My Day of Scandal (and Media Alert)
posted at 7:35 pm on April 15, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
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It’s been a tough day here at the Morrissey household. I awoke to the sound of sniper fire in my office, forcing me to dash under the desk rather than do my normal greeting ceremony with my keyboard and a cup of coffee. After ensuring that Sinbad and the Little Admiral could conduct their show, I determined that the sounds of sniper fire came from a hard drive that had a meltdown overnight. All of my data and all of the programs necessary for my blogging and the Ed Morrissey Show had disappeared.
Embittered, I grabbed my gun and my Bible. I looked around for someone to hate, but the First Mate was the only one here — and I’m not stupid. Of course, I had to get to work, but I looked around in vain for a federal government solution to my problem, increasing my cynicism. That meant I had to fend for myself, and so I stopped clinging to my gun and Bible long enough to spend most of the morning adapting my backup laptop for the show today.
After the show was over, I took the computer back to Best Buy, which couldn’t track down the warranty information. I told them that I needed this resolved quickly, as I had some recipes on my hard drive, modified from a Baker’s Square codebook that I wanted to post as my own on Hot Air. They scoffed at the notion, saying that the drive had eaten my recipes, which might explain why it died in the first place. (I’m not a good cook.) They finally found my warranty, but their cynicism further embittered me to the point where I bought a Bible program for my computer.
Did you know that Best Buy doesn’t sell guns? Not even in my small Midwestern town?
I’ll have to rebuild the PC’s system when Best Buy replaces the hard drive. That will likely take all week. At 7 pm CT, I’ll discuss my bitterness with Rick Moran on his BTR talk show. By that time, I may find an immigrant or two to disparage as well, and I’ll have to restrain my anti-trade sentiments.
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Get a Mac.
nukemhill on April 15, 2008 at 7:39 PM
Ah, bitterness. It’s the Midwestern Cross you’ve been called to bear. Go back to Best Buy and get you some Rainbow Six. It’s Best Buy’s only outlet if you don’t have a Bass Pro Shop Handy.
Cold Steel on April 15, 2008 at 7:39 PM
IBM Deathstar!
Chakra Hammer on April 15, 2008 at 7:41 PM
Bitterness, nothing a little hope and change and Arugula can’t fix.
lowandslow on April 15, 2008 at 7:41 PM
Good luck with Best Buy. 6 tries and they finally got me fixed.
SouthernGent on April 15, 2008 at 7:42 PM
Newegg.com
Chakra Hammer on April 15, 2008 at 7:42 PM
a delicious arugala sandwich might perk you up.
bbz123 on April 15, 2008 at 7:43 PM
Yes. Throw some Arugula at it!
lorien1973 on April 15, 2008 at 7:44 PM
It’s a sign. Time for a better computer!
Zorro on April 15, 2008 at 7:44 PM
Dadgummit lowandslow beat me to the veggy joke!
Curses.
I am soooooo bitter,
bbz123 on April 15, 2008 at 7:44 PM
Ed, I have built all my systems and lots of systems for my family and friends.(Fun hobby)
Chakra Hammer on April 15, 2008 at 7:45 PM
I went with the Socialist Utopian Mac Machine after my last Best Buy melt down. I’m done with disposable computers.
Cold Steel on April 15, 2008 at 7:46 PM
Junk, can’t overclock a mac..
Get a Quadcore PC, like the Q6600 G0 and Overclock it easily to 3.0-3.2GHZ without and voltage increases.
Chakra Hammer on April 15, 2008 at 7:47 PM
Without any* voltage increases.
Chakra Hammer on April 15, 2008 at 7:47 PM
I don’t think I’ve had Arugula – too expensive – and I spend most of my money on ammo. Is Arugula bitter, too?
innominatus on April 15, 2008 at 7:48 PM
Very. Good. Move.
Branch Rickey on April 15, 2008 at 7:49 PM
Get a MOBO with like a P35 with a ICH9R
and a good cooler like a Zalman 9700 or a AC Freezer 7 Pro
(AC Freezer is cheaper and should be sufficient)
Chakra Hammer on April 15, 2008 at 7:50 PM
+1
mattshu on April 15, 2008 at 7:53 PM
Do you use a stock heat sink and fan or upgrade?
