Computers. Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em.

[AndyP]

I've just spent bits and pieces of last week and nearly all of yesterday trying to get my computer going again.

Last week I downloaded a whole bunch of updates for Windows, and when I restarted after installing, Windows wouldn't start up again.

So after trying to solve the problem for a few nights (printing possible solution sheets from work and taking them home), I gave up, and decided to format the drive that Windows was on. First I had to back up as much as possible onto a friend's drive, having to pick through what was important, and what wasn't, as I couldn't back up everything.

Now Windows has been reinstalled, I am going through the process of installing all of the programs that I need again, which also means I've had to chase down some of the programs from the web.

Fun! Fun!

Anyone else had some home PC adventures like this recently?

[Jarro]

nope.

mine runs fine :mrgreen:

[connico]

AndyP once you get your computer setup nicely you need to do two things..

You need to make a partition on your hard drive, i mean you need to split your hdd and store files and items that you want to keep in an event of a system failure on one part of your hdd...

You then need to make an image, a ghost as we nerds call it of your system partition and store it on a dvd or a cd somewhere, make sure you have all files and folders installed on it and in an event of an emergency you can restore this ghost to your partition and you are all merry again... update you ghost occassionally but...maybe every 3-6 months...

Such programs that can do these things include aronis, and norton ghost...

Partitian magic will split your already formatted HDD and stella which is free i think can recover most things you have lost from your format.

[Moe Norman]

what connico said, and yes its hapened to me several times until I became vigilant in the above.

[Courty]

Anyone else had some home PC adventures like this recently?

Nope. I use a Mac. :twisted:

Fishy will back me up on this one. ;)

[AndyP]

Thanks, but my hard drive was already partitioned so I didn't lose my important data such as photos and videos. Just lost Windows and settings, and my installs which have pretty much been reinstalled now.
I'll look into the Ghosting.

I was more after some other disaster stories.

I see Courty is in the thread now. I expect some comment about Apple.
(edit: he beat me)

[connico]

if you want a disaster stories..

i was working at the dept of health and we had a server room, because of a power spike the air con turnd off and all of our servers in the server rooms died, like we are talking melted the heat that 50 rack mounted servers generates its stupid, we had to replace almost 1.2 million dollars worth of equipment....lucky it was time to replace 1/2 of them....cooling is important

[Courty]

I was more after some other disaster stories.


I have had a few of those experiences from when I used Windoze. :smt085


I see Courty is in the thread now. I expect some comment about Apple.
(edit: he beat me)

:mrgreen:

[connico]

ahhh the reason why macs dont crash and die is because you can do anything on a mac??? an apple pc is like a volvo, it just powers on and its a tank just keep on working but its slow and isnt very exciting...mac realised this and put a nice shell on it...

a pc...well you can do anything on a pc...and its cheap..its like when the japanese entered car market you got things like cheap sports cars hehe

[Courty]

ahhh the reason why macs dont crash and die is because you can do anything on a mac??? an apple pc is like a volvo, it just powers on and its a tank just keep on working but its slow and isnt very exciting...mac realised this and put a nice shell on it...

Can't do anything on a Mac? Slow? Not exciting? Maybe in the 80's. A Dual G5 Powermac will put paid to any of your suggestions. :p

And anyhow, when was the last time Windows released a major upgrade with anything other than bug fixes & security patches? XP is just NT with a different GUI. From what I've read, Windows Vista ain't much better than XP either. All the cool stuff got stripped out 'cos it wouldn't all work properly.


a pc...well you can do anything on a pc...and its cheap..its like when the japanese entered car market you got things like cheap sports cars hehe
Yeah, they go fast until something breaks, then you're buggered.

I won't be drawn into the argument anymore, I've used both, and I prefer using a computer that just works. :)

[connico]

lol well bl mac will have intel chips in them and will prob run windows sooner or laters....

did you know your operating system of OS 10 or X which ever your using was developed a PC??...

PC are better because there is more software..when a PC crashs its because of the user because something they have done, its hardly the operating system and hardly the hardware.... macs dont crash cos you cant do anything on it...man there is only one mouse button...ofcourse your going to find it hard to crash a mac...

[AndyP]

Are you saying Windows is bug-free? What a load of crap!

[brad]

We've had our home PC kick it, but nothing really went missing, we just had a local PC geek reinstall Win2000 (don't trust any newer stuff).

At work we've had A/C failure and massive fans brought in the suck out the hot air. Problem is that the exhaust went to the fire stairs. We were on the 7th floor and ... well ... hot air rises. The coolest place on that floor was actually in the computer room!!!:)

[Courty]

lol well bl mac will have intel chips in them and will prob run windows sooner or laters....

APCMag reports that Microsoft has made comments that the upcoming version of Microsoft Windows Vista will not support Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) booting as some had expected.

Many Intel Mac owners were expecting that Windows Vista support for EFI would allow users to easily boot the newest version of Windows on their Macs. The Intel Macs only incorporate EFI booting, while older PCs typically use BIOS.

