In probably the 1,000,000th post that MG Siegler has written related to FOURSQUARE (not the fun game we played as kids, but the super “hip” being continually crammed down our throats mobile app/service that allows you to “check-in” to local businesses), he coves a new startup, Future Checkin, which allows you to “Check-In On Foursqaure Without Taking Your Phone Out of Your Pocket“.

The problem this startup is solving according to the article is:

Check-in fatigue in particular is a growing problem. A number of heavy users of Foursquare that I know (myself included) have been complaining in recent months that it’s getting a bit tedious to have to pull out your phone each time to check-in to a venue. Particularly venues that you frequent. Future Checkin absolutely solves that.

After reading that I don’t know where to begin. My initial reaction or solution to check-in fatigue wold be to STOP PLAYING FOURSQUARE. But I think that might be too logical. But I’m not too smart, and maybe I’m missing something. Instead I’ll follow up with while MG and gang might think that Future Checkin will be a big help for frequent users of Foursquare, Future Checkin is acutally the downfall of Foursqaure.

Why the Downfall?

It’s simple. The whole point of engaging in Foursquare is to partake in a “game.” I use the term very loosely cause I don’t see it so much a game, but if you consider anything where you get points and compete as a game then technically it’s a “game.”  Foursquare’s game mechanics are simple, you take you out your phone, open the app, tap check-in, and you gain a check-in point. Whoever has the most check-ins for a location is crowned the Mayor and has all the same privileges a real mayor has (none).

Maybe I’m just old fashioned, but part of the enjoyment of playing games is not so much the end result (getting the high score) but the process (the whole journey is the reward thing). What Future Checkin provides people is basically a way to automatically play the game without any work on the player’s part. That’s like having a program play Pacman for you. That’s not fun, that’s lame. If this is how these mobile local app/games are going to work this raises the question, why bother using stuff like Foursquare if you don’t even need to take it out of your pocket?

But maybe some people feel like the following…

Well I like playing Foursqaure since I can become the mayor of McDonald’s…so Future Check-In allows me to check-in when I forget

That’s true, but it makes the game truly irrelevant when you don’t have to do any additional work. That’s like me getting points every time I pee, take a breath of air, or scratch my butt (actually I’m kind of liking the sound of this game). I don’t have to do any work to play this game, I just do it cause I need to.

The bigger problem is that once someone starts using Future Checkin and racking up more points than another person that other person is going to install it…and then sooner or later everyone will have to install it to be competitive.  Once one person starts cheating it brings down the whole ecosystem and just makes it so everyone has to “cheat” to stay competitve.  Then we have the situation where everyone is playing a game where no one is doing anything…except installing an app on their phone.

So basically Future Checkin makes Foursquare irrelevant.

If You like Future Checkin You’ll Love These Ideas…

Maybe you don’t agree with me and that’s fine.   It doesn’t seem like Techcrunch sees it my way either. Somehow I’ll survive.  However, before I go I’ll leave you with some other awesome super brilliant app ideas that you’re guaranteed to love if you love Future Checkin:

• Future Twitter – automatically tweets and responds to tweets based on your personality – for people who have tweet fatigue
• Future Chat – automatically chats with your friends so you have more time to use Future Twitter – for people who have chat fatigue
• Future Tennis – a robot that will play tennis for you against other opponents – for people who have movement fatigue

Anyway you get the point…if it gets to the point where you aren’t involved in the process it makes me wonder why even do it in the first place?

I did have hope today when I read the headline in Techcrunch, “Why Checking Into Foursquare with Your Phone in Your Pocket Won’t Always Work,” that someone would realize this futility issue with Future Checkin. But the article was talking more of the technological constraints of this working rather than discussing the bigger question of “why bother using Foursquare if we aren’t going to be using it.”

Stay classy Techcrunch.

Disclaimer:

I’m not ragging on the developers of the app, it’s not easy to build and launch stuff. I’m just ranting on the bigger picture of what’s the point of doing something when we aren’t involved. Hopefully you see that.  If not then keep enjoying Foursquare.

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I don’t consider myself an Apple “Fanboy,” but I do happen to like quite a few Apple Products.  For me it’s not about just being blindly loyal to a company for the sake of being loyal (ie Fanboy-ish), but really just choosing to purchase products that I think are better and do what I want them to do.  In college I didn’t like Apple’s products that much.  My roommate had like a G3 iMac and was a big fan of Apple products.  He kept trying to convince me to abandon my home built PC and drink the Apple Kool-Aid.  At the time I wasn’t convinced.  A few years later though after the release of  Mac OSX and playing around with it I decided to jump ship from Windows XP (which was crashy and annoying) give Apple a chance.

