Random Rants

[Demon Cleaner]

Losing your data is always the worst that can happen, and backups are really your friend here, although a bit costly, it makes life easier and you happier.

I already wanted to buy a second NAS to mirror with the first one, but that will cost me around 2000€, and I prefer to trust my single Raid5 NAS setup, hopefully it will not die!!

[Harrison]

The only issue with a NAS in RAID5 would be if more than one disk failed at the same time. Or if the NAS hardware failed you would need to buy an identical NAS to get the dataset working again. Quite secure other than that.

But I think even then, if you have data that could never be recovered (downloaded) again, such as personal photographs, videos and anything else made yourself, then an offline backup is a very good idea, such as to BD-R or DVD-R.

[Demon Cleaner]

That's why I also have a back up of my photos/videos/music and that stuff on a local HDD. The only things that are on the NAS without backup are my movies, and my ROM collections, as you mentioned, they could be downloaded again, although VERY time consuming.

I think that the risk of 2 HDDs failing is less probable than the NAS hardware itself, which wouldn't be funny at all.

[Demon Cleaner]

I wrote my reseller again today, and he replied that apparently he already got my beamer back, but is still waiting for the amp, which was sent with the belgium post, but unfortunately that isn't the fastest one.

Anyway I would need both, I cannot connect the beamer alone without the amp. So I really hope that he will get it soon, and that it actually also works fine again.

[Harrison]

That's good that one of the items is back. Did he says what needed repairing?

[Demon Cleaner]

Did he says what needed repairing?

I just asked him now Because I also want to know, if now the beamer is still calibrated, or if they reset it, and it will need calibration again.

[Demon Cleaner]

Ok, apparently he will get the amp back today. He said that it was sent to him from Lille (France) on September 18th already, and when he called, as it didn't arrive, it got lost in their stock.

For the calibration, he said that it should still be fine, but he's gonna verify together with me when he brings the stuff, we made an appointment for Friday at 14:00. Hopefully he will come.

[Harrison]

That's some good news. So hopefully you should have everything up and running again this weekend? Is there anything else you sent for repair? Or will that be everything back?

We have had some good news. Our house is now officially dry and the builders are just waiting on a certificate of drying, then they can begin work to restore the house. So we could be back in sometime in November, or early December.

[Demon Cleaner]

That will be everything back, I'm so happy, then it will run again for this weekend. Just hoping he will get the beamer back today or tomorrow, so that he doesn't have to cancel our appointment.

Some friends of us come on Saturday, and they didn't see it yet, would be a good opportunity for a demonstration. Funny thing is also, that the guy loved the C64 when he was young, and especially the International Soccer from Andrew Spencer. And as I have C64 emulation on the PS3, I once tried to play International Soccer (which I love too) on the beamer, and that was absolutely fantastic, I just had to laugh because of the huge pixels, that's quite funny. So hopefully I can surprise him with that

Glad to hear that your house is finally dry, and it would really be great if you can "already" move back again next month or even in December. Are they redoing floors and wallpapers and all that stuff? You had wooden floor, no tiles if I'm right?

[Harrison]

Yes, we had wooden flooring throughout the downstairs, with tiles in the kitchen. They will be redecorating nearly the whole house including floors, wallpaper and kitchen.

They had to take out all the floors including the kitchen tiles, and cut out all the plaster boards from the walls from the ground up about 60cm in all rooms to stop the damp rising. A lot of the woodwork in the house also needs attention as the drying has caused the wood to shrink causing the door frames to crack and plaster in the ceilings also needs attention. All interior doors need replacing too. Also the whole of the ground floor concrete floor has a lot of holes drilled all over it to allow the moisture to escape, and also for their injection drying equipment. They also have to take out the kitchen units as the base units were also damaged by the water.

So the builders have to first remove the kitchen and test our built in appliances. Then seal the holes in the floors. Put new plasterboard up and then re-plaster the walls and any cracks in the ceilings and also fix any movement in the walls upstairs too. They can then start laying the floors and tiles, skirting boards, install the new kitchen and appliances. The front door also has some water damage. So quite a lot of work to do.

We are also still trying to sort out replacing the shed. We are also currently looking at sofas to buy replacements. And have just ordered a replacement washing machine.

I never thought we would get flooded, and never even considered how much damage just a small amount of water could do to a house.

When I get time I will post some of the pictures of the house right from the flood, through the drying process, its current state, and then as work is being done to restore it.