My Latest Linux Installation
November 9th, 2005 at 02:57pm
A few nights ago I decided to install Ubuntu Linux 5.10 on my main computer, so I set about doing it, I downloaded Ubuntu 5.10 via Bittorrent as it provides downloads which are checked for errors as they come in. On previous occasions I have downloaded large things via HTTP (the “normal” way) and then fixed the errors by letting Bittorrent redownload the broken bits.
I decided to give Ubuntu 20GB of the 80GB hard drive, but I noticed that the hard drive was approaching 60GB of used space, so I went and removed a lot of excess clutter, which deleted roughly 20GB of files.
Then I set about running Disk Defragmenter which is always a good idea when repartitioning existing partitions, as it tends to move all the files into one large chunk, which makes the whole partitioning exercise easier.
The rest of the process should have been easy, I inserted the Ubuntu CD and booted from it, ran through the installation wizard, hist the wrong button on the partitioning screen without realising, had a minor panic attack and decided to partition the drive myself. So I whipped out my copy of Partition Magic 8.0 (without realising that it is the version of Partition Magic which creates NTFS partitions which Windows XP can’t recognise) and set about resizing the existing NTFS partition to 60GB which would leave a nice blank space for Ubuntu to deal with as it likes. Partition Magic slowed to a crawl and gave a useless error halfway through making the changes to the hard drive and promptly exited.
At this stage panic sunk in, I rebooted the computer (which was about all the computer would let me do) and watched Windows try to start itself. This was somewhat spectacular, before the XP logo screen could appear, I saw half of a stop error (AKA Blue Screen Of Death) and the computer restarted so it could do it again…needless to say, I was not impressed, and having not backed up the important data on the now useless partition I was very concerned.
I came to the conclusion that Microsoft own the file system, so they should fix it. So I got out my XP CD and booted off that and entered the recovery console…this proved how bad things really were, it didn’t even ask me for the administrator password, which is it’s way of saying “Well, I can’t find any reason to authenticate you…looks like that’s a hard drive…you fix it!”
I tried to get a directory listing, but it gave me some error along the lines of “failed to enumerate directory structure”, so I ran the recovery console version of CHKDSK, it told me the partition had errors (wow…it must be bright), so I let it loose with the /r switch in full force telling it to repair. During the hour or so that it spent showing me a percentage of completion, I frantically searched for my notes on the recovery console, which I appear to have placed in an unknown location.
Somehow, during this ordeal, I ended up deciding that this was exciting, so I greeted the completion of CHKDSK with some relief and joy…I restarted the computer and to my surprise Windows XP booted perfectly…all my data was still intact, and I was pleased.
Undeterred I set out on Installing Ubuntu again, and this time, having hit the right buttons, it went flawlessly, it resized my NTFS partition, created some new partitions, installed itself, configured the bootloader, and just plain worked…imagine how much time and angst I would have saved if I had hit the right buttons in the first place.
Samuel
Entry Filed under: IT News,Samuel News
12 Comments
1. opinionated_cunt | November 10th, 2005 at 9:23 pm
Mate, i own an IT company and i shudder to think f***wits like you are one day going to enter the workforce. You are quite simply a cluster-f*** who should exit our industry and never ever speak of your ‘alleged’ IT skills.
Examples:
1. You use Bit Torrent – fired; clean out your desk and f*** off
2. You think Defrag is a good tool – fired; and be fucking quick cleaning out your desk
3. You ‘hist’ the wrong button – wtf? I f***ing pay you to waste oxygen?
4. You didn’t know how PM formats drives – Fired; don’t even go back to your desk smacktard, just get the f*** off my property
5. YOU DEFERRED TO MICROSOFT – Fired, wait, we hired you in the first place? F***, OK – new answer – Fired; well done, you are the new king of the smacktard’s. All hail the new king. Help me here tard, do you really expect to get a job for anyone other than a kiddy-fiddler fronting a PC repair shop?
6. CHKDSK is an enlightening moment – Fired; Bend over son, this won’t hurt a bit
7. AND I QUOTE – ‘imagine how much time and angst I would have saved if I had hit the right buttons in the first place’ – Fired; Don’t worry about your desk, bubba here is going to help you worship a new god…
And to think i’m being nice giving you career advice. Where do i send the invoice?