It was great and to this day I still love Mac OSX.  I can work efficiently and there is good software for it (though gaming is weak).  Anyway, this long intro was just to highlight the fact that while I use Apple’s product I’m not “owned” by them.   I expect a lot if I’m dropping money on something. So with all the hype surrounding iSlate which now has been confirmed as iPad I wanted to chime in with my 2 cents (as I’m sure millions of others have already).

I know other people are exploding in their pants when they first saw the announcement.  Many people on my Facebook feed were like “I WANT IT NOW”  (in all caps).  However, my response is “Don’t I have this already?”

iPad looks just like a big iPod Touch / iPhone, but more expensive.  Sure it’s “sexy” and all that crap, but if I have a bigger device I expect it to do more things…at least do Flash and let me do some background apps.  Oh yeah, what about Skype video conferencing?  Nope…not without buying external hardware.  You can attach a keyboard to it too, but doesn’t that defeat the whole purpose of creating this “tablet” style in the first place?

For all the Fanboys go ahead and buy it right away.  My prediction is this will go the way of the Macbook Air, relatively cool, but not as popular as anticipated.  I’m holding out for another year and looking forward to some Tegra 2 enabled devices.  Have you guys seen this Nvidia pwered ICD Slate that was demoed at CES 2010?  This thing is exciting:

Why is it exciting?

• It can run a variety of operating systems since it is ARM based (Chrome, Android, Windows Mobile, etc…) so you aren’t locked in.  If you do use Android you’ll still have access to 3rd party apps
• It plays flash natively…this means Farmville, Bejeweled Blitz on your device
• It plays 1080p video without breaking a sweat…this means I can watch hulu (since it plays flash) without busting out my laptop…oh it also can output 1080p via HDMI so it’s like a VCR/DVD player you can carry around with you
• You aren’t locked into Apple and Itunes (which I hate, but that’s another story)…
• Looks like there’s a camera on that device so skype and other video conferencing is definitely possible
• It looks like and just as easy to use as iPad
• If you kept watching the video you can see it runs Unreal 3 with no problems whatsoever

To me this looks like the superior product, but unfortunately ICD can generate the amount of buzz that Apple can.  However, I don’t care I’m still holding out and in the mean time I’m sticking with my iPhone 3GA.

*** UPDATE ***

Here are two other tablets that I’m looking forward to over the “magical and revolutionary” iPad.

The Notion Ink Adam (featuring Pixel Qi screen):

And the Microsoft Courier

I don’t really Microsoft, but they’ve had some decent products (Xbox)…so I was pretty skeptical when I heard about their own tablet pc.  What I like about this is that rather than trying to be a great game device/music device it aims to be a great digital journal.  I like taking notes on real paper notepads.  I find handwriting stuff down helps the creative process and just adds more personality than just typing stuff in.  It also allows more free freedom in how you put stuff down.  Unfortunately searching through piles of notebooks gets old and while I could cut out photos from magazine or print them out on the computer and paste them into my notebook…that’s just too much work.  Depending on the price point this is something that I could definitely use.  Not only would it save me time, but it would also allow me to save paper (and ultimately the environment!).

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No one will argue the fact that the iPhone (in all its iterations) has been wildly successful.  It’s a cool, slick looking, and useful phone.  If it wasn’t for AT&T and their god awful data pricing plans, I might be tempted to buy one.   Until then I’m sticking with my trusty super smart phone…the Nokia 2610.

What’s that you never heard of the Nokia 2610?   It’s because it’s too awesome that people have overlooked it; a proverbial “diamond in the rough.”  The Nokia 2610 was a pre-paid phone offered through T-Mobile for $30.  I originally bought the phone for my mom to use on our family plan, but I liked it so much I bought one for myself to replace a questionable Motorola Slvr L7 phone I had.  Anyway, the phone is rock solid…it has the best reception (it gets reception where other phones crap out) and it has awesome battery life (over 4 hours talk).

However, it’s really a no thrills kind of phone.  Bluetooth?  Nope.  Games?  Nope (you have to pay for them) MP3 playback?  Not really.  I’ll be honest I do get a little jealous when I see other people with their iPhones.  Playing their games, looking up stuff on the internet while in the car, etc… but with a $199 price tag and then a 2 year contract at $69 a month (the lowest plan you can currently get) you are still looking at paying $1855 (and that doesn’t even include taxes).  That’s a lot of green.

