[04:26] <shauno> what on earth are they doing releasing debian at 3am.  how am I meant to drink to that?
[06:06] <MartijnVdS> shauno: you can't drink at 3am?
[08:25] <SuperMatt> morning
[08:35] <dwatkins> wotcher
[08:38] <SuperMatt> how do?
[08:39] <dwatkins> good, ta - currently re-encoding Silent Running for later viewing
[08:39] <dwatkins> how's tricks?
[08:39] <SuperMatt> all good
[08:39] <SuperMatt> did a run this morning, I'm getting faster :D
[08:39] <dwatkins> I need to collect my bike so I can start cycling to work again.
[08:40] <SuperMatt> I might have to start running before work, because it's really helping me lose weight
[08:40] <dwatkins> I changed my diet, that made a huge difference.
[08:40] <dwatkins> Cycling helped, too, of course.
[08:41] <SuperMatt> yeah, I've changed my diet too
[08:41] <SuperMatt> basically, I've reduced a lot of what I eat
[08:42] <dwatkins> I switched to keto, seems to do the trick.
[08:44] <SuperMatt> keto?
[08:44] <dwatkins> no sugars or carbs
[08:44] <dwatkins> essentially, I've replaced chips/rice/bread with salad
[08:44] <SuperMatt> aha
[08:45] <dwatkins> I was quite surprised how well it worked, and I don't feel hungry all the time, either.
[08:49] <SuperMatt> well my plan was to ditch the bread for sure
[08:49] <SuperMatt> didn't think about ditching rice :/
[08:56] <dwatkins> There's sugar and carbs in so many things, it's not easy to know what to eat.
[08:58] <dwatkins> http://www.amazon.co.uk/Neris-Indias-Idiot-Proof-Diet-Twig/dp/0141027436/ is appaently quite good, I've just been making it up as I go along, but will eventually get around to reading this.
[09:00] <MartijnVdS> dwatkins: The "start running 7-10km 3-4 times/week" diet worked best for me ;)
[09:00] <dwatkins> They seem to have brought back the l4d1 characters for the Ubuntu beta of l4d2.
[09:00] <directhex> but bread is delicious and so is rice
[09:00] <directhex> and pasta
[09:00] <MartijnVdS> dwatkins: (started out with 1-2km ;))
[09:00] <directhex> and pots of pure gluten
[09:00] <dwatkins> MartijnVdS: yeah, I suspect a lot of my 15 kg weight loss was due to suddenly cycling 10 miles a day ;)
[09:01] <MartijnVdS> dwatkins: yeah that tends to help :)
[09:25] <brobostigon> good morning everyone,
[09:43] <dwatkins> wotcher
[09:43] <brobostigon> ?
[09:43] <dwatkins> hello in Reading-speak
[09:43] <brobostigon> ah.
[09:43] <brobostigon> some of my cousins live there.
[09:43] <dwatkins> it's not so bad, the architecture's a bit dull compared to Edinburgh ;)
[09:43] <brobostigon> true enough.
[09:43] <brobostigon> any ideas for an android mmo, i am bored.
[09:44] <neuro> One where all Samsung phones get beaten to a pulp, letting other manufacturers build "proper" Android devices?
[09:45] <neuro> "You have smited 17 Samsung engineers, and replaced the ROMs on 2915 Samsung devices!  Level up!"
[09:45] <neuro> actually, quick question, guys:
[09:46] <neuro> can anyone remember the name of the package that lets you create a virtual connection to another machine beside you to "extend" your keyboard and mouse influence?
[09:46] <neuro> so your keyboard can control the machine in front of you and the machine to your right or whatever?
[09:46] <neuro> it's completely eluding me
[09:46] <neuro> since it's years since i've used it
[09:47] <neuro> it's not duplicity, it's not ubiquity, but it's something like that
[09:50] <neuro> never mind
[09:50] <neuro> found it
[09:50] <neuro> Synergy
[09:50] <neuro> :)
[09:55] <directhex> neuro, synergy
[09:55] <directhex> oh, wait, you foudn it
[09:55] <neuro> :)
[09:55] <neuro> thanks anyway!
