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I apologize in advance for spelling errors or grammatical mistakes, I'm simply too lazy to check for them after writing this blog. It is also worth mentioning that this blog is somewhat long, so please don't one-star it or bash it because it's too long and you don't want to read it
This is also my first blog, so please don't comment harshly
I have a tendency to rush things, whether it be small, minor things like eating dinner, or important matters such as fixing a client’s computer. Perhaps my habit of hyper multi-tasking (as I like to call it) can be credited to playing too much Starcraft, but the fact remains that I try to do many things at once, and I tend to miss the smaller details. However, in the world of computers, small, minor things can cause your downfall.
It summer, the time of fun and boundless opportunities. One could spend their time honing their Starcraft skills, travel the land, or even learning new things! I am taking the 3rd option, and am currently in a co-op placement in a computer retail/repair shop. It’s a small place, and I appreciate the fact that I got to know everyone in the store on the first day.
My supervisor, Kristin, is a nice person. She is extremely eager to help, always encouraging me to ask questions if confused and is generally helpful. One thing she keeps telling me, however, is that I must always double check and be careful. I tend to listen half-heartedly, nodding and continuing with my work while telling her that I will be careful. I don’t consider myself a bad worker or one with bad work ethics, in fact, I did really well for the first two weeks, working hard and listening intently for advice and helpful tips. I was awarded with mostly 4+ and 4’s on the co-op student evaluation sheet for my efforts.
I consider myself a half-knowledgeable on computers. Granted, I knew how to use the internet, attach a video card onto a computer, and fiddle with control center options until my computer started working again, but I was no master of computers. For the very first few days I was always nervous, afraid of making a small mistake and causing the computer to blow up. Over time, however, I finally started to learn and became knowledgeable on computer hardware and repairs. I would finally stop feeling to nervous and jittery when working on a client’s computer.
Over time, however, I became less and less alert of my job. I started to take things less seriously, and I was breezing through most of the jobs. I figured that I had gotten a handle on how things work, and plus, they were all simple things like data transfer, software updates, virus removal, and installing new hardware. Some of the things the clients are requesting are really simple to do for a computer literate, yet they still insist on bringing them in. To quote Kristin, “The computer, to most people, is an all-purpose magical box, it is a religion. We are their priests, and whenever there is a problem, they bring the almighty computer to us as they fear of tempering with the almighty cube”.
I was starting to get used to things, and I had finally stopped being so nervous about handling them as well. It was then, with my guard down, that disaster struck.
Data transfers are part of the services that we provide in the store. When someone buys a new computer and wishes to keep his/her old files from the old computer, we would transfer the data from the old hard drive to the new hard drive; it is done often and everyday. This one was no exception – it was just a simple data transfer like all others. Yet I had no idea this data transfer is going to be a lot different from the other ones.
The first step is to take the old hard drive from the old computer and plug it into the new computer – simple. I unscrewed the screws securing the cover from the old computer and took off the cover. Spotting the old hard drive amidst the wires from the power supply, I quickly detached it from the old computer and brought it to the workstation where the new computer is. I rushed, and I didn’t pay attention to whether the new computer was on or not. I plugged in the hard drive, and a split second realized that the new computer was still on. I suddenly realized that I had just plugged in a client’s hard drive into a computer that is still on – this usually means a dead hard drive.
I was shocked and paralyzed. This is something all my co-workers had warned me before: never plug a hard drive into a computer that is still on. The instant surge of electricity from the power supply to the hard drive could easily kill the hard drive; and if one was unlucky, and power would then bounce back into motherboard and the rest of the computer, effectively frying all the circuits and rendering the computer useless.
I quickly unplugged the hard drive from the computer without thinking, hoping to save the hard drive. Yet it was in that moment that I realized I had just made yet another fatal error: unplugging a hard drive from a computer that was still on.
I sat there, dazed and confused. Wiping a customer’s hard drive was one of the worst things one could to a client’s computer – A dead or broken computer part can always be replaced, yet a dead customer’s hard drive cannot be recovered. “The customer is always right”, and “The customer is god” is a commonly heard motto, and I had just fried God’s hard drive and lost all his data.
I was scared, really scared. I wanted to cry, scream, or reverse time. Yet I can do none of that. The best thing I could do was tell my supervisor and the boss and hope that data recovery on the hard drive would work. However, the chance of recovering data from a dead hard drive is extremely low, if impossible. I sat at the workstation, thinking out possible ways to talk myself out of the situation. Excuses came to my mind, dozens of them, yet I know that no matter what excuse I told, the hard drive is still dead, and it will be easy to trace back and find the real culprit – me.
I inched my way toward Kristin, afraid to make eye contact. Sensing my mood, she immediately asked what the problem was.
“I just fried the hard drive.” I muttered.
I expected an outburst, anger, or even “you’re fired”. Yet all she did was sigh, then laugh.
“Things like this happen,” she lectured me, “I may seem crazy when I told you repeatedly to double check, but I have a reason for that.”