Oldnuke on April 15, 2008 at 7:53 PM
Ed
http://www.microcenter.com/at_the_stores/st_louis_park.html
They have some good deals on Quadcore CPU’s for in store pickup since you live in the Twin cities here is the link to the store location..
Chakra Hammer on April 15, 2008 at 7:54 PM
Ooops didn’t refresh fast enough. I like Zalman too. Never used AC Freezer.
Oldnuke on April 15, 2008 at 7:54 PM
Ditto. Though I don’t like to admit it in public (see above). Just kidding. But the mac is way superior.
Branch Rickey on April 15, 2008 at 7:55 PM
i usually just get the OEM, and but an after market heatsink&fan.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115018
Chakra Hammer on April 15, 2008 at 7:55 PM
Let me guess — you were running Microsoft Windows Vista, weren’t you?
My collie says:
CyberCipher on April 15, 2008 at 7:57 PM
The CPU was fine. The hard drive was what died. The CPU has a very large fan attached to it.
I’m not looking to replace the system; I bought it less than five months ago, and it’s under a full warranty for three years. I’ll let the Geek Squad deal with the issue.
Ed Morrissey on April 15, 2008 at 7:57 PM
Remember to get Arctic Silver 5 thermal compound also.. (rolls eyes)
Chakra Hammer on April 15, 2008 at 7:58 PM
SHHHHHHHH…….
Reason to UPGRADE!!!!!!!!
Chakra Hammer on April 15, 2008 at 7:58 PM
That sucks.
aengus on April 15, 2008 at 7:59 PM
I get most of my stuff from Newegg. Last system I built was for my daughter. Core 2 Duo with a DFI Lanparty MoBo. Simple build lots and lots of bells and whistles. Didn’t like the sound setup on the board. Other than that great system.
Oldnuke on April 15, 2008 at 7:59 PM
That stinks :)
Nice job tying all the scandals together! You forgot to do some shots though..get drunk and get back to us!
Pam on April 15, 2008 at 7:59 PM
the whole obama-gun-bible-bitter reminds me of the Johnny Carson spoof on the AmEx commercial where he gets a pie in the face at the end of the tag line: “what will you do? WHAT WILL YOU DO?!?” SPLAT…too bad there aren’t any proper political satirists out there…would love to see barry get a pie in the kisser…
ocbrat on April 15, 2008 at 7:59 PM
Ha. You jest.
malan89 on April 15, 2008 at 8:00 PM
Ed, you did have backups, right?
Oldnuke on April 15, 2008 at 8:00 PM
Just make sure they don’t have access to your personal files.
malan89 on April 15, 2008 at 8:02 PM
Check the spin direction of your hard drive. A left-spin drive would never let you down.
shaken on April 15, 2008 at 8:02 PM
Good parody in that post.
Switch to Wal-Mart.
petefrt on April 15, 2008 at 8:02 PM
I never tried DFI(yet) >:}
—————-
Ed, forget Best Buy..
Newegg, has all the stuff.. probably get it cheaper :}
Chakra Hammer on April 15, 2008 at 8:04 PM
LOL! I remember reading about!
Chakra Hammer on April 15, 2008 at 8:04 PM
Most of those computer parts are made in China! You’ll be supporting the machine that oppresses Tibet and makes Richard Gere sad. Besides, they’re probably covered in lead. What you need is a nice organic abacus made by a commune in Nicaragua. It’ll be a fair trade abacus too.
rbj on April 15, 2008 at 8:10 PM
As luck would have it, today is “Buy a Gun Day”!!!But time is running out.
Bicyea on April 15, 2008 at 8:12 PM
I’m embittered by your bitterness. That hard drive probably took a bullet that was meant for you, and you didn’t even have a young Chelsea to block with.
ReubenJCogburn on April 15, 2008 at 8:12 PM
O Federal Government, why hast thou forsaken me?