[09:58] <neuro> ah crap, trackpad batteries nearly dead :(
[10:00] <neuro> hmm brand new batteries ... "Trackpad battery level: 83%" ugh.
[10:28] <neuro> oh, netsplit
[10:28] <neuro> thought my broadband had borked
[11:58] <MartijnVdS> b0rkband
[11:58] <popey> Good moaning.
[11:59] <MartijnVdS> \o popey
[12:07] <SuperMatt> word.
[12:07] <SuperMatt> hardly morning though, popey
[12:07] <MartijnVdS> SuperMatt: he's probably a bit lagged
[12:08] <SuperMatt> yes, I guess you're right
[12:09] <MartijnVdS> http://teespring.com/negativefeedback
[13:00] <dwatkins> I'm still not sure if Dave from EEVblog was right about his Flux Capacitor t-shirt or if he shoudn't have sold it [for money].
[13:05] <dwatkins> s/money/profit/
[13:24]  * penguin42 wishes debootstrap would install apt by default in the 1st stage
[13:33] <penguin42> ah, so much better - bash, sanity
[13:58] <Darael> I've had an issue - for a while, now - that appears to be triggered by the Programmer Dvorak keyboard layout.  I'm pretty sure it's some kind of bug, and it's been present in at least the last four releases.  Does anyone know what the best package to file a bug with is?
[13:59] <Darael> (Yes, I'm "anyone"-ing.  Sorry.)
[14:10] <popey> Darael: depends where the bug manifests itself
[14:10] <popey> Darael: what happens?
[14:55] <bigcalm> Good afternoon peeps :)
[14:56] <MartijnVdS> \o
[14:56] <diddledan> o/
[14:57] <MartijnVdS> another week, and I'll be on your side of the water :)
[15:04] <popey> yo
[15:12]  * penguin42 wonders if there are any SDL e-reader things for e-readers - touchscreen etc
[15:30] <dwatkins> There's apparently nupdf, which miht go some way to achieve what you're after, penguin42 - SDL PDF reading.
[15:31] <penguin42> ooh thanks - the android thing on this nook is crap
[15:31] <dwatkins> no idea if it'll cmopile etc. but I'm sure it'll be fun finding out.
[15:49] <penguin42> anything will compile with a large enough hammer
[15:50] <diddledan> for various definitions of compile
[15:50] <penguin42> nod
[15:51] <diddledan> compilation is like schroedinger's cat
[15:52] <penguin42> you only know if it worked when you try and run it?
[15:52] <diddledan> yup
[15:52] <diddledan> until you run it it's both correct and bad at the same time
[15:53] <diddledan> and neither too
[15:53] <diddledan> my sister in law can't get her head around the concept - she just complains it's cruel on the cat
[15:54] <penguin42> well it might be, it might not
[15:54] <diddledan> lol
[15:56] <penguin42> diddledan: My experience is that compilers can maintain the wave function past running; especially on multithreads
[15:56] <diddledan> yeah, I can appreciate that
[16:28] <MartijnVdS> penguin42: Schroedinger's Compiler?
