I still have the original 7" eee around here somewhere. It’s running Xubuntu, I think.
My latest project was recovering the data off a 2014 MacBook Air that was dead. Unfortunately, Apple seemed to use some preliminary / non-standard NVMe SSD in 2013 and 2014. So I couldn’t just pop the SSD out and put it in an external case.
It took about 30 minutes just to take the thing apart. Apparently, whoever tried to take it apart previously used the wrong screwdriver, and stripped all the little screws. All of them. Every single one. You’d think after failing on the first one, you’d google which screwdriver you’d need. Nope, they doubled-down.
Anyway, after taking it apart, I was able to get the SSD out.
Luckily, my kid has a 2013 MacBook Air that is working just fine. So I swapped the two SSDs and did some unix magic to decrypt the drive and copy all the files off.
Dells are almost as much of a PITA. a 5480 where someone had put in an M2 SATA in the NVME slot. IT worked but the hole to screw it down is 2 or 3 mm off, so by the time the guy used it, it had popped loose. Double sided sticky… which took longer to find than to fix the system. Local hardware store guy looked at me like I was mad, he’d never even heard of double sided stickies, except for the absolute shit he sold for weatherproofing windows the couldn’t even stick to itself.
Came back yesterday, his kid dropped the laptop and it no longer worked. Sure enough he’d dropped it so hard it broke the sticky tape.
And sure as shootin’ (as he lives remote and can’t be phoned or texted) he again forgot to bring the power supply, supply the logon password, or have $40 on him until next payday…
BTW I got a dozen of the stickies (not the dollar store one that won’t even hold a photo in an album, the ones that will hold an old fashioned phone jack on the wall for 20 years) AND a set of small suction cups (what? never even heard of small suction cups…) to open the iMac for $5 at Princess Auto.
OK another adventure!
This time she said everything had been hacked. Probably an old boyfriend who knew her computer login password. She said she changed it and now it wont let her log in. So I did the USB boot, rename cmd to osk add user administrator thing and went on. Wiped her password. Had to settle her down, there’s another user now! Told you it was hacked! So she re-entered the new password, wouldn’t log her on.
So I logged in, asked wtf she wanted it to be and logged out. Wouldn’t take it. She’s picked ‘Smartblonde’. Tried it three times, if you entered that as a password you simply wouldn’t log on. Incorrect password! Tried something else, it worked fine. Removed my login.
Within hours - texts that it won’t even turn on. Comes over, it was never turned off. Just sitting there on the HP logo. Shut down/restart - slower than the 2nd coming. Windows take minutes to open.
Ahah! disk problem, NO IT’S NOT SOMEONE IS DOING THAT!!!
chkdsked. sfc/scannow stalls. downloads at a crawl, won’t install crystaldisk
SO I warned her, probably have to test the disk, wipe it and do a fresh install or even replace her disk. Will be like when it was bought.
did a few more tests, when I readded my test account, it took hours to access her files. They were mostly partly downloaded Chrome files, DOTdownload extensions. No documents, only links and 4 or 5 pics. They would not copy/paste to USB stick to rescue them.
Wiped disk partitions and did absolute fresh 21H1 install. tweaked everything, power, privacy, notifications, updates, etc. Added AdobeDC, Firefox and LibreOffice like I always do. Tested it overnight, all day - works like a charm. Way faster, but still a spinner drive.
So I give it back, warn her she has to add her login password if she wants and reset all her data. New install, everything gone.
Hour later - texting again- the internet says it’s disabled and won’t reconnect for four days and two hours
WTF? There’s nothing in windows that says that!
Click your network icon, make sure wifi is on and airplane is off.
WHY???
-because airplane mode kills your wifi so your plane don’t crash…
TEN MINUTES LATER
My password is GONE!!! The only pictures of my Gramma are GONE!!! They’re doing it again? How do I get THEM off my computer.
-lengthy re-explanation later
WELL I’M REALLY MAD!! So hoe do I STOP THEM???
-made the error of telling her not to be paranoid, hackers want your bank and stock accounts or to ransom your files. Who’d want what was on her computer, and why? It was 99% that it was a drive corruption from a power bump or s bad program install.
Well haven’t heard anymore and then realized… she’s bipolar and off her meds again. I probably mortally insulted her telling her not to be paranoid. Those un-copyable files were probably all the anti-vax and Jesus shit she’s been soaking up for the last year or so and this proves that I’m not her friend of 30 years but ONE OF THEM…
Update- today she’s all over FB stating ‘someone’ broke into her computer and destroyed her drive and pics of Granma. Who would do such a thing?
Yes, that’s the big question. Who? If you find THEM, slit their throat with Occam’s Razor…
All PCs are worse, I promise to not whine about Macs again. 2 identical laptops in 2 days, 2 different sound devices in them. Like PCs are built for the cheap with whatever cheapest part is available to Dell or HP. Both had annoyinbg problems that took extra time installing Windows 10… one turned out to have IDT sound which is an ordeal to make work. The other would not in any circumstances EUFI boot from USB, had to set it back to Legacy. I have both versions of installer sticks!
