Fix Bad Sectors on ipod hard drive

These are the symptoms:
I get a barely used iPod classic (120 Gbs). I call it “barely used” because it had been taken out of the box and plugged into a computer, but never had it been used before. So I plugged it into my computer and tried to sync it with my stuff. Every time I tried, it would fill up to about 700 songs, then fail on me to the point that itunes froze and I had to disconnect it from the computer. It also made funny noises when it got to that spot. The same would happen if I tried to fill it up with regular files on disc mode. It got to around 3Gbs then fail on me. The funny thing is that after disconnecting and reconnecting it would accept a couple more files, the fail again. I tried everything. I updated itunes, uninstalled it, and messed with the registry. I reset the ipod, rolled back to previous versions--I did a soft reset, a hard reset, a restore. I messed with the utilities, and even did a hard drive test on that white screen you can get to when resetting the ipod.

It was obvious to me that there were corrupt sectors on the hard drive. I did not know just how bad it was, but I decided to keep going. Even though the ipod was pretty much new, the warranty had expired at least a year ago. I was not about to let this go. I am going to describe exactly what I did. I am not saying that this is the best way, or the only way to go about—and trust me, if I had the money I would just buy a new one. So here is a detailed account of what I did. Perhaps, it will help someone out there with a similar problem.

The first thing that is important to note, is that the error was localized at about 3Gbs of information. This was good, because it was close to the beginning of the disc. If it had been on the TOC or another crucial area, I would have been completely done for. Before I continue, I have to make a short stop and mention something. Yes, I did the chkdsk on Windows 7, and I tried to run a few utilities that supposedly flag bad sectors on the ipod. I also tried to partition the ipod. The problem is that ipod was designed as an mp3 player and not as an external hard drive. If you somehow manage to partition your ipod, you will have problems later on when you try to use it. Also, Windows has a hard time reading and modifying the ipod, since it was pretty much created with an itunes interface in mind. So here is what I did. I created two text files (with notepad). One was about 1500 kbs (this is the big file), and the other one was 6kb (this is the small file). I copied these files, each on a different folder. I think I must have created 3000 instances of each file. After doing a restore on the ipod to erase everything, I created a folder on the ipod called “Haystack” (the name is irrelevant). Inside Haystack I started placing the files.





First I did the big ones. Every three thousand files, I created a new folder. I went from Haystack01 all the way to Haystack07 with these 1500kbs files. I did this, until I reached the point with the bad sector. You can tell you are there because the files start uploading really slow, and start marking errors. This is when you switch to the 6kb files. I would create a new folder and start uploading the 6kb files. This takes a while (see creation dates on folders).



Usually the first 20 files go through, then it stops, then it times out. It marks some strange error—source cannot be read, or something like that. Every time it marks an error, tell Windows to skip the files, create a new folder and start again. This took me several folders and lots of files. These files get corrupted, they start showing up in weird characters. Just ignore it. After doing this for a few more folders (each folder containing thousands of these tiny files), you will start noticing that the files start uploading fast and crisp again. Most probably, we’ve gone past the bad sector. This is what happened to me. After passing the bad sector, I kept uploading, the big files again, to give it a “buffer zone”, so as to not have to read these files. You lose some capacity doing this, sure, but when you have a 120 gbs ipod, a few gbs is not really significant.

I tried to sync, and sure enough, I was able to sync all my songs and videos, and had some space left over. That’s it! As long as you don’t ask the ipod to read those text files for anything, you will be fine. The ipod does not need to access these bad sectors, and the rest of the drive works perfectly.
Things to consider: Do not delete these files. These files are necessary because they are occupying the bad sector space. If you delete them, you will just go back to having the ipod trying to write on the bad sectors and quitting on you. Also, DO NOT defragment the drive. Defragmenting is basically reassigning the files to different places on the disc. You want the information to stay put. Therefore, if you defragment your drive, you will destroy all your hard work.



Well, I hope this works for you. It worked for me, and it was the only thing that worked for me. Comments are welcomed.

Don't tread on my fonts!

I've always had a deep interest for fonts and typography. I am by no means an expert, but I like to know the differences between the fonts. Some designers overlook fonts, but they are usually a very important part of any designing process. I think that any designing course should always be taken with a side of typography. What's most important is that people should know the differences between serif, sans-serif and when to use them. I have close to 500 fonts installed on my computer, and I don't use most of them by any means. I have my favorites which I find myself using over and over again. There are also a few fonts on my shit list. These are fonts that people have over used, or that are just horrible. But before I get into that, I want to talk about some common mistakes people do when using different fonts.

