fried?!?
(well, I said "petrol" to him, because I recognized his Indian accent <g>) is extremely expensive right now.
LOL!
He then said that, perhaps someone could be dispatched to my location to check it out, then, given I'm paying for Apple Care. I'll believe that when I see it, but wouldn't them sending someone out be a pleasant surprise?
Maybe under the circumstances you could to get a return authorization and just send the computer back to apple and have them sort it out.

Good Luck!

[ElyseC]

Couldn't you courier it to the Apple repairer?Well, there is an authorized Apple service center about 25 minutes away, but they're currently overwhelmed with fixing the machines of students who've just returned to the University there. When I talked to the shop a week ago, it sounded like I might be waiting several weeks were I to take the machine in there. Driving it three hours to the nearest Apple Store, working with one of the Genius Bar techs, then driving back three hours would at least get me a working machine (or so I can hope) in one day. Following posts at MacInTouch about service at Apple Stores' Genius Bars, it doesn't appear you can just drop a unit off with or courier it to them, you have to wait with the machine for your turn even if you have a case number. The one thing users recommend is setting an appointment ahead of time, so you don't have to wait there on queue with all the other walk-ins.

[ElyseC]

Wow! You have remarkable patience! My heart couldn't stand looking at that frozen progress bar for that long. So what made you finally click "Cancel"?My kid awoke one morning (the office is just outside his room) because "Mommy, your machine is making a loud noise and woke me up in the middle of my Ronald McDonald dream!" <g>

Found the machine, DW window still up, but the screen had greyed and a little box in the middle said (in at least four languages) that I must restart my machine. Nothing else, just that I must restart. (Sounds like a logic board to me, but that's a mere hunch.)

My machine is a G4 with a Mecury Extreme processor card upgrade (1.42 Ghz). So I imagine I'm to give DW a 2 week chance? Ugh!

Congrats...I hope your files are OK and I hope I won't have to run DR but I'm not feeling too lucky at the moment.No, I think with a G4 about a week is long enough. The tech indicated that if DW didn't find anything on a G5 in four or five days, then he'd give a G3 only a few days more tops before canceling. A G4 would be somewhere in the middle of that I guess.

So you couldn't reformat (tried reinstalling OSX etc.) and your drive was completely fried?!? I could reformat, but the errors Hardware Test kept coming up with made the AppleCare phone tech order a new CIP drive be sent to me. Also, I suspect something's wrong with that drive, even if the logic board also has a problem, because when I tried to reformat it I was told to choose the option to "zero all data" and Apple's own Disk Utility wouldn't allow me to do so -- the options were greyed out. Reading up on how that could be, Apple's support site said "zero all data" is only available for compatible drives and some non-Apple drives might not be compatible. Weeellllll, this machine is 100% as ordered from the Apple Store, I've neither added to nor changed around any of its innards, hard drives, RAM, nuttin'.

I finally did the next best thing to "zero all data" and spent hours copying the biggest image files I could find on my other internal over to the bad drive (after reinstalling the OS, natch) and duplicating, duplicating, duplicating. When I got it down to something like 67 MB left out of that 244GB capacity, I selected all those files, trashed them and did a "Secure Empty Trash". With that I'm fairly sure I destroyed whatever I'd had on the drive originally, something I wanted to do before sending the old drive back to Apple.[/quote]

Maybe under the circumstances you could to get a return authorization and just send the computer back to apple and have them sort it out.As a last resort, yes, but I'm really hoping to get that thing fixed as quickly as possible. If I do send it back, I'll be darned if I'm sending back the second internal, because it's full of data I need to keep and get fully backed up. There are some sad stories of Apple reformatting or replacing perfectly good drives filled with data without prior warning when someone sent in their machine for a repair -- even a repair that had nothing to do with a hard drive. !! No siree, I'm not letting them get their mitts on the good drive.

[annc]

Following posts at MacInTouch about service at Apple Stores' Genius Bars, it doesn't appear you can just drop a unit off with or courier it to them, you have to wait with the machine for your turn even if you have a case number. The one thing users recommend is setting an appointment ahead of time, so you don't have to wait there on queue with all the other walk-ins.Goodness! It's like taking a child to the doctor! <g>

[ElyseC]

Goodness! It's like taking a child to the doctor! <g>Excellent analogy. Unfortunately.

[Reesho]

Thanks for the reply Elyse. I appreciate it. Of course Mac is still the best and people with our Apple problems are in the minority. Like everything else with me I seem to learn the hard way. From now on I'll be backing up my system regularly!

Best of luck with your repair experience!

