Whoo hoo! Replaced a dying hard drive

I have a Toshiba Satellite. It took longer and longer to boot, and I started getting ominous messages about not finding a hard drive. 

Part of my monthly maintenance is to use Paragon Backup and Recovery 12 Compact. I back it up to our home file server over the network. When the laptop finally did boot, I saved my financial files and some of my current school project; then I proceeded to do a full backup with Paragon. 

The time to finish the backup stayed around five hours, no matter how many hours of wall time passed. It was simply not moving forward. I asked Glary Utilities to do a check disk and boot defrag when it rebooted. Alas, it never rebooted. 

Now I had a 640 Gb 2.5" internal drive that was at death's door. I shopped at Newegg and Amazon and found a 1 TB Hybrid internal drive. The hybrid combines some Solid-State memory for part of its drive and uses a traditional disk for the remainder. The advantage is that the machine sleeps and wakes up quickly, since many of the operating system files reside on the SSD (Solid-State Drive) portion. 

So it wouldn't boot, but could the old drive be read? I placed the old drive and the new drive in a desktop, and then booted the desktop with a Linux-based tool called Clonezilla. 

Clonezilla recognized the old 640 Gb and the new 1 Tb drives. I went through the beginner's prompts to clone the disk; however, the request to perform a check disk on reboot blocked Clonezilla from doing its job. 

I had to drop into Clonezilla's command prompt mode and run a handy linux tool called fsck (file system consistency check). (And yes, the name lends itself to being used as a curse.) 

Then I ran Clonezilla in expert mode, told it to fix sectors as necessary. It cloned the disk in about two hours.

I replaced the drive in the laptop, and while it took a long time to boot the first time, it came up with all files in tact. (I was overjoyed to see it get all the way to my main screen.) I ran Glary utilities again with a hard disk check, and it found a few bad sectors, which it repaired.

Lessons learned

• I will keep doing the monthly backups. 
• I will record the time it takes to back up the drive.
• Lengthening time may indicate impending drive failure
• I need to burn a Paragon recovery CD. 

  

Raspberry Pi summer camp

Josh wanted to go to a programming summer camp, but the Unreal Engine 4 was sold out.

So I wondered if we might get our own programming camp going. Maybe invite a few of his friends who are in the 13- to 15-year-old range. 

Here are some of the things we'll need.

Hardware

You can start with the Raspberry Pi: https://smile.amazon.com/Raspberry-Pi-RASP-PI-3-Model-Motherboard/dp/B01CD5VC92/

The basic computer-on-a-board will set you back about $36. You will have to buy the following to get it going:

• Micro USB power supply (the kind that powers many cell phones; see if you have one lying around the house)
• A Micro SD card (about $12)
• Cat 5 (network) cable, to plug the computer into your LAN at home (about $2)
• HDMI cable, so your computer can display on your big, home TV (about $6)
• OR (this will help you watch Netflix and let your mad scientist work in his room)
• HDMI to VGA adapter (https://www.amazon.com/VicTsing-Gold-Plated-Converter-Adapter-Desktop/dp/B016HL4CAY/, about $10)
• Use a VGA monitor that you have around the house.
• A keyboard and mouse (for example, https://smile.amazon.com/Logitech-Desktop-MK120-Mouse-keyboard/dp/B003NREDC8/, about $15)
• Optional:
• A USB hub and a USB to Micro adapter cable to provide power
• You could also attach your mouse and keyboard here
• A Raspberry Pi case. (Note that 13- to 15-year-olds have the right kind of Legos to build their own Raspberry Pi case.

They also have starter kits that include the Raspberry Pi, a power supply, and a case, such as https://smile.amazon.com/CanaKit-Raspberry-Premium-Supply-Listed/dp/B01C6EQNNK/ ($50). But you still have to  buy the other required items, and you might be happier doing this with your kid. 

Books

Adventures in Raspberry Pi (about $22). This one gets you started with sprite animation in a basic adventure-type game. It also teaches you the Python language, has some basic text-based games, has some Minecraft programming, and ends with a flashing LED. Each child should have his own. 

Raspberry Pi Projects for the Evil Genius (about $17). This one starts with the flashing LED and has projects combined with Python code. Some projects are fairly involved, and require the use of a breadboard to wire together components like motors and lasers. 

What the camp might look like

I'm thinking that we could all buy the Raspberry Pi kit and the Adventures book and work our ways through it. Maybe the first week we could set up one Raspberry Pi at someone's house and then the kids could help each other set up the rest. Everyone would take his computer home. Then we're off to the races.

Second week would be some homework + kid work + dad work as we download software and turn the kids loose on the adventure game. Let's continue working through the chapters of the Adventures book, have the kids go to each other's houses to debug and program, while dad's cheer them on with a beverage in hand. Maybe weekly meetings to show off what everyone has done and get everyone on the same page. 

Fourth or fifth week would be to build the flashing LED project. Then, on to the Evil Genius book, and have the kids pick what would be their favorite project. Each family would order their own parts and breadboard. Then we'd work from the simplest project to the most complex, with a small army of teenagers blazing the trail. 

Thoughts? Questions? 

My dad passed away on Thursday, May 12

George K. Chacko (1930-2016)

My father, Dr. George K. Chacko, passed away last Thursday, May 12, at age 85. He and my mother had been married for 58 years.

He is survived by his wife, Yo; his son, Rajah;  and daughter, Ashia; and six grandchildren: Hannah, Josiah, Rebekah, Sarah, Joshua, and Anya.

My mom, Yo, lives at
Brighton Gardens
6000 Park South Dr
Apartment 325
Charlotte,  North Carolina 28210

Friday, May 20, 2 to 4 pm
Viewing at Poe Funeral services
http://kennethpoeservices.com/
1321 Berkeley Avenue
Charlotte, North Carolina  28204
This looks like a regular house. You can park on the street. 

He will be buried on Saturday at the Cemetery across from church.

Saturday, May 21, 3:00
Memorial service
Providence Presbyterian
10140 Providence Church Lane
Charlotte, NC 28277
704-846-1079

After the service
Fellowship hall
Enjoy some time reminiscing about George