Messages

1

Non-Windows Software / Re: Possible to dual boot via boot priority swapping?

« on: January 16, 2021, 05:13 AM »

Not sure what previous method you're referring to, (Grub?), so I'll mention one I've used previously, EasyBCD (community edition).

-4wd (January 15, 2021, 04:08 PM)

I dual booted linux and windows several years ago, and I guess linux installed grub on top of/replacing windows' bootloader? (not a linux expert, just like to tinker with it and learn more about it) So when I went to remove it, I didn't know how to remove grub and go back to just windows' bootloader.

EasyBCD sounds pretty good. I might give it a try. If I don't end up liking it, then atleast I now know I can just use the method I was originally curious about.

2

Non-Windows Software / Possible to dual boot via boot priority swapping?

« on: January 15, 2021, 09:53 AM »

I recently got back into linux. I have an old laptop that I am using as a dedicated linux box, however, I just upgraded my desktop to a motherboard that has two m.2 slots. So my question is, would I run into any problems if I were to buy a second m.2 sata drive, temporarily remove my windows m.2, install linux onto my second m.2, and then install both m.2 drives back into the computer? I would then go into the bios and select which drive I want to boot into as the first boot option. I was planning on doing this instead of the typical dual boot method, because in the past, that caused problems when I decided to remove linux, and go back to just single booting windows. I also don't want to run linux in a virtual machine.

3

General Software Discussion / Re: Fastest/Easiest HDD to HDD transfer?

« on: June 25, 2020, 09:31 PM »

MiniTool was the other program I was trying to think of, really good software.

Since it was a clone of the old drive, if it was an MBR drive then the cloned drive would be also, should have mentioned it but most of my drives are GPT to start with so it's rare I have to convert them.

-4wd (June 25, 2020, 06:58 PM)

The old drive was GPT, so it is possible that there was a setting somewhere that I missed when I started the clone or something. I'm just glad that I ran across minitool which was able to fix the problem in only a few seconds without me having to format the drive and start over.

4

General Software Discussion / Re: Fastest/Easiest HDD to HDD transfer?

« on: June 25, 2020, 11:13 AM »

I decided to give AOMEI a go, and am currently in the process of cloning the old drive to the new drive... which is taking forever, but is at 79% right now, so I am almost done.

I'm following 4wd's guide, because AOMEI had a free version of their software, and 4wd's guide seemed the easiest method that I can be the most laziest and not have to do much.

Side note: I ordered the drive from Amazon, and it arrived in one of their bubble mailer things, but inside of that was a Newegg box... so I guess Amazon resales Newegg drives. (was sold and shipped by amazon.com)


Edit: So everything seems to have worked. I now have a non-dying drive with two partitions on it. One of which has all of the contents of my old drive, and the other that currently has nothing on it, because I don't feel like moving one of my steam libraries today.

Also, for whatever reason AOMEI decided to make the partition on the new drive  MBR instead of GPT, and I didn't notice it until it was at 85%. Luckily I ran across a free tool called Minitool partition wizard which was able to convert the partition to GPT without deleting the contents of the drive. (AOMEI also could do the job apparently, however I didn't feel like spending $45USD just to convert a partition.

5

General Software Discussion / Re: Fastest/Easiest HDD to HDD transfer?

« on: June 24, 2020, 01:45 PM »

I [...] can't afford a giant drive.

-nite_monkey (June 24, 2020, 12:50 PM)

* Deozaan eyes the 6TB drive suspiciously.

Kids these days...

-Deozaan (June 24, 2020, 12:59 PM)

the 6TB drive wasn't super expensive.
Plus the larger drives were either designed for raids, nas, security cameras, or enterprise (no clue how those would work in a consumer build, or what makes them enterprise)

And second... I'm 29.

6

General Software Discussion / Re: Fastest/Easiest HDD to HDD transfer?

« on: June 24, 2020, 12:50 PM »

Do you have a hard disk enclosure in which the new drive fits?

