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10576

General Software Discussion / Re: Acronis True Image OR maybe not ???

« Last post by tomos on September 25, 2007, 12:00 PM »

Yes, DriveSnapshot is a wonderful program.  I don't like bloated applications and so I never liked Acronis TrueImage or O&O DiskImage.

-ad-min (September 24, 2007, 01:08 PM)

yeah,
I was a bit shocked by the Acronis download - 100+MB
install is 36MB + 196MB in common folders....
what is in there ???!!!

For the moment I4W doesn't propose incremental/differential backups.  Also, backups are not encrypted whereas drivesnapshot also has encryption.

The strong point of I4W is its direct DVD burning engine that can create bootable restoration DVD.  I try to backup all my main partitions with it every month (I manage 4 PC at home).

-MerleOne (September 24, 2007, 02:11 PM)

did I miss something here (?)
whats 14W? 

to console myself for having bought such a monster (Acronis 11) I can point out that incremental backup is (hopefully) more of a space saver than Differential

10577

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for an E-Mail Client which can be run on an USB Stick

« Last post by tomos on September 24, 2007, 12:18 PM »

have a look at thread
anyone tried i.Scribe email client?

iScribe & Koma-Mail

10578

General Software Discussion / Re: anyone tried i.Scribe email client?

« Last post by tomos on September 23, 2007, 07:39 AM »

Koma-Mail looks interesting

Some other interesting stuff there too
http://www.koma-code...p;id=5&Itemid=39

Software Alarm Timer Command Line CPU-Control DevWiz eBoard Koma-Mail Help file Miri's Recipies SC-Tool Scan2PDF Shutdown Tool Snow-IRC TableCalc USB-ToolBox 2 Win-Control

10579

General Software Discussion / Re: Acronis True Image OR maybe not ???

« Last post by tomos on September 23, 2007, 05:21 AM »

Personally if I were to buy it now I would buy TI 10 and not go for TI 11 (even if you can find a cheap copy). IME Acronis will take 3-6 months to make TI 11 bug free.

As a company it has an interesting approach. The corporate versions are at version 9.1 (I use TI 9.1 Workstation) and hasn't seen any sort of update since February. Basically they only seem to move on the corporate versions after home users iron out all the bugs. In other words home users pay to be beta testers!

-Carol Haynes (September 23, 2007, 04:34 AM)

oops too late, I got the "Beta" 
Interesting,
at no stage was I asked the previous registration number -
11 is installed now, its possible it picked up on the older installed version, installed to a different folder though
("True Image Home" as opposed to True Image)

It claims to check/verify the image - was very quick about it so dont know how dependable that is...
(wouldnt like to be that much of a beta tester..)

10580

General Software Discussion / Re: Acronis True Image OR maybe not ???

« Last post by tomos on September 23, 2007, 03:45 AM »

Where are you based?

If you are in Europe TrueImage 10 is at Amazon.co.uk for under £15 - see http://www.amazon.co...0-Home/dp/B000JQIDB8 in the UK you get free shipping - but it won't be too expensive to get it delivered in Europe.

-Carol Haynes (September 22, 2007, 07:08 PM)

thats a very good price - €21 or so
(I'm in Germany, think it would still be less than €30 with delivery)
&
thanks mwb100 for the newegg offer which actually works out at ...25€ - wow the exchange rate is very good, well, for buying in dollars!

10581

General Software Discussion / Re: Acronis True Image OR maybe not ???

« Last post by tomos on September 23, 2007, 03:36 AM »

I also spotted this on a web trawl Acronis True Image Home 11 at $29 (download version) http://www.usergroupstore.com/ (Look under products) I don't know anything about the store or how it works but it might be worth a look. Only if you can face using a new version which may be bug ridden if past experience is anything to go by.

-Carol Haynes (September 22, 2007, 07:08 PM)

I had spotted that one too 
It does look for the User Group Name AND it's "Order Number" after you give your details
I searched for computer user groups thinking I wouldnt mind getting involved in something like that,
unfortunately there's only a couple of groups here with very obscure/specialized subjects
eg "RAM PC User Group"

Found a link to one free online user group (based in Derry!) thought I was made but link dead
Anyone interested in finding one near you,
have a look at Computer User Groups on the Web
or Association of PC User Groups

10582

General Software Discussion / Re: Acronis True Image OR maybe not ???