[ElyseC]

Thanks for the reply Elyse. I appreciate it. Of course Mac is still the best and people with our Apple problems are in the minority. Like everything else with me I seem to learn the hard way. From now on I'll be backing up my system regularly!

Best of luck with your repair experience!Thanks much. Today (with my husband to do the heavy lifting of the G5 tower) I checked and rechecked the couple of things the Apple phone tech wanted me to do to confirm whether the drive they sent is the problem or the logic board. I checked both things and, according to my logic, the problem has something to do with the drive itself.

Hm...I really don't want to do it, but I just now thought of one more swapping test I should do to confirm that the drive is the problem and not the cables that link the drive to the logic board. Then again, even if I determine the cables are the cause, there's nothing I can do about it -- I seriously doubt they're considered a CIP (consumer installable part), so the machine will still have to go somewhere for a fix. Guess I'll be calling 1-800-SOS-APPL first thing tomorrow and will find out my next step with the tower.

[ElyseC]

Best of luck with your repair experience!Well, you can knock me over with a feather right now, because I called Apple, gave them the report about the last of the swapping they asked me to do and they are indeed going to dispatch the local techs to my location and replace the tower's logic board!

The tech shop called me within two hours of my call to Apple and said they'd call me again when the part arrives to schedule the trip down here and get driving directions. Wow.

Oh yeah, they now think the replacement drive is indeed fine, but the controller (on the logic board) for that drive bay is bad, so it made the other drive go south and now won't even recognize the new drive.

I asked the Apple tech how quickly the techs would get here and he said they have to schedule the repair ASAP once Apple contacts them that the part is coming. I told him that the place is crazy busy right now with returning university students and he said, "Well, if you take your machine to them you are put on their schedule, but if we call them, they have to perform per contract with us on our schedule. Wow. Very useful information!

[Reesho]

I told him that the place is crazy busy right now with returning university students...

...they have to perform per contract with us on our schedule...
It sounds like your repair was university related. If that is indeed the case then I wonder if Apple would extend itself the same way for a residential complaint. In any case that's great news for you. Please post back with your final results.

As for myself, I've ordered a replacement drive since my drive is corrupt beyond the reach of any commercial recovery software utility (haven't decided yet whether to send the drive out to Drive Savers - expensive). I'll be using the new drive with my newly acquired external Lacie FW along with CCC and Silverkeeper to do regular system back-ups. This will never happen to me again if I can help it!

[ElyseC]

It sounds like your repair was university related. If that is indeed the case then I wonder if Apple would extend itself the same way for a residential complaint. In any case that's great news for you. Please post back with your final results.No, I have nothing to do with the University; I have a home based office out in a rural area. The repair techs will be coming out to my home.

As for myself, I've ordered a replacement drive since my drive is corrupt beyond the reach of any commercial recovery software utility (haven't decided yet whether to send the drive out to Drive Savers - expensive). I'll be using the new drive with my newly acquired external Lacie FW along with CCC and Silverkeeper to do regular system back-ups. This will never happen to me again if I can help it!Did you get a quote from DriveSavers? I had to use them to recover a 9GB drive (amazingly, it wasn't that long ago that 9GB was a "decent-sized" drive) several years back and it cost $2000 when all was said and done. I shudder to think what it would be for one of today's drives.

[Reesho]

Did you get a quote from DriveSavers? I had to use them to recover a 9GB drive (amazingly, it wasn't that long ago that 9GB was a "decent-sized" drive) several years back and it cost $2000 when all was said and done. I shudder to think what it would be for one of today's drives.
Not ready to get a quote yet - want to wait and see if I can live with my loses. If I do I'll let you know. Right now I am reinstalling the whole kit & kabootle and the kitchen sink - starting over from scratch. It's refreshing in a way but I'm still aching over the hundreds of family photos lost among other things.

[ElyseC]

Not ready to get a quote yet - want to wait and see if I can live with my loses. If I do I'll let you know. Right now I am reinstalling the whole kit & kabootle and the kitchen sink - starting over from scratch. It's refreshing in a way but I'm still aching over the hundreds of family photos lost among other things.Yes, the photos. Thankfully I was storing them all over on the second internal.

[curveto]

<plotting strategies for using the word "farkle" soon/>

hehehe

[curveto]

> DJB

Oh Lord! It's You!

I just put it together.

The list of old folks home dance partners grows,
JR

[ElyseC]

<plotting strategies for using the word "farkle" soon/>

heheheGreat word, don't you agree? <g>

[djb]

Hey, on CSI tonight they recovered critical data using a screwdriver, an old drive case, a laser and a stick of Juicy Fruit dissolved in a MGD. Not even in a clean room.

