It's certainly interesting - drives are supposed to be able to deal with this but the odd drive I've had that go bad was reading and writing perfectly fine until it hit a sector/sectors it struggled with, then all of a sudden the drive would become incredibly unresponsive. I'm unsure whether I simply needed to leave it to sort itself out - HDDs will try to recover stuff to the 'spare sector' area which is there to allow for problems like that - or whether the drive had simply run out of recovery area and was just stuck.

I suppose cloud storage is a way to go for backup storage (I've certainly considered doing this for data I don't want to lose) but I'm not sure I want to surrender all my private data to the ether of the internet. :)

My current solution is to have a 500GB partition on two HDDs with 'important' data, that I then use a manual process (NOT RAID) to backup from one to the other occasionally. That way, if one drive does go I have the other with a recent backup to take its place. I only avoid RAID because that means I also have a restore point if I delete/mess up the main drive!

Ah I see we moved here now. How are you all doing?

Good (I think.) I'm alive, and not vomiting blood or anything, so... 5/10.

How are you? I'm glad you found us!

My butt has not vomited blood so I'm okay. Also going to play postal 2 for the first time in years

Moving off scatological topics - are people looking forward to Christmas?
Considering it's next Thursday!

5/10 is not that good, but acceptable ;-) We need to improve that :D
I would call my situation not optimal but at least better than yesterday. Some health issues but it is getting better so that I am hanging out in front of the pc again :D
I am mostly looking forward to two weeks of holidays and relaxing and visiting my family :-)

Not at all, in fact, I drew a little picture for you of how I picture it, and I'm sure you will agree, there is nothing there to make an issue out of. I just think you like thinking everyone is obsessed with you, and that blue face you keep telling everyone is an eye. :-)

It was a nice and warm 0°c for me yesterday, but unlike some, I wrap up warm when it's cold. ;-)

Not really... It means I have to see my nephews. They always throw stuff at me, beat me up, and give me a cold.
I'm looking forward to the 24th - that is when I see my physician for a medication refill.

My medication will be refilled tomorrow when I see my doctor as well.
Bah, too many pills, and insomnia's a bitch! 7 hours sleep (4 hours and 3 hours) in the last two days. :(

Haha! Wonderful drawing :-)
I just spent another five minutes looking at the avatar, trying to see the face. I still can't see it - but now I can't see the eye either! All I can see is a fish :\

Seems like everyone is getting medication in time for christmas. I already got my new one, I'll be changing as soon as I am with my parents since I did not feel comfortable about a medication change being alone.

A fish? Interesting. I know two people have seen the face, but I still can't see anything but a big blue eye. Perhaps it's a special kind of avatar, stare at it long enough and you see what you want to see. Or maybe it's the mind playing tricks on you just so we will look at something else. :-)

I always get scared when I change or tweak medication.
I live with my parents and brother, and anytime I have to change something, I leave my door open when I sleep and ask them to check on me every couple of hours.

Yep same here. That is why I waited for christmas holidays where I will be staying with them to change, since I want them to be able to check on me during the night.
I am also only seeing the blue eye. Nothing else :D

It's so sad that everyone had to turn to medication just to make it through the sales. I guess the alcohol alone wasn't enough. Luckily I managed to get by without medication, just lots of wine :-).