[16:28] <diddledan> I've got an idea for an irc-to-jabber-and-back-again daemon which allows for full interaction between irc users and jabber MUC users with neither side necessarily being aware that the other exists (i.e. NOT an XMPP "transport", and independant of any specific implementation of IRC/XMPP servers). My question relates to people's opinion of what a suitable language would be to write it in which allows for multithreading/processin
[16:28] <diddledan> g for better scalability than single-threaded implementation
[16:29] <MartijnVdS> Well, that's python out ;)
[16:29] <MartijnVdS> one of the Jabber daemons is written in erlang
[16:30] <diddledan> yeah, that's ejabberd
[16:30] <MartijnVdS> hence the 'e' ;)
[16:30] <diddledan> I was thinking about going that route, but I know nothing about erlang
[16:30] <MartijnVdS> yeah I know the problem
[16:30] <MartijnVdS> you could start with Python or Perl (yes, it does threads now)
[16:30] <penguin42> diddledan: C
[16:31] <MartijnVdS> penguin42: C + threads = lots of thinking about threads
[16:31] <MartijnVdS> penguin42: and not much thinking about code
[16:31] <diddledan> penguin42, I figured that might be the case
[16:31] <penguin42> MartijnVdS: Shrug
[16:31] <penguin42> diddledan: C+pthreads in particular
[16:31] <MartijnVdS> Perl's threading has grown up in recent years
[16:32] <MartijnVdS> and speed isn't bad
[18:31] <redtape> OT | Anyone still trying to use the Auction sites today ((??)) .. I is Still tryin' to find a UK version of these .. that elusive bit of metal grill http://bit.ly/15izrvm :: Perhaps I should have given bettr instructions for you to XD my ass?
[18:57] <^Snake^> Looking for info on how long Terminal should take to partition a drive ?
[18:59] <diddledan> partitioning is very quick. putting filesystems on the resulting partitions will be slower and resizing/moving existing filesystems will take forever and a day depending on how big they were beforehand
[19:01] <diddledan> but Terminal doesn't do any of that itself.
[19:01] <^Snake^> what I have, an old 160Gb HDD with a 10Gb hidden Recovery partition, the Recovery partition is what I am trying to copy over to a new 500Gb HDD
[19:02] <^Snake^> Terminal seemed to cause the hard drive light to go crazy for 5 mins, now it's quiet, rarely lighting up
[19:02] <^Snake^> From reading sites, terminal shows as busy, the "ubuntu@ubuntu" has not displayed yet, showing it's finished
[19:02] <^Snake^> that was about an hour or so ago
[19:05] <^Snake^> the partition is 10Gb, but only has about 6.8Gb in use, is there any way to find out how much has been copied, or how long is left?
[19:05] <diddledan> a bit of background on Terminal - that is an application which runs an interface for a "shell". the "shell" (bash usually) is an interface to running programs, but doesn't do anything itself. The command that you entered into bash is what is doing the work, not bash nor Terminal. So, what was the first word of the command you typed, as that is the program doing the work?
[19:07] <^Snake^> the line I typed into Terminal "dd if=/dev/sdb1 of=/dev/sda1 bs=1M"
[19:07] <penguin42> ^Snake^: I'd expect that to take a reasonable amount of time
[19:08] <^Snake^> ok, am I looking at 2, 3, 4 or more hours, it's at least an hour or so ago it started?
[19:08] <diddledan> ok, so you're using the "dd" program to copy from the first partition on disk 2 to the first partition on disk 1. You can get a readout of how much data it's copied by opening a new termianl and running the command "killall -USR1 dd"
[19:08] <penguin42> ^Snake^: How big did you say the disks were?
[19:08] <penguin42> ^Snake^: I'd expect it to be able to do at least 100GB/hour on a modern machine
[19:09] <diddledan> be very careful with that command tho, because without the -USR1 or with something other than -USR1 it will stop the dd program in it's tracks
[19:09] <diddledan> so you'll have to start it again
[19:09] <^Snake^> New HDD 500Gb, old HDD 160Gb, the partition is 10Gb, but only uses approx 6.8Gb of data
[19:10] <penguin42> yeh I'd expect that to be just a few minutes for a 10GB partition
[19:11] <^Snake^> when I click the X, Terminal says there is still a process running, & from websites, it says when it's done, the prompt should read as "ubuntu@ubuntu:~$"
[19:12] <^Snake^> so far, it's just a flashing cursor
[19:14] <^Snake^> ok, opened another Terminal, typed in the command @diddledan said, "Operation not permitted"
[19:14] <diddledan> yeah, you might need to run it with sudo
[19:15] <diddledan> if you ran dd through sudo then you will
[19:15] <diddledan> in which case it's `sudo killall -USR1 dd`
[19:16] <^Snake^> if I run it with "sudo" I get no response, just a new line, if I use it without sudo, I get the "Operation not permitted. dd: no process found"
[19:17] <diddledan> the output will be on the window where you're running dd
[19:17] <^Snake^> no change in original Terrminal, or the new one
[19:17] <diddledan> sounds like dd has hung then
[19:17] <^Snake^> how to fix it?