So instead of getting the iPhone, I just play with my Dad’s 16gb iPod Touch (picked up a used one for him on craigslist for about $140).  No phone or 3g network, but I do get just about everything else the iPhone has and I’m not enslaved to AT&T for 2 years.

Then there was all the hoopla and hype about the new iPhone 3GS.  Once again it was thrown in my face how awesome the iPhone is.  To compensate I tried carrying both the iPod Touch and the Nokia wherever I went, but it kind of sucked having to carry 2 different devices with me wherever I went.  Just wasn’t convenient.

But then I slipped, fell, hit my head on the toilet, and when I came to I saw this… iPhone 3GA (the A is for Awesome).

That’s right.   I’ve combined both of my favorite devices into one, the iPhone 3GA.  Now I can take calls and play Tap Tap Revenge on the same “all-in-one” device.  Oh what’s that you say? You want to check movie times?  Sure just use my iPhone 3GA.  What’s that?  It’s not working?  Oh, we need a wifi signal.

Ok it’s not perfect, but it’s darn pretty close.  Best part is the price:  $30 (Nokia 2610)  + $140 (used iPod touch)  = $170 (iPhone 3GA).  And remember no ridiculous AT&T devil contracts.

Some of you may think this is a joke, but kid thee I not. I plan on using my iPhone 3GA.  I’ll report back and let you know if it truly is the Awesomest phone on the planet.

It is pretty damn sexy, the phone, not me (I need to shave).

*** UPDATE ***

Here’s a little live video of the iPhone 3ga in action:

Click here to view the embedded video.

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(This spaz comes courtesy of losers making fake Kanye West Twitter accounts) I DON’T HAVE A FUCKING TWITTER… WHY WOULD I USE TWITTER??? I ONLY BLOG 5 PERCENT OF WHAT I’M UP TO IN THE FIRST PLACE. I’M ACTUALLY SLOW DELIVERING CONTENT BECAUSE I’M TOO BUSY ACTUALLY BUSY BEING CREATIVE MOST OF THE TIME AND IF I’M NOT AND I’M JUST LAYING ON A BEACH I WOULDN’T TELL THE WORLD. EVERYTHING THAT TWITTER OFFERS I NEED LESS OF. THE PEOPLE AT TWITTER KNOW I DON’T HAVE A FUCKING TWITTER SO FOR THEM TO ALLOW SOMEONE TO POSE AS ME AND ACCUMULATE OVER A MILLION NAMES IS IRRESPONSIBLE AND DECEITFUL TO THERE FAITHFUL USERS. REPEAT… THE HEADS OF TWITTER KNEW I DIDN’T HAVE A TWITTER AND THEY HAVE TO KNOW WHICH ACCOUNTS HAVE HIGH ACTIVITY ON THEM. IT’S A FUCKING FARCE AND IT MAKES ME QUESTION WHAT OTHER SO CALLED CELEBRITY TWITTERS ARE ACTUALLY REAL OR FAKE. HEY TWITTER, TAKE THE SO CALLED KANYE WEST TWITTER DOWN NOW …. WHY? … BECAUSE MY CAPS LOCK KEY IS LOUD!!!!!!!!!

My hat goes off to you Kanye.  Even though I don’t even register in your world.  I tip my hat off to you.  You are absolutely right…you don’t have time to Twitter because you are too busy being creative.  Kudos.

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1. Twitter Is For Dummies I was amazed to find that there was a Twitter...

I’ve included the actual screen shot from my logs to illustrate and prove that people are actually search this stuff.  As a note the first number is the ip address from the visitor, the second column is the date they visited, the third column is the page they landed on (if it is just a “/” that means they ended up on the home page, benjitao.com), and the final column is what they actually search to end up there.

Hannah Montana in bikini

Let the record show that I am in no way a fan of Hannah Montana or Miley Cyrus.  I actually can’t stand her, which is why I was so surprised that people ended up at my blog by searching for her in a bikini.  This means if you came here looking for the “hot” Hannah Montana sporting a bikini, you’ve come to the wrong place.

Things that look like penises

This one I understand cause I did a post on chocolates shaped like penises.  However, I was more curious why this person was looking this up in the first place?  Was it for some kind of school art project?

How could you be so horny

When I saw people searching for “how could you be so horny” I was thrilled.   This was vindication for me and proof that I was not taking crazy pills in thinking that Kanye West is singing “how could you be so horny?” in his hit song “Heartless” (apparently the correct lyrics are “How could you be so heartless?”) as well as proof other people mishear lyrics just like me.

