[Novalug] [OT -windoze question] hard drive access

Bonnie Dalzell bdalzell@qis.net
Fri Feb 6 12:39:43 EST 2009


On Fri, 6 Feb 2009, JRR wrote:

J >JRR wrote;
J >
J >   From a computer science theory point of view you should be able to use
J >physical reads
J >   versus logical reads to obtain the contents of the WSP. However you would
J >then be in a
J >   position to reassemble the HD sectors into contiguous files..... How often
J >did this person
J >   defrag their hard disk ?? this could get to be a real problem.....

he is pretty much - just a computer user - unless windoze 
automatically defrags the hd he may never have done it.

J >
J >   A log on lock could be a password or transformation key to the FAT or the
J >data itself.
J >
J >   The motherboard explosive sound could be a electrolytic capacitor or the
J >board vaporizing
J >   a random *speck* of moisture. Long abandoned h/w should be inspected for
J >trace moisture

i looked at the board and did not see any obvious damage - it sounded 
like a capaciter sort of sound to me there was also a burning smell.

the thing was not long unused just carried in open pick up truck in iffy 
weather.

it was also a lesson in clueless-ness. this is a 2004 manufactured 
minimal Dell tower acquired from RentACenter for total payments 
of $3000 18 months ago. He had been told it was new then and had 2 
harddrives and 1/2 a gig of ram. It had one harddrive and 256 MB of ram:
 
He was charged around $30 a week for 30 weeks. When I took him to our 
local refurb computer store (Cyber Guyz Cockeysville MD) and got him a 
much better machine for the $250 his response was "gee I did not know 
computers could be so inexpensive".

consumer education is an area that is lacking in parts of our society.


J >   and metallic grit before plugging it in..........
J >
J >   We should get together at the first warm weather meeting - April ?  May ?
J >and play
J >   shuffle board using 3.5" cadaver drives - winner gets a pizza.
J >
J >bye
J >
J >Bonnie Dalzell wrote:
J >> recently a friend brought a moribund computer over for me to look at. After
J >> the explosive sound that came from the mother board when it was plugged in
J >> and turned on and then the beep sounds  that the motherboard makes with the
J >> post codes that I do not know how to interpret we decided it was probably
J >> DOA. He had transported it along with a lot of other stuff in the back of
J >> an open pickup truck will moving.
J >> 
J >> Now he has a "new" refurbished $240 computer.
J >> 
J >> However I have the harddrive from the cadaver sitting on my desk. I got one
J >> of those nice jamau units that lets you plug a naked harddrive into your
J >> computer via a usb port. the drive spins up.
J >> 
J >> it has 3 partitions one is very large and is I assume the windoze system
J >> partition. two are fat partitions - one with boot info and the other with
J >> recovery info. under linux i cannot mount the system partition.
J >> 
J >> Here is my question
J >> 
J >> my friend had his computer with a log on lock needing a password. would
J >> that prevent me from mounting and viewing the system partition under linux?
J >> 
J >> my impression from the reading I have done is that the answer is no and
J >> that the system partition is probably bad.
J >> 
J >> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
J >>                         Bonnie Dalzell, MA
J >> mail:5100 Hydes Rd PO Box 60, Hydes,MD,USA
J >> 21082-0060|EMAIL:bdalzell@qis.net
J >> 
J >> freelance anatomist, vertebrate paleontologist, writer, illustrator, dog
J >> breeder, computer nerd & iconoclast... Borzoi info at www.borzois.com.
J >> Editor Net.Pet Online Animal Magazine  - http://www.netpetmagazine.com
J >> HOME http://www.qis.net/~borzoi/          BUSINESS http://www.batw.com
J >> 
J >> _______________________________________________
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J >> 
J >> 
J >>   

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                       Bonnie Dalzell, MA
mail:5100 Hydes Rd PO Box 60, Hydes,MD,USA 21082-0060|EMAIL:bdalzell@qis.net

freelance anatomist, vertebrate paleontologist, writer, illustrator, dog
breeder, computer nerd & iconoclast... Borzoi info at www.borzois.com.
Editor Net.Pet Online Animal Magazine  - http://www.netpetmagazine.com
HOME http://www.qis.net/~borzoi/          BUSINESS http://www.batw.com




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