« Last post by tomos on September 23, 2007, 03:26 AM »

upgrades are about 40% off (and you can skip versions and not have to pay a penalty when you buy your next upgrade - i.e. going from version 9 to 11 is the same price as going from 10 to 11).

-Darwin (September 22, 2007, 03:58 PM)

From Acronis "Live Chat" help:

Andrew: You are right, it is ok if you have version 7 or 8 or 9, any version of home product may be upgraded to Acronis True Image 11 Home

&
he gave me the link with the $29.99 upgrade price

looking good,
only problem now is their checkout page doesnt have any next button after filling in the details 

will try again later...

10583

General Software Discussion / Re: Wrong language displayed for some dialogues and other features in XP Pro

« Last post by tomos on September 22, 2007, 06:29 PM »

I can't repair my XP installation as I've updated to Sp-2. The OEM XP CD is Sp-1a and protected and I can't slipstream Sp-2 onto a copy (or can I?! Anyone? Anyone?...).

-Darwin (December 27, 2006, 05:23 PM)

Mike:
If it's still relevant
I tried autopatcher & nlite lately & would recommend autopatcher
- probably not being able to resist all the tweaking options of nlite was the problem - autopatcher just does the job..
I'm not sure about the "protected" aspect - is it like a Dell one or something ? -
did read about someone using nlite I think to slipstream a HP XP disc & make it, well, crap free
dont have the link for that though

If it's XP home you will have (or should say I had ) problems trying to do a repair install -
XP home doesnt allow you to logon to default Administrator account * (god knows why) & then
Repair install asks you (or me) to logon as admin... catch 22 but read about ways around it
as I say if you still interested I will get links (have them bookmarked).
I didnt go through with it myself...

* EDIT: or so I was told anyways & I cant

10584

General Software Discussion / Re: Acronis True Image OR maybe not ???

« Last post by tomos on September 22, 2007, 06:06 PM »

wow, thanks for the offer tinjaw !

I actually have a copy of True Image 7 with I believe an option to upgrade for 30$
so think I'll go for that ...

EDIT no,
maybe I dont have that option, I'll go sleep on it

10585

General Software Discussion / Re: Acronis True Image OR maybe not ???

« Last post by tomos on September 22, 2007, 05:00 PM »

The newest version of Acronis True Image (v11) has the ability to let you exclude certain files and folders from the full drive imaging.

To me this is sort of the holy grail of drive imaging that i have been waiting for, as it lets you do a true drive image and yet still mark certain giant folders or files you dont care about to be ignored.  Well done Acronis 

-mouser (September 22, 2007, 04:23 PM)

yeah,
sounds very good all right... could exclude the 2GB hibernation file for example

I could have sworn I saw a thread here about the update to Acronis True Image 11
but cant find it with forum search or FF search plugin

-tomos (September 22, 2007, 03:46 PM)

It's here, Tom!

-Darwin (September 22, 2007, 04:33 PM)

howdidyoufindthat!! 

If you are using Windows XP check out https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=9947.0

True Image 9 is pretty good (and stable now) and for $8 ...

-Carol Haynes (September 22, 2007, 04:41 PM)

unfortunately Carol us in europe have to pay 25$ postage for that .. (& no download option)

10586

Official Announcements / Re: September Drawing Winners

« Last post by tomos on September 22, 2007, 04:01 PM »

congrats tsaint - & all the other winners too of course!

10587

General Software Discussion / Re: Magix (Xara) rant...

« Last post by tomos on September 22, 2007, 03:56 PM »

sad, isn't it ...
I had hopes for Xara but all this messing around (polite version) doesnt inspire

10588

General Software Discussion / Acronis True Image OR maybe not ???

« Last post by tomos on September 22, 2007, 03:46 PM »

I could have sworn I saw a thread here about the update to Acronis True Image 11
but cant find it with forum search or FF search plugin

Anyways, I was quite happy with DriveImage XML
but I guess the incremental aspect is worth forking out for (harddrives are cheap, but not that cheap) *

I've read various places now that Acronis release very buggy updates,
take a long time to fix bugs &/or fix & call it an update & charge accordingly.

