Month in review - December
December is always a bit of a hectic month with holiday gatherings and wrapping up tasks at work before the New Year break. Although I didn't get around to writing a post for this month, I do have quite a few topics to briefly share in this month-in-review post.
- Wrote a post for the Mercari Engineering Blog
- Bought a washer and dryer machine
- Tried resurrecting a problematic hard drive
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Wrote a post for the Mercari Engineering Blog
As part of the annual Advent Calendar series of posts on the Mercari Engineering Blog, I wrote about personal knowledge management (PKM):
Let me know what you think!
Bought a washer and dryer machine
Hang clothes outside or inside to dry is pretty common Japan. But sometimes, we need to wait a full day (or two!) for clothing like jeans and hooded sweatshirts to completely dry.
After researching machines and confirming that one would fit, my wife and I decided to buy a Panasonic NA-LX127BL-W (Japanese). This front-loading, drum-type machine uses a heat-pump system for drying, which dries clothes pretty darn quick. The machine has a smartphone function that is convenient for:
- Scheduling a washing and drying cycle.
- Checking the soap and softener tanks.
- Confirming details about errors that occur during a washing cycle.
Panasonic NA-LX127BL-W washer and dryer machine after installation
Overall, we're very happy with the Panasonic NA-LX127BL-W washer and dryer machine. We've reduced how much time we spend hanging clothes out to dry and saved a lot of time waiting for those clothes to dry. Our clothes also smell much more pleasant and feel a lot softer!
Tried resurrecting a problematic hard drive
A friend told me that his computer refused to recognize his external hard drive. On top of that, the hard drive made a clicking sound. I offered to troubleshoot the issue on my computer.
I tried the following methods to salvage the problematic hard drive:
| Method | Result |
|---|---|
| Plugged the hard drive into my desktop and then my laptop | No change. Both computers exhibited the same behavior of briefly showing a connection to the hard drive but neither were able to show the contents of the hard drive. After a while, both computers were eventually unable to connect to the hard drive, which caused an endless loop of the computer trying to install the device driver. |
| Uninstalled the driver when Device Manager finds the device, then restarted my computer | No change. The drive still didn't appear in the list of available drives. |
| Installed WD Drive Utilities to see if the hard drive appeared in the utilities software | The drive does appear in this tool even after restarting the computer and unplugging and plugging in the device again. |
| Followed the steps in How to Shuck a WD Elements External Hard Drive to open the external casing of the hard drive to check if there were any loose parts | Nothing seemed loose. I made sure all the connectors were fully connected, but the drive still didn't appear in the list of available drives. Unfortunately, I lack the tools to open the disk enclosure and inspect the issue further. |
| Followed the steps in How to Shuck a WD Elements External Hard Drive to cover the 3.3V pin with tape. | Covering the 3.3V pin with tape didn't work. The drive still didn't appear in the list of available drives. |
Friend's disassembled Western Digital Elements external hard drive
Unfortunately, I was out of ideas to resolve the connection to the faulty hard drive. At this point, the only way to copy the data on the hard drive is to contact a professional who could remove the disk from its enclosure and further troubleshoot the issue.