It can't be *THAT* difficult.

[djb]

> DJB

Oh Lord! It's You!

I just put it together.

The list of old folks home dance partners grows,
JR

I love you too, JR...

;-*

[curveto]

Hey, on CSI tonight they recovered critical data using a screwdriver, an old drive case, a laser and a stick of Juicy Fruit dissolved in a MGD. Not even in a clean room.

It can't be *THAT* difficult.
Oh my golly!

The world *is* a small place. ...but not the reasons I'll bet you're thinking 'cause I've been to Toontown and "next gas 600 miles" != small.

Rather...

On CSI Miami, Epsiode 404 one of my comrade's gadgets can be seen (a laser-like finger scanner). I've never seen the show myself (no TV here in Orlando ... by design) but Sequiam (the comrades) have done a couple of biometric-like props for them.

You still torturing people with that (green, if memory serves me) machine that goes clackity-clack?

JR

[djb]

You still torturing people with that (green, if memory serves me) machine that goes clackity-clack?

???

I have *no* idea what you're referring to. Was that a Haggarty thing?

[ElyseC]

Hey, on CSI tonight they recovered critical data using a screwdriver, an old drive case, a laser and a stick of Juicy Fruit dissolved in a MGD. Not even in a clean room.

It can't be *THAT* difficult.;-Ppppppppfffffffffbbbt!

[curveto]

> I have *no* idea what you're referring to. Was that a Haggarty thing?

Yes. ...but I always thought you guys worked at <name of weekly paper escapes my aging brain>, no?

JR

[djb]

>Yes. ...but I always thought you guys worked at <name of weekly paper escapes my aging brain>, no?

The Western Producer, yes. I'm still here, Haggarty's been gone for years. He's working in Cincinnati these days.

I still don't know what the clackity-clack reference was to, though.

[curveto]

The Western Producer, yes. I'm still here, Haggarty's been gone for years. He's working in Cincinnati these days.

I still don't know what the clackity-clack reference was to, though.
<hint>It's about the size of a short semi-trailer</hint>

It was probably dismantled and replaced with some fancy new thing that just makes some goofy whirring noise.

JR

[djb]

<hint>It's about the size of a short semi-trailer</hint>

It was probably dismantled and replaced with some fancy new thing that just makes some goofy whirring noise.

JR

Whatever... I'm not in the mood for guessing games.

[curveto]

Whatever... I'm not in the mood for guessing games.
Oh never mind...

It puts ink on paper,
JR

[ElyseC]

Oh never mind...

It puts ink on paper,
JRAh, that's what I was going to guess. I dimly remember seeing a huge green press when I was there way way back when.

[djb]

Ah, that's what I was going to guess. I dimly remember seeing a huge green press when I was there way way back when.

Green and the size of a short semi-trailer? Nope.

There are three presses here currently:

Royal Zenith 1/2 web - not green, but possibly the right size (bit smaller than that, though)
Nebiolo heat set full web- not green, much bigger than the RZ
Goss Urbanite full web - not green, much bigger than the Neb.

None of them go clackity-clack, really.

There used to be a 6-color Heidelberg sheet-fed press here. It went clackity-clack, was about the right size, but again... not green.

[ElyseC]

Well, remember that I said "dimly". <g>

By my calculations that trip was at least 10 years ago, so I imagine a lot has changed. :-)

[djb]

Well, remember that I said "dimly". <g>
By my calculations that trip was at least 10 years ago, so I imagine a lot has changed. :-)

Less than you may think. New inserting line, and the 6 color is gone, but that's damn near it on the press floor.

[ElyseC]

Please post back with your final results.OK, here goes. The tech just left 15 minutes ago. He booted up the machine with the OSX install disk 1, switched to Disk Utility, and that confounded replacement drive immediately appeared in Disk Utility's list of known drives. !!!!!!!

<razzin frazzin bleepity bleep> <sigh>

Sooooooooo, he went ahead and reformatted it for me, reinstalled the OS, and didn't install the logic board after all. He really feels sure it was a bad hard drive (I gave him the history of the glitches from day it arrived last October) and his strong hunch is still they were due to a bad hard drive. He gave me some things to do over the weekend and his cell phone, so if I run into a problem I can call him. He said he'd be willing to come back to install the logic board this weekend if need be. Nice fellow.

I'll be pounding the machine hard this weekend, starting tonight, even. I expect to be back up and running on a solid system by next week! Here's hoping, anyway! :-)