Broken Penis – Oprah

This one is my all time favorite in terms of wackiness and randomness.   It’s twisted in so many ways when you think about why a person would even search a string like “Broken Penis – Oprah.”  Was he trying to find an article about how Oprah broke some guy’s penis?  Was “Broken Penis” some book this person had her about on Oprah?  Does this person think Oprah is/was a man had has a “Broken Penis?”  The possibilities are endless.

***UPDATE***

I googled it and apparently Oprah had some Doctor answer the question if men could get a broken penis.  So that makes more sense now, but I still want to know how that guy ended up at my website…

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I decided to take it upon myself to list out the All Time Top 20 iPhone Paid Applications.  I wanted to capture not just the name, but any additional information that sheds some light on theses applications.  In addition I wanted to add some other metrics (like the number of comments or reviews) to see just how popular these applications are…and make random guesses as to how much money they actually made.   I actually accomplish this amazing feat of revenue calculation by assuming that only 5% of the people who buy a game actually go online and rate the application (via the 5 star rating system).  Where did I get 5%?  It just sounded nice.   So take my numbers with a grain of salt, but it’s better than the information that’s currently out there… which is NOTHING.  Away we go!!!!!!

Here is some summary information about the Top 20 Paid Applications of all time:

• 14 Apps are Games, 4 Apps are Entertainment, and 2 Apps are Music…and that’s it (no education, no utilities, etc…)
• 5 Apps were all launched in July 2008
• 3 Apps were launched in 2009 (Pocket God, Fieldrunners, iFart)
• 5 Apps are pre-existing brands (Crash Bandicoot, Bejeweled 2, Tetris, Super Monkey Ball, and MONOPOLY)
• 4 Apps are Racing Games (Crash Bandicoot, Super Monkey Ball, Moto Racer, Cro-Mag Rally)
• 3 Companies have 2 Apps in the Top 20:  Electronic Arts (Tetris & MONOPOLY), Pangea Software (Enigmo & Cro-Mag Rally), Freeverse (Moto Chaser & Flick Fishing)
• Least Estimated Revenue: $135,848 (Flick Fishing)
• Most Estimated Revenue: $1,184,223 (Super Monkey Ball)

1.  Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D

Publisher: Vivendi Games Mobile

Category: Games

Released: July 9, 2008

Number of Ratings: 9305

Current Price: $5.99

Estimated Revenue: $1,114,739

Their App Summary: The richest 3D kart racing experience!  Speed your way through 12 thrilling tracks and multiple environments!  Race and battle against zany opponents and turn them to dust with devastating weapons.  Tilt and twist your iPhone for truly “Nitro” driving sensations.

My App Summary: It’s a race game with Crash Bandicoot

2.  Koi Pond

Publisher: The Blimp Pilots

Category: Entertainment

Released: July 25, 2008

Number of Ratings: 11022

Current Price: $0.99

Estimated Revenue: $218,236

Their App Summary: Clear your mind.  Imagine gazing into a pond of crystal clear water.  Picture bright, playful koi swimming through its shallow depths…

My App Summary: Play with virtual fish in a virtual pond

3.  Enigmo

Publisher: Pangea Software, Inc

Category: Games

Released: October 21, 2008

Number of Ratings: 13421

Current Price: $3.99

Estimated Revenue: $1,070,996

Their App Summary: Enigmo is a 3D puzzle game where you direct animated streams of flowing liquid so that the droplets get to their destination…

My App Summary: Play with water like you wish you could and not have to clean up any messes

4.  Bejeweled 2

Publisher: PopCap Games, Inc

Category: Games

Released: August 19, 2008

Number of Ratings: 4017

Current Price: $2.99

Estimated Revenue: $240,217

Their App Summary: Sit back, relax and marvel at the fun you’ll have when you swap adjacent gems to match three or more sparkling jewels…

My App Summary: Match jewels get points.

5.  iBeer

Publisher: Hottrix

Category: Entertainment

Released: June 29, 2008

Number of Ratings: 11608

Current Price: $1.99

Estimated Revenue: $461,998

Their App Summary: Brew and drink beer on your iPhone and iPod touch.  This hilarious visual gag is fully interacive and behaves like a real glass of beer…

My App Summary: Virtually drink a virtual beer and still be thirsty.

6.  Moto Chaser

Publisher: Freeverse, Inc.

Category: Games

Released: July 4, 2008

Number of Ratings: 11142

Current Price: $0.99

Estimated Revenue: $220,612

Their App Summary: Moto Chaser is an all-out pedal to the metal motorcycle race in the palm of your hand!  With turns, jumps, and evil bikers lurking just around the bend

My App Summary: Motorcycle racing with “evil” bikers.

