Press Any Key to Cancel



  • I booted up my work machine this morning and after POSTing it informed me that it needed to check my C: drive for errors and that I should "press any key within the next 10 seconds to cancel." So I reach out to my keyboard and slap the largest and easiest-to-find button on it--the spacebar. Nothing happens and the countdown continues. I hit the spacebar again and still it doesn't cancel. Being lazy, I go for the next-closest button which ends up being some random letter key since my hand was still on the spacebar. Countdown continues. I try several other letter keys and none of them seem to cancel it. Finally I move to the Enter key and it actually stops the countdown!

    I have to wonder what Microsoft's definition of "any" key is.



  •  @mott555 said:

    I have to wonder what Microsoft's definition of "any" key is.
    It's next to your Alt key. I swear some people need a flashing neon sign to find it, sheesh...






  •  Are you sure it wasn't a timing thing? My POS home PC does this all the time, and it only responds when there's a couple of seconds left. I reckon it's to do with the USB keyboard not quite being ready with the BIOS handing control over to Windows. Or something.



  • @mott555 said:

    I booted up my work machine this morning and after POSTing it informed me that it needed to check my C: drive for errors and that I should "press any key within the next 10 seconds to cancel." So I reach out to my keyboard and slap the largest and easiest-to-find button on it--the spacebar. Nothing happens and the countdown continues. I hit the spacebar again and still it doesn't cancel. Being lazy, I go for the next-closest button which ends up being some random letter key since my hand was still on the spacebar. Countdown continues. I try several other letter keys and none of them seem to cancel it. Finally I move to the Enter key and it actually stops the countdown!

    I have to wonder what Microsoft's definition of "any" key is.

    What kind of keyboard do you have? If it's USB or Bluetooth, it can take a few seconds for the drivers to initialize. (Especially with Bluetooth.)

    It's still a WTF, because it's terrible usability (in many ways), but at least explainable. And, of course, you should have actually fixed the disk, so that's a WTF there, too.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    What kind of keyboard do you have? If it's USB or Bluetooth, it can take a few seconds for the drivers to initialize. (Especially with Bluetooth.)

    It's still a WTF, because it's terrible usability (in many ways), but at least explainable. And, of course, you should have actually fixed the disk, so that's a WTF there, too.

     

    It's a USB keyboard so maybe it was a timing issue, I'll have to experiment next time I reboot. And I can't imagine what's wrong with my disk, it's a fresh install of Windows 7 from a couple weeks ago. I'd rather boot right up and jump into my project instead of waiting a half hour for a disk scan. We use Subversion so if the disk craps out I won't lose much.



  • @mott555 said:

    @blakeyrat said:

    What kind of keyboard do you have? If it's USB or Bluetooth, it can take a few seconds for the drivers to initialize. (Especially with Bluetooth.)

    It's still a WTF, because it's terrible usability (in many ways), but at least explainable. And, of course, you should have actually fixed the disk, so that's a WTF there, too.

     

    It's a USB keyboard so maybe it was a timing issue, I'll have to experiment next time I reboot. And I can't imagine what's wrong with my disk, it's a fresh install of Windows 7 from a couple weeks ago. I'd rather boot right up and jump into my project instead of waiting a half hour for a disk scan. We use Subversion so if the disk craps out I won't lose much.

    Was it imaged, or installed from the Windows disk?

    Just FYI, Windows' installer doesn't check every block of the disk for errors anymore. If your disk has bad blocks, it could definitely cause the need for a disk scan right after installing... I'd do the scan. (Overnight it, if you can't afford the time.)



  • Windows was installed straight from the Windows DVD since our company doesn't do imaging (yet). I've also checked my drive's S.M.A.R.T. status with CrystalDiskInfo and it doesn't show anything to be concerned about. I assume it just got powered off without being shut down at some point, our town can be pretty windy--especially since it's cold now--and short power outages aren't uncommon. 



  • Why would you cancel a recommended disk check?



  • @smxlong said:

    Why would you cancel a recommended disk check?
     

    False positives among many others.



  • @esoterik said:

    @smxlong said:

    Why would you cancel a recommended disk check?
     

    False positives among many others.

    Uh. NTFS is world-class. If it says there's a disk error, there's a fucking disk error.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    NTFS is world-class. If it says there's a disk error, there's a fucking disk error.
     

