Author Topic: Murphy Thread  (Read 4981 times)

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Offline TerraHertz

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Re: Murphy Thread
« Reply #25 on: March 29, 2018, 01:07:10 am »
How about that time I thought "Hmm, I haven't made a backup image of my main working hard drive for a very long time. I'd better do that now. But first, I'll just make some small tidy-ups of the folder structures. Will only take a few minutes.

During those few minutes, the hard disk suddenly became a totally unreadable non-disk. Bricked. Hardware failure on the logic board.

That was when I found out that with modern drives you cannot just swap over an identical control PCB from another same model HDD. Because they have factory set calibrations in the firmware, and will not work at all on any physical drive but the one they were calibrated for.
Collecting old scopes, logic analyzers, and unfinished projects. http://everist.org
 
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Offline Electro Detective

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Re: Murphy Thread
« Reply #26 on: March 29, 2018, 11:57:23 pm »
How about that time I thought "Hmm, I haven't made a backup image of my main working hard drive for a very long time. I'd better do that now. But first, I'll just make some small tidy-ups of the folder structures. Will only take a few minutes.

During those few minutes, the hard disk suddenly became a totally unreadable non-disk. Bricked. Hardware failure on the logic board.

That was when I found out that with modern drives you cannot just swap over an identical control PCB from another same model HDD.
Because they have factory set calibrations in the firmware, and will not work at all on any physical drive but the one they were calibrated for.




Ouch, I didn't know that  :o 
good ol '  'progress and innovation' to keep up with modern Murphyism   >:D

I'll do a straight up 'untidy' drive to image or backup clone from now on, and worry about the file and folder housekeep after it's done  :phew: 
 

Offline Mr. Scram

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Re: Murphy Thread
« Reply #27 on: March 30, 2018, 04:24:47 am »
How about that time I thought "Hmm, I haven't made a backup image of my main working hard drive for a very long time. I'd better do that now. But first, I'll just make some small tidy-ups of the folder structures. Will only take a few minutes.

During those few minutes, the hard disk suddenly became a totally unreadable non-disk. Bricked. Hardware failure on the logic board.

That was when I found out that with modern drives you cannot just swap over an identical control PCB from another same model HDD. Because they have factory set calibrations in the firmware, and will not work at all on any physical drive but the one they were calibrated for.
Some modern drives. Tiny version differences can ruin your day too, though.
 

Offline SeanB

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Re: Murphy Thread
« Reply #28 on: March 30, 2018, 05:44:03 pm »
Done the board swap. Lucky I had a donor board with same firmware version and only a few serial numbers apart as donor for the cloning, then I put the board back, as the person whose computer it was had nothing to do but catch up on her filing. Drive was for something that was no longer supported officially by the supplier, and they had no longer any media to reinstall.  Made 2 copies though, then swapped the boards and put the donor back in the machine. It worked on both sides, and I grabbed another drive to make the second copy, and wrapped it up in some antistatic bag and bubble wrap, and popped it into the case as a spare.

Murphy dictated I never needed that second spare, though I did then make monthly full backups of the drive, though as it was running Win98 that was fine, only a 40G drive, the giant zip file was easy to store and compressed well, seeing as the data was almost all text files with predictable structure. I still have Win98 media to reinstall, complete with the COA and the DVD, all still shrinkwrapped, 2 copies........ Then another 2 DVD's with every single patch Microsoft ever offered for Win98, including all service patches up till EOL.
 

Online CatalinaWOW

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Re: Murphy Thread
« Reply #29 on: March 31, 2018, 02:02:31 pm »
Those dropped small items don't run and hide.  They turn transparent for some short interval.  Proof is that after the unit you are working on has been buttoned up with some kind of work around the part will be found laying there in plain sight.
 

Offline jordanp123

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Re: Murphy Thread
« Reply #30 on: March 31, 2018, 02:52:30 pm »
Had one just yesterday in fact, a buddy has a commercial garage door opener for his garage, said opener quit and he asked me to look at the board. After about 20 minutes of looking at it, tracked it down to a failed PIC uController , as soon as it gets power its a dead short circuit on the chip. Called the company that makes the units, "Sorry sir we don't sell individual IC's", Okay fine, ask them about just buying a new board "Sorry sir that board is EOL, we don't have any units to sell you......", asked if they had any kind of universal boards, "Yes, sir we do but none that fit that model, its the oddball in our lineup".  :palm: So he has a commercial unit with everything working perfectly except a dead chip that is socketed.
 

Offline Vgkid

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Re: Murphy Thread
« Reply #31 on: March 31, 2018, 03:59:08 pm »
When using any power tool , be sure to know where all cords and hoses are. Was using the table saw , and managed to cut an air hose and cut into the saws power cable. It was not the blade , but the drive belt . :palm:
If you own any North Hills Electronics gear, message me. L&N Fan
 

Offline Mr. Scram

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Re: Murphy Thread
« Reply #32 on: March 31, 2018, 06:39:52 pm »
When using any power tool , be sure to know where all cords and hoses are. Was using the table saw , and managed to cut an air hose and cut into the saws power cable. It was not the blade , but the drive belt . :palm:
That's a classic.
 


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