7.  PocketGuitar

Publisher: Shinya Kasatani

Category: Music

Released: December 17, 2008

Number of Ratings: 11304

Current Price: $0.99

Estimated Revenue: $223,819

Their App Summary: PocketGuitar turns your iPhone or iPod touch into a virtual guitar.  You can press and strum strings, just like a real guitar.

My App Summary: Virtual iPhone Guitar

8.  Flick Fishing

Publisher: Freeverse, Inc.

Category: Games

Released: November 6, 2008

Number of Ratings: 6861

Current Price: $0.99

Estimated Revenue: $135,848

Their App Summary: Fully animated “living” environments combine with intuitive real-life controls to create the best fishing game available for any mobile device!

My App Summary: Fishing on the iPhone.

9.  Tetris

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Category: Games

Released: July 9, 2008

Number of Ratings: 3438

Current Price: $4.99

Estimated Revenue: $343,112

Their App Summary: See why millions of players have made Tetris the best selling mobile game in the US.  Take Tetris for a spin on your iPhone,…

My App Summary: It’s Tetris on iPhone.

10.  Texas Hold’em

Publisher: Apple Inc

Category: Games

Released: July 7, 2008

Number of Ratings: 5575

Current Price: $4.99

Estimated Revenue: $556,385

Their App Summary: Play like a pro against realistic opponents or with your friends over a wi-fi network.

My App Summary: Texas Hold’em on iPhone.

11.  Super Monkey Ball

Publisher: SEGA

Category: Games

Released: November 22, 2008

Number of Ratings: 9885

Current Price: $5.99

Estimated Revenue: $1,184,223

Their App Summary: Let’s roll!  Guide a cute little monkey encased in a transparent ball to victory by tilting and rolling him through a variety of slopes and turns.

My App Summary: Guide a moving ball through a maze.

12.  Pocket God

Publisher: Bolt Creative

Category: Entertainment

Released: March 23, 2009

Number of Ratings: 24421

Current Price: $0.99

Estimated Revenue: $483,536

Their App Summary: What kind of god would you be?  Benevolent or vengeful?  Play Pocket God and discover the answer within yourself…

My App Summary: Mess around with virtual characters on an island.

13.  Cro-Mag Rally

Publisher: Pangea Software, Inc

Category: Games

Released: August 24, 2008

Number of Ratings: 7556

Current Price: $1.99

Estimated Revenue: $300,729

Their App Summary: Cro-Mag Rally is the wildest racing 3D game since man invented the wheel!  You are a speed-hungry caveman named Brog who races through the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages in primitive vehicles and primitive weapons.

My App Summary: Flintstones racing game.

14.  Ocarina

Publisher: Smule

Category: Music

Released: November 6, 2008

Number of Ratings: 8555

Current Price: $0.99

Estimated Revenue: $169,389

Their App Summary: Sensitive to your breath, touch and movements, Ocarina is more versatile than an actual flute…without any musical training you will be playing your favorites in no time…

My App Summary: Become an iPhone flutist.

15.  Fieldrunners

Publisher: Subatomic Studios, LLC

Category: Games

Released: March 13, 2009

Number of Ratings: 14633

Current Price: $2.99 (on sale normal $)4.99

Estimated Revenue: $875,053

Their App Summary: Defend and control the field using a diverse selection of upgradeable towers in a limitless adventure, using a wide array of tactics and strategies against countless waves of unique land and air combatants!

My App Summary: Tower Defense game with army guys.

16.  iFart Mobile

Publisher: InfoMedia, Inc.

Category: Entertainment

Released: January 6, 2009

Number of Ratings: 9104

Current Price: $0.99

Estimated Revenue: $180,259

Their App Summary: iFart Mobile is the ORIGINAL Digital Sound Machine and entertainment system which brings endless laughs and enjoyment to its users.  But iFart is much more than that.  iFart has more utility, usefulness, and functionality than many other iPhone apps out there…

My App Summary: Make farting noises with your iPhone.

17.  Touchgrind

Publisher: Illusion Labs

Category: Games

Released: November 21, 2008

Number of Ratings: 10560

Current Price: $4.99

Estimated Revenue: $1,053,888

Their App Summary: Skate like a pro in this first real multi-touch skateboarding game ever.

My App Summary: Skateboard with your fingers.