(1) Do not use multiple fonts in the same project.
Some people think that using many kinds of fonts on the same thing will actually make it look good. They will throw in Arial, mixed in with Times and some typewriter fonts for good measure. News flash. It doesn't look good. If you are stubborn enough to want to use several fonts in the same project, have them be the same family. Eg, you can use Times New Roman, Garamond and Trajan in one project. But never combine a sans-serif with geometric, with gothic.

(2) Do not use busy fonts for extended reading.
Some fonts are good for design, some are good for reading. People make the mistake that because they like a font like Trajan, it should be plastered in paragraphs of text. This is terrible. Arial, Verdana, Times New Roman, Antique Olive, Garamond, Georgia and all the other popular fonts, are popular for a reason—they have shown to be easy to read for extended periods.

(3) Do not use Gothic fonts when it is not appropriate
Thanks to the logo of Corona, we have people believing that this is a Latino font. No, it is not. These type of fonts are called Gothic (the most famous is called "Old English"). They are supposed to make reference to the Gothic style letter of the Saxon language. The fonts are usually very busy, and pretty. But they prove to be very useless.

(4) Do not use geometric fonts
Geometric fonts are just ugly. The easiest way to spot them is because they look like a collection of circles and sticks. This is the kind of font you were probably taught when you first started writing. If in doubt, just stick to this rule of thumb: If the letter "a" is single storey, do not use this font. Exception: books for children who are learning how to read.




(5) Use caps properly
If you use Studly caps or Caps Lock, there is a chance I might murder you in your sleep.
tHIs iS StuDleY CaPS
THIS IS CAPS LOCK

That'll do for the common mistakes people make when selecting and using their fonts. Now, on to my list. I have seven fonts that I use over and over. They have proven to be great fonts. They look good on almost everything, and they are comfortable to read.

(1) American Typewriter
This is my default font. I use it everytime I'm writing a script. Maybe it doesn't look to great when printed, but I like the feeling I get of using an old typewriter. The font usually renders very well and looks quite sharp.

(2) Garamond
When you print something, it is suggested that you use a serif font. Most people use Times New Roman, which I don't like very much. I prefer the Linotype version "Times". No, it is not the same thing. Garamond is in this family too, except that Garamond is owned by Adobe instead of Rupert Murdoch and it is so much nicer than TNR.

(3) Helvetica
Helvetica won the number one prize in the "best fonts of all times" contest. I am not kidding you. Here is the link. Helvetica is the best font when writing something that will be read off a screen. It is simple, and elegant, and versatile. Much better than Microsoft's rip off "Arial".

(4) Anime Ace
Believe it or not, this is a free font. I only use it for comic strip designs and speech bubbles. It is one of those "handwriting" fonts. Except this one is actually worth downloading and using. By the way, has anyone noticed how overused Bada-boom is nowadays?

(5) Antique Olive
Just a nice font I use when I am in the mood. That's it.

(6) Verdana
Only when I get sick of Helvetica. (Yes, it does happen). Verdana looks really great when there is no anti-aliasing, and you can read it perfectly when it has to be displayed small. If you don't believe me, try it. Photoshop text tool, no anti-alias, and small type.

(7) OCR
This font was designed for... Optical Character Recognition. Hence the name (duh!) But OCR looks great when you are trying to give it a nerdy-tech look.

That's it for the fonts I love. Now on to the fonts I think should die a slow and painful death.

(1) Comic Sans
It looks stupid. It makes you look stupid. The spacing is terrible, and it looks like a child designed it. Kill it, delete it, burn it. I don't want to see it ANYWHERE.

(2) Arial
Why use Arial when you have Helvetica?

(3) Futura
This is probably the most famous geometric font. It is bad. It is really bad. It looks terrible on anything that's printed. The worse part, is that sometimes people used the condensed-thin version of this font.

(4) Script
People that use script (anything in the script family) should not be designing—anything. It doesn't look good. Not even on your wedding invitation. For formal invitations use a classy serif font like Garamond.

(5) Block letters (IMPACT)
Block letters are a bit difficult to find. Impact is the only one that comes bundled with Windows. Please, don't use impact, especially for prolongued reading. Rule of thumb, if your text has more than six words DO NOT USE BLOCK FONTS!

So that's it for my font analysis. Unless you are a graphic designer or a complete geek like me, you will probably not read up to this point, and if you have, odds are you won't know half of what I am saying? What is condensed? What is anti-alias? What is a "storey"? Don't worry. Most people will never use this information in their lives.