Next I got a Dell with the same problem… had too look up multiple times just to get BIOS to go into Legacy, stupid proprietory BIOS. That one does have TPM and Secure, but if they want 11 when it’s out they can pay me to convert the SSD and re-enable EUFI
FYI when the iOS 14.5 upgrade happened, you can no longer upload to your samba server. Hadn’t used it for a while and spent hours discovering this bug they haven’t fixed, Mine’s already 14.7.1
Damn! Spent many hours setting things up and adding links to all my PCs Macs and iOS devices.
This after the wireless MS app to send Photos to your PC stopped working years ago.
BAck to cables and Dropbox again…
Got back to that stupid iMac… tests show the hard drive is OK. Just will not install an OSX, neither El Capitan nor Snow Leaopard (found it’s original disks).
But the damn thing will install and run Raspian x86 from USB and Window 7 from external CD. So I’ll try Snow Leopard from external CD, failing that Win 7 then an upgrade to Win10.
Tempted to try Ubuntu Mate 64 with a Mac theme like I did on my Pi and I know Raspian works.
You mean in the files app? Mine’s still working great on the latest iOS (and the latest iOS beta). I map one of my drobos and upload files all the time.
Cool!! I’ve been installing Debian 11.0 (released Aug. 14th) on a lot of my old units. I’m using the non-free ISO which includes firmware. I’m not a Stallman purist (don’t hate me). Haha.
Its a 2009 iMac. just will NOT install any Mac OSX. Ran EL Capitan for a year or so but now Capitan, the original Snow Leopard and the Catalina hack all stall and die during install.
WIn7 installs fine, but you can’t activate it anymore. Can’t upgrade that to 10 as I don’t have an actual Win10 key. So I found a copy of Win8.1 that I’d never used and upgraded it with the key for that. Trying a further step to upgrade that with Win10 just returned an ‘installation failed’ error on completion and returned it to 8.1.
I see little point in using anything other than MacOS or Win10 as in all my years only ONE person liked Mint on their old laptop (still uses it), even the Library I set up with 6 Mint stations that had zero problems for 6 years, got another grant and ‘upgraded’ to Windows because the users ‘only want Windows’.
I don’t want to keep the machine, it was the wife’s and she’s happy going back to her Mac mini.
If I do go Linux, I’m going to try TwisterOS, Mac and Windows themes are included. Works great on the Raspberry Pi. Some other time - was just given a Surface to waste time trying to revive next.
re the sambaserver
Mine just started delivering an “unexpected error occurred” sending to from the Photos app to the samba machine under Files (iPhone & iPad). I can still send sketches from the Procreate app on the iPad no problem (gotta convert them with GIMP to use)
Lots of gripes on Apple forums, but the techs all blame the server config and won’t acknowledge the problem.
One superuser pointed out the problem is iOS adds a slash to the file, but acknowledges a solution is available but beyond the abilities of most ubergeek users to implement to their iOS -Apple should fix it.
Not worth the effort for me, I set the server up just for the purpose of wirelessly sending iPhone pics so Windows could use them once the Microsoft import experiment app stopped working.
The server’s just an old Dell Atom mini thing w a big spinner & Ubuntu server on it
BTW look what I managed 21H1 runnung on a 2009 iMac. Finally!!
Burned 21H1 to DVD used the external drive.
No way I could install anything but Linux from USB, the internal DVD wouldn’t install Win7 or Snow Leopard (and had to boot from Linux USB to even eject them!)
Win7 unactivated → Win8 activated → Win10
Now I might be able to flog it for a couple hundred bucks and move on to the next ordeal.
I bought a Xerox B215 laser printer for my 18 year old that we’re carting to PG tomorrow. Setting up the printer on Windows 10 required more than plugging it in as Win 10 didn’t properly identify the printer; I used the included Xerox installation DVD and I had to download software from the intertubes.
For the Macbook Air I didn’t have to do anything. I just plugged in the Xerox USB adapter and The Macbook did all the heavy lifting automatically with no user intervention required. Speaking in praise of Mac software and the OS.
Took another day huntuing down but I got all the drivers off an old 4 version bootcamp. Got sound working, camera, chipset, etc. Runs nice.
Had a printer adventure myself yesterday. Told a lady a few weeks ago who printed for her group to switch to a laser instead of inkjet. Called me in to install new HP… with input switches so small I could press 5 at once with my baby finger. Didn’t seem to work with auto windows install (not found) and resorted to the included DVD… which means 12,000 unwanted HP processes that run all the time. Still nothing! Turned out it had no indicator lights and had disconnected from wireless!!!
Adventure was she revealed her ‘group’ was that ignoroid lot of ubermenschen protesting masks and vaccines the day before! Ding, no seniors discount for her.