Cicero43 on April 15, 2008 at 8:14 PM
I’m poor wish I had the cash the upgrade. >:{
I’m still running a s939 Dual-core Opteron175(2.2GHZ) Overclocked to 2.8GHZ
Geforce6150-430 mobo (Not using onvideo)
2GB DRR(2×1GB)
Geforce 8600GT
several HDD’s
>:}
Vista Ultimate Retail
Windows Experience Index 5.3
Built this before Vista came out(i added the video card after I got Vista)
Chakra Hammer on April 15, 2008 at 8:15 PM
Ed. One word: Carbonite
AntonK on April 15, 2008 at 8:16 PM
Don’t move the laptop around while it’s on. Then that won’t happen.
indythinker on April 15, 2008 at 8:16 PM
Yep, IBM “Deathstar.”
These are very well-known in the computer tech-service industry for extremely high failure rates. They’re total junk. IBM sold the product line to Hitachi a few years ago.
Actually, most computer components seem to be made in Malaysia, Thailand, or Indonesia. China seems to focus more on finished products.
mojojojo on April 15, 2008 at 8:21 PM
Death
Taxes
Data Loss
Nothing else in life can I guarantee for you.
daesleeper on April 15, 2008 at 8:23 PM
-2
badpenguin on April 15, 2008 at 8:25 PM
Yep had 2 in RAID 0 that failed A LONG TIME AGO(Years ago)
Chakra Hammer on April 15, 2008 at 8:26 PM
Ah, um, er, I “misspoke.” But that’s ok because I was speaking of a Higher Truth, so it’s true in a larger sense even if the facts are different.
Isn’t Lefty Logic* wonderful?
*may not contain actual logic
rbj on April 15, 2008 at 8:26 PM
Riiiiight. Mac hard drives don’t fail.
I’ve been following Captain Ed for a couple years, and I’m pretty sure he needs more than a pre-schoolers rig. And he doesn’t need Big Steve to “hold his hand” and tell him what he is allowed to do.
Squiggy on April 15, 2008 at 8:29 PM
Yeah, then they want you to maintain it, and answer questions, and tell you how their friend bought one from Dell and it is faster and quieter…no thanks.
tlynch001 on April 15, 2008 at 8:29 PM
I have heard the same thing, but I’ve got one laying around here somewhere that I put in a system about 10 years ago. Still going strong. One of the quietest HD’s I’ve ever had. Bad rep though.
Oldnuke on April 15, 2008 at 8:31 PM
malan89 on April 15, 2008 at 8:00 PM
That’s a Micky D’s BIG MAC. don’t cha know! MS Vista, no problems if its a new (clean) install and not an upgrade. You do need horsepower and min.2Gig memory w/o onboard video or sound, those are best left to their own cards with lots of their own memory!
dmann on April 15, 2008 at 8:31 PM
Ed, invest in an External Hard Drive that automatically does backups.
Chakra Hammer on April 15, 2008 at 8:33 PM
I gotta old Commodore 64 layin’ aboot, Ed. It’s yours for the taking!
robblefarian on April 15, 2008 at 8:36 PM
Get a massive 1 TB drive and store ISOs of all your DVDs and games too. Just mount up the ISO when you’re ready to watch or play. Never use disks again!
malan89 on April 15, 2008 at 8:37 PM
You can have the tape drive, too!
robblefarian on April 15, 2008 at 8:37 PM
I never understand the mac argument, they think that mac uses special components or something(mac uses WD, or Seagate or Hitachi just like the rest)
Chakra Hammer on April 15, 2008 at 8:40 PM
I rarely put a sound card in these days. I usually get good results with onboard sound.
Oldnuke on April 15, 2008 at 8:41 PM
slysoft, great stuff.. >:}
Chakra Hammer on April 15, 2008 at 8:41 PM
I do like Slysoft’s products, but I prefer DVDFab for “backing up” my DVDs >;-)
malan89 on April 15, 2008 at 8:44 PM
But I must say, I enjoy having the option of AnyDVD or DVDFab in case one…disappears. Thanks a lot, MPAA.
malan89 on April 15, 2008 at 8:46 PM
Same here and this MOBO doesn’t even have HD Audio it still uses AC’97 software codec however it’s the Realtec ALC850(which if i’m going to use AC’97 at least I have that one)
The newer mobo’s with like the Realtek ALC883-889A (HD) are much better obviously.
Chakra Hammer on April 15, 2008 at 8:46 PM
Haven’t tried either of these products. How do they stack up against copy protection?
