My Hard Disk Is Dying

Weird Things Happened

A few days ago, my computer suddenly started doing weird things like having random BSODs, extreme slow downs, freezing and hang-ups. Having these problems were very frustrating and annoying specially when I was doing or finishing a lot of work for a client.

I tried to troubleshoot what caused the problems using various internet tools and programs but I didn't get any good results. In the end, I decided to re-format my hard disk and re-install my Operating System.

After re-formatting my hard disk and re-installing my operating system, my computer was still experiencing some extreme slow downs.

Bad Sectors Found

When I troubleshot my computer for problems or errors before, I didn't perform a Check Disk (chkdsk) on my hard disk because the built-in S.M.A.R.T. indicator said it was still healthy. I guess my hard disk is still generally healthy because Check Disk only found 164 KB of bad sectors in my System Drive.

It was very stupid of me to not perform a Check Disk first before re-formatting hard disk and re-installing my operating system. If I had then I wouldn't had wasted a lot of time re-installing everything back. LOL!

My computer was slowing down drastically because it was reading files written on bad sectors of the hard disk. Check Disk fixed it by moving those files out of the bad sectors and marking these sectors as bad to make them unwritable anymore.

Bad Sectors = Dying Hard Disk

My hard disk is only 3 years old. Knowing that it already has bad sectors is very surprising for me because my 10 year old 40 GB Seagate hard disk hasn't had any yet and I'm still using it as an external hard disk for back-ups.

From what I've read in the internet, having bad sectors in a hard disk means that the hard disk is dying or it's about to fail. It's like a symptom and the only real solution is to replace it with a new one but I can't replace it right now because I'm dead broke.

I was expecting money from Bubblews.com but it's currently ignoring all my request for payment. If I was paid by Bubblews.com for my four redemptions then I would have had enough money to buy a new hard disk.

A New Hard Disk

My current hard disk is a 500GB Western Digital Caviar but, for my new hard disk, I was thinking of getting a 1 TB hard disk like the one below.

The hard disk in the picture above is a WD Blue 1 TB Desktop Hard Drive: 3.5 Inch, 7200 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64 MB Cache - WD10EZEX. As you can see it's also from Western Digital and it's only $69.44 USD. It's not very expensive. If I had money right now then I would buy it without second thoughts.

Of course, I will still shop around for a better hard disk once I have enough money to buy a new one but if I can't find anything better that will fit my budget then I might have to get this one.

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Paul Jr. And Paul Jr. Designs Returns To TV Soon

My Favorite Show In Discovery Channel

American Chopper was one of my favorite shows in Discovery Channel but I only started watching it when Junior separated with his father, Senior. I've known about the show even before the split but, for some reason, I just didn't enjoy seeing Senior on the show.

(Image Credit: Shooters Images)

When they split and Paul Jr. started Paul Jr. Designs, that was when I started watching American Chopper but only Paul Jr.'s part of the show. I never bothered with the Orange Country Chopper's part of it. In fact, I remember changing channel every time OCC or Senior was on.

Missing Paul Jr. And His Bikes

Paul Jr.'s Custom Theme Bikes are awesome and the way he builds them is simply amazing because he builds them on the fly without drawings, blueprints or schematics. All the bikes he built in the show came out of his head spontaneously.

With Paul Jr., all the bikes he built were a surprise and that's what I enjoy about his process. It's not a very efficient and cost effective way of building a bike but it was definitely exciting and enjoyable to watch.

OCC's building process was more efficient and cost effective but it wasn't exciting because everyone already knew what the bike would look like even before they started building it.

Paul Jr. Will Return To Television Soon

Yes, I was very happy when I learned about it. This news about Paul Jr. returning to television first appeared on Design By Joyce's Paul Jr. Fan Page.

According to the posted news, Paul Jr. was working with a production company called Gurney Productions. A few of its popular television shows are Duck Dynasty, Auction Hunters and American Guns. All of which are unfamiliar to me. LOL!

In any case, Paul Jr. and Paul Jr. Designs returning to television is a very exciting news for all the fans of PJD. I want to see him and his team create new, exciting and amazing Custom Theme Bikes that are both jaw dropping and mind blowing.

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WTF! SmartBRO Or MyBRO, Fair Usage Policy Is Not Fair At All

A few months ago, I dialed *1888 on my Android Phone. It connected me to SmartBRO's Customer Service Hotline where I was able to talk to a Customer Service Representative (CSR). The reason why I wanted to talk to a SmartBRO CSR was to ask one question and that question was, "does SmartBRO has a monthly bandwidth limit"?

The CSR gave me a quick and simple answer and the answer that was given to me was, "NO"!

Last week, my internet connection speed suddenly became extremely slow. I didn't took notice of it because SmartBRO likes to perform unscheduled updates or maintenance to their system.

Yesterday, my internet connection speed was still very, very slow so I decided to contact SmartBRO's Customer Service Hotline. After pressing all these buttons, the last thing that I heard was a recorded message that said something like, "Good day. You've reached your allowable volume usage for this month. For more information about MyBRO's Fair Usage Policy please visit http://pldthome.com/mybrofup".

I can't remember the exact words but I think it's close enough.

I was very, very surprised to hear the recorded message because it mentioned "allowable volume usage". What the hell is this allowable volume usage? Well, it has something to do with bandwidth limits and, as far as I know, SmartBRO doesn't limit bandwidth use and, when I asked a CSR about it, the answer given to me was NO.

I tried many, many times to talk to a SmartBRO CSR but the option to talk to one of them was no longer available in the Customer Service Hotline. I tried all the options but none of them connected me to a living and breathing CSR.

Today, I went to a nearby Smart Office and complained about it. The person I talked to confirmed the newly implemented Fair Usage Policy but, when I asked about my monthly allowable volume limit or monthly bandwidth limit, the answer I got was very unsatisfactory.

I went home dissatisfied because I never got any information about my monthly allowable volume or bandwidth limit from Smart. For some reason, the staff or people handling the customers complaints and problems have no idea as well.

To find out SmartBRO's newly implemented allowable volume usage or bandwidth limit, I search Google and found it. According to this post titled Smart Bro Canopy (myBro) Slow Connection (2013), SmartBRO's monthly bandwidth allocation per user is only 15GB. WTF!

15GB a month is very, very small. If you look at closely then Globe Tattoo's 3GB/5GB daily bandwidth allocation is much, much better compared to SmartBRO. Seriously, if Globe can offer their subscribers 5GB daily then why can't SmartBRO or MyBRO offer us something much better. Better yet, why even implement this Fair Usage Policy when SmartBRO existed without it for many, many years.

I don't mind having this Fair Usage Policy but SmartBRO or MyBRO should at least make it fair for everyone specially the old subscribers like me. 15GB a month is extremely small. They should at least offer us something like 8GB - 12GB a day not this ridiculous15GB a month.

Anyway, if you are a SmartBRO user like me and you also find this 15 GB montly limit UNFAIR then please sign this Online Petition titled No to SMART/PLDT FAIR USE Policy: Trash the Fair Use Policy.

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