Damn, damn, damn!!!

I’ve deprived some village of its idiot.  Can’t believe I made such a terrible mistake!  The media server project has now suffered a major setback.   For over a week I’ve been attempting to configure the four hard drives in the server to connect as a RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks).  The combined disks will provide a total storage capacity of 10TB with built in redundancy should one disk fail.  I thought I’d finally resolved the configuration and connected an external 2TB USB drive to the server with the intention of copying over all the videos we had recorded from TV during the last 10 years.  However when I rebooted the server the RAID wouldn’t allow me to copy data from the USB disk.  Grumbling to myself I decided to reinstall the RAID.  It wasn’t until the RAID started to rebuild that I realised the USB drive was still connected and had been included in the RAID rebuild.  One thing that happens during a rebuild is all the data gets wiped from the disks.  A decade of recordings deleted!!!  <stronger words than “Oh Dear” were uttered>. 

Were is my backup copy you might ask.  Well I had to use the backup disks to create the RAID.  <more tears>. 

It is sometimes possible to recover a deleted disk partition and retrieve data.  I have a copy of EaseUS Partition on the computer.  After loading it I could see the files still existed and provided I don’t attempt to write further data to the disk it might be possible to retrieve the files.  However my free copy of EaseUS Partition is “crippleware” and can only undelete 2GB of data.  The disk is 2TB and some of the individual files are larger than 2GB.  I’d have to purchase the full version of EaseUS Partition to recover the data.  I hate parting with money so I went looking for another solution.  There is an old program called ‘Testdisk’ which can be used to recover deleted or lost partitions.  It’s ‘freeware’ but has to be run from the command line.  I have the program currently running and am hoping it will recover the deleted data.

On a more positive note I had a brilliant idea for a woodworking jig which might assist in making the drawers for the bed.

Using offcuts of 18mm plywood I set up a jig on the Assembly Table.

Table using my locally made clamp.  the bolts need a knob for the top which I’ll do shortly.

The jig enabled me to make five perfectly square plywood blocks.  I then drilled a hole in each block whilst it was secured in the jig.  Then I used the mitre saw to cut the timber where it joined the hole.  The last step was to cut a 45° angle on all exterior corners.

You will see how I used these shortly.

The next step was to complete a test assembly of the second drawer.  Everything looked fine so I disassembled the drawer and applied glue to the joints.  I found Jan’s toothbrush was really useful in getting the glue into the grooves <PS. don’t tell Jan about the toothbrush… and I did wash it out afterwards!> 

The bottom went together first and I used my four metal corner jigs to hold everything in place.

Then I turned it over and used my locally made jigs to hold the top corners whilst the glue set.

The hole I drilled in each block is in the corner and avoids the problem of any surplus glue joining the jig to the drawer.  I’m rather pleased with the idea.

Only eight drawers to go!

The postman delivered the USB cable I’d ordered from China which means I can shortly start the project to ‘unbrick’ the 2nd router.  Now I’m not guilty of ‘bricking’ the router.  It’s our youngest son’s router and he bricked it when living in the UK.  It was generously given to me before we left Manchester in the hope that father might be able to fix it.  We shall see!

Jan’s project today was to make butter.  She had purchased some cream at the local supermarket when it was on special.  We used some of it at lunch on our sandwiches and I must say it’s very tasty.  She has also baked a courgette <zucchini> and lemon cake.  I’m please she told me the cake had courgettes in it otherwise I would have thought the flecks of green were mould.