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1101

General Software Discussion / Re: 'create Restore Point' question

« Last post by Shades on August 18, 2015, 09:20 AM »

If you run Windows 7 on your system, you should start taking a look at the 'event viewer'. Windows 7 and up log everything what and when it is happening on your system quite well. You can copy-paste the error message and code(s) verbatim into google/bing/duck-duck-go and see more explanation and/or solutions.

When one moment everything runs fine and then a lot of crashes happen very close to each other...it might be that there is a physical cause, such as local heat buildup, where the pc terminates itself to prevent (further) damage. Checking files for viruses with any anti-virus software (free or commercial) is an intensive task, causing quite some heat to be generated.

Every 6 months I physically clean my computers from dust (including the power supply...be careful with that though, the warnings on those devices are really something to take into account), inspect every fan and replace where necessary and check if all cables and cards are seated properly and re-seat where necessary. There are now over 30 computers directly in my care and none of them experience the problem you describe. 

If you work with a laptop, all this is still true...but as laptop cases in general are not meant to be opened and closed regularly, it might be better to do a cleanup job once a year. Dust bunnies are a real problem with laptops and people always think their laptop remains as clean as the time they bought it. Until they see the photos I take during cleanup!

Laptops are only a nice way to generate extra income for me, because these often appear in front of me for repair. And it is mostly the same thing over and over again.

Anyway, you won't know unless you start looking at the event viewer.

 

1102

Living Room / Re: I need help coming up with a plan to fix my NTFS security permissions problems

« Last post by Shades on August 15, 2015, 07:37 PM »

Someone else on the DC forum already mentioned the existence/availability of a new 16 TByte SSD drive model from Samsung. That is 16TByte of storage space in a 2,5 inch hard disk.

A RAID setup with spinning disks isn't going to outperform (I/O) this SSD drive. Or do better in energy consumption. Likely this model won't be cheap, but you'll get a serious pile of bragging rights  

I think Samsung also sells an 8TByte SSD model...

A RAID setup with this kind of SSD's...I reckon that would grant you the title of DC Storage Master    

1103

Living Room / Re: Animal Friends thread

« Last post by Shades on August 14, 2015, 06:56 PM »

dog and (soapy) water...not friends.

fixed that for you

1104

Living Room / Re: I need help coming up with a plan to fix my NTFS security permissions problems

« Last post by Shades on August 13, 2015, 08:21 PM »

Did you by any chance use anywhere the 'deny' option and let that change propagate to the underlying folders?



If so, you have clicked away warning messages from the operating system that explicitly state you shouldn't do that unless you are absolutely sure...

'Deny' trumps 'Allow'...practically without mercy and definitely without remorse!

1105

Official Announcements / Re: DonationCoder Major Upgrades - Progress Report Thread

« Last post by Shades on August 12, 2015, 08:11 PM »

For CMS...Bolt is a new player and looks to be a contender.

Joomla isn't too bad, once you get how the back-end and internal structures work. Most people don't give a hoot about this, add crappy modules to it to "make it easier" and from that moment they entered into a mess, security wise.

At least Joomla is in active development...

1106

Living Room / Re: I need help coming up with a plan to fix my NTFS security permissions problems

« Last post by Shades on August 06, 2015, 08:55 PM »

It might even be necessary to adjust the Windows policy of 'taking ownership of files and other objects'. There you can add your user to the (on purpose) very small list of users allowed to do this at all. If memory serves me right, only the user 'Administrator' and user group 'Administrators' are allowed to take ownership in a default Windows Server 2012 installation. 

1107

General Software Discussion / Re: Can I safely delete all these drivers now?

« Last post by Shades on August 02, 2015, 10:44 PM »

It looks like a folder that contains DELL drivers. To be more precise, the installers for drivers. If you have room for these on a portable hard disk or something, I would move these to it. And if you do not have the room or a portable hard disk, you can throw them away. Driver installers are not necessary for the operation of your system.

What is smarter and much more efficient use of storage space is to use a piece of software called: DoubleDriver
(or look for substitutes on the Alternative-To website)
This software makes a backup of the drivers that are actually installed on your computer. Driver installers usually support several similar devices and as you usually only have one of those devices in your computer, so it is only useful keep the correct one and discard the rest.