18.  iHunt

Publisher: JOHN MOFFETT

Category: Games

Released: November 17, 2008

Number of Ratings: 10520

Current Price: $0.99

Estimated Revenue: $208,296

Their App Summary: Get the deer in your sights… hold… steady… Fire!.

My App Summary: Slaughter animals with a gun.

19.  iShoot

Publisher: Ethan Nicholas

Category: Games

Released: October 19, 2008

Number of Ratings: 7997

Current Price: $1.99

Estimated Revenue: $318,281

Their App Summary: Battle your friends or the computer as you compete to be the last take standing in this new take on the classic artillery game genre.

My App Summary: Scorched Earth on iPhone.

20.  MONOPOLY Here & Now: The World Edition

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Category: Games

Released: December 3, 2008

Number of Ratings: 5407

Current Price: $4.99

Estimated Revenue: $539,619

Their App Summary: Go Global with MONOPOLY Here & Now: The World Edition on your iPhone.  Why buy Baltic when you can own Istanbul.

My App Summary: It’s MONOPOLY.

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So those in the tech nerd/geek world probably know who Robert Scoble is.  He’s a semi-famous blogger/vlogger who talks about technology and software stuff.  His most recent gig is hosting a show and an article through Fast Comapny Magazine called Scoble on Tech.  His blog is Scobleizer.

Anyway, I’ve seen his picture around and if you got to Scobleizer you’ll see this picture of him pointing at something.  What the in the world is he pointing at?

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I chatted with Jason online this morning around 9.  I wanted to paste some of the stuff he told me, but I didn’t save the chat   In a nutshell, there was nothing more that he could do.  The files I sent him to take a look at upon further inspection by him revealed that there was nothing he could do to rebuild it.  Of course this wasn’t the news I wanted to hear, but I was very grateful has spent the time he did and at least made me feel I had tried most of the options that I could.  So overall my experience with Disk Warrior and their staff has been very positive.

In parting he did give me some other avenues to examine.  One was a physical data recovery company called DriveSavers.  This of course meant mucho dinero.  The other was to try another program called Data Rescue to see if I could just grab any data off the hard drive.  Data Rescue has great demo mode where they allow you to download the software program for free to scan your hard drive for data.   The limitation comes in when you want to transfer a recovered file larger than 5mb you have to buy and register the product.  I figured this was worth a shot.  This way at least I could try seeing if I could recover any data before shelling out another hundred dollars.  This was my last hope.

Install was fine and things started out smoothly.  The first thing I did was I attempted to do a “thorough scan” of the hard drive.  This is where it would go through the hard drive scanning files and data that could be collected…It was kind of cool how they gave you an estimated of how long it would take to finish.  Here’s the initial screenshot of the program as it ran:

Things were looking good!  At least it was scanning and reading the hard drive.  I wouldn’t mind waiting 33 hours if that meant I could recover some of my data.  Since things were working so far I decided to let it work its magic.  A little later when I checked back on the progress, I got a little shock.  The estimate had gone up a little.

Uh oh, from 33 hours to 1077 hours.  I read through some forum postings online and they said that this was natural as the program itself slows down as it hits bad sections of the hard drive.  Ok.  I can live with that.  So I let it go back to chugging away.  A few hours later I noticed that it had been stuck on one section for a long time and no longer was there a time estimate as to how much longer I would have to wait.It sat there for hours upon hours.  I was praying it was still doing its secret voodoo hard drive magic, but apparently, hard drive block “81822720″ was too erroneous for the program.  After much internal debate I decided to throw in the towel and stope the program.  I tried stopping it through the program itself by clicking “stop”.  However, it wouldn’t quit.  So I had no choice but to force quit.  I did notice as I was trying to scan that if you stop early you can choose to recover the files that it had processed so far.  I didn’t realized what that meant, but later I would come back to this observation.

I was running out of options.  Apple Disk Utility, Disk Warrior, and Data Rescue II had all failed me.  I decided I had better start getting comfortable with the fact that my data was gone.  I decided just for shits and giggles I would contact the guys at drive savers.  Just to see if they were cheaper than the other drive recovery company I had contacted when this disaster first struck.

On the phone I talked with a jolly fellow named Ryan.  He was very friendly and professional.  He sounded a lot more knowledgable than the woman I spoke with at the OC Drive Recovery Company (I don’t remember their exact name).  At least he asked me more questions.  They have an interesting policy where if you send in the drive and they can’t get any data off of it then you don’t have to pay them anything.  But if they do recover data than you have to pay anywhere from $1400 – $1800.  He sent me a quote of some of their services and I’ve attached a portion of it underneath.

