My Raptor Hard Drive died

Original Post Date: 3/5/09

I turned off my computer when I left for vacation. When I got back a week later, my computer wouldnt boot Windows XP. I opened up the case and I heard the infamous clicking sound that came from my Western Digital Raptor X hard drive. Definitely not a healthy sound, but at least I knew for sure that it was just the hard drive which should be fairly easy to replace.

Did I lose all of my data? No way. I had my "flawless" back up plan in place. Remember that I have 2 hard drives. I use the Raptor hard drive to hold just my Windows XP operating system. My 2nd hard drive has all my real data on it. So basically, I just lost all of my software applications and would just to have to reinstall them all over again. But wait...no I dont need to do that because I have kept a back up image of my Raptor drive. An image is like taking a snapshot of your current computer settings and applications. So all I need to do is restore the image and Im up and running again like nothing happened. So I had thought. More on this later.

I purchased the Raptor drive on 4/17/2007 (thank you gmail for keeping a record of all my purchases), so I was quite surprised that it only lasted under 2 years. Coincidentally, my brother's Raptor drive died recently as well and his Raptor was only a year old. Fortunately, there is a 5 year warranty on these drives.

To get the hard drive replaced, WD gave me 2 options. The website stated that they can immediately send me a replacement hard drive first, and then I can send in the broken hard drive afterwards. The only catch was that they required my credit card information and that they would charge me for the full retail price of the drive if they did not receive the broken one within 30 days. That sounded fair to me. The other option would have me send my broken drive first and once they received it, they would send me my replacement drive. Of course, I chose the 1st option because it was faster even though it still took about a week to get it.

I received the new hard drive and restored the image using Acronis True Image 11 which is a highly rated and very popular imaging software application. Wohooo...it worked! I didnt have to reinstall the 50 software applications I had. Wait a second...why did my computer just reboot all of a sudden? It turns out that the image was unstable and my computer kept rebooting by itself every so often. Unstable image!? Are you kidding me? Geez, after all that work and excitement of maintaining a backed up image. Maybe its because I had over 50 applications installed but that really shouldnt matter. That really chaps my hide.

The Bottom Line:

1. WD Raptor X drives dont last very long, so be prepared to have it replaced more often than you think. But man they are fast!
2. Even though Acronis True Image failed me this time, I will still maintain a backup image and be confident (or hopeful) that it will work the next time.
3. I dont use Carbonite to back up anything on my primary drive because all of my data is stored on my secondary drive. But the one set of data that my wife kindly reminded me about are the fonts. The fonts live in the Windows/Fonts folder and therefore it seems that Im unable to configure Carbonite to back up those files. I guess Carbonite cant touch Windows system files for obvious reasons. In any case, I was luckily able to retrieve my fonts directly from the image. And now I back them up on my secondary drive.

10/17/10 Update:So my hard drive crashed again. This time the replacement drive WD gave me only lasted about a year, but luckily, I am still under warranty. This time I was able to successfully restore using the backup image I made a couple of months ago. It only took about 20 minutes! But I also learned to keep a recovery boot disc in handy. Using the Acronis True Image installation cd worked for me. However, if you dont have the install disc, make sure you create your own recovery boot disc using the software. The reason for having a boot disc is so that you can restore your backup image directly from boot up. Otherwise, you would have to reinstall Windows, reinstall the imaging software, then restore the backup image.

PLEASE NOTE: If you are using an imaging software and Carbonite, you will have to disable Carbonite BEFORE taking the drive's image. If you dont perform this step, then Carbonite may not work anymore when you restore the image. Carbonite did not work after my image restore. Booo!

This will be my 3rd hard drive within the 5 year warranty. Let's hope this will be the last one for a while.
Hard Drive Replacement dates
1. 4/17/07
2. 2/12/09
3. 10/14/10

I made it on the Channel 5 CBS Eyewitness news

So I was at Best Buy one day and looking at a 10" HP netbook when all of a sudden a CBS News reporter snuck up behind me and asked me if I wanted to be interviewed. I thought to myself that it would be fun to see myself on TV. I've always had a bad habit of sneaking in front of new cameramen to try to get myself on TV. But this was an actual speaking role! In any case, I was too nervous and mumbled dumb things to the reported and they didnt air my interview. But they did get my face and my hands. I believe it aired on the 6pm news, but I missed it. But found it of course on the Internet.

You will see me at 1:09 minutes into the video.
http://cbs5.com/video/?id=42871@kpix.dayport.com

Canada Dry Ginger Ale with Green Tea

My favorite new soda now is Canada Dry's new Ginger Ale with Green Tea. It has the same Ginger Ale taste but with a subtle Green Tea kick. Its available at major supermarkets. Yum!