    Data needed to demonstrate your confidence is justified.

    @esoterik said:

    False positives among many others.
     

    Data needed to demonstrate this is a real problem.

     



  • @mott555 said:

    I've also checked my drive's S.M.A.R.T. status with CrystalDiskInfo and it doesn't show anything to be concerned about.
    Neither do two of the Hitachi drives I have here. They are apparently "Good" according to SMART, but the machines they were installed in refused to boot into Windows and you just heard the tell-tale "ker-klunk, ker-klunk" sound constantly until you removed power. 

    The "drive fitness test" stated "Status Code: 0x00" until we did an advanced test, and then changed it to "Sector not found" error message after doing the ker-klunk noise about 10 times. 

    Still, the SMART status is still "Good" on both drives. 


  • Garbage Person

     SMART is the most hilariously unreliable piece of shit. Every time I've seen it trip, the drive survived for YEARS. Every spontaneous drive failure I've encountered has never tripped SMART.



  • @Weng said:

     SMART is the most hilariously unreliable piece of shit. Every time I've seen it trip, the drive survived for YEARS. Every spontaneous drive failure I've encountered has never tripped SMART.

     

    We had an intense nightmare* due to SMART on our Netgear ReadyNAS Duo thinking our WD green drives were dying.  I guess I was TRWTF as I didn't think to check the hardware compatibility list before buying the drives, but there you go.  I think I must use all my IT competence while I'm at work...

     *I.e. mild annoyance fixed by firmware update



  • @Mole said:

    ker-klunk noise

    I'm having this too on my old machine. Out of curiosity, does that mean the disk is basically broken or can it be fixed? Windows will boot, but occasionally crash with said noise.



  • @derula said:

    @Mole said:
    ker-klunk noise
    I'm having this too on my old machine. Out of curiosity, does that mean the disk is basically broken or can it be fixed? Windows will boot, but occasionally crash with said noise.

    You better backup what you need from that disk, think about replacing and use it until it breaks as long as you are not storing anything important, that noise tend to be because there is physical damage to the disk.  It will fail eventually and unless you have hard money to send to those recovery labs with clean rooms you won't see a bit of its information anymore.

    So quickly back up your porn!



  • @serguey123 said:

    @derula said:
    @Mole said:
    ker-klunk noise
    I'm having this too on my old machine. Out of curiosity, does that mean the disk is basically broken or can it be fixed? Windows will boot, but occasionally crash with said noise.

    You better backup what you need from that disk, think about replacing and use it until it breaks as long as you are not storing anything important, that noise tend to be because there is physical damage to the disk.  It will fail eventually and unless you have hard money to send to those recovery labs with clean rooms you won't see a bit of its information anymore.

    I've actually switched to a new PC long ago, I just kept the old one around in case I remember something I forgot to copy. But I'm curious what causes that fun sound.



  • @derula said:

    @serguey123 said:
    @derula said:
    @Mole said:
    ker-klunk noise
    I'm having this too on my old machine. Out of curiosity, does that mean the disk is basically broken or can it be fixed? Windows will boot, but occasionally crash with said noise.

    You better backup what you need from that disk, think about replacing and use it until it breaks as long as you are not storing anything important, that noise tend to be because there is physical damage to the disk.  It will fail eventually and unless you have hard money to send to those recovery labs with clean rooms you won't see a bit of its information anymore.

    I've actually switched to a new PC long ago, I just kept the old one around in case I remember something I forgot to copy. But I'm curious what causes that fun sound.

    Depends on the noise really, could be any of the moving parts of the disk.

    Some sounds to chose from:

    Enjoy



  • @derula said:

    @Mole said:
    ker-klunk noise

    I'm having this too on my old machine. Out of curiosity, does that mean the disk is basically broken or can it be fixed? Windows will boot, but occasionally crash with said noise.

    She's dead, Jim.



  • @serguey123 said:

    Depends on the noise really, could be any of the moving parts of the disk.

    Some sounds to chose from:

    Enjoy

    I played them all at once. It sounded pretty badass.



  • @mott555 said:

    And I can't imagine what's wrong with my disk, it's a fresh install of Windows 7 from a couple weeks ago.

    My home computer did that too. It had already started the scan because I left it to boot up unattended. Maybe it was forced by a Windows update?