If yes, you could use software like HDClone to transfer content from one drive to the other. The pay version can pump data from one drive to the other quite a lot faster than a standard copy action in Windows explorer can accomplish. Still, with a hard disk enclosure the transfer speed will be limited to the max speed of the (USB) ports on your computer. But Windows Explorer is in essence enough to do the transfer. There are also tools like Macrium Reflect and others that have free/licensed versions of their software available. All of these will make the transfer easier.

If not, do you have a laptop or desktop computer?
In case of a laptop: purchase a hard disk enclosure (USB) as most laptops only support one built-in drive. You should be able to get one for 20 or 25 USD,
In case of a desktop: open your computer case and find a free slot (which can be SATA or m2 (nVMe)) and connect the drive. You can then partition/format the drive to your liking and use Windows Explorer or HDClone or other tools to do the transfer. Now you are limited to the transfer speeds the hard disk controller in your system can manage. And these are much higher than can be accomplished by an enclosure. If you have the budget, go this route and reduce the transfer time from hours till mere minutes. Yes, HDClone can really pump data from one drive to the other that fast.


On a side note:
How sure are you that the hard disk controller on your motherboard is capable of supporting partitions >2TByte?  Because that happened to me with a now 6 year old motherboard (Asus and the Pro version of that model). Anything above 2TByte is not immediately recognized. I needed to get specific software from the hard disk vendor, install that and the remainder of my 3TByte drive became available. Still, it wasn't possible to have a partition bigger than 2TByte.

Yet I have older boards (all Asus with either Intel or AMD) which do not have this limitation. Switching to the latest BIOS, taken from the support section on Asus website for this problematic board, did not solve the problem.

It is unlikely you will encounter the same problem as I did, but I thought I mention it regardless.

-Shades (June 24, 2020, 12:25 PM)

I've currently got a 3TB drive in my computer also, which windows recognizes the full capacity. I've run out of free Sata ports, so my plan was to temporarily use the cables from my internal bluray drive, and then play musical drives and swap out the old drive with the new one once I was done transferring everything. I might have to take a look at HDClone.

So I have a smallish ssd as my boot drive, so I use a larger HDD to install all my apps to. Well that drive is about to crap its pants (about to die), so I have a new drive that should be arriving today. I was going to put two partitions on said new drive, and wanted to move all of my installed apps to one of the new partitions. I then was going to remove the old drive, and change the drive letter of the new partition to that of the old drive that is about to die. So my question is, what would be the easiest method to achieve this, preferably without having to uninstall all the apps from the old drive, and reinstall them on the new drive? The old drive is a 2TB drive and the new drive is a 6TB (being split into two 3TB partitions) if that info is needed.

-nite_monkey (June 24, 2020, 07:51 AM)

I do this all the time.
There is no foolproof way to just transfer the contents and have it work flawlessly.  But you can get close, or good enough where you wouldn't even notice for a while.  I'd copy all the files over exactly as they are.  I wouldn't do all that partition stuff.  I'd copy from one disk to the other, swap them, and continue as if nothing happened.  After I saw that was working, then I'd consider some additional modifications to partitions etc.

But what I'd really do is install the hard drive and reinstall everything from scratch.  Not that bad, but will take some time.

Windows also has their own WIndows Easy Transfer or something.  Should be ok.  I've used it, it was ok, i can't remember any issues.

Bare minimum, you want to save all your custom data somewhere first before you try all this.  I usually save program files, programdata, all that user local roaming stuff, documents....frankly i'll just save the entire drive before something like this. 

-superboyac (June 24, 2020, 12:37 PM)

I was planning on splitting the new drive in two, because I was going to use the second partition as a new steam library location, because my current game drive is running out of space, and I don't have enough sata ports for two more drives, and can't afford a giant drive.

7

General Software Discussion / Fastest/Easiest HDD to HDD transfer?