I'm wondering can the people recommend another company/product that is more user friendly & does the incremental thing?


* I mean I dont know how often people do images (do you do an image or make it )
- from the Vista or XP thread  -

TrueImage does incremental and differential backups for images as well as at file level. If you want to be able to restore your system complete with installed apps the imaging is the only way to do it. I agree that you should get a "just installed image" of your system but for daily/weekly/monthly backups (however often you choose to do it ... and that reminds me ...) increments for the image are ideal. You can use it like a System Restore (albeit a bit slower but works properly) and has certainly been a life saver for me at times.

Ideally you need a cycle of something like:

Baseline Backup 1 ... Inc 1 ... Inc 2 ... Inc 3 ... .... ... Inc n (however long you want to keep this up)
Baseline Backup 2 ... Inc 1 ...etc.
Baseline Backup 3 (at which point all the increments for backup 1 become a bit irrelevant).

Generally I try to keep the current and last two baseline backups - but only one set of previous backup increments. That way I can wind back to recent daily backups but also jumpt straight back a few weeks to if a problem arises that seems to have started a while ago but was hidden.

-Carol Haynes (September 18, 2007, 04:22 AM)

10589

General Software Discussion / Re: anyone tried i.Scribe email client?

« Last post by tomos on September 22, 2007, 02:27 PM »

From Help file, info about "Thread" button

Each folder in the main view contains object of one type only. So if you create more folders you have to decide what they contain up front. When you drag and drop email/contacts between folders only items that match the destination folders type will be moved. ... Right clicking on an email shows a list of actions and properties that you can use. The mark colour allows grouping of similar email by catagory by setting them all to the same colour. The mark colour can be set automatically by filters. By using the Select Marked submenu you can select all the email of a certain colour for furthur processing.

not quite sure what this thread business is about..

maybe it does do tagging though, with filters
but think I'll have to digest that for a while & see do i understand it better on second look

10590

General Software Discussion / Re: anyone tried i.Scribe email client?

« Last post by tomos on September 22, 2007, 02:09 PM »

looks good,
(well maybe not super visually but not too bad there either..)
forums look good (people get answered with offers of help etc.)

doesnt do tagging (I dont think) but while I've started using that in Thunderbird
I may as well be using folders with the way I use it & it's limitations

but nice filtering of mails

by date as well

10591

General Software Discussion / Re: Instant Boss featured on Lifehacker

« Last post by tomos on September 21, 2007, 05:21 PM »

While I may not have a very high opinion of the work I do, I guess I can understand why others do.

at the very least...

• I gave some time (not something everyone has)
  
• to write some code (not something everyone can do)
  
• and gave it away for free (not something everyone would do)

...

-app103 (September 12, 2007, 06:28 PM)

thanks App !!

EDIT: off to increase that bandwidth & down Instant Boss for nu pc 

10592

Living Room / Re: Blondie still going strong

« Last post by tomos on September 21, 2007, 05:15 PM »

How did / do you like Blondie? 

-Curt (September 21, 2007, 04:15 PM)

Ah Curt ...
I remember being sick at home (from school) in bed - a real treat at the time 
having a radio & hearing Heart of Glass for the first time -
it was a hit so heard it a good bit after that - think it's still my favourite Blondie song
Debbie Harry is impressive but I love/d the music first..

Had they hits before that - I think they did but that was when I really took notice
just reading that wikipedia link
yes they had some great music before that but I only got to know it later
Denis and (I'm Always Touched by Your) Presence, Dear
I only ever knew the singles..

10593

General Software Discussion / Re: soft and hard links in ntfs

« Last post by tomos on September 21, 2007, 04:52 PM »

Re problems deleting folders in Junction Points:
From http://en.wikipedia..../NTFS_junction_point

Observed effects
Windows Explorer:
...
# Whilst walking through the directory with explorer, it seems impossible to delete folders, however files can be deleted.
# A solution for these issues is installing NTFS Link, which makes Windows Explorer handle junctions correctly. One can also use the fsutil application to delete and query reparse points (administration privileges are required).

