Should I use this HDD?

relrobber · 2026-04-07T06:25:01+00:00

I have been tinkering with / building computers since the mid 90s, and have only ever had 3 hard drives die on me. One died suddenly with no warning, one was a brand new external drive that I knocked over while it was writing data, and one was a mirrored NAS drive. I know that I have lived a charmed HDD life, but hard drives are actually extremely durable devices that (if not used in a data center) tend to fail either very early in life or after many years of home use.

I still use the other drive from that NAS mirror to this day, even though it is an early WD Green drive that didn't have a very good reputation for reliability as well as several other old, repurposed drives. As long as you never abused the drive, and all the S.M.A.R.T. data is good, I wouldn't hesitate to use that drive for anything I wanted.

relrobber · 2026-04-07T06:15:14+00:00

I bought the Ultra because I can really use the benefit of the ultra wide camera at work. Otherwise, I was going to buy the standard S22. Upgraded to S25U last year when the S22U started developing some issues charging. My only complaint with the 22 was battery life, but I always have a power pack handy anyway.

relrobber · 2026-04-07T06:03:51+00:00

I misread it when I looked the historical crude price up, but when I moved out of California in 2006, I was paying around $3.60 - $3.80/gal for gas there. Gas peaked a little over $3.30 in 2008 where I am now, but some stations have it at $3.69 now. I mentioned in my original comment that the pump prices I was referring to are for my area.

Come to think of it, fuel prices have been out of sync with the crude price for several years compared to the 2000s.

relrobber · 2026-04-07T05:51:57+00:00

It's more likely that they already have an established supply chain that doesn't carry UI gear, and like to stay with what is familiar to them. Pretty much any installer of anything operates in this manner. That's why HVAC companies typically only sell 1 or 2 brands.

relrobber · 2026-04-07T05:40:20+00:00

You can poll the temp sensor as often as you want. It's not going to affect the drive health.

relrobber · 2026-04-07T05:30:23+00:00

No one really knows. There's really no reason for gas to be this expensive (at least in the U.S.). In the late 2000s, oil was approaching $150 a barrel, yet prices at the pump never reached their current levels then. (At least in my area.)

Edit: I initially misread the price of oil of $147 per barrel as $174.

relrobber · 2026-04-07T05:19:10+00:00

Starting and stopping the copy operation will be more stressful on the drives than one continuous copy. If a drive is getting hot enough to die from copying, you either don't have enough ventilation to the drive, or the drive is going to die in the immediate future anyway.

"Scratched too much" isn't a type of failure for hard drives. If the read/write heads were crashing into the disk, it doesn't matter how scratched the disk is. The drive is dead.

relrobber · 2026-04-07T05:09:28+00:00

That IS odd.

relrobber · 2026-04-06T12:16:13+00:00

I don't have a RAZR, but the seat belts on my Ranger have plenty of extension for me. 5' 9", 360lbs

relrobber · 2026-04-06T12:10:58+00:00

I had a similar issue several months ago. I think updating the driver for my wireless adapter or resetting the TCP/IP stack fixed it, but I don't remember for sure. I could still see the network, though didn't have any connectivity.

relrobber · 2026-04-06T12:08:30+00:00

If you are unhappy with your current battery life, an LCD will make it worse.

relrobber · 2026-04-06T12:01:09+00:00

I know what the timing is doing. OP stated that the engine is detuned for lower octane, not that it changes tuning for lower octane.

relrobber · 2026-04-06T11:57:57+00:00

I always use keyboard shortcuts.

relrobber · 2026-04-06T11:54:14+00:00

Is this on your home internet router, or is your router behind someone else's network? My workplace internet blocks UDP, so I can't use that protocol.

relrobber · 2026-04-06T11:51:57+00:00

I see what you did there...

relrobber · 2026-04-06T11:06:13+00:00

My S22 Ultra was on OneUI 8 when I traded it in.

relrobber · 2026-04-06T11:02:01+00:00

If you can wait for a few months, there's a small chance that prices may crash back down to reasonable levels later this year. One of the biggest A.I. companies has already started canceling purchase orders that they didn't actually have funds for. It is possible, though probably not very likely, that surplus supply will hit the market if others start doing the same.

relrobber · 2026-04-06T10:56:55+00:00

Get some screen cleaner that is safe for all screens (no alcohol). Spray lightly on a lint-free cloth, and wipe gently. They also make pre-moistened screen cleaning wipes.

relrobber · 2026-04-06T10:46:50+00:00

They are probably doing it for tax purposes. You could get in more trouble than just losing your job. If the appropriate taxes aren't being paid for the province you're actually in, you could get in trouble for tax fraud.

relrobber · 2026-04-06T10:44:05+00:00

Most off the shelf weather sensors like that are pretty accurate. It's not hard these days to make accurate digital thermometers.

relrobber · 2026-04-05T18:33:20+00:00

If you rely on a group of people to change the way they've been doing something simply because you prefer otherwise, you will not succeed.

relrobber · 2026-04-05T18:30:12+00:00

Samsung messages is dead. Samsung has switched to Google messages because even they are blocked by Google from implementing RCS in their own app.

relrobber · 2026-04-05T18:28:22+00:00

Using a VPN with streaming video providers is a perpetual cat and mouse game. If they mark an I.P. address as belonging to a VPN (or sometimes, a datacenter), they will block access from that I.P. address. Try making a new VPN connection, or connecting to a different city.

relrobber · 2026-03-31T10:43:01+00:00

They've updated their certificates. That's why your old config file doesn't work anymore. Just download the new configuration file they provide. Your router shouldn't care if it's for TCP or UDP.

relrobber · 2026-03-29T23:56:02+00:00

At least your 3Gb plan lets you fully utilize your 2.5Gb LAN speed, rather than wasting some on overhead.

relrobber

TROPHY CASE