« on: June 24, 2020, 07:51 AM »

So I have a smallish ssd as my boot drive, so I use a larger HDD to install all my apps to. Well that drive is about to crap its pants (about to die), so I have a new drive that should be arriving today. I was going to put two partitions on said new drive, and wanted to move all of my installed apps to one of the new partitions. I then was going to remove the old drive, and change the drive letter of the new partition to that of the old drive that is about to die. So my question is, what would be the easiest method to achieve this, preferably without having to uninstall all the apps from the old drive, and reinstall them on the new drive? The old drive is a 2TB drive and the new drive is a 6TB (being split into two 3TB partitions) if that info is needed.

8

Living Room / Re: Fingerprint sensor under screen: does it work well?

« on: July 21, 2019, 10:23 PM »

A physical fingerprint scanner at the moment is still better. I have the oneplus 6t, which has a fingerprint scanner under the screen. It's just a small spot at the bottom center of the screen. You almost can't tell that it isn't a physical scanner, because it is pretty fast. I also have the note 8, and the physical scanner on it is just slightly faster.

9

Living Room / Re: Looking for "Smart"watch Recommendations

« on: March 15, 2019, 08:48 AM »

Massdrop has the Amazfit Biip for sale at 64.99 for the next 4 days.  Not sure if it's a good price, but if it is, just wanted to inform: https://www.massdrop...ches?mode=guest_open

-wraith808 (March 12, 2019, 09:34 AM)

Thats actually not a bad deal. Amazon has it for $80

10

Living Room / Re: Looking for "Smart"watch Recommendations

« on: March 11, 2019, 09:03 AM »

I did some more research, and since my primary use case for the watch is to view my phone's notifications without having to pull my phone out of my pocket, I decided that I wanted to go the route of another wear os (android wear) watch. I looked at the ticwatch series, and ended up getting the ticwatch e2. It doesn't get anywhere near a week of battery life, however I can look past that since I already charge my phone every day, and was already charging my previous watch every day. It does however actually vibrate and notify me whenever I get a new notification on my phone (which my previous watch would not do. I had to wake the watch up from it's ambient screen, and physically check the notifications page to see if I had and new notifications.) So I am overall currently pleased with my purchase.

11

Living Room / Re: Looking for "Smart"watch Recommendations

« on: March 07, 2019, 08:34 AM »

I've been looking at the fitbit versa, however I have never used a fitbit device before, and have no experience with the OS. However, the youtube videos that I have watched makes the watch seem like its not a bad watch.

-nite_monkey (March 06, 2019, 10:52 AM)

I'm not sure if it's a versa, but I got the wife a Fitbit some-damn-thing-or-the-other for Christmas. The battery on hers will last just about a full week. And the UI is just about as elegantly idiot simple as it could be. She loves it and wears/uses it constantly. She is also a very nontechnical 65...

-Stoic Joker (March 07, 2019, 08:09 AM)

If you could figure out which fitbit she has, that'd be awesome. A full week of battery is a lot better than my current barely a day battery, and I'm still not 100% on the amazfit bip just yet.

12

Living Room / Re: Looking for "Smart"watch Recommendations

« on: March 06, 2019, 09:22 PM »

Just a couple of notes on the BIP:

• For the basic stuff nothing other than the supplied app is required, (Mi Fit), so it's fine for Notifications, Step Counter, Heart Rate, Sleep Analysis, etc, etc.
• The BIP2 is soon to be available, (was available for pre-order for a short time) - 5ATM Water Resistance, slightly narrower, loses the Barometric sensor, albeit at a higher price - but it may prompt sales on the BIP1.

I think Apple has the best Smart Watch.

-Sean123 (March 06, 2019, 06:04 PM)

I'm looking for a smartwatch that won't murder my bank, has good battery life, and that will let me view my [Android] phone's notifications without having to take it out of my pocket.

-nite_monkey (March 06, 2019, 10:52 AM)

0 out of 3 ain't that bad ... I guess.

-4wd (March 06, 2019, 06:19 PM)

 

-wraith808 (March 06, 2019, 07:16 PM)

sold me on the apple watch, buying it right now!

Jokes aside, now I gotta go research the bip 2 and see if I need to wait for it or not.

