10 Spin_Retry_Count 0×0013 097 097 097 Pre-fail Always FAILING_NOW 0
But unfortunately, that is exactly what i am seeing when i run “smartctl -a -d ata /dev/sdb” on one of the two Seagate SATA disk drives in my Thecus N2100 NAS. I have been troubleshooting the extreme slowness of my NAS since last week. Any attempt in transferring files from some shared folders or just viewing the content of some folders would result in the CPU on the N2100 being pegged at 100%. Initially, i thought it was RAID-related so i tried the following: rebooting several times, getting rid of my shared drive and rebuilding it, clearing all the AFP related files (in .AppleDB and .AppleDouble), transferring files using SMB and FTP instead of AFP. Rebooting the NAS helped on one occasion but the slow file transfer problem would come back later.
I ran the smartctl command earlier this week but i did not see any issue. That was because i was running it on the good disk drive (/dev/sda)!
Right now, i am trying to migrate the data i have on the NAS to my locally connected external Firewire enclosure, but when the transfer is hitting on the data stored on the failing disk drive, it is going very very slowly, about a meg every 10 seconds, instead of the normal 10 meg a second. At this rate, and with more than 200 GB of data to go, it will take more than 500 hours to complete the transfer, assuming that the failing disk drive will hold up that long.
When i do get my replacement disk drive from Seagate, you can be sure i won’t be using RAID0 or JBOD for my NAS, it is going to be RAID1 from now on!
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Thecus N2100 supports IPP (Internet Printing Protocol) for some printers connected via one of its three USB ports. Initially when IPP support was made available via one of the firmware updates, i attempted to configure printing on my Powerbook but was not successful. I thought my ancient but fully functioning Lexmark Optra E310 laser was not one of the supported printers. After visiting the Thecus User Group discussion forum on Thecus N2100 compatible printers, i decided to give it another shot. This time, it works perfectly. Not only am i able to configure it in Mac OS X (10.4.8), i am able to configure it in my IBM Thinkpad running Linux as well!
To configure a supported printer connected to the Thecus N2100 in Mac OS X (10.4.8), go to System Preferences and select Print & Fax. Then click on the “+” sign to add a printer. This will bring up the Printer Setup Utility. On the toolbar, select Add and that will bring up the Printer Browser window.
Protocol: Select Internet Printing Protocol - IPP
Address: Enter a valid IP address or hostname, follow by the port number 631. For example, my Thecus N2100 has an IP address of 192.168.0.120 so i enter 192.168.0.120:631. If you have a hostname for your N2100, you can enter it as hostname:631.
Queue: Enter printers/usb-printer. Why is it called usb-printer? Thecus chose to define the default print queue as such. If you have ssh access to your N2100, you can see content of the printers.conf file:
# Printer configuration file for CUPS v1.1.23
# Written by cupsd on Tue Mar 7 20:14:41 2006
<DefaultPrinter usb-printer>
Info
Location
DeviceURI usb:/dev/usb/lp0
State Idle
Accepting Yes
JobSheets none none
QuotaPeriod 0
PageLimit 0
KLimit 0
</Printer>
Name: Enter a name for your printer.
Location: This is optional.
Print Using: Select a appropriate model for your printer.
Below is a screenshot of Printer Browser configuration screen:
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I was in Whistler this past weekend with my sis and Smelly. Prior to our visit, it had not snowed there for about 3 weeks and as expected, most of the runs were hard-packed snow. I spent all of the first day on Whistler and went to the new Symphony bowl for the first time. On the second day, i was riding up and down Blackcomb.
(camera: Sony Ericsson K608i)
(camera: Sony Ericsson K608i)
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What i saw at the 99 Ranch grocery store on January 27th. Gelatinous mutant coconut….yummy!
(camera: Sony Ericsson K608i)
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For the longest time, i have been trying to figure out a solution that allows me to watch on my TV ripped DVD movies stored on my network storage. At one point, i thought about getting a Rokulabs Photobridge HD player. But just when i was about to make the big commitment in spending some serious dough, Rokulabs withdrew the product from the market.
I bought an Xbox 360 last April. I read that Xbox 360 has the ability to play media files stored elsewhere on the network. In my few attempts to configure it, i realized that i would need a PC running Microsoft XP Media Center Edition. Xbox 360 refuses to work with anything other than a Media Center-enabled PC. The only Windows-based PC i have at home is my employer-provided IBM Thinkpad, so installing XP Media Center Edition on it is out of the question. Furthermore, i read somewhere that even with a Media Center PC, it is not easy to share ripped DVDs.
A few months ago, i got in touch with one of the visitors who left some comments on my posts about the Thecus N2100 NAS device. He brought to my attention that it is possible to use the original Xbox as a “media center” by installing the open source Xbox Media Center (XBMC). XBMC can play almost any media files imaginable and the media files can be stored elsewhere! The catch is in order to install XBMC on the Xbox, the Xbox must be modded. I thought about getting a mod chip and install it on my own but there are so many mod chips out there - i was too lazy to figure to research on one that i need.
A few weeks ago, when almost everyone in Seattle was stranded at home by the snow storm, i was looking through Seattle’s Craiglists and i noticed an ad on modding the Xbox. For $70, the guy at xboxmodmaster.com installed a DuoX 2 mod chip and slapped a ton of apps into my Xbox. I also bought a used DVD kit for the Xbox so that i can control it using my Logitech Harmony 520 remote.
I don’t care much about apps other than XBMC. XBMC works really well. I have tried ripped DVDs, WMV, AVI and Quicktime media files stored on my Thecus N2100 and it plays them with absolutely no problem. I never realized how loud my Xbox was until i started using it as my Media Center. One thing that constantly irritates the hell out of me is how loud my Xbox 360 gets. If i am playing a game like Halo 2 or Gears of War, i don’t mind the noise makes by the game disc spinning in the DVD drive. But when i am using it to watch a DVD movie or to play some media files, the fan noise is quite unbearable. I don’t understand how Microsoft can release a product that it claimed is supposed to be part of my entertainment center and yet it is by far the noisiest component of my entertainment center.
Which is why i made the decision to quiet down my Xbox. When i opened up my Xbox, i realized the noisiest components were the fan on the GPU and also the 10-GB Seagate factory drive. I followed the tutorials at xbox-scene.com to replace the heatsink/fan combo with a Zalman heatsink. Because i was concerned about the heat resulting from the removal of the GPU fan, i replaced the factory case fan with a 80-mm Vantec Stealth fan. Replacing the case fan took the most time because i had to trim down the fan and also the HDD plastic case in order to fit the 80-mm fan in the existing location. The final thing i did was to replace the extremely noisy and slow 10-GB drive. One immediate benefit of replacing the drive, in addition to the complete removal of the high-pitch whine, is a faster loading of subtitle for DIVX files.
Because Xbox’s processor runs at only 733 MHz, it is not possible to play anything with resolution higher than 480p. This limitation is really not a big deal for me because my Panasonic plasma TV can only handle up to 480p anyway. So far, i am very pleased with my modded Xbox and its upgraded capabilities.
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