Once again this was too rich for my blood.  So I thanked him and went off on my merry no data way.  Later as I was pondering my crappy no data existence I finally had an intelligent thought.  Why don’t I try Data Rescue again, but then stop it before it gets to the point where it hangs?  This way, even if I don’t scan the whole drive, I’ll be able to recover some files rather than none.  It made a lot of sense to me so I sprung into action.  One little snag, however, I had unplugged the hard drive from the dock I was using and when I plugged it back in none of the data recover disk fixer programs recognized it.  It was like it didn’t exist.  I think it was Ryan from Disk Savers was saying that normally when hard drives physically fail they get worse the more you use them.  This was not cool since I had just had my stroke of brilliance.  I kept docking and undocking the drive hoping that it would finally show up.  After 10 minutes of attempts (and even pointing a fan at it) it finally recognized the drive.

I proceeded as how I had thought of doing it.  Actually,  I had to run out to a meeting so I had my mom help in my absence.  She  put a piece of tape on the progress bar to indicate when she should click stop.  Luckily, I had the screen shots from before to compare and give us an idea of when things start going bad.  When I got back from my meeting things were still processing.  The following day I opened the folder with the rescued documents.  What I was expecting was a lot different than what I saw.  Instead of files with the file names I had named them with.  Everything was organized by file type.  Rescue Data must organize the files according to the file names it knows (like office excel, html, powerpoint, etc…), but I wasn’t quite sure what it does with other application extensions.

So the good news is that I was able to recover some files off the bad disk, but the bad news is that I have no clue what they or their original application extensions (for the files that Data Rescue didn’t understand).  At least for the document files like word and excel I can go through them and rename them (which will take some time), but for the Apple programs like Pages, Keynote, or Omni Outliner, I’m not if any those files are around anymore.  But hey better to get something than nothing right?

The timing was pretty good, because a few days later I tried scanning the drive again, but it wouldn’t work no matter what I tried.  The drive was pretty fried.  The moral and lessons of this story are:

1. Hard drive data recovery is a lucrative business
2. There are good programs out there that can help you recover files
3. Don’t give up too fast
4. I’m an idiot for not backing up when I should have

Hopefully, this doesn’t happen to you.  I know I’ve learned my lesson.  Maybe in a future post I’ll write about my new backup setup I have now.  What’s the saying about mistakes?  Is it “Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me.”

**** UPDATE 3/5/2010 ****

It’s been well over a year since my failed Macbook hard drive debacle.   It was a really crappy experience to go through, but at least I learned my lesson (again) to always back up.  However, besides the lesson I learned I do feel somewhat vindicated (or at least happier) by the fact that well over 3 years Apple has finally admitted that there was something wrong on their part that was causing hard drives to crash like no tomorrow.  Officially this is what Apple has fessed up to…

Apple has determined that a very small percentage of hard drives that were used in MacBook systems, sold between approximately May 2006 and December 2007, may fail under certain conditions.

If your MacBook was purchased in the date range listed above and shows a flashing question mark on the screen, please take it to Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider and they will examine the hard drive to confirm if it is eligible for a replacement, free of charge, under this program.

As chance would have it my Macbook fell under that “small percentage of hard drives” that failed.  Lucky me.  Anyway, even though it’s a year late and many dollars short I found my broken hard drive (luckily I didn’t throw it away) and had it replaced.  So while all the data I lost is still gone at least I have a new hard drive.  I’m thinking I’m going to turn it into an external hard drive.   Guess it’s better than nothing.  I slightly tip my hat to you Apple…but only slightly.

Read the full Apple announcement

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torx screwdriver needed for macbook hd caddy

Yesterday I left off where I had just bought a new hard drive and an enclosure for the old hard drive (to see if I could salvage any of the old data).  I was able to get the new hard drive working in the computer, which confirmed that the hard drive was the problem.  As an FYI to anyone replacing a Macbook hard drive the hard drive caddy uses a Torx T-8 screw driver.  I found this out AFTER I got home after buying the hard drive I realized I couldn’t put it in until I bought one of these suckers.  At first I didn’t even know the name of the pattern, but now I know any star-shaped pattern on a screw is known as “Torx.”  Once again google came to the rescue.  I called Radio Shack to see if they sold it, but the guy on the phone said “no,”  though he sounded confused when I asked (probably because he didn’t know) … So I went to Home Depot and bought a Torx precision kit for 5 bucks.

Installing the hard drive was straightforward.  I have to give Apple credit for making the swap easy (however, I don’t know if the Torx choice was a good choice).  Anyway, after getting the drive and new OS installed I turned my attention to trying to get the data off the old drive.