13

Living Room / Re: Looking for "Smart"watch Recommendations

« on: March 06, 2019, 01:45 PM »

I've actually been doing a little more research, and the amazfit bip is sounding like an almost perfect match. It's a super basic fitness tracker based watch that states having up to 30 days of battery life, which the reviews have said that without heavy gps usage (which I haven't used once on my current, and previous watch) people have been getting about 3 weeks of usage on a single charge. It also doesn't have the ability to add new apps to it (which doesn't bother me at all, because I already don't use any of the apps on my current watch). You can only view, but not interact with your phone's notifications (which I can probably get used to, because the only notifications I really interacted with were emails, which I would delete the ones I didn't care about via my watch, and I only replied to sms and answered phone calls from my watch when I first got it, but quickly stopped doing that, because the coolness factor wore off.

With all that being said, I'm still curious what everyone else would suggest, but unless someone suggests a watch that isn't super expensive, and has some super unique features, I might go with the bip.

14

Living Room / Looking for "Smart"watch Recommendations

« on: March 06, 2019, 10:52 AM »

Hey DC community! So I'm looking for a smartwatch to replace my LG watch urbane 2. (it looks nice, but doesn't do the primary function I want it for very well) I put smart in quotations in the title, because the watch really doesn't have to be super smart.
All I am really looking for is a cheap watch with the following:
1. Good battery life (At least one full day, I charge my oneplus 6t every day when I go to bed, so I don't have a problem with charging my watch every day too, but would like it more if the watch could last 2+ days)
2. Vibrate when I get a notification on my phone (android), and then let me view the notification. (my urbane 2 doesn't vibrate when I get a new notification, and when my phone is on vibrate, most of the time I don't feel it vibrate in my pocket.
3. (This one is 100% optional, but would be a nice to have feature) A heart rate monitor and accurate step counter (I work in retail, and walk around the store all night, and am curious how many steps I take a night).

TLDR: I'm looking for a smartwatch that won't murder my bank, has good battery life, and that will let me view my phone's notifications without having to take it out of my pocket.
I literally only use my current watch to view my phone's notifications without having to take it out of my pocket. (which it doesn't do a good job)

I've been looking at the fitbit versa, however I have never used a fitbit device before, and have no experience with the OS. However, the youtube videos that I have watched makes the watch seem like its not a bad watch.

15

Living Room / Re: Any way to detect and block spoofed phone numbers?

« on: April 19, 2018, 03:14 PM »

I have hiya on my phone, however it only detects scammers and spammers. As far as I can tell, there is no option to detect spoofing.

-nite_monkey (April 19, 2018, 01:46 PM)

You can't put in patterns?  Have you looked at the others?  It hasn't reached critical mass for me yet.

-wraith808 (April 19, 2018, 03:07 PM)

I can, but then I run the risk of blocking legit callers

16

Living Room / Re: Any way to detect and block spoofed phone numbers?

« on: April 19, 2018, 01:46 PM »

I have hiya on my phone, however it only detects scammers and spammers. As far as I can tell, there is no option to detect spoofing.

17

Living Room / Any way to detect and block spoofed phone numbers?

« on: April 19, 2018, 11:23 AM »

So I've been getting a ton of calls where the area code, and the first 3 digits are the same as my phone number. I know that these are scammers spoofing their number so that it looks similar to my number in the hopes that I will be dumb enough to think that it may be someone that I know. I have a non rooted (and most likely won't ever be able to, thanks samsung) android phone. Is there some app or something that I can install that can detect a spoofed number, and block the call?

18

Living Room / Re: Fight back email scams with Rescam

« on: November 22, 2017, 07:49 AM »

I wish I knew about this service sooner. I've always just ignored all the scam emails I get, since they all go straight to my junk mail folder. I've seen a few Nigerian scams in there. The next time I notice a scam email in my junk mail folder, I'm gonna have to try out rescam.

19

Living Room / Re: Looking for alternative for wallet.

