Gamingforce: IT'S ALIVE

Dammit, this place just refuses to die.

I'll stick the epic recovery process in this post later. It was really rough in the first week but we never gave up. Thank you all for sticking with us!

Edit: Here's what happened.

At approximately 8:00pm CST on Jan 17, our server’s primary hard drive failed. Initially I thought it was a scheduled downtime, which indeed was announced on the forums of our host (Layeredtech). But after two hours the site still wasn't responding, so Miles put in a reboot ticket.

While we were waiting, this transpired in the mod channel. It is 100% genuine.

Quote:

[12:16:03] <@Gigablah> still no news from layeredtech eh
[12:16:22] <@RacinReaver> they :bobo:ed us
[12:17:27] <@miles> server is corrupted. They'll have to wip it and reinstall freebsd
[12:17:31] <@miles> wipe*
[12:18:55] <@Gigablah> ...
[12:19:02] <@Gigablah> i hope we have a backup
[12:19:14] <@Gigablah> can they retrieve the data?
[12:19:17] <@miles> I'm just kidding. loool
[12:19:26] <@miles> blah goes into serious mode.
[12:19:36] <@Gigablah> i'm going to fly to california and rape you
[12:19:44] <@Gigablah> with a wrench

Later we were informed by a tech that the hard drive had failed, and it was "impossible" to recover the data. All hell broke loose, etc.

Anyway, Miles did have a mid-december backup of GFF, but VGMdb wasn't so lucky (notice that I was hoping we had a backup?). In the end, seeing that Layeredtech wasn't bothered to look into the problem any further, Miles decided to just get the dead drive off them. The tech discussed it with the manager.

300 BUX

Well, they had the data, so what could we do except bend over? We coughed up the cash and Miles received the drive the week after.

This was when the VGMdb people came into the picture. I'll just link to Liontamer's VGFrequency blog post about it (FYI, Liontamer is the head submissions evaluator at Overclocked Remix and is a staff member at VGMdb). Basically, Starla of #ocremix came down from the heavens and bailed out our asses. Since she works for a major data recovery center, she had various vendor contacts, and soon she was sourcing for spare parts for Miles to use in a self-recovery attempt (some of us wanted to just send it directly to the company, which would have incurred a far higher cost -- at least a few grand.) Since the dead drive wasn't spinning up, a possible way to fix it was to transfer the logic board from another working identical model. She located one within 30 minutes!

Anyway, after another week, Miles received the working identical drive. The following is taken from Miles' post on Serious Business, which was also replicated on VGFrequency:

Originally Posted by Miles

Starla, you are fucking awesome. Everyone needs to give starla a hug. Anyways, I picked up the drive from her earlier today and after my company recognition dinner I decided to tackle the drive.



New one Starla gave me on the left and our actual 300 dollar broken server drive layeredfaggots sent me.



Let’s begin the operation. Had to use a T08 to get this sucker off.



Awww. There it is. This thing will save us a few grand.



Attached it in our broken drive and screwed it in.



Time for a quick test.

Oh you fucking liar you. Because WHAT is THIS?



Never say never you jerk. I just proved you wrong!

I won't bore you with the database restoration details, since you're looking at the result anyway. Rejoice!


A couple of notes:

• We're now with a host (ServInt) that provides regular backups, so the next hard drive crash will result in much shorter downtime.
• Miles still has a few gigs of attachments to upload so some attachments may be broken for the time being.
• If there's any database error, inform me immediately.
• Total recovery cost: $436 (thanks, Starla of #ocremix!)
• Total downtime: 29 days

Jam it back in, in the dark.

(Wow, I just literally happened to look back to the site, and was shocked that it's back this very morning!)

*GREAT* Job, I'm glad you guys pulled it off! Kudos & much congrats, I know I'd love to hear the epic story of the restoration!!

There's nowhere I can't reach.

At least it was restored! Which is more than what the previous owner was capable of

I wonder how much users we lost due to this.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

THE LIVING DEAD!

Now I can waste my vacation to plan "4chan analyzis with pix, vol. 2" entry..

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Looks like the DNS propagated fast. I changed it barely 15 minutes ago.

How ya doing, buddy?

Yay, Gamingforce is back!! *bows before the mods and Starla for making this possible* Hell of a way to start a Friday.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Good work Blah and Miles. I guess my 40 hour countdown was a bit off but hey, it's all back.

FELIPE NO

Excellent.

Time for bannings.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Hello the Gamingforce, lets have a fun and enjoy for the future!

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Yay!! Good times are here again!! Welcome back, Gamingforce!

Man, I missed this place. It's good to be able to come back again. Thanks for all your hard work: blah, miles and starla!!



There's nowhere I can't reach.

Great job at restoring this forum guys and ofcourse to Starla for making it possible.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Dahaha. I hopped on, expecting SerBiz and looked on user CP. An old thread of mine was posted in (which felt like I did right when SB came up and GFF went down). I clicked it, not thinking, and saw props/disses.

"What the... My av/sig! =o GFF is back haaaaaaay~ <3"

Edit: This is bizarre though... When I posted a reply, the tacked on response didn't load the boxes/pictures right on the left hand side:



I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Oh yes, before I completely forget:

I am making advanced nominations for the 2008 GFF Awards

Starla for Most Helpful Member
Starla for Best New Member

I was speaking idiomatically.

It popped up while I was reading journals. Good thing I read Infernal Monkey's before it switched over.

Good job Blah, Miles and Starla!

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Once again I have to thank Blah and Miles for bringing this place back, and Starla for making it happen faster. Hope my donation worked out for you guys. <3

(and why does the diss button look so bloody retarded)

FELIPE NO

Well, well. Welcome back! I watched the goings on at SB, and I would like to congratulate BigBlah, Miles and Starla on their great work. Thanks to each of you.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Finally, it's back (again)! Thank you for all the work, you had done, Bigblah, Miles and especially Starla!

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Fucking awesome. I was sorta startled when I saw more forums than I was used to.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

vbSEO is temporarily deactivated (so some links in posts may be broken) until I get the updated product XML from Miles.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

This was very unexpected as I'd gotten up early this morning to check out new posts on Serious Business and the IRC chat and then got into work and lo and behold everything old was new again.

Congrats on getting everything back up in order like it was never gone.

Also MAD props to starla for all the help.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Zergrinch

Oh yes, before I completely forget:

I am making advanced nominations for the 2008 GFF Awards

Starla for Most Helpful Member
Starla for Best New Member

Let's get through the 07 awards first. ^_^

Thanks so, so, so much guys.

I would like to knit you all something fantastic, but things that are knit are rarely fantastic. And I doubt anyone involved would want anything.

GIFTS OF LOVE IT IS, THEN. <3

I was speaking idiomatically.

Welcome back.
Thanks to Blah, Miles and Starla!

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

good jobs guys

But where is "the concert hall"? hope it's not vanished forever.

Originally Posted by ic_ic_ic

good jobs guys

But where is "the concert hall"? hope it's not vanished forever.

ok i see it now.......sorry about that

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by ic_ic_ic

But where is "the concert hall"? hope it's not vanished forever.

That would be awesome, yes?

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by ic_ic_ic

good jobs guys

But where is "the concert hall"? hope it's not vanished forever.

I told you Miles, you could have just made it "disappear" under the guise that "some things just couldn't be recovered," but nooooooooooooooooooo, you just had to be nice.

Jam it back in, in the dark.