[19:19] <^Snake^> should I click the X on the original terminal window, then ok to the warning about killing the active process?
[19:21] <diddledan> try forcing dd to close by going to the terminal where it's running and pressing ctrl+c together - if it quits it should tell you how far it got, and if it doesn't quit you know something went wonky
[19:22] <^Snake^> if I CTRL + C, all it does is "^C"
[19:22] <diddledan> ok, that indicates that dd got stuck and can't quit on it's own
[19:23] <diddledan> we can force it to die painfully by running in the other terminal the command `sudo killall -9 dd`
[19:23] <^Snake^> will that damage the old or new hard drive?
[19:25] <diddledan> it won't affect the /dev/sdb1 (where you're copying from) but it may leave /dev/sda1 (where you're copying TO) with an incomplete image of the source partition
[19:25] <penguin42> diddledan: Although if it's a dd that's stuck it's probably stuck on IO and might not die
[19:25] <diddledan> penguin42, didn't think of that
[19:25] <^Snake^> I should be able to delete the partition if that is the case, without any problems?
[19:27] <diddledan> ^Snake^, you can delete the partition, yes, but that doesn't delete any data off the disc, so there isn't really any need to do so unless you're wanting to use the space for something different
[19:27] <diddledan> e.g. a differently sized partition
[19:30] <^Snake^> ok, killed the process, started up gparted, the partition is there, shows as 10Gb, but not used or unused, & flagged as possibly no file system
[19:31] <diddledan> try running `sudo fsck /dev/sda1` in a terminal and see what it says
[19:33] <diddledan> o_O penguin42 what happened to the ntfs-utils (or was it -tools?) package which supplied fsck.ntfs?!
[19:33] <^Snake^> Superblock invalid, bad magic number in super-block
[19:33] <penguin42> diddledan: I don't know - never done ntfs stuff
[19:33] <diddledan> hmm
[19:34] <diddledan> ok, superblock invalid suggests that the copy didn't complete before it got stuck
[19:35] <penguin42> that suggests it failed early - superblock is normally fairly early
[19:35] <diddledan> indeed
[19:35] <^Snake^> in Windows Vista / Computer Management, it showed the partitions as C & D Drive partions as NTFS, but the Recovery partion (1 = Recovery, 2 = C, 3 = D) as EISA Configuration
[19:36] <^Snake^> that is from the old hard drive
[19:36] <diddledan> that's normal
[19:36] <diddledan> probably type 12
[19:37] <diddledan> partition type 12 I mean
[19:37] <diddledan> it's probably still ntfs
[19:37] <^Snake^> I'm really new to using Linux, the codes supplied on 1 website wouldn't work, so instead of copying all the partitions, I just created a single 10Gb partition, then used Terminal to transfer the data
[19:37] <^Snake^> is that a valid way to do it, or should I use some other method.
[19:38] <^Snake^> the website was refering to using the same size hdd for the old & new, but mine are way differernt in size
[19:41] <diddledan> my preferred way to ensure that you get everything would be to boot from the ubuntu install disc and run the dd with the old disc and new disc without any 1/2/3.. suffixes so that you copy the whole disc (it doesn't matter that they're different in size as long as you're copying from the smaller to the bigger). then once that's done I'd shut down and remove the old disc and then run the ubuntu installer to install ubuntu onto
[19:41] <diddledan> some of the unoccupied space (or run gparted to mess about with partition resizing first)
[19:41] <^Snake^> the whole reason for the transfer, the old drive spectacularly crashed last weekend, could not access windows, had to reinstall, install failed, bought new drive
[19:41] <diddledan> aha, that sounds suspiciously like you'll not be able to get anything off it then
[19:42] <^Snake^> I have the old drive in an external caddy, transfering data of 3rd partition (D Drive) is working perfectly
[19:43] <^Snake^> "...data of 3rd..." is "OFF 3rd partition"
[19:44] <n1md4> hi.  just did a do-release-upgrade.  it seemed to work but i ran out of disk space whilst updating initrd. I freed some space, and ran an upgrade, and rebooted.  now I get this message on boot http://pastie.org/pastes/7805603/text
[19:44] <diddledan> ensure you get all your data off the data partition before you do anything else so you know you've got everything sentimental
[19:46] <^Snake^> I know the "C" partition is not installable, but it looks like it can read & write to, definately the same with "D"
[19:47] <^Snake^> I will be removing the last of my personal data later, is there a utility to test if the hidden (Recovery) partition is also damaged?