2. Samuel | November 10th, 2005 at 9:44 pm
I’ve let through a few too many strange comments today, and my patience is wearing thin, but your comment is just odd and deserves to be posted so I can answer it publicly.
Let’s start by informing you that I am already in the workforce. Now to address your points one by one.
1. Yes, I use bittorent, but I would not use it at work and I don’t use it for illegal purposes.
2. It is a good tool.
3. Everybody makes mistakes, are you saying that you have never made a mistake.
4. I’ve used PM many times before…
5. I have a general dislike of Microsoft, but if they do something good then they should be congratulated.
6. No, it was not an enlightening moment, just something I haven’t had to do for a while.
7. You really are an idiot aren’t you.
If you run an IT company then people would be well advised to steer clear of it because you obviously have a very bad attitude and limited knowledge.
Send the invoice anywhere you like, I’m not reading it….and I can think of a place where you usually place your head which would be a good spot…hint: It’s dark and smelly.
3. eebl | November 10th, 2005 at 11:01 pm
“Mate, i own an IT company and i shudder to think f***wits like you are one day going to enter the workforce. You are quite simply a cluster-f*** who should exit our industry and never ever speak of your ‘alleged’ IT skills.
Examples:
1. You use Bit Torrent – fired; clean out your desk and f*** off
2. You think Defrag is a good tool – fired; and be fucking quick cleaning out your desk
3. You ‘hist’ the wrong button – wtf? I f***ing pay you to waste oxygen?
4. You didn’t know how PM formats drives – Fired; don’t even go back to your desk smacktard, just get the f*** off my property
5. YOU DEFERRED TO MICROSOFT – Fired, wait, we hired you in the first place? F***, OK – new answer – Fired; well done, you are the new king of the smacktard’s. All hail the new king. Help me here tard, do you really expect to get a job for anyone other than a kiddy-fiddler fronting a PC repair shop?
6. CHKDSK is an enlightening moment – Fired; Bend over son, this won’t hurt a bit
7. AND I QUOTE – ‘imagine how much time and angst I would have saved if I had hit the right buttons in the first place’ – Fired; Don’t worry about your desk, bubba here is going to help you worship a new god…”
And its f***stains like yourself that make me so happy to be in the public service, jackass.
4. eebl | November 10th, 2005 at 11:15 pm
EHH WRONG. Bittorrent is great for utilising little ammounts of bandwith for deployment of applications and the like. If you fire someone for using bittorrent for this purpose, congrats, you just fired the best asset you had to your company. Just because a program has a stigma doesn’t mean it should be fucked off. Shitstick.
AND AGAIN WRONG. How many times do I have to tell you morons that the way your filesystem works, you have to defrag, otherwise its the equivilent of having a large phallic object inserted into your hard drive and spitting its little phallic gravy all over the platters/
Its a typo, build a bridge and get over it.
I’ve already quit and set fire to your tie.
Get out.
Charming. I’m sure that goes down great with the ladies.
If you actually have staff, I’m sure they all hate you and are planning new ways to take down your “IT Company”. Wait, are you sure you don’t mean “Business”? Does your company have a board and owned by shareholders? Because if not, then its not a company at all. And what i’m about to say rings true:
This crude attempt to discredit Samuel has failed miserably. Congrats, opinionated_cunt, you suck at life.
5. heisright | November 10th, 2005 at 11:24 pm
I’ll be a lot less agro in my comments opinionated_c!@t but he is right in what he is trying to get across. There would be no way I would let you near anything that was mission critical to a business.
Just that fact that you didn’t back up in the first place, while partitioning your main drive is downright stupid. Then once you recovered you had another stab at it and I’m assuming didn’t back up any data again (You mention nothing in your blog after the recover of backing up). Doing it the second time is just plan idiotic.
Like opinionated_c!@t I am an owner and operator of an I.T company. If I found out that you did that to a server of mine it would mean instant dismissal not to mention that you would probably be copping a very big bill for the downtime in restoring a backup.
6. Samuel | November 10th, 2005 at 11:37 pm
Just because I didn’t follow standard procedure on a hard drive at home, and had fun restoring it, not to mention learned a few new things along the way, doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t follow standard procedure in a workplace…of course I would!
Are you completely insane? Do you think I would risk not following procedure in a workplace…do you really think I would do something where I would knowingly put important (or even unimportant) data at risk…how I play at home has nothing to do with work.
