I Am #AliveAndThriving Today! || #IAmAliveChallenge || Daily Off-Grid Jungle Journal Entry: Day #949 - A Technological Conundrum and Possible Upgrade - GaiaYoga Gardens, Lower Puna, Far East Big Island, Hawai'i - Monday, March 3, 2025

I live naked and barefooted, very close to Earth and Nature, in an 18-acre, off-grid, clothing-optional, food-forest intentional community (GaiaYoga Gardens), way out in the jungles of Lower Puna, far East Big Island, Hawai'i, and I have for more than 5 years now. Although there are many challenges, I love my life, and I'm immensely grateful to live where and how I do, on my own terms! I would not want to live any other way! 😁🙏💚⚡💥🔥✴️✳️❇️👣🌱✨🤙

Warm greetings all! 😁🙏💚✨🤙

I mentioned in my previous post that I had received my new laptop, to replace the one that died recently, but that the one that was sent is not compatible with hard drives (HDDs), only with solid-state drives (SSDs), which with my present setup doesn't work at all. The reason for this is that I have a system that I created a while ago that works with one hard-drive cloner, and 6 hard disks (3 disks, each with a different Arch Linux installation, and their 3 backup disks), that I've used successfully for many years now. I periodically swap between the three Arch Linux installations on my laptop, and when notable or important changes are made, I clone the original disk to its backup disk. When the primary disks eventually fail, the backup becomes the primary disk, and a new disk takes the place of backup disk (that just became a primary). Using this methodology, my three Arch Linux installations, which were all first installed over 6 years ago, have outlived many hard drive, and multiple computers.

The problem that I've been encountering with increasing frequency, each time that I attempt to buy a new laptop, is that it is becoming progressively more challenging to find laptops that are compatible with hard drives, and that also meet my other hardware requirements. Because of this, and because the new laptop is excellent in every other way, this morning I had the idea that perhaps it's time to upgrade my swapping-and-cloning system, to move from HDDs to SSDs. So I've been spending some time exploring and searching for good SSD cloners and the best types of SSDs, as well as getting an idea of how much this system upgrade is going to cost me, especially since I just spent quite a lot on the new laptop.

I'm really not crazy about having to spend at least a few hundred dollars more to upgrade my backup system to make it functional again, but since I do have a new laptop that is ideal in every other way, I think I may just have to bite the bullet, as the saying goes, and go through with it. I'd buy a versatile SSD cloner first, that is compatible with multiple SSD formats, and then as resources permit, to buy the SSDs over time, until all HDDs have been replaced.

Presently I have two 1TB SSDs, one from my laptop that just died, that I used to transfer files between my Arch Linux installations, and one from the new laptop that just arrived, so if I'm able to clone at least one of my Arch installs to one SSD, and then clone that one to the other SSD, I could at least boot up the new computer and get things rolling again. I'd just have to wait until I'm able to buy more SSDs to get my other two Arch installs bootable again. That's a start.

To be able to clone one of my Arch disks to one of the SSDs, I'll use my hard-cloner connected to my new laptop, booted using an Unbuntu live environment, with the target SSD in the laptop, then I'll likely use Gparted to do the cloning. The process would take several hours to complete, but afterwards I'd be able to boot Arch on this beautiful machine. Then, with both SSDs installed in the laptop, I'd simply clone one to the other using the same method. I'm pretty sure that this is what I'm going to do, but I'll have more clarity later today, when I take a closer look at the exact types of SSDs and SSD ports with which I'm working. Fingers crossed!

Yesterday, Monday, I left the Flow House, after wrapping up my Hive tasks, a little before 2:30PM, focusing, as I almost always do, on some photography for these posts first. With that done, I got my machete and collected a wheelbarrow full of assorted edible foliage for cow-milking food, and then after a shower and a quick asset-management break up at the Flow House, I spent some time wrestling with Amazon and the laptop seller, to see about getting the laptop that they sent replaced with one compatible with hard drives. Given everything that I expressed above, it's looking more and more unlikely that I'm going to try to return the laptop. Once I went as far as I could, I stopped by the Landing to collect my jar of leftover superfood fire coffee from the fridge, then I made my way back to the Flow House, to get into my evening Hive tasks, and to catch up on my notifications. Braja lent me a backup computer, so that I could see if I'd be able to use it in the meantime, until the new laptop could be replaced. Unfortunately that computer also only had SSD slots, so I wasn't successful in the endeavor. I had to pause on Hive for a while to go attend the Monday logistics meeting, which ended about 7:30PM, after which I returned to the Flow House to continue with Hive. I wasn't able to get fully caught up, but I did come very close at least. I made myself stop about 12:30AM, and after some asset management, and a quick scan of my X feed, I went to bed later than intended, around 1AM. I woke up just before 7:30AM, after having thankfully slept well, doing more asset management, starting in this post, and then getting out of bed to go make my superfood fire coffee in the Landing, before returning to the Flow House to write this post. It's now just before 12PM, so an excellent time to end this post, so that I may get to my few other important Hive tasks, before leaving the Flow House a little later in the afternoon, to first give my attention to photography for these posts, and then community/land work. I deeply appreciate y'all so very much! Until the next incarnation of this post tomorrow! Always forward, onward, upward, and whaleward, ho, together we go! 😁 🙏 💚 ✨ 🤙

2025 Life Goals

1.) Do regular integral practices again, alone or with others.

2.) Prepare regular batches of my medicinal teas collected from the land again.

3.) Make my plant nursery, and the gardens, beautiful again.

4.) Begin learning relevant coding/programming languages to more fully contribute to the sovereignty-driven technologies where I am active, like Arch Linux, Hive, Qortal, DeSo, and Bastyon.

All photos were taken with my Motorola G Play 2024 Android Phone.

Thank you all so much who have helped me get to where I am today, and allowing me to share more of the beauty and magic from my life and my world with you, and for your continuous appreciation and support! I am truly deeply grateful! 😁🙏💚✨🤙

If you'd like to find me on other alternative platforms where I have accounts (I spend most of my time here on Hive), click on this signature image below to go to my LinkTree page.

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Signature image created by @doze, and the dividers made by @thepeakstudio, with all tweaked to their present form by me.