[19:47] <diddledan> once you've got all your photos etc safe you can try resurrecting windows again by copying the recovery partition in the same way you tried already - a nice way of watching it's progress and determining if it's hung is to run in a second terminal the command `watch sudo killall -USR1` which will run the sudo killall every 2 seconds so your dd command should output it's progress every 2 seconds in unison
[19:48] <diddledan> if you had a windows cd/dvd you might be able to get into a recovery console to run chkdsk on the recovery partition
[19:50] <diddledan> I'm thinking that you're missing the required package to check the data in linux/ubuntu (if you have it there will be a program called /sbin/fsck.ntfs which you could run - e.g. `sudo fsck.ntfs /dev/sdb1`)
[19:50] <^Snake^> I have the Recovery Console in the Hidden Partition, as well as on DVD, but it's a Samsung Recovery Solution Disc, it only gives you 2 options, install full, or install basic windows files.
[19:51] <diddledan> if you've got a dvd which will reinstall windows then I would contend that it is a duplicate of what's in the recovery partition with nothing extra in the latter so you can probably ignore the recovery partition entirely and not bother copying it
[19:51] <^Snake^> "/sbin/fsck.nfs"
[19:52] <^Snake^> the DVD doesn't install the same way as the Recovery Console on the HDD
[19:52] <diddledan> typical :-/
[19:52] <diddledan> that sucks
[19:53] <^Snake^> using the hdd version, I can make my own backup as well, the default won't even work, from the CD/DVD, unless the hidden partition is on the drive
[19:54] <^Snake^> what is the code`sudo fsck.ntfs /dev/sdb1` to be used for
[19:54] <^Snake^> ?
[19:55] <diddledan> if you have the program /sbin/fsck.ntfs then it will check the recovery partition on the old drive to see if there's any problems with it
[19:55] <^Snake^> ok, the file I found is fsck.nfs is that the same ?
[19:55] <diddledan> no, unfortunately not
[19:56] <^Snake^> I'm using "Ubuntu 12.04.2 LTS" as a Live CD
[19:58] <^Snake^> afk, bbs
[20:01] <diddledan> ooh, the fsck program is replaced with /bin/ntfsck - so run `sudo ntfsck /dev/sdb1` to check the consistency of the recovery partition
[20:14] <^Snake^> back, ok
[20:15] <^Snake^> I still have the 2 instances of Terminal up, in the first or second?
[20:18] <diddledan> it doesn't matter which one
[20:19] <^Snake^> ok
[20:24] <^Snake^> says "bad jump" & "bad NTFS Magic"
[20:25] <^Snake^> & running that code on sdb2 (C Drive) shows as "Volume is dirty" ???
[20:27] <^Snake^> "Unsupported cases found" what does all that mean ???
[20:28] <^Snake^> I've just asked my daughter for her hard drive, her laptop is identical make, model, version & production date, so hopefully I can copy the hidden recovery partition off her computer
[20:28] <diddledan> bad jump and bad ntfs magic either means that the sdb1 partition is hosed and will be difficult to recover OR that the filesystem isn't ntfs
[20:29] <diddledan> the volume is dirty means that there are possibly errors on the c drive and a more thorough check is required. unsupported cases found I'm unsure what that means
[20:29] <^Snake^> in Ubuntu, the hidden is listed as Unknown, but in Windows Vista, it's EISA Configuration
[20:29] <^Snake^> ok, thanks
[20:30] <diddledan> excellent idea, having your daughter's disc to copy the recovery partition is probably the most reliable way to get the thing intact
[20:31] <mungbean> what happens if u use all your data on giffgiaff?