HD Dock

I hooked up my old drive to a Thermaltake Black Widow hard drive dock I bought from Best Buy.  It’s pretty handy for plugging in hard drives without the hassle and fuss of a regular enclosure where you have to unscrew and screw things back together.  With this dock you just plug it in like you would an iPod.  I plugged it in and fired up the only disk utility I knew of, Disk Utility.  When I first plugged in the hard drive I got an error message which said the drive isn’t readable (not a good sign).  But, luckily, when I ran Disk Utility the drive showed up.  I clicked the repair disk option and it started doing it’s repair magic.  While it was doing this it was making some god afwul noises–clicking, screetching, beeping.  Good sign, right??  Unfortunately, things went downhill from there…I got an error message which said it couldn’t fix it.  Hmmm…what to do now?

Disk Utility...How could you fail me??

Back to google.  Since things weren’t looking good I decided to look into data recovery companies.  I have heard these companies were expensive, but I wasn’t sure how much exactly.  I looked for a Southern California based company and found one called OC Data Recovery.  According to their website they’ve been in the business since 1999, which means they got to be good…  I called them to just get an idea of prices.  Turns out the minium price is anywhere from $1000 to $1500, but could be even more depending on how severe the problem.  I don’t have that kind of money so I politely declined.  Back to the drawing board.

I then decided to look into other programs that can do data recovery and that’s when I came across a software program called Disk Warrior.   I read their reviews on Amazon and Macworld and it was really positive.  Macworld’s conclusion “Time-honored disk maintenance and repair tool stays essential.”  I decided to give them a try.  I went to their website and purchased the software for a hundred bucks.  I figured it was worth a shot since I was running out of other doors to try.  The purchase, download, and install were straight forward.  The moment of truth had arrive…woudn’t it be able to fix my ailing hard drive.  I ran the program and it looked like it was running, but midway this showed up:

Nuts!  Things were looking hopeless.  On a whim I sent them an email yesterday like the error message told me to do.  This morning when I checked my email I didn’t get a reply.  I decided to call them instead.  I got a voicemail box and left a voice message thinking it was a lost cause.  To my surprise the called me a few hours later.  Jason actually called me and told me to do some extra things… like send him my console and system logs, put in some extra secret codes they have installed in the program, etc..  He started helping me through iChat and we left off with him saying that he might need to rebuild the journal for the hard drive by hand since the Apple Disk Utility might have screwed it up.  I’m not a hundred percent sure what that means, but it means some glimmer of hope.  We’re going to reconnect tomorrow and see if it can work.  My fingers are crossed.

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After it didn’t boot up I started to get worried.  One I had a feeling that my hard drive might be the problem, and two, I hadn’t backed up my data recently.  Then in my mind I was getting pissed at myself because just last month I had bought an external hard drive with the purpose of backing up all my data.  Then even more pissed because I had made a mental note to back up data on my “this week’s to do” list.  But in the midst of all my piss-offtness I figured it would be more productive to figure out what is wrong and see if I could get my computer working again.

This is actually the second time something like this has happened to a Mac product of mine.  My previous mac, a Powerbook g4 15in, had a hard drive failure (which I haven’t replaced) where when I would turn it on it would go to the Apple logo in the beginning and the underneath it would be this swirly thing indicating that things are loading.  However, it would just hang there indefinitely.  At the time that it happened I gave up on trying to fix it and instead bought a used MacBook that I have now.   I needed to upgrade anyway.

Fast forward to right now.  So I knew something might be wrong with the hard drive so I started researching.   Luckily, I had my dad’s computer handy. The two potential culprits I came across were a heat sink problem that caused MacBooks to shut down randomly and the boot up issue I had previously with my Powerbook.   If you just google “MacBook won’t boot”  you’ll get all kinds of results about al the problems MacBooks have.  However, I couldn’t find my exact problem.  So then I googled “Macbook won’t boot no logo”.  I had to sift through some stuff, but eventually came across a forum posting describing the exact problem I was having.  One way someone had suggested testing the problem was to remove the hard drive and see if it boots with a “blinking folder” icon.  If it shows that when the hard drive is out then it probably means the hard drive is broken.  The guy who initially posted the problem said he tried it and the folder showed up and when he replaced the computer with a new hard drive it worked again.  I took out the hard drive (following the pdf directions I found here) and booted it up again, and sure enough that blinking folder came up on my screen.  Hard drive is busted.

Today I bought a new hard drive and I’m seeing if I can get my computer working again…keep you posted…

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