Drivers usually end up in the C:\Windows\System32\Drivers folder. Don't go and remove things you don't recognize from that folder, because that will result in re-installing your computer.

There are more dangerous ways to reclaim storage space.

Over time the WinSxS folder inside your Windows folder will become huge. Windows updates/servicepacks etc. keep an extra copy of themselves in that folder, so Windows can revert to previous states if the need arises. Don't delete from this folder either, because that will result in re-installing applications if you are lucky. Re-installing your computer is more likely.

There is another folder 'Windows\installers' that also consumes up storage space over time. When you install Windows, all the installers for every feature/roles your Windows version supports end up in that folder. Even if these are not used. And guess what, don't bluntly delete anything from this folder either. Same risks as before.

With all the above in mind, if you have a clear and single use for a computer that is not going to change over the life-span of this computer, there are rather simple PowerShell scripts that detect what features/roles are installed and actively used. These can then delete whatever is not used. In case you have a single use for your computer, you can gain significant amounts of storage space, because the WinSxS and Installers folders will be cleaned out. When Windows itself starts deleting from this folders, it is more likely that your system will remain working.

Not sure if I should link to this directly, so let me say that a google search for 'clean up winsxs folder windows 8' will reveal much more on this matter...and also a lot more reasons why you shouldn't think lightly about this. Only for the brave...

1108

General Software Discussion / Re: Nothing working to get FUBAR PC to boot

« Last post by Shades on August 02, 2015, 08:38 PM »

DC knows best...

1109

Living Room / Re: TouchPad for PC w/Windows 7 vs. carpal tunnel ?

« Last post by Shades on August 02, 2015, 11:16 AM »

"You're a copper...but no brass material." 

1110

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review

« Last post by Shades on August 02, 2015, 02:13 AM »

HDclone, Clonezilla, PartImage, R-Drive Image to name a few. R-Drive Image supports both ways. Back in the day the software to got to (for this type job): Ghost (before Norton bought it).

Don't be fooled by the 'Clone'-part in the names of some applications. These also gave options to manage disk/partition images. HDclone is my personal favorite. The free version of this software is limited in functionality and slow. Very reliable, though. The commercial versions do not have these limits.

1111

Living Room / Re: TouchPad for PC w/Windows 7 vs. carpal tunnel ?

« Last post by Shades on August 01, 2015, 02:25 PM »

Down to the wire, yes.

1112

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review

« Last post by Shades on August 01, 2015, 02:06 PM »

Software the uses the Windows installation on the system to create images of itself do exclude those files, I agree.

Hard-core tools, software that does not use the installed Windows, doesn't care. This type of software is probably not for the faint of heart...but imho is usually less messy that the kind that uses Windows.

1113

General Software Discussion / Re: Nothing working to get FUBAR PC to boot

« Last post by Shades on August 01, 2015, 01:54 PM »

Stoic Joker has a suggestion to try: this DC thread

This very likely enables the repair option (that comes with the device at sounds) to complete.

1114

Living Room / Re: TouchPad for PC w/Windows 7 vs. carpal tunnel ?

« Last post by Shades on August 01, 2015, 08:34 AM »

Very well conducted!

1115

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review

« Last post by Shades on August 01, 2015, 08:29 AM »

When you create an image, the whole concept is to take everything.  If you don't want that, you are making a plain file backup.

Depending on the format used for the generated image file, there might be software that allows you to peek inside those files, allowing you to read and copy stuff from that image file.

1116

Living Room / Re: Whole Room Watercooling

« Last post by Shades on July 31, 2015, 09:15 PM »

Getting rid of heat...is not the same as cooling, although the end result is similar. Hence the idea behind the video was interesting and entertaining. While an airco is certainly a cooling solution that works fast...it consumes energy like crazy to cool a room, while blasting the heat outside. Energy-wise, an airco is a cop-out. While smart ways of getting rid of heat are usually much less energy consuming, and better for the health of the persons inside the air-cooled room. An airco isn't much cheaper than the whole solution they crafted, the monthly energy bills will make sure of that.