[20:31] <diddledan> mungbean, the internet implodes? :-p
[20:31] <^Snake^> ROFLMAO.........
[20:31] <^Snake^> yeah, I was hoping it's just a problem with the way I was trying to copy, but I'll use her computer & run the same tests first, then try to copy the partition
[20:32] <^Snake^> if you use all your GiffGaff data, you are stuffed
[20:33] <^Snake^> until you purchase another topup
[20:33] <^Snake^> GiffGaff is NOT a good network
[20:33] <diddledan> no more data causes the internet to stop expanding and potentially start contracting until it forms a singularity
[20:33] <^Snake^> @diddledan, brilliant :-D
[20:34] <diddledan> so, for the love of all things, please don't use all your giffgaff data. the survival of humanity depends on it
[20:35] <mungbean> hmmm
[20:35] <mungbean> 7.50 one isnt showing
[20:35] <mungbean> GG is excellent
[20:35] <mungbean> why the hate?
[20:36] <^Snake^> my daughter & mom use it, it's NAFF
[20:37] <^Snake^> anyway, back to Linux/Ubuntu problems, in Wind(bl)ows, I have to use that Green tick icon to remove the external drive, what do I use in Ubuntu ?
[20:39] <diddledan> if you're not accessing the drive in any way (mounted filesystems) then you can just unplug. if you have a filesystem accessible then you can eject the disc by opening the file manager and clicking the eject icon next to the partition/disc's name
[20:40] <mungbean> ^Snake^: u know its o2 right?
[20:40] <^Snake^> yes, I do
[20:40] <diddledan> or if it's shown on the launcher down the left-hand of your screen then you can right click that and click eject
[20:41] <^Snake^> it only shows when I click on the Home Folder, inside that, it shows as 2 (C & D Drives) USB Icons with the Drive Labels
[20:42] <^Snake^> D Drive had an eject icon, I clicked that, so now if I close the Home screen, I should be able to just remove it now?
[20:42] <diddledan> yes, it should be safe now
[20:42] <^Snake^> k tks
[20:47] <mungbean> ah, 7.50 goodybaf from 14th may
[20:51] <Myrtti> so, has anyone had a look at Wheezy on Viglen?
[20:51] <Myrtti> is it even possible?
[20:57] <diddledan> hmm? wheezy on viglen?
[20:57] <Myrtti> ie. new Debian Stable on Viglen MPC-L
[20:57] <diddledan> aah
[21:09] <^Snake^> ok, transfered daughter's hdd into caddy, ran "sudo ntfsck /dev/sdb1" it says "Unsupported: replay_log()", "Unsupported: check_volume()", & "Unsupported cases found", but nothing is listed as bad
[21:12] <diddledan> you should be able to just copy the partition without any problems from your daughter's disc
[21:12] <^Snake^> ok
[21:13] <^Snake^> I had a look at the code from the website earlier
[21:14] <^Snake^> the code they said to use to do the partitioning "dd if=/dev/sdb of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=1" however, when it comes to transfering the data "dd if=/dev/sdb2 of=/dev/sda2 bs=1M"
[21:14] <^Snake^> the bs=512 or 1M, that is to do with sectors, why the diff between 512K & 1Mb?
[21:15] <shauno> I think 512 bytes, not k, because that's the size of the mbr.  which is why count=1 too
[21:15] <^Snake^> ok
[21:15] <diddledan> the first command copies the partition table - the count=1 tells it to copy exactly 1 block of 512bytes (as shauno suggests)
[21:16] <directhex> MBR partitioning reserves the first 512 bytes of the disk for the partition table and the boot loader. hence bs=512 count=1
[21:17] <directhex> for actually transferring a bunch of data, you want bs (block size) to be a reasonably large number, so you can take advantage of things like disk cache
[21:17] <directhex> transferring 1 byte at a time is sloooooooooooooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
[21:18] <^Snake^> ok, I've just had a look at the Drive info, the drives (old & new are both 512 Sector Size), does it matter what the "bs=" on the second line of code?