My Favorite Steak Sandwich

This my friend is my favorite steak sandwich. What is it you might ask? Its a Steak Portebello Mushroom Sandwich w/ Provolone Cheese and Garlic Aioli on a Ciabatta Roll. You can find it the Nordstrom Cafe in the Stonestown Galleria Mall. I've been to other Nordstrom Cafe's in the Bay Area (ie. Valley Fair Mall and Standford Mall) but none of them seem to have this particular sandwich on their menu. Click on the image above to zoom in on the juicyness. *drool*

My 3 Most Favorite Cars

Can you guess what they are?

A)



B)



C)

April 7, 1969: Birth of That Thing We Call the Internet

Is it mere coincidence that the Internet was born on April 7 which is also the same day I was born? I think not.

April 7 is often cited as a symbolic birth date of the net because the RFC memoranda contain research, proposals and methodologies applicable to internet technology. RFC documents provide a way for engineers and others to kick around new ideas in a public forum; sometimes, these ideas are adopted as new standards by the Internet Engineering Task Force.

Read the full article.

Aloha!

Just got back from Hawaii. We really had a good time. I wouldnt say it was easy with Caden, but with enough teamwork, we managed. I miss Hawaii already so I had to create a slideshow for the memories.

Aloha!

Reunion

Oh no! Another good tv series! Reunion is a mix of 90210 and Lost. Martha Stewart and Apprentice is tonight too! My Tivo is working overtime.

Prison Break

Prison Break is a new mini series on fox. Its AWESOME! Doesnt the lawyer look like Winnie Cooper from the Wonder Years?

Fantastic 4

Sorry, havent really been posting stuff on my blogger. That's because I've been busy updating Caden's website. Cant wait to teach him to update his own site. Anyways, I saw a sneak preview of Fantastic 4. Its a good movie. Havent seen a good movie in a while. The movie focused on how they got their powers and how they dealt with it. And only in the end of the movie, you see how they really use it. At the end of the movie, I know ppl wanted to see more action fighting, but they'll probably have to wait for the sequel. Surprisingly, the movie was pretty funny. A lot of witty one liners by the human torch dude, and funny uses of their powers.

Caden Joshua Chew

Hello everyone. Nice to meet you all!

Stacie is in labor!

Read more

20/15!!!

I survived lasik surgery and now I see 20/15 (that's better than 20/20)! I wasnt really scared until I actually got on the surgery table. Overall I spent 3 hours there, but the procedure itself was less than 15 minutes. I didnt feel the laser at all, but I did smell a burnt smell. I did also feel some pain and pressure when they opened up my cornea flap, but for only like 5 seconds.
After the procedure, I had to keep my eye closed for 4 hours, so I took a nap.
When I woke up, I couldnt open my eyes because my eyelids were glued shut from all the medicated eye drops. So for those asking if I saw perfectly after I opened my eyes, Id say no because, its still a little hazy. They said it will be a little hazy for a couple of months as my cornea heals. But I have no complaints. Every night before I go to bed, I always think I have to take off contacts since I've been doing it for so long. Stacie videotaped some of my lasik procedure experience. Hopefully, she has time to edit it and Ill post it up here.

LASIK Surgery

Im getting Wavefront LASIK with intralase tomorrow! Im not nervous, but more anxious to get it done. I decided to get the surgery because I didnt want to be fumbling around for my glasses when I have to wake every 2 hours to take care of the baby. Also, I didnt like wearing glasses or contacts. Im getting the surgery done at Pacific Vision Institute. See if you can find Stacie's pic on their website :)

Final Vacation

Stacie and I took our final vacation last week before the baby. We had lots of fun, so we might take just one more before the baby. We went to New York and did pretty much the same things as last time - eat, sleep, watch shows, shop, site seeing.
Click here for some pics.

It's a...BOY!

Picture taken at 19 weeks

Oprah's Million Dollar Dream Wedding

Our wedding photographers, Alisha and Brook Todd were recently hired to photograph Oprah's Million Dollar Dream Wedding. Congratulations to them!

Wishlist

Since Christmas is right around the corner, I created my wishlist. I will keep it up-to-date all year round.

"Our Baby" Section Launched!

You will find the latest news and information about us and our baby. Dont forget to sign the guestbook!

POG Concert

Went to a Point of Grace concert this past Sunday. Great concert as always. They are so nice, they always stay behind to sign autographs and take pictures.