Oldnuke on April 15, 2008 at 8:47 PM
Not me.. (don’t tell anyone)
All Hail Slysoft! >:D
Chakra Hammer on April 15, 2008 at 8:47 PM
Slysoft AnyDVD eats copy protection for breakfast.
Chakra Hammer on April 15, 2008 at 8:49 PM
Go Linux!
Ubuntu, Fedora and Mepis ROCK!
If you need to recover data use Spinrite don’t let Best Buy do it!
186k on April 15, 2008 at 8:54 PM
Puhleez. “Copy Protection”? It’s a joke. Both products have issues w/ less than 1% of all DVDs and chances are if one product can’t crack it, the other will (and DVDFab has a product that can rip copy protected disks to your hard drive that’s 100% free, which can also handle the HD formats). The only TRUE copy protection is making it unaffordable (Firefox SP check tells me that isn’t a word) to copy/rip disks. You see this with Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, the copy protection has been cracked but buying the optical drives and disks that can handle either format makes it too expensive for the average joe.
malan89 on April 15, 2008 at 8:55 PM
Ed, I’ll reiterate my offer of my IBM discount for friends and family that I offered you long ago when you needed a Thinkpad.
shirgall on April 15, 2008 at 8:56 PM
Yeah, if you have issues w/ either product it’s probably because your disk is REALLY scratched up (and even then, both AnyDVD and DVDFab can usually still copy it).
malan89 on April 15, 2008 at 8:59 PM
Get a Mac? I’d say sure if it was an OS problem or recommend Linux if the person is more tech savy, but the drive failed. No OS can save you from that.
Rebuild your box and build/buy a home NAS that uses multiple drives and can be configured for RAID 1 (at least two drives) or RAID 5 (at least three drives). Backup to the NAS.
raz0r on April 15, 2008 at 8:59 PM
If you need to recover data use Spinrite don’t let Best Buy do it!
186k on April 15, 2008 at 8:54 PM
Saying Ubuntu and Mepis isn’t that a little bit redundant?
BTW, PCLinuxOS is we are going to name Distro’s.. >:}
Chakra Hammer on April 15, 2008 at 9:00 PM
A Mac uses the same hard drives as PC’s and are prone to the same failures.
modnar on April 15, 2008 at 9:00 PM
Great, Thanks! I’ve been using DVD Shrink for a while because I got PO’d at all the commercial software that supposedly would back up and then choked.
Oldnuke on April 15, 2008 at 9:01 PM
If the blank disks cost $15 a pop, most people will just buy the damn movie.
malan89 on April 15, 2008 at 9:03 PM
Exactly, he needs someone to help recover his current data, then a system in place so that it doesn’t happen in the future.
Chakra Hammer on April 15, 2008 at 9:03 PM
Yep, but now that the turf war is over I’d expect those prices to drop.
Oldnuke on April 15, 2008 at 9:05 PM
Great comments, everyone! I did forget to work in the shots and also the six-shooter for duck hunting …
Ed Morrissey on April 15, 2008 at 9:05 PM
Its a nightmare scenario no blogger whats to endure,
contemplate,or invision!
Its a surreal tale of programs and files lost,and files
and programs found,the utter sorrow of them lost,and the
triumph of them found!
Its a story of Captain Ed’s unbelivable quest to reunite
himself of what he loves doing and the agony and soul
searching of finding said toasted parts!
An uplifting tale of man’s achievment over an early morning
Apocalypse,a true stoty of grit and sheer determination!
A true story,5*stars,a testament to mans(Capt. Ed) will!
canopfor on April 15, 2008 at 9:06 PM
Damm!t,that should be story,not stinkin stoty!grr!
canopfor on April 15, 2008 at 9:08 PM
The one good thing I’ve read about Macs is the time machine/time capsule software that does automatic backups to Apple’s over-priced, “fashion forward” external HD. It’s good for people like Ed that STILL refuse to do the simplistic tasks of making backups even after reading all the horror stories of lost files….no offense.
malan89 on April 15, 2008 at 9:09 PM
Yeah, but you did cling to your gun so it’s Ok. Now go have a shot and a beer back :-)
Oldnuke on April 15, 2008 at 9:09 PM
Au contraire! With the competition gone, I’d expect Sony to gouge like crazy.
malan89 on April 15, 2008 at 9:10 PM
As long as the disk can spin and the head hasn’t been beating on the surface of the platter(s), SpinRite can get your data, as 186k has mentioned.
