Sunday, January 31, 2010

A Troubleshooter's Nightmare

It all started from another usual complaint from my mum regarding the speed (or rather, the lack of it) of the ol' family computer. I like to call it the Pentium4. Anyway I ignored it as usual; I couldn't make it much faster than it already was.

Until this morning. You know those flashes of "Ya hor! That might work!" ? I had one of those moments, and from there on the nightmare started.

You see, Pentium4 was configured to dual boot Windows XP and Ubuntu Linux on separate hard disks a few years ago as an experiment, since I had a leftover hard disk from the now-scrapped Pentium3. Apparently after the experiment the Windows partition slowed down considerably, but for the sake of keeping Ubuntu I lived with it.

As experiments go, Pentium4 didn't use his Ubuntu alter-ego as much as he should. So I decided, on this fateful morning, that it should go. Just remove the old hard disk and everything will be back to normal, right? Or so I thought.

To cut the over-technical story short, installing Ubuntu screwed up the Windows master boot record (or MBR) which controls the booting up of OS when starting up the computer. So I was busy trying to figure out how to repair the MBR, when I accidentally deleted my Windows partition (thanks to Compaq Recovery).

I was left with an unbootable hard disk AND no data to boot (pardon the pun). Thankfully, I had a backup image, so I restored it and prayed it would work. The data was back, but it still wouldn't boot.
I did what most people would do - Google.

To cut another long technical story short, I downloaded a burnt a couple of utility CDs that were supposed to solve the problem, but they didn't work. I got fed up and went ahead with Compaq Recovery to restore my hard disk back to factory settings, hoping that the MBR would be fixed in the process. Nope.

And then I threw down my last card in frustration - wipe out the entire hard disk, and try to restore the backup image which I tried the first time round. If that didn't work, well at least I'd get a 80GB external HDD to play around with. Here's the best part: While attempting the restoration, I noticed an option that I missed out the first time - an option to restore the MBR as well. *facepalm + head-on-wall-banging*

And surprise surprise! It actually worked! After a whole day of trying. Does this warrant a failblog.org entry? Or perhards FML?

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Twisted my knee during soccer yesterday. Not that serious, but it does feel kinda wobbly. I hope it gets better in time for the Muse concert on Wednesday! Standing ticket, of all things.

Friday, January 22, 2010

When we were young...

(QUOTE)
sighz...weekend was spent setting up the new comp...compaq presario, comes wif a 17 inch lcd screen...looks dam big...not used to it...

anyway i discovered the integrated VGA card sux...64mb only...so i opened it up, and guess wad? the slots were not compatible wif my nVidia Geforcefx 5200...gotta live wif lousy graphics until i can get a compatible one...

70GB of HD space...omg thats so gay~ y would anyone need so much space lolx...

loading speed is also gay...2-3 seconds for fifa2005 compared to 10-15s on my old one..

righto enuf of my comp...

i ran 4++ km yesterday...1 round bedok reservoir...surprising that i didnt feel tired, maybe cos i ran xtra slow...


(UNQUOTE)


4 years ago, that was my writing style.

Looking back, I think I was still pretty n00bish in writing a proper, readable blog post.

I've come a looong way haha.

Do take note of "70GB of HD space...omg thats so gay~ y would anyone need so much space lolx... "

Technology is amazing, don't you think?

Reading my old archives can be a pretty amusing (and embarrassing for me) experience.

School work is piling up. Damn.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Again

Its been a pretty eventful holiday so far, probably one of the holiday periods where I actually spent the least time at home so far, compared to holidays of the past. Sounds like a geek coming out of the closet eh?

Still, I stayed at home long enough to complete 1 round of Dragon Age: Origins. According to popular consensus, it's definitely worth a replay, just to see what happens when choosing an alternative plot route.

A rewind moment to reflect on the last holiday of 2009

Had the last of my exams! Seems so far away now, just thinking that I have to go through another of those in another 4 months time is giving me a stomachache (ok actually I'm feeling hungry, but I digress)

Batman Arkham Asylum and Modern Warfare 2! Spent many happy hours killing and getting killed.

Welcomed Ming Hwee and Ming Hao back to Singapore with a "reunion" soccer game!

Celebrated girlfriend's 21st birthday party at NSRCC resorts. Really great place to hold parties and gatherings! Great party, great company, great food and too much drinks :P I was surprised no one got really drunk. Spent a nice lazy day there the next day after the party.

Celebrated Wesley's birthday at a Thai restaurant. Somehow a lot of people were born in December, I wonder why hmmm....

Watched 2012 and Avatar, potential movie of the year. Wonderful visuals, stunning graphics. Its amazing what technology can do, especially when comparing to the movies of old. Story was kinda predictable though - High tech Pocahontas?

Christmas week was really packed.

Attended Sean's Xmas party, which was really a very filling dinner , a Saboteur tournament and a talk cock sing song session :)

EOY '09! Had a wonderful experience there, performing in front of a great crowd. The organisers and fellow performers were very friendly as well. Lots of things to see and hear! Cosplayers and photographers were everywhere. Stormtrooper vs Krauser = epic. Saw Yui Makino during the rehearsals :P

Went for ex-alpha interns' Xmas BBQ at Hui Xian's house. It was nice meeting everyone again and of course goofing around with the guys.

Became a Karang Guni for a morning, traversing HDB floors in a corner of Sengkang lugging stacks of newspapers, magazines and tonnes of other chapalang stuff to raise funds for Hexis. One hell of a workout!

Went for David's 21st birthday party! Spent the whole night playing mahjong and Wii. Next day everyone was pretty stoned.

Played LAN with David and his friends, followed by shopping at Sim Lim. L4D2! Not a bad game I'd say, much more fun and exciting than the original. Gonna wait for a discount before I even consider getting it.

Met up with the Kevin and the army dudes for lunch @ Marche @ 313 @ Somerset! Followed by another LAN gaming session (this time we went old school - Counterstrike!) and dinner of ramen in an ulu corner of Orchard Plaza.

Dragon Age : Origins! Really addictive game. RPG of the year, definitely!

That's about it!

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School starts in less than 15 hours. *sigh*

Here we go again...

Sunday, January 03, 2010

First post of 2010!

Frankly, it doesn't seem any different from 2009, apart from the fact that school starts in a week :(

Well, I suppose its appropriate to create a(nother) list of new year resolutions....

1) I will not upgrade my PC any further unless something breaks down.
2) Learn Japanese! (This hinges on whether I'm able to successfully bid for HMJ1)
3) Fly to Germany during the summer!
4) Catch Muse live in Singapore! (Well this is almost done, ticket's with me)
5) Play more gigs than in 2009!

I suppose 5 should be enough, yes?