Having worked in a rather small server room that collected the Paraguayan sun when it came up until around 15:00. After that time the shade of a close by building would start covering the room. So there was an airco but the noise of that thing getting rid of the heat was worse than all the computers combined. The neighbors had also an airco close by ours, meaning our airco was sucking in the heat (and noise) ejected by the neighbors airco.

Not only the noise, there were also the head-aches I got from air becoming too dry. It was bad enough that I preferred the sweat. And from experience I can tell that if your computers remain functioning fine as long as the generated heat is disposed off at a quick enough rate. And my own anecdotal research revealed that Intel mainboards and Asus mainboards work better in these conditions than others do.

Besides, on really hot days they made showers available and afterwards a floor-fan to blow-dry...that had a much better effect on me. Airco's in cars work their "magic" even quicker on me than airco's in buildings. Whenever you see me driving, windows are open, no matter what.

Summer days here easily reach 45C-50C (C is for Celsius, I don't know the conversion rate for Fahrenheit, don't care either to be honest). Heck it is winter here in Paraguay and today it was 26C outside!

1117

Post New Requests Here / Re: Caption jpg files

« Last post by Shades on July 31, 2015, 09:14 AM »

Irfanview is very fast and can edit images just as MS Paint can, besides having a very similar feature-set when compared with XnView. It is also portable...you can copy the irfanview folder you installed in one computer to another computer and IrfanView will work without problems.

With so much similar features between these two viewers/editors, it doesn't matter that much what you prefer. For me, IrfanView is the "devil I know" as I have been using it for over 15 years.

1118

Living Room / Re: The end of the hard disk

« Last post by Shades on July 30, 2015, 07:33 AM »

@Deozaan:
And when a hack (buffer overflow) occurs in a machine with this type of memory...does that mean that the hack remains present until (that part of) the memory is actually overwritten?

Seems like a huge security risk.

This means also that programmers need to be working more with memory again...something that higher computer languages do automatically, because many programmers made even more mistakes with this than these automatic routines do.

Another doom scenario: If a computer with this type of RAM is used in security sensitive ways...you only need to steal the computer, take out the RAM modules and (rather) simply read these out.  Encryption isn't that useful because the memory will be accessed (much) slower, nullifying the speed advantage this type of RAM has over traditional RAM modules.

Until now this invention sounds great for fast pen drives...however, I'm not (yet) convinced about its ability to replace RAM.

1119

Living Room / Re: Whole Room Watercooling

« Last post by Shades on July 28, 2015, 08:11 PM »

From the other videos I saw on that website I think they were smart enough not to do so.For a custom job as they are doing, it is common to install and remove parts for fitting purposes.

The idea of one big water-cooled solution that needs to cool 7 "beefy" PC's in one room sounds great. However, I saw all the videos of that project and they make some questionable choices. Then again, they had the bravado to go ahead with the plan anyway. And I still think that you could get the same result or better by removing the heat as fast as it is generated. Creating a more efficient airflow is cheaper and easier...and can be redirected, so the radiated heat can be of some use.

1120

General Software Discussion / Re: What's living in your taskbar notification area right now?

« Last post by Shades on July 27, 2015, 08:56 AM »

Although I agree with eleman here, whenever an application requires to a (full-fledged) database to operate, it is a serious consideration to store the results of queries etc. into RAM. Using more RAM for the application means it will be much more responsive, because retrieving and storing in a database is "expensive". Not only time-wise (responsiveness), but you also introduce an extra factor for reliability, especially when you need to access databases off-site.

Nowadays computers have quite a lot of RAM onboard and usually decent connections to (off-site) databases. However, you cannot trust to have a decent connection 100% of the time, while the RAM is a much more stable resource. For a good (newbie) user-experience, the trend is to use the most stable resources at hand.   