“Now what?” I asked her, afraid to know. Things like this will have to be reported to the boss, and even if Kristin simply laughed it off, and boss may take things differently.
After consulting Kristin, I decided that I should go by myself to the boss’ office and tell him myself. Since I was responsible for this, I should be the one to talk to him.
I knocked on the door, hoping that he would be away so that I could delay the inevitable. Yet, to my disappointment, Simon (the boss) opened the door and welcomed me in.
He asked me what I was in here for, and I told him straight up what had happened. To my surprise, he simply shrugged.
“We’ll see what he can do to recover the files,” he said, “Although the chances of that happening are low, we’ll talk about consequences after.”
So began the walk back to the dead computer. The hallways are usually longer, yet this time it seemed short. How I wished that time could slow down, or even go in reverse! However, soon I am back in front of the workstation where the dead hard drive lay.
Kristin was already there, looking at the hard drive with a look of interest.
“Good news for you, Abenson (obviously changed the name), the computer still boots up, the rest of the computer isn’t dead.”
Simon told me to go into the boot menu and see if the computer still detects the hard drive, and boot from the old hard drive. I was relieved to see that the computer still detected the hard drive, yet without the client’s data, I’m still in big trouble. I ordered the computer to boot off the dead hard drive, and a few seconds later the small “beep” indicating that the computer had posted rang through my ears. There’s hope, I thought, perhaps all the most important data is till there, and if I’m lucky, only the insignificant data will have been wiped.
To everyone’s surprise, the computer loaded windows with no problems at all, and a quick check through the system showed no abnormalities.
“You got lucky, boy!” laughed Simon, “The hard drive seems fine, and the data are still there.”
“Well, everything turned out OK,” beamed Kristin, “Just remember, take it slow and double check next time.”
I felt relieved. A moment ago I was almost convinced I could be fired for this, and I have been brought out of hell.
“It doesn’t matter whether there’s data in there or not,” Simon told me, “It may be that the customer doesn’t care at all! But when you accidentally wipe the hard drive, the whole world is in that hard drive.”
It all worked out (the good way) in the end. However, I had learned a valuable life lesson today. A lessons I won’t forget in a long time.
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sounds like an intense day! I'm glad you made it through it. You know what they say, when it rains it pours, but without rain there is no rainbow. lol
probably the most cheesy post I have ever made but I definitely sympathize with you. Glad that day is over man.
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Great story! love that the ending wasn't spoiled too. 5 stars, Sometimes you get lucky!
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Awesome story and a very fun read for me. 
One thing though. Since the computer was on, didn't you see the fan spinning? :O
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Something totally unrelated to the blog but uh.... hey Benson, where you've been man? I haven't seen you on vent or msn at all recently.
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United States4796 Posts
Awesome ending.
5/5
Good writing style!
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Dawww I love stories with happy endings!
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I remember doing something of the likes... Not quite as fun of an ending. However, since the owner of the data was an extremely careful and paranoid person, I had three mirrored backups I could use to redo it.
Changed permissions of every file on the hard drive... It was really bad.
Nice ending. I'm sure that rush of adrenaline when you screw something up is something most of us here can relate to.
You got lucky, boy...
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Quality blog!
I had just fried God’s hard drive and lost all his data.
That made me laugh for some reason.
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Interesting read.
Vaguely related question: A while ago I had an external HDD stop working, I believe due to moisture accumulated when I checked it in airline baggage. In an attempt to get the data from it, I took apart the case and discovered what appeared to be a completely stock HDD - so, being retarded, I tried to just plug it in as a normal HDD and start up the comp.
I managed to miss the fact that there was smoke after the first attempt and tried twice more before I realized how many risks I was taking.
So, I ask you:
a) What should I have done?
b) Am I lucky that my entire comp didn't blow up?
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So nice to have a happy ending
5/5 blog from me ^.^
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Netherlands19133 Posts
5/5, totally worth the whole read . Hope to see more in the future!
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I skipped the first 6-7 intro paragraphs but the rest was good ^^
I think this is probably how I ruined my old drive a long time ago, although I can't remember now. The drive would read when I plugged it into a friends diagnostic tool thing, but it said it had something like 20 TB when it was a 80g hd lol. I read somewhere that the circuit boards on these drives (seagate barracuda) often go out, and are hard to come across to replace. So I still have the drive and it probably has the data on it. Any advice to getting it off? There is some priceless shit on there to me.
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Thanks for all the positive feedback!
I was actually afraid to write a blog for the longest time since I was afraid of getting flamed D:
Now that my first one is out, I'll be writing a lot more! :D
@kzn,
Inside an external hard drive, there is supposed to be a hard drive that you would find in any other computer, the only difference is the enclosure itself. However, seeing as the HDD was probably dead/broken from the flight, plugging it into the computer could have easily killed the computer.
Normally you can just take it out and plug it in, but there's probably something wrong with it from the flight.