    @mott555 said:

    I'd rather boot right up and jump into my project instead of waiting a half hour for a disk scan.

    It didn't take that long and since you have a fresh install, your scan would've been even shorter.



  • @serguey123 said:

    Depends on the noise really, could be any of the moving parts of the disk.

    Some sounds to chose from:

    Enjoy

    Mine doesn't sound like any of these, it's a much funnier sound! Maybe I should record it sometime; problem is, it only happens occasionally. It's closest to the "bad heads" sounds. I just don't know what that means.



  • @derula said:

    @serguey123 said:

    Depends on the noise really, could be any of the moving parts of the disk.

    Some sounds to chose from:

    Enjoy

    Mine doesn't sound like any of these, it's a much funnier sound! Maybe I should record it sometime; problem is, it only happens occasionally. It's closest to the "bad heads" sounds. I just don't know what that means.

     

    It means keep frequent backups.  In my experience, any type of unusual noise from a hard drive should cause you to increase the rate at which you backup from that drive (or cause you to start backing up from it if you haven't been doing so).



  • @DescentJS said:

    It means keep frequent backups.  In my experience, any type of unusual noise from a hard drive should cause you to increase the rate at which you backup from that drive (or cause you to start backing up from it if you haven't been doing so).

    Not the case here, I had the noise a few times before and it was going away by defragmenting the drive. The reason I'm not defragging this time is I kinda love these sounds.



  • @derula said:

    It's closest to the "bad heads" sounds. I just don't know what that means.
     

    I means "Do you like having data?"



  • @dhromed said:

    @derula said:
    It's closest to the "bad heads" sounds. I just don't know what that means.

    I means "Do you like having data?"

    goes hug his hard disk



  • @serguey123 said:

    That is some cool stuff. I need to get me one of those Toshiba drives with failing bearings.

    On a side note, there's some pretty interesting HTML in that page (found out while trying to cut and paste):

    <OBJECT data="/musicplayer.swf?song_url=/getsound.php?file=toshiba_degrading_bearings.mp3" width=20 height=17 type=application/x-shockwave-flash></OBJECT>


  • @b-redeker said:

    @serguey123 said:

    That is some cool stuff. I need to get me one of those Toshiba drives with failing bearings.

    On a side note, there's some pretty interesting HTML in that page (found out while trying to cut and paste):

    <OBJECT data="/musicplayer.swf?song_url=/getsound.php?file=toshiba_degrading_bearings.mp3" width=20 height=17 type=application/x-shockwave-flash></OBJECT>

    That is some of the LEAST interesting HTML I've ever seen. Are you referring to the lack of quotes around some properties?



  •  There's a query string in a query string?



  • @Z1_Jacob said:

     There's a query string in a query string?

    That's actually a pretty goddamned logical use of that, IMO.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    @Z1_Jacob said:

     There's a query string in a query string?

    That's actually a pretty goddamned logical use of that, IMO.

    Is it? Let's see: /musicplayer.swf?song_url=/getsound.php?file=toshiba_degrading_bearings.mp3

    Let's ignore the fact that they could simply link to the mp3's and get it over with; I guess the flash button has some advantages and let's assume feeding any old URL to that flash player is always completely safe (and the file to the php). I'll just ask: what exactly is that getsound.php script doing?

    I'm not saying this is a mega WTF, but I am curious. I think there are different ways of feeding that mp3 to the swf, if that's what you really want to do.




  • Garbage Person

    @RTapeLoadingError said:

    We had an intense nightmare* due to SMART on our Netgear ReadyNAS Duo thinking our WD green drives were dying.  I guess I was TRWTF as I didn't think to check the hardware compatibility list before buying the drives, but there you go.  I think I must use all my IT competence while I'm at work...
    I find this highly amusing because WD Green drives fail with spectacular regularity in my experience (I've yet to see one last six months with a 24/7 dutycycle)



  • @Z1_Jacob said:

    /getsound.php?file=../index.php doesn't work, thankfully. /getsound.php?file=../sounds/toshiba_degrading_bearings.mp3 does though...

    Seems it checks for the mp3 ending. If not present, empty HTML page. If present, it looks for the file and displays an error unless found. I tried /getsound.php?file=../index.php.mp3%08%08%08%08; sadly, it didn't work as I hoped it would.


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