« on: September 10, 2017, 12:15 PM »

Thats actually not a book, just a bad picture. It was the first picture of the product that I found on the internet. Basically what I am looking for is something about the size of a pack of playing cards, however made out of something stronger than cardboard.

20

Living Room / Looking for alternative for wallet.

« on: September 10, 2017, 10:20 AM »

Right now I have a regular bifold leather wallet. It gets the job done, but I just ran across this small Magic the Gathering 30 card deck box ( I think its like a promo box or something.) I don't usually carry cash, just cards. Including my driver's license, I have 12 cards (which admittedly, I don't need some of the cards). I like how small the box is, and it holds all 12 of the cards perfectly, with a little extra room left (if I wanted to carry some cash I suppose.) I can fit it comfortably in the same pocket that I keep my phone in.(Note 8 ), and I can also keep it in the pocket that I keep my wifi hotspot in(a bulky, weather resistant at&t one). I can't do that with my actual wallet, because it is too bulky. The only thing I don't like about this box, is it is made of cardboard, and I'm pretty sure that after one night at work (I'm an overnight stocker at a retail store) the box will most likely be a crushed and beat up. So those of you that are still with me here, what I am looking for is something similar to this small box that is either made of plastic, fabric, or leather (doesn't have to be real leather.) It also doesn't have to be an actual wallet with individual slots for each card. I just want something small that I can keep in my front pocket with my hotspot, so I am no longer sitting on a bulky wallet.

this is what the box looks like, however mine is blue, and has different artwork on it.

21

Living Room / Re: A good program to put jokes on my desktop (preferably in english please)

« on: August 18, 2017, 11:28 AM »

Mouser's Dr.Windows?

22

General Software Discussion / Re: Trying to create Steam game shortcuts with AHK

« on: April 07, 2017, 04:51 AM »

One of the hardest aspects of coding these days is finding ideas that haven't been implemented already 

-mouser (April 06, 2017, 11:05 AM)

In my opinion, one of the cool things about making your own implementations, is that you can add your own tweaks.  There's also the satisfaction of doing it.  I was just pointing out that there was another one.  The advantage of your app is that you have the source, and can make adjustments, also.  Of course, the advantage of skwire's is you don't have to.  It's a tradeoff.

-wraith808 (April 06, 2017, 02:56 PM)

All excellent points. I may go back to mine and tweak it some later, but right now I am enjoying how simple and easy skwire's is.

23

General Software Discussion / Re: Trying to create Steam game shortcuts with AHK

« on: April 06, 2017, 09:31 AM »

There's also a very simple tool by skwire to do the same.

https://www.donation....msg242767#msg242767

-wraith808 (April 06, 2017, 07:22 AM)

...Well that just destroys my app. Kind of wish I looked here first. I should have known one of the awesome DC coders would have written something for this.

24

General Software Discussion / Re: Trying to create Steam game shortcuts with AHK

« on: April 06, 2017, 05:23 AM »

yeah, it annoyed me that you couldn't pin steam games to the start menu. I pin all my apps on the start menu in labeled groups to keep my desktop organized.
here is the website with the tutorial in case you need it.

[Select]

InputBox, Sname, Input Steam Shortcut, Type in the gameid here.
if ErrorLevel
ExitApp
else
MsgBox, Next, select the icon for the shortcut.
FileSelectFile, IcoLoco
if IcoLoco =
ExitApp
else
InputBox, Gname, Input Game Name, Type in the game's name here.
if ErrorLevel
ExitApp
else
FileCreateShortcut, explorer.exe, %Gname%.lnk,,steam://rungameid/%Sname%,,%IcoLoco%

and the source code for my completed script for anyone in the same boat as me.

25

General Software Discussion / Re: Trying to create Steam game shortcuts with AHK

« on: April 06, 2017, 12:40 AM »

Never mind, I figured it out.

[Select]

FileCreateShortcut, explorer.exe, %Gname%.lnk,,steam://rungameid/%Sname%,,%IcoLoco%

I had no clue what the Args option was, so I messed around with it for a bit, and figured out how to get it to work.