7. heisright | November 10th, 2005 at 11:44 pm
True, your drive your rules but:
There was immportant data (to you) on that drive and you failed to backup twice while partitioning. Thats just plan dumb.
8. Samuel | November 11th, 2005 at 12:04 am
Yes, it was somewhat stupid, but when you lack the available storage space for a backup (I wasn’t going to burn a heap of CDs or DVDs) then it becomes an obvious, and calculated risk.
This is the first time a partitioning has gone sour for me…1 out of approx 20 ain’t that bad.
9. Some Guy | November 11th, 2005 at 11:04 pm
Funny that, I was under the obviously deluded impression that NTFS was in fact designed for Windows 2000 and Windows XP…
What, so you’re in the “workforce” but you don’t get paid? Do you know how cheap hard drives are? Not backing up is inexcusable.
Brighter than you mate.
10. Samuel | November 12th, 2005 at 12:30 am
Read the sentence again…it is Partition Magic at fault here, not Microsoft….Yes, NTFS is designed by Microsoft for Microsoft, unfortunately Powerquest botched their NTFS support in version 8.0 of Partition Magic.
No, not backing up at home is a calculated risk…sure I could have lost a lot of data that is semi-important, but I wouldn’t mind having to clear up the mess which is the data on that hard drive.
CHKDSK was brighter than me? That’s an odd statement.
11. opinionated_cunt | November 13th, 2005 at 10:07 pm
OK Sam, let me try and control my aggression. You promote ideas and practices that I, as a business owner find abhorent. (yes eebl, a proper corporation where i answer only to the shareholders).
Firstly, I wouldn’t want you to think i don’t tolerate mistakes, far from it, i encourage mistakes and i lead from the front in making them. Funny thing is though, is that we make them once, and once only. EVERYONE who works for me knows that you make the same mistake twice without learning, then you’re fired. It’s called commerical reality. We compete with huge US companies (MS included), we succeed because we are smarter and work as a team.
If you want to be an IT geek, go right ahead. but take more photo’s of yourself, for you are a museum relic already. You are slowly but surely being replaced by better, faster, cheaper resources from Russia, China, and India. Guys like you who’d prefer to have a D&M with a computer, performing routine tasks (like app-deployment, or infrastructure maintenace), and who’d prefer to take 10x the time it should take (because you mis-key information or make basic, stupid errors) are going to be made redundent in the near future. Sam (and listen up eebl) you are an expense, you do not generate income you expend it. Expense items like yourself are the first thing accountants look to when the pressure is on to lower the cost-to-serve.
The simple fact is, that as we move forward with this millenium, we won’t need you. Even your bestest friends are Microsoft are working to make you redundent. It’s called ASP; it’s called SOA; it’s called web-services; in reality, its a wake-up call for dimwits like yourself to get a life and become an income centre for a business, not an expense. Either that or piss off and join eebl in the public service. Guys like eebl are the reason we simply refuse to take on Government work. Too many f***tards who reckon they could run my business better but never had the balls to give private enterprise a go (Sorry, I did promise to control the aggression).
Jesus Samuel, (a) you can’t even insult someone properly, and (b) wake the f*** up man, you are redundent…
12. Samuel | November 13th, 2005 at 11:03 pm
Oh, so you’re using the Telstra model of “Let’s sack all the techs and ignore the problems until everything explodes”….ok, have fun.
You make a point, the more that stuff is automated the less you need the techs to do it manually, but you still need them to set things up properly, and you still need them to perform maintenance. Unfortunately companies only seem to see the first need, which is one reason problems occur. Very few systems are ever setup without at least one mistake, and even mistake free systems need to supervised to some extent.
There is one very big reason I am not going to get annoyed with you, and that is because I respect you…and why do I respect you? Because you have the guts to compete with Microsoft. It’s not just that Microsoft are on my list of companies I’m not a fan of, but because they are very very big, and have a lot of power and influence. I’m not saying Microsoft are evil, they have done a lot of good things, but without the competition there would be nobody around to keep the wheels of progress turning. Any pure monopoly will become lazy (Internet Explorer anyone?), and that is a situation which we need to avoid.
Keep up the good work. (This doesn’t mean I agree with you on everything.)