[21:18] <diddledan_> hmm, my other machine seems to be hanging
[21:19] <^Snake^> my irc client dropped me earlier, I still can't get in on my registered ID
[21:19] <diddledan_> the bs= on the second line makes the reads more disc friendly - 1M should yeild quite a speed increase over 512 for large reads
[21:19] <^Snake^> when I bought the new HDD, it is listed as 16Mb cache
[21:22] <shauno> I'm actualy not sure how you figure out the optimal block size for copying.  I get the logic that eating one pea at a time takes years, but trying to swallow a steak whole you just choke.
[21:25] <diddledan_> mm, steak, now there's an idea
[21:30] <^Snake^> I like your train of thought ;-)
[21:31] <^Snake^> I have been known to eat food quickly, LOL
[21:31] <diddledan_> I'm a fast eater
[21:32] <^Snake^> Don't you just hate a meal going cold before you've finished
[21:42] <diddledan_> heh, irony of ironies.. been helping you, ^Snake^ with your hard disc failure. I think mine has just died on my desktop computer
[21:43] <diddledan_> hard disc death day
[21:44] <^Snake^> lol, not good
[21:44] <^Snake^> I can be "problematic" though
[21:45] <^Snake^> I "watch sudo killall -USR1" & wondered W(hy)TF nothing is happening, forgot the "dd" at the end, DOHHH!!!!
[21:58] <redtape> OT | Who thinks the Loco meetsy needs an evening like this one ? http://bit.ly/129Gpgk ::::::  Semore ? [rand.Xdesign/Europe Day]
[22:31] <^Snake^> well, that was fun, it looks like it's knackered my daughter's recovery console :-(
[22:43] <diddledan_> it shouldn't have touched your daughter's disc
[22:44] <^Snake^> I used "dd if=/dev/sdb of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=1"
[22:44] <penguin42> that would be a bad idea depending what the sda and sdb are
[22:44] <^Snake^> the external, daughter's hdd is sdb 160Gb, internal sda 500 Gb
[22:45] <penguin42> ^Snake^: Thus you have learnt the importance of being careful with dd
[22:47] <^Snake^> I just used daughter's hdd back in her computer, it still loads windows ok, but the recovery solution sits & does nothing in bootup, but in windows, only gives option to basic or full restore, no option to make a backup
[22:48] <^Snake^> the code I used supposedly transfers a copy from external to internal, but I've just doublechecked everything I typed, it's exactly as the code on the website, so I don't know why it's overwritten with nothing?
[22:50] <penguin42> ^Snake^: Be careful the sda and sdb are pretty dependent on the hardware and sometimes flip at each boot
[22:51] <^Snake^> is there anyway to restore it, or undo ?
[22:51] <penguin42> not if you've overwritten but I think that data is generally retrieavable - I'm trying to remember if that 512bytes includes partition table
[22:57] <^Snake^> is there a partition recovery program I could use ?
[22:58] <penguin42> is it a dos style partition table - I guess so on the small disks
[22:58] <^Snake^> dos style ?
[22:58] <penguin42> ^Snake^: Normal BIOS partitions, not fancy EFI stuff
[22:59] <^Snake^> basic partition, not an extended, if you meaning that type
[22:59] <penguin42> no, but ok, not tried it but you could try testdisk - sounds promising
[23:22] <redtape> Have last rollie before you go to the land of Angletere's they said, it'll be fun they said.
[23:25] <redtape> Damn ! on patches and spit nicorete spray till Thurs. ... just hope my 'Not one puff' policy around distant family doesn't run into a distant Auntie  havin' a stoggie round the back of the lav's