1121

Living Room / Re: [SOLVED] Boot problem/s

« Last post by Shades on July 26, 2015, 10:10 AM »

The new kids on the block are not nearly as stable as good old MBR...that's for sure. Faster, yes. Less limited about partition sizes, yes. But not nearly as stable...and when the proverbial sh.t hits the fan, you have way(!) bigger problems. As MilesAhead already said: Don't expect software that worked flawlessly with MBR, to work with GPT in a similar fashion.   

Personally, I try to avoid 2+ TByte hard disks for as long as I can. You can get GPT on smaller disks if you want, but it is obligatory for disks of 2+ GByte in size. And given the very bad experiences I had with 1,5 TByte and 2 TByte hard disks (I have a total of 8 of those "doorstops", none of these lasted a year and were all brand new), I'll keep to 1 TByte disks.

Besides that those disks soldier on without problems whatsoever (anecdotal, I know), the size limit does require you to think about backup strategies that you have to execute.

The lure of 3+ TByte disks is certainly there, but common sense dictates that it is never a good idea to "keep all your eggs in one basket". 

1122

Living Room / Re: [Help!] Boot problem/s

« Last post by Shades on July 25, 2015, 07:43 PM »

Default setting for Windows 7 is to make a 100MByte partition (on a spinning hard disk, SSD hard disks use a 350MByte partition for that same purpose) when installing on a unpartitioned disk. But if the disk already contains partitions Windows will use these however it sees fit. Anyway, if your system has such a partition, it becomes essential in the Windows boot procedure.

Not sure what to make of the first partition in your list, as I can't be exactly sure how the boot procedure on your computer was configured.

 
This is taken from my own system. I added a 120GByte SSD hard disk to an already working PC (disk0). Afterwards I installed Windows fresh on the SSD and as you can see, there is a 350MByte partition (label: 'System Reserved'). This partition must be 'Active'. Depending on what software you use to check the partition structure of your disk, the terms 'Active' and 'Boot' are used to indicate the same thing. The Windows disk manager makes a distinction here, as you can see in the screenshot.

So I am not sure what to make of the 1st partition on your hard disk. Likely when you make the 3rd partition the boot partition your system will start working again.



 

1123

Living Room / Re: [Help!] Boot problem/s

« Last post by Shades on July 23, 2015, 09:23 PM »

Sounds like the order of the partitions got jumbled up in (parts of) the Windows configuration.

During the boot routine some hard-coded path's are used and it appears that there things go wrong.

Windows partitions are assigned a unique code that is later on translated into a drive letter. My suspicion is that here your problem starts. Suddenly all parts of the operating system are not in the location where the operating system expects them to be and a generic error code 0x3 will be served up to your screen.

Fixing this kind of errors might prove more time-consuming than re-installing or putting an image back. Laptop manufacturers have the nasty habit lately to put the recovery partition in front off the other partition. The reasoning behind this doesn't make a lick of sense to me. After all, this is the fastest part of the hard disk, which should be used for the Windows partition. After all, you will spend more time using the laptop instead of restoring the factory setup!

My guess is that they do this, so they can crank out laptops faster. Anyway, even the Windows installer gets "confused" by this on occasion.

What you could do...and this is a dangerous, possibly warranty voiding proposition:

• Buy/borrow a USB hard disk enclosure
• Pull the hard disk from the laptop, put it in the enclosure
• Hook the enclosure up to a (Windows) PC
• Install software to manage partitions on that PC
• Start moving partitions on the disk (in the enclosure!!!), use this order: BOOT, OS, Dell recovery
• That order of partitions never confuses!

If the above sounds like too much mumbo jumbo to you, get someone with the required skills to do it for you. 

That is what I would do, if you asked me...and I know you didn't.

Or put the image you already have back and see if your trust in Aomei Backerupper is warranted.

1124

Living Room / Re: The end of the hard disk

« Last post by Shades on July 22, 2015, 07:00 AM »

Hard disks can become too big to fail...

1125

Post New Requests Here / Re: Simple auto-saving text editor for mercurial commits

« Last post by Shades on July 21, 2015, 08:30 PM »

Well, it is not a simple editor:
http://tillschneidereit.net/2012/05/14/editing-git-commit-messages-with-sublime-text-2/

Perhaps this link suits you better:
https://mercurial.selenic.com/wiki/editor