See my earlier post regarding Vista being choked.


did you know your operating system of OS 10 or X which ever your using was developed a PC??...

Probably because the developers at Apple are the only ones clever enough to get a PC to run smoothly. ;)


PC are better because there is more software..

Stock standard answer from someone who doesn't know. Check www.versiontracker.com/macosx & let me know if there's anything you need that they don't have. All the major developers release OSX versions of their apps (except for Virus Protection - wonder why that is). And anyhow, there is always Virtual PC (Unfortunately, Windows crashes indiscriminately even running under emulation on a Mac, which proves that the OS is the problem)


when a PC crashs its because of the user because something they have done, its hardly the operating system and hardly the hardware....

Everybody knows that's garbage. I've seen a fresh Windows install with no additional apps crash on it's first boot after sitting there for only a few hours doing absolutely nothing. :confused:


macs dont crash cos you cant do anything on it...man there is only one mouse button...ofcourse your going to find it hard to crash a mac...

Oh? So Windows allowing you to delete random important system files at will is a good thing? So a stable OS is a bad thing?

Define "can't do anything".

There is only one mouse button because basic operation is efficient enough not to need an extra one. I use a trackball with 2-buttons, but that's so I can customise the 2nd button for frequently used items in different apps.

Check out www.apple.com/switch/ for some enlightenment. Or are you just defending it because without a faulty OS to support, the IT industry would implode? :p

Edit: PM sent. ;)

[connico]

lol man thats alot of time wasted one me lol...

Umm regardless, Macs wont have 1% of all the games avaliable..so lets not go there with software, and yes software includes games lol...

Please not that while i dont mind windows its not the safest and the most stable operating system. Pcs can run linux and oxs as well...so pc are surperior to macs and there one sided ability to only run on operating system. i run two macs at home, i love them to death but i still can see there shortcomings...BTW try converting a dvix on a mac to a playable dvd...see how that goes....hours on hours on hours on end of waiting lol...and you cant really do anything while you doing it.... got to admit a mac is so much prettier... :)

[Courty]

Not that I care about gaming, but how many % of all available games do you have time to play?

Linux? You complain about OSX not having enough software? :D

Windows runs through Virtual PC. An emulator it may be, but it is a fully functional OS within OSX.

If you're having problems converting Divx, you either have the wrong tools or not enough grunt. I must admit I haven't done many conversions, but the ones I have didn't take very long.

[connico]

lol once you convert with dual core you never go back..muahaha never i say never go back again!

and i have plenty of time to play games lol..more so they golf since i can play games at night...single no kids...i love it

wtf would you run window on mac anyhows???

[Courty]

I use a purpose built bit of engineering software that was never ported to OSX.

Single. Sometimes I wish; sometimes I don't ;)

[andylo]

did anyone notice connico use a lot of "lol" and "muhahaha" :roll:

[AndyP]

did anyone notice connico use a lot of "lol" and "muhahaha" :roll:
No. :roll:

You forgot "hehe".

[Courty]

Yep. And his poor punctuation & lack of capitalisation blends right in around here. LOL ;)

[connico]

hehe muahahah lol :)

[BrisVegas]

MrsVegas is back at work home/office part time as of tomorrow so we had to get a new laptop.

For anyone in the market, I shopped around a bit and got a Dell Inspiron 6400 with the cool new Intel Core Duo chipset. It was $1566 with 80gig, 512Meg, 15.4 WXGA, DVD burner, blue tooth, wireless. Good prices at the moment onine at Dell. Comparable Sony Vaio and Thinkpads are $2300...

I know Dell are kinda the Hyundai of the computer business, but it has the features we need at a good price.

[connico]

Well dell are the hyundai, cheap and semi relaible but plenty of options. It was a good buy if you got a core duo processor.

[brad]

Well we've gone from Dells at work to Acer computers......:(

[connico]

acer dont have the support dells do, but they are just similarily crap....

if you want a reall corporate pc right now get a hp...

[BrisVegas]

We've just gone through the desktop/laptop replacement program at work and we've gone with Dell. As I use a desktop, I got an Optiplex GX620 P4 3.2 Gig with 2 GigRam and it's been terrific. I run a lot of fairly memory intensive apps at a time (IBM Websphere and Java apps) and this thing copes fine. RAM is the key!

The travellers get Dell Latitude D610's with 1 Gig RAM. Other than the smallish screen size of the laptops, they seem fine.

[brad]

acer dont have the support dells do, but they are just similarily crap....

if you want a reall corporate pc right now get a hp...

Like I have a choice :smt085

We just get what the company provides. Obviously you don't work for a multinational......or if you do, and get a good PC you are one lucky SOAG:-D

[connico]

hahaha lol im IT, whom every work for i get the best pc lol

when i was working with UBS....dual xeon as my pc with 4 monitors lol :)

[markTHEblake]

hahaha lol im IT

so is everyone else on this page and then some.