- Pulling the secondary drive out of the rack takes an unusual amount of
- force. The crunchy bearings scratch on the rails as they get dragged
- forward. After struggling for a bit, Jack finally reaches the point
- where the top cover and the empty compartment for a removable platter
- are fully exposed. He undoes the thumb screws holding the assembly in
- place, then he slides it forward and lifts it out, revealing the
- circuit boards, motor, and the spindle with fixed platters beneath.
- A fine silver line along the edge in the otherwise brown coating of the
- upper-most platter shows where one of the heads had crashed –
- a deep scratch but, with a bit of luck, this might still be recoverable.
- He undoes two more thumb screws on the inside and the face plate of the
- drive comes off. Using a crank-driven flashlight
- Is that the right way to describe this? that he had found in one
- of the desk cabinets, he inspects the three platters: The one on top
- turns out to be the outlier, both of the other platters have thick
- silver-y white stripes lining their edges.
+ Jack stands bowed down in front of the half-height rack, pulling on
+ the handles of the secondary hard drive. It takes an unusual amount
+ of force to pull out. The crunchy bearings scratch on the rails as
+ they get dragged forward. He struggles for a while but, eventually,
+ he gets the drive far enough out to fully expose the top cover with
+ its compartment for a removable platter.
+ Anything in here? ... nope.
+ He undoes the thumb screws holding the assembly in place and lifts it
+ out, revealing the the spindle with fixed platters, circuit boards, and
+ the motor beneath.
+
+ He takes a close look at the upper-most platter. The brown surface
+ coating is perfectly smooth – apart from an almost invisibly fine
+ groove along its edge. Most likely the result of a crashed head but it
+ looks like it might still be salvageable. He undoes two more thumb screws
+ on the inside and the drive's front cover comes off. To get a better
+ look, he takes the lamp off the desk and places it on the floor,
+ pointing it at the drive. The light reveals an ugly surprise: The other
+ three platters on the spindle get progressively worse. The second one
+ has a deep silver groove, the one below has two grooves, and the last
+ platter has a thick, silver-y white stripe lining its edge.
Well, there goes that pipe dream.
- Jack puts the drive back together. Hopefully, he will get the manual for - the door from Annie, otherwise he'll have to dig his way out of the - bunker somehow. But enough of that for - now, Jack thinks and puts the thought aside for a while. Now, he - needs a way to entertain himself until the evening. + Jack puts the drive back together and pushes it back into the rack. + Hopefully, Annie can get him the manual for the door, otherwise + he'll have to somehow dig his way out of the bunker. + But enough of that for now, + Jack thinks and puts the thought aside for a while. Now, he needs a way + to entertain himself until the evening.
This has been moved here from chapter 1 "Wake Up". It should @@ -90,7 +97,7 @@ cron outpost dmesg.log wtmp $ cd outpost $ ls comms comms_diag event logbook -$ cat logbook > /dev/ttyS1 +$ cat logbook > /dev/lp0 $ █