wiped disk - no longer bootable

[Ralf Mardorf]

On Thu, 11 Jul 2019 12:26:55 -0400, Gene Heskett wrote:
>On Thursday 11 July 2019 11:52:12 Ralf Mardorf via ubuntu-users wrote:
>
>> On Thu, 11 Jul 2019 11:15:24 -0400, Gene Heskett wrote:  
>> >Well, me being both a retired tech, a C.E.T. and basicly a belt and
>> >suspenders type in this regard, I also will be wearing a "ground me"
>> >wrist band.  Those things are cheap enough, 2 or 3 bucks, that you
>> >should always snap it on before touching what is today, nearly 100%
>> >CMOS based circuitry. I also make heavy use of one of those $14 AC
>> >sniffers. We still have in most pre-NEC built houses, and even in
>> >stuff built 20 years post-NEC 3 pin electrical plugs that aren't
>> >properly wired by incompetent carpenters.  You can get those gizmo's
>> >from your nearest home center, electrical aisle.
>> >
>> >When I married this lady in '89, I moved into a house she'd bought
>> >in '81. Since there weren't any children to consider, I took the
>> >3rd, smaller bedroom and made it into my computer den. First thing
>> >in the next storm, blowed a modem.  Replaced it, blew it again. I
>> >took the sockets out, verified they were wired right and soldered
>> >them with a silver bearing solder, going all the way back to the
>> >service, found
>> > it wasn't properly grounded and fixed that. That was 18 years ago,
>> > and I haven't lost a single piece of gear since. I don't care if
>> > lightning hits my service pole and sends me a quarter million volt
>> > surge, but if everything is properly bonded so that everything
>> > bounces in unison, nothing will be hurt.  I've since built a wired
>> > workshed and a garage, that needed a new 200 amp service, so this
>> > house is now a subcircuit. And I still seem to be safe.  
>>
>> Old houses are an electric nightmare. I suffer from potential
>> difference between one power outlet to another. Connect a grounded
>> guitar amp to one power outlet and connect my single coil guitar with
>> grounded strings and then touch the grounded metal case of my mixing
>> console connected to another power outlet, while at the same time you
>> touch the strings and have fun.
>>  
>I don't call it fun, having yet the faint scars from electrical burns. 
>But he wasn't ready for me so I am a survivor. It did trigger one hell 
>of a case of the shingles though.
>
>What you are describing is either a difference in polarity because the 
>socket isn't wired right, possibly combined with one socket is on one 
>leg of a 240 volt feed and the other socket is on the opposite leg.
>
>You Ralf, I think, have more than enough smarts to figure out a way to 
>test and fix that. On this side of the pond, the wider slot is
>supposed to be the neutral, and pretty close to ground. And the ONLY
>place where an ohmic connection between neutral and a real, rods
>driven a couple meters or more into the ground is in the entrance
>wiring. neutrals in a distribution box should be isolated from the box
>and its static grounds to the box, with the static ground carried to
>the box by a third separated conductor.  Here I suspect, we have a
>problem yet with color blind wire pullers.
>
>The German equ to our NEC code may differ here and there but generally 
>follows the same ideas I'd expect.  Its what works.
>
>> Not to mention that when I worked for Brauner Microphones we had just
>> one isolating transformer, most of the gear was directly connected to
>> the power outlets and the RCCB was dimensioned for heavy agricultural
>> gear, since the manufactory was a farm in the first place.
>>
>> Nowadays at home, I don't own a transformer for galvanic isolation at
>> all, but at least the RCCB has got a sane value.  
>
>If the place is wired correctly, you should never need one.
>
>Cheers, Gene Heskett

German buildings build around World War II or earlier, afterwards got
concrete-footing ground electrodes and in the early days electrical
workers were men only. Men way more often suffer from dyschromatopsia
than women do ;). I'm helpless, it's impossible to get rid of all
issues, knowledge could be helpful, but there are a lot of factors
that could put obstructions in somebodies way.