@Charlie Murphy
I would actually recommend you bring it to a more specialized computer shop... Taking it apart is way too risky, as a simple fingerprint on the disk could totally ruin the whole thing. If the data is really that important, you can always send it in.
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Love the story. Glad it turned out well.
On July 22 2010 23:01 Abenson wrote:
@Charlie Murphy
I would actually recommend you bring it to a more specialized computer shop... Taking it apart is way too risky, as a simple fingerprint on the disk could totally ruin the whole thing. If the data is really that important, you can always send it in.
Depends on what "priceless shit" you have in there. Edison Chen had "priceless shit" on his hard drive as well but sending it for repairs was a bad, bad move...
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On July 22 2010 23:01 Abenson wrote:
Thanks for all the positive feedback!
I was actually afraid to write a blog for the longest time since I was afraid of getting flamed D:
Now that my first one is out, I'll be writing a lot more! :D
@kzn,
Inside an external hard drive, there is supposed to be a hard drive that you would find in any other computer, the only difference is the enclosure itself. However, seeing as the HDD was probably dead/broken from the flight, plugging it into the computer could have easily killed the computer.
Normally you can just take it out and plug it in, but there's probably something wrong with it from the flight.
@Charlie Murphy
I would actually recommend you bring it to a more specialized computer shop... Taking it apart is way too risky, as a simple fingerprint on the disk could totally ruin the whole thing. If the data is really that important, you can always send it in.
I'm kind of curious, was it an PATA Drive? As far As I Know, SATA are hot swappable...
All board are equipped with "Double Buffer", I forgot the name in English =/ I think it's called buffers. It's basically a security device so there's no short circuit when plugging any components live, before, you had to make sure your computer was turned off when plugging Keyboards and such.
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On July 23 2010 05:25 Peekay.switch wrote:Show nested quote +On July 22 2010 23:01 Abenson wrote:
Thanks for all the positive feedback!
I was actually afraid to write a blog for the longest time since I was afraid of getting flamed D:
Now that my first one is out, I'll be writing a lot more! :D
@kzn,
Inside an external hard drive, there is supposed to be a hard drive that you would find in any other computer, the only difference is the enclosure itself. However, seeing as the HDD was probably dead/broken from the flight, plugging it into the computer could have easily killed the computer.
Normally you can just take it out and plug it in, but there's probably something wrong with it from the flight.
@Charlie Murphy
I would actually recommend you bring it to a more specialized computer shop... Taking it apart is way too risky, as a simple fingerprint on the disk could totally ruin the whole thing. If the data is really that important, you can always send it in. I'm kind of curious, was it an PATA Drive? As far As I Know, SATA are hot swappable... All board are equipped with "Double Buffer", I forgot the name in English =/ I think it's called buffers. It's basically a security device so there's no short circuit when plugging any components live, before, you had to make sure your computer was turned off when plugging Keyboards and such.
The client's hard drive was an IDE one, and was definetly not hot-pluggable. The hot-pluggable hard drives are available, but only exist in hard drive for servers. The normal hard drives are cannot be plugged in live.
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On July 23 2010 06:32 Abenson wrote:Show nested quote +On July 23 2010 05:25 Peekay.switch wrote:On July 22 2010 23:01 Abenson wrote:
Thanks for all the positive feedback!
I was actually afraid to write a blog for the longest time since I was afraid of getting flamed D:
Now that my first one is out, I'll be writing a lot more! :D
@kzn,
Inside an external hard drive, there is supposed to be a hard drive that you would find in any other computer, the only difference is the enclosure itself. However, seeing as the HDD was probably dead/broken from the flight, plugging it into the computer could have easily killed the computer.
Normally you can just take it out and plug it in, but there's probably something wrong with it from the flight.
@Charlie Murphy
I would actually recommend you bring it to a more specialized computer shop... Taking it apart is way too risky, as a simple fingerprint on the disk could totally ruin the whole thing. If the data is really that important, you can always send it in. I'm kind of curious, was it an PATA Drive? As far As I Know, SATA are hot swappable... All board are equipped with "Double Buffer", I forgot the name in English =/ I think it's called buffers. It's basically a security device so there's no short circuit when plugging any components live, before, you had to make sure your computer was turned off when plugging Keyboards and such. The client's hard drive was an IDE one, and was definetly not hot-pluggable. The hot-pluggable hard drives are available, but only exist in hard drive for servers. The normal hard drives are cannot be plugged in live.
Hard drives for server are normal hard drives. Most boards come with an e-sata support, and there's nothing special to it, it simply links the inside SATA/Power to the outside of the case.
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Peekay.
no mine was IDE drive.
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Seeing how I have no other ways to contact you I'm just gonna ask you on your blog, Benson are you going to badminton tomorrow?
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On July 23 2010 11:52 UpperX wrote:
Seeing how I have no other ways to contact you I'm just gonna ask you on your blog, Benson are you going to badminton tomorrow?
I'll call you
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EPT