Another options, boot a Linux LiveDVD, like Knoppix, then use dd to copy (sector by sector) the disk to the new hdd and use the new disk to perform recovery steps on (chkdsk, SpinRite, etc). This saves the old drive from getting beat on with repeated recovery steps.
Or, use something like clonezilla or g4u. There are others also.
raz0r on April 15, 2008 at 9:13 PM
My mistake, apparently that thing doubles as a router too. Still…way overpriced.
malan89 on April 15, 2008 at 9:14 PM
Do you remember The VHS Beta wars?
Oldnuke on April 15, 2008 at 9:14 PM
I’m embittered that Ed is so out of touch with small-town America that he doesn’t know real small towns don’t have Best Buys… We don’t have those kinds of luxuries. Instead we have to pile onto the back of a truck with our broken electronics and go to town. /sarc
CollegeGirl on April 15, 2008 at 9:14 PM
Ed,
Before you rebuild from scratch, if you are tech savvy at all or have a friend who is, do this:
Take that drive and put it in a zip lock (better if you have a foodsaver so you can vaccum pack it) and put it in the freezer for a few hours (better 24 hours). Then put it in an external drive case (or use a USB IDE/SATA adapter but I doubt you have one,) and image the drive using Symantec Ghost or Acronis True Image. Then, you can use that image to restore your PC as it was before the drive died. Putting the bad drive often gives you a couple of hours of use to create the image. It doesn’t always work but it works often enough to be worth the effort.
Once you get back up and running, start using Ghost or True Image and create nightly drive images so that you’ll never have this problem again. It’s not enough to simply backup your data unless you enjoy spending days rebuilding your system. An image puts your system in the exact state it was in when you created it – an hour or two (depending on the size) and you’re back in business.
TheBigOldDog on April 15, 2008 at 9:15 PM
LASERDISC ALL DA WAY!!!!
malan89 on April 15, 2008 at 9:15 PM
Oops. I better explain that “going to town” is country-speak for going somewhere (a city) with a Wal-mart (and other large stores, such as Best Buy).
CollegeGirl on April 15, 2008 at 9:16 PM
Tell me about it. I just moved to Central PA a month ago and the only big box store within 10 miles is Wal-Mart. I have to go ALL THE WAY to Muncy to get my Best Buy/Sam’s Club fix.
malan89 on April 15, 2008 at 9:17 PM
Sadly in a lot of places the nanny state has made it illegal to ride in the back of a pick-up.
Oldnuke on April 15, 2008 at 9:17 PM
PS – you’ll need to purchase an external drive to store your images $140 will buy you a decent 500gb USB external drive at Newegg…. Ghost runs about $65 at Newegg and Trueimage is around $50…
TheBigOldDog on April 15, 2008 at 9:18 PM
Here I envisioned a blogger room would look like the
business end of the interior of the war room in a Destoyer!
All the lights and whistles,multiple computers,a whole
wall of t.v’s tuned to diferrent news programs,the humming
of air-conditioners,the information world at your fingertips!
Oh,and a coffee pot!
canopfor on April 15, 2008 at 9:19 PM
Do people still NOT backup their hard drives?
CRAZY!
mylegsareswollen on April 15, 2008 at 9:20 PM
It’s been around for a long, long time on PCs with programs like Norton Goback. Gateway used to load it on their PCs 5 years ago as a way to keep their support costs low. They just had people rollback their machines when they ran into problems.
TheBigOldDog on April 15, 2008 at 9:21 PM
It is faster and easier to replace the HD yourself. If you have backups of your data, you’ll be better off than other people I know. I third or fourth the motion for Newegg. My photoshop computer I bought as components from them and I’m very happy.
Don’t go near Vista, it is a resource hog. WinXP is more stable, more secure, and proven technology. I love open source, but various products aren’t written to run on it.
Mooseman on April 15, 2008 at 9:21 PM
10 miles? That’s right down the road, no biggie… Wally World for us is a good 45 minute drive–that’s rural.
The popularly-used method of “duck when you see the state trooper” tends to work pretty well around here.
CollegeGirl on April 15, 2008 at 9:22 PM
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