Comic 1746 - Identification
Author Notes:
The Good: pc is up and runing, proc, board and ram are working as expected, system boots new video card is working
The Bad: the drive that has all the comic data and sets and new characters that Cent has been working on for the last year is dead. She was in the process of doing backs ups before the drive fried out, and when I say fried out I mean drive will not spin up wich is a good idicator that the control board fried out.
The Really Bad: Ill be checking with a local company https://www.desertdatarecovery.com/ to see how much it is going to cost, pricing for this type of process is between 200, to 1000 for data recovery. I will know more later today, but this also means that the state of Datachasers hangs pecarioulsy on if the data can be recovered, and if we can afford to get it recovered.
There are backups but, sadly those backups are older than some of the new characters that have been introduced and some of the new sets that have been worked on wich means that if we cant recover that data it will take a bit to rebuild the sets and in some cases rebuild/re create the lost characters.
In the future, I will be setting her computer up on an automated backup system so if something like this happens again in the future (goddes willing it doesnt) int wont be as catestrophic.
UPDATE: Contacted Desert Data Recovery and will be droping the drive off with them this weekend, (sooner if I can find gas money to drive to one of their drop off locations) they will take it in for diagnostics, and will report back with a price. its a 2 TB drive and worse case will be 1000 plus tax to put it in a clean room and do the recovery that way.... as always Ill keep you posted.
UPDATE2: Droped the drive off with Desert Data Recovery, they will get to it hopefully Monday, or Tuesday. Ill get a solidified answer to how much will be needed to recover the drive. The process has been started.
Comments:
Oh, yes. Doc, I feel for you. Not nearly as much as someone who has failed at their job, but still. I _do_ feel for you.
BTW I'm having issues with logging into my Comic Fury account. So until I get the issue fixed I'll be using the guest postings.
Even if you only get one such opportunity in a lifetime, it makes a big impression. ^_^
(But I had to look it up.)
I like Nisha. She fits in with a lot of forensic lab analysts.
Probably not, though.
*edit: I wonder if the drone is from the paparazzi?
Since we are on the subject...
I would point out that if that drone were paparazzi, they would have contacted NTPD immediately. Even if there are severe laws against paparazzi, getting an immediate ID of a high-ranking murder victim + usable information on the perps is going to make all of that go away.
Much like a thief who reports child porn gets a pass today in the US.
What we KNOW is that the drone owner elected not to report the crime to NTPD.
Note that in 1740, the perps know who Galatea is. Their expressed surprise is that she is with someone, although their comments indicate some level of presumed knowledge of her personal life. Their insults suggest that they don't like androids generally.
Two possibilities come to mind, then. 1) this is a professional hit, and the team happens to agree strongly with this particular assignment, and 2) there is some sort of anti-android direct-action group that they are a part of.
Their handling of the situation is quite *un*professional, however. If these are professional hit men, they are bottom draggers, and if someone was going to the trouble & risk of putting a hit on such a target, surely, they would have gone with a higher grade team.
If they are part of an AADA group, however, the way that the assassination went down makes a lot of sense. The drone is to collect footage to use in recruitment, or perhaps a manifesto. The hit team itself has a certain amount of combat experience, but overestimates their capabilities. (ie: I'm thinking that their chance of success, given what they did, was < 80%)
I'm pretty certain that we have heard about such groups in the past. I suspect that Cent "the gardener" is about to do a *spectacular* amount of weeding...
However, my original comment was much more simply a pun on the phrase “power behind the throne”. ^_^
as i mentioned before, for my own stuff I have no problems experimenting as I have backup solutions in place that minmize problems like this, but for something thats mission critical, I prefer to hedge my bets and let a facility that has the tools do it. .. if it was my HDD I woudl be out there searching a logic board and doing the swap and seeing what happens because I have the luxury of having the knowlege and the means to do it and if I fail nothing of value is lost. with this.. if I fail.. the comic could die. Im not about to risk the comic in favor of my pride :P
at this moment Im contemplating taking the old system she has sitting around and turning it in to a freenas box and have her use that for backups and then have a back up solution for that in the event of another catstroph... much like I have set up here in my own network, I run a qnap server with 12tb of storage, and I have 2 external drives that I have automatic backup s sent to... 1 so if something happens to the server again like the ransomware that I got hit with I have an eaiser time of recovery from offsystem backups... 2. makes recovery eaiser if something goes wrong.. so getting something similar set up that doesnt cost an arm and a leg is gooing to be the challenge... going with 4x4tb drives in a raid 5 configureation will give me 12tb total storage and the ability to rebuild the data in the event of one drive failing... its just getting the drives. but Ill get something set up for her later once we get the data recovered.
As far as retrieving stuff from a SSD that craps out on its own, I'm sure that something can be retrieved a lot of the time, but when the SSD is subjected to a catastrophic electrical event, my confidence decreases quite a bit.
@Marcus - I will pitch in funds to help with the costs when I get home tonight, assuming I don't space out again.
I realize this "only" gives Cent 6TB of "real" storage, but the benefits of RAID5 on magnetic media outweigh the speed of SSDs, IMHO. Remember, they don't even have a shoestring budget, so a big SSD-based RAID is out of the question (unless someone donates the hardware).
These days, the OS should be on an SSD or M.2 drive, and data on discs. I would also recommend a good UPS (Uninterruptible Power Source and surge protector - APC makes decent ones for under $100) for her computers. One of those saved my workstation (NOT a gaming rig - a professional workstation for my cyber course).
I just want to say that the generosity of people on here is amazing. A LOT of very knowledgeable people too. Cent, Rose, and their families and friends are lucky to have you all.
Being I work from home, I use an APC Back-Ups 1500 with a 1500 expansion pack on my network gear and at my desk to power my laptop and monitors. Between the two I can go about 8hrs without power if I'm careful. Kind of important as I live where winter storms can knock out power for hours at a time.
If I could keep my USB-C port replicator powered and plugged in while the laptop relied on its own battery I could probably run all my monitors for the entire day on the UPS. The problem is I can't use the monitors without the laptop being docked and as soon as it's docked, the laptop wants to use AC power.
They also publish a quarterly drive reliability report that is very interesting. (Storing 2 million tera bytes of data takes a LOT of drives!)
@a/n: hope the recovery will work... - thank you for taking care of this...
I am imagining 'Technician Mallard' speaking in a British accent to a hard drive laid out on the table before him, his gloved hands holding a tool with delicate confidence. "So, my dear, let's have a look and see what stories you have to tell ..."
Our hopes and best wishes go with you, @CentComm.
Indeed they do!
In this case, "Technician Mallard" would be practicing technical necromancy to resurrect them, if only long enough to retrieve the necessary information.
… Afterwards, while the drives are all spinning down, Anita gets served with a Cease-And-Desist order from Microsoft for violating their storage algorithm patents, providing the hook for the Next Book.
Ms Hamilton would be proud,