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Explorer

will try this nfts link & see how I get on

10594

Living Room / Re: Computer problems...

« Last post by tomos on September 21, 2007, 02:31 PM »

If you want to clear stuff out buy cans of compressed air to blow away dust rather than being tempted to use a vacuum cleaner (which can kill a computer by static discharge).

-Carol Haynes (September 21, 2007, 01:59 PM)

Carol,
I'm curious 
- having used a hoover a couple of times in the past...
would that be from the metal of the hoover touching the machine or something else ?

10595

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Aston Shell - Free today at GAOTD

« Last post by tomos on September 21, 2007, 09:02 AM »

I presume you've read the comments at GOATD -
they're very mixed

10596

General Software Discussion / Re: soft and hard links in ntfs

« Last post by tomos on September 20, 2007, 03:55 AM »

Are you sure the problem occurred because of making junctions and didn't already exist?

Actually, I havent had any other problems specifically with deleting files/folders- that I've noticed at any rate

10597

General Software Discussion / Re: soft and hard links in ntfs

« Last post by tomos on September 20, 2007, 03:51 AM »

using junction points:

deleting doesnt seem to be an option -

-tomos (September 19, 2007, 11:06 AM)

That's odd.  I've never had a problem like that.  Are you sure the problem occurred because of making junctions and didn't already exist?

-cthorpe (September 19, 2007, 04:47 PM)

hmm, it could have unfortunately (existed already)

I just done a new install of windows* about 10 days ago now & I've been noticing more & more little(?) problems with it.
Considering doing a repair install but might try ignoring it for a while -
I've invested so much time into it... 

EDIT: using nlite - I wouldnt recommend it to anyone, well,
not if you have to slipstream SP2 & are tempted by tweaking..

10598

General Software Discussion / Re: The GIMP/PhotoFiltre/Paint.net/etc., thoughts...

« Last post by tomos on September 20, 2007, 03:35 AM »

I just downloaded it today & have 2.2something - 2.3 must be Beta will go check

-tomos (September 19, 2007, 11:14 AM)

It would be good to hear what you think.

I only found binaries for 2.2.17 (from memory), the source is released for versions up to 2.4 but I have not seen any binaries above 2.2

-Perry Mowbray (September 19, 2007, 10:24 PM)

yeah, its 2.2.17.

I probably wont be really testing it that much -
I crop rotate scale etc a bit for work. for me I do a bit of messing around with photos -
but again in Photoshop I generally only do selective sharpening & a bit on contrast
(my camera's colour is good so generally I dont have to mess around with that)

BTW. you wont find me messing around with source   

10599

General Software Discussion / Re: The GIMP/PhotoFiltre/Paint.net/etc., thoughts...

« Last post by tomos on September 19, 2007, 12:42 PM »

[jeez, new computer, new keyboard, one week old - cant type a capital "m" ]

-tomos (September 19, 2007, 06:15 AM)

Try ALT+77 (hold Alt-key and press the 7-key twice on num pad)

-AbteriX (September 19, 2007, 12:29 PM)

oops, sorry, forgot to say I sorted that out 

I had made a new hotkey in DOpus - Shift+M,
hadnt made one in a while & forgot the default is to create a systemwide hotkey -
I'll blame DOpus[8] 

will save that tip though
cause I'm having some real keyboard problems with another keyboard/computer 

10600

General Software Discussion / Re: Display Existing WinXP Hotkeys? (Hotkey/Standby Issues -Really Need Help Her

« Last post by tomos on September 19, 2007, 12:27 PM »

During a few reboot attempts I noticed that the familiar white bar across the bottom of the display with vertical lines going through it like a progress bar -- like I am accustomed to seeing on a notebook PC, but never on my desktop.

that sounds like coming out of hibernation

It appears that this hotkey is using the macro {#run "C:\WINDOWS\System32\rundll32.exe" "PowrProf.dll, SetSuspendState"},

probably a stupid ... but
could that possibly be anything to do with PowerPro ?
again it's not a default PowerPro hotkey.

I saw something lately about programmes that list your hotkeys - will rummage, maybe it was clifnotes...